Trinity 10, 2026

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In many ways, the controversy surrounding the forgiveness of sins in the sixteenth century was driven by money. Pope Leo needed money to pay off the loan he had with the Fuggers, a prominent banking family. The indulgences he put up for sale were to help with that loan, along with completing the construction of St. Peter’s in Rome. Charles V was getting a cut of the indulgence money to fund war with the Turks. When Luther preaches that you cannot buy forgiveness, the flow of German money to Italy dries up. Money has a tendency to corrupt theology.

I hadn’t been a pastor for very long before a woman asked me a question that flabbergasted me. She’d just had a baby, and we were scheduling the baptism. “How much does it cost?” she asks. “What do you mean?” “What’s the fee for the Baptism?” “Fee? There is no fee.” In the church she grew up in, there was a fee. I had no idea. It’s not for sale….

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Laetare 2026

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Luther once called the emperor “that poor mortal maggot sack … who is not certain of his life for a single moment” [LW 59 p95]. His point was the exalted rulers can suddenly die, and they cannot truly defend us. At that time, the Ottoman Empire was the great military threat. But Luther saw this in theological terms. The forces of Islam were attacking, and this, he believed, was divine judgment, because the Holy Roman Empire, and the Pope, placed their trust in money and arms, not the Word of God. To place your trust in horses or men—that is, to place your trust in armies—is to trust in maggot sacks. …

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The Passion According to St. Luke, Part One

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What did Satan find in Judas? While Satan asks for Peter, to test him, Satan is not able to enter him. Nor the other disciples, despite their weaknesses.  But “Satan entered Judas.” Something is found in Judas that creates an opening.

It may have been greed. We know he loved money, and would steal from their treasury.

Might Satan find an opening in you? …

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Sexagesima 2026

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This is the second time I’ve made this particular mistake. A few years ago I bought a book by Victor Davis Hanson called Who Killed Homer? Since we have a wonderful classical school, I try to periodically read books on classical education, and the subtitle seemed to say it was: “The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom.” But the book was about how classics departments at American universities are captivated by LGBTQ ideology, and PhD candidates write dissertations with titles like, “Marxist Postcolonial Genderqueer Themes in The Odyssey.” I’m glad I read the book, but it wasn’t what I thought I was getting.

I made the same kind of mistake last month….

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Thanksgiving 2025

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When resources are scarce, anxiety is over food. Jesus asks, “Why do you worry about what you will eat?”

There’s no scarcity in America. But there’s still anxiety. And the anxiety still often connects to food. We eat our feelings. Or drink our feelings. Or find other ways to make ourselves numb – doomscrolling, binge watching, cyber shopping – something to distract us from our meaningless lives trapped on the conveyor belt, ending in a nursing home reeking of urine and loneliness.

“Do not be anxious about anything,” the Epistle for Thanksgiving says. How? Anxiety is our daily bread….

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