The Cost of Discipleship

[This is my Faith Post for September 2025.] 
[Adapted from my sermon on September 7, 2025]

Around the year 200 AD was a young 20-something year old woman named Perpetua.  She was married and had an infant son whom she still nursed.  She came from a well-to-do family.  Her father was a pagan man but she had been introduced to Christ.  She was a self-professed Christian.  She lived in an era where Christians were under great persecution by the Roman Emperor and it happened she was arrested because of her faith in Carthage, North Africa.  In the midst of this she was also a writer.  She recorded the events of her imprisonment. Her writings are considered to be the earliest of any Christian woman in the history of the church.  

Hope

[This is my Faith Post for June 2025.] 
[Edited from my Ascension Day Sermon, May 29, 2025]

Past, present, and future, together all play a role in defining our lives and who we are and what we will be. God’s Word speaks clearly to all three and what God is doing for us in our lives.  When it comes to our past, we might look at this with guilt and shame.  We have memories of poor choices and sins of our own making.  We might also bear sorrow and loss when we think of our past. Hopefully we also have a few joyful memories to treasure in our past as well.  But when God looks at our past, He does so with forgiveness and mercy.  This is the benefit of Baptism and being an adopted child of God.  Our past sins are forgiven and we enter each new day of the present with a clean slate, washed by the blood of the Lamb.

Bring This Man's Blood Upon Us

 [This is my Faith Post for May 2025.] 

In my congregation this past weekend we read Acts 5:12-32, a passage which recounts the preaching and teaching of the Apostles Peter and John in Jerusalem.  They are preaching in a post-resurrection and post-Pentecost context.  That gives Peter and John plenty of life-saving content to share and also supreme confidence and hope in what they are doing.  They get to preach about the Author of Life.  They get to heal the sick, drive out demons, and enjoy a front-row seat at being a part of the Kingdom of God ushering into this world.  They get to see the full power and authority of Jesus on display through their own fingertips and words.

Babies & Baptism

 [This is my Faith Post for April 2025.] 

I've been blessed to get some baby time lately. I have a new niece and our family spent spring break getting to meet her.  While I've been through my fair share of baby time in my years (*ahem* 5 kids) my youngest is now 3+ and those days are increasingly behind us. Still, there is nothing quite like holding a newborn in your arms.

I've also spent a fair amount of time thinking about baptism lately.  I've been in the midst of several new member classes at my church and with each of them the topic of baptism comes up. I also met with a younger couple at my church preparing for the baptism of their first-born and we went through the nice review of Baptism and its ins and outs. 

Babies and baptism make a great combination, without a doubt.  Being a Lutheran pastor I spend a fair amount of time teaching and preaching on this very thing.  The Scriptures are quite clear on what a wonderful thing it is to baptize, and babies are surely a part of it.  Nonetheless, not all of Christianity agrees with this sentiment.  That's unfortunate.

What If ... Joseph?

 [This is my Faith Post for March 2025.] 

I am always moved by the words of Genesis 45:3 "I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?”  These words come from the great reunion of Joseph and his brothers.  After many years of Joseph living in Egypt, having been sold off as a slave, and then imprisoned and forgotten, there is a moment of reckoning and reconciliation.  In those words Joseph reveals his true identity to the brothers who for all intents and purposes thought him dead.  No doubt the brothers are shocked ... and likely mortally afraid.  But Joseph comes at it from a different emotion.  He is full of joy.  He is full of tears.  He is ready to be reconciled to these brothers who had wronged him terribly.

In the conversation that ensues Joseph makes a pretty spectacular claim about all the events that have transpired to this moment.  In Genesis 45:7 he says "God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God."

Release

[This is my Faith Post for February 2025.] 

It was early in his earthly ministry that Jesus makes a public return to His hometown of Nazareth.  One must certainly wonder what that relationship looked like with these citizens who had witnessed the growth and maturity of Jesus as He went from infant to boyhood and eventually manhood.  They got to see the teenage Jesus, something the Scriptures leave out for the rest of us.  What did they think of Him now that He returns as a man.  And not just any man.  He has a reputation with Him already.  He is a miracle-worker, a great teacher.  And for those of us who know the whole story, He is also the Messiah, the Christ, God in the flesh.  Will the Nazarenes see that?

The Great Exchange

[This is my Faith Post for January 2025.] 

This post is adapted from my Christmas Eve Sermon from 2024.

The year was 1867.  The Russian Empire was deciding what to do with the great Territory of Alaska.  The land was thought to be mostly barren and uninhabitable.  There was little interest in settling it further and so they looked to sell it off.  Enter US Secretary of State William Seward.  He began negotiations with the Russian diplomat and eventually a treaty was signed for the sale of Alaska to the United States. It was sold for the sum of $7.2 million which amounted to about $0.02 per acre. Many in America thought the purchase to be useless and a fool’s bargain, it was called by some Seward’s Folly.

