Of the books I read in 2020, these are my top selections:
Best New Book (published in 2019 - 2020):
The Price of Panic: How the Tyranny of Experts Turned the Pandemic into a Catastrophe (Jay W. Richards, William M. Briggs, Douglas Axe)
Honorable Mention:
Surviving the Storms: Memoirs of David P. Scaer (David P. Scaer)
Read MoreAll the stuff we buy ends up eventually discarded. There’s no joy there. Our own bodies return to the dust. The things we think will make us happy are only temporary. But to be joined to the communion of Jesus and His Church – there is life, and light, and joy. Which is why John wants us to join not his church, but Christ’s Church. Being part of that one, holy, catholic and apostolic church is to enter into communion with the One who is Life. That’s our only path to joy. That’s why John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writes his Gospel and letters: “And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.”
Read MoreThe cultural revolution upheaving the Western world is intensely dogmatic. Each day a new dogma is decreed. Bake the cake, wear the mask, close your church, stay at home, check your privilege, shout your abortion, don't use those pronouns, gender is a social construct, the baby will be made comfortable as we abandon it to death. In the New Inquisition, expect no mercy. Fierce and unforgiving are the world’s dogmas.
Read MoreWhere will you go if there’s no room in the inn? What will you do if you lose your job? In the hour of death, to what will you cling?
Disasters upend priorities. The shipwrecked need a plank, something to keep them above water. In that moment, nothing else matters.
Christmas is for the shipwrecked.
Read MoreI wrote the following to the members of Immanuel Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Alexandria, Virginia.
Dear Christians,
One of the great blessings of America is the First Amendment's guarantee of the free exercise of religion (and the right to peaceably assemble). The government's job is to protect the rights of the people, not make religious pronouncements.
Yesterday the governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, crossed that line. Blaming churches for the spread of the Coronavirus, he said that going to church is unnecessary. “This year, we need to think about what is truly the most important thing. Is it the worship or the building? ... For me, God is wherever you are. You don’t have to sit in the church pew for God to hear your prayers.... Worship with a mask on is still worship, worship outside or worship online is still worship.”
It is important that we show honor and respect to our government and its officers. In matters of Christian doctrine, we must respectfully correct the governor's erroneous statements.
Christians gather together around Christ's Word and Sacraments (Acts 2:42, 46). The Lord's Supper is by its very nature communal (1 Cor. 10:16-17; 11:17-21, 33). It is true, "God is wherever you are." However, God's omnipresence is not His gracious presence. The Lord Jesus established means of grace. These means are tangible, coming to us in water, bread, wine. The Word, while we can encounter it through print or electronic media, is intended to be proclaimed to the assembly of the faithful (Heb. 10:23-25), where the shepherd (pastor) is instructed by Holy Scripture to lay his hands on the people, pray for them, call them by name, etc.
We all want the Coronavirus to go away. Let's listen to the governor in his recommendations to wear masks, practice social distancing, cleanse our hands, and practice other mitigation measures. We will honor and pray for Governor Northam and all our federal, state, and local leaders. But in matters of theology, remember that the gathering of the Church is essential, receiving the sacraments is essential, and in these matters we must obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).
Every good wish in Christ,
Pastor Esget
The Washington Redskins announced recently that they’re changing their name. For this season, they’ll be known as the Washington Football Team, which is actually more creative than their style of play.
The name change comes amid the destruction of statues across the land. Stoking the fires of racial and religious division, Shaun King called for the destruction of statues and stained glass images of Jesus and His mother. These Christian symbols are “tools of oppression” and “racist propaganda.”
The fervor behind such iconoclasm is rooted in a new fundamentalism….
Read MoreAttempts at equality among people often fall far short. In Orwell’s Animal Farm, the Communist system is summed up in one of the “Seven Commandments”: “All are equal, but some are more equal than others.”
Men treat each other unequally. But the Word of God tells us that we are all equal in this respect: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We are all equally mortal. And we all stand before God as sinners.
But we prefer inequality. That’s what today’s Gospel reading reveals.
Read MoreMy top five books for 2019 are:
1. O Death, Where Is Thy Sting? (Alexander Schmemann)
This short but remarkable work is vintage Schmemann. Schmemann was an …
Read More“Why won’t there be food in heaven?” a student asked me recently. I reminded this thoughtful child that in the kingdom of God our bodies will be resurrected, and the Bible often talks about God’s kingdom as a feast. And then I asked, “What made you so sure there wouldn’t be food?”
“Because the Bible says we won’t hunger or thirst.” Ah! Yes, I see why you might think that. But you see, it’s not eating and drinking that’s the problem, but a world where people suffer.
Our world is infected with sin, and corrupted by death. So when the Bible says, “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore,” it’s describing a world where people don’t starve, where people have clean water to drink….
Read More“He is good.” That confession of faith from the Psalms made its way into the Liturgy of Christ’s Supper: “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.” What if we isolate the words from the time of our prosperity? Can we still confess them? Is He good? Even when He takes away our good things?
Is He good when family is missing at Thanksgiving? Is He still good when your dreams become terrors in the night? Is He still good when your child is in pain?
Or have we made our judgment on God’s goodness dependent on the good we experience? …
Read More