SERMONS

Jefferson Prairie Lutheran Church, Poplar Grove, Illinois. Note the semi-circular altar railing. I only truly appreciated my father's habits of study after he was no longer there for me to crawl into his lap and look sleepily at the pictures of whatever big non-fiction book he was reading. My mother's warm and wise words to me, helping me negotiate the difficulties of life, are all the more powerful and poignant now that she is not here to see me use those same words with my

Grace's Luther window At its most basic level, Christianity is not a system of belief but a life of trust. All those who trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation are our brothers and sisters in Christ. All those who are baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who live in God’s promise of mercy, are the Church. They are our family. They are our flesh and blood. We are not black or white, not American or Somali, not Democrat or Republican, not Protestant or Ca

"Jacob Wrestling with the Angel." Gustave Dore, 1855 Pray always and not lose heart. That’s why Jesus tells this story to the disciples. But…what if we pray for health, but there is still a spot on the PET scan? We pray for peace, but violence is everywhere. We pray for our children and our families, but there's still conflict and trouble. We pray and pray and pra… and there’s no answer. It’s so easy to lose heart. And that’s what we’ve seen in these last couple chapters of