Lutheran

Lutherans and immigration

/ The Pastor / 7 Comments

I am reading a fascinating book right now titled They Are Us: Lutherans and Immigration by Stephen Bouman and Ralston Deffenbaugh…

…I have yet to finish the book but I will be done shortly.  It’s a short book and a quick read.  It is also an eye opening book.  I hope to have more insights for you soon but in the mean time, here are some thoughts and highlights that have jumped out to me.

–We are all descendants of immigrants.  How often do you actually think about that?

–Scriptures command us to welcome the widow, orphan and the stranger.  How often do we do THAT?

–Our immigration system is indeed broken.  I do not have the answer, but something needs to be done.  Families are being torn apart.

–Since 9/11 it has become “okay” to discriminate against immigrants all in the name of national security.

–I need to readjust some of my attitudes and pray for my brothers and sisters who are simply here to make a better life for them and their families.

Like I said I do not have the answer to the problem of our broken immigration system, but as Christians how are we called to respond to these brothers and sisters in Christ?  Maybe our first order of business is to pray for our national leaders that they may actually figure something out so all people are treated with respect and dignity.

More to come later…

God bless!

-edh-

Fall Theological Conference

/ The Pastor / 2 Comments

I am on the road today with The Heart of a Pastor and find myself in St. Cloud, MN (here since Sunday evening).  Thank God for free wireless high speed Internet access.  But believe it or not, I am paying attention to the speakers.  I am one of those people who can multi-task.  I am listening intently (that is a very subjective description), while monitoring my Facebook site, reading the scripture for Reformation Sunday and periodically working on my newsletter article for November (Yes Vicki…I am working on it and will get it to you when I return).  Now we are on a break so I am able to write this post (adding this to my multi-task table would push me over the edge).

Anyway…I wanted to share with you a couple nuggets of information that I heard yesterday.  The speaker was Professor Rolf Jacobson, professor of OT at Luther Seminary.  I had this professor for my Psalms class during my senior year.  Yesterday, Rolf spoke about a Lutheran understanding of scripture.  Here are a couple nuggets that caught my attention:

—Scripture is the living Word of God of what God is doing RIGHT NOW…among us.
The Bible is not just some history book of what God did for his people many thousands of years ago.  I believe there are many people who hold this view.  But God is working among us now, today, right now and the Bible shows us what God is up to.

—If people don’t know the stories of scripture, then they won’t know who they truly are.
When we listen to stories from grandpa and grandma, from aunts and uncles, etc, we are not only hearing about stuff that happened to them in the past, but we are learning about who we are in this family.  When we hear the stories from scripture we are learning who we are in the family of God.  God’s faithfulness in the OT is not just some good story, but reminds us that, imperfect that we are, God is still faithful to us today.

I am constantly surprised by how many people I encounter are Bible illiterate.  We need a culture change, but how are we going to do this?

-edh-