Winding Down

Tonight Divine Service at 7:15 and tomorrow Matins at 9:00 a.m., and that brings to an end the round of special holiday services. From the Fourth Sunday in Advent until New Year's Day (The Circumcision of Our Lord), we celebrated twelve services at St. Paul's. I love the services of this time of the year - but I also love it when they are over and we settle back into our normal routine (at least for a few weeks - and then Lent awaits!).

Homily for New Year's Eve (2007)

[Isaiah 30:15-17 / Romans 8:31b-39 / Luke 12:35-40]

If it is in quietness and trust that we find our strength as the first reading tonight had it, then we can do no better on this last evening of 2007 than take to heart the words of tonight's Epistle. If you've got God on your side, "for you," then what is it that you have to fear? If God has loved you so much that He did not spare His only Son but gave Him up for you, then how will He not give you all things graciously with Him? If God is the One who has declared you "not guilty" in His Son, then who is it that will be able to bring any charge whatsoever against you? There is only One who could - and that is Jesus Christ Himself - but since He has died for you, was raised for you, sits at the right hand of His Father and ceaselessly intercedes on your behalf, He's not a likely candidate to bring any charge against you, is He?

And so St. Paul comes at last to his greatest question of all: who shall separate you from the love of Christ?

Tribulation? Distress? Persecution? Famine? Nakedness? Danger? Sword?

Make no mistake about it, my friends, any of those things can befall us in the New Year. We'd be utter fools to imagine that our God was some sort of talisman that we kept about us to ward off trouble. That's not how our God works - not the God who came among us as a little child so that He could bleed and suffer, agonize and die for us. We don't gather this night to plead with God to keep trouble out of our way in the new year or to thank Him merely for keeping trouble out of our way in the year that is ending. Who in this room didn't have tribulation and distress in their lives this year? Who wasn't confronted at one time or another with danger? No, thinking that way only lands you in fretting and fear. Trouble will come to you this year. You can bank on it. "For Your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." "And another one bites the dust." Yup. That's the way life is in this fallen age - an age where sin festers until it is made visible in death.

But, the Apostle doesn't end there. It's true that troubles will abound. It's true that this year may very well bring you things harder to bear than any you've had to face in your life yet. It's true that your final struggle with death itself may await you in 2008. But there's a bigger truth than that, a greater truth and truth that allows us to face it all with hope and a joy that no trouble of this world can destroy.

"No," shouts the Apostle! "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." That would be He who loved us so much as to take on our flesh and be born of the immaculate Virgin and laid in the manger. That would be He who loved us so much as to shed His infant blood, to be placed under the Law so that He might fulfil it wholly for us. That would be He who loved us so much as to shoulder the burden of our sins and carry them to death on Golgotha's tree. In Him and in Him alone we are and can be more than conquerors of the troubles and trials that face us. More than conquerors, how? Why?

Listen! "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, NOR THINGS TO COME, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation - ANYTHING ELSE in ALL creation - will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Do you get that? In your Jesus, God has loved you with a love that cannot be shaken or destroyed. It's a love that is stronger than anything you will have to go through this year. It's a love that is more powerful than the worst ravages of sin and death. And it's all yours in your Lord, in your Jesus.

And tonight, as you watch for Him, He comes to you. Knocking at the door, so that you can throw it wide open and bid Him come in. And then He does His shocking thing - He dresses Himself for service and has you recline at table as He serves up to you His Supper, His body and blood, for the forgiveness of all of your sin. This is the service He renders to you. As though He whispered: "Child, I have loved you all the way to my cross. Your sins are covered in my blood. Your death destroyed in my risen body. And as the promise, the guarantee that I am with you and for you and on your side and your dearest Friend forever, I reach you now that same body and blood. That's how you can know that I am for you, and that nothing - and I mean absolutely nothing - can separate you from my love."

As we open the door of our hearts at his knocking, as we come to Him at His table and let Him serve us, we experience exactly what Isaiah said: "In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength." Grant it to us, dear Lord, tonight and in the year to come, that we might meet whatever awaits us in the days ahead in the certainty and joy of Your unshakeable love, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen!

Puzzlement

I continue to scratch my head at how people who read and know the Scriptures well continually discount the forensic element of the Biblical revelation. If one thing is clear from the Scriptures, it is that we will stand before our Lord Jesus who will indeed pass judgment upon us. He warns us that we will have to "give an account" for every idle word we speak. The "courtroom" metaphor runs throughout the Gospels and the NT epistles as well. The very language of "justify" is forensic lingo. The word "Advocate" (which the Sacred Scriptures apply both to our Lord and to the Holy Spirit) is legal through and through. To simply read the Scriptures while discounting this semantic domain is to ignore one sizable chunk of God's message to humanity in His Son.

Which is not to say that the forensic element exhausts the Gospel - no way! The Scriptures teach us to speak of the Gospel as the bringing of the dead to life, the finding and reclaiming of the lost, the reconciliation of those at enmity, and certainly many other ways too. Nevertheless, among the ways that God has spoken His Word to us through His Son is the whole complex of "court" language. "Forensic" is one way that the Holy Spirit confronts us with the problem of our sin that we might despair of "fixing" it and learn instead to live from the merciful pardon of God extended to us in His Son. To unite some of the images: that pardon is what brings the dead to life!

And one of my all time favorite passages from St. John Chrysostom builds upon such language and images to preach some high octane Gospel:

Suppose someone should be caught in the act of adultery and the foulest crimes and then be thrown into prison. Suppose, next, that judgment was going to be passed against him and that he would be condemned.

Suppose that just at that moment a letter should come from the Emperor setting free from any accounting or examination all those detained in prison. If the prisoner should refuse to take advantage of the pardon, remain obstinate and choose to be brought to trial, to give an account, and to undergo punishment, he will not be able thereafter to avail himself of the Emperor's favor. For when he made himself accountable to the court, examination, and sentence, he chose of his own accord to deprive himself of the imperial gift.

This is what happened in the case of the Jews. Look how it is. All human nature was taken in the foulest evils. "All have sinned," says Paul. They were locked, as it were, in a prison by the curse of their transgression of the Law. The sentence of the judge was going to be passed against them. A letter from the King came down from heaven. Rather, the King himself came. Without examination, without exacting an account, he set all men free from the chains of their sins.

All, then, who run to Christ are saved by his grace and profit from his gift. But those who wish to find justification from the Law will also fall from grace. They will not be able to enjoy the King's loving-kindness because they are striving to gain salvation by their own efforts; they will draw down on themselves the curse of the Law because by the works of the Law no flesh will find justification.

Joy of Conversation

It only works out about once a year that the three of us have the opportunity to get together - usually sometime around Christmas. But when we do, it is always such joy. We talk theology, family, parish problems, and usually more theology. Thanks be to God for friends who are brothers in the Holy Office!

Reminder

I really do take a light hand in editing comments. But I will not allow comments that I think cross the boundary from questioning to personal attack. I just deleted a comment I felt did this. I ask the readers and commentators on this blog to please refrain from personally attacking others - we seldom have the full story and thus are not in a position to judge others' actions and words. My suggested rule is always to ask if you'd be comfortable saying what you are saying in the very presence of our Crucified and Risen Lord, for you truly are doing nothing less than that.

Patristic Quote of the Day

In any day of the year, dearly beloved, whenever we make our meditations, we are mindful of the birth from a Virgin Mother of our Lord and Saviour. Whenever our souls are uplifted in the worship of our Maker, whether we sigh in supplication, rejoice in praise, or offer sacrifice, there is nothing which we more frequently or more confidently set our minds upon than the fact that God, the Son of God, begotten of the co-eternal Father, was also born by a human birth. - Homily of St. Leo, Bishop of Rome

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

A true Savior must be such that, when we receive Him, all of what is false in us is destroyed. - C. F. W. Walther, Sermon for Sunday after Christmas, *God Grant It!* p. 84

Yeah, um,

he takes after his mother.

Dancing Together

We've just got the pictures back from Lauren's wedding - and this has to be my favorite of my beautiful wife - the amazement on her face is no doubt due to the fact that we were dancing at all. I HATE dancing (mostly because I don't know how to do it) and we didn't even dance at our own wedding, but we're dancing here because Lauren told me I HAD to. I try to be an obedient dad. Honest, I do. :)

Completely Trivial

But very exciting! I found an option under Parallels that allows me to remap the command and control keys. Sweet! That means that I don't have to stop and think: "This is Windows app and needs to use Cont-B to bold." I can just use the Mac shortcuts that are ingrained from years of usage also in Windows: "Command-B" and "Command-I"! Parallels, you just went even higher up in my appreciation of you!!!

There's a Hymn that Luther wrote

based on a medieval Antiphon:

In the very midst of life
Snares of death surround us;
Who shall help us in the strife
Lest the foe confound us?
Thou only, Lord, Thou only!
We mourn that we have greatly erred,
That our sins Thy wrath have stirred.
Holy and righteous God!
Holy and mighty God!
Holy and all-merciful Savior!
Eternal Lord God!
Save us lest we perish
In the bitter pangs of death.
Have mercy, O Lord!

I used to think "the bitter pangs of death" referred merely to facing our own last hour, but I think death's bitter pangs spread further than that. Here we are in the midst of the celebration of the Birth of Life and Joy and the Prince of Peace - and yet the ravages of death continue. Sicknesses rage on. Folks are hospitalized, preparing for surgery, and some are waiting for the end. And all around them are those that love them dearly. And the bitter pangs of death coil around THEIR hearts too, to squeeze out of them the life and peace and joy of Christ. Luther nailed it: it's in the very midst of life that the snares of death surround us, but it's only in Christ that we can find remedy to this. Sickness, death, the ravages of sin - they take no holiday, they observe no holy days. But we celebrate our holy days smack dab in the midst of them, in defiance of them:

In the midst of utter woe
When our sins oppress us,
Where shall we for refuge go,
Where for grace to bless us?
To Thee, Lord Jesus, only!
Thy precious blood was shed to win
Full atonement for our sin.
Holy and righteous God!
Holy and mighty God!
Holy and most merciful Savior!
Eternal Lord God!
Lord, preserve and keep us
In the peace that faith can give.
Have mercy, O Lord!

In the peace that faith can give... Grant that peace, Lord God, to all who are battling the pangs of death in these days. Amen!

Patristic Quote of the Day

In choosing to be born for us, God chose to be known by us. He therefore reveals Himself in this way, in order that this great sacrament of His love may not be an occasion for us of great misunderstanding. -- St. Peter Chrysologus, Sermon

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Christ hath brought to our poor human nature a greater glory than it lost by Adam's sin. In Christ we receive more than we lost in Adam. -- Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XV

Have I Ever Told You...

...how gross I feel when I take a hiatus from Atkins for the holidays? This is just stupid. Tomorrow it is back to Induction for this boy. I just can't stand feeling so sluggish. Why do I allow myself to fall into this trap repeatedly?

It's like sin (note the LIKE, Cwirla, I'm not advocating for dietary law here!), but we know how awful we feel when we succumb to temptations and yet we end up doing it again and again. And each time we do, we realize what a cheat and false promise it delivered. And we knew that before we gave in, but we keep chasing the lie anyway. Sin is like those Red Lobster biscuits - smells so good, and tastes so fine going down, but then there's the matter of paying the piper afterwards. And we swear in the aftermath: that was stupid, and I was stupid, and it's not worth it, not at all. But how faulty is our memory when the sin comes teasing our minds again with false memories and promises.

Lord, make us always remember the yuck and depression of sin so that we learn to grow in resisting its allure - and help ME remember what I feel like AFTER eating Red Lobster biscuits, potato chips, m&ms, pizza and breadsticks!!!

Sign me with my old nickname:

Fat Chance
(William Chancellor Weedon)

O Rejoice!

O rejoice, ye Christians, loudly,
For our joy has now begun:
Wondrous things our God has done.
Tell abroad His goodness proudly
Who our race has honored thus,
That He deigns to dwell with us.
Ref.: Joy, O joy, beyond all gladness,
Christ has done away with sadness!
Hence all sorrow and repining,
For the sun of grace is shining!

See, my soul, thy Savior chooses
Weakness here and poverty;
In such love He comes to thee.
Neither crib nor cross refuses;
All He suffers for thy good
To redeem thee by His blood. (Ref.)

Lord, how shall I thank Thee rightly?
I acknowledge that by Thee
I am saved eternally.
Let me not forget it lightly,
But to Thee at all times cleave
And my heart true peace receive. (Ref.)

Jesus, guide and guard Thy members,
Fill them with Thy boundless grace,
Hear their prayers in ev'ry place.
Fan to flame faith's glowing embers;
Grant all Christians, far and near,
Holy peace, a glad new year! (Ref.)
--Andreas Hammerschmidt, LSB 897

What Happened

I was chatting with a friend today. He thinks I'm obsessed with the Blessed Virgin. Fancy that. Actually, I was telling him that what is striking is how often and simply the great fathers of the 16th and 17th centuries speak of the Mother of God's perpetual virginity or the closed womb birth and such from the pulpit and in their other writings. To them it was just taken for granted.

Why was it taken for granted then, but not taken for granted now?

I don't know the answer for certain, but I have a hunch about what happened. It's this: the Churches of the Augsburg Confession retained Latin. That means that they didn't bother to translate the old Latin office hymns. They wrote new hymns in German, of course, but they just kept on singing the old hymns in Latin right alongside the new ones (though the Sequences, unlike the office hymns, were subject to frequent "correcta" - always with copious Scriptural annotations). And those hymns simply shaped their theological endeavor.

In the Magdeburg Book the hymn "Creator of the Stars of Night" is listed as being sung at Vespers throughout Adventtide. It is sung in Latin, of course, and - as throughout the book - Scriptural allusions are provided in the margins. So when in the third stanza they sang of the Lord proceeding from the "closed" Mother, the margin listed the reference to Ezekiel 44:2. They sang it every night at Vespers in Magdeburg during Advent! They grew up shaped by that. Where did Gerhard learn the allusion of Mary's virginity being typified in the burning bush, in Gideon's fleece, in Aaron's rod that budded? It was all in the hymnody! The LATIN hymnody. The hymnody they didn't translate and just kept using. UNTIL.

Until rationalism and pietism swept through the Lutheran Churches, and then Latin was the first thing axed. And suddenly all the hymns that had nurtured and sustained a way of reading and thinking about the Scriptures were no longer there. Only the post-Reformation hymns that had been composed in German largely remained. And it wasn't too long after this that we see a marked change in how the Scriptures themselves were being read and understood.

As I said, this is all Weedon's suppositions - I have yet to do all the "hard data work" as dear Dr. Nagel would call it - but I truly suspect it explains a LOT of what happened. Take up your old German Gesangbuch and look for the hymns that we regard as standard from the Latin. They're not there. It's a loss I think we've still not reckoned with, and it explains why Lutherans of the 21st century simply don't know how to DEAL with what their forebears in the faith simply took as axiomatic.

Homily upon the Holy Innocents, Martyrs

When we hear that Gospel, I suppose there’s not a one of us who doesn’t ask in his heart: “Why, God? How could you let such an awful thing happen? We’re so thankful that Jesus wasn’t killed, but what about those others, those little boys? Didn’t You care about them? What about their poor mothers and fathers, refusing to be comforted because their children were dead – butchered before their eyes – and without a clue as to why? O God, did it have to be that way?”

Such thoughts show that we have trouble coming to terms with some very important truths that God teaches us in His Word. From start to finish the Bible reminds us that this life is not permanent, that this world is not our home, that we are a people on pilgrimage.

