20 years of
Living Theology in the Metropolitan Chicago Synod since 1996
The Bach Cantata Vespers at Grace Lutheran Church, River Forest, IL began its 51st season on September 26, 2021 with an in-person congregation as well as livestreamed participants at home. This is a full order of Vespers according to the use of Lutheran Book of Worship with a full Bach Cantata and a full homily. The cantata […]
Preached in Zoom Service, St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, Wilmette, IL. Fifth Sunday after Pentecost. Year A. July 5, 2020 Text: Romans 7:15-25a I haven’t given a sermon since before COVID-19 made us go into Zoom church. So this is my first experience of preaching to virtual images on my computer screen. I trust that there […]
By Frank C. Senn For years I wrote an opinion column for Let’s Talk at the invitation of the editorial board called “As I See It.” Even though Let’s Talk has adopted a blog format rather than an issue number format, I feel the need for another one as our states begin opening up society […]
Johann Sebastian Bach Gwen GotschMark Bangert Edited by Frank Senn On November 24, 2019 (what for us contemporary Lutherans was Christ the King Sunday, a twentieth century Roman Catholic festival we adopted in 1978, but for the old Lutherans the Last Sunday after Trinity with its eschatological theme of the last judgment) the Bach Cantata […]
Frank C. Senn We all need dedicated times to be present to God and to our bodily selves. In both we address our soul, that which makes us uniquely who we are. I could just say: you should have a time for personal prayer, maybe first thing in the morning using a good prayer […]
We have used Lucas Cranach’s portrait of Martin Luther in a silk screen version as the logo for this Reformation 500 Jubilee issue of Let’s Talk. So much of the portraiture of the reformers and scenes of early Lutheran worship comes from Cranach that I thought he deserved some recognition in his own right. When […]
Let’s Talk has invited readers to write what they appreciate about Martin Luther as we observe the 500th anniversary jubilee of the Reformation. I’m a cradle Lutheran who grew up in a church-going family, so I’ve had a long relationship with the reformer. I don’t know when I first became aware of Martin Luther, but […]
Indulge me. One of my Reformation heroes is a Swedish King, Johan III (1537-92; reigned 1568-92). Why? Because of his liturgical interests. He authored, with the help of his secretary Petrus Fecht (a student of Melancthon’s), a Liturgy that included offertory prayers and a full Eucharistic prayer, elements long considered not acceptable in a Lutheran […]
This issue of Let’s Talk is about death. As I see it, when it comes to an open discussion of death, which affects us all in a most direct way—in our bodies—we practice avoidance. The church participates in this avoidance by not paying enough attention to the body in our ministries to the dying and […]
When I was growing up in the 1950s I had the impression that everyone in the congregation attended worship. Admittedly, my frame of reference is limited to what I knew my friends did in their churches or synagogues in urban Buffalo, NY. There were a few who went to Sunday School, but not worship. But […]
One of our modern problems with the Devil is the inconsistency of the images of the Devil or Satan in the Bible. Was the serpent that tempted Eve in Genesis 3 the Devil in disguise or just a talking snake? The identification of the serpent with evil is seen in the medieval image of the […]
Gerald L. Lundby responded to Frank Senn’s column “As I See It … The Need to Observe the Rubrics” in Volume 7, Issue 2 as follows: Pastor Senn’s comments on the proper use of the liturgy were scholarly and appreciated. I sometimes find that the “contemporary liturgies” popping up all over our synod congregations leave […]
This is off the beaten path for me, but the situation in the Holy Land has been an interest of mine since I was privileged to travel to Israel and Palestine in the summer of 1998 in the Christian Clergy Traveling Seminar sponsored by the Chicago Chapter of the American Jewish Committee. I’m grateful that […]
Analyses Supporting Union Blessings and Ordination Issue Boswell, John. Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980. Brooten, Bernadette J. Love Between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. Countryman, […]
As the ELCA pursues the study of the issues on the gay agenda laid before the 2005 Churchwide Assembly, one of the ominous things one hears is talk of a schism of significant proportions. Proponents of the gay agenda have been reported to have said that the ELCA may have to lose a couple of […]
