After seven funerals in nine days and five services in four days, it was good to take off the first full week in January. For the most part, I spent the time back home catching up on reading months of magazines and building a Lego set I bought for myself last Christmas. (Hint to any and all Lego builders out there: Take your time. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will your model.)

As I write this, Lent is a month or so away, with Ash Wednesday on February 17. As in years past, we will likely do another "round robin" this year, with Concordia being joined by Immanuel, Springfield; Immanuel, Riverton; and Good Shepherd, Rochester. Sharing the sermons makes it by far easier to get through the forty days of Lent. The series we’re looking at? The one on Jonah or one on Amos. Jonah is the one book I’d like to translate from the original Hebrew; its short, only four chapters, and the vocab isn’t all that tough. We’ll let you know what the pastors decide, and I’ll let you know when I finish my translation. (It will take some time, believe me.)

In the meantime, have a blessed Epiphany season, "God in man made manifest" (TLH 134, stanzas 1-5).