Further, the Bible bears abundant testimony – and we experience it in our own lives too – that God does not guarantee anyone a certain length of time for that pilgrimage. Some have a very short journey through this world – their breath snuffed out like that of the Holy Innocents. Others live to gray hair and see great-grandchildren. Many end their pilgrimage somewhere in between. But this much is true: the pilgrimage comes to an end for all, and that end can come at any time and in any way.

Neither to you, nor to your parents, nor to your children, nor to your grandchildren, nor to any relative or friend, has God promised anything about the length of pilgrimage or the manner of death.

“You’re being rather morbid today, pastor” I hear you say. No. Just being realistic. I think it was the same realism that inspired the Church to set the feast of the Holy Innocents just three days after the Nativity of our Lord – a poignant reminder of why our Lord took on flesh and blood.

You see, if life in this world is a pilgrimage and it has an end, it does not at all follow that that is the end of us. Rather, the Bible reveals the startling truth that like it or not, every last one of us is going to live forever. And the Bible reveals that we will live forever either in eternal joy and bliss, or in never-ending regret, sorrow and pain. That is, we’ll all end up in either heaven or in hell. What makes the difference?

Not how you live during your pilgrimage. Those who spend their pilgrimage trying to be good people, thinking that by keeping God’s laws they will curry his favor so that he will have to let them into his heaven – they haven’t got the first clue.

The Law of God, when we really hear it, demands of us a perfection we simply cannot come up with – no matter how hard we try. The Law doesn’t tell us that if we give it our best shot, God will pat us on the head and say: “Good try. Come on in!” The Law cuts no deals; compromise is foreign to it. The Law demands that we love the Lord our God with every ounce of our being and that we love our neighbor as ourselves. That we do so from the heart – that means, wanting always what brings glory to God and blessing to our neighbor. That we do so without fail. “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.” James 2:10 And “All who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’” Gal. 3:10

The Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth through Jesus Christ! Jesus took our flesh and blood, was born of Mary for us. Because every last one of us was by nature headed toward never-ending sorrow and pain, eternal separation from God, the endless regrets of hell. Because God never wanted a single soul to know the agony of an eternity without Him.

He came among us as the true Holy Innocent. His conception was holy. His birth was innocent. His life was without sin. HIS heart never deviated once from all His Father’s law demanded. He kept it whole and He kept it for you and me. And then on His cross He suffered the punishment that was our due. Thus He secured a perfect redemption. When His Father raised Him from the dead, He declared that His Son’s sacrifice offered only once, availed now for all time and for all people. Jesus rendered hell needless; no one ever need suffer it. The only way to get into hell is by stepping over the dead body of God’s Son – by telling Him: “No thanks, I don’t need your blood or your forgiveness. I can handle my sins on my own.”

That is unbelief – the refusal of the gifts of God. It’s opposite is faith, being given to, receiving from Christ what He would give. And it is precisely such faith that makes the difference between landing in heaven and hell.

The Holy Innocents were called that not because they didn’t have sin. No, they would have confessed had they but a little older, exactly what the Scripture says: “Behold, I was conceived in iniquity and in sin my mother bore me.” They were holy innocents, not by nature, but by grace. Enfolded into the covenant God made with Abraham when they were circumcised on the 8th day of their lives, wrapped in the promises of God, they were put into a life of faith, waiting for the redemption of the coming Savior. Thus, when their pilgrimage ended, they left as “sweet flowrets of the martyr band.”

And you too get to be holy innocents in much the same way. They had the Old Testament sacrament of circumcision and looked in faith to coming Redeemer. You have the New Testament sacrament of Baptism, and you look in faith to the Redeemer who has come, who has kept the Law for you, who has thereby secured for you and all people an eternal redemption. As you simply believe it, it’s all yours. Thus, you are holy and innocent with the holiness and innocence of Another.

Such holy innocence He reaches to you at the altar in the gift of His body and blood – the very same body and blood that fully kept the law on your behalf and that answered for all your sins upon the tree. He reaches to you what He offered on your behalf as His pledge and guarantee, as you trust it, that when your pilgrimage is ended, He will bring you to the place of overflowing joy and blessedness, the home He has prepared for you. He reaches it to you that even now it might begin to work in you obedience and love toward God. Thus God quiets our unrest and fears.

This life is after all, only a pilgrimage; death ends it for each of us at a time we can’t guess and sometimes in ways that are ghastly. But our Jesus has opened a Kingdom beyond death; He has prepared for us an everlasting home – and for that to Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all glory and honor, world without end. Amen.

Homily for Christmas I (2007)

[Isaiah 11:1-5 / Galatians 4:1-7 / Luke 1:33-40]

What a strange sort of blessing old Simeon offered to the Virgin Mother: “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

This is a blessing? Simeon had been waiting for this child for a long time. The Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And so he waited until that day, 40 days after our Lord’s birth, when Joseph and Mary took the Child into the temple to offer the prescribed sacrifice. “There!” the Holy Spirit whispered to Simeon. “There He is.”

And Simeon had crossed the temple court, had taken the child into his feeble arms and blessed God, saying that he could die now, he could depart in peace; he’d seen the Lord’s Salvation, the Light that lightens the Gentiles, the Glory of Israel. So much joy, overflowing joy. And then this so-called blessing spoken to Mary?

The Lord’s salvation, the very Glory of Israel, the Light for the nations - He is appointed for the fall and rising of many, for a sign to be opposed, a sword to pierce the Virgin’s soul, and the revealer of the thoughts of many hearts? We want to cry out to the old man: Explain, friend! What are you saying?

But we have only to think of it a bit and Simeon’s blessing is clear. This Child is set for the fall of many in Israel. Note the “in Israel” - Dr. Luther glosses that as “those who have God’s Word.” His coming among us as this brilliant light, this shining glory, it exposes people. Right down to the depths of their hearts. Think of a certain man named Saul. A man who was righteous in the way of the Law, a man who strove with might and main to please and honor the God of Israel - zealous for the traditions of his fathers. And when this man encountered those who belonged to this Child, who called him to repentance and offered him forgiveness and new life - he was outraged! The Child and those who belong to Him implied - no, stated - that all the holiness he had been working on for all those years, that it was trash and garbage and even worse, a veneer. That underneath was a heart that was filled with evil and that needed the love of God in this Child to change it.

Saul’s true heart was revealed. He couldn’t endure to have his religiosity spoken of as worthless. He couldn’t endure the thought that his goodness couldn’t pass muster. He couldn’t stand the thought that he was actually evil and in league with the devil. So Saul set out to destroy the Messengers of this Child. He consented to murder, and became an ardent persecutor. Until the day that the Child now grown to manhood, Crucified and then Raised from the dead revealed Himself to Saul and made him face the sorry fact: Saul’s zeal for his own righteousness and his devotion to the Law landed him on the side opposing the very God he thought he was serving. He had stumbled over the Child. He wasn’t the first and He won’t be the last.

This Child who comes to bring us the life that is in God, who is the Forgiveness of all Sin and the Destruction of Death, He remains a stumbling block to all the religious. For He declares and shows that all our self-chosen religious exercises, all our attempts at being good people, all the things we pride ourselves on - they are shams. “All our righteousnesses are as a filthy rag” is how the Prophet Isaiah put it. Nothing shows that like the arrival of the Child. He reveals that our best efforts stink because they are tainted by self-serving and that when we are exposed for the nasty people that we really are deep down, we snarl and strike out at the one who dares to expose the darkness of our hearts with His holy light!

But if the Child is set for the fall of many in Israel and for a sign to be opposed, He is also set for the rising of many in Israel. For all those who in the light that shines from Him recognize their sin, their filth, their wretched state, for them His coming is the Advent of Life itself.

For He has come to BE righteousness for us. He has come as Light not merely to expose our shamefulness, but to cover it with His own holiness.

“A sword will pierce your own soul also.” You know when that happened. As she stood in the gloom and darkness at the foot of a cross, and watched her flesh and blood, laboring to breathe, carrying upon Himself the load of all our shame, the burden of all our sin. She watched Him bleed and cry out for it. She saw Him carry it into the darkness of death Himself, none else the burden sharing.

For He is our righteousness not only in His perfect life of love, but also in His bearing the just penalty of our shameful lives. And He has come to raise us up - we who were bowed down under this perplexing burden of our own guilt, finding that the more we tried to please God the more mired we became in our own mess. He, the Child, comes to us and says: “Fear not, little one. I know you have no strength, but I have come to be your strength. I know you have no righteousness, but I have come to be your righteousness. I know that in you is only death, but I have come to take that death away from you and to be for you your life.”

Indeed, the Child reveals the thoughts of many hearts. The entire human race will either stumble over this rock, or on it they find an impregnable fortress in which to live and to die. You can’t be neutral toward Him. He will expose your words, thoughts, and deeds - and no one can escape that. But then you will either seek to destroy the light He has cast upon you, or you will fall down before Him and cry for His mercy, which He longs to give you. For that is why He came.

It was some wise old Lutheran - unknown now - who first suggested that we could do no better after receiving the Body and Blood of this Child now grown to manhood, crucified and risen from the dead, than to sing with Simeon his song: “I can die now: Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace.” To receive the Eucharist in faith is to confess with Simeon that the Child who has exposed us as wicked through and through is the very Child whose love covers our sin, changes our hearts, and reaches us a life that is forever beyond the reach of death. May His coming reveal the thoughts of our hearts, that we may find in Him alone our forgiveness, our life, our salvation, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all glory and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages! Amen.

Patristic Quote of the Day

Life itself was therefore revealed in the flesh. In this way what was visible to the heart alone could become visible also to the eye, and so heal men's hearts. -- St. Augustine, Tractates on 1 John (Christian Prayer, p. 1960)

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Do you mean to say that God could permit the Church to be in error for so long a time? That is the chief stumbling block of which Simeon here speaks. When that's the situation, you can say that matters are going exactly as foretold. For it is written that this child born of the Virgin Mary who was to be the Savior of the whole world and a light to the Gentiles, was destined for the fall not of those who know nothing of God, but rather "many in Israel," God's people who have his Word. This child, on the contrary, has been placed as a stone of stumbling for the wise of the world, the intellectuals, and the self-righteous, who will trample, tumble, fall, and break their necks over this child. They simply can't bear to have their wisdom, their righteousness, and their piety count for nothing. - Blessed Martin Luther's 1531 Homily for the Sunday after Christmas (House Postil I:160)

Speaking of the BOC

I particularly appreciated this passage that I'd overlooked before on Election (SD XI:89):

By this teaching, people are taught that they must seek eternal election in Christ and His Holy Gospel, as in the Book of Life. This excludes no penitent sinner, but beckons and calls all poor, heavy-laden, and troubled sinners to repentance and the knowledge of their sins. It calls them to faith in Christ and promises the Holy Spirit for purification and renewal.

A Renewed Challenge

Well, the year 2007 is rapidly coming to its close. I know that because I finished up this morning the Book of Concord (I cheated and read two days in one, since I was so close to the end). Some of you will recall last year my encouragement to commit to reading the entire Book of Concord through during the course of the year. It's been a blessed and enjoyable practice, and the reading chart in the Reader's Edition makes it a rather simple task. I've marked my book up quite a bit to make it easier to find passages that I wanted to remember most especially - many of which struck me especially for this first time. I'm looking forward to the same experience next year!

So my challenge to the readers of this blog, but especially to those who hold the Office of the Holy Ministry: will you join me again in the journey through the Concordia? We'll begin on New Year's Eve as "Week I" and begin the travels again through the ecumenical Creeds and the Catechisms and then on to the later Symbols. Sasse once said something along the lines that our Symbols should be our Breviary - and while I don't think reading the Symbols can replace praying the daily office, it certainly can be a salutary supplement to the same. Won't you join me again this year?

Worthy of Note

A new blog in Lutheran blogdom:

Priestmanship

How sacerdotal can you get, I ask you? Looks most promising!

Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist

Antiphon for the Benedictus: This is the same John who on the Lord's bosom at the Last Supper: the blessed Apostle, unto whom were revealed the secrets of heaven. (Brotherhood Prayer Book)

Today our Synod commemorates the Blessed Apostle and Evangelist Saint John. St. Bede the Venerable noted that these three days after Christmas commemorate martyrs of different sorts. First, St. Stephen who was a martyr in both will and deed. Next, St. John who was a martyr in will, but not in deed - for though persecuted and exiled, he died a natural death. Finally, tomorrow, the Holy Innocents, who were martyrs in deed, but not in will.

The story is told of the aged John that he was carried into the Church to preach and he just kept repeating over and over again: "Little children, love one another." It was the heart and core of the new life that he had come to know and see shine through our Lord Jesus Christ: a love that beckons us all to enter its embrace and share it.

For Your belov'd disciple
Exiled to Patmos' shore,
And for his faithful record,
We praise You evermore.
Praise for the mystic vision
Through him to us revealed;
May we, in patience waiting,
With Your elect be sealed. (LSB 517:8)

Merciful Lord, we beseech Thee to cast the bright beams of Thy light upon Thy Church, that it, being instructed by the doctrines of Thy blessed Apostle and Evangelist Saint John, may attain to the light of everlasting life, through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Patristic Quote of the Day

Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God's own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God's kingdom. -- Christmas Homily of St. Leo the Great (Christian Prayer, p. 1956)

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Here also belongs what was announced before about the bush which burned and yet was not damaged, about the rock that was ripped off without hands, and many similar types of the Old Testament, all which denote that Christ was to be born of a virgin. That's why in the first promise in Genesis 3:15 He is called a Seed of the Woman - to indicate that He was not to be born of the blood of mankind nor of flesh, but that He Himself would prepare the temple of His body out of the sanctified and cleansed blood of Mary. -- Johann Gerhard, Sermon on Holy Christmas Day I

St. Stephen, Martyr

From the white of Christmas to the red of martyrdom, the paraments remind us that Christmas and its joy is celebrated in the very face of hatred, death, and destruction. As it was for our Lord, so it must be for His followers. He has made that clear. The Introit for this day calls out: "These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. In You, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame." The Collect of the day asks for the grace to "follow the example of the first martyr, Stephen, that we also may look to the One who suffered and was crucified in our behalf and pray for those who do us wrong." Here is the light that has come into the darkness: a love so strong that it cannot be overcome! A love that prays for those who wrong us, and that seeks their salvation. A saint alive in such a love is a saint that death cannot destroy, and so "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." (Epistle) Indeed "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." (Alleluia Verse)

Praise for the first of martyrs,
Who saw You ready stand
To help in time of torment,
To plead at God's right hand.
Like You, our suff'ring Savior,
His enemies he blessed,
With "Lord, receive my spirit,"
His faith, by death, confessed.

Another Hymn for a Martyr\'s Day

Yet Again

More Pics

Christmas Moments

Cindi's huge Christmas Eve brunch... Freshly ground coffee from the new coffee maker - sweet!... Hannah and Johanna singing so sweetly the Quempas Carol... Friends gathered for goodies and visiting... Censing the church... Lauren and Anna letting lose on "Mary Did You Know"... Bekah, Abbey, and Robyn singing "Breath of Heaven"... Cindi on guitar and Diane doing some haunting flute selections... Jonathan and Kristi singing and playing recorder... Richard preaching with joy and conviction... The Eucharist shared as Cindi sings "O Holy Night"... "Break Forth" by the Weedon clan and Anna and Diane as the candles were being lighted... "Silent Night" and the ringing of the bell to welcome the Birth of the Savior (big Don pulled the rope on the great bell for must have been five minutes)... Lucky arriving, so feeble and aged that it's hard to conceive... Christmas eve night spent worried about the church catching fire (I do this every year, despite both thurible and candles spending the night OUTSIDE)... The reading of the Christmas announcement from the Martyrology, concluding in "O Come, All Ye Faithful"... The joy of the Christmas Day Gospel... The bells ringing in a "Joy to the World!"... The choir's astounding "He is Born, the Divine Christ Child" during distribution... "Now Sing We Now Rejoice" as the exit hymn, not quite Praetorius' Mass for Christmas morning, but close... More food and visiting than you could shake a stick at, but sad that Russell ended up not feeling well and unable to join us... Jo's famous popovers... Telling stories on Sandy to Kayla... Pies, pies and more pies... The quiet in the house when everyone is napping and the tree is lighted and Lucy is contentedly snoring at my feet... A joyous feast indeed.

