Rev. Cwirla's Blogosphere

Several volumes of the collected works of Martin Luther are devoted to his "Table Talk." These are things Luther said while presiding at his dining room table. Luther's friends, colleagues, and a host of house guests scribbled them down on napkins and other stray bits of paper and published them. The talk ranged from theology, politics, education, the papacy, raising children, sex, flatulence, kidney stones, and the comparative quality of regional German beers. Some of Luther's best stuff can be found in the volumes of his "table talk."

That's what this area is all about. Talk around my table. I've saved you the trouble of scribbling on napkins and wrote it down myself. These are the things I like to talk about.

I'm a Lutheran preacher by vocation. In addition to teaching, presiding, hand-holding, counseling, and engaging in a whole bunch of religious chit chat, my chief task is to turn out a serviceable sermon every week. I'm like a weekly religious columnist. Two thousand words a week, give or take, intended to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.

In the Lutheran tradition, preaching is textual and lectionary based. I preach from a system of assigned texts called a "lectionary," and my sermons are on those texts. Sermon writing for me never begins with a blank page, only a blank head.

Lutheran preaching is also liturgical. Though the sermon is important, it shares top billing with the Lord's Supper. "Word and Sacrament" as we Lutherans like to say. Sermon and Supper. In order to keep the service under 90 minutes, which is already half an hour beyond the sacrosanct sweet hour of prayer, I have only 20 minutes or so to say something meaningful. This leaves a lot of stray material on the cutting room floor. And so my dear web master created "Table Talk," a place to deposit my brain droppings.

Politics and religion are my two favorite hobby horses, though I might slip in a thing or two on the philosophy of dry wall, the art of crown molding, a poem, or whatever piece of culture commentary comes to me in the middle of a restless night.

A quick disclaimer for those who like to keep book on things. These are my own personal rantings and ravings. Though they are parked on the Higher Thing's blog site, they do not reflect the "official" position of Higher Things, my congregation, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, or any other institution. They are whatever happens to be on my mind at the moment - from the serious to the satirical, the poetic to the prosaic, the sublime to the ridiculous. These are written for my own amusement and catharsis. Your mileage, of course, may vary.

Welcome to my table.