Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Before Nature: A Christian Spiritual Paul Santmire, Beth Hoeltke

Concordia Journal

Throughout the book Santmire ties his and the reader’s spiritual journey together with what he calls the “the Trinity Prayer.”

Why Priests?: A Failed Tradition By Garry Wills, John Helmke

Concordia Journal

Though he does not include a bibliography, the breadth of his reading and frequent quotation of respected authors is impressive. Short chapters and Wills’s crisp writing style make for enjoyable, thought-provoking reading.

Blood And Life: Sermons On The Old Testament By Michael Kasting, Francis Rossow

Concordia Journal

Kasting’s sermons do more than delight—they are “the power of God for our salvation.” I sometimes quip to my homiletics students, “Anyone can write an occasional good sermon; the trick is to write a good sermon time after time.”

Luther’S Works, Volume 75, Church Post Edited By Benjamin G. Mayes And James Langebartels, Paul Robinson

Concordia Journal

Roth reproduced Luther accurately when he had a work by Luther in front of him, but he felt free to include other material in his editions when he lacked something by Luther.

Mark 1:1–8:26 Concordia Commentary By James Voelz, Jack Kingsbury

Concordia Journal

Isagogically, Voelz emphasizes that because a literary approach to the Gospel of Mark takes seriously the story of the narrative as a whole, interpreters ought not feel constrained, as has been and is still the case, to use the text as a “window” to discover matters of history

Epiphany 4 • 1 Corinthians 8:1–13 • February 1, 2015, Bruce Schuchard

Concordia Journal

Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ”

Epiphany 3 • 1 Corinthians 7:29–31 (32–35) • January 25, 2015, David Schmitt

Concordia Journal

Instead, what Paul wants to foster among us today is a conversation about life in Christ and how our joys and our sorrows, our buying and our selling, yes even our marriages and our singleness lead us closer to him.

Epiphany 2 • 1 Corinthians 6:12–20 • January 18, 2015, Timothy Saleska

Concordia Journal

Paul argues against the idea that our physical bodies are of little value and so the way Christians use their bodies is “morally irrelevant.”

Baptism Of Our Lord • Romans 6:1–11 • January 11, 2015, Jeffrey Oschwald

Concordia Journal

The whole world finds itself in need of even more serious considering, evaluating, and repenting in light of the epiphany of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Epiphany • Ephesians 3:1–12 • January 4, 2015, Joel Okamoto

Concordia Journal

Now, instead of the law separating Jews and Gentiles, God offered salvation apart from works of the law to both Jews and Gentiles.

Christmas 1 • Galatians 4:4–7 • December 28, 2014, Glenn Nielsen

Concordia Journal

This is what the family of God looks like when adopted by our Abba Father because of the Christmas gift named Jesus, and the Holy Spirit forming his fruit in us brothers and sisters.

Advent 4 • Romans 16:25–27 • December 21, 2014, Benjamin Haupt

Concordia Journal

On the final Sunday of Advent, just a few days before the glorious celebration of Christmas, these three verses at the end of the Epistle to the Romans are full of homiletical possibility.

Advent 3 • 1 Thessalonians 5:16–24 • December 14, 2014, Jeffrey Gibbs

Concordia Journal

Paul’s exhortations naturally flow as part of the ending of his letter; they express the ordinary manifestations of the extraordinary Christian life of faith and hope and exhort us to this life.

Advent 2 • 2 Peter 3:8–14 • December 7, 2014, Jeff Thormodson

Concordia Journal

The goal of the sermon is not for the hearer to make time for witnessing and outreach as if it is another thing the baptized must do; rather, witnessing and outreach should happen naturally by how Christians live all the time.

Advent 1 • 1 Corinthians 1:3–9 • November 30, 2014, David Johnson

Concordia Journal

The church becomes that vessel of incarnate grace where we are saturated in baptismal living waters that have claimed, redeemed, and forgiven us.

Proper 20 • Ezekiel 34:11–16; 20–24 • November 23, 2014, Timothy Dost

Concordia Journal

God Protects and Heals His Flock When faced with the fall of Jerusalem, Ezekiel describes the judgment on those shepherds responsible and the reasons for the fall.