Luke's Christmas and John's Christmas

We had a guest last night who had attended our Christmas Eve Service and wondered whether we were doing the same service the next day. How does one explain the difference between Christmas Eve and the Christmas Day services? I call them St. Luke's Christmas and St. John's - due to the tenor of the Gospels prescribed for either day. The St. Luke's Christmas is the one that everyone loves the best, I suspect. The gathering together at the late hour to celebrate the Holy Eucharist, light our candles, and sing with the angels and adore with the shepherds. St. John's Christmas has a totally different atmosphere - gone the contemplative hymns of the night before, and over and over again the triumph of the Word Made Flesh trumpets forth. Christmas Midnight is the service of "O Little Town" and "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" and "All My Heart This Night Rejoices" and "Silent Night." Christmas Day is the service of "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "Of the Father's Love" and "Joy to the World" and "Now Sing We Now Rejoice." Christmas Eve is quiet contemplation and Christmas Day is overflowing jubilation. I think the Church is wise to include both (and also the halfway service at Christmas Dawn that is largely, sadly unobserved among us). Christmas celebrations need both Luke and John. I can't fathom choosing between them. I'm glad so many in our parish are there for both Divine Services.

A Few Christmas Pics

FEAST OF THE NATIVITY

In the year 2015 from the birth of Abraham, in the year 1510 from the exodus of the people of Israel out of Egypt, in the year 1032 from the enthronement of David the Prophet and King, in the sixtieth "week" of the prophecy of Daniel, in the forty-second year of the reign of Caesar Augustus, in the thirty-third year of the reign of Herod, when the staff had gone from Judah has had been prophesied by Jacob the Patriarch, at a time when the whole world was at peace, it pleased God to send His only-begotten Son and Eternal Word to the world to become Man and to teach us God's love, to suffer, die, and rise from the dead for our salvation.

At that time, the Lord Jesus was born in a humble cave in Bethlehem of Judah, and no one knew of it but the immaculate Virgin Mary his Mother and Joseph her spouse. No one heard of this miracle surpassing all miracles but a few humble shepherds who had been told by angels in the sky that sang this hymn: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men." Then the Magi came from the East, led by a star in the heaven: they found their way to where the Divine Infant rested, and they adored Him, and opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts of gold, incense and myrrh.

To God Incarnate, to the suckling Infant who humbled Himself and took our form, becoming one of us to make us divine; to the One who later walked among us to teach us the way of salvation and who loved us so much as to give His life for it: to Him be glory, honor, and adoration forever and ever. Oh, come, let us adore Him! (From the Roman Martyrology)

Last Advent Service

Just got back from our final Advent liturgy: the Catechism Service. I had not originally scheduled that service on this day, but I needed a make up session after I came down with that flu-thingy. So meet we did. We substituted a few carols for the regular OT and NT Canticles. Our attendance was down by half, but that was expected - so many folks are out of town already or finishing up last minute preparations. What a blessing our sound/video team is! Those who miss, just pick up the DVD of the service, watch and discuss at home, and they're back on track!

Today we dealt with the third, fourth, and fifth petitions of the Our Father. I have become utterly convinced that the key to peace reigning in our hearts is to learn to pray the third petition. Anxiety arises from our fear that OUR WILL will not be done. When we have learned to surrender that will and instead seek that God's good, gracious, and perfect will be done, then we begin to enjoy a peace that cannot be shaken.

O Emmanuel!

O Emmanuel, our King and our Lord, the anointed for the nations and their Savior: Come and save us, O Lord our God!

And so we come to the last Vespers of Advent. Tonight the great O antiphon will be "O Emmanuel" for tomorrow we will celebrate that the Child of Mary is none other than God Himself with His people. If you read the titles for the great O Antiphons backwards from this day, you have ERO CRAS: "I will be (here) tomorrow." Advent is nearly over, and the joys of the Nativity are about to begin.

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear:
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

A Touch of Heaven

Tonight Cindi sang (and Millie played - using the harpsichord setting) from Bach's Cantata on Nun Komm (BWV 61) "Open Now My Heart to Jesus" during the distribution. We'll use it tomorrow also at Distribution at 7:45 and preservice at 10. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven...or at least to Leipzig.

Patristic Quote of the Day

The divine nature and the nature of a servant were united in one person so that the Creator of time might be born in time, and he through whom all things were made might be brought forth in their midst. - St. Leo the Great, Letter (Christian Prayer, p. 1951)

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

He came as the Physician to the spiritually sick, as the Redeemer to the captives of sin, as the Way to those who had wandered afar off, as the Life to the dead in trespasses and sins, and as the Saviour to the lost. - Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XV

Short Advent

At the Divine Service tonight I couldn't help but think how short our Advent season was this year - last year it was even a day shorter, but somehow it seemed to fly even faster this year. Tonight we already began our celebration of Advent IV and will conclude it tomorrow and put away the Advent wreath, only to find Christmas Eve awaiting us the following day.

O Rex Gentium

O King of the nations, the ruler they long for, the cornerstone uniting all people: Come and save us all, whom You formed out of clay.

"You are a king, then" Pilate said. "You have said so" our Lord answered. He was always a tad reluctant about that title "King." The Gentiles have their idea of what it means and it didn't sit very comfortably upon the shoulders of the Man who reigns in triumphant love by shouldering the sin of the world on Calvary's cross and leaving death in pieces on Easter morning. And yet He is a King, and He is the King that the Gentiles long for, ache for, dream of and hope for. The King who will bring in true justice and who will put an end to all abuse of the poor and the downtrodden. The King who bring an end to all the "us" vs. "them" and unite humanity as a whole, as one family. In days when human divisions seem to be growing stronger and ever more bitter, the hope of the human race remains in the Child who comes to reign among us by serving, bearing, and dying.

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

You know my favorite Christmas ornament?

A long nail. Kenny and Sharilyn gave it to us years ago. It reminds us as we decorate the tree celebrating our Lord's birth each year of WHY He came into the world and where His love and determination to save us would land Him.

Some Provocative Quotes on Our Lord's Blessed Birth

"She is blessed above all other women, not only because she gave birth without labor, pain, and injury to herself, not as Eve and all other women, but because by the Holy Spirit and without sin she became fertile, conceived, and gave birth in a way granted to no other woman." - Martin Luther, Personal Prayer Book 1521 (and reprinted throughout his life), AE 43:40.

"Now, although Mary was not required to do this - the law of Moses having no claim over her, for she had given birth without pain and her virginity remained unsullied - nevertheless, she kept quiet, and submitted herself to the common law of all women and let herself be accounted unclean. She was without doubt a pure, chaste virgin before the birth, in the birth, and after the birth, and was neither sick nor weakened from the birth, and could certainly have gone out of the house after giving birth, not only because of her exemption from the Law, but also because of the uninterrupted soundness of her body." - Martin Luther, preached at the parish church in 1541 on the Eve of the Circumcision, House Postil III:256.

"He employed this mode of presence when He left the closed grave and came through the closed door, in the bread and wine in the Supper, and, as people believe, when He was born in His mother." 1577, SD VII:100

"He showed His divine majesty even in His mother's womb, because He was born of a virgin without violating her virginity. Therefore, she is truly the mother of God and yet has remained a virgin." 1577, SD VIII:24

A Gift

It was Christmas in 1970. I think it was also the year that my sister-in-law Peggy was so sick - she almost died from a viral infection that stopped her lungs. Under the tree I found a gift, a brand new King James Bible with my name imprinted on the front and a beautiful silver bookmark to go in it. On the gift page was inscribed "To Billy from Mom and Dad." I remember falling in love with it right away - the book itself, I mean, not its contents. It had the most wonderful smell (the ink, I suppose) and that smell still lingers in it somewhat. The KJV was a steep hill for a 9 year old. It took me a while to actually be able to read it and appreciate how it sings, how even in prose it speaks like a poet. Throughout my teen years I scribbled in it, studied it, and it came to be my regular Bible for praying the Psalter. The zipper long since came loose. I had to duct tape the covers together. The pages have yellowed a bit. But I keep it in the washstand that serves as my night stand. I still love pulling it out and reading through the Psalms now and again. It was truly a wonderful gift to give a 9 year old. Thanks, Mom and Dad.

Patristic Quote of the Day

Christ has only one mother in the flesh, but we all bring forth Christ by faith. - St. Ambrose, Homily (Christian Prayer, p. 1954)

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

O let us admire the marvelous goodness of our God,, who, when we could not ascend to Him, hesitated not to descend to us. Let us stand in wonder at the marvelous power of our God, who was able to unite in one two natures so diverse as the divine and human, so that one and the same Person is now both God and man. -- Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XIV

David's Pic of the Tree

More of Today

Christmas Trees

smell good, but I don't imagine they taste good. Salmon patties (MUST be made with the red sockeye salmon - costs more for a good reason!) taste wonderful, but they don't smell good. When salmon and Christmas tree do battle, I'm afraid that the salmon wins. Well, hopefully with a little help from candles and some cookies baking the not so wonderful smell of embertide lunch will fade away?

The Old Folks

Tree Trimming

O Oriens!

O Dayspring, Splendor of light everlasting, Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

There is a darkness about this world. And this darkest day of the year is but an image of that deeper darkness. The darkness of our sin, which locks us in a prison of old habits and fears. The darkness of our death and the death of those we love, which brings a darkness into the soul that is palpable. Dylan Thomas urged his father to "rage and fight against the dying of the light" - but he went into that dark night all the same. For those in such darkness, there is no fight left. The people sit. They sit and wait and know they cannot fight it, overcome it, destroy it. It's far bigger and badder than they. But in the darkness they can still do one thing: they can pray. They can call to Him who is a Light that no darkness ever has or ever will overcome, and pray for His gracious visitation. They can ask for His presence to lighten the darkness and lead them to that place "where the angels singing with all His saints unite, sweetest praises bringing, in heavenly joy and light!" This the Church does on this darkest day, calling out:

O come, Thou Dayspring from on high
And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh.
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight!
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

St. Thomas' Day

Today our Synod (together with Lutherans worldwide and Western Rite Orthodox and Anglicans) commemorates St. Thomas, the Twin, the disciple who doubted, and whose doubt was healed by Christ a week after the original Easter. The whole story is told in the wonderful hymn: "O Sons and Daughters of the King!"

When Thomas first the tidings heard
That they had seen the risen Lord,
He doubted the disciples' word. Alleluia.

"My pierced side, O Thomas, see,
And look upon My hands, My feet;
Not faithless but believing be." Alleluia!

No longer Thomas then denied;
He saw the feet, the hands, the side;
"You are my Lord and God!" he cried. Alleluia!

How blest are they who have not seen
And yet whose faith has constant been,
For they eternal life shall win. Alleluia! (LSB 471:5-8)

The collect rejoices that God strengthened Thomas with firm and certain faith in the resurrection, and asks that we may be given such faith also and so never be found wanting in God's sight. St. Thomas' Day, falling so close to Christmas as it always does, reminds us that in the days to come we must press beyond what we see to what God reveals about what we see. We see a Child, lying in the manger, nursing at his mother's breast. But faith, which is the certainty of what is not seen, assures us that this Child is indeed "my Lord and my God" - the One through whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made that has been made; that this Child is the Life and Light of men that shines into the darkness; that in Him we meet and embrace a Forgiveness greater than all our sin and a Life stronger than all our death.

And St. Thomas and the Nativity tie together in another way. For at the consecration when He comes to us again in the Body born of Mary and the Blood poured out on the tree - the very Body Thomas touched - it is an ancient and salutary practice to confess with St. Thomas at the elevation: "My Lord and my God."

It Wouldn't Be Christmas Without Reading It:

CHRISTMAS  
John Betjeman


The bells of waiting Advent ring, 
    
The Tortoise stove is lit again

And lamp-oil light across the night 
    
Has caught the streaks of winter rain

In many a stained-glass window sheen 

From Crimson Lake to Hooker’s Green. 



The holly in the windy hedge 
    
And round the Manor House the yew 

Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge, 
    
The altar, font and arch and pew, 

So that the villagers can say 

“The church looks nice” on Christmas Day. 



Provincial public houses blaze 
    
And Corporation tramcars clang, 

On lighted tenements I gaze 
    
Where paper decorations hang,

And bunting in the red Town Hall 

Says “Merry Christmas to you all.”



And London shops on Christmas Eve 
    
Are strung with silver bells and flowers 

As hurrying clerks the City leave 
    
To pigeon-haunted classic towers, 

And marbled clouds go scudding by 

The many-steepled London sky. 



And girls in slacks remember Dad, 
    
And oafish louts remember Mum, 

And sleepless children’s’ hearts are glad, 
    
And Christmas-morning bells say “Come!” 

Even to shining ones who dwell

Safe in the Dorchester Hotel.



And is it true?  And is it true, 
    
This most tremendous tale of all, 

Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue, 
    
A Baby in an ox’s stall? 

The Maker of the stars and sea 

Become a Child on earth for me?



And is it true?  For if it is, 
    
No loving fingers tying strings

Around those tissued fripperies, 
    
The sweet and silly Christmas things,

Bath salts and inexpensive scent

And hideous tie so kindly meant, 



No love that in a family dwells, 
    
Nor carolling in frosty air, 

Nor all the steeple-shaking bells 
    
Can with this single Truth compare-- 

That God was Man in Palestine 

And lives to-day in Bread and Wine.

You all know

that I love LSB. I think it is a great Hymnal and Service Book. BUT there are times I get very irritated with it. Christmas Day's collect is one of them.

The Latin original for this beautiful collect contrasts the new birth in the flesh of Christ with our ancient servitude under the yoke of sin - and rejoices that in Christ the newness breaks through the oldness of sin and death to liberate us.

Well, the LSB collect retained the notion of freedom from the bondage of sin, but totally left out "the new" and "the old" and I can't for the life of me figure out why. With the birth of Christ in the flesh all is new ("Behold, I make all things new!" and "the old has passed away, the new has come!") and the old yoke is smashed - a new world opens up.

Hand in hand with that is the way that some translate the "Everlasting Father" of Isaiah 9 as "Father of the Age to Come." In other words, Christ as the new constitutive center of the coming age stepping into the place parallel to Adam in this old age. In Christ's new birth all things can become new again. Sad that it was dropped.

A Christmas Eve Homily from Yesteryear

(I'm not preaching Christmas Eve this year, but here is an offering from years past)

Tonight the angels rejoice! Tonight the Shepherds wonder! Tonight in the darkness of the stable-cave, she who had known no man, nor ever would, gives birth! Joseph held in his arms the little Child who created the world, who in unfathomable love for us has taken on our poor flesh and blood to restore that which had fallen. Tonight God visits us: not by taking the mere appearance of a man, nor the body of an angel. He visits us by being born a little Child “to bear and fight and die.” That is the mystery of this night, its joy and its light.

For the Babe laid in the manger is the Light that shines in the darkness of this world. And the darkness does not understand and has not overcome Him! He shines with the brightness of the Father’s love! Without this birth, this Child, life itself would be meaningless, filled with darkness, despair, death. But this Child is born and darkness is banished! This Child is born and despair takes flight! This Child is born and death cries out in anguish, knowing that its dominion over the human race is at an end.

The shepherds are astonished. The night around them shines likes the day. No, brighter, for it is no light of this world that shines upon them, but the unending light of heaven’s courts. As they stand, awe-struck, the Flaming Spirit, the Angel of the Lord, speaks: “Fear not! Fear not, for I am not sent to you watchers in the night with a message of woe. It is true that you are not worthy to so much as gaze upon the splendor of the light in which we live, but ere this night is over you shall gaze upon that which is so much greater! Listen, O Watchers! For I bring you good news of great joy – joy such as this earth has not heard since the days of Paradise. Joy that shall flood your hearts and lives, and not yours alone. Oh, no! The joy that I speak of is for you and for all people, for the high and the low, the rich and the poor, and the harlot and the virgin. Today, this very night, in the City of David, a Savior has been born. Born to you! Born for you! This is He whom seers in old time chanted of with one accord, whom the voices of the Prophets promised in their sacred Word. Now He shines, the long-expected, let creation praise it’s Lord, evermore and evermore!”

“O Shepherds, ask me not how it can be! We marvel! We worship and adore! This Child, this Savior that is born for you, is He who sits upon His eternal throne: God, the Word, the Everlasting Son, of the Father’s love begotten ere the worlds began to be! He is Alpha and Omega! He the Source, the Ending He, of the things that are, that have been, and that future years shall see. Evermore and evermore!”

“And do you seek some sign? Oh, Shepherds, listen well. Do not expect to find him wrapped in velvets soft and silken stuff! Not all the furs and jewels of this world are worthy of Him who is Maker of all. You will find Him wrapped in swaddling bands! You will find Him lying in a manger! O mystery of mysteries, Shepherds in the night! His mother wraps swaddling bands about Him and confines God’s feet and hands. So great His love for you, O sons of Adam!”

And even as the Angel speaks the hosts of heaven can hold back their joy no more. The skies blaze with even greater light. The air fills with endless song. The hills echo it back: “Glory! Glory! Glory to God in the highest! And peace! Peace on earth, good will toward men.” And as suddenly as the light appeared, it is gone.

Silence. Awe. Wonder. Eyes turned up to the skies, filled with tears of joy inexpressible. Eyes that slowly lower and look into one another. “To Bethlehem! To the Child! Let us see! Hurry! Let us behold with our own eyes what the Lord has declared to us!” Running. Skipping. Laughing. Crying. To Bethlehem.

The stable cave is quiet now. The Child asleep. He who feeds the ravens and all creatures when they call, has fed at Mary’s breast. Mary resting. Joseph standing in silence and looking down on the Wonder of the ages. The sound of running feet. Awkward looks. “Shhh! This is the place!” Coming in, kneeling down, looking at the rhythmic pattern of His breathing. Tears again. Overflowing. Daring to touch, to touch even Him. And then whispers. The story retold. Angel. Light. Message. Savior. Music. Glory. Peace. The mother’s eyes shining. Her heart bursting as stores it all away. Treasures it all. Blesses God in heart for it all. For the Child. Her Child. The Child of promise. The Child whose coming sets us free from sin and death.

Slowly, reluctantly, leave-taking. Back to the fields. Once outside, the joy filling again. Singing. Glorifying God and praising Him. Echoes of heaven’s song. Telling everyone what has happened.

O people loved by God, the story is true. Christ is born! Born for you and born for me! Born our Savior. Sent out of the Father’s love to bring us life and light, torestore us to joy! In a garden, when the world was young, a woman handed man the fruit from a tree and death came upon us all. We were banished from paradise, exiled from home. In a stable-cave, in the darkness of the night, a woman gave to us a Child, who is Himself the Tree of Life. Paradise is opened again, when Jesus is born of the pure Virgin! In true faith, eat of Him and live! In true faith, welcome Him into your heart and into your life, the Savior promised long. Christ is born! Glorify Him! Christ from heaven! Receive Him! Christ is now on earth! Exalt Him! O earth, sing to the Lord! O people so loved and so favored, praise the Savior born for you! Amen.

All My Heart

All my heart again rejoices
As I hear
Far and near
Sweetest angel voices.
"Christ is born!" their choirs are singing
Till the air
Everywhere
Now with joy is ringing.

Hear! The Conqueror has spoken:
"Now the foe, sin and woe,
Death and hell are broken!"
God is man, man to deliver,
And the Son
Now is one
With our blood forever.

Should we fear our God's displeasure,
Who, to save,
Freely gave
His most precious treasure?
To redeem us He has given
His own Son
From the throne
Of His might in heaven.

See the Lamb, our sin once taking,
To the cross,
Suff'ring loss,
Full atonement making.
For our life, His own He tenders,
And His grace
All our race
Fit for glory renders.

Softly from His lowly manger,
Jesus calls
One and all,
"You are safe from danger.
Children, from the sins that grieve you
You are freed;
All you need
I will surely give you."

Come, then, banish all your sadness!
One and all,
Great and small,
Come with songs of gladness.
We shall live with Him forever
There on high
In that joy
Which will vanish never.

by Paul Gerhardt, LSB #360

Plans for the Feast

Our plans, God willing, begin with opening of gifts on Christmas Eve morning (an expedient we adopted many years ago since the service schedule doesn't really permit much else), at which Cindi will serve up her famous Kringler. Then in the early afternoon we'll have a big brunch. We hope that Aunt Sandy will be up and about by then (she's a night owl) and join Jo and Dave and the Herberts and Weedons for Cindi's "pull out all the stops" breakfast. Then a quiet afternoon and preparation for the evening services.

At 6:30 on Christmas eve, the preservice music begins. Then at 7 p.m. is the Children's Service. As the children leave the church, they pick up a bag of goodies. Many folks then migrate over to the parsonage to visit and share good cheer until time rolls around for the Candle-light Divine Service. This starts at 11 and finishes up at midnight. This year, Seminarian Richard Rikli (former principal at Trinity-St. Paul) will be homilist. This quiet service in the late night is one of my favorites of the year. Cindi sings during distribution of the sacrament "O Holy Night" and the kids provide some special music too.

The main Christmas celebration takes place the next morning at 9:00 with the Divine Service for Christmas Day. Bell Choir and Adult Choir lead us in our celebration and adoration of the Word made Flesh, who comes to us still in the very body and blood He received from His mother Mary and in which our salvation was won. "Oh, come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!"

Christmas dinner may run up to 13, we're thinking. Jo's making roast beef, potatoes and gravy, and popovers. We're also serving a smoked turkey, cornbread, and assorted other goodies. Cindi informs me that no less than five desserts will grace the occasion: Cherry-peach pie, chocolate pie, apple pie, chocolate-almond cheesecake, and (low carb???) pecan pie. To be a Weedon means that PIE is the dessert of choice and should be served in overflowing abundance!

Aunt Sandy and her former husband, Lucky, will be joining us, together with their son Russell and his wife Kayla. Also Dave and Jo, the Weedon clan, and Dean and Lauren Herberts. Looking forward to it a great deal, and hope that all of you have a joyous and blessed festival of the Lord's Nativity also!

O Clavis David!

O Key of David and scepter of the house of Israel, You open and no one can close, You close and no one can open: Come and rescue the prisoners who are in darkness and the shadow of death!

Revelation and Isaiah are dancing in the background of this name for our Lord. But the thought is clearly the opening of paradise, the door that was shut in the fall. Our Lord can set before us that open door and bid us come through, out of our death-bound prison into a life that never ends. For some reason I always think of the Last Battle, and the door to the stable. "In our world too a stable once had something inside that was bigger than our whole world," Lucy said. And that stable door which is opened for us at Bethlehem opens to a world where the "higher up and further in" never can be exhausted. This is the door that Christ opens for us. The door that He is. The door that He is the key to unlock. In HIM we find paradise restored and more. He lifts us higher than from where Adam fell. He invites us to step through the door with Him and become by grace what He is by nature: children of God.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heav'nly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

SWEET!

You know, one of my all time favorite pieces from that Praetorius Christmas Mass is the Puer Nobis / Ein Kind Geboren. I was bumming that I've not seen it in any of our English hymnals, but I tried googling and look at what I found!!!

click here

There's the music. Now, I like the words that Krauth translated better. There are available here:

click here

I think the Weedon family just found an assignment for sometime during the Christmas season!!!

P.S. Better yet, Pastor Jerry Gernander has pointed out to me that the version from the Oxford Book of Carols may be found at ELH #112 - with Praetorius' setting no less! Truly ELH is one of the gems of the new hymnals when it comes to the musical content!

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Let us with glad voices join in the angels' song, and render unto the Lord the thanks due unto His name for His marvelous benefits to us. Let us rejoice and shout for joy with the whole multitude of the heavenly host. For if the angels rejoiced so greatly on our account, how much more ought we to rejoice to whom this Child is born, to whom this Son is given. If the Israelites lifted up their voices in jubilant shouts when the Ark of the Covenant was brought back to them, which was a type and a shadow of the incarnation of our dear Lord, how much more ought we to rejoice, since our Lord Himself hath come down to us in the assumption of our human nature. - Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XIV.

Patristic Quote of the Day

That the Creator is in his creature and God is in the flesh brings dignity to man without dishonor to Him who made him. - St. Peter Chrysologus, Homily

O Radix Jesse!

O Root of Jesse, standing as an ensign before the peoples, before whom all kings are mute, to whom the nations will do homage: Come quickly to deliver us!

The Root of Jesse? Is our Lord not the flower of Jesse's stem? He is both root and flower, the Alpha and the Omega. As the Root of Jesse He stands as an ensign, a signal and banner, a rallying point for the nations. We, the Gentiles, come before Him and bow in silence as our King reigns in Triumph upon His cross, the Victor over sin and death. Jesse ties specifically to the promises of the kingship, and we see His kingly power displayed chiefly in showing mercy and pity.

Today the Head Gardener in the monastery might be privileged to give a special gift to the brothers and to sing the great O Antiphon.

O come, Thou Branch of Jesse's tree,
Free them from Satan's tyranny
That trust Thy mighty pow'r to save,
And give them vict'ry o'er the grave:
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel! (LSB 357:4)

Homily for Advent IV

[Deuteronomy 18:15-19 / Philippians 4:4-7 / John 1:19-28]

Most people like to talk about themselves, whether they admit it or not. I am reminded of two southern belles visiting, and the one was rather monopolizing the conversation. At last she took a breather and said: “Well, enough of me talking about myself, honey. Why don’t you talk about me for a little bit?”

Yet nothing could be further from the spirit of St. John the Baptist. Not only do his short, clipped answers come across like a typical New Englander, but what answers you can squeeze out of him seem to tell you mostly who he is not. He is not the Christ. He is not Elijah. He is not the prophet (that’s the one promised in our Old Testament reading today from Deuteronomy who would be like Moses, a mediator between God and the people). In sheer exasperation the Jerusalem delegation demands: “Give us something to report to those who sent us. Who are you? What do you say about yourself?”

“Me?” John seems to say. “I don’t have anything to say about myself, but Isaiah had a thing or two to say. He called me a voice out in the wilderness crying ‘Prepare the way of the Lord.’”

A voice? Did he say he was just a voice? A wilderness voice? A voice calling for folks to get ready for the coming of the Lord? Yep. That’s what the man said alright. He was just a voice.

Well, then, they wanted to know, “Tell us. voice, who gave you the authority to baptize, to promise forgiveness of sins, if you are not the Christ and not Elijah and not the prophet? By whose authority?”

John’s answer at first doesn’t sound like an answer at all. He says: “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. It is He who coming after me is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.”

That’s John’s answer. The One among them, whom they do not recognize, is the One who has authorized John to preach and invite people to repentance. He is the One who has authorized John to summon all people to leave behind the old ways of sinful self-sufficiency and pride, and to embrace the new life that depends entirely on the mercy of God. This is the One who is so much greater than John, preferred before Him because He was before Him. You see, though our Lord was born six months after His kinsman, John, John knows that He is the One who was before all ages. He is the Word through whom John and you and I and all things were made. He is the Word become flesh and dwelling among us.

And look at what that One has come to do! He did not come among us to be served, not even to have sandals latched, but He came among us in order to serve us! For the water of Baptism flows at His authorization and what it grants is nothing less than washing clean of sins – freeing us both from sin’s guilt and from sin’s power over our lives. He stoops to serve us!

John was content to be nothing but a voice announcing the coming of that One who serves us all by being the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Being that voice defined John’s whole life. He didn’t want to talk about himself, because he was sent to talk about the Greater One who is among us and whose sandals we are not worthy to untie, but who comes to be our Savior. In that he points all pastors and all Christians to what they are always to be talking about.

In the Church, the talk is not about us. No, “enough of me talking about me, why don’t you talk about me for a while.” In the Church, the talk is always all about Another. It is about the One whose sandals we are not worthy to untie. It is about the One who is infinitely greater than we, because He was before us all, for we are surely, each one, the work of His hands even as we are also, each one, the creatures of His own redeeming. He came among us as one of us precisely so that could serve all of us. He shouldered our sins as He carried His cross, and He died our death, and shattered our hell, and by overcoming the sharpness of death He opened up the Kingdom of heaven to all believers. Truly, the Son of Man did not come among us to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as the ransom for the many, indeed, for all.

Advent is almost over, and the time of overflowing joy is about to begin. And so John does us the service yet again this year of focusing all the joy of the Church entirely in Jesus. John’s words remind us that the joy of the coming days is not found in presents and memories and family gatherings and sentiments of good will and cheer – blessings though they are. It is certainly not found in gluttony and drunkenness – blessings they are not. In the next few days, God willing, we’ll be staring with Mary and Joseph and the Shepherds in wonder at the Child who is indeed among us, our Immanuel. We’ll be singing songs of greeting to Him and rejoicing that He came among us and most of all rejoicing in why He came among us. John teaches us that the joy of the Church, and the joy of each of our lives is found in the One who is among us, Immanuel, in Jesus Christ, our Lord, because only in Jesus is there forgiveness of sins. Only in Jesus is the remedy for those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death. “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Before we greet Him in the manger, one more time let us welcome Him as He comes to us at His Table, bearing the only Christmas gifts that any of us need, gifts that none of us can live without. To Him alone with His Father and All-holy and life giving Spirit be all glory and honor now and unto the ages of ages! Amen.

O Adonai!

O Adonai and Ruler of the House of Israel,
Who appeared to Moses in the burning bush
and gave him the Law on Sinai,
Come with an outstretched arm and save us!

Tonight we will recall that not only is our Lord the Logos, the Logic of the universe, but He is at one with Yahweh, with Adonai. There is no discontinuity between the Old and Testament revelations. For the same Lord stands at the center of both. It was HE, the divine Son, who appeared to Moses in the burning bush announcing His determination to rescue His people from their slavery, for He had seen and known their struggles. And it was HE, the Eternal Logos, who gave the very Law of God, the Ten Commandments as a priceless gift to His people that they might understand what a life of love truly looks like, see how far they have fallen, and cry to Him for the mercy and salvation that is in Him alone. To this Lord, this Adonai, who spoke and who speaks through the words of the Old Testament, we join in the cry:

"Come with outstretched arm and save us!"

Outstretched arm? We think of the infant in his mother's arms nursing, as his tiny fingers curl and uncurl around her finger. We think of the man who reached out his arm and touched lepers and raised the dead. We think most of all of the man who stretched out His arms on the wood of the cross that He might save us, opening His arms wide enough to embrace a world!

O come, O come, Thou Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai's height,
In ancient times didst give the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

"Glory to God in the highest" they sang, because by the wilful transgression of His command our first parent sought to rob God of His glory. The birth of Christ brought true peace to men, who before this were enemies of God, were at war with their own consciences, and at variance among themselves. True peace was thus restored to earth, because he was overcome who had led us captive at his will. -- Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XIV

Patristic Quote of the Day

The Conqueror's victory would have profited us nothing if the battle had been fought outside our human condition. Bt through this wonderful blending the mystery of the new birth shone upon us, so that through the same Spirit by whom Christ was conceived and brought forth we too might be born again in a spiritual birth; and in consequence the evangelist declares the faithful to have been born not of blood, nor of the desire of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. - St. Leo the Great, A Letter (Christian Prayer, p. 1951)

O Sapientia!

At Vespers tonight the Magnificat is framed by the first of the Great O Antiphons.

O Wisdom, proceeding from the mouth of the Most High,
pervading and permeating the whole creation,
mightily ordering all things:
Come and teach us the way of prudence!

Our Lord is Logos - the very logic of the universe itself is disclosed in Him, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The key to life itself is not found anywhere else but in the Exemplar by whose wisdom we were made: the Eternal Word and Son of the Father. Why are you here? What is the purpose and meaning of life? What sort of life is really life and not just vanity? These all find their answers in Him alone, in our Lord Jesus. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, a good understanding have all they that keep His commandments. His praise endures forever!

It is said that on this day in the monasteries, the librarian might have a special gift to give to the other brothers. He was recognized as the Keeper of Wisdom. He got to intone this first of the Great O Antiphons, which mark the final tilt of Advent toward the great joy of the Christmas Feast.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high
Who ord'rest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show
And teach in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

An Icy Fog

We woke to a rather icy fog this morning. Here are some photos that Cindi took:

Despite the Snow

We still had services this weekend. 30 came out last night. 44 brave souls showed up for the early service. 82 came for late service. WAY down in numbers, but truthfully more than I expected given the conditions of the roads. There is something wonderful about a Gaudete swathed in snow! I hope some of it is still around for Lessons and Carols this Wednesday. A huge thank you to our trustees and Dave Steinmann for getting the parking lot open and ready for use so early this morning!

In Front of St. Paul's

Cindi took this tonight in front of St. Paul's as the snow was coming down fast and furious. Still is.

Such a Quiet Man

Today is my father's birthday. Stuart Maupin Weedon was born to Chancellor Barbour Weedon and Bessie James Maupin Weedon on this day in 1920. He served his country in the army in World War II. He married Mildred Hume Mastin at an army base in Wisconsin. Their union brought forth five children, of which I was the very last (when he was already 40 years old). He had one brother, Edgar Jackson Weedon, and he is still alive. He died when I was 19, back in January of 1980. Most of my life, then, I've been without my father.

He was not one for book learning - I think he had an innate suspicion of something that he just didn't get. But he never tried to squeeze his children into any pre-conceived molds. He saw that I was made for books and not baseball and that never seemed to bother him one bit. I think he would do anything I asked of him if it were in his power. I still remember two shocking occasions from my youth. First, I asked him to buy me a piano. And he did. I asked for it Friday, I think, an we bought it on Saturday. That and the lessons that went with it were the greatest gifts that I've ever received from anyone. Music became the very joy of my life. Second, I remember mentioning to him that we needed new living room furniture (ours was looking rather ratty having gone through all five of us kids!), and he took me out and let me select the living room furniture - and and the carpet! My mother just laughed. At least she liked the choices I made.

He and mom never spoke when we rode in the car. So as a teen I gave up the constant chatter and learned to just ride along in silence. What did he think about all the time? I'll never know, I don't suppose.

He was diagnosed with brain cancer in August and was dead four months later. It was the fall and winter from hell around our house. And yet I treasure the memories of all the family being together. He wanted to see snow before he died, and it began snowing that day. Snow still reminds me of that morning. I even remember what I was playing on the piano when Joe (himself dead now for over 20 years) called me to come in and say goodbye - I'd just learned Bach's two-part inventions #14 and #2. In a room of silence except for weeping we said goodbye. He died at home in his own bed, surrounded by his wife and five children.

Happy birthday, daddy! I love you.

Well, if they are right about the snow...

...we might have a day tomorrow worthy of pulling out that John Greenleaf Whittier favorite "Snow-Bound." Yeah, I know that even if we GET the six inches forecast, that hardly amounts to a real "snow bound" but we've had so little these last years, I think I'd better take advantage of what we have when we have it to read that lovely poem. I remember when I first came across it my first year in Bronxville (when we had several decent snows that left us "bound").

If You've Not Done It Yet

You really should: experience the Lutheran Christmas Mass from the days of real music in our churches, the Praetorius Christmette - downloaded the whole album from iTunes this a.m. I know, I'm behind on this because folks have been recommending this recording for years, but I just got around to it. It is both beautiful, peaceful, and jubilant beyond the ability of mere words to describe. The chanting of the Collect, Epistle, Holy Gospel, Our Father and Words of our Lord are particularly striking. And the German Sanctus (Isaiah, Mighty Seer) which follows upon the consecration is the very music of heaven itself.

You know..

...I just bumped our DSL speed yesterday. We'd been using the cheapo 256K and went up to 3000K. Hmm. NOW I see why you all like You Tube - it just used to drive us crazy! Live and learn.

Great Story on Pastor Meinzen

Pastor Larry Meinzen, member of St. Paul's, had this great write up in our local rag. Enjoy:

Pastor Meinzen

Greatest Idea for Bumper Sticker

I've seen this round numerous Lutheran blogs this year, and I couldn't agree more:

Put the MASS Back in ChristMAS!

Divine Service will be celebrated at St. Paul's is at 9:00 a.m. ChristMASS morning, God willing.

Attending the Divine Service and letting the One who once came to you in flesh and blood and was laid in the manger come to you still in the very flesh and blood He received from His blessed Mother, well, that's HOW you put CHRIST back in CHRIST-MASS! As the Alleluia Verse for the Christmas Day Divine Service says it:

"Alleluia! A holy day has dawned upon us. Come, all you nations, and worship the Lord. Alleluia!"

If the Church is summoning the nations to join her, she'd best be there herself, eh?

Homily for Gaudete - 2007

[Isaiah 40:1-8 / 1 Cor. 4:1-5 / Matthew 11:2-11]

We would be quite mistaken if we supposed that people only asked questions because they wanted to obtain information that they wouldn’t otherwise have. I spend a bit of my time teaching, and to do so, I ask questions. And there are plenty of times when I ask a question that I already know the answer to. I do so because I want my students to discover the answer for themselves.

Such an instance meets us in today’s Gospel. A surface reading might have you thinking that St. John the Baptist had fallen into doubt about the Christ. After all, what other reason could he possibly have for sending from prison his disciples so to ask Christ: “ARE you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

But stop and think for a moment. This is the man who, unlike any of us, was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb. This is the man who confessed his Lord even before birth. This is the man who baptized our Lord, saw the Spirit descend upon Him, heard the very voice of the Father say that Jesus was His Son, His beloved, in whom He was well-pleased. This is the man who pointed to Jesus and cried out: Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is the man who freely acknowledged: “He must increase, and I must decrease.” And now, just because he is in prison and hears of the miracles of Christ, he’s in a crisis of faith?

No. The fathers of the Church together with the fathers of the Reformation tell us we’re barking up the wrong tree if we suppose that. St. John the Baptist was NOT in doubt. But he had disciples who stuck to him like burrs to a dog. He was in prison. In Herod’s prison. I don’t suppose he ever expected to get out. And he knew he was the Lord’s forerunner - the forerunner of Him whom he named “Lamb of God.” You remember what they do to Lambs, don’t you? And he was to be forerunner. Do you understand?

I suspect it was because he was anticipating the moment of his own death that he sent his disciples to Jesus after he heard what Jesus was up to. He put a question to the Lord through their mouths. He didn’t need to hear what Jesus would say - remember, he’d already heard about what the Lord was doing. But they needed to hear it. Needed to take to heart our Lord’s answer.

And what an answer it was. Jesus sends them packing back to John with these words: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

What a message to carry back! Jesus could just as well have said: “Isaiah’s prophesies are unfolding before your very eyes, every last one of them.” And in that long list there was one word that they needed to hold to more than any other.

Our Lord doesn’t see the way we see. He knows the future. He sees already these men, weeping brokenhearted at the death of their beloved John, so cruel and so utterly senseless. So in the midst of all the rest was the crown jewel: “and the dead are raised up.” John would rejoice at that word to, and maybe they were the last words he whispered to himself when the sword was raised. “The dead are raised up.” But with their beloved John dead, where else could they turn, but back to the One who raises the dead? Back to the One whose every deed disclosed the secret that He was Yahweh in our flesh and blood, the Eternal Son of the Father come to save us from sin and death?

Do you need to hear that word too? I suspect you do. I know I do. A friend wrote me this week about how the grief was like a sucker-punch. Hit him out of nowhere. He’d lost his dad this past year. The grief weighs heavier in these days, I think, than at any other time. We remember those we have loved, and whose presence brightened our days and filled them with laughter. And they’re gone. And we feel sometimes as cold and dreary inside as a December day.

Is it any accident that the holy Church on this day cries out: “Lighten the darkness of our hearts by your gracious visitation!” We beg the Lord Jesus not to leave us, but to come to us so that His light would chase the darkness away.

John asked his question because he knew that those disciples he loved so much needed more than he could ever give them. So he sent them to Jesus. And his question has done the same for us this Gaudete morning. John has sent us to Jesus, to the Only One who CAN lighten our darkness, because He comes bringing good news that He is the forgiver of sinners and the resurrection of the dead.

In today’s second reading, St. Paul warns us against pronouncing judgment before the time. We’re always tempted to do that on others and on ourselves - and, sad to say, on God Himself. But the Apostle urges us to wait and be patient. He tells us that the Lord when He comes will bring to light the things that now are hidden and that He will disclose the purposes of the heart. Not just our hearts, but he purposes of His own heart. We’ll see clearly then what now is such a blur and befuddlement.

But amid the many things we can’t be certain of, this we can be sure about: the one St. John sends us to meet is the One whose deeds reveal Him to be indisputably God come in our flesh, not to wipe us out and give us our just desserts, but to love us, to hold us, to heal us. The God who came to know all our sorrows, even the sorrow of death itself.

Risen from the dead and ascended in glory, He comes to you again today - the very same Lord who shouldered your sin on Calvary and who left your death crushed in the dust beneath His feet on Easter morning - He comes to you and feeds into you His body and blood. “For you” he says. “For the forgiveness of your sins.” As though he said: “This is the light that I will shine into your darkness. You are mine and I am yours and I will never let anything part you from my love. Come, child, take, eat and drink. I will be Your all. And I WILL bring you home. Promise.”

And so we confess: You are the One who is to come, and we look for no other, for You alone, Lord Jesus, with Your Father and Your all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, are the only true God to whom be all glory and honor, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Commemoration of St. Lucy

Today our Synod commemorates St. Lucia (or Lucy). From our website:

December 13
Lucia, Martyr

One of the victims of the great persecution under the Roman emperor Diocletian, Lucia met her death at Syracuse on the island of Sicily in the year A.D. 304, because of her Christian faith. Known for her charity, “Santa Lucia” (as she is called in Italy) gave away her dowry and remained a virgin until her execution by the sword. The name Lucia means “light,” and, because of that, festivals of light commemorating her became popular throughout Europe, especially in the Scandinavian countries. There her feast day corresponds with the time of year when there is the least amount of daylight. In artistic expression she is often portrayed in a white baptismal gown, wearing a wreath of candles on her head.

From the Brotherhood Prayer Book:

Jesus Christ is the same; Yesterday, today, and forever.

Let us pray. Almighty God, who didst give Thy servant Lucia boldness to confess the Name of our Saviour Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we likewise may ever be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us and to suffer gladly for His sake; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

I'll be doing a spot on St. Lucy today on Issues, Etc. at 3:30 p.m., God willing.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

The angel bids the shepherds "Fear not!" because of the birth of Him who should remove from us every cause of fear. Good tidings of great joy are announced, because the author and giver of all joy was born into the world. - Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XIV

Patristic Quote of the Day

The prophets, receiving this gift of prophecy from the same Word, foretold his coming in the flesh, which brought about the union and communion between God and man ordained by the Father. -- St. Irenaeus, *Against Heresies*

"Let My Prayer Rise" - Reflections on a Not Botched Evening Prayer

Our Evening Prayer tonight was really beautiful. Not being in full voice yet, there was no danger of me bellowing. But more importantly, instead of providing the outline in the bulletin (as was done last week), this week I used Lutheran Service Builder to produce the bulletin that was then exported to Word and tweaked (YES, I still use Word on the exports of the LSBuilder - but that's the only thing!). The entire order was printed out and the difference was night and day. It helps enormously with the flow (i.e., not interrupting the prayerful atmosphere) when you don't hear panicked paging and hunting down of hymns. Also, thanks to some very good advice, I backed down on the amount of new music that I was throwing at the people and used basically the opening from Evening Prayer in Hymnal Supplement 98. We still sang Psalm 141, the Magnificat (though Cindi did the verses) and the Litany. I couldn't get over the difference once the congregation was back in their comfort zone and had the service right in front of their noses to pray along. Sooner or later we'll learn the Phos Hilaron in Evening Prayer - but it has some tough competition in the people's hearts with the paraphrase "O Light Whose Splendor." They also do the Magnificat a bit grudgingly because they absolutely love David Haas' "Holy Is Your Name" and think it is the ONLY way the Magnificat should be sung. I persist in trying to broaden their horizons. It's probably a hopeless case on that one.

Truly Evening Prayer is an oasis of peace. In the hectic holiday rat race, it's a place of calm to come, be still, and remember who is God: the Child in the Manger, the Man upon the Cross, the Victor over sin and death, the One from whose love nothing in all creation can separate us. We need more time for Evening Prayer in our lives.

But next week we will observe the beautiful service hijacked from the Anglicans: A Service of Lessons and Carols. That has become a bi-parish tradition, featuring the musical ensembles from St. Paul's and Trinity. More on that one later.

To The Bored

In today's world that's tantamount to an unforgivable sin: to be boring. And surely anything that bores a person is regarded as an intolerable burden.

And then there's Lutheran liturgy. Boring. Same old, same old. Hymn sung. Prayers prayed. Scriptures heard. Sermons preached. Offerings gathered. Intercessions offered. Thanksgiving raised. Words of our Lord gratefully heard. Body and Blood eaten and drunk. More songs. Blessing and you're out of there. Come back next week for the same. And the week after and the week after. Interminable boredom?

