Epiphany 3 sermon
Posted on January 23rd, 2011
I have no sermon to post today because Prof. John Pless preached at Immanuel. You can listen to the sermon from this page.
Categories: Sermons
Tagged: Epiphany 3, John T. Pless
Posts tagged “John T. Pless”
Notes on Lutheran Ethics Today: Prolegomena
Posted on June 7th, 2010
Selected notes from a class I’m taking this week with Prof. John Pless. The course is entitled “Lutheran Ethics Today.” Any ethic apart from God’s work in Christ is going to lead to despair or pharisaism. The doctrine of justification by faith is foundational to Christian ethics. A person’s worth is derived from what God says (grace), not what man says (works, i.e., what a person can contribute to society, cost, etc.). “The Christian ethos conceives of itself as the divine judgment of the human quality.” -Werner Elert *God* makes the judgment. Lutheran ethics begins coram Deo. Philosophical ethics are attempting to make a statement about what constitutes good and evil. Having discarded God, we have to construct our own truth. Philosophical ethics is…
Categories: Theology
Tagged: Ethics, John T. Pless
Images of the March for Life
Posted on January 23rd, 2010
Some pictures from the 2010 March for Life in Washington, DC. And a few from the 2009 March for Life that I never posted:
Categories: Theology
Tagged: Abortion, John T. Pless, Lutherans for Life, March for Life
"We are not saved by our ethics": Sermon by Prof. Pless before the March for Life
Posted on January 22nd, 2010
Immanuel hosts the Divine Service for Lutherans for Life before the March for Life in Washington DC every year. This morning we were privileged to have Professor John Pless (of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, IN) preaching. This is his outstanding sermon: Lutherans for Life Service 22 January 2010 Immanuel Lutheran Church Alexandria, VA +Jesu Juva+ In the Light I John 1:5- 2:5 The Psalmist prayed “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” We are living in a world where the shadow of death seems to ever lengthen, casting its cruel shade over public and private existence. Last week in Haiti an earthquake shattered the land causing buildings to crumble down delivering death to…
Categories: Theology
Tagged: Abortion, Epiphany, John T. Pless, March for Life
March for Life this Friday
Posted on January 19th, 2010
Friday, January 22 is the March for Life, an annual peaceful demonstration in our nation’s capital asking for the right to life for every human person to be protected. Lutherans will gather under the Lutherans for Life banner at 12pm at 7th & Independence. Besides the participation from locals, Lutherans from around the country usually join us. We know of a bus from Indiana and another from Michigan who will be with us, and we just heard today of a school group from Louisiana who also will be in attendance. You are cordially invited to begin the day with worship; Divine Service will be held at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Alexandria (1801 Russell Road, 22301) at 9 a.m. The previously-announced preacher, Rev. Matthew Harrison…
Categories: Theology
Korby, Löhe, and "Faith-Sharing Moments"
Posted on May 28th, 2009
There is something disconcerting about the modern emphasis on “faith-sharing moments” as the essence of mission. Faith is so quickly identified as a subjective thing. The exhortation, “Share your faith” may be understood quite differently than, “Share the faith.” The Christian message is always an objective one: the announcement of what Jesus of Nazareth, the incarnate Son of God, performed in His ministry, suffering, crucifixion, resurrection, and Ascension. If our church is to develop again a truly missional character, we will have to heed these words of Korby, writing on Löhe’s pastoral theology: As the mission is the church of God in motion, so the energy of that motion is the Word of God, the apostolic Word. That Word alone is the energy; that…
Categories: Theology
Tagged: Church, CTQ, Faith, John T. Pless, Kenneth Korby, Mission, Wilhelm Löhe