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Twinkle, twinkle, little star / How I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high / Like a diamond in the sky. One of the things I love about living here in the pastures of west-central Missouri is the ability to see the stars. You see, I lived most of my life east of the Mississippi, and there are only a handful places there where you can see the stars; none of them are in Illinois. The light of mankind absolutely floods the night sky there. While Kansas City to the north, Springfield to the south and St Louis to the east spoils the night sky for most folks in Missouri, we here in Appleton City are just a few miles north of one of the first dark zones west of the Mississippi where you can see the twinkle, twinkle of little stars.  When you live in an actual dark zone, and if you are young enough, on a clear night astronomers say you can probably see about 3,000 stars in the night sky. The older you get, the fewer you can actually see.  Was it one of those twinkles that le...

Wise Men Still Seek Him.  What a cute saying. It’s the title of a book and a song. It appears as wall art. It’s silk-screened onto T-shirts. It’s pressed onto the rear windows of cars. It’s probably even appeared on a sign near you ... maybe the one in Deepwater along Route 52. Wise men still seek Him. Do you think it’s really true?  If wise men still seek Him, how come most modern wise men aren’t actually looking for Him? Self-identified Christians now comprise only 63 percent of the US population. Today the religiously unaffiliated now outnumber Roman Catholics, and the born-again evangelicals. (As Lutherans you fall into the Mainline category).  If wise men still seek him, how come our sanctuary isn’t packed? It’s not like he’s hiding. We’ve been able to read about him in English since 1382. Six years ago, the Guinness Book of World Records estimated that more than five billion Bibles had been sold telling his story. In the U.S. alone, there are more than 168 thousand ...

Today is Epiphany, the beginning of the church season in which we celebrate the Lord manifesting himself to the world. The noun “Epiphany” literally means “upon shining.” The picture is that of light overtaking the darkness.  In the past weeks, we have been talking and singing about this a lot ... about coming out of darkness ... about the light coming into the world. Jesus is the Light of the world. He has come into the world. In him, there is no darkness.  He came into the world he created, but the world was in darkness and it didn’t understand him ... at least it didn’t until he baptized us. In baptism, we are given new life, and his light. So today we are called to arise, shine, for your light has come . The Lord has appeared, and the whole world should see the light of his coming.  It’s an Epiphany! It’s the Epiphany! Epiphany is a mission festival. The light is moving out. We hear about the Wise Men, or Magi, who are probably just astrologers, pursuing the light beg...