Advent and the Communion of Saints

[This is my Faith Post for December 2024.] 

In this Advent season we consider our sins and turn in repentance towards the mercy of our Savior Jesus.  This is all part of our preparation and anticipation of Jesus' 2nd Coming.   It is also practical to say, we spend a lot of time in this season thinking about Christmas and the holiday celebrations.  On one hand, it is a great blessing to gather and celebrate and share gifts and big meals. So many opportunities for joy!  On the other hand, this season can come across with so much difficulty for those dealing with the stresses of all the change and expectation.  This season also brings to the forefront so much loss and grief when we struggle to handle the absence of loved ones.

A Sticker

[This is my Faith Post for November 2024.] 

I nearly had a major situation on my hands a couple weeks ago all because of a sticker.  Yes, a basic sticker.  Well, it was at least a sticker that got things started. I was up in the Traverse City area for the Michigan District All Pastors Conference and as the conference ended I decided to head over to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore to enjoy the Fall colors and the beautiful park. While I was still in the area. I enjoyed some great hiking at Sleeping Bear Point and also enjoyed the scenic drive through the park. I made my way out to the little town of Empire to see the visitor center and finish up my time there. It was at the visitor center that the sticker enters the story. 

I happened to see some nice Sleeping Bear Dunes stickers that would be fun to put on the outside of my Chromebook. I had left my wallet and cash in my van however. So I went out to my van to get cash to buy the sticker and as I sat in my driver's seat getting what I needed from my wallet my key slipped out of the back of my shorts. I exited the vehicle with the key still on the seat, and for some reason the doors of the vehicle locked on my exit. I realized instantly what had happened but it was too late.   Going back out to the car for that infamous sticker had now put me in quite the predicament.

I was locked out and I was almost 5 hours away from the spare key. This certainly could have been a moment for great panic. How would I get in my vehicle?  How would I get home?  Where would help come from?  Not to mention, I was dressed in shorts and short sleeves from the hiking and I couldn't remain outside forever as the temps began to drop.  And to top it all off my phone battery was down to 30% and if it ran out my options would really run thin. What was I going to do? 

Traditions

[This is my Faith Post for October 2024.] 

Since the very beginning truth and foundations have been under assault.  The ancient serpent, the Devil, got it started in Genesis 3 when he comes to Eve questioning “did God really say?”  From that moment, all that is good and true has been drawn into question by the devil and his minions as well as by our sinful nature.

In our present culture this surely hasn’t changed.  Some would argue it has gotten worse.  While I agree it is bad, I’m thinking Noah (Gen. 6:5) would have something to say about how much worse things can get.  What concerns me is our culture’s tendency to erase tradition and change foundations.  Things we once held to be true and important are now forgotten.  This is a dangerous trend.  A wise speaker once said “he who controls the past controls the present”.  If the powers that be can change our foundations and what we once held true, then they can also begin to control everything else.

Christ Loves His Bride

[This is my Faith Post for September 2024. It is a bit longer than normal because it is adapted from a sermon I preached at Grace on 8/25/2024. The text for the day was Ephesians 5:22-33 and it touches upon the all-important topic of marriage.]

Here is some good news for you: “Christ loves the church.” What wonder of wonders to hear and to inwardly digest such a thought. Now consider: "how do you know Christ loves the church?” Can you list in your mind the various things that Jesus has done, and still continues to do, to show how He loves the church?

Good or Bad: We'll See

[As of July 2024 Gannett Publishing, the owner of Monroe News, has decided to cease publishing the faith columns in their paper.  This no doubt comes to the dismay of this writer and many readers of their paper.  Feel free to give them your feedback.  I have enjoyed writing the columns and am also blessed with all the positive feedback.  I hope to continue writing similar columns and publish them here on my Wilderness Wanderings Blog.  If you like them and have feedback please feel free to continue to offer it.]

I’m spending time in the last month reflecting upon my big ultra race experience on July 6th.  I was in the mountains of Colorado in the highest incorporated city in America, Leadville, which sits at 10,100 feet.  I ran a 50-mile race on the mining roads outside of Leadville and it was an incredible experience.  It wasn’t just the race itself, but the time with family the week before the race and also the months of preparation leading up to it that all meant something wonderful.

As I reflected on how the race and all my preparation for it all came full circle I was reminded of a fascinating scene that was released a few weeks prior in the popular kid’s show Bluey.  It was in the season 3 episode “The Sign”.  As Bluey learns that her family is looking at moving from their home she shares this tough news with her class at school.  All her little friends begin howling with her (as sad dogs would do!) at the news.  Her teacher, Calypso, goes into a story to help them along.  The story was called “The Farmer” and I’ve captured below the basic dialog: