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“How God Uses His Law in Our Lives” (Romans 13:1-10)Our text today is the Epistle, from Romans 13, and our topic is “How God Uses His Law in Our Lives.” And he does. God uses his law in several ways in our lives, all ultimately for our good. Traditionally we talk about three “uses” of the law, and our text today especially deals with two of those three, what we commonly call the “First Use of the Law” and the “Third Use of the Law.” Oh, we won’t forget about the Second Use. And St. Paul hasn’t either; it’s just...

Compared to the last several ELCA churchwide assemblies, the Orlando 2011 assembly was in some respects uneventful. There were very few con- troversial and heated discussions. The assembly overwhelmingly approved all recommendations from the churchwide organization, including all of the amendments to the constitution that make it more difficult for congregations to disaffiliate with the ELCA. The lack of controversy may account for far fewer visitors or con- gregational observers this year. There appeared to be at most about two dozen people seated in the congregational observers section, propably at least less than half the number at the last several...

With very little controversy, the ELCA Churchwide Assembly met August 15-19 in Orlando. The assembly overwhelmingly approved all rec- ommendations from the churchwide organization, including all of the amendments to the constitution that would make it more difficult for con- gregations to disaffiliate from the ELCA. Also approved were the anti- bullying legislation proposed by Lutherans Concerned/North America, the proposed genetics social statement, and the LIFT (Living into the Future Together) ELCA reorganization plan. Memorials from South Carolina, South Dakota, and Western Iowa re- questing the ELCA rescind the 2009 sexuality decisions were not brought to the floor for discussion....

“Genuine Love: Instructions Connected to Our Life Together in Christ” (Romans 12:9-21)In 1927, a writer by the name of Max Ehrmann wrote a poem called “Desiderata.” “Desiderata” means “the things desired.” You may have heard of this poem. It begins like this: “Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.” And the poem goes on like that. And on. And on. For example: “Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. . . . Be yourself....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87vo2jkmJUg

“What Do You Give the God Who Has Everything?” (Romans 11:33 – 12:8)Some of you probably remember the old advertising slogan, “What do you give the man who has everything?” You’d hear it during the Christmas shopping season, or maybe coming up on Father’s Day, when you were out looking for just the right gift for that special man in your life, your father, your husband, maybe your pastor. The idea was, the fellow you’re shopping for is sitting at home in his recliner, wearing his bathrobe and smoking his pipe--he’s a successful man who’s made it, he’s got everything...

A North Carolina state university has put out a list of approved "gay-friendly" churches for faculty and students raising concerns by at least one professor that taxpayers are inadvertently involved in "telling people where to go to church." An office with the University of North Carolina's Wilmington campus began circulating the list late last month. It was compiled as part of a broader guide to gay-friendly businesses, nonprofits, health centers and other services in the area. The "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, intersex and allied students, faculty, staff, and alumni" office described the document as a "local resource guide" for...

“The Particularity of God’s Mercy for All” (Romans 11:1-2a, 13-15, 28-32)The question of Jews and Gentiles is not a big deal for us today. Most all of us here are Gentiles, I think, that is, non-Jews. The Christian church around the world is almost entirely made up of people who are not ethnically Jewish. For that matter, the world itself--there are just not that many Jews to go around. So the question of Jews and Gentiles is not at the forefront of our consciousness, and naturally so. We do not normally think in those terms. However, the question of Jews...

The Rev. John F. Bradosky of Centerville, Ohio, was elected Bishop of the North American Lutheran Church (NALC) Thursday, Aug. 11. Bishop Bradosky, who has served as the General Secretary of the NALC since January, was elected by the NALC Convocation, the church body’s annual meeting, which met Aug. 11-12 in suburban Columbus, Ohio. Eight hundred Lutherans from throughout North America gathered at Upper Arlington Lutheran Church at Mill Run in Hilliard, Ohio, to elect leaders and to set direction for the newly-formed church body. Bishop Bradosky, 59, was formally installed as bishop at the closing worship service of the...

Pope Benedict XVI is to rehabilitate Martin Luther, arguing that he did not intend to split Christianity but only to purge the Church of corrupt practices. Pope Benedict will issue his findings on Luther (1483-1546) in September after discussing him at his annual seminar of 40 fellow theologians — known as the Ratzinger Schülerkreis — at Castelgandolfo, the papal summer residence. According to Vatican insiders the Pope will argue that Luther, who was excommunicated and condemned for heresy, was not a heretic. Cardinal Walter Kasper, the head of the pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said the move would help...

