Author: Pastor Rich Lusk
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Easter Miscellanies
Here are some things that have been on my mind during this Easter season: In the sermon on 4/7/24 on Matthew 27:57-28:20, I made the assumption that the guards at the tomb where Jesus was buried were Roman. The question was asked afterward if they could have been Jewish guards. The text is not clear…
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On the Reformation
Jaroslav Pelikan gives an interesting perspective on the Reformation: “In fact, recent research on the Reformation entitles us to sharpen it and to say that the Reformation began because the reformers were too catholic in the midst of a church that had forgotten its catholicity. That generalization applies particularly to Luther and to some of…
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4/28/24 Sermon Follow-Up: Justification by (fill in the blank)
Justification by (fill in the blank). My sermon was based on the premise that justification is not just a Christian concern, but an innate human concern. All people operate out of a desire for justification — to be declared in the right, to be innocent, to be validated, to be vindicated. A great deal of human…
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Tribute to a Black Dog
“I wish good dogs never got gray and old…” – Riley Green “That’s putting a lot of trust in a dog,” White said. “Right now,” Sanderson said bleakly, “a dog’s all we got left to put any trust in”….. I don’t guess a dog understands many words, but I think he can listen and tell…
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Cary, NC Conference — The Psalms: Getting to the Heart of the Christian Life
Next weekend, I’ll be speaking at Christ Church in Cary, NC. The details are here. Here’s a quick overview of my talks: The Psalms are at the center of our Bibles and at the center of the Christian life. The psalter is amazingly versatile, covering every human emotion, from the deepest agony to the highest…
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Lenten Exhortations (2024) and Other Notes
A couple of recent exhortations….. Lent is the season of the church year that highlights spiritual warfare. Jesus came as a great warrior. He fought our battles for us. He won the victory over Satan and his temptations in the wilderness. He won the victory over sin and death at the cross. He has trampled…
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Lord’s Day Exhortation: Turning Anxiety into Prayer and Peace (1/21/24)
We live in chaotic, tumultuous times. I don’t think anyone paying attention can deny that. It’s like the proverbial Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times!” These are interesting times indeed. We live in clown world. It seems like the world if falling apart and going insane. It is easy to be anxious —…
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Celebrating a Patriarchal Eucharist
This article was first published the Fight Laugh Feast magazine. It’s been said that in the Lord’s Supper, the church practices life the way it really ought to be lived. When we do the Lord’s Supper right, we do life right. When the church is what she is supposed to be, gathered around the Lord’s…
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Lenten Meditation (Revised)
Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (Mk. 2:27). If the God-ordained Sabbath was instituted for the sake of human needs, this is all the more true of the church’s calendar, which does not derive from divine ordinance, but from the church’s reflection on God’s redemptive work in history…
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Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday (Revised)
What is Shrove Tuesday? To be frank, Shrove Tuesday is just an excuse for a church party — after all, pancakes need no theological justification! But it does have a long and venerable history. Shrove Tuesday is an 800+ year old tradition in English speaking churches. It marks the end of the festive season of…
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