A close up picture of the altar (from my daughter's wedding) and a picture of the inside of St. Paul's - preparing for Advent a year ago. Notice the open arch, which confesses the same thing as the iconostasis in an Orthodox sanctuary.
31 January 2008
For Olympiada
A close up picture of the altar (from my daughter's wedding) and a picture of the inside of St. Paul's - preparing for Advent a year ago. Notice the open arch, which confesses the same thing as the iconostasis in an Orthodox sanctuary.
Two Days Early
Tonight we celebrated the Divine Service for the Purification of Mary and the Presentation of our Lord - it was two days early - and it's a good thing we had the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven joining in our worship, or it would have been rather lonesome. Three of us gathered in the sanctuary as the snow continued to fall from the sky and the wind blew. I thought how wonderful that we prayed for travelers tonight in the Prayer of the Church, for it is surely a treacherous night out. May the Lord grant to all a safe homecoming - including my David who is at work till 10 tonight.
Patristic Quote of the Day
God has made us and given us life not that we might see the sky and sun, as Athenagoras thought, but that we might, with a pure and complete mind, worship God, who made the sky and the sun. - Lactantius, Divine Institutes, Book 6, Chapter 1 [cited in Gerhard, On the Nature of God and on the Trinity, p. 3]
Homily for Quinquagesima - 2008
Isaiah 35:3-7 / 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 / Luke 18:31-43Jesus tells the Twelve of His impending sufferings. "We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise."
St. Luke underscores three times how this made absolutely no sense to them. He writes: "They understood none of these things. The saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said." Thus the Holy Spirit teaches us that no one can begin to grasp the glorious meaning of the Passion, Cross, and Resurrection of our Lord without His illumination, without the Spirit opening up the depths of the Cross and the triumph of the Crucified.
To get it, I think we need to go back and recall an earlier word. Remember how He had taught before: "But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either."
Human reason stumbles at these words again. Even as you hear them, you raise in your minds all the "yes, well, but…" But what? If we live that way, you think, you fear, you will be taken advantage of. People will see it as an opportunity to abuse you. In fact, you may end up dead. Killed. Surely the words can't mean what they say? Surely He didn't really mean it, did He?
It is the exact same point of stumbling that the disciples tripped over when Jesus spoke about His suffering, His cross, His death AND His resurrection. You see, what Jesus was teaching them, what He tries to teach us, is that such a life, a life where honest-to-God enemies who are out to hurt you and damage you and destroy you, are loved, forgiven, blessed and prayed for - that THAT life is such a life that no death can hold it, that death has no power over it ultimately.
And so He goes to His Cross in the utter confidence that on the other side of the suffering, on the other side of betrayals, the mockery, the spit, the whip, and the nails, is a life that will never end because no pain that He suffered could turn Him from loving, no agony He went through could stop His thirsting for the salvation of the very ones at whose hands He was being tortured.
We're so cowed by suffering and death that we think: "No way." He comes along and says: "Way." I AM the Way, and the Truth, and the LIFE. You will see. I will shatter the hatred and bitterness and anger of this world, its violence and cruelty, by enduring it without ceasing to love. And that is how I will open the way into the Kingdom, for you and for all. I will send forth an embassy of forgiveness, of divine amnesty, for all, a message of my love that has overcome all sin and even the power of death.
Do you see, then, my friends, that what Jesus is reaching us, what He is giving to us and calling us to make our own when He speaks of us having "eternal life" is nothing less than love? HIS kind of love? Love that is stronger than all the hatred and darkness of this age. Love that laughs at death as powerless to harm it. Love that, in the words of the Epistle, "never ends."
If the disciples are the picture of all whose eyes are blinded by the fear of death and the weight of sin, the blind man is the picture of all whose eyes are opened by faith. Certainly our Lord shows His almighty power in opening that man's blind eyes, but look at what the man did with his newly opened eyes! "Immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God."
And there you see the goal. Jesus tells the disciples "WE are going up to Jerusalem." He wants you to come with Him into the love that will never cease, to share in His life that cannot and does not come to an end, by sharing in His love - dishing it out to others as richly as He has to you.
Saul was a bit of wolf. Remember how in his zeal for the Lord he was willing to kill, to imprison, to inflict all kinds of suffering. When the Lord Jesus flicks him off his horse and blinds him so that he can begin to see, one of the things he wants his new apostle to see is "how much he must suffer for my name." And so Saul the persecutor became Paul the Persecuted. From wolf to lamb. But it's not his sufferings that are so astonishing, it's how he gets what it means to follow the Lord up to Jerusalem, glorifying God. He writes in Romans 12: "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." What good is that he is referring to? The good that is love, patient and kind, not envious or boastful, not arrogant or rude, not insisting on its own way or irritable or resentful, not rejoicing in wrongdoing, but in the truth, bearing all things that comes its way, believing in God's mercy through it all, and so hoping through all circumstances - the love that never ends.
Such is the love that Christ reached you upon Calvary's tree where He bore all your sin - all your raging against Him and insisting on your own loveless way - He bore it and went on loving you and so He is risen in a life that can never end, to become for you the source of eternal salvation.
When He reaches you His love in the bread that is His body, in the chalice that holds His blood, and tells you that it is for your forgiveness, for the wiping out of your sin, He comes to unite you to Himself, so that His life can be your life, so that His love can be your love. You, on your own, will never find the strength to do what Divine Love does - and with your mind it will never make sense. But when once the Holy Spirit opens blind eyes and enlightens darkened minds, you will see and rejoice that you never have to rely on your own strength. You can rely on His, and then you'll join all the blind the Lord has healed across the ages, as you dance up the road with your Jesus to whatever Calvary awaits you - glorifying God for the gift of a life that does not end, because it IS love. Amen.
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Our changeable goodness sets before itself the unchangeable goodness of God for imitation so that the mutability and instability of our goodness may be absorbed, as it were, by that immutability. -- Johann Gerhard, *On the Nature of God and the Trinity* p. 121
30 January 2008
Juicy!
Pastor Ted Mayes just let me know that he's updated his Cyril of Alexadria page with some new goodies. You can check them out here:
Cyril
Cyril
A Meme
Anastasia tagged me for this one. It goes like this:
The rules are:
Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. (No cheating!)
Find Page 123.
Find the first 5 sentences.
Post the next 3 sentences.
Tag 5 people.
The nearest book happened to be *Ragman and Other Cries of Faith* (from which I'd selected a story this a.m. to share with the chapel) by Walter Wangerin, Jr.
On page 123 we're in the middle of his wedding sermon for his brother Gregory.
And here are the next three sentences after the first five:
I smile, I say. "That's only the game-plan, but half of the truth, and none of the power. Let me finish your sentences for you."
And who to tag?
Pastor Paul McCain. Pastor Tim May. Pastor Lehmann, Dan and Maria
The rules are:
Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. (No cheating!)
Find Page 123.
Find the first 5 sentences.
Post the next 3 sentences.
Tag 5 people.
The nearest book happened to be *Ragman and Other Cries of Faith* (from which I'd selected a story this a.m. to share with the chapel) by Walter Wangerin, Jr.
On page 123 we're in the middle of his wedding sermon for his brother Gregory.
And here are the next three sentences after the first five:
I smile, I say. "That's only the game-plan, but half of the truth, and none of the power. Let me finish your sentences for you."
And who to tag?
Pastor Paul McCain. Pastor Tim May. Pastor Lehmann, Dan and Maria
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Those who forsake the task of proclaiming the gospel of the forgiveness of sins in order to devote themselves to a different message are in the process of rendering themselves quite useless and irrelevant as church leaders. -- Dr. Henry Hamann, *On Being a Christian* p. 121
Patristic Quote of the Day
Thus it is blasphemy to search into divine things by our own reasonings. For what have human reasonings in common with them? - Chrysostom, Homily 5 on 1 Timothy
29 January 2008
Privilege
Pastor Lehmann had an interesting meme on the concept of privilege. You can click here to read it. It lists some 34 items to determine "privilege" and the higher your score, the more privileged was your upbringing, I suppose. I scored a meager 11 out of the 34. My wife was a bit higher at 18 out of the 34. What amazed me was in scoring my children: they scored a whopping 26 out of the 34! Ha - they'll not believe how privileged they are. :)
I noted to Pastor Lehmann that what doesn't seem conveyed is the sense of privilege from land, which is inherent in the southern mindset, I think. My family was not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, but we knew that we owned, in addition to our home and property in Maryland, my father's family farm in Virginia. Not a big farm - laughably small by Midwest standards - just 40 odd acres. But it always provided a sense of groundedness. When my father died in 1980, I don't think it was an accident at all that within six months my mother was living again in Virginia on that parcel of land, or that my sister and her family and my brother and his family still live there to this day.
So check it out: how privileged are you? Are you a hick like me?
I noted to Pastor Lehmann that what doesn't seem conveyed is the sense of privilege from land, which is inherent in the southern mindset, I think. My family was not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, but we knew that we owned, in addition to our home and property in Maryland, my father's family farm in Virginia. Not a big farm - laughably small by Midwest standards - just 40 odd acres. But it always provided a sense of groundedness. When my father died in 1980, I don't think it was an accident at all that within six months my mother was living again in Virginia on that parcel of land, or that my sister and her family and my brother and his family still live there to this day.
So check it out: how privileged are you? Are you a hick like me?
Related to the Last Post
But if the life to come were to admit those who lack the faculties and senses necessary for it, it would avail nothing for their happiness, but they would be dead and miserable living in that immortal world. The reason is that the light would appear and the sun would shine with its pure rays with no eye having been formed to see it. The Spirit's fragrance would be abundantly diffused and pervading all, but one would not know it without already having the sense of smell. -- St. Nicholas Cabasilas, *The Life in Christ*
Cf. to *The Last Battle* in the scene with Lucy and the Dwarfs.
Cf. to *The Last Battle* in the scene with Lucy and the Dwarfs.
Eternal Life and Love
I have become more and more convinced that what makes eternal life, well, eternal, is that it is LOVE. "Love never ends" says St. Paul. The life that is in Christ and which He reaches us as His own IS love, and thus it is true life, life forever. Song of Solomon knows of a love that is as strong as death, but in Christ our Lord we've encountered a love that is STRONGER than death.
In his homilies on John XVII, Luther remarks on the nature of our unity in Christ:
For to everyone who believes through the word of the Apostles, the promise is given for Christ's sake and by the power of this prayer, that he shall be one body and one loaf with all Christians; that what happens to him as a member for good or ill , shall happen to the whole body for good or ill, and not only one or two saints, but all the prophets, martyrs, apostles, all Christians, both on earth and with God in Heaven, shall suffer and conquer with him, shall fight for him, help, protect, and save him, and shall undertake for him such a gracious exchange that they will all bear his sufferings, want, and afflictions and he partake of all their blessings, comfort, and joy.
How could a man wish for anything more blessed than to come into this fellowship or brotherhood and be made a member of this body, which is called Christendom? For who can harm or injure a man who has this confidence, who knows that heaven and earth, and all the angels and the saints will cry to God when the smallest suffering befalls him? [Sermons on John XVI-XX, 1528]
So far Luther. But what he describes here is exactly love. And such love as is in Christ and which Christ our Lord gives to us to be our life, our life together. The communion of saints is the communion of love!
At the Last Supper, Judas went out alone. He left the light, the life, the LOVE that is Christ and wandered into the darkness. A sign that this is the alternative: the love of Christ offered at His table where He makes His own one body and one loaf with Him and with each other, or going one's own way, doing one's own thing. The darkness.
I write about all of this tonight because of a conversation with Dr. Herl this afternoon. He was asking the question of how to address someone who argues that if I as a pastor stand in the way of using rock music or whatever, to get them into the church and so save them, then I am responsible for their loss. We talked a long while, and it was very clear to me that the matter is not one of music or style or adiaphora or any such thing. It is a matter of salvation. What do we mean by "saved"?
The person who insists on their own way and would have everyone go along with that or else they take their marbles and go home, is precisely a person who is NOT saved. We are saved not by demanding and getting our own way; He saves us literally by liberating us from that. From the way of Judas walking out in to the darkness to do his own thing; into the community where what any of us will is only and always to love the other, and the thought of insisting on one's own way is seen as something we must shrink from in horror and ask forgiveness for. Salvation that can be conceived of apart from the healing embrace of love (both Love in His embrace of us and our embrace then of each other), is NOT the salvation that Christ has prepared for His people. The eternal life He gives us IS love. And it is life and it is eternal precisely because it is nothing less than love.
Do these ramblings make any sense at all?
In his homilies on John XVII, Luther remarks on the nature of our unity in Christ:
For to everyone who believes through the word of the Apostles, the promise is given for Christ's sake and by the power of this prayer, that he shall be one body and one loaf with all Christians; that what happens to him as a member for good or ill , shall happen to the whole body for good or ill, and not only one or two saints, but all the prophets, martyrs, apostles, all Christians, both on earth and with God in Heaven, shall suffer and conquer with him, shall fight for him, help, protect, and save him, and shall undertake for him such a gracious exchange that they will all bear his sufferings, want, and afflictions and he partake of all their blessings, comfort, and joy.
How could a man wish for anything more blessed than to come into this fellowship or brotherhood and be made a member of this body, which is called Christendom? For who can harm or injure a man who has this confidence, who knows that heaven and earth, and all the angels and the saints will cry to God when the smallest suffering befalls him? [Sermons on John XVI-XX, 1528]
So far Luther. But what he describes here is exactly love. And such love as is in Christ and which Christ our Lord gives to us to be our life, our life together. The communion of saints is the communion of love!
At the Last Supper, Judas went out alone. He left the light, the life, the LOVE that is Christ and wandered into the darkness. A sign that this is the alternative: the love of Christ offered at His table where He makes His own one body and one loaf with Him and with each other, or going one's own way, doing one's own thing. The darkness.
I write about all of this tonight because of a conversation with Dr. Herl this afternoon. He was asking the question of how to address someone who argues that if I as a pastor stand in the way of using rock music or whatever, to get them into the church and so save them, then I am responsible for their loss. We talked a long while, and it was very clear to me that the matter is not one of music or style or adiaphora or any such thing. It is a matter of salvation. What do we mean by "saved"?
The person who insists on their own way and would have everyone go along with that or else they take their marbles and go home, is precisely a person who is NOT saved. We are saved not by demanding and getting our own way; He saves us literally by liberating us from that. From the way of Judas walking out in to the darkness to do his own thing; into the community where what any of us will is only and always to love the other, and the thought of insisting on one's own way is seen as something we must shrink from in horror and ask forgiveness for. Salvation that can be conceived of apart from the healing embrace of love (both Love in His embrace of us and our embrace then of each other), is NOT the salvation that Christ has prepared for His people. The eternal life He gives us IS love. And it is life and it is eternal precisely because it is nothing less than love.
Do these ramblings make any sense at all?
In case you were wondering...
...at 2 p.m. here in Hamel it was 64. By 3 p.m. it was 33. Though most of that drop occurred in 1/2 hour's time. And the temp is still dropping. Wild and wooly wind out today!
On the Oddities of Calendar
This past Sunday, our Synod commemorated St. John Chrysostom. We were not alone in that commemoration. Our sisters and brothers in the ELS commemorated him that day also, as did the Eastern Rite and Western Rite Orthodox and the Anglicans and I believe any observing the "exceptional" Latin rite in the Roman Church. However, our counterparts in the ELCA will observe his day September 13th, together with most Roman Catholics around the world. September 13th is the actual day of the great saint's death as he was traveling to Pityus on the distant shores of the Black Sea; but January 27th marks the day in 438 when his remains were returned to the city of Constantinople from which he had been exiled some 34 years before. His final words are rumored to have been: "Glory to God for all things."
The liturgy that bears his name contains some beautiful words:
"Thou it was who didst bring us from non-existence into being, and when we had fallen away didst raise us up again, and didst not cease to do all things until thou hadst brought us back to heaven and hadst endowed us with thy kingdom which is to come."
He was a great preacher of God's grace and of the free justification of the sinner by faith alone. But he wanted nothing to do with a so-called faith that didn't blossom forth into works of love and mercy - and he was especially concerned with care for the poor. In that faith that shows itself alive in love, he found great joy and comfort for the many hardships he had to endure.
God willing, I'll be speaking a bit about the great saint today on Issues, Etc.
The liturgy that bears his name contains some beautiful words:
"Thou it was who didst bring us from non-existence into being, and when we had fallen away didst raise us up again, and didst not cease to do all things until thou hadst brought us back to heaven and hadst endowed us with thy kingdom which is to come."
He was a great preacher of God's grace and of the free justification of the sinner by faith alone. But he wanted nothing to do with a so-called faith that didn't blossom forth into works of love and mercy - and he was especially concerned with care for the poor. In that faith that shows itself alive in love, he found great joy and comfort for the many hardships he had to endure.
God willing, I'll be speaking a bit about the great saint today on Issues, Etc.
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Because the attributes of God are not a changeable accident in God, but His very essence, therefore the love and affection by which He embraces the devout must be more ardent than we can grasp with our thought. Sirach 2: "As great as God is, so great is His mercy." But He is infinite, immeasurable, invariable, eternal, therefore so also is His mercy, which "prevails over us forever." (Psalm 117:2) It does not vary or change unless we are changed, just as the sun remains unchanged, though people who turn away from its light and heat deprive themselves of the benefit of the sun. -- Johann Gerhard, *On the Nature of God and On the Trinity* p. 120, 121
Patristic Quote of the Day
And consequently, when God is said to change His will, as when, e.g., He becomes angry with those to whom He was gentle, it is rather they than He who are changed, and they find Him changed in so far as their experience of suffering at His hand is new, as the sun is changed to injured eyes, and becomes as it were fierce from being mild, and hurtful from being delightful, though in itself it remains the same as it was. -- St. Augustine, City of God, Book 22, Chapter 2
27 January 2008
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Paul does not say that we who believe in the Cross should crucify our sins in general. Our lusts should be crucified. This is why the true saints are so much different from many church members. They know that there is a Devil because they have done business with him. -- Von Schenk, *The Presence* p. 75
Patristic Quote of the Day
These are fountains of salvation, that they who thirst may be satisfied with the living words they contain. In these alone is proclaimed the doctrine of godliness. Let no man add to these, neither let him take ought from these. For concerning these the Lord put to shame the Sadducees, and said, 'You err, not knowing the Scriptures.' And He reproved the Jews, saying, 'Search the Scriptures, for these are they that testify of Me Matthew 22:29; John 5:39.' - St. Athanasius, Letter 39 (After he listed out the Canon - basically the so-called Protestant canon, the exceptions being excluding Esther, and including Baruch).
Baptized into Thy Name Most Holy
What joy today for Lucas Mitchell Day - child of Mitch and Deaconess Sarah Day - to receive the laver of regeneration, the renewing in the Holy Spirit at the start of the liturgy in our late service. I do not know how many Baptisms we have done with LSB, but we are becoming comfortable with it as a congregation. It's great to have the people and sponsors join in because the order is in the book. We make one alteration of the service, though, and have done so for many years: the rite calls for a spoken "Amen" upon the act of Baptism. In our parish we always sing a three-fold Alleluia upon the completion of Baptism, before the anointing with the chrism. We do this regardless of when a Baptism is celebrated, a way of confessing that Baptism is ALWAYS Easter. And, as one of my members told me years ago, "it just seems RIGHT." "From death to life eternal, from sin's dominion free, our Christ has brought us over, with hymns of victory." (LSB 478:1)
26 January 2008
Yet More Catechism Services
Pastor Lehmann has been busy at work, loading these up to Youtube. Here you go:
Services 5-12. And no, I didn't get a lot taller and heftier - that was former Vicar and now Pastor Brian Holle filling in for me while I was on vacation - and doing a great job, I might add!
Catechism Service 5
Catechism Service 6
Catechism Service 7
Catechism Service 8
Catechism Service 9
Catechism Service 10
Catechism Service 11
Catechism Service 12
Services 5-12. And no, I didn't get a lot taller and heftier - that was former Vicar and now Pastor Brian Holle filling in for me while I was on vacation - and doing a great job, I might add!
Catechism Service 5
Catechism Service 6
Catechism Service 7
Catechism Service 8
Catechism Service 9
Catechism Service 10
Catechism Service 11
Catechism Service 12
25 January 2008
A New Blog to Check Out
LCMS and academic, Virgil Hoffman:
http://virgiliusblog.blogspot.com/
He's already linked to a rather interesting conversation on the ALPB site.
http://virgiliusblog.blogspot.com/
He's already linked to a rather interesting conversation on the ALPB site.
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
As Paul, now, pursued the matter so earnestly and conceives the idea of suppressing this new sect in other regions beyond Jerusalem, our Lord Jesus has other plans for him and says, Halt! This is a man I want! Whatever he sets his mind to do, he does with determination and resolve; and this resolve which he now manifests in an evil way, I will turn around with my Spirit and utilize for a good purpose. -- Blessed Martin Luther, *House Postils* 3:269
Patristic Quote of the Day
On the writings of St. Paul: "For his writings fortify the churches all over the world like a wall of steel." - St. John Chrysostom, On the Priesthood, IV.7
Conversion of St. Paul (Part II)
Praise for the light from heavenAnd for the voice of awe;
Praise for the glorious vision
The persecutor saw.
O Lord, for Paul's conversion,
We bless Your name today;
Come shine within our darkness,
And guide us on our way. (LSB 517:12)
O God, who through the preaching of the blessed Apostle St. Paul has caused the light of the Gospel to shine to the Gentile world, give us grace ever to joy in the saving light of Thy Gospel and to spread it to the uttermost parts of the earth; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. (TLH)
"This, then, is the account of Paul's conversion, a truly wonderful story! It demonstrates for us the wondrous working of our Lord God as he converts this foremost persecutor of Christ and his church, and out of a wolf makes a gentle lamb for our salvation's sake and consolation, so that we heathen might acquire a truly great master and teacher. Let us thank God for such grace with all our hearts!" - Blessed Martin Luther, House Postils 3:273
24 January 2008
A Study for Sexagesima (A bit late and from yesteryear)
Oremus. (The old way)
O God, who seest that we put not our trust in anything that we do, mercifully grant that by Thy power we may be defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. (TLH)
Oremus. (The new way)
O God, the strength of all who put their trust in You, mercifully grant that by Your power we may be defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (LSB)
Liturgical Context
This period of the Church Year is our “narthex,” our entrance, into the season of Lent, a time for us to pause before we begin our pilgrimage to Calvary and the empty tomb. The names of the three Sundays in this mini-season are markers telling us about how many days there are before our celebration of Easter: Septuagesima (70), Sexagesima (60), and Quinquagesima (50). Each of the three Sundays focuses on one of the three Sola’s of Lutheranism. The first week we will hear how we are saved by Grace Alone (Sola Gratia), the next week of Scripture Alone (Sola Scriptura), and finally we consider the importance of Baptism and how we are saved by Faith Alone (Sola Fide). With our eyes focused on how God works to save us, we are prepared to enter the penitential season of Lent. -- Bishop Laache, Book of Family Prayer, p. 162.
