The Gottesdienst Crowd

Familiarity, we are told, breeds contempt. In practice, however, familiarity breeds contemplation. In this episode, we see how repetition of a single, standard rite for the Divine Service, not only allows for (both young and old alike) all to participate, but it also creates room for contemplation on what God is doing therein. 

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

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Two pastors thinking out loud about the upcoming Gospel reading. This episode is devoted to the Gospel reading for the Feast of St. Barnabas, Apostle, Mark 6:7–13.

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Mirror, mirror on the wall, what is the image and likeness of God? As Lutherans, we typically think and speak of the image and likeness of God as the original righteousness lost in the Fall into sin. In this episode, we revisit the image and likeness of God and contemplate further meaning and application of this created reality. 

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

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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