Look! In the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a Lutheran!

I preached at a local congregation this morning. The text, Mark 7:1-23 with a bunch of convenient cuts from the lectionary gurus, is certainly not among my most favorite pericopes. Basically, Jesus tells the people that deep inside, they are all scum. Nice, uplifting text...

At the beginning of the service, I saw the seminary president come in. He's a member but he's always travelling so he's not there every Sunday. I had a dream last night that he came to church this morning. I guess some dreams do come true. Upon seeing him, I thought, 'Oh great, here's one of the most challenging, crazy, tear-my-hair-out-trying-to-figure-out-what-to-preach, law-recognizing-yet-attempt-to-bring- home-some-sort-of- grace sermons I've ever delivered and a systematic theologian is here to hear it.' I actually put my head on the pastor's shoulder and moaned.

I gave the sermon and it seemed to go well. The rest of the service went off without a hitch. It seemed really thematically cohesive even though 4 different people, none of whom communicated with the 0ther, assembled it. I love that Holy Spirit stuff.

After the service, Pastor J said to me, "Yeah...that's one of those texts that make it really hard to proclaim boldly "THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD" at the end of the gospel reading...I told the Assisting Minister I was really glad you were preaching and not me!"

The seminary president came up to me after the service and shook my hand. He has this way of making comments that are really funny in the moment but leave me scratching my head afterward. Today, he said, "I think that's the most Lutheran I've ever heard you." I think that was a compliment...but I'm not sure what I've sounded like before. Jewish? Hindu? Ba'Hai? Oregonian, God forbid?! Anyway, I guess I passed the test. I sound more Lutheran than ever.

So I googled "Law and Gospel" for a fitting picture for this post.
This was too weird to pass up.

Law & Gospel Desk
Train up a child in the way he should go... God's basic instructions for a happy, productive life are imprinted on the desktop for daily viewing. This desk features colorful illustrations of Moses with the Ten Commandments and the Ascension of Christ with the verse John 3:16.