Back in the fall when I first started my internship at Como Park Lutheran in St. Paul, I met with Paul Erickson, the Assistant to the Bishop for Evangelical Mission from the St. Paul Synod.  I asked him for ideas on how to build on partnerships—especially with the school that’s a block down the street from our church.  Paul told me that when he served in Wisconsin, one idea was a Peace Award.  He told me a little bit about it and I thought—wow, that’s brilliant.  So I called up the principal…

When news started to spread last Sunday night that Osama bin Laden had been killed, there was quite a reaction.  The immediate and overwhelming response was jubilation, dancing in the streets, and who can forget the college students in front of the White House chanting “U-S-A”.  Facebook exploded with reactions and clever comments, but as Monday came around, I noticed that more and more of the responses from my friends were reflective and considered the Christian response to a…

About two weeks ago, I started looking ahead to see what Gospel lesson I would be preaching on for Sunday, April 10^th.  As an intern, I preach about once a month and I wanted to start thinking about how the text might impact me.  My first reaction upon reading it was, you gotta be kidding me?  I have to preach on a text that is talking about death.  It’s the story of Lazarus, whose sisters get upset…

Over the past few weeks, I have been fascinated at the cat and mouse game that is happening just over the border from me in Wisconsin.  The big bully Governor Walker is metaphorically taking away the lunch money from the teachers who spend part of their day making sure the bullies in their schools literally don't take the lunch money from the kids.

There is blame both ways--maybe the Democrats shouldn't have fled the state.  The Republicans have used mean tactics to make them out to…

When I was growing up, I just assumed everyone celebrated Mardi Gras.  In my family, when Fat Tuesday rolled around, my mom always made a great meal (it wasn’t until I was old enough to tolerate spicy food that she’d make jumbalaya), but there was always a King Cake for dessert.  Much of my mom’s youth was spent in Slidell, Louisiana, thus Mardi Gras wasn’t just the day before Ash Wednesday, it was a cultural phenomenon that took over the region.

I remember how delicious the King Cake…

The following response to the GLBT bullying will appear in the February edition of Como Park Lutheran Church’s Evangelist newsletter.

I was truly disturbed when I read the headline.  “Another Bullied Gay Teen in Minnesota Commits Suicide.”  This hits close to home—in fact, Lance Lundsten was from Alexandria—less than 20 miles from my wife…

When I was in middle school, I played for a City youth football team in Sioux Falls, SD.  Our team wasn’t very good and many of the other guys quit before the end of the year.  Since half of the team was in 7^th grade and the other half was in 6^th grade, those of us who were older ended up playing on the line since we were naturally bigger.  I was a 7^th grader, thus relegated to the line.  I decided to play football because I loved to catch passes in the…

I certainly have been in shock at the news that came out of Tucson this weekend.  The acts of the young man who took so many lives and has sent our nation into a fury of emotional outcry comes as devastating reality.  This event was hard to comprehend.  They have interviewed people who knew the killer and the sadness that they feel that they couldn’t have prevented this rings true.

Hannah Kardon posted a beautiful piece about lament and how…

I was the sports editor of my college newspaper, St. Olaf’s Manitou Messenger. If you start reading this and don’t like sports, you’ll find that football is only the theme that gets into the topic.  I offer up this piece because sometimes you hear a media story that makes you wonder, what do people think of this?

When someone goes on Twitter to blame God for dropping a football, surely there must be something going on worth considering.

Stevie Johnson,…