Readings
Isaiah 55:10-13 / Hebrews 4:9-13 / Luke 8:4-15
The theme of the day is clearly the power of the Word of God! The old introit sounds the theme in the verse: “We have heard with our ears, O God: our fathers have told us what deeds You performed in their days!” Isaiah reminds us the Word that is sent forth from God’s mouth does not return empty, but accomplishes the purposes for which He sent it. Should the Word be taken here as in the sense of John 1? For surely the Eternal Word did not return empty! He accomplished the work His Father gave Him to do – John 17! On the other hand, the words of the disciples (also John 17) is precisely what God will use to bring to faith – thus the Word also in the sense of the proclaimed message gets the job done. Hebrews 4 speaks of the Word of God as living and powerful and sharp – ouch! – it cuts right through to expose the thoughts and intents of the heart. No hiding from the Lord who wields this powerful Word, but all are “naked and open” to Him (“O God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known and from Whom no secrets are hid…” – Collect for Purity). These readings all set us up for the Gospel for the Day, which challenges us as we prepare for Lent and Easter to ask: how are we doing at hearing the Word of the Lord?
The Gospel Reading (slightly rearranged)
Context: Luke has just had the confrontation in the house of Simon over the “sinful woman” who had been “forgiven much” and so “loved much.” He also had mentioned that Jesus was accompanied in proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom not merely by the disciples, but by women he had “healed” of evil spirits, including Mary Magdalena, who provided for him. This picks up a theme in Luke about the eagerness of the women to hear the words of Jesus – as in Mary and Martha in Luke 10. Immediately following the parable of the sower is the parable of the lamp under a jar, and then the account of Jesus’ mother and brothers – where again, the Word of God is paramount: “My mother and brothers are those who hear the Word of God and do it!” (8:21)
The TEXT:
Luke 8:4 ¶ And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable:
Luke 8:5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it.
Luke 8:11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
Luke 8:12 The ones along the path are those who have heard. Then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.
Seed and Word are joined together already in Isaiah 55. Luke alone has “of the air” attached to the birds. Literally “of the heavens.” That the Lord then identifies the birds with Satan fits with him being “the prince of the power of the air.” Eph 2. Our wrestling is against “spiritual wickedness in high places.” Eph 6. Thus the battle is joined against the devil, who has but one objective: to steal the Word from those who hear it lest it bear fruit, and they believe it and be saved! Note that the fruit of the Word here is faith and salvation – thus we are dealing with the Gospel in the narrow sense. Important point for later.
Luke 8:6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.
Luke 8:13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.
Psalm 1 in reverse: there moisture in abundance and so deep rooted drinking of it. Here the opposite, the Word received and even rejoiced in, but it isn’t permitted to sink its roots deep within the heart. When the kairos of testing comes, these hearers fall away – that is, they let go the Word that alone could see them through the time of testing! Would it be going too far to see in the time of testing, especially the temptations of the flesh?
Luke 8:7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.
Luke 8:14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.
We’ve had the devil and our sinful flesh, what else should we expect here but the world and its allurement? The hearers in this case allow the Word to be choked (literally, drowned – same fate as the swine that rush down the hill), and so to be unfruitful, not to yield salvation.
By now we are confronted by a bit of a problem, are we not? The Word, we were told, always prospers in that for which it was sent. But here the Word has failed three times and in three different instances. This shows us that we are dealing with the Gospel Word of God, which to remain Gospel must be rejectable. It has force and power indeed! But God will not allow its force or power to be other than gift. And gifts can be returned to sender, or opened and despised, or opened and rejoiced in, but then forgotten. Such is the way God chooses to bring us salvation in Jesus: a Word that shares the weakness of the cross: a rejectable, even a despisable Word! For this Word IS the Word of the Cross – of the Man who loved us unto death and through death unto resurrection!
Luke 8:8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Luke 8:15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
Catechesis at last – sorry Dale, but there it is! Those who are called “good soil” (“beautiful”) are those who hearing the Word “hold it fast:” kate÷cousin! Louw and Nida offer these comments:
kate÷cwb: to continue to believe, with the implication of acting in accordance with such belief — ‘to continue to believe and practice, to continue to follow.’ kaqw»ÃŸ pare÷dwka uJmi√n ta»ÃŸ parado/seiß kate÷cete ‘you continue to believe and practice the traditions as I passed them on to you’ 1Cor 11:2; di∆ ou∞ kai« sw¿Ë†zesqe … ei˙ kate÷cete ‘by which you are saved … if you continue to believe and practice it’ 1Cor 15:2.
Thus is seems possible to translate “hold fast” as “continue to believe.” The source of their believing it is not in their having a “beautiful and good heart.” Rather, the beautiful, good heart RESULTS from their having believed (held fast to) the Word: Acts 15:9 “cleansing their hearts by faith.” So faith does the beautifying job, but that faith comes precisely from “hearing the Word” Romans 10:17.
What Jesus is after he tells us at the tail end of the parable: You got ears? Use ‘em! One is reminded of the 3rd Commandment in the Large Catechism: “It is also violated by that other crowd who listen to God’s Word as they would to any other entertainment, who only from force of habit go to hear the sermon and leave again with as little knowledge at the end of the year as at the beginning!” (I:96) What a contrast with this: “On the other hand, when we seriously ponder the Word, hear it, and put it to use, such is its power that it never departs without fruit. It always awakens new understandings, pleasure, and devotion, and it constantly creates clean hearts and minds. For the Word is not idle or dead, but effective and living.” (1:101).
Luke 8:9 ¶ And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant,
Luke 8:10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’
AC V: “For through the Word and the sacraments as through instruments the Holy Spirit is given, who effects faith where and when it pleases God in those who hear the gospel.” The question is whether or not the phrase should be taken as a whole, or whether the second part is a clarification of the first part. In other words, is “where and when it pleases God” to be understood precisely as “in those who hear the gospel”? I think a case could be made! AC V goes on: “that is to say, in those who hear that God, not on account of our own merits but on account of Christ, justifies those who believe that they are received into grace on account of Christ.” THIS is alone is the key that unlocks the parables, and without this key, it’s a matter of seeing and not seeing, hearing and not hearing. This is the Mystery of the Kingdom that the disciples were given that those outside did not have. The Word that is planted is the Gospel Word and its fruit is FAITH in God! The temptation is to make this parable of Jesus into a parable of the Law: the Word then being God’s instructions and the fruit being our actions of obedience to the same. Rest assured that is the native hearing it will receive. But it’s not about the Law Word; it’s about the Gospel Word. A Word of forgiveness that Satan desperately wants us not to really hear and take to heart; a Word of forgiveness that our sinful flesh can’t bring itself to trust; a Word of forgiveness that the world strives with might and main to shout down so that it will not be heard and believed, but a Word that when it is heard and held onto by faith, bears this abundant fruits: it cleanses the heart and makes it beautiful and good in the eyes of God.
Homiletical Considerations:
Who is the Jesus that is given us only in this parable? He is the Jesus who has seed to sow, a Word to plant, a message of forgiveness to be heard. He is the Jesus who suffers Himself in His Word to be rejected, for what He is giving here comes as gift alone. He is the Jesus whose Gospel, forgiving Word is assailed directly by Satan lest it be believed! He is the Jesus whose Gospel, forgiving Word is burned up by the sun when our stony hearts simply think it is too good to be true and so not to be trusted! He is the Jesus whose Gospel, forgiving Word is choked and drowned, shouted down by the distractions of worry or of pleasure in the world. He is the Jesus who is enemy of Satan, flesh, and world, and whose only weapon is the weakness of His Word of forgiveness that when it is heard, and so believed, brings forth the fruit of God’s own indestructible life inside us! What is this Word? It is the “I love you and you will be mine forever” that He shouts over you in the font! It is the “I gave myself for you” that He whispers to you with the gift of His own Body and Blood! It is the “I forgive you” that He never tires of speaking to you in the Holy Absolution. THIS is the Word that he exhorts us to use our ears to hear, for only this Word can cleanse our hearts by faith and make them “beautiful and good.” Fruit a hundred-fold indeed! You got ears? Use ‘em!
O God, who seest that we put not our trust in anything that we do, mercifully grant that by Thy power we may be defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. (TLH)
Oremus. (The new way)
O God, the strength of all who put their trust in You, mercifully grant that by Your power we may be defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (LSB)
Liturgical Context
This period of the Church Year is our “narthex,” our entrance, into the season of Lent, a time for us to pause before we begin our pilgrimage to Calvary and the empty tomb. The names of the three Sundays in this mini-season are markers telling us about how many days there are before our celebration of Easter: Septuagesima (70), Sexagesima (60), and Quinquagesima (50). Each of the three Sundays focuses on one of the three Sola’s of Lutheranism. The first week we will hear how we are saved by Grace Alone (Sola Gratia), the next week of Scripture Alone (Sola Scriptura), and finally we consider the importance of Baptism and how we are saved by Faith Alone (Sola Fide). With our eyes focused on how God works to save us, we are prepared to enter the penitential season of Lent. -- Bishop Laache, Book of Family Prayer, p. 162.
Readings
Isaiah 55:10-13 / Hebrews 4:9-13 / Luke 8:4-15
The theme of the day is clearly the power of the Word of God! The old introit sounds the theme in the verse: “We have heard with our ears, O God: our fathers have told us what deeds You performed in their days!” Isaiah reminds us the Word that is sent forth from God’s mouth does not return empty, but accomplishes the purposes for which He sent it. Should the Word be taken here as in the sense of John 1? For surely the Eternal Word did not return empty! He accomplished the work His Father gave Him to do – John 17! On the other hand, the words of the disciples (also John 17) is precisely what God will use to bring to faith – thus the Word also in the sense of the proclaimed message gets the job done. Hebrews 4 speaks of the Word of God as living and powerful and sharp – ouch! – it cuts right through to expose the thoughts and intents of the heart. No hiding from the Lord who wields this powerful Word, but all are “naked and open” to Him (“O God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known and from Whom no secrets are hid…” – Collect for Purity). These readings all set us up for the Gospel for the Day, which challenges us as we prepare for Lent and Easter to ask: how are we doing at hearing the Word of the Lord?
The Gospel Reading (slightly rearranged)
Context: Luke has just had the confrontation in the house of Simon over the “sinful woman” who had been “forgiven much” and so “loved much.” He also had mentioned that Jesus was accompanied in proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom not merely by the disciples, but by women he had “healed” of evil spirits, including Mary Magdalena, who provided for him. This picks up a theme in Luke about the eagerness of the women to hear the words of Jesus – as in Mary and Martha in Luke 10. Immediately following the parable of the sower is the parable of the lamp under a jar, and then the account of Jesus’ mother and brothers – where again, the Word of God is paramount: “My mother and brothers are those who hear the Word of God and do it!” (8:21)
The TEXT:
Luke 8:4 ¶ And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable:
Luke 8:5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it.
Luke 8:11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
Luke 8:12 The ones along the path are those who have heard. Then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.
Seed and Word are joined together already in Isaiah 55. Luke alone has “of the air” attached to the birds. Literally “of the heavens.” That the Lord then identifies the birds with Satan fits with him being “the prince of the power of the air.” Eph 2. Our wrestling is against “spiritual wickedness in high places.” Eph 6. Thus the battle is joined against the devil, who has but one objective: to steal the Word from those who hear it lest it bear fruit, and they believe it and be saved! Note that the fruit of the Word here is faith and salvation – thus we are dealing with the Gospel in the narrow sense. Important point for later.
Luke 8:6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.
Luke 8:13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.
Psalm 1 in reverse: there moisture in abundance and so deep rooted drinking of it. Here the opposite, the Word received and even rejoiced in, but it isn’t permitted to sink its roots deep within the heart. When the kairos of testing comes, these hearers fall away – that is, they let go the Word that alone could see them through the time of testing! Would it be going too far to see in the time of testing, especially the temptations of the flesh?
Luke 8:7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.
Luke 8:14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.
We’ve had the devil and our sinful flesh, what else should we expect here but the world and its allurement? The hearers in this case allow the Word to be choked (literally, drowned – same fate as the swine that rush down the hill), and so to be unfruitful, not to yield salvation.
By now we are confronted by a bit of a problem, are we not? The Word, we were told, always prospers in that for which it was sent. But here the Word has failed three times and in three different instances. This shows us that we are dealing with the Gospel Word of God, which to remain Gospel must be rejectable. It has force and power indeed! But God will not allow its force or power to be other than gift. And gifts can be returned to sender, or opened and despised, or opened and rejoiced in, but then forgotten. Such is the way God chooses to bring us salvation in Jesus: a Word that shares the weakness of the cross: a rejectable, even a despisable Word! For this Word IS the Word of the Cross – of the Man who loved us unto death and through death unto resurrection!
Luke 8:8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Luke 8:15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
Catechesis at last – sorry Dale, but there it is! Those who are called “good soil” (“beautiful”) are those who hearing the Word “hold it fast:” kate÷cousin! Louw and Nida offer these comments:
kate÷cwb: to continue to believe, with the implication of acting in accordance with such belief — ‘to continue to believe and practice, to continue to follow.’ kaqw»ÃŸ pare÷dwka uJmi√n ta»ÃŸ parado/seiß kate÷cete ‘you continue to believe and practice the traditions as I passed them on to you’ 1Cor 11:2; di∆ ou∞ kai« sw¿Ë†zesqe … ei˙ kate÷cete ‘by which you are saved … if you continue to believe and practice it’ 1Cor 15:2.
Thus is seems possible to translate “hold fast” as “continue to believe.” The source of their believing it is not in their having a “beautiful and good heart.” Rather, the beautiful, good heart RESULTS from their having believed (held fast to) the Word: Acts 15:9 “cleansing their hearts by faith.” So faith does the beautifying job, but that faith comes precisely from “hearing the Word” Romans 10:17.
What Jesus is after he tells us at the tail end of the parable: You got ears? Use ‘em! One is reminded of the 3rd Commandment in the Large Catechism: “It is also violated by that other crowd who listen to God’s Word as they would to any other entertainment, who only from force of habit go to hear the sermon and leave again with as little knowledge at the end of the year as at the beginning!” (I:96) What a contrast with this: “On the other hand, when we seriously ponder the Word, hear it, and put it to use, such is its power that it never departs without fruit. It always awakens new understandings, pleasure, and devotion, and it constantly creates clean hearts and minds. For the Word is not idle or dead, but effective and living.” (1:101).
Luke 8:9 ¶ And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant,
Luke 8:10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’
AC V: “For through the Word and the sacraments as through instruments the Holy Spirit is given, who effects faith where and when it pleases God in those who hear the gospel.” The question is whether or not the phrase should be taken as a whole, or whether the second part is a clarification of the first part. In other words, is “where and when it pleases God” to be understood precisely as “in those who hear the gospel”? I think a case could be made! AC V goes on: “that is to say, in those who hear that God, not on account of our own merits but on account of Christ, justifies those who believe that they are received into grace on account of Christ.” THIS is alone is the key that unlocks the parables, and without this key, it’s a matter of seeing and not seeing, hearing and not hearing. This is the Mystery of the Kingdom that the disciples were given that those outside did not have. The Word that is planted is the Gospel Word and its fruit is FAITH in God! The temptation is to make this parable of Jesus into a parable of the Law: the Word then being God’s instructions and the fruit being our actions of obedience to the same. Rest assured that is the native hearing it will receive. But it’s not about the Law Word; it’s about the Gospel Word. A Word of forgiveness that Satan desperately wants us not to really hear and take to heart; a Word of forgiveness that our sinful flesh can’t bring itself to trust; a Word of forgiveness that the world strives with might and main to shout down so that it will not be heard and believed, but a Word that when it is heard and held onto by faith, bears this abundant fruits: it cleanses the heart and makes it beautiful and good in the eyes of God.
Homiletical Considerations:
Who is the Jesus that is given us only in this parable? He is the Jesus who has seed to sow, a Word to plant, a message of forgiveness to be heard. He is the Jesus who suffers Himself in His Word to be rejected, for what He is giving here comes as gift alone. He is the Jesus whose Gospel, forgiving Word is assailed directly by Satan lest it be believed! He is the Jesus whose Gospel, forgiving Word is burned up by the sun when our stony hearts simply think it is too good to be true and so not to be trusted! He is the Jesus whose Gospel, forgiving Word is choked and drowned, shouted down by the distractions of worry or of pleasure in the world. He is the Jesus who is enemy of Satan, flesh, and world, and whose only weapon is the weakness of His Word of forgiveness that when it is heard, and so believed, brings forth the fruit of God’s own indestructible life inside us! What is this Word? It is the “I love you and you will be mine forever” that He shouts over you in the font! It is the “I gave myself for you” that He whispers to you with the gift of His own Body and Blood! It is the “I forgive you” that He never tires of speaking to you in the Holy Absolution. THIS is the Word that he exhorts us to use our ears to hear, for only this Word can cleanse our hearts by faith and make them “beautiful and good.” Fruit a hundred-fold indeed! You got ears? Use ‘em!
Conversion of St. Paul
Tonight we anticipated the Festival of St. Paul's conversion with the Divine Service. I stole the main thought of the sermon from St. Augustine - a beautiful thought. He points out that by his conversion, our Lord transformed Saul from wolf to lamb. And he reminds us that Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin, about whom the Patriarch Jacob had prophesied:
Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;
In the morning devouring the prey;
in the evening dividing the spoil. (Gen 49)
Thus Saul, in "the morning" of his life was a wolf - devouring the prey. One thinks of his role in St. Stephen's martyrdom and remembers that he was on his way to Damascus, breathing threats and murder against the Lord's disciples. But when Christ our Lord gets hold of him "in the evening" of his life - look what happens! He goes from being devouring wolf to gentle lamb. Instead of bloodying up others with their blood, he begins bloodying them up with Christ's! He spreads the spoils that our Savior obtained by His suffering, death and resurrection, preaching the Gospel and celebrating the Sacrament.
Thus Saul, the one-time wolf, would become Paul the Apostle, exhorting us to "bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse...do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good."
Even so he was once overcome by the goodness of His Lord and thus utterly transformed. May it also be for us! Thanks, St. Augustine. That was juicy.
Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;
In the morning devouring the prey;
in the evening dividing the spoil. (Gen 49)
Thus Saul, in "the morning" of his life was a wolf - devouring the prey. One thinks of his role in St. Stephen's martyrdom and remembers that he was on his way to Damascus, breathing threats and murder against the Lord's disciples. But when Christ our Lord gets hold of him "in the evening" of his life - look what happens! He goes from being devouring wolf to gentle lamb. Instead of bloodying up others with their blood, he begins bloodying them up with Christ's! He spreads the spoils that our Savior obtained by His suffering, death and resurrection, preaching the Gospel and celebrating the Sacrament.
Thus Saul, the one-time wolf, would become Paul the Apostle, exhorting us to "bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse...do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good."
Even so he was once overcome by the goodness of His Lord and thus utterly transformed. May it also be for us! Thanks, St. Augustine. That was juicy.
Catechism Services
Anyone interested in our catechism services, Pastor Lehmann has been youtubing them:
Catechism Service One
Catechism Service Two
Catechism Service Three
Catechism Service Four
Catechism Service One
Catechism Service Two
Catechism Service Three
Catechism Service Four
Festival of St. Timothy, Pastor and Confessor
Today our Synod remembers, and gives thanks to God for, St. Timothy. He joined the apostolic mission in Acts 16:1-5. It is striking that it is AFTER the Jerusalem Council where the Apostle Paul fought against those who insisted that a person be circumcised to be a Christian, St. Paul has St. Timothy circumcised to further his mission among the Jews. What he would not and could not give into as a demand, he freely employed when it served the purpose of spreading the Gospel of Christ.St. Paul refers to St. Timothy as "my beloved child" and "my true child in the faith." He praises St. Timothy's grandmother Lois and mother Eunice for passing on the faith to him, and he reminds St. Timothy that from childhood he has been familiar with "the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus."
The collect for this day asks God always to give His Church pastors like St. Timothy to guide and feed the flock, making those pastors diligent in preaching the Word and administering the means of grace, and giving to the people wisdom to follow in the way that leads to eternal life.
"Therefore with patriarchs and prophets, apostles and evangelists, with Your servant Timothy, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify Your glorious name..."
23 January 2008
Patristic Quote of the Day
Believe on Christ, for you made mortal, that you may receive Him, the immortal; and when you shall have received His immortality, you shall no longer be mortal. He lived, you were dead; He died that you should live. He has brought us the grace of God, and has taken away the wrath of God. God has conquered death, lest death should conquer man. - St. Augustine, Homily on John 3
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Let us not only hear God's Word, but also seek to understand it and to let it penetrate deeply into our hearts. Let us also lay a deep foundation in true, earnest, and daily repentance so our faith does not wither and dry up in the heat of temptation. -- C.F.W. Walther, *God Grant It!* p. 217
For Darian
My friend, Darian, has asked me to share specifics of my practice for daily prayer. It's really quite simple:
My general rule is Matins from LSB, using the Psalm chart (p. 304) and the daily lectionary's first reading (pp. 299-304) in the morning; and using the same Psalm chart and the daily lectionary's second reading for either Vespers or Evening Prayer.
For office hymns, I frequently use the ones provided in the Brotherhood Prayer Book, and also use its form of commemorations following Matins, though I also use those traditional office hymns that are included in LSB. For example, all during Advent at Matins I sang: "Savior of the Nations" and at Vespers "Creator of the Stars of Night."
At either Matins or Vespers I will include an extended time for intercession for those who have asked me to remember them (I have to keep a list of them or I would forget!), and I generally use the form provided here:
http://www.stpaullutheranchurchhamel.org/DailyIntercessions.html
I include that after the collect of the day and before either the collect for grace (Matins) or peace (Vespers).
A few other points:
* There are days that I miss one office or the other because of unpredictable changes in my schedule, and when I do, I never obsess about "catching up" - I just pick up with where I should be for that service and go on from there. If you're praying them regularly, you'll pick up with those psalms and readings next time round. Don't sweat it; the goal is to be faithful in praying, not to "keep score."
* In general, I find that I pray the office with greater attention and care if I chant the psalms, sing the hymn, and read the lesson out loud, and sing the canticles, and so on. It slows down and then I'm not flying through things without really praying and listening.
* Hand in hand with that, I seem to pray with less distractions at Church than elsewhere (that's sort of a "duh" but needs saying), and sometimes folks surprise me by joining me when I'm praying at Church - always a blessing.
* What about Compline? Sadly, I haven't built Compline into my regular daily prayer. It is a service that I love and that we pray on Wednesdays together, but that most nights I do not pray. I do, however, try to pray it daily during Lent.
