What can I say to that person who is on hospice care and is facing imminent death? The afflicted person may be in a coma. What can or should you say, if anything? You do not need to say much, but make it worthwhile. Even the comatose person most often can hear to the very end. Sometimes, no longer able to speak, you can ask the person to squeeze … [Read more...] about What Can I Say to a Dying Person?
Pastor, I Have a Question September-October, 2022
Recently, the federal government released video footage of Unidentified Aerial Phenomona (UAPs for short) recorded by various military aircraft. Meanwhile, at the University of Puerto Rico, astronomers at the Arecibo observatory have developed a growing database of potentially habitable planets orbiting other stars. These developments raise a … [Read more...] about Pastor, I Have a Question September-October, 2022
Martin Luther’s September Testament (1522): The German New Testament
This year marks the five hundredth anniversary of Martin Luther’s (1483–1546) translation of the New Testament into German. He titled it The German New Testament (Das Newe Testament Deůtzsch). Since it was published in September of 1522, it was also called the “September Testament” (Septembertestament). Luther’s German Bible was without a doubt his … [Read more...] about Martin Luther’s September Testament (1522): The German New Testament
Songs Out of Zion: God’s Word is Our Great Heritage
1817 marked the 300th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation. In Denmark that year, a thirty-four-year-old pastor published a verse to be sung with Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” That verse began with, “Guds Ord det er vort Arvegods”—“God’s Word Is Our Great Heritage.” The pastor was Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig. He had already … [Read more...] about Songs Out of Zion: God’s Word is Our Great Heritage
North American Lutheran Church
The North American Lutheran Church, or NALC, was organized in 2010 by sixteen congregations that had been members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). For quite some time, they had been unhappy with the ELCA’s continual drift away from Biblical theology and morality, but the final catalyst for their departure was the ELCA’s formal … [Read more...] about North American Lutheran Church
The Holy Art of Dying: How to Die
Whenever I order new funeral bulletins for Gloria Dei church, I wonder if I’m ordering my own. Likewise, I keep taped to my desk a post-it note scrawled with an antique adage: “Learn as if you’ll live forever. (For you will!) Live as if you’ll die tomorrow. (For you may!)” And alongside this rests a notecard with Scripture readings and hymns I’d … [Read more...] about The Holy Art of Dying: How to Die