When we expect the easing of grief to follow a straight line—imagining that today should be better than yesterday, and tomorrow a little better still—we are shocked and frustrated when another wave of weeping overtakes us. Hope rises, only to be dashed. To those putting one foot in front of the other on the winding […]

We commemorate the Reformation as a time when the freedom found in knowing Jesus and his saving work was discovered anew. Five hundred years later it is easy for the newness of this message to be part of our old story. It is easy to look past how much has changed in our own lives […]

Today’s gospel is an encouragement to always be in prayer, but the parable Jesus uses to urge people to pray is a complicated one. Jesus says the judge is unjust. The widow in the story is persistent in pestering the judge for the verdict she seeks. The judge is not convinced by evidence or reason, […]

“Increase our faith!” (Luke 17:5). This request from the disciples seems perfectly reasonable. Jesus’ response about faith the size of a mustard seed defies the disciples’ expectations of what an increase in faith looks like. He then shares a reflection about obedience and humility. An increase in faith, Jesus seems to be saying, does not […]

Today we celebrate and give thanks for the angels, especially Saint Michael and the unnamed angels who fought with him against Satan. It is not very often that we contemplate the angels in Lutheran tradition; while we do mention them in portions of our liturgy, we rarely name them as specifically as we do today. […]

In the gospel today when Jesus so clearly states that we “cannot serve God and wealth” (Luke 16:13), we are called to think about who—and what—we serve. How do we follow wealth around, acting as its servants? How do we allow money to dictate our actions, our lives, and our very identities? No matter how […]

We get lost. And yet, God searches for us. God stops at nothing to find us. God rejoices over us. In baptism, God finds us—for good. Claimed as Christ’s own, we are never so lost that we can’t be found. In holy communion, God finds us—for good. Called out of our wayward wandering and forgiven […]

The words from Jesus today might make us squirm a bit, and we might prefer to gloss over them. Hate our family members? Hate life itself? Give up all our possessions? It all sounds so extreme. But then again, Jesus is not known to mince words or soften the edges of his speech to suit […]

Today we hear the call to look beyond the familiar, to look around the edges of our known community and beyond our comfort zones. We are called to deliberately seek out the overlooked. We are called to look directly into the eyes that others avoid. Maybe that person is someone you would typically avoid because […]