Christmas Day 2016   I recently filled out the hospital pre-admission form for this baby due one month for today, and was careful to check one particular box. “Do you want to listed on the patient roster?” The form noted that if I wasn’t listed, my religious leader might not be notified I was in…

Sermon from Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Mankato, MN November 20, 2016 Two weeks ago, we talked about Isaiah, and I told you that the northern kingdom was being threatened at that time by the Assyrian empire. In 721, the kingdom of Israel fell. Now in Jeremiah’s time, the situation looks even worse for Israel, who has…

Just as I was ready to check out of this day, to not talk about the election at all because I’m feeling so confused and helpless and hopeless, my colleague Regina messaged me. “Today I am simply trying to breathe. Thank you for helping me remember that.” It’s always ironic when your own advice comes…

1. Because there are still protesters showing up to say you can’t be LGBT+ and Christian. My presence says the opposite. 2. To learn how to love better, because there is no community that loves more deeply and broadly than the LGBT+ community, including the church.  3. For fashion inspiration: the costumes and shoes are…

“Mom, will you come and play Legos with me?” he asks, and within five minutes of assent, the second question inevitably comes. “Can you find me a dark grey 1-dot square?” or some other very tiny, very specific piece essential for his imagined creation. I groan, he laughs, and then I get down to business.…

You’ve seen this meme before, right? Well, it does sometimes feel like a superpower to have a tiny human growing inside of you. Last week, she was the size of a plum, this week a peach. (That’s right, folks, I said she!) But you know what my real superpower is these days? Smell. Worst. Superpower.…

On Wednesday, we went to the doctor and she pulled the handheld doppler monitor from her pocket. I held my breath for the few seconds of pressing on my abdomen it took of her to find it. Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump. “160 beats a minute” she pronounced, smiling. I let out my breath, the one I’ve been holding…

“Ollie, I want to talk to you about something important.” I said, and his eyes got wide as he shoveled a huge spoonful of macaroni and cheese into his mouth. “Did you hear what Marrett and I were talking about this morning at breakfast? About people getting killed?” He nodded, and I took a deep…

I grew up in a household that was perfectly comfortable talking about demons and the devil, so I didn’t realize until I went to college that such talk wasn’t normal for modern day Lutherans! It never occurred to me not to take the demon-possession stories in the bible literally until I got to seminary. Now…

A sermon about David, Bathsheba, Brock Turner, a nameless woman and Jesus There are some weeks where the lectionary speaks so clearly to the events we read in the news that’s impossible to ignore, even when it would be easier to do so. So on a week when Brock Turner and his dad have been…