Claimed, gathered and sent

The Immigration Fight Isn't Over Get a free issue of Sojourners Donate to support Sojourners [ Editor's Note : Jim Wallis is on a well-deserved vacation for the next few weeks. Rev. Jennifer Kottler, director of policy and advocacy at Sojourners, will be writing the SojoMail column in his absence.] Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton preliminarily struck down key provisions in Arizona’s infamous SB 1070  law and ruled that states cannot preempt federal law. While important, this is a victory that rings hollow for me and all those who care about the true reform of our immigration system. In many ways, the damage to neighborhoods and communities had already been done, as people did not wait to see how the law would affect them. Many mixed-status families pulled their children out of school and moved out of state, closing stores and restaurants and leaving many immigrant neighborhoods like ghost towns. This did not just affec

I've only been in Garrett County for a few days, but I have some observations. For one thing, these are among the nicest, most hard working, godly people I have known. They're wonderful. That being the case, why aren't the churches growing? Or perhaps the better question is, why are they losing members??? A Missouri Synod church is Accident is losing members as they are waiting for a new pastor. This begs the question of the role of lay leadership. In talking with the candidate for pastor there, he thought churches were flailing because of lack of leadership. Now I wonder if he meant strong pastoral leadership (Herr Pastor) or did he mean lay leadership? In the case of my home church, Emanuel in West Warwick, RI, there was strong lay leadership that had been nurtured over the years. With an interim pastor for nearly two years, the church did quite well. The deacons assisted, actually led worship. All the committees functioned including church council. So I wonder...as this

It's been a while since I've posted anything. This semester has been a hectic one. Below are some thoughts on baptism from Martin Luther's Large Catechism. The citations refer to the page and paragraph numbers in the Book of Concord. Baptism’s necessity is an issue I have had to struggle with. In Palestine , while working with Muslims who wanted to follow Jesus , the question arose whether one could follow Christ without being baptized. We (who were not Lutheran at that time) concluded that it was not, yet today, I bump up against Luther ’s teaching in the Large Catechism that the corollary to the Great Commission is “whoever rejects baptism rejects God’s Word, faith, and Christ …” (460.31). These adults were not rejecting it, but had not yet understood the need. It was not something we made an issue of. For one’s salvation it may not be essential, but to know the fullness of God in one’s life, to have the daily reassurance of God’s presence, to grow into all God has

Take a peek at this blog. Very interesting. The Necessity of Faith - Science and the Sacred Shared via AddThis flickr photo

Reform #3 Teaching of Justification by Grace through Faith This was not a new teaching discovered by Luther. There were reformers prior to him that spoke and wrote of God's work of grace of being something outside of us, something we ourselves cannot effect. Rather than a discovery, it was a rediscovery of this truth of God's Word. For Luther , this was the chief article, upon which everything depended. Freedom in our Christian lives and forgiveness of sins is all a free gift that we cannot do anything to earn. We are justified by grace without any merit or work of our own. God makes us God’s own. “On this article stands all that we teach practice…” ( The Smalcald Articles, Lull, p. 357). It is well explained by Luther ’s explanation of the third article of the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him.” God does the work, not us. flickr foto

Every two weeks, a small group of us who are older seminarians (second career or third, fourth whatever) get together for lunch on Friday at one of the local restaurants (that has good food cheap). We did this yesterday, much to my husband's delight since the refectory was serving fish and chips for lunch and Ray is not a fish aficionado. We had been there a while eating and talking. Each of us was quite relaxed because although there was lots to be done this weekend for teaching parish and classes, we were finished with classes for the week and could let our hair down. Friday after classes is sacrosanct for this group. We do not do schoolwork on Fridays after class. That's what Saturday is for! After a while, a gentleman approached us and asked if he had heard correctly that we are involved with church and faith. We responded in the affirmative. He proceeded to ask prayer for someone he knew of that just had a baby and was in critical condition. We assured him she would be ad