The Secret Wireless

                Small schools are falling on hard times.   A while back Governor Quinn announced that he believed Illinois needed to cut back, dramatically, on the number of school districts.   Whether you agree with him or not, you have to admit, that is not going to be a good thing for small schools.   The smaller the school, the more likely it is to be consolidated.                 Whatever the governor’s, or the government’s, plans may be I believe that all citizens should take interest in their local public school.   Each one of us benefits from the public school system in the United States.   And I write this as the pastor of a Lutheran congregation that operates a parochial (non-public) grade school.                 I do not...

          I read a blog post recently from a self-professed narcissist.  It was a confession of sorts written by a woman who has been cheating on her husband who happens to be a soldier deployed overseas.  He is a military hero and she is running around behind his back, apparently with several men, and is planning on divorcing him when he gets back.           As bad, as horrifying, as that all sounds, that is not really what shocked me.  What got to me was the fact that the people commenting on her post were all very supportive.  They thanked her for being honest words.  They were glad that she gave it to them "raw".           The problem is that giving words of support to a person who is engaged in such wantonly destructive behavior is not only unhelpful, but dishonest.  It is ultimately unloving and even hateful. ...

                                  In the final phrases of the Nicene Creed we confess that we are looking “for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”   My question for you this Easter is: “How hard are you looking?”                 Are your eyes constantly fixed upon the horizon, joyfully awaiting the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come?   Are you eagerly anticipating the day when Jesus will reveal Himself to the world as its Lord and Savior?   Or, like most people, do you have bigger fish to fry?                 The Resurrection of our Lord is a foretaste of the feast to come.   He has conquered death itself and so He guarantees that we too will rise upon His return. ...

                  Jesus loved Lazarus enough to raise him from the dead.   Jesus knew what it would cost Him.   He knew there would be consequences.   But He did it anyway.   He freed Lazarus from the bonds of death, and submitted to them Himself.                 The resurrections that Jesus performs amplify as you move through the 4 Gospels.   In Matthew and Mark we are told of Jesus reviving a little girl, the daughter of Jairus, who’s death was so recent she was still lying in her bed.   In Luke Jesus interrupts a funeral procession that is on its way to the burial site and gives life back to the only son of a widow.                 In John’s Gospel we learn of Lazarus, who has been dead, not for several hours,...