Aaron Simms's Blog, page 17

A Lutheran Perspective on the Refugee Crisis and Immigration

With the current refugee crisis and immigration issues at the forefront of the news, I thought it might be helpful to provide a Lutheran perspective on these.  I’ll caution up-front, though, that I won’t be providing “the answer.”  Instead, what I hope to do is provide a theological framework for thinking about the issues.  I also want to stress that well-meaning Christians can disagree on these issues and that no one side of the debate owns the “Christian response” to the problem.

There are...

Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Other Theologians to Whom I Owe Thanks

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of a numberof theologians who have greatly impacted my own life and faith. In his company I would also put men like C.S. Lewis, Martin Luther, St. Augustine, and the early Church Fathers (e.g. Tertullian, Ireneaus, etc…).

Each of them has given me something valuable. To C.S. Lewis I owe thanks for a simple explanation of the Christian faith which made it seem “reasonable” to my inquiringmind. To Martin Luther I owe thanks for what I consider to be a clear expositio...

The Light of Christ

Many years ago, I had to go to Phoenix, Arizona. It was in the summer, and the temperature was about 114 degrees. When I got there, I rented a car and went into the parking garage to find it. The garage was covered and therefore shaded from the sun. So, when I got in the car and drove out of the garage, I couldn’t see a thing. It was so incredibly bright that my eyes had to take a little time to adjust to the brightness. I thought it was light in the airport and the garage, but once I went ou...

Tertullian and His Apology

(The following is from theintroduction to my edition ofTertullian’s Apology, available atAmazon)

Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus was a Christian writer who lived in the Roman province of Africa (Carthage) at the end of the second century and the beginning of the third century AD. We know him better as Tertullian. Possibly trained as a Roman lawyer, he would eventually become one of the better known early Christian apologists. This present book reproduces his “Apologeticus” (the “Apolo...

“Behold!” – The excitement of Christ’s arrival in John 1:29-42

A long time ago, when I was ending my undergraduate education in college, I started to apply for jobs, hoping to find one before I graduated. I ended up getting an interview at a place that was basically a recruiting firm. I went for the interview, and when I got there I had to sitin a waiting area in the front of the office for a while until I was called in for the actual interview.

While I was in the waiting area, I perceived a great bustle in the office. People keptscooting around andwhisp...

Justin Martyr and his Apologies

(The following is from theintroduction to my edition of Justin Martyr’s First and Second Apologies, available at Amazon)

Justin Martyr (also known as Justinus) was a mid-second century Christian writer. A Greek-speaking Gentile, he was born in Flavia Neapolis (present day Nablus) in Samaria and was martyred around 165 AD in Rome. He was familiar with Greek philosophy and shows an affinity for Socrates and Plato for reasons which he will explain in his Apologies.

He wrote his First and Secon...

The Baptism of Jesus

Today in the Church Year we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus. There isactuallya close connection between Jesus’s baptism in Matthew 3 and the first act of God’s creation in Genesis 1. In fact, there are parallels in this section of Matthew’s Gospel with the first few chapters of Genesis. In Genesis, the order of things is that God creates everything, Adam and Eve are tempted, and then God promises a Savior. In Matthew, the order of things is that Jesus is baptized, then he is tempted, and then...

Epiphany and the Visit of the Magi

Today marks the end of the 12 days of Christmas, which began on December 25th and ends on January 5th. Tomorrow, we will celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany of our Lord Jesus Christ. The lectionary reading for the Feast focuses on the visit of the Magi to worship the Lord by bringing him gifts (Matthew 2:1-12). Indeed, many of our Eastern brethren within the universal Church will celebrate the next couple of days by exchanging gifts with one another.

Epiphany is a season of “revealing” within...

Feast of the Name and Circumcision of Jesus

Today within the Church Year is the celebration of the feast of the “Name and Circumcision of Jesus,” sometimes simply called the “Circumcision of Jesus.”

The Gospel reading for the feast is really short, one sentence in fact. It’s from Luke 2:21: “And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” It’s the next thing that happens in Luke’s Gospel after the shepherds come to see Jesus and return to thei...

Thoughts on the Visit of the Shepherds

In Luke’s Gospel, after the shepherds come to see Jesus and tell everyone what they had been told by the angels, Luke says that “Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart” (KJV: Luke 2: 19).

I was thinking about the birth of my own children. Seeing the birth of a baby, especially your own, instills a huge sense of wonder.

Mary had even more reasons for wonder. The angel Gabriel had previously told her that she would conceive through the Holy Spirit and bear the Son of Go...