Kantor Matthew Machemer

An opportunity to roll up our sleeves and work together to improve our preaching—as well as to unwind and enjoy time away in a pleasant setting. This course is for experienced pastors who are already competent in their preaching and confident enough to receive critique from their brethren. We’ll reinforce fundamentals while also exploring some original ideas in sermon form, sermon delivery, and Law and Gospel. (1.5 CEU)

Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and other feminist scholars have suggested that Phoebe, Lydia, Priscilla, Junia and other leading ladies of the New Testament were all but ordained ministers and early proponents of the “gospel” of radical egalitarianism. However, a closer look suggests that these particular women were theologically trustworthy and so, for example, would willingly have submitted to the Pauline prohibitions against women speaking publicly in worship (1 Cor. 14:33b-38; 1 Tim. 2:11-14). This course casts new light on how essential women were to the growth of Christianity during the early centuries AD, and how the named women remain paradigmatic to lay and diakonal service yet today. (CEU 3.0)

At this time, when we are surrounded by various views and opinions on worship and liturgy, and in the context of having opportunities to learn from other Christian traditions concerning the questions of the liturgy, there is a possibility of doing it the Lutheran way. Rather than adopting what others are doing and seeing if we can find some theological justification for this, Lutherans go to the heart of the matter, the Gospel. We will reflect on liturgy with several key points in mind, such as Amt Christi (Office of Christ), δόσις and λῆψις (giving and receiving), sacramentum/beneficium and sacrificium, Gnadenmittelamt (means of grace) and Gnadenmittelsami (means of grace office) and Christian vocation. We will seek to confess the coherence of doctrine, liturgy and Christian life. (1.5 CEU)

This course will be an investigation into the Scriptures, looking particularly at the way the apostles speak of compassion and mercy. Emphasis will be toward Clement of Alexandria’s approach to teaching the Christian faith in a Gnostic world. Further, this course will examine scriptural texts exegetically and will consider how, in light of Clement’s approach, the Church may communicate the Scriptures and draw people into the Church in our modern-day Gnostic and Postmodern culture. (1.5 CEU)

Having become Christians, people often ask, “What now?” In this course we will discuss Luke’s vision for the Christian life. In particular, we will discuss the Christian’s role as family member, citizen and neighbor. See how Luke’s theology of the cross is applied to daily living. (1.5 CEU)

This course will offer hermeneutical and theological investigation of Israel’s history and the life of Jesus of Nazareth with particular focus on the Incarnation as foundation for the Scripture’s description of sacraments. The meaning of Baptism and Eucharist and their relationship to the Gospel in the context of the parish will be explored. (1.5 CEU)

A practical preaching course that presents, theologically critiques, and illustrates a variety of sermon forms available on the contemporary homiletical scene. Forms include several inductive and narrative options, phenomenological preaching, and others. (1.5 CEU)

Although the Gospel of John is frequently interpreted to be without sacramental meaning or
reference, the manner in which the story of Jesus is told reveals a pervasive christological,
sacramental and ecclesial perspective. The narrative about Jesus is a narrative about the life
of the Church grounded in and instantiated in Baptism and the Eucharist. Thus, the story of
Jesus is descriptive of the Way, that is, of the manner of life begun and sustained through the
Sacraments of the Church; it is descriptive of the Truth, that is, of the reality of grace and faith
established in the Sacraments of the Church; it is descriptive of the Life, that is, of the life of
God which in Jesus has become the life of man. (3.0 CEU)

Bayer’s contributions to Luther studies and systematic theology are well known in Lutheran and ecumenical circles. This course will unpack several of the fundamental motifs of Bayer’s work that have deep implications for pastoral theology: justification by faith alone as basis and boundary for pastoral theology, the distinction between Law and promise in preaching and the Sacraments, absolution as performative speech, the ethic of gift, the three estates and Luther’s oratio,meditatio, tentatio. (3.0 CEU)

Job had always been of great interest to the faithful Christian. Does this book contain the answer to our suffering? Do we receive a picture of how things work in the heavenly realms? We will look into Job with an emphasis on the ancient Hebrew understanding of their relationship with God and how this is carried out. An examination of the various themes, such as God vs. Satan; understanding suffering in the life of the child of God; death and resurrection; etc. will take place in the context of the use of Job in the parish setting. (1.5 CEU)