While preparing for my Easter 3 sermon and also thinking about other things, I clicked over to the archives of the Lutheran radio program, “Issues, etc.” In the recent archives is this April 27th interview about finances in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod with new synod president, Rev. Matthew Harrison.

I have spent more time than I would have liked to with this topic as a parish pastor, but what Rev. Harrison does so well in this interview is place the church’s finances in theological perspective. To hear the interview is to hear familiar words and phrases like “staff reductions” and “living within our means” and “reserve funding for non-profits,” but the President does so with such a Christological center that it shames me to think about about what a meat-head I have often been in my parish context. Rev. Harrison speaks about these things as a pastor; that is, he teaches, truthfully, to God’s people as full members of the body of Christ. He teaches as one who has nothing to hide about an issue that ought never to be hidden or obscured. Listen to the interview and you’ll see why.