It's a secret we Lutherans like to keep to ourselves, but many of us prefer the same, same old that the Church has been living off of for, lo these thousands of years, to the nifty stuff that appeals to the entertainment itch of our sinful flesh. Old fashioned Lutherans don't come to Church to have the entertainment itch scratched; old fashioned Lutherans come to Church to feast on God's Word and to receive the unspeakable joy of our Lord's body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins. The Word isn't given to entertain us (though at times it is entertaining), but to sanctify us. The Word makes all things holy. And so our Symbols remind us:

“Places, times, persons, and the entire outward order of worship have therefore been instituted and appointed in order that the Word of God may exert its power publicly.” Large Catechism, I:94

and also here:

“Therefore in his immeasurable goodness and mercy God provides for the public proclamation of his divine eternal law and of the wondrous counsel of our redemption, the holy gospel of his eternal Son, our only Savior Jesus Christ, which alone can save. By means of this proclamation he gathers an everlasting church from humankind, and he effects in human hearts true repentance and knowledge of sin and true faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. God wants to call human beings to eternal salvation, to draw them to himself, to convert them, to give them new birth and to sanctify them through these means, and in no other way than through his holy Word (which people hear proclaimed and read) and through the sacraments (which they use according to the Word). SD II:50

Just as we are not meant to be mere consumers, we are not meant to be spectators in the audience. We are guests of the Divine Master, invited to a feast where nothing less than the very Life of all life is offered up to us in rich fare. You can WATCH life portrayed before you in entertaining ways, or you can RECEIVE life via ear and mouth. Honestly, you tell me which sounds more exciting? Yes, it looks a tad boring to the world; which is why the world will spurn it and go on to what it deems is more exciting and entertaining. For us old fashioned, boring Lutherans, we can only shake our head at the sadness of the choice. Do know that when you're tired of the cotton candy and such, there's a solid feast of life waiting for you here where it's always been.

Here stands the font before our eyes,
Telling how God has received us.
The altar recalls Christ's sacrifice
And what His Supper here gives us.
Here sound the Scriptures that proclaim
Christ yesterday, today, the same,
And evermore, our Redeemer.

Grant, then, O God, Your will be done,
That, when the Church bells are ringing,
Many in saving faith may come
Where Christ His message is bringing:
"I know My own; My own know Me.
You, not the world, my face shall see.
My peace I leave with You. Amen."
LSB 645:4,5

Patristic Quote of the Day

Thou knowest, O Lord, my passions hidden in darkness; the sores of my soul are known to Thee. Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed. If Thou wilt not build the house of my soul, I labor in vain trying to build it myself. -- St. Ephrem the Syrian, *A Spiritual Psalter* #41

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

With a man who belongs to an everlasting Kingdom all is well, and it is fitting that he should dance through life for evermore. -- Blessed Martin Luther, Sermons for the Year 1544

Advent Homily for Midweek

[Luke 1:26-56]

Ours was always a quiet home. God had not blessed us with children, and after many years together, a husband and wife learn to carry on conversations without words. A look and a look back can speak volumes. Yet we did talk. Sometime at night, after the lamps were put out, I’d stretch out beside my old Zechariah and say: “tell me the promises again.”

You see, he was a priest. He knew the Sacred writings of Torah and the Prophets. And he loved to recite the promises about the Coming One, the One who would make all things right again for a world where so much has gone wrong. He’d begin whispering them to me: “To us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder…” “And you, Bethlehem Ephratha, are by no means least among the tribes of Judah, for out of you will come a Ruler who will govern my people Israel.” “His dominion will be from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.” “The wolf shall lie down with the lamb.” Oh, he could go on forever; he knew them all. He’d long ago stored them away in his heart, and he loved nothing more than to repeat them. They were his prayer, his hope. He was one of the Zedek - the righteous - who looked for the salvation of Israel.

When he came home from doing his priestly duty that year, he didn’t need to tell me he couldn’t talk. One look told me something had happened. His eyes were full of excitement and hope like I’d not seen in him since he was a young man. I thought he might have a fever. It took a while to get the whole story out of him. I think he was a little ashamed. It was not like him - questioning the word of one of the Lord’s angels? That was not like my husband at all. But still, the promise was staggering. We were to have a child? Now? And our child was to be the one that the prophets had foretold? The one to prepare the way for the Lord, the Messenger sent before the Lord’s face? The fulfillment of all things was now? In our lives?

When I first felt the little one move in my womb I could do nothing. I stood still and tears streamed down my face. Then laughter and joy. Our God? He comes up with the craziest ideas! Old ladies carrying little babies. Our God, the God of the universe, He promises the impossible and then He makes it happen. No good trying to wrap your mind around His ways. His goodness is beyond our thinking, His love beyond our dreams.

Five months our house was mostly silent. Zechariah watched impatiently as my womb began to swell. And there were days he’d lay his hand upon it and we’d look into each others eyes and one would start laughing and the other crying. Five months of silence in the house and then one day, a miracle greater than our little boy’s conception came running up to the door.

I heard her voice. She was calling a greeting: Shalom, Cousin Elizabeth! And that is when it happened. My little one was doing summersaults in my womb - summersaults of joy. And the Holy Spirit came upon me and I saw the whole thing. My eyes were opened like they’d never been opened before. All the past seemed like a dream and in shock and awe at what I had seen I stood to my feet.

She came to me, a look on her face, a questioning look. She thought no one knew. I let her know different right away. “Blessed!” I cried. “Blessed are you among women!” And blessed indeed, for no other woman would be both Virgin and Mother, and not just the mother of a miracle baby like my own. The mother of… The mother of so much more. I can barely bring myself to say it even after all these years. “Blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Ah, that was the heart of it. She walked into my house and it was though the Ark of Covenant had arrived, and hidden in the Ark, the beating heart of my God taken flesh. The Messiah, the One about whom all the promises centered. The One God told Abraham would bring blessing to all the families of the earth. The Serpent Crusher. The One to lead us back to Paradise. He was in my house. In her womb. His infant heart beating beneath her heart. “And why is this granted to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?” The look on her face. The child melted. I held her as she wept. It was a fearful secret she had been hiding. But here it was safe.

I pulled back from her and gave my old goat sitting in the corner a proper look. I pointed to her and said: “Blessed is she who BELIEVED that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” My old goat, my Zechariah, he laughed and laughed his silent laugh, agreeing with me. She had believed, and she was blessed.

And then she opened her mouth again and spoke - a hymn of praise to the One who had chosen her in love, and she foretold how every generation from that day to the end of time would remember and join in calling her blessed. Ah, the poetry of her song and the fire of her words that day!

She stayed with us for the next three months. How we talked much during those days - our house was silent no more. The last months are never easy, certainly not for old women. And she was there to help me through those hard days and to share our joy when the little lad revealed his face. She saw her divine Son’s fore-bearer, our John. And then she left, she went home to meet her Joseph and to face whatever it was that God willed for her.

There are those who think she is a almost a goddess - but they are being foolish. There are those who think that she is just an ordinary person like themselves - they are just as foolish. You must think of her as the Holy Spirit taught me that day she came to me: Blessed among women, Blessed in the fruit of her womb, and blessed above all in believing the Words of her Lord.

You can’t go wrong if you follow her example, you people who live in the time of the great fulfillment. You can’t go wrong if you also learn to say to God: “Let it be to me according to your Word” and if you learn to trust every promise God makes you, no matter how impossible, how shocking, how unreasonable. You can’t go wrong if you open up your heart and your life and give space for the Child of Mary to come and live in you, bringing you the joy of presence. It won’t mean an easy time in this world - how she found that out! - but it will mean the joy of a life that death cannot bring to an end. For it will be God’s life, the life He reaches us all in His Son, the Child of Mary, the Mother of God. Blessed be He! Blessed be He forever! Amen.

As if ONE David

isn't quite enough to handle... His final drawing for his charcoal class.

Eating Breakfast

just wiped the poor thing out...

The Question

for those who will be preaching the one year series this coming Sunday is the meaning behind the question of St. John the Baptist in the holy Gospel, Matthew 11:2-10(11).

To a man, almost all modern exegetes opine that John was in a crisis of faith, experiencing a moment of doubt. To a man, almost all the Church Fathers including our Fathers in the Reformation insist that John had absolutely no such crisis of faith, but was seeking to bring his disciples to faith in the Lord Jesus.

I confess that I have preached the text both ways - and I was inordinately fond of the approach of the modern exegetes. I've come to believe I was quite wrong about it. Here are some beautiful words that Fr. John Fenton posted from my favorite Western father, St. Peter Chrysologus that may be of help as you ponder this text:

That blessed John was the messenger to the messengers of Christ, the witness to his witnesses, and the foremost of his promoters, we have frequently mentioned in our preaching. Then why is it that the messenger asks a question, the witness is in doubt, and the promoter is lacking in knowledge? Are you the One who is to come, or do we wait for another? (Mt 11.3) John, you perfect man, are you asking whether he is the Christ who is to come, when while you were still within your mother’s womb you announced that he had already come?

John, there are your words: “Behold, the Lamb of God; behold him who takes away the sins of the world.” And when he submitted to be baptized by your hands, you said: “I ought to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?” Are you not the one who heard amidst the waters of the Jordan the voice of the Father resounding from heaven: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased”? You certainly were the only human being who saw the Holy Spirit come down in bodily form from heaven upon him. You are the one who grasped the Father with your ears, the Son with your hands, and the Holy Spirit with your eyes at one and the same moment in an unparalleled manifestation of power.

And after this you ask whether he is the Christ or whether there is another who is to come?
…
We are disturbed, John, we who sing your praises are disturbed… So give an answer, John, assist yourself and assist us; say why you who used to have knowledge sent them to ask a question. Let us pay attention, brothers, let us pay attention more in-depth attention, and let us listen to the answer John gives here not only with our ears, but also with our hearts. John says: “If while I was still in the womb I instantly announced that Christ was going to be born, now after hearing of his works, works which attest to his divinity, have I plunged into the waves of doubt? Far from it! “This is the reason form my question: my disciples, who had seen my good reputation, who had admired my life, who had heard me impose penance, forgive sins, and promise that the kingdom of heaven was arriving in him who was to come, were so prepared to be bound with chains, to live in prison with me, to share my punishments, and to become my partners with me in death, that they failed to see my Lord, for whom I had prepared them. They were following the teacher of penitence so closely that they were neglecting the Giver of grace; on account of ignorance they considered themselves mine to such an extent that they were unaware that the servant’s property belongs to his Master.

“So I sent them out, in order to put heavenly goods before them, to lead them to divine ones, to hand them over to God, to return them to the Creator. I sent them, so that by his works they would affirm that he was the Christ about whom they had heard my words, and so that my [disciples] would not be lost to my Lord with my passing away. I sent them to him who knew very well why I sent them. I sent them to the One who probes the heart; I sent them to the One who judges thoughts. I sent them to him who was in me and with me. I sent them so that by recognizing his divinity by means of his works, they would not find his humanity to be a stumbling block. I sent them, so that gazing upon his humanity would not disturb them who could not but be strengthened by the signs of his divine powers.

“And so the Lord, who knew why I sent them, responded with his works before he did with words.”

And from the Lutheran Fathers:

Luther's words from the House Postil (I:60):

"This sending of his disciples amounts to John saying, Go and learn who is the true doctor and preacher. I know it well that he is the true Christ, but the people do not believe this. Therefore, you go to him and hear for yourselves from him personally, so that you will divorce yourselves from me and the entire Jewish school of thought, in order to cling to this man on whom you and the entire world's salvation depends. This, then, is the final meaning of John's message to Christ, namely, that his disciples should personally hear and see Christ, come into fellowship with him, believe on him, and eternally be saved."

Gerhard's words from Postilla (p. 25)

"John did not address such a question to the Lord Christ on behalf of himself, as if he had the slightest doubts about this. For he had actually testified to the Messiah already in his mother's womb, Luke 1:41. He saw the Holy Spirit come down from heaven upon Him, John 1:32. He heard the voice from heaven: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased, Matt 3:17. Indeed, he had pointed at Christ with his own finger, and had confessed Him as the Lamb of God who bears the sin of the world, John 1:29. His faith and confession of the Messiah was in no way beginning to waver or doubt because of his imprisonment, because Christ shortly thereafter highly praised him for his steadfastness. Rather, this sending and questioning had to do with his disciples, that they would be led to Christ and that any doubts that still remained would be removed from their hearts."

Patristic Quote of the Day

Grant us Thy help, O All-good One, and never abandon our race! Vouchsafe us Thine all-searching wisdom, that we might know the transience of all things. Heal our sores with repentance. Visit us, that we might not persist in sins. Thou Who art most merciful to our souls, instill in us remembrance of good, for much have we loved evil. Dispel all harm from us, O Good One. - St. Ephrem the Syrian, *A Spiritual Psalter* #13

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

This great wonder is first announced to shepherds, because as the true Shepherd of souls He had come at that time to bring back His lost sheep into His fold. The glad tidings of great joy are proclaimed to the despised and lowly, because no one can become a sharer in that joy, who is not lightly esteemed in his own eyes. -- Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XIV

The Crud and Thy Will

Sorry postings have been slim of late. I think I have some version of the "winter crud." This one was a first for me. It really hit after Divine Service and Baptism on Saturday - was totally wiped out and knew something was wrong. I was able to do the services yesterday morning, but I didn't do Bible class and came home and slept for 1/2 hour instead. I also cancelled catechism service and missed an important meeting this morning. No temperature to speak of. Throat still hurts - but not in the sharp way it did before. Achy here and there. What's really weird is that if I am up and about for more than 15 minutes, it totally wipes me out - and using my voice at all exhausts me as much as walking around. (Thanks be to God for Bob and the Church's sound system! I was able to just speak in a very quiet voice yesterday and still be heard. And yet even that was totally exhausting.)

So the big bummers are that I missed Bekah's Christmas concert yesterday at Metro East Lutheran High and I'm knocked out of the Collinsville Chorale Concert--I was really looking forward to them both. I couldn't make practice last week, and I won't make it tonight. Sigh. Man proposes, God disposes. I'm still learning to pray "Thy will be done" and to trust that His will, plans, and purposes are always the best - far better than my own ideas. What a struggle to believe and trust that about little things like this - how much more about the big things?!

Credo, Domine; adjuva incredulitatem meam.

Christmas Bulletins

Bah! Humbug!

'Nuff said.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Consider, O devout soul, how greatly God hath loved thee in calling thee into the fellowship of His Church. 'My beloved is one,' says the Bridegroom in Canticles vi.1; truly one, seeing that there is but one true and orthodox Church, the beloved Bride of Christ. - Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XXIII

Patristic Quote of the Day

Others think that licence is granted them to sin, because the hope of penitence is before them, whereas penitence is the remedy, not an incentive to sin. For the salve is necessary for the wound, not the wound for the salve, since a salve is sought because of the wound, the wound is not wished for on account of the salve. The hope which is put off to a future season is but feeble, for every season is uncertain, and hope does not outlive all time. - St. Ambrose of Milan, *On Repentance* Book II: par. 9

Ambrose of Milan, Pastor and Hymnwriter

Today our Synod remembers St. Ambrose:

Born in Trier in A.D. 340, Ambrose was one of the four great Latin Doctors of the Church (with Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory the Great). He was a prolific author of hymns, the most common of which is Veni, Redemptor gentium (“Savior of the Nations, Come”). His name is also associated with Ambrosian Chant, the style of chanting the ancient liturgy that took hold in the province of Milan. While serving as a civil governor, Ambrose sought to bring peace among Christians in Milan who were divided into quarreling factions. When a new bishop was to be elected in 374, Ambrose addressed the crowd, and someone cried out, “Ambrose, bishop!” The entire gathering gave their support. This acclaim of Ambrose, a 34-year-old catechumen, led to his baptism on December 7, after which he was consecrated bishop of Milan. A strong defender of the faith, Ambrose convinced the Roman emperor Gratian in 379 to forbid the Arian heresy in the West. At Ambrose's urging, Gratian's successor, Theodosius, also publicly opposed Arianism. Ambrose died on Good Friday, April 4, 397. As a courageous doctor and musician he upheld the truth of God's Word. (Synod's Website)

Lutheran congregations across the world sing St. Ambrose's Veni Redemptor gentium on the first Sunday in Advent:

Savior of the nations, come,
Virgin's Son, make here Your home!
Marvel now, O heaven and earth,
That the Lord chose such a birth.

