LOGIA

A sermon by John T. Pless delivered Tuesday in Epiphany I, 12 January 2010, at Kramer Chapel of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Sermon text: Isaiah 43:8-13.

I think that Isaiah must have read Luther’s On the Bondage of the Will.  They do sound a like. If you are troubled with Luther’s assertions about God working all things out of His divine necessity, then you cannot but find Isaiah’s portrayal of the Lord’s epiphany as anything but offensive for here God asserts that He alone is the Lord. He puts the peoples of earth on trial, inviting them to enter into disputation with Him. This is the God who determines the rise and fall of nations. This is the Lord declares that that there is no Savior beside Himself. He is the God who does His work and none can deliver from His hand or overturn what He has accomplished.

Book review by Dr. Albert Collver

A Little Book on Joy: The Secret of Living a Good News Life in a Bad News World. By Matthew C. Harrison. Fort Wayne, Indiana: Lutheran Legacy Press, 2009. Individual copies: $9.95; bulk (5 or more copies): $5.99.

 A Little Book on Joy is a very fitting title in a world that seems to have so little joy. At first glance, there would seem to be little to say about joy. A search on Amazon.com turns up remarkably few books on the subject of joy, many of which deal with mental health or Eastern religion. It seems that “joy” is not even a topic popular for a self-help type of book. If the self-help book market has relatively little use for “joy,” what of the Christians? While there are some Christian authors writing on “joy,” it seems that Harrison’s got it right. “So many churches, so many pastors and Christians have so little joy today . . . These are difficult times” (p. 2). Indeed, these are difficult times for many as the news media has titled the first decade of the 21^st century, “The Noughties.” Even in the Church, outside of the Christmas season with “Joy to the World,” when is the message of “joy” heard?

by January Pearson

For the Nuns of 1523 who Fled to Wittenberg

I'll tell you a story
of such blessed serendipity
it could be myth,
but it is true.

A sermon preached by John T. Pless on Tuesday in Pentecost 18, 6 October 2009 at Kramer Chapel, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana; Sermon text: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

"May God the Father, who created this body; may God the Son, who by His blood redeemed this body; may God the Holy Spirit, who by Holy Baptism sanctified this body to be His temple, keep these remains to the day of the resurrection of all flesh." These words are, of course, the words spoken at the committal in the Service of Christian Burial. At that most sober and somber moment they proclaim the truth about the body of the believer; it is body created by the Maker of heaven and earth, purchased with the blood of Christ, and hallowed by the washing of the water with the Word. It is not a left-over carcass to be tossed aside but a body given by God and now rendered back to Him.