Confidence in Confession

Walking briskly through the hospital corridor, my thoughts were interrupted by the man calling out to me. “Father! Thank God you’re here. Right this way.” He told me they’d been waiting for hours for a priest to visit his dying wife. I explained that I’d be happy to visit, but he should know I’m a Lutheran pastor. “Just a minute,” he said, and disappeared into the room. After a hushed conversation, he came back out and said, “Close enough!”

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Annunciation 2019

What happened in Mary’s womb was not a miracle to grab the world’s attention, like some juggler or illusionist. The world-altering event takes place in secret. It happens through God’s Word to one woman, without an audience.

But it is world-altering in the same category as when God first said, “Let there be light.” To God’s fallen creation God Himself enters.

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