Catherine Fink

Reading 14: Where is God in this? A friend of mine had lost his wife, not to cancer, but to a reaction to the chemotherapy that was supposed to save her life. They were in their early 50s. Years after her death, he still struggled to understand. He said about his prayer life, “I tell

Reading 13: Nothing can separate us All afternoon a little boy tried to put together his birthday gift from his father, a picture puzzle. Some of the pieces were bright, some dark; some seemed to go together, others seemed to fit nowhere. Finally, frustrated, the boy gathered the pieces, put them in the box, and

Reading 12: God is for us St. Paul tells us in Romans 8:15 that God’s Spirit has made us Children of God. He continues to give us the Good News of what this means. Sometimes we hear of the tragedy that either a parent or an adult child has disowned the other. It may be

Reading 11: Astounding claims I’m typically astounded by the claims the Bible makes, especially claims it makes about Christians. And this passage is no exception. Consider 8:9 “But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you” (NRSV). What’s the nature of the whopper being

Reading 10: On the law We all know the feeling Paul describes in verses 15-24, that despite our best intentions, we end up doing the wrong things, even hurting the people we love. At the extreme is addiction, but all of us have hurtful habits and sinful ways of relating to others. These behaviors can

Reading 9: What then are we to say? “What then are we to say?” St. Paul urges us to respond in kind to God’s overwhelming grace; but instead of using our mouths to proclaim God’s love, we often use our speech to hurt others, to render judgments, to gossip. Profanity is spewed at black professional

Reading 8: Peace with God When our children were little our bedtime ritual included family time during which both children talked about their days, we said prayers, gave and received blessings from one another, and then when I tucked them into their beds I filled their palms with kisses. Both children would hold the kisses

Reading 7: Revelation of God’s Righteousness Bouncing along the bumpy dirt road in a land cruiser, I looked out over the coffee fields of Nicaragua. I had learned so much in this week. I had met women who, due to the support of Lutherans, could now cook over clean gas stoves instead of smoky wood.

Reading 6: Flipping Frames: The Faithfulness of Difference In these verses we Lutherans often hear strong echoes of our Reformation confessions around justification by faith. But just what that those echoes mean in Paul’s world cannot be distilled so readily. An odd Greek phrase appears in verse 22, dia pisteos Iesou Christou. In Greek, the

Reading 5: Seeing our need It’s hard to figure this out. It’s hard to hear St. Paul say that God’s judgment and wrath are upon those who do not act righteously, that God will repay each one according to their deeds, and that those who do good will have glory and honor (2:6-10). We call