Proper 28 • Zephaniah 1:7–16 • November 16, 2014, Andrew Bartelt

Concordia Journal

In sum, this is the basic biblical narrative in a nutshell, with the new creation brought about in the presence of King Yahweh incarnate in Jesus, who establishes the new Zion wherever he is present, no longer in the “land” of Judah.

Proper 27 • Amos 5:18–24 • November 9, 2014, Richard Marrs

Concordia Journal

Through Amos, Yahweh roars judgment to the neighboring kingdoms around Judah and Israel.

Engaging Our Culture Faithfully, Harold Senkbeil

Concordia Journal

If the problem we face is not the secularization of society but the secularization of the church brought about by importing expressive individualism into the church, then we simply cannot face contemporary challenges individually.

Christ Coming To Us Luther’S Rhetoric Of Location, Trevor Sutton

Concordia Journal

Christ comes to a people and a place through the proclamation of God’s word.

Rev. A. Trevor Sutton is currently working on his PhD at Concordia Seminary.

Helpers Of Joy, Dale Meyer

Concordia Journal

I’m inviting you to come with us, come experience a gospel-dominated culture, come contribute to a culture based on Jesus, the “yes” to all God’s promises, come onboard the USS Concordia.

Dust And Breath: Faith, Health, And Why The Church Should Care About Both By Kend Hotz And Matthew Mathews, Nicholas Fuller

Concordia Journal

Through individual case studies from inner city Memphis, the book illustrates instances of illness that can be connected pastorally with sin and redemption through faith in Christ.

The Scandal Of Having Something To Say: Ricoeur And The Possibility Of Postliberal Preach-Ing By Lance Pape, Dennis Matyas

Concordia Journal

Pape likens the cyclical nature of mimesis to be a spring, building on Ricoeur’s notion of mimesis gaining “altitude” with each cycle.

How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation Of A Jewish Preacher From Galiee By Bart Ehrman, John Genter

Concordia Journal

The key is to avoid letting the analogies steamroll the critical differences. This is what goes wrong in the opening chapters of How Jesus Became God. More attention is due to the actual religious life of the relevant practitioners in everyday life.

“These Are Written”: Toward A Cruciform Theology Of Scripture By Peter H. Nafzger, Greg Michael

Concordia Journal

Nafzger encourages the church to recognize the limitations of the doctrine of inspiration as the central guide to understanding Scriptures and to move towards an understanding of Scriptures that focuses on a Trinitarian economy of salvation and centers in the Christ event.

God’S Timeline: An Introduction To Theology For Laypeople By Rick Meyer, Joel Oesch

Concordia Journal

In God’s Timeline: An Introduction to Theology for Laypeople, Rick Meyer seeks to engage the reader in a theological journey that spreads across the whole of history, pointing to the presence of God’s divine will as it moves from the garden of Eden to the present church and beyond.

All Saints’ Day • Revelation 7:9–17 • November 2, 2014, Erik Herrmann

Concordia Journal

Washed and clothed in white robes, God will “shelter them with his presence .

Reformation Day • Revelation 14:6–7 • October 26, 2014, Bruce Hartung

Concordia Journal

Our God, our “ever present help in distress” is present with us in Christ who holds us tightly and sustains us with his Spirit in the bread and wine of the Eucharist, the waters of our baptism, the ingestion of his word and the company of the saints who surround us in the community of his followers.

Proper 24 • Isaiah 45:1–7 • October 19, 2014, William Carr Jr.

Concordia Journal

The clear point is that “God is God, and we are not,” nor is any human government. When we look at the world around us, watch or listen to the news, it is hard to find any truly righteous government at work, not even our own.

Proper 23 • Isaiah 25:6–9 • October 12, 2014, David Lewis

Concordia Journal

Jesus’s own resurrection, however, is a first fruits and so a foreshadowing of that day. In his Son Jesus, Yahweh has initiated his eschatological reign of salvation on earth.