Holiness Archives - St. Peter's Lutheran Church

Holey and Holy

I’m swimming in the Gulf, off the coast of Osprey, Florida (near Sarasota) a few days ago while in town celebrating my mom’s 90th birthday. And as I often do when in ocean water, and have stopped swimming to take in the vista around me … I dig for seashells with my feet. I find…

Holy Mosh Pit

(Please be aware that during the season of Lent, these weekly devotions will be arriving in your inbox on Tuesdays.) Chaos … it looked like human chaos. People all over the place … clots of three, four and seven people …different topics circulating in each group … loud laughter … all fueled by Anne’s cookies…

Faith Rituals in a Secular World

Everyone is decked out in their uniforms for their morning responsibilities. They gather in a circle and create a bit of sanctuary amid the chaos that surrounds them … laughter, movement, local urchins running around, and beverages being consumed. Their leader offers up ritual words for the task before them, invoking God’s blessing on their…

The Saints Who Walk Among Us

In biblical Greek the word that is most commonly translated as “saint” is hagios. Note that the word hagios is actually an adjective, not a noun. It is a word that describes. Its best translation is “sacred” or “holy.” In the Bible it is often used to describe God’s word … as St. Paul does,…

Cathedrals

Email Devotion, Pentecost 8 O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. –Psalm 8:1, NRSV I was driving home from a day with our youth at this year’s Confirmation Camp at Camp Kirchenwald. And as I was heading south along Mt. Wilson…

Holy Vessels

Email Devotion, Pentecost 6 “Qodesh cheres … Holy vessels.” That was the phrase the guest rabbi used in his comments. But in describing the Jewish usage of the phrase, he noted that the description did not mean a vessel which embodies holiness in its nature, but that of an ordinary vessel holding holy things. The…