What does the Bible actually say about "gay marriage"? That question is the title of a a recent op-ed piece in the Huffington Post written by Lee Jefferson, a visiting assistant professor of religion at Centre College. According to Jefferson the answer is: "Nothing," or at least "Nothing negative." Jefferson used the recent passage of "gay marriage" by the New York legislature as a springboard from which to denigrate appeals to the Bible against homosexual practice. I will use Jefferson's article as a springboard from which to answer the question that he and many others have raised. It is of...

“If God Is for Us” (Romans 8:28-39)“If God is for us, who can be against us?” Well, indeed, if God is for us, then it really wouldn’t matter who is against us, would it? I mean, who could be greater and more powerful than God? No one. By definition, no one or no thing can be more powerful than God; otherwise, that person or thing would be God. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” But that question then raises another question, one that could be a little ominous, depending on the answer: Is God for us?...

Obama in unprecedented meeting with ELCA presiding bishop, faith leaders 11-102-MG CHICAGO (ELCA) - Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), along with other faith leaders, asked President Barack Obama to protect funding for programs that benefit people living with hunger and poverty in the ongoing budget debate and in any deal concerning the debt crisis. Hanson was part of a gathering of national Christian leaders who attended a meeting with Obama and senior White House staff on July 20. The select but diverse group represented evangelical, mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic churches and...

In a "Letter to the Church" released Monday, July 18, LCMS President Dr. Matthew C. Harrison announced that, beginning in 2012, the Synod will no longer co-sponsor its training conferences for military chaplains with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The decision, which Harrison said was not made lightly, was based on input from the Synod's Ministry to the Armed Forces committee and from active- and reserve-duty LCMS chaplains. It ends a cooperative ministry that began in 1941 between the LCMS and two other Lutheran church bodies at that time -- The American Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church...

NEW YORK • One of the largest social service networks in the United States, working in areas ranging from adoption to disaster relief, faces a shake-up because of Lutheran divisions over the Bible and homosexuality. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, a theologically conservative denomination headquartered in Kirkwood, Mo., said Wednesday that direct work with its larger and more liberal counterpart, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, has become "difficult if not impossible," because of doctrinal conflicts, including the 2009 decision by liberal Lutherans to lift barriers for ordaining gays and lesbians. Neither denomination would discuss the potential financial impact Wednesday. Many...

Delegates attending the biennial convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada have voted to allow gays and lesbians to become ministers. The delegates voted 205 to 114 in favour of a motion that states sexual orientation is not in itself a factor that disqualifies a candidate for the church's ministry. The motion rescinds ones from past conventions which disqualified candidates from ordination if they were self-declared, practising homosexuals. The delegates also voted 192 to 132 to allow ministers to conduct or bless same-sex marriages, according to their consciences and the laws of their provinces. Delegates sang "Lord Listen to...

“The Glory That Is to Be Revealed” (Romans 8:18-27)Today we continue in Romans 8. Last week we heard that we have received “The Spirit of Adoption as Sons,” that is, that God has changed our status from slaves to sons, that he has given us the Holy Spirit, so that we would know this, and that we have an inheritance waiting for us in the future, which gives us hope even now. So continuing on from that point, today St. Paul tells us more about the inheritance to come, what it is we are waiting for. And so our theme...

We have added the following to list of congregations that have voted to leave the ELCA: 1. Hope Lutheran Church, Fosston, MN vote July 10 to leave the ELCA, 130-37. Their first vote passed last Fall but the second vote failed this past May. We are uncertain at this time if this vote is being counted as second vote or the first vote in a new process to withdraw. We will report when this matter is clarified. THEY ARE STARTING OVER. THIS WAS THEIR SECOND EFFORT AT A FIRST VOTE! 2. Peace Lutheran Church, Linton, ND has left the ELCA....

Michele Bachmann Leaves Church Accused of Anti-Catholic Bias By James Oliphant July 15, 2011 Taking a page from President Obama’s political playbook, Michele Bachmann has formally left a church in Minnesota accused of holding anti-Catholic views. According to CNN, the church that Michele Bachmann and her husband Marcus had attended for more than a decade, Salem Lutheran in Stillwater, Minn., granted the couple’s request to be released from their membership last month, a week after Bachmann told a national audience that she would run for the Republican presidential nomination. The Bachmanns had approached their pastor and verbally made the request...

An unusually ignorant story in The Atlantic--with a completely misleading headline—questions the religious affiliation of Rep. Michelle Bachman Republican presidential candidate. Bachman was—but no longer is—a member of a Minnesota Lutheran congregation that belongs to the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. The latter, a theologically conservative group, teaches that the Roman Catholic Church embodies the spirit of Antichrist—although a representative of the group reports that this view is rarely expressed today. Columnist Joshua Green asks whether Catholic voters will find Bachman’s beliefs offensive. But Bachman herself never professed that belief. When questioned about it, she repudiated it, and said that she...