The Joshua Victor Theory

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. The seasons of the church year are changing, and we are coming to the end of one year, and the beginning of the season of Advent in a couple of weeks, as we anticipate Christmas. The end of the church year focuses on Christ’s and coming judgment of the living and the dead. Today’s reading from 1 Thessalonians 4 is often heard at funerals, but also gives us some basic information about Jesus return. Paul begins by saying that “ we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep.” When Paul says “ uninformed”, he’s obviously hinting that they have some basic shortcomings understanding death and the end times. One idea in the church seemed to be that some were afraid they had missed Jesus’ return and that He had already come. Today some shortcomings and confusion might include ideas about reincarnation and multiple lives, or ideas about a resurrection without a physical body, or that we tur...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Sometimes in life it seems like we get obsessed with counting. There are all sorts of things we might count or keep track of, for all sorts of reasons. Maybe counting beans, maybe counting our money, balancing and checking it. Maybe we are counting the days—till we finish school, graduate, move somewhere, have a baby, find out who the new president will be. Maybe counting the achievements we’ve made, or the hurts we’ve felt, or the possessions we’ve acquired, with a sideways glance to seem how we measure up to someone else. We use numbers and quantities, measurements and comparisons. We search for advantage to ourselves, counting up our gains, our profits, our rewards. Or we count up our losses, and worry what to do about them. Counting life this way can be exhausting. Or it can fill us with pride and arrogance. It depends whether we’ve counted up ourselves on the winning or losing end. Paul knew some cou...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. During this month of October, we’re going to celebrate again a “Reformation Month” where we’ll take the opportunity to highlight some themes of our Lutheran Reformation heritage. We’re closing in on the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation, which falls on October 31 st , 2017. The Reformation played a large role in returning the church to the foundational authority of the Bible, and the centrality of faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. Today we look to the theme of “righteousness” to consider what Paul was teaching about it in Philippians, and how that informs our Lutheran understanding of our relationship to God. Imagine for a moment that you were the most successful person in your field—whatever that may be. Maybe it was that you were the employee of the year, or the world’s best mom, or the winner of the beauty pageant, or the valedictorian of your graduating class, o...