Category Archives: Special Days

Litany and Prayers for All Saints 2019

Litany and Prayers for All Saints 2019 This year, on All Saints Sunday, I will replace my sermon in our Lutheran church with a responsive litany, spoken with the congregation. We will follow with the Apostles’ Creed and then say special prayers for the day. May this be a day of profound and grateful remembranceContinue reading “Litany and Prayers for All Saints 2019”

American Independence Day 2019

American Independence Day 2019 On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln gave “remarks” at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where a savage, decisive battle had been fought in the American Civil War. Those “remarks” have endured as a timeless statement of the American project — to establish and maintain a “nation, conceived inContinue reading “American Independence Day 2019”

Memorial Day with Michael Spencer

For Memorial Day 2019: The Glory of the Nations – How Common Grace Redeems Nationalism by Michael Spencer My friend Mark is a soldier. A Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps. He just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan, where he, in his own words, was “proud to be a Marine atContinue reading “Memorial Day with Michael Spencer”

Some things you might not know about Chaplain Mike…

Today is my 63rd birthday. I won’t be celebrating much this weekend, but will be on call, officiating funerals, and trying like heck to get my overgrown lawn, saturated by spring rains, mowed at last. Anyway, I thought this occasion might provide a chance to help everyone here get to know the real me aContinue reading “Some things you might not know about Chaplain Mike…”

Sermon: Christ the King Sunday 2018

Sermon: Christ the King Sunday 2018 Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus answered, ‘Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?’ Pilate replied, ‘I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chiefContinue reading “Sermon: Christ the King Sunday 2018”

Another Look: Thoughts on Veterans Day

Another Look: Thoughts on Veterans Day Men go to war for a hundred reasons, But they all come back with the same demons. • Slaid Cleaves • • • None of us who have escaped our nation’s veterans’ experiences on the battlefields can ever truly relate to what they’ve seen and known. We pin medalsContinue reading “Another Look: Thoughts on Veterans Day”

Reformation Day Sermon 2018

Reformation Day Sermon 2018 They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy onContinue reading “Reformation Day Sermon 2018”