The Gottesdienst Crowd

TGC 291 — Thinking Out Loud (Trinity Sunday)

Two pastors thinking out loud about the upcoming Gospel reading. This episode is devoted to the Gospel reading for the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, John 3:1–17.

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TGC 290 — The Homogenization of Sin

We live in an age of homogenization, an age of flattening, of evening everything out. We are, it seems, no longer able to make distinctions. We see this in the culture. But before it was cool in the culture, the church had been taking part in its own homogenization process. This has happened and is still happening with how we look at and think about sin. In this episode, Stephen Preus diagnoses this flattening of sin in order to distinguish between how all sins warrant damnation from God, but not all sins have the same effect in the life of the Christian. He calls us back to the distinction made by our orthodox Lutheran fathers of mortal and venial sins. 

• Order Servant of Christ’s Church: A Festschrift in Honour of John R. Stephenson.

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TGC 289 — Thinking Out Loud (Pentecost)

Two pastors thinking out loud about the upcoming Gospel reading. This episode is devoted to the Epistle reading for the Feast of Pentecost, Acts 2:1–21.

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TGC 288 — Minority Report

After the re-release of the Luther’s Large Catechism with Annotations and Contemporary Applications, President Matthew C. Harrison released a statement denouncing, condemning, and seeking for excommunication those who hold to disturbing ideologies. Since then a flurry and furor has erupted in personal communications and online. Most of this surrounds the accusations of racism in the church. Ramirez is back to discuss how this has played out, what our church body holds to officially, and marking a way forward to guide future discussions that provide more light than heat. 

• President Harrison denounces disturbing ideologies
• The Sin of Partiality Explained, Matthew Cochran
• Racism and the Church: CTCR Majority Opinion
• Racism and the Church: A Dissenting Opinion and also Here.
• Racism and the Church Overcoming the Idolatry of Babel, David Ramirez
• Slavery, Humanism, and the Bible, CFW Walther
• Communism and Socialism, CFW Walther

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TGC 287 — Thinking Out Loud (Easter 7)

Two pastors thinking out loud about the upcoming Gospel reading. This episode is devoted to the Gospel reading for the Seventh Sunday of Easter, John 15:26–16:4.

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[From the Archives] TGC 111 – The Ascension

In this episode, we discuss The Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord. Why do we celebrate it? How is this feast pivotal to our lives as Christians waiting for and eagerly anticipating Christ's return in glory? Why did he go away? And in departing, does that mean he is truly absent? And if not, how is he with us now. You will see just how profound and glorious this feast is as Rick Stuckwisch (pastor of Emmaus Lutheran Church, South Bend, IN, and Departmental Editor of Gottesdienst: The Journal of Lutheran Liturgy) answers these questions and more. 

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TGC 286 — Thinking Out Loud (Easter 6)

Two pastors thinking out loud about the upcoming Gospel reading. This episode is devoted to the Gospel reading for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, John 16:23–33.

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TGC 285 — From Servant to Master

Learning to read the Bible is a life-long endeavor. There is the daily practice and discipline of reading the Bible that needs to be learned. But there is also the kind of reading the Bible that takes the seriously the divine author of the Scriptures, so that we learn to read the Bible not as a compilation of theological truths, but also divine story by a divine story-teller with a singular emphasis: the person and work of Jesus Christ. If there is one better than Karl Fabrizius to help us do this, whose giddy joy in reading the Bible is evident, I want to meet him. 

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TGC 284 — Thinking Out Loud (Easter 5)

Two pastors thinking out loud about the upcoming Gospel reading. This episode is devoted to the Gospel reading for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, John 16:5–15.

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TGC 283 — The Confessional Cache

19th Century Christianity saw a revival in both confessional and liturgical writings and polemics. In this episode, James Lee takes us through some of the major players and themes of the confessional revival and what we can learn from them. 

Further study:

• Walter Conser, Church & Confession
• Andrew Kloes, The German Awakening
• James Lee, Confessional Lutheranism and German Theological Wissenschaft

To register for the CUC Confessionalism Seminar

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