Pastor’s Blog

Almost Christian

We are, all of us, “Quasimodos.”

That funny-sounding Latin word, familiar as the name of the hunchback of Notre Dame, means literally “partially-formed” or (as it translates 1 Peter 2.2) “newly-born.”

The Hidden God

The Church Year takes us on the journey toward the Cross in a series of stages.  

A Theology of Pancakes

It goes by many names.

Carnival. Fat Tuesday. Mardi Gras (French for, you guessed it, “Fat Tuesday”).

Authorized Representatives

In Sunday’s sermon we took up the topic of Absolution.

In it, I attempted to answer the “why” question: if our sins are totally and utterly forgiven by Christ on the cross (and they are), then why should the pastor—or indeed any Christian—stand in the Savior’s place and say, “In the stead and by the command of Jesus I forgive you…”

If you want to hear my response to that question, one that I have been asked on multiple occasions, I encourage you to listen to the sermon.

Unwrapping the Christmas Gift

It’s one of those slippery words.

You know what I mean.

What’s Christian about the Christmas tree?

What are we to make of that evergreen lightning rod that we call the Christmas tree?

What to make of St. Nick?

This is a guest post from my lovely wife, Anne Tinetti.

Magnifying God with J.S. Bach

He’s been called “the fifth evangelist.”

Johann Sebastian Bach may not have recorded a Gospel as did Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but he nevertheless made the good news of Jesus known in a sublime and beautiful way.

“We Do Not Want You to Be Uninformed”

St. Paul was writing to encourage the Thessalonians.

A host of different opinions, conjectures, and confusions were swirling about concerning what we often call “the end-times”—that is, the time of Jesus’ return and the end of this world as we know it (though not as REM knows it).

What to make of Halloween

Every year about this time, Christian parents get stuck.

They become filled with consternation about whether or not to go trick-or-treating and celebrate that most ghoulish of holidays, Halloween.