I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. In these brief two verses we learn of Paul’s dearest hope, deepest motivation, and greatest joy. It’s a...
AP & SDG
posted by DJL
I was struck again on Sunday while watching the Vikings football game – really, were you thinking I’d be doing anything else on Sunday?! – that after his 61 yard run for a touchdown Adrian Peterson kneeled and raised his arms in an obvious gesture of prayer and praise. And, indeed, after...
Philippians 3:7-9
posted by DJL
Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may...
Keep Us Steadfast
posted by DJL
Today is the birthday of Martin Luther, born in 1483, and so it seemed appropriate to choose of the hymns he wrote as the poem for this week. Luther’s poetry – for what are lyrics but poetry set to music – changed the course of cultural history in the West as much as almost anything else...
Philippians 3:7
posted by DJL
Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. This is the pivot point in this section of Paul’s letter. He is making a sharp turn, moving from warning about the false confidence his opponents are offering to encouraging the Philippians to lay hold of the...
Theology as Conversation
posted by DJL
“I’ve got a problem with orthodoxy!” So began a recent and really enjoyable conversation with some of the congregational leaders in the Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod (ELCA). The pastor who made this declaration went on to explain that he finds theological doctrines regularly stifling to the kind of vibrant questions and conversations about the life of faith he encourages his congregation to have. Which led to an extended discussion about the possibly of thinking about the history of theology itself actually as an extended conversation, a conversation that began long before we arrived on the scene and that will continue...
Philippians 3:3-6
posted by DJL
For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh— even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth...
5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do
posted by DJL
Are we too concerned about safety when it comes to our kids? That may seem like a crazy question. But let me rephrase it: have we protected our kids too much? Putting the question that way gives us more to think about. Because although it’s hard for us to admit, kids actually need struggle. They need to learn by making mistakes. They need to develop the grit to overcome disappointment and failure. Why? Because life is hard, filled with challenging endeavors, and will inevitably bring disappointment and failure, and if we don’t learn the skills to manage these things as children, we’re likely to have great difficulty in adulthood. In a...
Philippians 3:1b-2
posted by DJL
To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard. Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! A fair bit of controversy has attended this part of Paul’s letter for years. The major question is whether or not...
Grace, Gratitude, and the Election
posted by DJL
The day after any national election is usually one of powerful and diverse emotions – celebration and relief on one side, disappointment and grief on another – and never more so than after an election as grueling and at times divisive as this one. Yet amid these divergent and conflicting emotions, I find myself filled with a sense of gratitude and grace that has little to do with the election results themselves but rather springs from several elements of the day, elements that while viewed perhaps as peripheral by many seem to me to be at the very core of who and what we are as a people. Here are the ones that immediately come to...
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