March 2025

Pastor's Message

Pastor Leonard Hummel

“Consolation for Suffering: Good News in Scripture and Luther’s Theology"

In our Lenten Series, I look forward to bringing you Good News that may be found in Scripture and in Luther’s thoughts about how Christians may find consolation when they suffer.

My reflections will refer to earlier reflections of mine in a book I published.  Clothed in Nothingness: Consolation for Suffering. ‎ Augsburg Fortress Publishers (January 5, 2003).

I am copying below the internet link to the book itself—as well as copying below a short description of what I shared in it:

Clothed in Nothingness: Consolation for Suffering | Augsburg Fortress

 Where is God when one suffers? How may one be consoled? How do people understand their religious beliefs in

relation to suffering? When they encounter genuine travail, do their religious convictions come into play? How are

they modified or asserted?

Leonard Hummel takes three of the most important insights of the Reformation – the doctrine of justification,

the theology of the Cross, and the priesthood of believers – and shows how they have been reappropriated by

Christians in consolation as formulated in the early Lutheran tradition and as practiced by contemporary Lutherans.

He describes the "religious coping" of six believers who have suffered personal or social ills and how their capacity

to cope was enhanced or affected by their belief."

 I look forward to being with you in this coming Season of Reflection,

Pastor Leonard