* When the Treasury of Daily Prayer comes out from CPH, it will be even easier to follow the Office as in the LSB because it will have readings printed out, the entire Psalter available, and other readings from various church fathers across the centuries provided in one volume. Also some hymn verses for each day, I believe. Keep your eyes out for that gem!
My general rule is Matins from LSB, using the Psalm chart (p. 304) and the daily lectionary's first reading (pp. 299-304) in the morning; and using the same Psalm chart and the daily lectionary's second reading for either Vespers or Evening Prayer.
For office hymns, I frequently use the ones provided in the Brotherhood Prayer Book, and also use its form of commemorations following Matins, though I also use those traditional office hymns that are included in LSB. For example, all during Advent at Matins I sang: "Savior of the Nations" and at Vespers "Creator of the Stars of Night."
At either Matins or Vespers I will include an extended time for intercession for those who have asked me to remember them (I have to keep a list of them or I would forget!), and I generally use the form provided here:
http://www.stpaullutheranchurchhamel.org/DailyIntercessions.html
I include that after the collect of the day and before either the collect for grace (Matins) or peace (Vespers).
A few other points:
* There are days that I miss one office or the other because of unpredictable changes in my schedule, and when I do, I never obsess about "catching up" - I just pick up with where I should be for that service and go on from there. If you're praying them regularly, you'll pick up with those psalms and readings next time round. Don't sweat it; the goal is to be faithful in praying, not to "keep score."
* In general, I find that I pray the office with greater attention and care if I chant the psalms, sing the hymn, and read the lesson out loud, and sing the canticles, and so on. It slows down and then I'm not flying through things without really praying and listening.
* Hand in hand with that, I seem to pray with less distractions at Church than elsewhere (that's sort of a "duh" but needs saying), and sometimes folks surprise me by joining me when I'm praying at Church - always a blessing.
* What about Compline? Sadly, I haven't built Compline into my regular daily prayer. It is a service that I love and that we pray on Wednesdays together, but that most nights I do not pray. I do, however, try to pray it daily during Lent.
* When the Treasury of Daily Prayer comes out from CPH, it will be even easier to follow the Office as in the LSB because it will have readings printed out, the entire Psalter available, and other readings from various church fathers across the centuries provided in one volume. Also some hymn verses for each day, I believe. Keep your eyes out for that gem!
22 January 2008
Sometimes
the mind isn't what it should be. I was thinking: Jan. 22. Why is that ringing a bell? It was a tolling bell, of course, only I had forgotten for a moment. Roe v. Wade. May the Lord have mercy on us! Here's a sermon I wrote I for the Synod's "Life Sunday":
Life Sermon
Life Sermon
Okay
I admit it. I miss them. My mother and father-in-law. They've been gone TOO long. They need to come home. Seeing them several times a week is like an anchor to my life. And when they're not around I feel adrift. Come on, Jo and Dave, you KNOW you want to beat me at Liverpool again. Hurry home now, y'all hear?
Patristic Quote of the Day
For see what He says; "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 1 John 1:8 Consequently, if you have confessed yourself a sinner, the truth is in you: for the Truth itself is light. Your life has not yet shone in perfect brightness, because there are sins in you; but yet you have already begun to be enlightened, because there is in you the confession of sins. -- St. Augustine, Homily on 1 John 1
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Let us never forget that we are saved, not merely by coming to faith, but by persevering in it. We do not reach our heavenly goal because we once were zealous to avoid the sins of the world, but because we remain on that path all our days. We are not heirs of eternal life because we were once united with Christ, but because we maintain fellowship with our Savior until our death. - C.F.W. Walther, *God Grant It!* p. 215
And a Gerhard Tidbit for the Same
Won't type out all the good stuff in Gerhard, but I really appreciated what he said here:
In His Creation, God the Lord not only made the earth fruitful with various and multitudinous seeds, but He also sowed a noble Seed into the heart of the first two people - it was, of course, the image of God. From this Seed within their hearts there was supposed to sprout up and grow forth the noble fruits of divine knowledge, as well as perfect love for, and heartfelt praise to, God. Indeed, the fruit of eternal life was to grow forth from this Seed in their heart.
[One notes here the perfect potential, not the perfect actualization, from which humanity fell, and thus a bit of a connection with the distinction between image and likeness that the Cappadocians used to make the same point. AT times one hears that such thoughts are foreign to Western theological endeavor, but I think this is not the case.]
In His Creation, God the Lord not only made the earth fruitful with various and multitudinous seeds, but He also sowed a noble Seed into the heart of the first two people - it was, of course, the image of God. From this Seed within their hearts there was supposed to sprout up and grow forth the noble fruits of divine knowledge, as well as perfect love for, and heartfelt praise to, God. Indeed, the fruit of eternal life was to grow forth from this Seed in their heart.
[One notes here the perfect potential, not the perfect actualization, from which humanity fell, and thus a bit of a connection with the distinction between image and likeness that the Cappadocians used to make the same point. AT times one hears that such thoughts are foreign to Western theological endeavor, but I think this is not the case.]
Luther Tidbits for Sexagesima
From the House Postil, a Homily on Luke 8:4-15
We should very carefully study this Gospel so that each of us may examine himself to determine to which group he belongs.
We would like to think that there is no particular danger involved in heedless hearing and not retaining the Word, and that those who act thus are simple, inattentive people, with a natural trait of forgetting what they heard preached. But Christ assesses things differently here, stating it is the devil who takes the word out of their hearts.
They are of the opinion that nothing much is lost when they let the Word in one ear and out the other.
This group that hears the Word and pays no heed is the largest.
But as soon as tribulation comes along, they grow terrified and are unwilling to endure suffering. As a result, the fruit of eternal life will also remain beyond reach.
For whoever is obsessed by worldly cares, whose sole concern is how high he can climb and how rich he can become, will have a heart that is encumbered, as Christ says, and as a result the Word is choked within him, like the seed among the thrones.
However, to this, as Christ says, we must add a good and honest heart, that is a heart which, in the first place, is not listless, but really intent on the Word of God.
This heart must be purged and swept clean so that no thorns remain in it, that is, we must no longer love possessions, money, fame, and pleasures more than God's Word and the life which is to come, nor be more concerned with secular affairs than with God's Word.
We need to be on guard against the weakness and infirmities of our nature, against succumbing to false security, but petitioning God for His Holy Spirit, to remove such obstacles, to sweep out those thorns and thistles from our hearts, so that we can continue to hear and retain God's Word, and bring forth the good fruit, by faith in Christ, through which faith we not only live in obedience to God, but become God's children and heirs. The main reason this seed is sown, that is, the gospel is proclaimed in all the world, is to create and work fruit in us which endures into eternity.
Listen to God's Word while you have it; the time may come when you would like to hear it, but it may not be there for you. Therefore, give ear diligently while you have it.
We should very carefully study this Gospel so that each of us may examine himself to determine to which group he belongs.
We would like to think that there is no particular danger involved in heedless hearing and not retaining the Word, and that those who act thus are simple, inattentive people, with a natural trait of forgetting what they heard preached. But Christ assesses things differently here, stating it is the devil who takes the word out of their hearts.
They are of the opinion that nothing much is lost when they let the Word in one ear and out the other.
This group that hears the Word and pays no heed is the largest.
But as soon as tribulation comes along, they grow terrified and are unwilling to endure suffering. As a result, the fruit of eternal life will also remain beyond reach.
For whoever is obsessed by worldly cares, whose sole concern is how high he can climb and how rich he can become, will have a heart that is encumbered, as Christ says, and as a result the Word is choked within him, like the seed among the thrones.
However, to this, as Christ says, we must add a good and honest heart, that is a heart which, in the first place, is not listless, but really intent on the Word of God.
This heart must be purged and swept clean so that no thorns remain in it, that is, we must no longer love possessions, money, fame, and pleasures more than God's Word and the life which is to come, nor be more concerned with secular affairs than with God's Word.
We need to be on guard against the weakness and infirmities of our nature, against succumbing to false security, but petitioning God for His Holy Spirit, to remove such obstacles, to sweep out those thorns and thistles from our hearts, so that we can continue to hear and retain God's Word, and bring forth the good fruit, by faith in Christ, through which faith we not only live in obedience to God, but become God's children and heirs. The main reason this seed is sown, that is, the gospel is proclaimed in all the world, is to create and work fruit in us which endures into eternity.
Listen to God's Word while you have it; the time may come when you would like to hear it, but it may not be there for you. Therefore, give ear diligently while you have it.
21 January 2008
Have you ever noticed
that a "holiday" actually means you have the same amount of work to do with one less day to get it done in?
Days and Hymns
Pr. Lehmann made me write this one. It's just my notion of what days you HAVE to sing certain hymns on. It's not a complete list, but it is a start, and I'd welcome other thoughts. It's not that these hymns are necessarily the best or the greatest for a given day, but that (at least at St. Paul's, Hamel) these hymns are EXPECTED on a given day, remembering we use the historic or one-year lectionary:
Easter - don't even think about skipping "Jesus Christ is Risen Today, Alleluia" or "I Know that My Redeemer Lives."
Easter II - you have to do "O Sons and Daughters" and use the Vulpius tune - the other one won't fly here.
Easter III - "The King of Love" with the tune from LW.
Ascension - "On Christ's Ascension" is a must.
Pentecost - "Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord" simply HAS to be the hymn of the day.
Trinity - "Glory be to God the Father" better be in there somewhere.
Trinity I - Who could think of skipping "Lord, Thee I Love"
Last Sunday after Trinity - "Wake, Awake," what else?
Advent I - "Savior of the Nations" reigns supreme
Advent IV - "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" must NOT be monkeyed with
Christmas Day - if you get in "O Come, All Ye Faithful," "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "Joy to the World" you are playing it safe. If you can convince them that a Christmas without "Of the Father's Love" is unthinkable, blessed are you!
New Year's Eve - you MUST sing "Our God, our Help" and "Across the Sky" - and on the last one LSB really improved the words.
Epiphany - I HATE the hymns for Epiphany, but you have to sing them: "Brightest and Best" and "As With Gladness" - but I put up with them because the Hymn of the Day has to be "O Morning Star" and that more than makes up for sentimental 19th century tunes and text.
Epiphany I - "The Star Proclaims" is a must.
Transfiguration - here is one that I insist on: "O Wondrous Type" - congregation is still in the learning to love it phase. But they WILL love it; it's not really an option. Such a great text wedded to that great Agincourt tune.
Lenten Services - the great chorales "Jesus, I will Ponder Now," "A Lamb Alone" and "Ah, Dearest Jesus" are all musts somewhere along the line.
Palm Sunday - besides the opening "All Glory" you HAVE to get in there "Ride On, Ride On" with the old TLH/LSB tune.
Good Friday - "O Sacred Head" is not optional
And we're about where we started. There are others, but those are the "must sing" hymns that come to my mind for the Church year. Do you have others?
Easter - don't even think about skipping "Jesus Christ is Risen Today, Alleluia" or "I Know that My Redeemer Lives."
Easter II - you have to do "O Sons and Daughters" and use the Vulpius tune - the other one won't fly here.
Easter III - "The King of Love" with the tune from LW.
Ascension - "On Christ's Ascension" is a must.
Pentecost - "Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord" simply HAS to be the hymn of the day.
Trinity - "Glory be to God the Father" better be in there somewhere.
Trinity I - Who could think of skipping "Lord, Thee I Love"
Last Sunday after Trinity - "Wake, Awake," what else?
Advent I - "Savior of the Nations" reigns supreme
Advent IV - "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" must NOT be monkeyed with
Christmas Day - if you get in "O Come, All Ye Faithful," "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "Joy to the World" you are playing it safe. If you can convince them that a Christmas without "Of the Father's Love" is unthinkable, blessed are you!
New Year's Eve - you MUST sing "Our God, our Help" and "Across the Sky" - and on the last one LSB really improved the words.
Epiphany - I HATE the hymns for Epiphany, but you have to sing them: "Brightest and Best" and "As With Gladness" - but I put up with them because the Hymn of the Day has to be "O Morning Star" and that more than makes up for sentimental 19th century tunes and text.
Epiphany I - "The Star Proclaims" is a must.
Transfiguration - here is one that I insist on: "O Wondrous Type" - congregation is still in the learning to love it phase. But they WILL love it; it's not really an option. Such a great text wedded to that great Agincourt tune.
Lenten Services - the great chorales "Jesus, I will Ponder Now," "A Lamb Alone" and "Ah, Dearest Jesus" are all musts somewhere along the line.
Palm Sunday - besides the opening "All Glory" you HAVE to get in there "Ride On, Ride On" with the old TLH/LSB tune.
Good Friday - "O Sacred Head" is not optional
And we're about where we started. There are others, but those are the "must sing" hymns that come to my mind for the Church year. Do you have others?
Patristic Quote of the Day
You see again how it is from faith that the boldness comes, and the gift is universal; since it is not of the Jews only that this is said, but also of the whole human race. For every one, he would say, whether Jew, or Grecian, or Scythian, or Thracian, or whatsoever else he may be, will, if he believes, enjoy the privilege of great boldness. -- St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans (IX)
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
God hath given thee the treasure of faith, but thou carriest that treasure in a an earthen vessel. God hath given His holy angels to guard thee, but the devil waits not far off for thee to go astray. He hath renewed thee in the spirit of thy mind, but still thou has the oldness of the flesh to struggle with. Thou has been established in the grace of God, but art not yet confirmed in eternal glory. A heavenly mansion is prepared for thee, but first thou must struggle with a wicked world. - Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XXIX
Annual Report - 2007
The year 2007 was the 151st year that our Lord Jesus gathered to Himself a community of Lutheran Christians in New Gehlenbeck, who journey in company together toward the light of home, toward the Kingdom of God, where the reunion is eternal, and the goodbyes are forever bidden good-bye.
January found us celebrating Epiphany with great restraint. Our organ was damaged and silenced and was almost a mirror image of our organist's condition - Marianne lay sick at Anderson hospital, and our prayers rose on her behalf. We asked for God's good and gracious will to be done, and we accepted that will with tears in our eyes when He called her from the struggles of this life to the glorious and unending music of the Kingdom. Her funeral was celebrated here with much music amid tears of joy and heart-ache. It was only a few days later that we were privileged to watch Giana Hanvey begin her life-long journey toward the kingdom by receiving the washing of Holy Baptism.
February was a relatively quiet month. The Church continued to prepare pilgrims for the kingdom by instruction in the faith (both youth and adults) and together solemnly began walking toward Easter on Ash Wednesday, and continued our Lenten pilgrimage throughout March.
When April arrived so did Palm Sunday - April 1st - this past year. That day we saw nine young people examined in the faith, and welcomed to the Lord's altar: Veronica Bartony, Abbey Boeker, Caleb Braasch, Taryn Coolbaugh, Andrew Hellmann, Jacob Reising, Katy Reising, Samantha Steinmann, and Erin Wagner. We rejoiced with the disciples in the Upper Room on Thursday as we celebrated our Lord's institution of His Holy Supper. We stood in silence before the Cross on Good Friday and beheld the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. When the Vigil of Easter arrived, our joys overflowed as we were honored to welcome into our parish the adults instructed during that Lent: Kelly Krausz, Megan Miller, and Stephanie Renken. And then our full Easter joy sounded on April 8th - well, not quite full. Easter without an organ. A bit of a downer. And yet, the overflowing joy of the Resurrection could not be quenched. Toward the end of April, as the Church was still rejoicing in Easter, the Lord brought his servant Marvin Behrhorst home to himself. What a funeral that was - with fire fighters from hither, thither, and yon gathering to honor a man they loved and respected.
May brought a change to Hamel! I was blessed to offer the prayer at the opening of our very own DK's - we had a grocery store again. It had been many a year, and was a welcome addition to our community. May also brought at change to St. Paul's! Our organ was back. In the middle of May we celebrated our Lord's Ascension and in the week following graduations from both our TSP and Metro East. And we learned to sing again with gusto as the organ trumpeted forth with Diane Schrader at the organ bench.
June was another quiet month except for the last week, when the place was swamped with little people celebrating Vacation Bible School together. Earlier that month Cindi and I had hosted at the parsonage a gathering for all the pastors and vicars in our circuit. They were almost, but not quite, as noisy as the little ones.
With July, the Weedons had their attention drawn more and more to a certain upcoming event that suddenly was less than a month away. And how could we forget it when other marriages were staring in the face? Heather Braasch and Jon Baumberger pledged their vows on July 6th and then again at the end of the month, Jennay Welling and Matthew Haarmann were united in holy marriage before St. Paul's altar. Early in the month, we also laid to rest our sister in Christ, Doris Meyer. She'd been living down in Florida since Lester's death, but she came home to St. Paul for one last time in Church as we celebrated together God's promises over her life and laid to her rest beside her beloved husband. Later in the month we got to see yet another little pilgrim begin to walk the path of the Kingdom: Joshua Krausz, Kelly's son, was baptized in the Triune name on July 21st. And at the very tail end of the month, word came that the Army had activated Pastor GeRue and that he'd be shipping out within weeks. And within weeks, school was due to start. Time to pray - for him and for his family and for our school. God is good and answers the prayers of His people.
August was a crazy month for us - that wedding thing! A great and joyous day for the Weedon family as Lauren Weedon and Dean Herberts were married here. Our only regret was that St. Paul's and the Hamel Community Center were too small to hold ALL the Saint Paul family and the Holy Cross family. The day after the wedding, it was my distinct joy and privilege to confirm David and Joanne DeVries, my mother and father-in-law. Back to that answered prayer matter - the Lord sent us Mrs. Myra Farrell, and Pastor GeRue had his heart set a bit at rest before he left us, knowing that he was leaving the school in good hands. School began and we had a full faculty.
In September, wedding bells rang again for Maggie Meyer and Craig McCalla. And someone forgot to turn off the baptismal water that month! Goodness, a spate of Baptisms was beginning: Welcomed to the family of God and the life of pilgrimage were: Logan Arnold Miersch (September 8), Emma Nichole and Cooper Michael Wagner (September 23), and Nathan Edward Meier (September 30).
October was a quieter month, though our anxiety grew for Paul Steinmann during those days. We did have also a Baptism. On October 14th, we celebrated the new birth of Tyler Lee Perry. Pilgrimages beginning, pilgrimages ending, and always the Church continues on her way, helping new pilgrims and old to walk toward the light of the Kingdom. Also that month Tom Martin and Darlene DeCruz pledged their vows before the altar.
Two Baptisms fell in November: on the 10th Matthew Jacob Overby had his sins washed away and a couple weeks later on the 25th, so did Winifred Faith Shashack. And on November 26, the Lord called his servant Paul Steinmann out of this age to the joy and light of the Kingdom. His visitation and funeral will not soon be forgotten - the long lines, the joyful singing, the bringing to rest of a child of God, a Rock Man.
Come December, we were celebrating Advent and looking for our Lord's return and still the waters of Baptism flowed: On the 2nd, Ayla Tyler Long; on the 8th, Damon Theodore Roosevelt; and on the 22nd, Evan Leon Notter. And so we came to Christmas, celebrating the joyful birth in the flesh of Him who has made all of our life a pilgrimage and journey to His Father's home. With all the ups and all the downs, with all the struggles and all the joys, with Him we go home to the Father.
At the end of 2007, the membership of St. Paul's stood at 748 Baptized; 585 Confirmed; an average attendance of 304 per weekend, which is just over 40% of the membership in Church on average. All in all, St. Paul's baptized 12, confirmed 14, married 6 couples, and buried four of our dear members.
Respectfully submitted by Pastor William Weedon in the 16th year of his pastorate at St. Paul's
January found us celebrating Epiphany with great restraint. Our organ was damaged and silenced and was almost a mirror image of our organist's condition - Marianne lay sick at Anderson hospital, and our prayers rose on her behalf. We asked for God's good and gracious will to be done, and we accepted that will with tears in our eyes when He called her from the struggles of this life to the glorious and unending music of the Kingdom. Her funeral was celebrated here with much music amid tears of joy and heart-ache. It was only a few days later that we were privileged to watch Giana Hanvey begin her life-long journey toward the kingdom by receiving the washing of Holy Baptism.
February was a relatively quiet month. The Church continued to prepare pilgrims for the kingdom by instruction in the faith (both youth and adults) and together solemnly began walking toward Easter on Ash Wednesday, and continued our Lenten pilgrimage throughout March.
When April arrived so did Palm Sunday - April 1st - this past year. That day we saw nine young people examined in the faith, and welcomed to the Lord's altar: Veronica Bartony, Abbey Boeker, Caleb Braasch, Taryn Coolbaugh, Andrew Hellmann, Jacob Reising, Katy Reising, Samantha Steinmann, and Erin Wagner. We rejoiced with the disciples in the Upper Room on Thursday as we celebrated our Lord's institution of His Holy Supper. We stood in silence before the Cross on Good Friday and beheld the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. When the Vigil of Easter arrived, our joys overflowed as we were honored to welcome into our parish the adults instructed during that Lent: Kelly Krausz, Megan Miller, and Stephanie Renken. And then our full Easter joy sounded on April 8th - well, not quite full. Easter without an organ. A bit of a downer. And yet, the overflowing joy of the Resurrection could not be quenched. Toward the end of April, as the Church was still rejoicing in Easter, the Lord brought his servant Marvin Behrhorst home to himself. What a funeral that was - with fire fighters from hither, thither, and yon gathering to honor a man they loved and respected.
May brought a change to Hamel! I was blessed to offer the prayer at the opening of our very own DK's - we had a grocery store again. It had been many a year, and was a welcome addition to our community. May also brought at change to St. Paul's! Our organ was back. In the middle of May we celebrated our Lord's Ascension and in the week following graduations from both our TSP and Metro East. And we learned to sing again with gusto as the organ trumpeted forth with Diane Schrader at the organ bench.
June was another quiet month except for the last week, when the place was swamped with little people celebrating Vacation Bible School together. Earlier that month Cindi and I had hosted at the parsonage a gathering for all the pastors and vicars in our circuit. They were almost, but not quite, as noisy as the little ones.
With July, the Weedons had their attention drawn more and more to a certain upcoming event that suddenly was less than a month away. And how could we forget it when other marriages were staring in the face? Heather Braasch and Jon Baumberger pledged their vows on July 6th and then again at the end of the month, Jennay Welling and Matthew Haarmann were united in holy marriage before St. Paul's altar. Early in the month, we also laid to rest our sister in Christ, Doris Meyer. She'd been living down in Florida since Lester's death, but she came home to St. Paul for one last time in Church as we celebrated together God's promises over her life and laid to her rest beside her beloved husband. Later in the month we got to see yet another little pilgrim begin to walk the path of the Kingdom: Joshua Krausz, Kelly's son, was baptized in the Triune name on July 21st. And at the very tail end of the month, word came that the Army had activated Pastor GeRue and that he'd be shipping out within weeks. And within weeks, school was due to start. Time to pray - for him and for his family and for our school. God is good and answers the prayers of His people.
