As I mentioned in a post late last week, I was torn between continuing my devotional reading of Luke and jumping to the Passion for Lent and then coming back to where we left off. I asked for help…and you gave it. The overwhelming preference was to move to the Passion now. So we will! With that in mind, just a few things to orient us to Luke in general and, in particular, Luke’s story of our Lord’s Passion. Of the four evangelists, Luke is the one who most clearly thinks of himself as a historian. Not a 21st century historian, mind you, but a 1st century historian who tells a story in order to teach the truth…which is of course...

Thank you. This is my first, last, and most essential response to the comments and conversation over the last week in response to my question and post about prayer. One reader emailed to ask who my mentors in prayer have been. I answer that it was first and foremost my parents, but as I thought about it later I also realized very recently it has also been all of you, as I have learned so much about prayer over the last week. Thank you. To honor those comments and respond out of a sense of gratitude to the conversation as it has taken shape, I thought I’d share a few of the things that I’ve learned and have been thinking about in the last...

A week ago I had the opportunity to gather with a group of folks who are working to provide resources to preachers. These are the people who put together websites, conferences, study materials, and more. At one point, we had a conversation about what we’ve all learned about what makes a good website. The comments were fascinating: It needs to be interactive. People want to be participants, not just an audience. People want to find resources that help them in their daily lives. Variety is everything. It can’t just be information, or resources, or entertainment, but a little bit of all. It’s about making connections – where people can...

Two Bible Story Jams up this week. The first follows the Narrative Lectionary with a reading about Jesus healing the centurion’s slave (Luke 7:1-17) and uses some of the original folks from our first BSJ event in early December. The second is brought to you by some of the confirmation students at Bethlehem Lutheran Church. They’re talking about a story we sometimes hear in Lent, of when Jesus heals a “sinful” woman while dining with a Pharisee (Luke 7:36-50). Listen as the kids imagine the reaction of Jesus and others as she bathes Jesus’ feet with tears and washes them with her hair. Okay, listen to the kids as...