Pastor’s Pen – October
The Pastor’s Pen “God’s Word is our great heritage and shall be ours forever; to spread its light from age to age shall be our chief endeavor. Through life it guides our way; in death it is...
View ArticlePastor’s Pen – November
The Pastor’s Pen – November “It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to thy name, O most high.” (Psalm 92:1) On Thursday, November 27th we, as a nation, will pause to offer thanks to...
View ArticlePastor’s Pen – December 2014
The Pastor’s Pen “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he...
View ArticlePastor’s Pen – February 2015
The Pastor’s Pen This month we begin the season of Lent with an Ash Wednesday worship service on February 18 at 7:00 p.m. Lent is the 40 day period (excluding Sundays which are celebrations of the...
View ArticlePastor’s Pen – April
The Pastor’s Pen, April, 2015 During the season of Lent many of us have participated in a study called, “Unbinding Your Heart.” In a variety of different ways – reading the material in the book,...
View ArticlePastor’s Pen – May 2015
The Pastor’s Pen, May 2015 For me, one of the most powerful stories of the Easter season is the one that is traditionally read on the Second Sunday of Easter, the story of Doubting Thomas. It’s found...
View ArticlePastor’s Pen – July 2015
The Pastor’s Pen By the time you read this, our St. Andrew workcamp crew will have returned from their trip to Parma, Ohio. They’ll be full of stories … about the work they did on people’s houses …...
View ArticlePastor’s Pen – August, 2015
The Pastor’s Pen On the last page of each issue of The Lutheran magazine is a column by Elizabeth Eaton, the Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Bishop Eaton’s column has...
View ArticlePastor’s Pen – February 2016
The Pastor’s Pen During worship on the first Sunday of the year we heard this verse from the Gospel of John: “The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” In the...
View ArticlePastor’s Penn – March 2016
The Pastor’s Pen March 2016 Holy Week is a week of contrasts. The cheers of “Hosanna!” on Palm Sunday give way to the cries of “Crucify!” on Good Friday. The agony of the cross is replaced by the joy...
View ArticlePastor’s Pen for May 2016
The Pastor’s Pen Even though the season of Easter is soon behind us, you and I are called to live the rest of our lives as people of Easter. We are called to live each day as people who know that in...
View ArticlePastor’s Pen – July
The Pastor’s Pen Last month five of us from St. Andrew attended the annual Metropolitan Chicago Synod Assembly. Judy Boyd, Gary Burchardt, Leslie Parriott, Corrine McGonagle and I, along with over 400...
View ArticlePastor’s Pen – August 2016
The Pastor’s Pen “Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” – Ecclesiastes 1:2 This verse from the beginning of the book of Ecclesiastes was part of our Old...
View ArticlePastor’s Pen – September 2016
The Pastor’s Pen Whether we’re ready for it or not, summer is almost over. Vacations have come to an end; children have returned to school; autumn’s chill will soon be in the air. With the coming of...
View ArticleNovember Pastor’s Pen, 2016
The Pastor’s Pen Charles Dickens once made the observation that many people seem to think that it’s enough to set aside only one day in the year to give thanks to God. He went on to suggest that it...
View ArticlePastir’s Pen – December 2016
The Pastor’s Pen Dr. Oswald Hoffman, who for many years was the speaker on the “Lutheran Hour” radio program, told the story of a woman who bought a picture at a rummage sale for $3. She was attracted...
View ArticleSeptember Passtor’s Pen
The Pastor’s Pen By the time you read this, I will have been back from my sabbatical for about a month. I want you to know how grateful I am to have had this time for rest, study and renewal. Even...
View ArticlePastor’s Pen – October 2017
The Pastor’s Pen Here’s a multiple-choice question: What do we call the church that began as a result of the Reformation almost 500 years ago? A) the Lutheran church. B) the Protestant church. C) the...
View ArticlePastor’s Pen – November 2017
The Pastor’s Pen Having just completed our observance of the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, it’s appropriate to ask the question, “What happens now?” What happens...
View ArticlePastor’s Pen January 2018
The Pastor’s Pen A few weeks ago, on the first Sunday of Advent, we heard in our worship services this reassuring promise of Jesus: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”...
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