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The Making of a Reader
by David Hawkinson
For several decades I have been reading Bible alongside others and
within other traditions and teaching what I have come to learn in the
process. This much I have come to believe: Readers are made in the same
sense that reading must be taught.
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Commemorating Kaj Munk
by Sarah Heinrich
On this date fifty-one years ago, a body was found in a ditch
alongside a road. This was no business man, no victim of robbers who
trudged along from one city to the next. This was Kaj Munk, a
playwright and faithful parish pastor in Denmark—shot in the head
by the Nazis who were occupying his country.
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Leave Me Alone
by Erik Hawkinson
I’m driving down the highway and a car passes me on the right.
As it passes, I see on the back bumper a shiny outline of a fish. I
shake it off and continue down the road until I see a huge sign that
says: "The Lord is God!"
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Christ and John the Baptist
"Christ and John the Baptist" is a fine example of the power of
Munk’s preaching. Most of his sermons could be described as
"narrative preaching." In other words, you will not find a three-point
sermon. The story of the text itself provides the sermon’s
structure, pulse, rhythm, and resolution. But the story is told in an
engaging way with powerful and imaginative metaphors and the social and
political significance of the story is inescapable. Could there be a
stronger metaphor than "the Prophet’s head on a platter"—a
foreshadowing of Munk being shot in the head and martyred?
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Covenant Chris Crafts Meditation
Meditation #3 — Time on the Water
by Don N. Johnson
I mark the passage of time, especially during the warmer months, by
boats. Others chart time by their travels, health crises, job growth or
change, family change, or any number of things. I remember the boats
I’m on during any season.
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Matthew 18:15-20 and Waldenström's Commentary
translated by Tommy Carlson and by Paul Peter Waldenström
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Thoughts on Covenant Freedom
by J. Robert Hjelm
The Covenant Church was born in February, 1885. The format of that gathering was essentially a "mission meeting" as noted by Karl Olsson. Mission meetings were characterized by preaching, often several sermons per session. On Wednesday evening of that week (it was Ash Wednesday), the preachers were F. M. Johnson and C. A. Bjork. Both sermons stressed that unity is the result of divine grace at work.
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Interview with Carl Olaf Rosenius
by Elder M. Lindahl
Readers have asked for more information about some of the
personalities of Pietisten’s roots. Rosenius granted Elder Lindahl
a Narnian type interview in September, 1867. Picture the two of them
taking coffee together in a konditori in Umeå, Sweden.
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People of the Rock
by Dwight Gunberg
I stood at the entrance of a narrow, ancient path, its width, just
sufficient for a sub-compact car, defined by rough stone walls four
feet high and nearly as wide. Their dimensions have little significance
for these walls result from a compelling need to pick and move
fieldstone.
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Breaking Home Ties
by Muriel Lindahl
The greatest gift we can give our children is their independence. Our first child had to struggle for hers; she paved the way for the others. Our second and third had it easier, for all I had to hear was, "Mom, this is not your business," or "If I want your help, I know where you are," and I backed off. When our fourth came of age, we handed her independence gift wrapped and on a silver platter. We knew it was inevitable. We held our breath for a few years, but somehow we all survived—mother, father, and child.
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Tributes
Tribute to Milton C.R. Carlson
by Phil Johnson
Even Milton Carlson could
not go on forever. No one saw Milt die so maybe, as son Bruce
suggested, he was taken up by a chariot of fire. That is how he wanted
to go.
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Tribute to Muriel (Molly) Elizabeth Nelson
by Phil Johnson
Molly grew up in Hibbing, Minnesota while the rich iron mine there
was on its way to becoming the biggest open pit mine in the world. She
graduated from the School of Nursing at the University of Minnesota.
Soon thereafter, she met and married Barton Nelson. In 1930, the two of
them set sail for China on the President McKinley to become Covenant
medical missionaries at the Bethesda Union Hospital in Siangyang.
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Tributes
Tribute to Paul Sebestyén
by Phil Johnson
Paul Sebestyén died not long after Rev. Wesley Nelson read Peter Sandstrom’s article to him from last issue of Pietisten.
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On the Aisle
Three Movies Directed by Martin Scorsese
by Max Carlson
Steven Spielberg once said: "Most movies are whispers.
Marty’s movies are shouts." I have to agree. This summer I watched
some Scorsese movies up north at our cabin and decided to write about
three of them and how I think they measure up.
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Playing Out the Parable
by Arthur W. Anderson
Oh, what disillusionment befalls us when we think we know all about what is expected of us! For example, as a minister, I would assume that if I was asked to fulfill my calling on any given Sunday, I would preach and do such other things a normal service requires.
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Sightings in Christian Music
by Jane Wiberg and Glen Wiberg
Many years ago, we attended the summer school sponsored
by St. Olaf College at the University of Oslo. We were two kids right
out of college, married only a few days, going to school together with
two hundred American students in a strange land, enjoying it but also a
bit homesick at times.
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Cooking with Gunny
Gunny’s Vanilla Sugar Cookies
by Gunny
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Practical, Therapeutic, Theological Thought
by Penrod
Unsung Heroes. The greatest heroes of our time are people who are
not consuming and despoiling the earth. These people are seldom
described as heroes in the news. My heroes are folks who do not ride on
noisy, polluting airplanes and people who walk or ride bicycles instead
of driving around in cars. These persons are often labeled
non-productive and I am grateful for the contribution each of them
makes to the commonwealth.
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Out and About
Vaclav Havel and a Civil Society, April 26, 1999; A Visit to Nantucket, August 20-21, 1999
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Late Breaking News
Carl Wistrom has been appointed Director of the Physical Plant at
North Park University.
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Sport Prophecy
by Eric
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Post: Readers Respond