Not by human flesh and blood,
By the Spirit of our God,
Was the Word of God made flesh
Woman's Offspring, pure and fresh.
LSB 332:1,2

Another popular hymn of St. Ambrose is the evening hymn: "O Blessed Light, O Trinity"

O blessed Light, O Trinity,
O everlasting Unity;
As now the fiery sun departs
Send forth Your light into our hearts.

To You our morning hymn of praise,
To You our evening prayer we raise;
We praise Your light in ev'ry age,
The glory of our pilgrimage.

All glory be to God above
And to the Son, the Prince of love,
And to the Spirit, One in Three!
We praise You blessed Trinity.
LSB: 890

We also love to sing his morning hymn "O Splendor of God's Glory Bright." (LSB 874)

Ambrose wrote with particular clarity about the justification and forgiveness. One of his letters is cited in the Apology to the Augsburg Confession:

"The Law, which declared all people sinners, seemed to have done harm. But when the Lord Jesus Christ came, He forgave to all people the sin, which no one could avoid. And by the shedding of His blood, He blotted out the handwriting that was against us.... Christ took away the sin of the whole world, as John testified, saying in John 1:29 'Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!' And for this reason let no one boast about works, because no one is justified by his deeds." (Ap IV:103)

For Your servant, Saint Ambrose, O Lord, receive our thanks and our praise!

At Last!

It's been teasing us all afternoon. Now there's SOMETHING falling from the sky that you can see. Sweet!

Productive day, though a tad hectic. Men's Study at InnKeeper bright and early at 6:15. Then home to work on stuff. Managed to finish a homily for the Synod for 2 Epiphany (Life Sunday this year), and Sunday's homily, Sunday's Bible Class, memory sheets for the school through the beginning of January, and some running around. Proofed bulletin and messenger for Sunday. Edited some letters for Joanie. Now, in an hour and 15 minutes, we'll celebrate the Divine Service and commemorate St. Nicholas (provided folks show up in the snow, ice, whatever it is!), and then done for the day - I hope!

But not Cindi. SHE has choir. I wonder how that will go with the snow!

Homily for Advent II

[Malachi 4:1-6 / Romans 15:4-13 / Luke 21:25-36]

So what’s hope? You hear it incorrectly if you hear overtones of “wouldn’t it be nice, wouldn’t it be lovely?" Such is NOT what the Sacred Scriptures mean by hope. In today’s Epistle, St. Paul called our God, a God of hope who fills His people with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit they may abound in hope. That’s not so they would abound in “wouldn’t it be nice, wouldn’t it be lovely!” Or hope is not so frilly as that. Our hope is rock solid. It does not waver. It is founded upon the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and His promise to appear in glory at the Last Day when He will bring in an Age where all that is loveless, joyless, painfilled, and sorrowful in our lives will be done away. Our hope rests in this coming Age where Love reigns over all and in all.

And we know it’s no pipe dream, because our Lord has already risen into it. Where the Head is, the body soon must follow. In fact, we get to live from it already now. Already in this age that is coming to an end, we as the people of God are called to live from the certain joy, the expectant hope, of the age that is coming. If you’ve never thought of our parish as a colony from the future, you’ve not thought of it as God does. If you’ve never thought of yourself as a colonist from the future, you’ve not thought of yourself as God does.

We look toward that day, and we seek to live toward that day, to order our lives toward the realities that we know are true and lasting - all that we’ve seen and known in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

We know that not everyone will welcome that day. There are those whose hearts are tied tightly to THIS world and its pleasures and joys, its worries and distractions. Advent reminds us that we can’t live that was as God’s holy people. If your heart is tied to life in this world, then when that Day comes, you’ll experience it the way Malachi described it: a burning oven, devouring all the arrogant and evildoers, setting them ablaze.

But for the people in whom the Holy Spirit has planted His joy and peace - we know that this world cannot be our final home, and that its pleasures and its passions cannot give to us what we long for. Yes, we still live in the flesh, and there’s no one so perfect that they don’t have to struggle still against desires that would tie down and tangle up. Advent is the call of the Church to keep on struggling, to keep on fighting the darkness of this age and its bitterness, resentments and anger, with light of our certain hope, our future with Christ.

You see the struggle will not go on forever! For you who fear my name, says the Lord, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall! The Day when our certain hope arrives, the Day when Christ stands again unveiled in His glory upon this earth - that is the day when He transforms the flesh, the sinful nature, the old Adam. It’s the day He heals you forever from the old passions that keep seeking to trap and trip you up. It’s the day you get to say goodbye and good riddance to your foul temper, to your lying tongue, to your wanting to cherish resentments and all such. The Light of that day burns away everything that is not the love in your life!

Any wonder that the people of God ACHE for that day? That they pray for it unceasingly: “Our Lord, come! Maranatha!” Come, and bring us Your healing! Come, and take the darkness from our lives! Come, and make us wholly Yours, forever!

In today’s Gospel, our Lord says that when the time comes and all things around us are shaken and people all around are fainting from fear of what’s happening to their world - then, says He, is the time for His people to “straighten up and raise our heads.” Because that’s when our redemption is drawing near.

Redemption? I thought that happened back on Calvary, back when our Lord shed His blood to blot out the record of our sins, of the world’s sin! How can the Lord speak of redemption as future?

Actually, in Scripture, redemption usually refers to the Second Coming. Because that is where He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. That’s where the healing that has begun in your life through your Baptism will be finished. That’s where the foretaste of the Supper ends and the Feast that never ends begins. That's where the life we've received a teasing taste of in the Church becomes the very fabric of our being.

And so the Lord doesn’t ever say to you in His Scripture: “You’re saved. Don’t worry about it. You’ve got your get-into-heaven free ticket.” No. Constantly in Scripture your Lord warns you: “Watch yourselves.”

You CAN fall away from grace. You CAN fall into unbelief in the future though now you are a believer. Once saved, always saved? It’s a lie. Don’t believe it. What our Lord says is that He who endures to the end will be saved.

And so in today’s Gospel He warns: “Keep watch over yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly as a trap.” Which is to say, keep watch over yourself that you never say in your heart: “Lord, don’t come quite yet. I’m having a rather good time at the moment getting plastered, getting wasted, enjoying this or that pleasure and I really don’t want to freed from my sin quite yet. I LIKE it and want to keep it for the time being. Make me holy but do it LATER.”

Against such evil in our hearts, the Lord warns and tells us to stay awake and pray. An awake heart says: “Lord, have mercy on me. You see how much I am drawn to this sin, to this pleasure, to this worry. Forgive me, Lord, heal me, cleanse me. Take away my sin, wash me from my iniquity.”

Do you see the difference? I pray you do. It is the difference between those who will experience His coming as terror and those who experience it as joy. As Dr. Luther once preached, the person who longs to be freed from his sin has nothing to fear from the coming of that Day.

During holy Advent, then, the Church calls for us to repent. To turn from hearts weighed down with the pleasure or the frettings of this world, and beg Christ for healing. We pray during these Advent Days that He would fill us with all joy and peace in believing His certain hope, so that our lives come to truly reflect the age that is coming in all we think, speak, or do. Then to Christ alone, our victorious and returning Lord, be all glory and honor with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Catechesis

So, if anyone wants to check out what we're up to with Catechesis at St. Paul's, you can click this link:

Catechesis

Pr. Lehmann figured out to get the video up on Youtube.

You can also go directly to where it is on Youtube here:

Direct Catechesis

This was our first week of using Service of Prayer and Preaching, so the singing and stuff is a bit rough. We've picked it up quite well, however, after all these weeks.

Commemoration of Nicholas of Myra, Pastor

From our Synod's Website:

Of the many saints commemorated by the Christian Church, Nicholas (d. A.D. 342) is one of the best known. Very little is known historically of him, although there was a church of Saint Nicholas in Constantinople as early as the sixth century. Research has affirmed that there was a bishop by the name of Nicholas in the city of Myra in Lycia (part of Turkey today) in the fourth century. From that coastal location, legends about Nicholas have traveled throughout time and space. He is associated with charitable giving in many countries around the world and is portrayed as the rescuer of sailors, the protector of children, and the friend of people in distress or need. In commemoration of “Sinte Klaas” (Dutch for Saint Nicholas, in English “Santa Claus”), December 6 is a day for giving and receiving gifts in many parts of Europe.
***

Fr. Thomas Hopko writes of St. Nicholas that what is extraordinary about this very popular saint is that there was nothing extraordinary he's known for. "In a word, he was a good pastor, father, and bishop to his flock, known especially for his love and care for the poor. Most simply put, he was a divinely good man." (Winter Pascha, p. 39) That's it. A saint whose life reminds us that "it is more blessed to give than to receive." A saint through whom Christ reveals the joy of a life that is "unbent" from the "curve in on one's self" and turned outward to others in kindness and love.

From the Brotherhood Prayer Book:

Remember them that have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God;
Whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.

Let us pray. Accept, O Lord, our thanksgiving this day for Thy servant, Nicholas; and grant that all ministers and stewards of Thy mysteries may afford to Thy faithful people, by word and example, the instruction which is of Thy grace; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Patristic Quote of the Day

Praise be to the Good One Who descended for our sake, became like unto us and healed our sores by His all-sanctifying flesh and His all-sanctifying blood! May all sing praises to Him! - St. Ephrem, the Syrian *A Spiritual Psalter* #14

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

He is sent from heaven as the messenger of redemptive grace, because no one on earth knew its exceeding greatness. It is with good reason that He, a heavenly messenger, should bring us the tidings of those heavenly blessings that are reserved for us at His right hand above. -- Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XIV

Homily for Midweek Advent

I had been raised well. My parents, bless their souls, had taught us to fear the Lord and to walk in his ways. They told us the story of God’s dealings with us, His people, the Jews. They told us of Abraham and Sarah. They told us of Moses and Elijah. They told us most of all about the coming of the Promised One who would bring an end to sorrow and death and restore all things to what they were created to be at the beginning. They told us. And we believed. I believed. I, Zacharias, of the house of Abijah, a priest from a family of priests. I believed and so I waited.

But waiting is wearying and I had grown old as I waited. I began to suspect that I would go down to the grave still waiting - no Promised One in sight. Little did I know. Little did I know.

The day arrived when it was my turn to do the priest’s duty in the great temple of my people in Jerusalem. I had done it before and it was always an honor, but only once in a priest’s life did the opportunity come to go beyond the big altar in the courtyard and actually enter the sanctuary, the holy place and there offer the sacred incense - sign of the prayers of the people of God ascending to the throne of God. It was my turn and I was filled with joy and holy fear. Soon, soon, I would be standing only feet away from the most holy place, the holy of holies. Soon, soon, I would be spreading the coals and then sprinkling the incense upon them, watching it rise even as the prayers of God’s people rise to the throne of heaven.

And my prayer? I did not speak my prayer. It is a terrible thing to have your only prayer be a regret. But that was my prayer: “I am sad, God, that you have given me no child, no son.” That was the prayer that was in my heart as I stood before the altar and spread the coals with the shovel and then sprinkled the incense. That was my prayer. It was hidden in my heart. Or so I thought.

Then he stood beside me, a great Angel of the Lord, a messenger from God most high and I was terrified. I had heard of these messengers. I think that I had believed in them all my life, but I was not prepared to meet one. Stepping out of the sacred stories and crossing right into my life. I was not prepared for that at all. But there he stood nonetheless.

And such words he spoke. He told me that God had heard my prayer and that it was granted. I was going to have a son - a son who would bring me joy and gladness. And not only me, but many people. A son who would be like the Nazarites of old, consecrated to God from the womb. A child filled with the Spirit of the Most High even in his mother’s womb.

Can you understand what it was like for me to hear that? I was suddenly confronted with God moving out of the story and into my life and giving me what I didn’t even dare to hope for anymore. I doubted. I couldn’t believe it. I questioned. My trust wavered and I began to wonder if I had ever really believed at all before. I said: “How will I know this? I am an old man. My wife is old - beyond the years of child-bearing. It’s impossible. It just can’t be.”

Have you ever seen an angel get riled, get mad? Let me tell you, it is not a comfortable sight. Seems that nothing angers them so swiftly as our not believing. They just don’t understand it. They have been with God for so long and they have never known a word He spoke not to come true. To them He is utterly and completely reliable and so they grow impatient with our foolish distrust.

He drew himself up; He grew in power and might before me and I covered my eyes in fear as his glory was unveiled. I think for a moment I must have seen him, this mighty angel, as he appears before the throne of God. A being of beauty that hurts our eyes to look at, a being of goodness so great that we suddenly feel shamed and dirty. He said: “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God. I was sent to bring you these glad tidings! Behold, you do not believe! You want a sign. A sign you shall have. You shall be mute, unable to speak, not even a word, until these things take place, for you did not believe my words which most certainly will be fulfilled at their time.”

And then he was gone. The smoke of the incense had long since disappeared, but the sweet smell still filled the room. I don’t know how long it took, but it must have taken awhile. I went out from the sanctuary and looked at the puzzled, upturned faces. They didn’t know why I had been delayed and now they couldn’t understand why I didn’t given them the blessing. But I couldn’t tell them. I made signs and finally they began to understand that something awesome had happened to me in that room.

I went home, a man silent and yet my heart was bursting for joy. And it happened, just like God had said through the angel. It happened. Impossibly. Miraculously. God had stepped out of the story and into my life and suddenly my life was like the story. It was Abraham and Sarah all over again. It was Elkanah and Hannah all over again. God was doing it again. An old couple, unable to have children, suddenly giving birth.

You who live in the time of the Great Fulfilment, you who live in the aftermath of those days, will you trust an old man who says to you to watch out! The story is more alive than you imagine. Don’t ever underestimate the power of God to step right out of the story into your life and then pull your life right back into the story. I know whereof I speak. For my child, wondrous as he was, was but the Fore-runner. The Greater One came a few months later. The waiting was then at an end. He came into my world and He comes into your world. He comes to bring the joy and destroy the sadness, just as the prophets said he would.

Watch out for Him, my friends! Watch for Him! This God who comes to be one flesh with you and to suffer and die and to rise and bring life indestructible and joy eternal to you and to all people. Watch for Him, for He comes. He comes - and your lives will never be the same again.

Reflections on a Botched Evening Prayer

Nothing like the pastor bellowing away at the front in the way that HE thinks the singing should go, and the poor, bewildered organist and people left trying to play catch up. That was me tonight. Mea culpa! I confess, my usual speed in life is "fast-forward." I walk fast. I talk fast. I sing fast. That's not to boast - because when it comes to singing it a downright hindrance to the prayerfulness of the song of God's people. Lesson learned from Advent I Evening Prayer: "Weedon SHUT UP." If you stand out in your singing, you are not serving, but hindering. I had a good friend remind me of this tonight and my dear wife reinforced it! There is no prize won for finishing the Magnificat ahead of everyone else.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

He is born in a mean stable, that He might lead us back to the royal palace of His Father in heaven. -- Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XIV.

