Pastor Foltz is Pastor Emeritus of Saint James Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, PA and author of the the Frontline Study content.
For several years my parish trained first year field workers for the seminary. They usually sent us their most difficult students. One of those was Heikki Ausiku, a pastor from Namibia. You might remember South Africa controlled this Lutheran nation, forcing apartheid on its population. Heikki was sent to the seminary to learn English, so […]
Jesus’ name for God was so important the Bible keeps the original Aramaic word: “Abba”, “Abba”, an intimate form of “father.” Suddenly every father becomes a model for God- either a good model or a bad one. Faith Ann learned that the hard way fifty years ago at Church camp. Because she was our best […]
We Lutherans set this Sunday aside to celebrate our roots. We remember from where we came, so we can understand better who we are. We do that this year mindful of the recent Pew Foundation report that indictaed 20% of Americans now claim they have no religious affiliation. These “Nones” are predominately young people and […]
This is “Come Dream With Us” Sunday at Trinity. The congregation is meeting to share their dreams about the future. All three lessons include visions of what is to come. It’s a good time to remember how important dreaming is. Real creativity comes when we let ourselves go and use our imaginations to picture what […]
If Matthew, Mark, and Luke thought Peter’s confession was central to the Gospel proclamation, John believed Thomas’ confession was even more important. He originally ended his Gospel with the colossal, “My Lord and my God.” This was the most far reaching confession in the Bible, perhaps the first time anyone proclaimed Jesus divine. Yet we […]
Ethiopian Orthodox Christians celebrate Jesus’ birth on Epiphany. Their equivalent of our Christmas Eve service sometimes involves the Wise Men’s search for the baby Jesus. In the dark of the night very tall, very black monks dress as the Magi. They then go through the village, stopping at every hut, knocking at every door. Very […]
Bob suggested another challenge to Christian Ethics might be that people who certainty. I got that all the time during my ministry. Many said they missed the old days when you were told what was right and what was wrong. “At least, you knew what you were supposed to believe in those days,” they said. […]
A couple weeks ago Derek asserted that the problem in Christian ethics is not so much Christians arguing with the world as Christians arguing with each other. He suggested the Bible does not help much, because all groups cite scripture passages that support their positions. He pinpointed the contemporary Church’s biggest embarrassment, which I think […]
In last week’s comments, Don pushed us in the right direction when he observed that we ask the wrong question by responding to Jesus’ “return good for evil” with inquiries about self-defense. Anne, Bob, and Derek already started us in that direction with their objections to the passiveness we usually associate with nonviolent resistance. Quite […]
Let’s use Christian ethics to examine Wayne LaPierre’s claim, “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. I think the first observation would be this goes far beyond gun control, as it exposes perhaps the basic problem in our culture, the belief our salvation depends […]
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