August was a crazy month for us - that wedding thing! A great and joyous day for the Weedon family as Lauren Weedon and Dean Herberts were married here. Our only regret was that St. Paul's and the Hamel Community Center were too small to hold ALL the Saint Paul family and the Holy Cross family. The day after the wedding, it was my distinct joy and privilege to confirm David and Joanne DeVries, my mother and father-in-law. Back to that answered prayer matter - the Lord sent us Mrs. Myra Farrell, and Pastor GeRue had his heart set a bit at rest before he left us, knowing that he was leaving the school in good hands. School began and we had a full faculty.
In September, wedding bells rang again for Maggie Meyer and Craig McCalla. And someone forgot to turn off the baptismal water that month! Goodness, a spate of Baptisms was beginning: Welcomed to the family of God and the life of pilgrimage were: Logan Arnold Miersch (September 8), Emma Nichole and Cooper Michael Wagner (September 23), and Nathan Edward Meier (September 30).
October was a quieter month, though our anxiety grew for Paul Steinmann during those days. We did have also a Baptism. On October 14th, we celebrated the new birth of Tyler Lee Perry. Pilgrimages beginning, pilgrimages ending, and always the Church continues on her way, helping new pilgrims and old to walk toward the light of the Kingdom. Also that month Tom Martin and Darlene DeCruz pledged their vows before the altar.
Two Baptisms fell in November: on the 10th Matthew Jacob Overby had his sins washed away and a couple weeks later on the 25th, so did Winifred Faith Shashack. And on November 26, the Lord called his servant Paul Steinmann out of this age to the joy and light of the Kingdom. His visitation and funeral will not soon be forgotten - the long lines, the joyful singing, the bringing to rest of a child of God, a Rock Man.
Come December, we were celebrating Advent and looking for our Lord's return and still the waters of Baptism flowed: On the 2nd, Ayla Tyler Long; on the 8th, Damon Theodore Roosevelt; and on the 22nd, Evan Leon Notter. And so we came to Christmas, celebrating the joyful birth in the flesh of Him who has made all of our life a pilgrimage and journey to His Father's home. With all the ups and all the downs, with all the struggles and all the joys, with Him we go home to the Father.
At the end of 2007, the membership of St. Paul's stood at 748 Baptized; 585 Confirmed; an average attendance of 304 per weekend, which is just over 40% of the membership in Church on average. All in all, St. Paul's baptized 12, confirmed 14, married 6 couples, and buried four of our dear members.
Respectfully submitted by Pastor William Weedon in the 16th year of his pastorate at St. Paul's
20 January 2008
On the Church
[I repost this comment from the Blog of Concord site in answer to some questions my brother-in-law inquired about upon reading AC V. I hope they will be helpful to others too.]
The current Bishop of Rome published these words in 1986. They have a familiar ring to them: "Luther did not have in mind founding a Lutheran Church. For him the focus of the concept of the Church was to be found in the congregation. For relationships that transcended the congregation, in view of the logic of developments at that time, one depended as far as organization was concerned on the political structure, in other words on the princes. Thus there arose the *Land* or provincial Churches in which the political structure took the place of the structure of its own which the Church lacked. Much has changed in this field sinc 1918, but the Church continues to exist in provincial Churches which are then united in Church federations. It is obvious that when the concept Church is applied to this kind of accidental historical formation the word takes on a different meaning from that which is envisaged in the case of the expression 'Catholic Church'. Provincial Churches are not 'Church' in the theological sense but organizational forms of Christian congregations which are empirically useful or even necessary but which can be swapped for other structures. Luther was only able to transfer Church structures to the princedoms because he did not regard the concept of the Church as established in these structures. But for Catholics, on the contrary, the Catholic Church, that is the community of the bishops among themselves and with the pope, is as such something established by the Lord which is irreplaceable and cannot be swapped for anything else." (*Church, Ecumenism, and Politics* p. 114, 115)
What I think the present Bishop of Rome correctly understands in this is that to Lutherans polity is not a matter divinely mandated, not a matter on which the Church's existence hangs. Lutherans now are and have in the past lived in utterly disparate polities - and this does not hinder the recognition of a shared faith. Thus, for example, right now the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is in communio in sacris with the Archbishop of Latvia and the parishes and priests and bishops that he superintends.
What I am not sure the present Bishop of Rome understands is HOW for "Luther the concept of Church was to be found in the congregation."
For Luther and for the Lutheran Church first and foremost the Church "is, namely, the holy believers and lambs who hear the voice of their Shepherd." SA III, XII:2 This is in perfect accord with the Apology's assertion: "at its core, it [the Church] is a fellowship of faith and the Holy Spirit in hearts." Ap VII/VIII:5 Thus while the marks which locate the Church are invariably bound up with local congregations, the Church so understood is "no Platonic state, as some wickedly charge. But we do say that this Church exists: truly believing and righteous people, scattered throughout the world." Ap VII/VIII:20.
The Church is not then congregations, but congregation. The singular in AC 7 is vital. The Church is NOT in the Lutheran understanding a series of unrelated congregations. The Church is rather "the congregation of saints" among whom the Gospel is purely taught and the Sacraments are correctly administered. Not enough thought is given to the force of that singular: *congregatio sanctorum* in Latin, but even more explicit auf Deutsch *die Versammlung ALLER Gläubigen.* This is to look at the Church from the view afforded in the Revelation of St. John.
The Church is the one assembly of all believers. It is not many local assemblies, but ONE assembly. And the reality that is confessed behind this is that what the local congregation manifests is never merely community with a broad spectrum of similar-minded folk alive now. No. The congregation manifests the assembly of ALL believers. When we worship together, gathered in the Divine Name and receiving the saving Gospel and interceding for the world, and partaking of the Lamb's Feast, we are not present with some piece, some miniscule fraction of the Church. We are present with the whole of it. Hebrews 12 bears this out when it describes what you have come to when you gather as Church, where there is the blood that speaks a better word than Abel's. But it is also shown in numerous other ways in the Sacred Scriptures. Find Jesus the Lord, the Head of the Body, and you will invariably find not pieces, but the whole of the Body with Him.
When Paul directs the Corinthians to excommunicate a man, he assures them that he will be there with them in s[S?]pirit. When John is worshipping on Patmos, the veil is drawn back and he finds that he is not worshipping alone, but with the whole Church. When in the confiteor at Compline we confess "to almighty God before the whole company of heaven and to you my brothers and sisters" you should not be thinking that "brothers and sisters" are only those you can see in the room. The Church remains whole, one, indivisible, and entire. It is the assembly SINGULAR, the congregation SINGULAR of all believers. To come together as Church [1 Cor. 11] and partake of the Eucharist is to be manifest that we are NOT one of many, but ONE Body.
This is a reality which by its very nature must be believed and cannot be seen. But it is confessed and manifested in the Scriptures and in the liturgy. "Holy believers and lambs who hear the voice of their Shepherd." What this means for the ecumenical task is not resignation to the mess that now is, but it does mean that we are given the responsibility of manifesting rather than creating this churchly unity, for the churchly unity always will be and remain a gift given by God the Holy Spirit as He binds hearts to Jesus Christ and so one another and brings us into unity with the inner communion of the Blessed Trinity.
In that sense, remembering the definition of Church that Luther was working with, the congregation was indeed the locus of his thought on "church." How could it be otherwise?
The current Bishop of Rome published these words in 1986. They have a familiar ring to them: "Luther did not have in mind founding a Lutheran Church. For him the focus of the concept of the Church was to be found in the congregation. For relationships that transcended the congregation, in view of the logic of developments at that time, one depended as far as organization was concerned on the political structure, in other words on the princes. Thus there arose the *Land* or provincial Churches in which the political structure took the place of the structure of its own which the Church lacked. Much has changed in this field sinc 1918, but the Church continues to exist in provincial Churches which are then united in Church federations. It is obvious that when the concept Church is applied to this kind of accidental historical formation the word takes on a different meaning from that which is envisaged in the case of the expression 'Catholic Church'. Provincial Churches are not 'Church' in the theological sense but organizational forms of Christian congregations which are empirically useful or even necessary but which can be swapped for other structures. Luther was only able to transfer Church structures to the princedoms because he did not regard the concept of the Church as established in these structures. But for Catholics, on the contrary, the Catholic Church, that is the community of the bishops among themselves and with the pope, is as such something established by the Lord which is irreplaceable and cannot be swapped for anything else." (*Church, Ecumenism, and Politics* p. 114, 115)
What I think the present Bishop of Rome correctly understands in this is that to Lutherans polity is not a matter divinely mandated, not a matter on which the Church's existence hangs. Lutherans now are and have in the past lived in utterly disparate polities - and this does not hinder the recognition of a shared faith. Thus, for example, right now the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is in communio in sacris with the Archbishop of Latvia and the parishes and priests and bishops that he superintends.
What I am not sure the present Bishop of Rome understands is HOW for "Luther the concept of Church was to be found in the congregation."
For Luther and for the Lutheran Church first and foremost the Church "is, namely, the holy believers and lambs who hear the voice of their Shepherd." SA III, XII:2 This is in perfect accord with the Apology's assertion: "at its core, it [the Church] is a fellowship of faith and the Holy Spirit in hearts." Ap VII/VIII:5 Thus while the marks which locate the Church are invariably bound up with local congregations, the Church so understood is "no Platonic state, as some wickedly charge. But we do say that this Church exists: truly believing and righteous people, scattered throughout the world." Ap VII/VIII:20.
The Church is not then congregations, but congregation. The singular in AC 7 is vital. The Church is NOT in the Lutheran understanding a series of unrelated congregations. The Church is rather "the congregation of saints" among whom the Gospel is purely taught and the Sacraments are correctly administered. Not enough thought is given to the force of that singular: *congregatio sanctorum* in Latin, but even more explicit auf Deutsch *die Versammlung ALLER Gläubigen.* This is to look at the Church from the view afforded in the Revelation of St. John.
The Church is the one assembly of all believers. It is not many local assemblies, but ONE assembly. And the reality that is confessed behind this is that what the local congregation manifests is never merely community with a broad spectrum of similar-minded folk alive now. No. The congregation manifests the assembly of ALL believers. When we worship together, gathered in the Divine Name and receiving the saving Gospel and interceding for the world, and partaking of the Lamb's Feast, we are not present with some piece, some miniscule fraction of the Church. We are present with the whole of it. Hebrews 12 bears this out when it describes what you have come to when you gather as Church, where there is the blood that speaks a better word than Abel's. But it is also shown in numerous other ways in the Sacred Scriptures. Find Jesus the Lord, the Head of the Body, and you will invariably find not pieces, but the whole of the Body with Him.
When Paul directs the Corinthians to excommunicate a man, he assures them that he will be there with them in s[S?]pirit. When John is worshipping on Patmos, the veil is drawn back and he finds that he is not worshipping alone, but with the whole Church. When in the confiteor at Compline we confess "to almighty God before the whole company of heaven and to you my brothers and sisters" you should not be thinking that "brothers and sisters" are only those you can see in the room. The Church remains whole, one, indivisible, and entire. It is the assembly SINGULAR, the congregation SINGULAR of all believers. To come together as Church [1 Cor. 11] and partake of the Eucharist is to be manifest that we are NOT one of many, but ONE Body.
This is a reality which by its very nature must be believed and cannot be seen. But it is confessed and manifested in the Scriptures and in the liturgy. "Holy believers and lambs who hear the voice of their Shepherd." What this means for the ecumenical task is not resignation to the mess that now is, but it does mean that we are given the responsibility of manifesting rather than creating this churchly unity, for the churchly unity always will be and remain a gift given by God the Holy Spirit as He binds hearts to Jesus Christ and so one another and brings us into unity with the inner communion of the Blessed Trinity.
In that sense, remembering the definition of Church that Luther was working with, the congregation was indeed the locus of his thought on "church." How could it be otherwise?
The Body of Christ
I am always amazed at how the Holy Spirit works things. Wednesday night, Amelia asked for prayers on Sunday for the family of Pastor David Reimann, who fell asleep in the Lord after a battle with cancer. So we gathered this morning and remembered his family among many others we were praying for.
And who would show up at St. Paul's this Sunday? Pastor Robert Schaibley and his wife, Eunice (nee Reimann). Pastor Reimann was Eunice's younger brother. They were on the way back from the funeral to their home in Colorado Springs. And here they discover their sisters and brothers praying for them. And we didn't even realize we were doing so.
Such is the way of the Body of Christ. We're linked together in so many ways that we can't even begin to fathom it. Marvelous are the works of the Lord, indeed, as we bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
And who would show up at St. Paul's this Sunday? Pastor Robert Schaibley and his wife, Eunice (nee Reimann). Pastor Reimann was Eunice's younger brother. They were on the way back from the funeral to their home in Colorado Springs. And here they discover their sisters and brothers praying for them. And we didn't even realize we were doing so.
Such is the way of the Body of Christ. We're linked together in so many ways that we can't even begin to fathom it. Marvelous are the works of the Lord, indeed, as we bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
19 January 2008
A New Adventure!
Gulp. I have started giving piano lessons tonight. To Rebekah! We worked together for the first half hour and I've been listening to her practice for the last half hour and yes, she has the ear. I'm praying she doesn't depend on that as much as I do. Great to have it as an extra, but a very poor substitute for reading the notes. Thankfully, she's done the clarinet now for a few years and so reading the notes and the timing is not too much of a challenge for her - at least in the right hand. I'm hoping she sticks with it and really takes off.
A Collage from the Week
Baptismal hymns ringing loud and joyful... Bells playing "Be Thou My Vision" with a surprise bit of Thaxted in there... Groans from the confirmands receiving their 104 questions... The shock of Alice's phone call after I got home from an elders meeting, telling me Adolph had passed on... Visiting with Mary and Adam and Mary's nephew and blessing the house, as we sang together Magnificat... Talking to Scott and Kelli about the joys of Baptism... Bekah, waiting alone in the darkened Church for us to join in Compline, as we trooped up from Bible Study... A frosty cold morning for studying what the AC teaches about Christ's return... The joy of celebrating Transfiguration on Thursday evening - and having the handful of folks there sing "Alleluia, Song of Gladness" to bid farewell to that joyous word till Easter arrives... Meeting with the joint-elders and spending much of the time distracted by looking at Harold's face and thinking how utterly like his face and expressions are to those his son used to show in Confirmation class many, many moons ago... Seeing Adolph laid out in Church for the visitation... Alice's strong and serene face, the joy of her faith transfiguring the grief and sorrow before our eyes... The emergency room at Anderson and the look on Norma's face... Udell bundled up for his helicopter journey to St. Louis... Visiting comfortably with Norma in the van as we headed toward SLU, sharing memories of this and that... The relief of seeing Udell smiling and even joking with us, and the conviction: this is going to be okay... The singing at the funeral for Adolph - from the lovely solos and choir work on "Jesus Christ, the Apple Tree" to the roaring of faith in the face of death with "For All the Saints," from the quiet lullabye "Müde Bin Ich, Geh zu Ruh" to the jubilant ringing of the bells: "The Lord's My Shepherd, leading me!"... The bitter cold in the cemetery and watching Adolph's brother, Bill, hand over the folded flag to Alice... The packed basement and the warmth, the table of steaming food, and the laughter and love of a family and friends gathered together under the hope of the resurrection... And now looking forward tonight to Septuagesima Divine Service and then two Baptisms... For the joys, for the sorrows, for the challenges, for it all: Glory to You, O Lord! Glory to You, who hates nothing You have made!
Homily for Septuagesima
[Exodus 17:1-7 / 1 Cor. 9:24-10:5 / Matthew 20:1-16]Never was context so important as with today’s parable of the grumbling workers! What had just happened in the verses preceding our Gospel is this: a rich young man had come to Jesus and called him “Good Teacher,” asking him what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus had asked: “Whoa! Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” He was asking: Do you realize what you’re saying when you call me good? That you are calling me God? Then Jesus had gone on to say: If you want to know what you have to DO to have eternal life, you know the answer: keep the commandments. “Oh, I’ve done that,” the rich young man answers. Then Jesus said: “If you would be perfect, go sell all you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me.” Jesus and the disciples watched the rich young man’s face fall, and turn and walk slowly away; he wouldn’t give up his possessions.
Jesus, thus showed that the rich man was breaking the first commandment after all: he had another God besides the true God. He worshipped and treasured His money and possessions.
As Jesus and the disciples watch the man walk down the road, Jesus says to them: “How difficult for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Easier for the camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a person with riches to enter the Kingdom of God.” And the disciples say in amazement: “Who then can be saved?”
And do you get the answer they expect? “Who can be saved? Why, only those who have left everything and followed Me, just like you all have.” But that is NOT the answer they get. Instead Jesus smiles and looks at them and says: “Oh, with man, this is impossible, but not with God! With God all things are possible! Yes, even the salvation of the rich!”
Watch Peter’s face cloud over as it sinks in. “Wait a minute here, Jesus! We have left everything to follow you! What shall we have? Are you telling me that you’re going to work some miracle and bring in those who have not sacrificed and worked like we have? Then why did we bother to do it?” Jesus assures them that by following Him they have not lost a thing, but rather only gained. And then he launches right away into the parable that is our Gospel.
Do you see it now? It is a parable aimed at the sin inside of the disciples of Jesus (then, and now) who are inclined to think too highly of all they do for the Lord and not highly enough of God’s grace. This parable is a missile aimed at our pride and at our grumbling. Whenever we’re tempted to think that God owes us because of our work in His kingdom; whenever we’re tempted to get angry that God would give the same eternal life to those who have not sat through hours of school board meetings and call processes, who haven’t taught Sunday school, who haven’t known the anxieties of taking care of church property, who haven’t “borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat!” Or maybe it’s even you who think like the Rich Young Man, that you’ve tried their whole life to live according to God’s commandments; you’ve denied yourself and really tried to please God, and then God goes and brings in some notorious sinner who wasted their whole life long in open rebellion and sin and had all the pleasures that this life has to offer, and God saves them in the end and gives them the same gift of eternal life that He gives to you. Ouch. Yes, this parable is a missile aimed at our grousing and grumbling and it exposes our pride. We are right there with Peter and the disciples, aren’t we? Imagining that God owes us! What delusion.
And the answer of the Owner stings: “Am I not allowed to do what I please with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?” Now that last bit is a paraphrase. The Greek says: “Or is your eye evil, because I am good?” That puts us right back to the statement Jesus made to the Rich young man: “Why do you call me good? None is good except God alone.”
None is good, except this gracious Owner who likes to give! Not without reason does the Large Catechism call Him: “An overflowing fountain of goodness!” So we are all in the position of being beholden to Him, because if it depended upon our perfect keeping of the commandments, we’d all be toast! Yes, even those of us who think we’ve kept them. Because if we haven’t been serving God freely and joyfully, GLADLY doing what He commands, we’ve only been offering the begrudging service of those who complain about having “borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”
But not so with our Jesus! He is the One who kept those commandments with gladness and joy in His heart. He didn’t only outwardly conform. His heart desired to do them and to please His Father. He is the only Good One! And this Good One is generous. He gives to us – the grumbling, grousing ones – He gives to us His own goodness to wear, to live in, to grow in, to cherish.
That’s the goodness He wrapped around you in the font. That’s the goodness He lays in your mouth at the Altar, where you “taste and see that the LORD is good!” That’s the goodness that sounds in your ears from the Word. The goodness of One who is generous to all who will but in humility believe in Him and set aside all claims of what God owes them, and receive instead from His hand the GIFT of eternal life.
The parable puts us all on the same level when we’re standing before God: all of us have failed to be good; all of us have been given the gift of goodness through the generosity of Him who is telling this parable: the One who was headed to Calvary to assume a debt He did not owe that His generosity might cover our sin, and reshape us in the image of His goodness. No longer proud grumblers, but a humble people who rejoice only in the mercy of God in Christ. Amen.
Funeral Homily for Adolph Sievers
And how many times did he say it, Alice, Ken, Judy, and Allen; Bill and Erna: "I'm ready to go!"? Like old Simeon Adolph knew not only that there was a Savior, but that he'd touched, seen, and known him. And so he looked at death the way one looks at a dead enemy on the battle field. Kind of gruesome to be sure, but powerless against him. Such confidence comes from a lifetime of living in the Word of God and being nourished by the sacraments of Jesus.Born in 1919, he shared a birthday with Martin Luther. His godly parents Wilhelm und Clara knew that their little one needed the forgiveness and the life that are only in Jesus Christ, and so when we was but six days old, Pastor Hitzemann poured the water over little Adolph's head in their home and said: "Ich taufe dich im Namen des Vaters und des Sohns und des Heiligen Geistes. Amen." I wonder if he were baptized at home because the influenza was still raging? No matter, eternal life is eternal life wherever God sees fit to give it. The pastor went on to gently lay his hand on that little head that now belonged to an heir of heaven and prayed: "Der allmächtiger Gott und Vater unsers Herrn Jesu Christi, der dich wiedergeboren hat durch das Wasser und den Heiligen Geist, und hat dir alle deine Sünden vergeben, der stårke dich mit seiner Gnade zum ewigen Leben. Amen!" The almighty God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has birthed you anew through water and the Holy Spirit, and has forgiven all your sins, strengthen you with His grace to eternal life."
How God mightily answered that prayer! In 1933 he stood before his beloved little Braunschweig Church and confessed his faith in the God who had claimed him some 13 years prior. This time it was another servant of the Lord, Pastor Benning (whom some of you may yet recall), who put his hands on Adolph and gave him this Scripture to hold onto for life: "Gib mir, mein Sohn, dein Herz, und laß deinen Augen mein Wege wohl gefallen." Give my, my son, your heart, and let your eyes delight in my ways. Proverbs 23:26.
He took those words to heart. His heart would belong to the Lord and his eyes would delight in the Lord's ways all his days. Shortly thereafter Adolph received for the very first time, the Body and Blood of His Redeemer. He sang the Nunc Dimittis with a new joy then! Countless were the times in the years since that he knelt before the altar and received that gift - even unto the last time, some six days before his death. He and I were alone for that communion, but he sang along with gasping breath the words of the canticles. He was a bit confused about things when I got there - you know how it gets in ICU after a while - but he wasn't the least bit muddy on what he was receiving then. He was ready to go. "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace…" we sang together.
How could we not sing? The Sievers were a musical bunch and it turned out well for Adolph that they were - for he married Mrs. Music herself - and in the long years God granted you of growing into one, the joy of music filled your home and overflowed your lives - as you, their children, well know.
People wonder what on earth we Christian can find to sing about all the time. Ask Adolph and he'd have told you. He sang because he knew that his Redeemer lives and that at the last that Redeemer would stand upon the earth and even after his skin had been destroyed, God would raise him from the dead and with his very own eyes he would see his Redeemer and how his heart burned within him at the thought. Who could keep from singing about that?
