Articles tagged with: Theological Reflections
by Cleotha Robertson
In this article, an in depth exploration of Psalm 1 is discussed as a means of understanding spiritual formation along with related imagery in Joshua and Ephesians. These scriptures utilize key language important for spiritual development and highlight the co-participation of the believer and God in what is a collaborative transcendent venture. This exemplifies the joint nature of spiritual growth. The believer must be a “hearer and doer” of God’s Word, while actively “Standing” and “walking” in order to evolve. Therefore, what the Lord has put together, let us strive to keep together while co-laboring with Him.
by Jennifer Houston McNeel
As Jennifer Houston McNeel studies two key passages in scripture, she expounds first on an element of reconciliation often lost in today’s individualist culture and second on repentance as the vehicle to repentance with God. However, the feature here is not us, the recipients of reconciliation and professors of repentance, but God and Jesus Christ as the initiators of reconciling work and spirit led repentance.
by Erik M. Heen
The characteristic Lutheran “spirituality” centered in service to the neighbor, often expressed in the slogan “freed to serve,” is succinctly articulated in Luther’s 1520 treatise “Freedom of the Christian.” The slogan raises fundamental questions: “How are we freed?” “From what are we freed?” and “How is it that ‘service’ most characterizes freedom?” Luther concludes that though the “Word” is the means God uses to liberate humanity from Sin, “faith” is the agent that moves the focus of one’s attention off of self and on to one’s neighbor-in-need.
by Petra Carlsson Redell
In this article, Rev. Doc. Petra Carlsson Redell reflects over two Lutheran ideas, namely the Lutheran notion of grace and the idea of the priesthood of all believers. Redell suggests that if these notions are treated with care, they may help us spread the love of God and the inspiration of the Spirit in the political and social reality of our time.
by Jonathan Linman
Rooted in a robust, nuanced, and expansive understanding of Christian freedom, Martin Luther’s famous paradox, paraphrased as “subject to none, subject to all,” forms the foundation for Lutheran social ethics which continue to resonate with profound relevance in our day, five hundred years after the beginning of the Reformation.
by Donald L. Odom
Does Christian liberty suggest our freedom in Christ allows us to be passive concerning the least, last and the lost? What is our responsibility as Christians towards the disinherited and disenfranchised, and what does Christ’s love look like when we remain silent while others around us struggle? Christian liberty requires work within the Body of Christ to speak loudly and recurrently for the invisible and voiceless.
by Jill Schaeffer
This essay suggests how the works of two deeply faithful and creative men, born two centuries apart, may generate a single act of worship. Martin Luther’s commentary on The Lord’s Prayer is joined wordlessly with Johann Sebastian Bach’s chorale on The Lord’s Prayer in the Clavier-Übung, more commonly known as The German Organ Mass. Luther’s influence on Bach’s music was pervasive and indelible. This particular influence on Bach’s compositions is well timed with Reformation celebrations in the town of Eisenach in 1739.
by Douglas S. Stivison
The Protestant Reformation not only changed forever the course of Christian belief and worship, it also elevated respect for individual conscience and honest inquiry. To preach faithfully in a contemporary Protestant pulpit demands that we help our parishioners appreciate the priceless and revolutionary concept that is the foundation of Reformed worship – freedom of conscience.
by Cleotha Robertson
Occurring against the backdrop of King Ahaz’s reign from 732 to 715 BCE, Isa. 11 is the hopeful prophecy of a Davidic Ruler who will arise from the lineage of Jesse. This Davidic ruler will fear the Lord, practice justice, establish peace, slay the wicked, and restore the oppressed remnant of Judah and Israel. For the Body of Christ, this prophecy is and will be fulfilled in our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus!
by John W. Herbst
We live in an age of distrust, far from Isaiah’s ideal. Individually and collectively, people seek security. The church needs to promote Isaiah’s solutions to local and global disharmony: concentration on God’s ways and values, and the promotion of justice for all people, everywhere. It is only in knowledge and justice that our society will experience true shalom.
by Åke Viberg
“…When we know we cannot know everything and that we will soon die, what do we do?” It’s usually a painful experience to realize that we are limited beings forced to make some tough decisions in order to adapt to this very sobering realization. In the end however, we must face life as it is, and change.
by William J. Sappenfield
Breathing readily illustrates the nature of paradox in our relationship with God. Breathing is the climax of God’s creation of humans in Genesis 2 and it is Jesus’ means of commissioning his disciples in John 20. But God slipped a paradox into creation to give us a reminder of how our relationship with God is maintained.