Luke 13:31-35 Dear Partner in Preaching, Have you ever noticed just how long it takes Jesus to get to Jerusalem? Just after the Transfiguration – two Sundays and four chapters ago – Luke records that Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem” (9:51) and then repeats that phrase shortly thereafter (v53). This phrase – more declaration than description – is clearly a turning point in Luke’s story. After going here and there and nearly everywhere in Galilee and beyond, Jesus now makes a beeline for the Jerusalem and the cross. But… But what I’m not sure I ever quite noticed before is that Jesus doesn’t actually get to...

Okay, so the title of this post is a little more dramatic than I’d intended. When it comes to making predictions, I’m with Yogi Berra, who once said, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” 🙂 With that caveat in mind, I’d still like to offer two brief thoughts about the future of this blog. 1) I hope to continue posting here, even as I transition to a new call as president of The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. I’ve been away from writing here for about a month, largely because of the need to give time to my interviews and conversations with folks at Philly; speaking at several Synod...

Just a quick blog update. Actually, two: 1) Late last week I somehow lost all my subscribers. I use Google’s Feedburner utility which allows folks to subscribe, emails the posts daily to subscribers, and manages those subscriptions. Somehow, all 4500 subscribers got wiped away last week. I’m trying to figure it out, but for now that means no daily blog updates are reaching anyone. I have, at the moment, no idea how to remedy this, but I’ll let you know when I figure it out. 2) I’ve got a crazy busy – and very exciting – week coming. This Tuesday and Wednesday I’ll be on the campus of The Lutheran...