But there's more. A Christian also thrills to sing about the home that Christ has prepared for us in heaven. A home where God dwells with us and we with Him and He wipes away all the tears from our eyes with a hand scarred by the nails. The hand of Him who loved us so much as to go all the way to Calvary's cross, shouldering the entire load of all sin and shame, so that He could make "all things new" for us. He gives the water of life freely - no payment asked or allowed - and by His gift we get to be the children of God. Who can keep from singing? Not Adolph! And he knew that he'd be joining his parents, brother Otto, Sisters Laura and Elsie, not to mention the apostles, and prophets, and patriarchs and the whole family of God. Adolph knew that great as his family on earth was - both his birth family and his marriage family, the wonderful get togethers with children and grandchildren and great grandchildren - yes, even as it was this past Christmas - oh, it was all only a teasing of taste of what it would be like when that great reunion begins that will never end. "Behold, I make all things new," indeed!
It was in that newness of life in Christ that Adolph lived his life, served his country in World War II (and how he loved to talk about his time in Alaska!), married his wife, raised his children, served his community as a fireman, worked hard and loved his neighbors and enjoyed all the little blessings that God sent his way - and humbly accepted also all the hardships. The key to the contentment and the joy that ran through this man's life was simply that he had a Savior and he was always ready to depart in peace whenever that Savior called him to the Feast of Joy that never ends. Such peace can also be yours today too, even amidst the tears, in the same Lord Jesus, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all glory and honor, world without end. Amen.
Adolph H. Sievers, age 88, of Hamel, died at 8:18 p.m., on Monday, Jan. 14, 2008, at Anderson Hospital in Maryville.
He was born on Nov. 10, 1919, at his parents home in Olive Township near Livingston, the son of the late William F. and Clara Hering Sievers.
He married Alice Marie Blase on Feb. 24, 1946, at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Hamel. She survives.
Along with his wife, he is survived by two sons: Rev. Kenneth W., and wife Phyllis, Sievers of St. Louis, and Alan R., and wife Luanne, Sievers of Batavia; one daughter: Judy A., and husband Rev. Mick, Roschke of Milwaukee, Wis.; a brother: William, and wife Bertha, Sievers of New Douglas; a sister: Erna Knackstedt of Worden; six grandchildren: Jason, and wife Melba, Sievers of Maryland Heights, Mo., Jan, and husband Wade, Foster of Kansas City, Mo., Melissa, and husband Jeremy, Mauthe of Aurora, Micah, and wife Gloria, Roschke of Milwaukee, Wis., Zachary Sievers and Jaime Sievers, both of Batavia; and seven great grandchildren: Austin Sievers, Megan Sievers, Shelby Sievers, Avery Foster, Jenna Mauthe, Josha Mauthe, and Analiyah Roschke.
Along with his parents, he is preceded in death by a brother: Otto Sievers; and two sisters: Laura Brunnworth and Elsie Ahrens.
Mr. Sievers was a WW II Veteran and served in the Medical Corps with the 128th Station Hospital at Attu, Alaska.
He first worked for Hamel Lumber Company as a bookkeeper and truck driver; he later worked for Illinois Lumber Company and retired in 1980; and later retired from Wal-Mart in 1990.
He was a member of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Hamel, the church's Men's Club; Worden American Legion Post #564, retired Hamel Volunteer Fire Department, member and chairman of Southern Illinois District Scholarship Committee of LCMS for 20 years, and the Lutheran Laymens League.
18 January 2008
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
From this it is clear that by the building of his church on the rock, Christ meant nothing else but (as was said above, from the apostles Peter and Paul) the common Christian faith, that whoever believes in Christ is built upon this rock and will attain salvation, even against all the gates of hell; whoever does not believe in Christ is not built on this rock and must be damned, with all the gates of hell. -- Blessed Martin Luther (AE 41:315), 1544
Patristic Quote of the Day
What then is this truth, which the Father now reveals to Peter, which receives the praise of a blessed confession? It cannot have been that the names of 'Father' and 'Son' were novel to him; he had heard them often. Yet he speaks words which the tongue of man had never framed before:—You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. For though Christ, while dwelling in the body, had avowed Himself to be the Son of God, yet now for the first time the Apostle's faith had recognised in Him the presence of the Divine nature. Peter is praised not merely for his tribute of adoration, but for his recognition of the mysterious truth; for confessing not Christ only, but Christ the Son of God. It would clearly have sufficed for a payment of reverence, had he said, You are the Christ, and nothing more. But it would have been a hollow confession, had Peter only hailed Him as Christ, without confessing Him the Son of God. And so his words You aredeclare that what is asserted of Him is strictly and exactly true to His nature. Next, the Father's utterance, This is My Son, had revealed to Peter that he must confess You are the Son of God, for in the words This is, God the Revealer points Him out, and the response, You are, is the believer's welcome to the truth. And this is the rock of confession whereon the Church is built. But the perceptive faculties of flesh and blood cannot attain to the recognition and confession of this truth. It is a mystery, Divinely revealed, that Christ must be not only named, but believed, the Son of God. Was it only the Divine name; was it not rather the Divine nature that was revealed to Peter? If it were the name, he had heard it often from the Lord, proclaiming Himself the Son of God. What honour, then, did he deserve for announcing the name? No; it was not the name; it was the nature, for the name had been repeatedly proclaimed. This faith it is which is the foundation of the Church; through this faith the gates of hell cannot prevail against her. This is the faith which has the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatsoever this faith shall have loosed or bound on earth shall be loosed or bound in heaven. - St. Hilary, The Trinity VI:36-38
Confession of St. Peter
Today our Synod celebrates the Confession of St. Peter. You can read the account in Matthew 16:13-20. It is a great day to remember these words from the Tractatus:"As for the declaration 'on this rock I will build My church' (Matthew 16:18), certainly the Church has not been built upon the authority of a man. Rather, it has been built upon the ministry of the confession Peter made, in which he proclaims Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (Matthew 16:16). Therefore, Christ addresses Peter as a minister: 'On this rock,' that is, this ministry." (Par. 25)
Today we sing:
Praise for Your great apostle,
So eager and so bold,
Thrice falling, yet repentant,
Thrice charged to feed Your fold.
Lord, make Your pastors faithful
To guard Your flock from harm,
And hold them when they waver
With Your almighty arm. (LSB 517:10)
In the collect for this day we especially ask: "strengthen us by the proclamation of this truth that we too may joyfully confess that there is salvation in no one else." "This truth" being that our Lord is indeed the Christ, the promised Messiah.
17 January 2008
Ramblings on Liturgical Worship
What is liturgical worship? I think we have to start with the recognition that God is not safe. As Lewis so famously put it "Aslan is not a tame lion." We die apart from Him, for He alone is life, but He's like electricity. He can fry us when handled carelessly. And there is nothing more careless than ignoring HIS instructions and dreaming up some notions of our own and thinking they should serve just fine. Try that out on Uzzah, or Nadab and Abihu. Israel dreamed up her golden calf and thought it should work as well as any other way. God zaps the lot. He's not tame.
But HE is life and He is loving, and so HE provides the way for us to approach Him and live in His presence and to find that presence to be the very gift of everlasting life. And the way He provides is always through the Lamb. Find the Lamb on the altar and you've found access, a way to live in the presence of Him who is all-holy in such a way that His holiness wipes out your sin without wiping you out with it. Find the Lamb. That's the key - all the way from Eden, where the garments that Adam and Eve made up for themselves wouldn't do, and GOD clothed them with skins; to Abel's offering that was accepted; to the Passover and the Scapegoat, and the daily Lambs at the temple; everywhere you look through the OT it was all about the Lamb.
So when John points to Him and says: "Looky there! The Lamb of God!" He was saying: "There's the access to the Holy One who will be your life; there the untamable God, the Live Wire, comes down to you to give you Himself in such a way that you won't be destroyed, but filled with Light!
Find the altar where the Lamb is, where His blood is poured out yet (into mouths) and you've found liturgical worship. I'd posit that liturgical worship from start to finish is all about the access to God provided via the Lamb. It's not our dreamed up way of offering stuff to God; it's God's own appointed way of giving life, forgiveness, HIMSELF to us. "Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it" He declares (Psalm 81). Or said another way: "Take and eat, this is my Body."
Oh, and let me add that it is my belief that nonliturgical worship is worship where the Lamb on the altar in His completed sacrifice of love is not the center - but something else is. And it doesn't much matter WHAT that other thing is, if it's not the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and dishes out His peace with His blood, you've got something other than liturgical worship happening.
But HE is life and He is loving, and so HE provides the way for us to approach Him and live in His presence and to find that presence to be the very gift of everlasting life. And the way He provides is always through the Lamb. Find the Lamb on the altar and you've found access, a way to live in the presence of Him who is all-holy in such a way that His holiness wipes out your sin without wiping you out with it. Find the Lamb. That's the key - all the way from Eden, where the garments that Adam and Eve made up for themselves wouldn't do, and GOD clothed them with skins; to Abel's offering that was accepted; to the Passover and the Scapegoat, and the daily Lambs at the temple; everywhere you look through the OT it was all about the Lamb.
So when John points to Him and says: "Looky there! The Lamb of God!" He was saying: "There's the access to the Holy One who will be your life; there the untamable God, the Live Wire, comes down to you to give you Himself in such a way that you won't be destroyed, but filled with Light!
Find the altar where the Lamb is, where His blood is poured out yet (into mouths) and you've found liturgical worship. I'd posit that liturgical worship from start to finish is all about the access to God provided via the Lamb. It's not our dreamed up way of offering stuff to God; it's God's own appointed way of giving life, forgiveness, HIMSELF to us. "Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it" He declares (Psalm 81). Or said another way: "Take and eat, this is my Body."
Oh, and let me add that it is my belief that nonliturgical worship is worship where the Lamb on the altar in His completed sacrifice of love is not the center - but something else is. And it doesn't much matter WHAT that other thing is, if it's not the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and dishes out His peace with His blood, you've got something other than liturgical worship happening.
A Salt Addict
I confess: the hardest part of low-carbing for me is the salt. Cindi's a sugar addict; but I love the salt. As in chips. I love chips. And speaking of chips, the laddie must be a chip off the old block. Because when I peeked in his room today, this is what I found:
Yes, you are seeing correctly. He has not one, not two, not three, but FOUR open bags of chips gracing the room (you know, the BEDROOM about which we always said: "No food in the bedrooms!"). And the little pig even has the gall to have my favorites of all time in there: Jalapeño Crunchers. NOT FAIR. Oh, and did you happen to count how many glasses, gone AWOL from our kitchen, are gracing his desk???
P.S. And he wonders why Lucy is always trying to sneak into his room!
Yes, you are seeing correctly. He has not one, not two, not three, but FOUR open bags of chips gracing the room (you know, the BEDROOM about which we always said: "No food in the bedrooms!"). And the little pig even has the gall to have my favorites of all time in there: Jalapeño Crunchers. NOT FAIR. Oh, and did you happen to count how many glasses, gone AWOL from our kitchen, are gracing his desk???
P.S. And he wonders why Lucy is always trying to sneak into his room!
Patristic Quote of the Day
During Lent we ought to add to our customary servitude: private prayer or abstinence from food and drink. Everyone, according to his own will, should offer up to God, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, more than is normal. -- Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter 49
[Note: though each monk was to determine for himself how he would observe the fast, he was to report this to the Abbot for his blessing and consent]
[Note: though each monk was to determine for himself how he would observe the fast, he was to report this to the Abbot for his blessing and consent]
A Different Sort of Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
[Note: "old" here is a relative term, but I've used it for those who have fallen asleep in the Lord, so in that spirit I offer today's quote]
First, some context. John Neunaber was musician at a neighboring church, and we used to work out at the Y at the same time. We'd often strike up a conversation. One day, the subject fell to the use of so-called contemporary Christian music that has infiltrated many a Lutheran parish, including his. John shook his head, looked me in the eye, and asked in all seriousness:
"What will they sing when they're dying?"
I know what John sang. He sang the hymns of the church together with the canticles of the liturgy. He entered glory praying: "Create in me a clean heart...Lord, have mercy...Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace...O Christ, thou Lamb of God that takest away the sin of the world...Lord, let at last thine angels come...The King of Love my shepherd is..."
What will you be singing when you die? What a great thought to think about!
First, some context. John Neunaber was musician at a neighboring church, and we used to work out at the Y at the same time. We'd often strike up a conversation. One day, the subject fell to the use of so-called contemporary Christian music that has infiltrated many a Lutheran parish, including his. John shook his head, looked me in the eye, and asked in all seriousness:
"What will they sing when they're dying?"
I know what John sang. He sang the hymns of the church together with the canticles of the liturgy. He entered glory praying: "Create in me a clean heart...Lord, have mercy...Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace...O Christ, thou Lamb of God that takest away the sin of the world...Lord, let at last thine angels come...The King of Love my shepherd is..."
What will you be singing when you die? What a great thought to think about!
16 January 2008
Builder: Friend or Foe?
There's been a lot of buzz in some circles about the potential EVIL of the Lutheran Service Builder, letting pastors play fast and loose with the ordo of the Divine Service and producing all kinds of oddities. I think, though, that whatever is good can be corrupted and that's just a case in point. The Builder is, in my opinion, good and on the way to becoming "tov maod" indeed!
Four ways that we've put it to use:
1. Compline
Compline doesn't vary, but sadly the rite as printed in the hymnal didn't include the appointed three psalms or the regular hymn. So there was more than a bit of page calling and paging around when we used to use the hymnal itself. A couple weeks back I remembered that I could do this in the Builder, and within minutes we had a fabulous and easy to follow ordo, ready to be printed up, collated and stapled. We've been using the printed ordos ever since and they make is so easy just to pray, to sing, to listen, and not to think: "where are we supposed to be now?"
2. Catechism Services
On Sunday evenings, we hold a Catechism Service using the Service of Prayer and Preaching. Here I've got a mix of adults new to the Lutheran faith and younger children. Having the whole thing printed out in an ordo that they can all follow along with, pray and sing from, and take home to work on memory - well, it was a God-send indeed. It takes mere minutes each week to ready the service.
3. Evening Prayer
We use this service in Advent and Lent during the midweeks. Again, this is a service where the flow of the liturgy is interrupted if we have to call out Psalms, or wait for folks to find them. It just makes sense to print it out and give the people the service entire in their hand, so that they can simply worship without worrying about where to turn next. Builder makes it a cinch not only to give them the words, but even the service music.
4. Divine Service Five
Whenever we use the chorale service, Divine Service Five, (pretty rarely for our parish), it again BEGS for printing out the music of the chorales instead of waiting for the people to catch up with paging through the book. Since the chorales used are only referenced in the liturgy itself in LSB, the Builder seems almost a necessity if the flow of the service is not to be disrupted.
Does this mean we print out every service? No. Divine Service, Setting Three, is our parish's chief service and it will always be such, I imagine. That liturgy the people know and hardly use the book for anyway. But we don't print it out. It's referenced in the bulletin, but no more than that. I was VERY hesitant to move to the Builder and thought it was really just a money-making gambit from CPH. More fool I! It has proven a great tool in our parish, and I'd recommend it to anyone. Is it perfect? No. Does it have a way to go? Yes. But Ryan Markel and team are constantly working to improve it. I hate it when Paul McCain is right, but he told me a long time ago: "get it, you won't be sorry." So I'm admitting it: he was right. I haven't been sorry at all.
Four ways that we've put it to use:
1. Compline
Compline doesn't vary, but sadly the rite as printed in the hymnal didn't include the appointed three psalms or the regular hymn. So there was more than a bit of page calling and paging around when we used to use the hymnal itself. A couple weeks back I remembered that I could do this in the Builder, and within minutes we had a fabulous and easy to follow ordo, ready to be printed up, collated and stapled. We've been using the printed ordos ever since and they make is so easy just to pray, to sing, to listen, and not to think: "where are we supposed to be now?"
2. Catechism Services
On Sunday evenings, we hold a Catechism Service using the Service of Prayer and Preaching. Here I've got a mix of adults new to the Lutheran faith and younger children. Having the whole thing printed out in an ordo that they can all follow along with, pray and sing from, and take home to work on memory - well, it was a God-send indeed. It takes mere minutes each week to ready the service.
3. Evening Prayer
We use this service in Advent and Lent during the midweeks. Again, this is a service where the flow of the liturgy is interrupted if we have to call out Psalms, or wait for folks to find them. It just makes sense to print it out and give the people the service entire in their hand, so that they can simply worship without worrying about where to turn next. Builder makes it a cinch not only to give them the words, but even the service music.
4. Divine Service Five
Whenever we use the chorale service, Divine Service Five, (pretty rarely for our parish), it again BEGS for printing out the music of the chorales instead of waiting for the people to catch up with paging through the book. Since the chorales used are only referenced in the liturgy itself in LSB, the Builder seems almost a necessity if the flow of the service is not to be disrupted.
Does this mean we print out every service? No. Divine Service, Setting Three, is our parish's chief service and it will always be such, I imagine. That liturgy the people know and hardly use the book for anyway. But we don't print it out. It's referenced in the bulletin, but no more than that. I was VERY hesitant to move to the Builder and thought it was really just a money-making gambit from CPH. More fool I! It has proven a great tool in our parish, and I'd recommend it to anyone. Is it perfect? No. Does it have a way to go? Yes. But Ryan Markel and team are constantly working to improve it. I hate it when Paul McCain is right, but he told me a long time ago: "get it, you won't be sorry." So I'm admitting it: he was right. I haven't been sorry at all.
A Milestone
Visitors crossed the 150,000 threshold today. I only started a site meter a year ago in August, and have no idea how many visitors came before that. It just so happens that #150,000 today was from Wichita, using Coxnet, and a mac user (yes!). I don't know for certain, but suspect that might be my friend, Trent.
In any case, just wanted to thank ALL the folks who drop in from time to time, either to read or to comment. I've enjoyed getting to know many of you, and appreciate very much what I've learned and continue to learn from and with you.
What a glorious thing is the family of God - indeed, "you give marvelous comrades to me."
In any case, just wanted to thank ALL the folks who drop in from time to time, either to read or to comment. I've enjoyed getting to know many of you, and appreciate very much what I've learned and continue to learn from and with you.
What a glorious thing is the family of God - indeed, "you give marvelous comrades to me."
Fastenzeit kommt!
We call it Lent in English. Good to remember, though, what it is called in our old service books (and still in the service books of Germany today): Fastenzeit, that is, Fasting Time.
And fasting is not first and foremost about avoiding mechanically a certain kind of food while stuffing yourself with other tasty treats. Recall the words of Martin Chemnitz about such fasting:
"A well-filled or richly treated belly, whether it is done with fish or vegetables, certainly is not fasting." (Examen IV:275)
He reminds us that fasting can be like this:
"When we do not abstain altogether from lunch or from dinner, but remove something when we lunch or dine, either in the quantity or the quality of the food, or do not take as much or also as rich as could be done even while maintaining temperance." (IV:259)
There is also, of course, abstaining totally from lunch or dinner:
"It is that that is most properly called fasting." (IV:260)
Anyway you slice it, real fast simply involves hunger. It involves not stuffing one's self and so letting the hunger of the body discipline us. For we are sad creatures who are used to filling our bellies with the first grumble. Or even worse, I think of mother's motto (truly the very opposite of fasting!): "You don't eat because you're hungry; you eat to keep from getting hungry!" She meant it humorously (I think!), but of course that's the pathway to gluttony and indulgence. Rather, the fast, the hunger, helps us train the body and keep it under subjection. For there is a hunger greater than the hunger of the body, and that is the thirst and hunger of the soul for God. And while food and drink can mask that inner hunger and help you to ignore it, there is nothing like the fast itself, going hungry, to unmask the inner hunger and remind us that in the end there is nothing that satisfies the ache of the human being, but God alone. "One thing have I desire of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple." Psalm 27
One way that the Church has guided her children in fasting is to suggest that the days of Lent, during Fastenzeit, food be significantly pared down. Nothing for breakfast, a regular but plain meal for lunch, and a very light meal at supper. Each Lent I am always amazed at how little it takes to keep the body going, how it is possible by God's grace to go hungry and NOT obey the stomach's dictates and orders, and how freeing it is to have more time for prayer and Scripture and acts of love. This is possible when food is intentionally and joyfully set "on the back burner" of one's life.
Fastenzeit kommt! Now is the time to begin planning on how you will observe it yourself and to discuss the implications of observing it for your home life.
And fasting is not first and foremost about avoiding mechanically a certain kind of food while stuffing yourself with other tasty treats. Recall the words of Martin Chemnitz about such fasting:
"A well-filled or richly treated belly, whether it is done with fish or vegetables, certainly is not fasting." (Examen IV:275)
He reminds us that fasting can be like this:
"When we do not abstain altogether from lunch or from dinner, but remove something when we lunch or dine, either in the quantity or the quality of the food, or do not take as much or also as rich as could be done even while maintaining temperance." (IV:259)
There is also, of course, abstaining totally from lunch or dinner:
"It is that that is most properly called fasting." (IV:260)
Anyway you slice it, real fast simply involves hunger. It involves not stuffing one's self and so letting the hunger of the body discipline us. For we are sad creatures who are used to filling our bellies with the first grumble. Or even worse, I think of mother's motto (truly the very opposite of fasting!): "You don't eat because you're hungry; you eat to keep from getting hungry!" She meant it humorously (I think!), but of course that's the pathway to gluttony and indulgence. Rather, the fast, the hunger, helps us train the body and keep it under subjection. For there is a hunger greater than the hunger of the body, and that is the thirst and hunger of the soul for God. And while food and drink can mask that inner hunger and help you to ignore it, there is nothing like the fast itself, going hungry, to unmask the inner hunger and remind us that in the end there is nothing that satisfies the ache of the human being, but God alone. "One thing have I desire of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple." Psalm 27
One way that the Church has guided her children in fasting is to suggest that the days of Lent, during Fastenzeit, food be significantly pared down. Nothing for breakfast, a regular but plain meal for lunch, and a very light meal at supper. Each Lent I am always amazed at how little it takes to keep the body going, how it is possible by God's grace to go hungry and NOT obey the stomach's dictates and orders, and how freeing it is to have more time for prayer and Scripture and acts of love. This is possible when food is intentionally and joyfully set "on the back burner" of one's life.
Fastenzeit kommt! Now is the time to begin planning on how you will observe it yourself and to discuss the implications of observing it for your home life.
Patristic Quote of the Day
I accepted Thee, O Son of God, to accompany me on my journey, and when I hungered Thou didst satisfy me, O Savior of the world. May fire flee from my members; may the fragrance of Thy flesh and blood drive it away. May baptism be for me an unsinkable ship. May I behold Thee, O our Lord, in that place in the day of resurrection. - St. Ephrem the Syrian, *A Spiritual Psalter* #145
[Cf. to Larger Catechism IV:82 "for the ship of Baptism never breaks, because it is God's ordinance and not our work."]
[Cf. to Larger Catechism IV:82 "for the ship of Baptism never breaks, because it is God's ordinance and not our work."]