Patristic Quote of the Day

If I abstain from indulging my foolish desires, I praise myself vaingloriously. If I succeed in vigilance, I fall into the snare of conceit and contradiction. If I refrain from eating, I drown in pride and arrogance. If I am wakeful in prayer, I am vanquished by irritability and wrath. If I see virtue in someone, I studiously avoid him. -- St. Ephrem the Syrian *A Spiritual Psalter* #55 [A theologian of a cross calls a things what it is!]

Finally...well...almost

I purchased today a stand-alone version of Windows XP (I'd been warned against Vista) that allowed me finally finish my complete transition to this MacBook. Whew. So far, it's working fabulously. My only gripe is that while most documents print fine from Parallels, the bulletins created for the church on LSB Builder do not. Somehow or other the printer is getting the message they're going on an 8.5 X 11 when it's really an 8.5 X 14, so the top part is then cropped off. Grr. I've tried various settings and have gotten nowhere. No big deal. The files are fine and I can carry them over to the Church's computer and they print superb there. Still, it would be nice to get them to work at home. I'll likely keep worrying at it. Google did not yield much help this time. Getting all that set up took much of the morning, but the afternoon was productive and bulletins were finally handed off to the amazing Joanie (Church Secretary extraordinaire!). In fact, Parallels is working so well that I decided to drop plans to install on Bootcamp. I deleted the partition I'd made for that, and so I have more storage than I anticipated having. Yeah!

Over the years...

...I've done a fair number of radio interviews on the liturgy with Issues, Etc. I recently discovered that Pr. Ritter had gathered a number of them together, with some other guests of the show, and provided them all in one place. So, here you go:

Liturgy Links

May I recommend them for those nights when you simply can't seem to fall asleep; no doubt, they'll work wonders.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

The great creeds were set up with this intention, so that people could comprehend with their minds a summary of the doctrine. And many have written lengthy summaries which show their theological method or skill, as Methodius did long ago and later John of Damascus. For in the case of everything we teach we must show the beginning, the progress or development of the matter, and the purpose or end. And this should be done sparingly, but as the ancients said, generously and clearly. -- Martin Chemnitz, Introduction to the Loci Theologici

Patristic Quote of the Day

Yes, and most wonderful of all is that all these things were successfully brought about through a cross and suffering and death. The Gospel of the knowledge of God has been preached to the whole world and has put the adversaries to flight not by war and arms and camps. Rather, it was a few unarmed, poor, unlettered, persecuted, tormented, done-to-death men, who, by preaching the One who had died crucified in the flesh, prevailed over the wise and powerful, because the almighty power of the Crucified was with them....

Well done, O Christ, O Wisdom and Power and Word of God, and God almighty! What should we resourceless people give Thee in return for all things? For all things are Thine and Thou askest nothing of us but that we be saved. Even this Thou hast given us, and by Thy ineffable goodness Thou art grateful to those who accept it. Thanks be to Thee who hast given being and grace of well-being and who by Thy ineffable condescension hast brought back to this state those who fell from it!

--from Book 4 of *The Orthodox Faith* by St. John of Damascus:

Commemoration of St. John of Damascus

From the Synod's website:

December 4
John of Damascus

John (ca. 675–749) is known as the great compiler and summarizer of the orthodox faith and the last great Greek theologian. Born in Damascus, John gave up an influential position in the Islamic court to devote himself to the Christian faith. Around 716 he entered a monastery outside of Jerusalem and was ordained a priest. When the Byzantine emperor Leo the Isaurian in 726 issued a decree forbidding images (icons), John forcefully resisted. In his Apostolic Discourses he argued for the legitimacy of the veneration of images, which earned him the condemnation of the Iconoclast Council in 754. John also wrote defenses of the orthodox faith against contemporary heresies. In addition, he was a gifted hymnwriter (“Come, You Faithful, Raise the Strain”) and contributed to the liturgy of the Byzantine churches. His greatest work was the Fount of Wisdom which was a massive compendium of truth from previous Christian theologians, covering practically every conceivable doctrinal topic. John's summary of the orthodox faith left a lasting stamp on both the Eastern and Western churches.

***

In our Lutheran Service Book, Hymns 478 (The Day of Resurrection) and 487 (Come, You Faithful) are by this great father.

I'll feature him today in the Patristic Quote for the Day.

Meanwhile, from the Brotherhood Prayer Book:

Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God;
Whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.

Let us pray. O God, who hast endowed thy servant St. John Damascene with clarity of faith and holiness of life: grant us to keep with steadfast minds the faith which he taught, and in his fellowship to be made partakers of eternal glory; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Beautiful Thought

Luther on this coming Sunday's Gospel:

"When someone lies captive in a dungeon, he cannot be rescued unless the dungeon be broken open. Consequently, you will not be set free until the world comes to an end." HP 1:49

How true!

Purely Personal Pet Peeve

Calling the Dr., talking to the nurse, asking for antibiotics for a very sore throat.

Being told: "No, you have to come in for a culture."

Arriving at the appointed time, having the Dr. walk in and look at the throat and say: "Yup, it's bright red and infected. Here's your prescription." No culture. Just the sore throat I already TOLD them I had.

I don't know. Maybe in this crazy day and age $30 isn't too much to spend to get a perscription? It seems silly, though, and a waste of time for me AND for them.

What do I know? I'm not a doctor.

Patristic Quote of the Day

He is God the Word Which was flesh. For if He was not flesh, why was Mary chosen? And if He is not God, whom does Gabriel call Lord? If He was not flesh, who was laid in a manger? And if He is not God, whom did the angels who came down from heaven glorify? If He was not flesh who was wrapped in swaddling clothes? And if He is not God, in whose honor did the star appear? - St. Ephrem the Syrian, *A Spiritual Psalter* #23

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Well may we rejoice, then, and magnify the mercy of our God. What good thing will He, who loved us while we were yet His enemies, disdaining not to take our human nature into the very closest union with His divinity, withhold from those who are partakers with Him of the same flesh? Who has ever hated His own flesh? How can He possibly cast us off, when by an exercise of such exalted and infinite mercy, He hath made us partakers of His own nature? - Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XV

Half-way Mark

Tonight marked the half-way point of our journey through Lutheran Catechesis (Bender's 24 week series), using LSB's Service of Prayer and Preaching. Tonight we finished up with the Apostles' Creed, and we celebrated by a Chief Parts Party - there were three kinds of meat, three kinds of dessert, etc. Tonight provided the opportunity to note the changes in the service that indicate that we've entered into a season of penitence, prayer, and fasting - Holy Advent.

This week we'll be reciting the entire third article of the Creed and also Acts 2:38,39 twice a day. Amazing how fast that fastens these verses down into the memory!

I know many are skeptical of how well this manner of catechesis works, but to the skeptics I say: give it a try and then we'll talk. We continue to have lively discussions (often led by the children). Now that we are half way through it, I'm sold on it more than ever!

One of the Greatest Poems Ever Prayed

I shared this with a friend today. If that person needed to hear it again, others may too. I know I need to hear it, pray it, constantly. Very much in the spirit of the Advent call to repentance:

A HYMN TO GOD THE FATHER.
by John Donne


I.
WILT Thou forgive that sin where I begun,
Which was my sin, though it were done before?
Wilt Thou forgive that sin, through which I run,
And do run still, though still I do deplore?
When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,
For I have more.

II.
Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I have won
Others to sin, and made my sin their door?
Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I did shun
A year or two, but wallowed in a score?
When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,
For I have more.

III.
I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun
My last thread, I shall perish on the shore ;
But swear by Thyself, that at my death Thy Son
Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore ;
And having done that, Thou hast done ;
I fear no more.

Advent Part II

Begins on December 17th. Note in LSB #357 "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" provides the Great "O" Antiphons for their respective days. These are to be prayed before and after Magnificat at Vespers or Evening Prayer. Someone or other did a series on them a couple years ago on Issues, Etc. When those days arrive, I'll try to provide a synopsis of the great O's on this blog, D.v.

What Joy!

Tonight at Evening Prayer the Advent Psalms began, and tonight at the Divine Service we blessed and lighted the Advent wreath. I confess that I still look forward to this time of the year even as I did when I was a young child. It has a way of bringing memories flooding back.

Tonight I remembered that this time last year we were shivering without power due to an ice-storm - thanks be to God that hasn't happened since! I remember that Sunday I read to those who braved the weather for our Bible class the story of Fr. Arseny being locked into that punishment shed with the young atheist boy he'd rescued and how after all those hours in sub zero temperatures they lived - to the utter shock and confounding of their tormenters! They spent the whole time in praise of God and God protected and defended them from their enemies. The story took away all our complaining as we trooped upstairs to celebrate the Divine Service in a frigid sanctuary, though I remember also that I delivered a very short homily.

Tomorrow we have the joy of a Baptism AGAIN. We've had a number of them in the last few months, after a mostly "dry" spell from the beginning of the year. I think Joanie told me that this is the twelfth this year. I love to hear the little ones as we celebrate the Divine Service.

The Bride

My copy of *The Bride of Christ* arrived today. It looks to be the last copy unless someone revives the journal yet again. What riches though! The reprint of Edward Peter's article "The Blight of Receptionism" is particularly appreciated. If this IS the end of the Bride, she couldn't go down in a more worthy way.

Happy New Year!

For Western Christians, the new year of grace begins with the setting of the sun this evening. Advent is upon us! Can these days of grace in the Church mark a new beginning for us? I pray so. I pray that during these days we will give more time to the hearing of God's Word (most churches provide extra services in these days - usually midweek), more time for prayer and meditation, and more time for letting our homes become "little churches" where we read devotions, pray, and sing together to Him who, when He came among us, found no welcome in a home, but had to be born in a manger. Here's my first resolution for this shortly arriving new year of grace: By His grace, I will not allow the culture pressures of this time to divert me or my family from making true preparation for the Advent of the King. May His words and the songs of His church fill our home as we await with joy the celebration of His Nativity.

How blest the land, the city blest,
Where Christ as ruler is confessed!
O peaceful hearts and happy homes
To whom this King in triumph comes!
The cloudless sun of joy is He
Who comes to set His people free.
To God the Spirit raise
Your happy shouts of praise!

Fling wide the portals of your heart;
Make it a temple set apart
From earthly use for heaven's employ,
Adorned with prayer and love and joy.
So shall Your Sov'reign enter in
And new and nobler life begin.
To God alone be praise
For word and deed and grace!

Redeemer, come, and open wide
My heart to Thee; here, Lord, abide!
O enter with Thy grace divine;
Thy face of mercy on me shine.
Thy Holy Spirit guide us on
Until our glorious rest is won.
Eternal praise and fame
We offer to Thy name!
LSB 341:3-5

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

The streams of divine grace flow downwards, not upwards. As nature's streams seek the lowlands, so those of divine grace flow down into lowly hearts. -- Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XXXIV

Patristic Quote of the Day

One and the Same is earthly and heavenly, temporal and eternal, both with and without beginning, timeless and subject to time, created and uncreated, suffering and free of suffering, God and Man and perfect in both. One in two natures, in both Unitary. - St. Ephrem the Syrian, *A Spiritual Psalter* 29

Homily for Advent I

When our Lord stood before Pontius Pilate, he said: “My kingdom is not of this world.” He owned up to the fact that He was a king and that He had a kingdom. But not anything like what Pilate was thinking. We are so far removed from the days of kings that we forget what they were all about. Do you recall when the Israelites first demanded a king from God? It was so that they would be like the nations all around them and have someone to go out and lead their armies. A king was the man at the head of the charge. A king was the man who marshaled the troops to deal with the enemy. A king was the man to secure peace and prosperity for his people.

Small wonder, then, that throughout His earthly ministry our Lord steadfastly refused the title of King. He did so because people always heard it the wrong way, the worldly way. He didn’t come to be such a King. He didn’t come to deal with such paltry enemies as the Romans. His was to be a kingdom altogether different. Zechariah already signaled the difference. He foretold in clearest terms about the day the promised King would arrive. He cried out: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.” It was only on Palm Sunday, as those words came to fulfillment, that our Lord first publicly took the title of King.

This King comes to establish His kingdom not among the nations of the world, but in the heart of men. This King does not come to fight against enemies of flesh and blood, but against the real enemies of the human race: sin, death, Satan, hell. This King does not come taking tribute, but giving out gifts to His people. And so He mounts the donkey and rides into Jerusalem that first Palm Sunday, as the palm strewed its branches and the stones lay within the roadway to pave His kingdom come, waiting for that fearful moment when God’s blood would stain the spearhead.

Jesus enters Jerusalem to be King, not of this or that nation, but in the hearts of man. In your heart and mine. What it means to have Jesus be your King is clear already from the prayer that He gave us. What does it mean to ask “Thy Kingdom come” except in the same breath to ask “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”? Thy will be done in my life, not the will of the devil or the world or of my own sinful flesh. Thy will alone be done. Thus He reigns in the hearts of His own. We are a people who can no longer call the shots on our own lives. We can no longer pretend to be in charge. We have surrendered to Another and on His bidding we wait. The person who still would be his own boss has no part in this King or His Kingdom.

Jesus enters Jerusalem not to fight against this or that enemy of flesh and blood. He knows that the real enemy of the human race is not another human being, but sin, death, and the devil. These He enters Jerusalem to fight once and for all. He rides into Jerusalem the Sacrifice Appointed. He rides in to take our sin upon Him; no, even stronger, to be our sin upon His cross. To bear it entirely and fully in Himself. To die our death and so free us from the power of eternal death. To rise again and so be Himself the Promise that our sins have been atoned and forgiven. That’s how Satan is defeated, death destroyed, sin’s power removed from us. These are the enemies of the race. These the bullies He comes to fight.

Jesus enters Jerusalem not as a King exacting tribute from fearful subjects, but as a King bestowing gifts upon His grateful people. What is the gift He comes bearing? Jeremiah told us by the name given in our first reading: “The Lord, our Righteousness.” This is the gift He comes to give all people. It is for the bestowing of this, His righteousness, that He will yield His life up. As in the garden, God slaughtered animals to clothe the nakedness of Adam and Eve, so God provides a garment to cover the nakedness of our shame and sin - His Son’s own holiness. This will be our covering, our shield on the day of judgment.

Jesus enters Jerusalem. But that was long ago. That was far away. Why does the Church read out this Gospel on the start of Advent each year? Because the One who came as King to reign in the hearts of men, to defeat the enemies of the human race, to give the gift of His own righteousness, this King still comes to His own people, still with the same purpose. This is His Advent in the means of grace, in His Word and Sacraments. Think of it!

In Holy Baptism, the King came riding into your life on the lowly water. There He established His Kingdom in your heart. Marked you as His own dominion. Gave Himself to you as the Lord of your life. Gave you the right to pray the Our Father. Your life then ceased to be your own. It became His. “He delivered us from the dominion of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” is how St. Paul expresses the fact in Colossians 1.

In Holy Absolution, the King comes riding into your life on the lowly words of forgiveness spoken by the pastor. They do their battle still against sin, death, hell and Satan. For they bestow what they say: Christ’s own forgiveness. What Christ entered Jerusalem to obtain for you, is in those words most surely delivered. With sin forgiven, then death has no sting, and neither hell nor Satan can hurt you.

In the Holy Supper, the King comes riding into your life in the lowly bread that is His Body and the wine that is His blood. As He is greeted with the shout of “Hosanna!” and “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!”, He reaches out to you His own righteousness. For that is what the Body and the Blood of Jesus are. His righteousness given to cover your sin.

Such is the bounty, the gift that the King came to bestow upon you. Clothed in such riches, you have the joy of a seat at His Table on the Day of His return in glory as Judge of the living and the dead, to whom be glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages! Amen.