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
When God comes with His Word, He also comes with His Holy Ghost, who desires to remove the natural opposition. But God cannot help the one who obstinately opposes the working of the Holy Ghost. He cannot help because He does not force anyone to convert. A forced conversion is no conversion. - C. F. W. Walther, *God Grant It!* p. 196
15 January 2008
Gesimatide...
...also known as Pre-Lent is almost upon us! The three Reformation solas figure largely in this little season of three Sundays.
Septuagesima is grace alone Sunday as witnessed by the Gospel reading (Laborers in the Vineyard), but "grace alone" does not mean that one is free to live like a pig! Hence, the appointed Epistle, warning us of the need to discipline our bodies. The joy of grace is that frees us to WORK in the Lord's vineyard and from the hell of idleness!
Sexagesima is the Word alone Sunday as witnessed by the Gospel, and the newly appointed Epistle (Hebrews 4). If there is to be change wrought in our lives that is lasting and wholesome, the Word of God (in every meaning of that term!) is the agent of that change. This means daily time in hearing the Scriptures yes, and seeking to live from them, and above all the gathering together in the weekly assembly to let the Word of God truly transform our lives as we are united with Christ.
Quinquagesima is Christ alone Sunday as we, with eyes wide open to the mercies of God in Christ, follow our Savior as He heads up to Jerusalem to suffer, die, and rise from the dead, our Victorious Lord and gracious Substitute.
The whole point of Gesimatide is to prepare us, to ready us, for the great journey to Easter which we call Lent. Lent itself reminds us of how often we fail to live from the newness of life that our Lord granted us in the Baptismal waters, and calls us to return to that life of death to sin and resurrection with our victorious Savior. Repentance is not merely about "feeling sorry" but about "getting a new mind," learning to see things from the Lord's perspective and living from that.
So, wherever you are, I pray that you spend the next three weeks preparing for a blessed and joyous Lent! May the time you spend with your Lord Jesus in the weeks to come truly bring you renewal and joy and growth in union with Him who on Calvary's cross won forgiveness for all our sin and by His resurrection victory smashed wide open the grave!
Septuagesima is grace alone Sunday as witnessed by the Gospel reading (Laborers in the Vineyard), but "grace alone" does not mean that one is free to live like a pig! Hence, the appointed Epistle, warning us of the need to discipline our bodies. The joy of grace is that frees us to WORK in the Lord's vineyard and from the hell of idleness!
Sexagesima is the Word alone Sunday as witnessed by the Gospel, and the newly appointed Epistle (Hebrews 4). If there is to be change wrought in our lives that is lasting and wholesome, the Word of God (in every meaning of that term!) is the agent of that change. This means daily time in hearing the Scriptures yes, and seeking to live from them, and above all the gathering together in the weekly assembly to let the Word of God truly transform our lives as we are united with Christ.
Quinquagesima is Christ alone Sunday as we, with eyes wide open to the mercies of God in Christ, follow our Savior as He heads up to Jerusalem to suffer, die, and rise from the dead, our Victorious Lord and gracious Substitute.
The whole point of Gesimatide is to prepare us, to ready us, for the great journey to Easter which we call Lent. Lent itself reminds us of how often we fail to live from the newness of life that our Lord granted us in the Baptismal waters, and calls us to return to that life of death to sin and resurrection with our victorious Savior. Repentance is not merely about "feeling sorry" but about "getting a new mind," learning to see things from the Lord's perspective and living from that.
So, wherever you are, I pray that you spend the next three weeks preparing for a blessed and joyous Lent! May the time you spend with your Lord Jesus in the weeks to come truly bring you renewal and joy and growth in union with Him who on Calvary's cross won forgiveness for all our sin and by His resurrection victory smashed wide open the grave!
Reminder: Transfiguration
Will be observed at St. Paul's at the Thursday Divine Service this week (on January 17th) at 6:15.
Funeral Arrangement for Adolph Sievers
FRIDAY - Visitation at St. Paul's, from 4 to 7 p.m.
SATURDAY - Visitation at St. Paul's from 9-10; Funeral at 10 a.m.
SATURDAY - Visitation at St. Paul's from 9-10; Funeral at 10 a.m.
LSB Propers of the Day
In case anyone else is misunderstanding their advertising, as I did:
Lutheran Service Book: Propers of the Day
does NOT include the readings - it includes a LIST of the readings - it is basically just a reprint of the the Propers setting of the Altar Book and it's in el cheapo paperback form, due to fall apart with minimal use. My suggestion: it is NOT worth $20.00, no way, no how.
So far its the only part of the LSB "set" that I think is rather much a rip off. Better to spend the money to have a copy of the Altar Book itself by your desk, IMHO.
Lutheran Service Book: Propers of the Day
does NOT include the readings - it includes a LIST of the readings - it is basically just a reprint of the the Propers setting of the Altar Book and it's in el cheapo paperback form, due to fall apart with minimal use. My suggestion: it is NOT worth $20.00, no way, no how.
So far its the only part of the LSB "set" that I think is rather much a rip off. Better to spend the money to have a copy of the Altar Book itself by your desk, IMHO.
Another Old Lutheran Quote for the Day
We should always have this holy name in our mouth, so that the devil may not be able to injure us as he wishes. -- Blessed Martin Luther in the Larger Catechism (I:72)
[As in: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner! ?]
[As in: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner! ?]
Patristic Quote of the Day
Thy blows are filled with love. Thy punishment burns with compassion. In accordance with Thy love, even when Thou punishest Thou strivest only for good. -- St. Ephrem the Syrian, *A Spiritual Psalter* #124
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Our faithful God withholds nothing from us, but sends us both His Son and His Spirit to provide for the salvation of us miserable sinners. - Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XXII
14 January 2008
+Adolph Sievers
I just found out that Adolph, a man of cheerful spirit and wise counsel, has passed from this age to the glories of the age to come. Please remember him and his dear wife Alice and his family in your prayers. They are shining lights in Christ, every one of them. Adolph received the Eucharist for the last time six days ago. "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life."
We cling to Your promises, our Lord, and our hope is entirely in Your mercy!
Give rest, O Christ, to Your servant Adolph with your saints, where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting!
We cling to Your promises, our Lord, and our hope is entirely in Your mercy!
Give rest, O Christ, to Your servant Adolph with your saints, where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting!
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Contrition is the spiritual hunger of our souls; and by faith our souls are spiritually fed. -- Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XVI
Patristic Quote of the Day
If we have condemned ourselves, we will not be condemned, then, at the great and eternal judgment. - St. Ephrem the Syrian, *A Spiritual Psalter* #67
13 January 2008
What a Difference...
...a year makes!
This year with Easter so terribly early, we're cramped trying to finish up catechesis prior to Palm Sunday/Vigil of Easter. It will be tight and we're praying for NO snow days.
Next year, we've got all kinds of time built in. The way I figure my schedule from September to the end of March, we'll meet 24 times, but there will still be six Sundays WITHOUT the Catechism Service built into the schedule (Sausage Supper, Thanksgiving weekend, 2 weekends for Christmas break, MLK, and Superbowl).
Given the hectic pace of catechesis this year, next year looks like we might jog to the finish, rather than sprint! I don't know about you, but I think I'm ready to slow down and catch my breath.
This year with Easter so terribly early, we're cramped trying to finish up catechesis prior to Palm Sunday/Vigil of Easter. It will be tight and we're praying for NO snow days.
Next year, we've got all kinds of time built in. The way I figure my schedule from September to the end of March, we'll meet 24 times, but there will still be six Sundays WITHOUT the Catechism Service built into the schedule (Sausage Supper, Thanksgiving weekend, 2 weekends for Christmas break, MLK, and Superbowl).
Given the hectic pace of catechesis this year, next year looks like we might jog to the finish, rather than sprint! I don't know about you, but I think I'm ready to slow down and catch my breath.
Getting the Question Right
Today at our Catechism service someone asked the question: "But how can a two week old baby believe?"
I was so glad it was asked, because the thought surely floats around in many a person's head. It just seems so impossible. What helps is to remember how utterly impossible faith is for anyone - adults included. Faith isn't something we conjure up on our own; faith is something which God gives. "And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." Eph 2
And so that leads to a change, an important shift in the question. NOT "how can a two week old baby believe?" BUT "can God give faith to a two week old baby?"
About that, we needn't have any doubts. Think of the beautiful words of Psalm 22:9,10:
"Yet you are he who took me from the womb, YOU MADE ME TRUST YOU AT MY MOTHER'S BREASTS. On you was I cast from my birth and from my mother's womb you have been my God."
Knowing, then, that God CAN give faith to an infant; knowing further that God wants all people, including this infant, to be saved and come to know the truth; the Church in the rite of Baptism asks a mighty thing of God: "bless N. with true faith by the Holy Spirit!"
Confident that God's answer to that prayer is "yea and amen" the Church dares to speak on behalf of the infant and confess the faith in the God who by Baptism makes the child His own. It is not an accident that our Lord used "birth" as a picture of Baptism. "You must be born again of water and the Spirit." Just as in your natural birth, you were nothing but given to, life was bestowed unasked and unsought, and yet there it was; so it is in the rebirth of Holy Baptism. Life is given, forgiveness given, the Holy Spirit given, faith given. All without you lifting a hand to help or prevent it - such is the way of the God who calls into being the things that are not.
I was so glad it was asked, because the thought surely floats around in many a person's head. It just seems so impossible. What helps is to remember how utterly impossible faith is for anyone - adults included. Faith isn't something we conjure up on our own; faith is something which God gives. "And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." Eph 2
And so that leads to a change, an important shift in the question. NOT "how can a two week old baby believe?" BUT "can God give faith to a two week old baby?"
About that, we needn't have any doubts. Think of the beautiful words of Psalm 22:9,10:
"Yet you are he who took me from the womb, YOU MADE ME TRUST YOU AT MY MOTHER'S BREASTS. On you was I cast from my birth and from my mother's womb you have been my God."
Knowing, then, that God CAN give faith to an infant; knowing further that God wants all people, including this infant, to be saved and come to know the truth; the Church in the rite of Baptism asks a mighty thing of God: "bless N. with true faith by the Holy Spirit!"
Confident that God's answer to that prayer is "yea and amen" the Church dares to speak on behalf of the infant and confess the faith in the God who by Baptism makes the child His own. It is not an accident that our Lord used "birth" as a picture of Baptism. "You must be born again of water and the Spirit." Just as in your natural birth, you were nothing but given to, life was bestowed unasked and unsought, and yet there it was; so it is in the rebirth of Holy Baptism. Life is given, forgiveness given, the Holy Spirit given, faith given. All without you lifting a hand to help or prevent it - such is the way of the God who calls into being the things that are not.
Joyous Day
What a joyous day is the Baptism of Our Lord! This morning (and last night) we were privileged to celebrate the Divine Service commemorating this joyous event - and in the mysterious way that the Liturgy makes possible, became witnesses to it ourselves. Catechism Service begins in a less than an hour, and in a beautiful concurrence, we'll be treating once again of the greatest Theophany of the Blessed Trinity recorded in Sacred Scripture.
One hymn we did not sing today (I haven't taught them the tune yet) which absolutely captures the day, both in its text and in its joyful tune is "From God the Father" (LSB 401), an ancient Latin Office hymn:
From God the Father, virgin-born
To us the only Son came down;
By death the font to consecrate,
The faithful to regenerate.
Beginning from His throne on high,
In human flesh He came to die;
Creation by His death restored,
And shed new joys of life abroad.
Glide on, O glorious Sun, and bring
The gift of healing on Your wing;
To ev'ry dull and clouded sense
The clearness of Your light dispense.
Abide with us, O Lord, we pray;
The gloom of darkness chase away;
Your work of healing, Lord, begin
And take away the stain of sin.
Lord, once You came to earth's domain
And, we believe, shall come again;
Be with us on the battlefield,
From ev'ry harm Your people shield.
To You, O Lord, all glory be
For this, Your blest epiphany;
To God whom all His hosts adore,
And Holy Spirit evermore. Amen.
(LSB 401)
12 January 2008
Saturday's This 'n That
After a rather hectic week, next week (thus far and God willing!) looks to be a "normal" week for the first time since, what? November? I'm looking forward to it.
I've got an annual report to prepare for the parish, a presentation to ready for a workshop out in Colorado, a Lenten series to figure out (more on Lent and Prelent at the start of next week, God willing), and some other planning to tend to.
God willing, it will be a largely quiet week and I'll get that stuff done by the end of it.
Now, onto something totally different, I am befuddled at why coffee beans whole should end up costing more than coffee beans ground. It makes no sense to me. And, alas, the coffee tastes soooo much better from the bean freshly ground than from the prepackaged grounds.
And for those of you who are balking at the recent decision to sell eggs as though the yokes were made of gold, I am happy to report that we continue to enjoy the most wonderful eggs from our dear neighbors and parishioners, the Luekers, though the price has now risen to, ahem, $.80 per dozen. Yup, farm fresh eggs from free range chickens for $.80. A miracle in this day and age - and absolutely delicious.
Stuff for service is all tended to. Bekah and Cindi are out playing tennis (they think it's that warm; I think they're nuts). David is at work. And I have a novel that is waiting to be finished. A great Saturday indeed. Wishing one and all a joyous feast of Our Lord's Baptism!
I've got an annual report to prepare for the parish, a presentation to ready for a workshop out in Colorado, a Lenten series to figure out (more on Lent and Prelent at the start of next week, God willing), and some other planning to tend to.
God willing, it will be a largely quiet week and I'll get that stuff done by the end of it.
Now, onto something totally different, I am befuddled at why coffee beans whole should end up costing more than coffee beans ground. It makes no sense to me. And, alas, the coffee tastes soooo much better from the bean freshly ground than from the prepackaged grounds.
And for those of you who are balking at the recent decision to sell eggs as though the yokes were made of gold, I am happy to report that we continue to enjoy the most wonderful eggs from our dear neighbors and parishioners, the Luekers, though the price has now risen to, ahem, $.80 per dozen. Yup, farm fresh eggs from free range chickens for $.80. A miracle in this day and age - and absolutely delicious.
Stuff for service is all tended to. Bekah and Cindi are out playing tennis (they think it's that warm; I think they're nuts). David is at work. And I have a novel that is waiting to be finished. A great Saturday indeed. Wishing one and all a joyous feast of Our Lord's Baptism!
Patristic Quote of the Day
From what has been said it is thus evident that from all the visible acts in Baptism, from the very order itself, the names which we call it, the ceremonies which are performed in it, and the words which accompany it, we learn that the life in Christ receives the beginning of its existence from the baptismal washing. -- St. Nicholas Cabasilas, *The Life in Christ* pp. 75, 76
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Call to mind, O faithful soul, the wonderful grace of God bestowed upon thee in holy baptism. Baptism is the washing of regeneration; therefore he who hath been spiritually washed in the laver of baptism is no longer held, body and soul, under the power of a carnal nature, but because he hath been born again of God, through water and the Spirit, he is a son of God, and if a son then an heir of eternal blessings. -- Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XVII
10 January 2008
Boohoo
Tonight is the last night that Lauren and Dean will be with us. They're headed to Collinsville for Friday and Saturday and then back to Seward. It's been great having them around. Bekah started school this week and David starts back to school next week, so things will get REALLY quiet around the parsonage again. We've had a bit of an extended Christmas holidays - at least as far as visiting goes. And to top it off, Dave and Jo aren't here either. I think I'm already bored of the quiet and wanting the next holiday to arrive. I hate having the family scattered hither, thither and yon. I know, I know. It's only practice for what's to come. But I don't even want to think about that!
Worth a Blog Entry of Its Own
My dear friend, Trent Sebits, raised the question about why Lutherans observe in our sanctoral calendars those with whom we are not in 100% doctrinal agreement. He pointed out that certain of the fourth century saints taught and practiced invocation of the saints, something which Lutherans regard as dangerous and not Biblical. My question back to Trent was why do the Orthodox observe:
St. Isaac the Syrian (January 28th), though he was a Nestorian.
St. Jerome (June 15th), though he taught that there was no divine distinction between bishop and presbyter.
St. Augustine (August 28) and St. Leo of Rome (Feb. 18), though both taught the filioque as Church doctrine (numerous other names could be added to that one, especially in Western Rite Orthodoxy).
St. Epiphanios of Salamis (May 12) and St. Gregory the Great (March 12), though they taught against veneration of icons
St. Ambrose of Milan (December 7th), though he taught that the words of Christ are what consecrate the Holy Eucharist.
Now, I do not at all consider the Orthodox inconsistent for celebrating feast days commemorating these great fathers of the Church, even though at the points mentioned, they disagree with the Orthodox teaching today. The fact remains that even the Orthodox do not have to agree with a father 100% of the time to regard him as a genuine father of the Church. For Lutherans it is much the same. The fathers (and mothers!) in our commemorations are those whom we rejoice in as having blessed the Church in some particular way - usually in a way that has endured. So, no. We don't agree with the fathers we commemorate 100%. As I told Trent, we don't even agree with Luther 100%. But we recognize and celebrate especially how the great fathers, when some part of the Apostolic Gospel was under attack, defended it with vigor and clarity from the Sacred Scriptures and called the Church back to that pure fountain of Israel!
St. Isaac the Syrian (January 28th), though he was a Nestorian.
St. Jerome (June 15th), though he taught that there was no divine distinction between bishop and presbyter.
St. Augustine (August 28) and St. Leo of Rome (Feb. 18), though both taught the filioque as Church doctrine (numerous other names could be added to that one, especially in Western Rite Orthodoxy).
St. Epiphanios of Salamis (May 12) and St. Gregory the Great (March 12), though they taught against veneration of icons
St. Ambrose of Milan (December 7th), though he taught that the words of Christ are what consecrate the Holy Eucharist.
Now, I do not at all consider the Orthodox inconsistent for celebrating feast days commemorating these great fathers of the Church, even though at the points mentioned, they disagree with the Orthodox teaching today. The fact remains that even the Orthodox do not have to agree with a father 100% of the time to regard him as a genuine father of the Church. For Lutherans it is much the same. The fathers (and mothers!) in our commemorations are those whom we rejoice in as having blessed the Church in some particular way - usually in a way that has endured. So, no. We don't agree with the fathers we commemorate 100%. As I told Trent, we don't even agree with Luther 100%. But we recognize and celebrate especially how the great fathers, when some part of the Apostolic Gospel was under attack, defended it with vigor and clarity from the Sacred Scriptures and called the Church back to that pure fountain of Israel!
Homily for the Baptism of Our Lord, 2008
[Isaiah 42:1-7; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Matthew 3:13-17]
The Ethiopian Eunuch had been up to Jerusalem. He was riding home now, maybe with his brand-spanking new copy of Isaiah, and he was reading along and puzzling over what on earth the prophet was saying in what we call chapter 53 - this Lamb that is silent before its shearers, whose generation none could declare. The Holy Spirit sends Philip to run aside and ask him if he gets it. "Course not!" the Eunuch replies. "Come up and explain it to me." Then it gets very interesting. St. Luke says that beginning from that passage, Philip preached Jesus to him.
What do you think Philip preached about Jesus? Well, look at what happened next. The first glimpse that the Eunuch gets of water, he puts the breaks on, and asks excitedly: "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?" It gives ones furiously to think, to quote Poirot.
Philip preached Jesus to the Ethiopian Eunuch in such a way that he extolled the gifts of Baptism. Jesus and Baptism. They go hand in hand together. For Baptism is how Jesus gives you all that is His.
Think about today's Gospel. There He stands in the Jordan. John pours the water over His sinless head, and things begin to happen. The Blessed Trinity is revealed to the world with great splendor and glory. First, the heavens are opened. In the parallel account in Mark, the word is "ripped open" above Jesus and John. Then, the Father's voice speaks: "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." And as if that were not enough, down comes the Holy Spirit, descending upon Christ as a gentle dove.
Now, what's all going on here? To get it you have to realize what St. John the Baptist realized: Jesus didn't need any of it. It was ALL his ALREADY. To HIM heaven was already open; His heavenly Father was from eternity His heavenly Father; the Spirit eternally rested upon Him from the Father. So what gives? Why the Baptism? Says our Lord: "In order to fulfill all righteousness."
You and I, WE needed what all happened with Him in the water. To US heaven was closed, from the day when the door closed in Eden and the Cherubim began their long vigil. WE were not children of God by our birth - rather, our wills from infancy are allied with God's enemy, the devil. Every last one of us comes into this world insisting: "My will be done." And you know the damage and hurt we inflict on each other as we live out that insistence. WE were bereft of the Holy Spirit, for what is born of the flesh is but flesh and thus the very thing for which we were created went unfulfilled, for we were created to be temples of the Spirit!
Because God was not content that it continue so, He sent His Son not only into our flesh, but sent Him into the waters of Jordan, into Baptism, where sinners gather. He is there because all that is ours, He will take to Himself; and all that is His, He wants to give to us. And the great exchange, the sweet swap, happens for us exactly where He appoints: in the water.
When you get into the water with Jesus - watch out! Miracles happen. Standing with Him in the water, heaven is opened to you, His Father says that YOU are His beloved child with whom He is well-pleased, and you get the gift of the Holy Spirit.
And all this is so because in the water Jesus stands with you in your sin and promises that it will all be His. There's not a bit of it He doesn't lift off your shoulders. When He steps down into the Jordan He is beginning His journey to Calvary where He who had no sin will be made sin for you so that in Him you might become the righteousness of God. When the water pours over His head He is promising already that He is headed for another baptism - the baptism of suffering upon the Cross. He will stand with us in all that is ours so that we can stand with Him in all that is His.
Which means your Baptism is a most precious thing, the greatest moment of your life, in fact. King Louis IX of France so well understood this. He once said: "I think more of the place where I was baptized than of Rheims Cathedral where I was crowned. It is a greater thing to be a child of God than to be the ruler of a Kingdom: [this kingdom] I shall lose at death, but the other [to be a child of God] will be my passport to an everlasting glory."
And so for you: there is no more important moment for you than the moment you were baptized, when the water flowed over you and heaven was opened and God owned you as his beloved child and the Holy Spirit came upon you. It's a moment you can cling to and crawl back to over and over again, as long as you live in this age of grace. The door that flung wide in your baptism remains open to you; God's covenant with you there, His promises to you, He will ever be faithful to. When we forget our high birth and fall back again into living as children of this perishing age, we might think that God will wash his hands of us. But no, in Baptism, He doesn't wash His hands; He goes on washing us! The door stands open and He calls us one and all to come back, to come home, to claim again our adoption rights as His children.
To go back to the Eunuch, do you see what was the Gospel that Philip preached to him so faithfully that day? Just what our Lord said the Gospel was at the end of St. Mark!
"Go and preach the Gospel to all creation."
But what is that Gospel?
"Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved." That's the Gospel in a nutshell.
That's how Philip preached the good news and so at the first sign of water, the Eunuch is ready to stop everything and take the plunge. He went into the water with Jesus a child of flesh born of flesh, a man destined for the grave. He came out of the water a child of God, filled with the Spirit, and destined for heaven, His true home.
This is the Gospel of the Lord which the Church proclaims in all the world: Come, get into the water with Jesus, that He who took all your sin to death on Golgotha may impart to you all that belongs to Him - forgiveness for all that comes of your thinking and living the lie - "My will be done" - and a life that never ends! Come, get into the water with Jesus, that He may lift you to the joy of being a coheir with Him of an everlasting kingdom! Greater than any kingdom or crown of this earth! Here you are made kings and priests with Him to His God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever! Amen.
The Ethiopian Eunuch had been up to Jerusalem. He was riding home now, maybe with his brand-spanking new copy of Isaiah, and he was reading along and puzzling over what on earth the prophet was saying in what we call chapter 53 - this Lamb that is silent before its shearers, whose generation none could declare. The Holy Spirit sends Philip to run aside and ask him if he gets it. "Course not!" the Eunuch replies. "Come up and explain it to me." Then it gets very interesting. St. Luke says that beginning from that passage, Philip preached Jesus to him.
What do you think Philip preached about Jesus? Well, look at what happened next. The first glimpse that the Eunuch gets of water, he puts the breaks on, and asks excitedly: "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?" It gives ones furiously to think, to quote Poirot.
Philip preached Jesus to the Ethiopian Eunuch in such a way that he extolled the gifts of Baptism. Jesus and Baptism. They go hand in hand together. For Baptism is how Jesus gives you all that is His.
Think about today's Gospel. There He stands in the Jordan. John pours the water over His sinless head, and things begin to happen. The Blessed Trinity is revealed to the world with great splendor and glory. First, the heavens are opened. In the parallel account in Mark, the word is "ripped open" above Jesus and John. Then, the Father's voice speaks: "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." And as if that were not enough, down comes the Holy Spirit, descending upon Christ as a gentle dove.
Now, what's all going on here? To get it you have to realize what St. John the Baptist realized: Jesus didn't need any of it. It was ALL his ALREADY. To HIM heaven was already open; His heavenly Father was from eternity His heavenly Father; the Spirit eternally rested upon Him from the Father. So what gives? Why the Baptism? Says our Lord: "In order to fulfill all righteousness."
You and I, WE needed what all happened with Him in the water. To US heaven was closed, from the day when the door closed in Eden and the Cherubim began their long vigil. WE were not children of God by our birth - rather, our wills from infancy are allied with God's enemy, the devil. Every last one of us comes into this world insisting: "My will be done." And you know the damage and hurt we inflict on each other as we live out that insistence. WE were bereft of the Holy Spirit, for what is born of the flesh is but flesh and thus the very thing for which we were created went unfulfilled, for we were created to be temples of the Spirit!
Because God was not content that it continue so, He sent His Son not only into our flesh, but sent Him into the waters of Jordan, into Baptism, where sinners gather. He is there because all that is ours, He will take to Himself; and all that is His, He wants to give to us. And the great exchange, the sweet swap, happens for us exactly where He appoints: in the water.
When you get into the water with Jesus - watch out! Miracles happen. Standing with Him in the water, heaven is opened to you, His Father says that YOU are His beloved child with whom He is well-pleased, and you get the gift of the Holy Spirit.
And all this is so because in the water Jesus stands with you in your sin and promises that it will all be His. There's not a bit of it He doesn't lift off your shoulders. When He steps down into the Jordan He is beginning His journey to Calvary where He who had no sin will be made sin for you so that in Him you might become the righteousness of God. When the water pours over His head He is promising already that He is headed for another baptism - the baptism of suffering upon the Cross. He will stand with us in all that is ours so that we can stand with Him in all that is His.
Which means your Baptism is a most precious thing, the greatest moment of your life, in fact. King Louis IX of France so well understood this. He once said: "I think more of the place where I was baptized than of Rheims Cathedral where I was crowned. It is a greater thing to be a child of God than to be the ruler of a Kingdom: [this kingdom] I shall lose at death, but the other [to be a child of God] will be my passport to an everlasting glory."
And so for you: there is no more important moment for you than the moment you were baptized, when the water flowed over you and heaven was opened and God owned you as his beloved child and the Holy Spirit came upon you. It's a moment you can cling to and crawl back to over and over again, as long as you live in this age of grace. The door that flung wide in your baptism remains open to you; God's covenant with you there, His promises to you, He will ever be faithful to. When we forget our high birth and fall back again into living as children of this perishing age, we might think that God will wash his hands of us. But no, in Baptism, He doesn't wash His hands; He goes on washing us! The door stands open and He calls us one and all to come back, to come home, to claim again our adoption rights as His children.
To go back to the Eunuch, do you see what was the Gospel that Philip preached to him so faithfully that day? Just what our Lord said the Gospel was at the end of St. Mark!
"Go and preach the Gospel to all creation."
But what is that Gospel?
"Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved." That's the Gospel in a nutshell.
That's how Philip preached the good news and so at the first sign of water, the Eunuch is ready to stop everything and take the plunge. He went into the water with Jesus a child of flesh born of flesh, a man destined for the grave. He came out of the water a child of God, filled with the Spirit, and destined for heaven, His true home.
This is the Gospel of the Lord which the Church proclaims in all the world: Come, get into the water with Jesus, that He who took all your sin to death on Golgotha may impart to you all that belongs to Him - forgiveness for all that comes of your thinking and living the lie - "My will be done" - and a life that never ends! Come, get into the water with Jesus, that He may lift you to the joy of being a coheir with Him of an everlasting kingdom! Greater than any kingdom or crown of this earth! Here you are made kings and priests with Him to His God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever! Amen.
Patristic Quote of the Day
(This was originally in a comment, but too good to leave there):
Synods and Conventions I salute from afar, since I have experienced that most of them (to speak moderately) are but sorry affairs. - Letter 124, St. Gregory of Nazianzus (no wonder Gerhard thought he was the greatest theologian of the Church, eh?)
Synods and Conventions I salute from afar, since I have experienced that most of them (to speak moderately) are but sorry affairs. - Letter 124, St. Gregory of Nazianzus (no wonder Gerhard thought he was the greatest theologian of the Church, eh?)
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
As the Eternal Father, at the baptism of Christ, declared, "This is My beloved Son," so all who believe and are baptized receive the adoption of sons. As the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove, at Christ's baptism, so He is also present at our baptism and gives it all its efficacy; nay, more, communicates Himself to believing souls in this holy ordinance and so worketh in them that "they become wise as serpents and harmless as doves." -- Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XVII
Commemoration of the Cappadocians
Today our Synod remembers and thanks God for the three great Cappadocian fathers, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa, Pastors and Confessors.From the web site:
Basil and the two Gregorys, collectively known as the Cappadocian Fathers, were leaders of Christian orthodoxy in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) in the later fourth century. Basil and Gregory of Nyssa were brothers; Gregory of Nazianzus was their friend. All three were influential in shaping the theology ratified by the Council of Constantinople of 381, which is expressed in the Nicene Creed. Their defense of the doctrines of the Holy Spirit and Holy Trinity, together with their contributions to the liturgy of the Eastern Church, make them among the most influential Christian teachers and theologians of their time.
From the Brotherhood Prayer Book:
Today we remember Saints Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa, Bishops and Doctors of the Church.
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.
O God, who hast endowed Thy servants Basil, Gregory and Gregory with clarity of faith and holiness of life; Grant us to keep with steadfast minds the faith which they taught, and in their 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.
A few choice quotes from these great fathers:
"When the Lord taught us the doctrine of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, He did not make arithmetic a part of this gift!" St. Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit, par. 44
"Even choosing what is right is a gift of God's mercy." St. Gregory Nazianzus, Orations 37:13
"Let the inspired Scriptures then be our umpire, and the vote of truth will be given to those whose dogmas are found to agree with the Divine words." St. Gregory of Nyssa: On the Holy Trinity, NPNF, p. 327.
09 January 2008
Patristic Quote of the Day
"Indeed, this is the perfect and complete glorification of God, when one does not exult in his own righteousness, but recognizing oneself as lacking true righteousness to be justified by faith alone in Christ." - St. Basil the Great (Homily on Humility, PG 31.532; TFoTC vol. 9, p. 479)
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
God does not tire of doing good to us, and we must not tire of doing good to our brothers. -- C. F. W. Walther, *God Grant It!* p. 104
Compline Again
Tonight was the first time we prayed Compline with the service printed out in its entirety. What a dummy I was not to do that ages ago! Talk about flowing beautifully - the prayers, the psalms, the chants; it all flowed together seamlessly. There were eleven of us, I think, to ask the Lord's blessing on the close of the day and, if it be His will, on the close of our lives. What a gift this beautiful liturgy is to us on our pilgrimage and what peace it speaks to the troubled heart! Once a week seems far, far too seldom to pray it together.
08 January 2008
Thoughts on Celebrating the Baptism of Our Lord
First, note that LSB provides a proper preface for the day:
"...through Jesus Christ, our Lord: for at His Baptism Your voice from heaven revealed Him as Your beloved Son and the Holy Spirit descended on Him, confirming Him to be the Christ. Therefore with angels..."
This trend toward a greater number of proper prefaces, each reflecting their own day, has a solid history in the West, especially in the Mozarabic tradition. If you distinguish between the "high" feasts and regular Sundays, I'd argue that this week is decidedly "middle of the road." Perhaps do at least half the ceremonial you did on Epiphany?
Second, the Hymn of the Day is Luther's hymn "To Jordan Came" and LSB offers this in two tunes. Frankly, I think them both rather inaccessible for our congregation. We'll be using instead the hymn that we've become accustomed to on this day since its appearance in the Hymnal Supplement 98: "To Jordan's River Came Our Lord." (LSB #405) Pastor Stephen Starke's text "Jesus, Once with Sinners Numbered" (LSB #404) is also a fine hymn for this celebration. I'm all in favor of TEACHING Luther's great text (it is superior to both of the newer ones), but the tune will require a bit of work and we haven't got the time to master it this year. We'll save it for the future.
Third, if you are using the one year lectionary AND you are not having a Divine Service later in the week (we are here), it would be appropriate on this Sunday to conclude with "Alleluia, Song of Gladness." At St. Paul's we'll observe Transfiguration on the Thursday following Epiphany and that will be the final occasion for the alleluias among us until their joyous return at Easter, should the Lord not return first (and REALLY make our alleluias ring!).
Fourth, I cannot recommend highly enough reading and taking to heart the homily in the House Postil of Luther, Volume 1, pages 216-223. It's mature Luther, writing in 1534, and it truly shines.
Finally, GREAT distribution hymns for this feast are "God's Own Child" (LSB #594) and "All Christians Who Have Been Baptized" (LSB #596).
"...through Jesus Christ, our Lord: for at His Baptism Your voice from heaven revealed Him as Your beloved Son and the Holy Spirit descended on Him, confirming Him to be the Christ. Therefore with angels..."
This trend toward a greater number of proper prefaces, each reflecting their own day, has a solid history in the West, especially in the Mozarabic tradition. If you distinguish between the "high" feasts and regular Sundays, I'd argue that this week is decidedly "middle of the road." Perhaps do at least half the ceremonial you did on Epiphany?
Second, the Hymn of the Day is Luther's hymn "To Jordan Came" and LSB offers this in two tunes. Frankly, I think them both rather inaccessible for our congregation. We'll be using instead the hymn that we've become accustomed to on this day since its appearance in the Hymnal Supplement 98: "To Jordan's River Came Our Lord." (LSB #405) Pastor Stephen Starke's text "Jesus, Once with Sinners Numbered" (LSB #404) is also a fine hymn for this celebration. I'm all in favor of TEACHING Luther's great text (it is superior to both of the newer ones), but the tune will require a bit of work and we haven't got the time to master it this year. We'll save it for the future.
Third, if you are using the one year lectionary AND you are not having a Divine Service later in the week (we are here), it would be appropriate on this Sunday to conclude with "Alleluia, Song of Gladness." At St. Paul's we'll observe Transfiguration on the Thursday following Epiphany and that will be the final occasion for the alleluias among us until their joyous return at Easter, should the Lord not return first (and REALLY make our alleluias ring!).
Fourth, I cannot recommend highly enough reading and taking to heart the homily in the House Postil of Luther, Volume 1, pages 216-223. It's mature Luther, writing in 1534, and it truly shines.
Finally, GREAT distribution hymns for this feast are "God's Own Child" (LSB #594) and "All Christians Who Have Been Baptized" (LSB #596).
American Politics
Can be a hoot. And this election promises to be a fun one. I think the whole world was surprised tonight after the media assured us that NH belonged to Obama to find it go to Clinton. McCain wasn't so much of a surprise over all. I agree with Hannity that the race is now absolutely wide open in both camps. Iowa and NH have in effect cancelled each other out. So all that stuff I said about not wasting time watching TV? I think I may have to revise that as the election process rolls on... ;)
Is It Just Me?
I watched a bit of the pontifical Mass for the Epiphany. I just can't get used to it though. There in the solemn splendor of St. Peter's - to have different laity paraded up to read the first and second readings, and to offer petitions in the Prayer of the Church, while all the bishops, priests, cardinals and whatnot just sit there? And all in the different languages (seems like an advertisement: see we ARE the universal church, after all)? Well, to me at any rate, it just seemed weird. Maybe not to Roman Catholics (I wouldn't know) but to this Lutheran it seems utterly out of place. And I confess: I had HOPED to see one of those "extraordinary" Masses on Epiphany with the Bishop of Rome celebrating in the old Tridentine manner. Maybe someday?
Patristic Quote of the Day
Jesus rises from the waters; the world rises with him. The heavens like Paradise with its flaming sword, closed by Adam for himself and his descendants, are rent open. The Spirit comes to him as an equal, bearing witness to His Godhead. A Voice bears witness to Him from heaven, His place of origin. -- St. Gregory Nazianzus, *Sermon on Theophany* (*Christian Prayer* p. 1967)
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
A true Luther gem on the Baptism of our Lord:Who would not execrate an unthankful and joyless person who is unwilling to take to his heart the Son who stands at the Jordan and lets himself be baptized as a sinner? The one upon whom the Spirit lights in the form of a dove? and the Father's voice in closest proximity? No doubt there were also countless holy angels present. For where the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit reveal themselves, all the heavenly host must also be present. This was the ultimate manifestation.
Therefore, learn to esteem this festival highly. The star given to the wise men was a manifestation, too, but this was much more wonderful. For here the three preeminent Kings - God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit - are all present as Christ was baptized. And how wondrous that this glorious manifestation occurred at Christ's baptism at the Jordan! Had God so willed, it might have been in the wilderness or in the temple. But it happened at the baptism, in order that we might esteem baptism highly and regard ourselves as nothing other than newly created, holy people by our baptism.
--Homily 3 for Epiphany, House Postils, I:220
Squeezing it all in there!
Gotta love the antiphon for the Benedictus during the days of Epiphany:
On this day is the church espoused to her heavenly Bridegroom: forasmuch as in Jordan Christ hath cleansed her iniquities. Therefore do the Wise Men hasten with their offerings to the royal nuptials; where the guests are gladdened by water made wine, alleluia! (Brotherhood Prayer Book, Second Edition, page. 415)
And yes, that is exactly the same antiphon used by Lutherans in Magdeburg, among other places, for the Benedictus at Lauds during Epiphany and its octave. Only in Magdeburg they said it like this:
Hodie coelesti sponso juncta est Ecclesia quoniam in Jordane lavit Christus ejus crimina, currunt cum muneribus magi ad regales nuptias et ex aqua facta vino laetantur convivae. Alleluia. (Magdeburg Book, page 196)
I notice it's substantially the same in the Monastic Diurnal of the Anglicans and Western Rite Orthodox.
Here the wholeness of Epiphany still hangs together as a single shining light before it birthed the other festivals and Sundays around it. That shows up too in Epiphany's Office Hymn: "The Star Proclaims the King is Here" (Hostis Herodes impie).
On this day is the church espoused to her heavenly Bridegroom: forasmuch as in Jordan Christ hath cleansed her iniquities. Therefore do the Wise Men hasten with their offerings to the royal nuptials; where the guests are gladdened by water made wine, alleluia! (Brotherhood Prayer Book, Second Edition, page. 415)
And yes, that is exactly the same antiphon used by Lutherans in Magdeburg, among other places, for the Benedictus at Lauds during Epiphany and its octave. Only in Magdeburg they said it like this:
Hodie coelesti sponso juncta est Ecclesia quoniam in Jordane lavit Christus ejus crimina, currunt cum muneribus magi ad regales nuptias et ex aqua facta vino laetantur convivae. Alleluia. (Magdeburg Book, page 196)
I notice it's substantially the same in the Monastic Diurnal of the Anglicans and Western Rite Orthodox.
Here the wholeness of Epiphany still hangs together as a single shining light before it birthed the other festivals and Sundays around it. That shows up too in Epiphany's Office Hymn: "The Star Proclaims the King is Here" (Hostis Herodes impie).
Priceless
Pastor Larry Beane on Luther and the "Emerging Church Movement":
Emerging Luther
Father Hollywood nails it yet again.
Emerging Luther
Father Hollywood nails it yet again.
07 January 2008
Flood Prayer
The Lutheran Liturgy had some significant influence on the Book of Common Prayer, used by the Anglicans. This shows up in many places, but one place where you can note a curious difference is in the liturgy for Holy Baptism.Both Lutherans and Anglicans (at least historically) used the Flood Prayer. Here's the version of the Flood Prayer that shows up in the current Lutheran Service Book - it's fairly faithful to the original, with only a silly shift at the end to remove the language of "made righteous" to "declared righteous" (silly because God's declaration MAKES so exactly what He says!):
Almighty and eternal God, according to Your strict judgment You condemned the unbelieving world through the flood, yet according to Your great mercy You preserved believing Noah and his family, eight souls in all. You drowned heart-hearted Pharaoh and all his host in the Red Sea, yet led Your people Israel through the water on dry ground, prefiguring this washing of Your Holy Baptism. Through the Baptism in the Jordan of Your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, You sanctified and instituted all waters to be a blessed flood, and a lavish washing away of sin. We pray that You would behold N. according to Your boundless mercy and bless him with true faith by the Holy Spirit that through this saving flood all sin in him which has been inherited from Adam and which he himself has committed since would be drowned and die. Grant that he be kept safe and secure in the holy ark of the Christian Church, being separated from the multitude of unbelievers and serving Your name at all times with a fervent spirit and a joyful hope, so that, with all believers in Your promise, he would be declared worthy of eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
That's the Lutheran version. Now check out what the Anglicans did to the prayer:
Almighty and everlasting God, who of thy great mercy didst save Noah and his family in the ark from perishing by water; and also didst safely lead the children of Israel thy people through the Red Sea, figuring thereby thy holy Baptism; and by the Baptism of thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ, in the river Jordan didst sanctify Water to the mystical washing away of sin: We beseech thee, for thine infinite mercies, that thou wilt mercifully look upon this Child, wash him and sanctify him with the Holy Ghost; that he, being delivered from thy wrath, may be received into the ark of Christ's Church; and being stedfast in faith, joyful through hope, and rooted in charity, may so pass through the waves of this troublesome world, that finally he may come to the land of everlasting life, there to reign with thee world without end; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Notice what's gone! Not merely the wrath side of water as the destruction of God's enemies, but the words referring to belief or faith. In the Lutheran prayer, it is BELIEVING Noah who is saved, and the UNBELIEVING world that is condemned. Pharaoh is HARD-HEARTED, a synonym for not believing! THE central petition of the Lutheran prayer is for the gift of faith for the person being baptized: "bless N. with TRUE FAITH by the Holy Spirit." It acknowledges Baptism as precisely a "being separated from the multitude of UNBELIEVERS" so that "WITH ALL BELIEVERS in Your promise" the baptized would come to eternal life.
Lex orandi in this case shows that by their Baptismal rite, Lutherans confess that Holy Baptism is a PROMISE and must be received in faith to benefit. Confident of the Lord's willingness to answer prayer, we ask exactly such faith for the baptized. That God sunder them from unbelief and unbelievers and plant them securely in the Church among the promise-trusters - which promise trusting happens only by the work of the Holy Spirit Himself. The Anglican prayer picks up all the beauty of the Lutheran one, and even improves the poetry at points, but it utterly misses the very thing that WE are praying for!
Warning: Long Post - Old Lutheran CHAPTERS of the Day
My friend, Jimbo, bishop of greater Evansville, has requested that I put the Nicolai stuff in a main post. This is just the beginning of *Mirror of Joy* from Nicolai, who was the author of the text and composer of the tunes for the King and Queen of the Chorales - they were appended to the back of this work. What is impressive is that these meditations came from him at a time when intense suffering was hitting his parish - the plague was carrying off people right and left. Yet in the midst of the stench of death, he is filled with this overflowing joy. It not only shows up in his hymns, but in the *Mirror* itself.
The post below is a bit more than I gave in the comment under the hymn. I have not had the occasion to finish this translation that I began some years ago. I did read the book through before translating it (his German is very simple while his thoughts are profound). My favorite section, which I did not get to yet, speaks of Adam and Eve having been clothed in light, like our Lord at the transfiguration, and that they knew they were naked when their bodies no longer shone in glory: "All have fallen short of the glory of God."
Anyway, it's a rather rough translation - first draft - but for the enjoyment of whoever wants to plough through it, here you go:
A Mirror of Joy of the Life Eternal
By Philipp Nicholai
Introduction
As often as I call to mind the surpassing comfort of the promise of eternal life and of our heavenly home, my heart bursts out with joy and my soul rejoices in God my Savior. Think of it! There we believing Christians will behold with joyful eyes the Almighty King of glory, our only Redeemer and Savior Jesus Christ, who for us trampled down the ancient serpent! There we will gather with the holy patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. There we will see again with overflowing joy those we’ve loved on earth – our father, mother, brothers and sisters, husband and wife, children, and all our acquaintances who have blessedly fallen asleep in the Lord and have gone before us in true faith. There God will wipe all tears from our eyes and transform our mourning into dancing. He will clothe us with joy, so that our heart rejoices for all eternity and this awesome joy no one can ever take from us.
There we will enter into the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. We will be brought into the company of many thousands of angels and to the assembly of the firstborn, who are written in heaven. And in that place joy will simply overwhelm us as we contemplate the awesome gifts God has bestowed on us. To think that heaven should be ours! That everything which Christ has, is now our imperishable heavenly treasure! God himself will be our very great Reward, our Temple, our Light and our all in all. Who would trade all the world’s perishable splendor, honor, joy, and glory for what God has in store for us? Our future is that we will see and laugh together with the holy angels. Indeed, the entire heavenly host will call us blessed because we have believed in Jesus Christ and trusted His unfailing Word to the death. (17)
Whenever I think of these things, my heart and mind grow quiet, peaceful and still. I do not fret, then, even though in this world we miserable earthworms and sheep of Christ’s pasture are surrounded by temporal death in this life so that our faith and hope have to run the fiery gauntlet of the devil and his cursed followers. The children of God do not need to despair, because we wait in hope for the life that never ends. That is our future even as we pass through this valley of tears, burdened with afflictions, poverty, scorn, mockery, and privation. Yes, the life that never ends gives us hope even though we live in exile, or find ourselves widows or orphans, despised preachers, miserable creatures, poor, sick, imprisoned or scorned, treated as wretched slaves who can be abused and who suffer reverses of judgment, cry over misfortunes and receive no apparent help. Our future hope is secure although here we must be fools for Christ’s sake, an off-scouring of the people, a spectacle for men and angels.
The Lord will soon come. In His grace, He has heard already the sighs and cries of his elect, who cry out to Him day and night. He will save us in a little while and bring joy to His church after these troubles. What we now suffer for a little time in this world is just not worth the unspeakably great glory that will finally be revealed in us. You see, these troubles, which are temporary and light, are working for us an eternal, immeasurable, incomprehensible glory, the like of which no eye has seen and no ear heard and has not entered into the heart of anyone.
Oh, the inexpressible glory and unutterable joy of the eternal blessings and glory, which we will there experience! Oh, the light that shines everywhere in heaven’s joyful halls bringing blessed comfort and delight to all the children of light, who have overcome the devil, the world, and all trials through the blood of Jesus Christ! Oh, the noble and astounding Paradise, the glorious City of God and heavenly Land of Canaan, where stands God’s mountain of joy and comfort, which from flow the milk of comfort and the honey of joy, and where God is all in all! (p. 18 bottom) Oh, how wonderful a world it must be, how desirable a place, how lovely a dwelling, how precious the garden of bliss is this kingdom! It is a kingdom overflowing with every comfort, abounding in all grace, and chocked full of inexpressible joy!
There God the Father reveals His beloved and joyful countenance openly and wondrously to his elect children: angels and men. There Jesus Christ permits them to behold His glory, glory He had with the Father before the world’s foundations were laid. There in a precious and wondrous way God the Holy Spirit Himself will be seen in the Father and in the Son!
Oh, that beautiful, noble life where the holy angels praise God with joy, where the dear Patriarch, Prophets and Apostles dwell, where all pious Christians will be gathered to their people out of this false and vile world! Oh that life where our pious parents, father, mother, husband, wife, children, brothers, sisters and all our other friends who shared our faith and trust in Christ’s blood have gone before us and await our arrival with great joy and longing!
O blessed life, says Augustine, which God has prepared for those who love Him! You are indeed the true and actual life. You are a blessed life. You are a steady, sure life. You are a quiet and restful life. You are a pure and chaste life. You are a holy life. You are an eternal life rich in joy, where no one hears of death, sorrow or tribulation. You are a life without fault, without anxiety or perplexity, without decay and change, without fear, terror or crying. You are a life, where all is quiet, beautiful, delicate and desirable. You are a life where no adversary is, no one to oppose us. Where no temptation to sin is, but instead an overflowing love, a union of heart, attitude and mind and a sturdy unity, where an eternally bright light of day shines, where God will be seen face to face, and where man will taste a bread of life that banishes hunger forevermore.
O you eternal, blessed life! Thinking about entering you is my heart’s desire and joy. Your splendid bounties I desire from the heart (p. 19) and for them I ache and long. And the more I think of you and take to heart your loveliness and sweetness, the more the love, the longing and the desire for you grows in me and increases. Indeed, as often as I think of you, my heart in my body laughs for joy. And so this is my desire, that my heart, will and mind turn to you, journey to you, consider and think on your loveliness.
It is my desire, to speak about you, hear about you, write about you, talk about you and read about your eternal blessedness and heavenly glory each and every day. Further, what I have read, I want to enfold in my heart’s shrine and meditate on it, so that I dispense with and toss off the bothersome worry, danger, and tiresome toil and labor of this life – a life that is dying and fading away - and refresh myself, like a pilgrim and wanderer, with the sweet, cool desire for your life-giving blessings, so that when I go to sleep, I may rest my head upon you and in you find my peace, O everlasting life!
And so I turn with hunger to the luscious, beautiful pasture of the Sacred Scripture and diligently harvest and gather together like the green herb many verses rich in comfort. These verses I collect and read as if I ate and tasted the little herb, ruminating and thinking hard on them. When I have well considered and collected them, then I swallow them down and enclose them in my heart, so that through such tasting of their sweetness I feel that much less the bitterness of this life of exile.
O all-blessed life, you are in truth a salutary Kingdom and you know no death and have no end! In you is eternity and no change of time. There there is a day where no night comes, but endures and remains endlessly. A Christian soldier, who has overcome the world, the devil, death and all misfortune, is there a companion, brother, and comrade of the angelic Thrones and Dominions, which always praise God with joyful voice, and he sings without interruption (20) to our dear God the joyful songs of the glorious Zion and wears the crown of eternal life on his head.
O that it were possible for a man on earth, to preach and write of that which is so lovely, so glorious, so comforting, and so graceful, that the troubled and tested children of God would be aroused to blessed joy and take rich comfort! Yet how does it happen, O dear God, that we are so slow to believe your Holy Word? It witnesses to the eternal life announced to us in the prophetic and apostolic writings. O that Your Word may through the power and working of Your Holy Spirit, burn as a light in our hearts and fall like a fruitful rain, which lights upon the grass, like a dew that moistens the herb. O that like a spear or nail Your Word may pierce our heart and bring forth rich comfort and living joy to soothe and put an end to the great sadness, burdens and anxieties Your Christians suffer in this valley of tears, where they are unceasingly afflicted with sickness, sorrow, and trials of all sorts.
True it is, dear Lord God, and we must also confess: This noble sweet mystery is too deep for our reason to grasp, the joy is too great, and the glory too immense. And on the other hand, our heart is too small, our eyes too sleepy, and our understanding much too weak and too awkward, to grasp and comprehend this noble mystery, this high and great joy, and this immense glory. And although Your enlightened children in this world rightly hear and somewhat understand what they speak of, sing, and write about, yet all their knowledge and wisdom is only piece-meal, a mere bungling and childish beginning. Therefore I am in myself confounded and think: How can I speak and write of the overflowing joy of eternal life, when I cannot fully understand it, nor my thoughts reach so high? And how should what comes to me in my heart, reach my tongue and flow out from my pen?
It is indeed true that even if the likes of Pericles, Demosthenes, Cicero, Socrates or any other famous (p. 21) speaker, rightly understood this article, even with all their erudition and rhetoric they would be far to weak and to inadequate, to express it correctly and sufficiently describe it.
And yet you wish, O God, and indeed command in Your word, that we make a beginning in this world, even though piece-meal, and speak, preach, sing, and announce as much as Holy Scripture reveals about eternal life. O how blessed the people, says David, who can rejoice. Lord, they will walk in the light of Your face. They will daily be joyful in Your name and glory in Your righteousness. They will drink from the rich goods of Your house, and You quench their thirst as with a mighty river. Because with You is the fountain of life, and in Your light we see light. In Your presence is fullness of joy and at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Therefore, O God, this is my earnest plan. I will sing and write. Up, psaltery and harp, I will awake early. Let the heaven rejoice and let the earth be glad, let the sea roar and all that is therein. Let the earth rejoice and all that is in it; let the trees of the forest shout for joy.
Yes, dear God, let us also rejoice, that we may heed the exhortation of Your prophet Dvid and daily rejoice in Your name and glory in Your righteousness. Yes, let us still sing of Your heavenly grace, as much as it has been revealed to us, and make known Your truth with our mouths everywhere. Yes, let us enter Your gates with thanksgiving and Your courts with praise, lauding and magnifying Your name. Bring us to Your holy mountain and to Your dwelling, Lord, our Joy and our Home, that we may see and experience that great goodness, which You have promised to those who fear You and have prepared for all who know You. (22)
Division of the Mirror of Joy in Two Sections
It is with heartfelt joy that I seek help to make a beginning and show with zeal and love from the Apostolic Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments: first, what a noble and life of overflowing joy that eternal life is which the chosen children of God enjoy there in Paradise. Then secondly, from whom this salutary Good comes, and how the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, out of unspeakably sweet love and gentleness prepares this eternal life for us poor children of Adam and permits us to enter therein.
But I pray you, O great King of glory and Ruler of eternal life, my beloved Savior and Benefactor, my Lord Jesus Christ, by Your precious, rose-red blood that merited eternal life for us poor sinners by Your great, heart-felt love for men, and revealed such heavenly wisdom to those that fear you and bring them to know your covenant. O You who ordained Your praise also from the mouths of babes and infants, that Your wonders and Your goodness be widely lauded, announced, and spread abroad: Let me also be one of those infants and open my lips so that through the Holy Spirit’s power and work the precious article of eternal life that I may proclaim it to the glory of Your great majesty and to the blessed comfort of all burdened, sad hearts, who here on earth cry and weep, over whom the world rejoices, and who must for the sake of Your name suffer all kinds of threats, trouble, scorn, and danger. Grant to them, O God of all comfort, that this article may be their chalice of comfort, from which they imbibe the true water of life and may it be to them a salutary, refreshing and comforting drink to rejoice and to enliven their thirsting souls.
The First Part of the Mirror of Joy
Living Comfort, steadfast Joy, and heart-felt Rapture, create and work in us that we may diligently view this high article of our Christian faith regarding eternal life. Rejoice and be glad, all you Christians who, from the heart, seek eternal life. Let us sing, dance, celebrate and be joyful in the Lord, our God and Savior! Just consider the blessed benefaction of the heavenly glory, joy, and splendor, which out of unspeakable sweet love, our God has prepared from the beginning of the world for us his faithful children. This benefaction He will gloriously reveal, that we may behold its presence with our very eyes, when the time of our struggle and knighthood of faith on earth is ended, when by the Holy Spirit’s power we are taken through the last struggle of death to our heavenly fatherland and finally delivered from this sorrowful valley of tears.
Whether indeed there is an Eternal Life?
Proof from the Witness of Our Lord Christ that there Certainly Is an Eternal Life.
The promise of eternal life is my heart’s highest comfort, my joy and rapture and a lovely delight in all kinds of crosses and opposition. Here say to your soul: Why so downcast, O my soul, and why so disquieted within me? You will not abide eternally in this troublesome vale of tears. There is prepared for you an eternal life after this time of exile. And why should I doubt it? Let not your hearts be troubled, says the Son of God. You all believe in God, so believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many dwellings. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will indeed come again and take you to (p. 24) myself that where I am, you may be also. I give my sheep eternal life. Whoever believes in me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Because where I am, there my servant will be also. And whoever serves me, my Father will honor. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, that they may see the glory which you have given to me. But what is this glory? Truly, truly, he spoke to the dying thief on the cross, today you will be with me in paradise.
Here we do not hear a mere man speaking, but God’s Word, God’s promise, and God’s testimony about eternal life. Who would not trust this divine witness? The heathen, especially their poets, write well about the “campis elysiis,” that is, of a new world and beautiful and desirable place, where the souls of fair and virtuous men depart after they die in this world. But who will trust their fables? They are merely human dreams and fantasies, which no one can rely on. But to us the great and true God, Jesus Christ, who is Himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life, preaches and proclaims this noble high mystery, and there is no falsehood found in His mouth! The Lord has decided it, says the Scripture, and who will change it? The Lord’s Word is truth and what He tells us is most certain. And you know that God Himself has said that no prophecy will lie. Because I am the Lord, what I speak will come to pass.
Yes, what are all the deeds of the great love and tenderness of God for if not to preach to us of eternal life? What were we made for? For what purpose has Christ conquered death, the devil, and hell? For what end were we born again by the Holy Spirit through the Word and holy Sacraments? In truth the all-holy Trinity does not primarily do this nor has done any of it for the short time of our present life in this world. In the same way, not for this (p. 25) present life were we baptized and we don’t come to the Church for the Lord’s Supper, nor attend to God’s Word to this end, that we might learn how a man should farm, sow, build, plant, hunt, sell and so use this world. Such things also the nonChristians, Jews, and Turks can well do, and for them one needs neither Baptism, nor Eucharist, nor Gospel, nor Absolution. But all of these the Lord God has given to secure our heavenly blessedness and eternal life. For eternal life we were created. For eternal life we have been redeemed. For eternal life we have been born again. For eternal life we have been baptized. For eternal life we have been called through the Gospel. What else is the goal of our faith and our blessed hope, other than eternal life? And what does it mean to die as a Christian in the Lord, than that he rests and travels from this world to the life everlasting?
Indeed, my soul, what makes you so distress yourself so, weighed down with anxious and burdensome thoughts? It is true, isn’t it, that all the foremost works of God, such as creation, redemption, and sanctification, after that also God’s Word, Baptism, Absolution, Lord’s Supper, after that our faith and hope and the Christian’s final journey from this valley of tears, each give strong witness to the article on eternal life? In fact everything tends toward and is directed to eternal life, so why should we not rejoice and be glad from the heart? Why should we Christians pull out our hair in our sadness because of anxiety and impatience, and be fretful and anxious and depressed over death just like the heathen who have no hope?
And what are we to make of that precious names that Sacred Scripture repeatedly gives to eternal life? Why is it called a Paradise? Why does our Lord Christ name it a marriage feast? For what cause does it receive so many beautiful names, that it is called God’s kingdom, the house of the eternal Father, the eternal habitations, the holy mountain of the Lord, a river of delights, the life-giving spring, the holy temple, the fullness of joy, an eternal conjugal union with God, a joy of the Lord, an incorruptible, spotless, and unchanging inheritance, an inheritance with the saints in light, (p. 26) a great glory passing all expectation, a lovely existence, the heavenly fatherland, the land of the living, the holy city of the living God, the new Jerusalem!
What purpose do these words serve us, and why does the Holy Spirit give eternal life so many comforting names if not to admonish and urge us in our faith and hope to greater joy and happiness? For what is more desirable than a beautiful paradise and garden of pleasure? What do young people love more than married joy, married love and conjugal union? What more splendid than when great lords meet together and their majestic glory, joy and rapture? What makes children more rich than a great inheritance and many goods? What more desirable than a mighty, beautiful city? What in the whole world is more famous than Jerusalem? What is statelier than a great kingdom? What is loved more than a fatherland? What does not love to look at May-huts and beautiful, fruitful mountains? What is lovelier than pleasure? What revives and restores thirsty souls on earth better than a sweet, dear drink? What appears more glorious than a high, well-built temple? And what more welcome than heart-felt joy, important glory, and a lovely existence?
I see a great vanity under the sun, how the world struggles and strives after corruptible goods, splendor, honor, glory, and pleasure. Kings, princes, and great lords build stately palaces, want great gardens and plant all kinds of fruit trees in them. Young people and virgins fall in love and set their hearts on marriage. Others want the world to see what they know from their far-flung travels to foreign kingdoms in India, America, among the Tartars, China, from Priest John’s land and so on by their writings and speeches. I see where a great inheritance and kingdom can bring former friends to blows and hatred. I see how earthly kings and princes and great lord, cities, provinces, lands and people (p. 27)
The post below is a bit more than I gave in the comment under the hymn. I have not had the occasion to finish this translation that I began some years ago. I did read the book through before translating it (his German is very simple while his thoughts are profound). My favorite section, which I did not get to yet, speaks of Adam and Eve having been clothed in light, like our Lord at the transfiguration, and that they knew they were naked when their bodies no longer shone in glory: "All have fallen short of the glory of God."
Anyway, it's a rather rough translation - first draft - but for the enjoyment of whoever wants to plough through it, here you go:
A Mirror of Joy of the Life Eternal
By Philipp Nicholai
Introduction
As often as I call to mind the surpassing comfort of the promise of eternal life and of our heavenly home, my heart bursts out with joy and my soul rejoices in God my Savior. Think of it! There we believing Christians will behold with joyful eyes the Almighty King of glory, our only Redeemer and Savior Jesus Christ, who for us trampled down the ancient serpent! There we will gather with the holy patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. There we will see again with overflowing joy those we’ve loved on earth – our father, mother, brothers and sisters, husband and wife, children, and all our acquaintances who have blessedly fallen asleep in the Lord and have gone before us in true faith. There God will wipe all tears from our eyes and transform our mourning into dancing. He will clothe us with joy, so that our heart rejoices for all eternity and this awesome joy no one can ever take from us.
There we will enter into the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. We will be brought into the company of many thousands of angels and to the assembly of the firstborn, who are written in heaven. And in that place joy will simply overwhelm us as we contemplate the awesome gifts God has bestowed on us. To think that heaven should be ours! That everything which Christ has, is now our imperishable heavenly treasure! God himself will be our very great Reward, our Temple, our Light and our all in all. Who would trade all the world’s perishable splendor, honor, joy, and glory for what God has in store for us? Our future is that we will see and laugh together with the holy angels. Indeed, the entire heavenly host will call us blessed because we have believed in Jesus Christ and trusted His unfailing Word to the death. (17)
Whenever I think of these things, my heart and mind grow quiet, peaceful and still. I do not fret, then, even though in this world we miserable earthworms and sheep of Christ’s pasture are surrounded by temporal death in this life so that our faith and hope have to run the fiery gauntlet of the devil and his cursed followers. The children of God do not need to despair, because we wait in hope for the life that never ends. That is our future even as we pass through this valley of tears, burdened with afflictions, poverty, scorn, mockery, and privation. Yes, the life that never ends gives us hope even though we live in exile, or find ourselves widows or orphans, despised preachers, miserable creatures, poor, sick, imprisoned or scorned, treated as wretched slaves who can be abused and who suffer reverses of judgment, cry over misfortunes and receive no apparent help. Our future hope is secure although here we must be fools for Christ’s sake, an off-scouring of the people, a spectacle for men and angels.
The Lord will soon come. In His grace, He has heard already the sighs and cries of his elect, who cry out to Him day and night. He will save us in a little while and bring joy to His church after these troubles. What we now suffer for a little time in this world is just not worth the unspeakably great glory that will finally be revealed in us. You see, these troubles, which are temporary and light, are working for us an eternal, immeasurable, incomprehensible glory, the like of which no eye has seen and no ear heard and has not entered into the heart of anyone.
Oh, the inexpressible glory and unutterable joy of the eternal blessings and glory, which we will there experience! Oh, the light that shines everywhere in heaven’s joyful halls bringing blessed comfort and delight to all the children of light, who have overcome the devil, the world, and all trials through the blood of Jesus Christ! Oh, the noble and astounding Paradise, the glorious City of God and heavenly Land of Canaan, where stands God’s mountain of joy and comfort, which from flow the milk of comfort and the honey of joy, and where God is all in all! (p. 18 bottom) Oh, how wonderful a world it must be, how desirable a place, how lovely a dwelling, how precious the garden of bliss is this kingdom! It is a kingdom overflowing with every comfort, abounding in all grace, and chocked full of inexpressible joy!
There God the Father reveals His beloved and joyful countenance openly and wondrously to his elect children: angels and men. There Jesus Christ permits them to behold His glory, glory He had with the Father before the world’s foundations were laid. There in a precious and wondrous way God the Holy Spirit Himself will be seen in the Father and in the Son!
Oh, that beautiful, noble life where the holy angels praise God with joy, where the dear Patriarch, Prophets and Apostles dwell, where all pious Christians will be gathered to their people out of this false and vile world! Oh that life where our pious parents, father, mother, husband, wife, children, brothers, sisters and all our other friends who shared our faith and trust in Christ’s blood have gone before us and await our arrival with great joy and longing!
O blessed life, says Augustine, which God has prepared for those who love Him! You are indeed the true and actual life. You are a blessed life. You are a steady, sure life. You are a quiet and restful life. You are a pure and chaste life. You are a holy life. You are an eternal life rich in joy, where no one hears of death, sorrow or tribulation. You are a life without fault, without anxiety or perplexity, without decay and change, without fear, terror or crying. You are a life, where all is quiet, beautiful, delicate and desirable. You are a life where no adversary is, no one to oppose us. Where no temptation to sin is, but instead an overflowing love, a union of heart, attitude and mind and a sturdy unity, where an eternally bright light of day shines, where God will be seen face to face, and where man will taste a bread of life that banishes hunger forevermore.
O you eternal, blessed life! Thinking about entering you is my heart’s desire and joy. Your splendid bounties I desire from the heart (p. 19) and for them I ache and long. And the more I think of you and take to heart your loveliness and sweetness, the more the love, the longing and the desire for you grows in me and increases. Indeed, as often as I think of you, my heart in my body laughs for joy. And so this is my desire, that my heart, will and mind turn to you, journey to you, consider and think on your loveliness.
It is my desire, to speak about you, hear about you, write about you, talk about you and read about your eternal blessedness and heavenly glory each and every day. Further, what I have read, I want to enfold in my heart’s shrine and meditate on it, so that I dispense with and toss off the bothersome worry, danger, and tiresome toil and labor of this life – a life that is dying and fading away - and refresh myself, like a pilgrim and wanderer, with the sweet, cool desire for your life-giving blessings, so that when I go to sleep, I may rest my head upon you and in you find my peace, O everlasting life!
And so I turn with hunger to the luscious, beautiful pasture of the Sacred Scripture and diligently harvest and gather together like the green herb many verses rich in comfort. These verses I collect and read as if I ate and tasted the little herb, ruminating and thinking hard on them. When I have well considered and collected them, then I swallow them down and enclose them in my heart, so that through such tasting of their sweetness I feel that much less the bitterness of this life of exile.
O all-blessed life, you are in truth a salutary Kingdom and you know no death and have no end! In you is eternity and no change of time. There there is a day where no night comes, but endures and remains endlessly. A Christian soldier, who has overcome the world, the devil, death and all misfortune, is there a companion, brother, and comrade of the angelic Thrones and Dominions, which always praise God with joyful voice, and he sings without interruption (20) to our dear God the joyful songs of the glorious Zion and wears the crown of eternal life on his head.
O that it were possible for a man on earth, to preach and write of that which is so lovely, so glorious, so comforting, and so graceful, that the troubled and tested children of God would be aroused to blessed joy and take rich comfort! Yet how does it happen, O dear God, that we are so slow to believe your Holy Word? It witnesses to the eternal life announced to us in the prophetic and apostolic writings. O that Your Word may through the power and working of Your Holy Spirit, burn as a light in our hearts and fall like a fruitful rain, which lights upon the grass, like a dew that moistens the herb. O that like a spear or nail Your Word may pierce our heart and bring forth rich comfort and living joy to soothe and put an end to the great sadness, burdens and anxieties Your Christians suffer in this valley of tears, where they are unceasingly afflicted with sickness, sorrow, and trials of all sorts.
True it is, dear Lord God, and we must also confess: This noble sweet mystery is too deep for our reason to grasp, the joy is too great, and the glory too immense. And on the other hand, our heart is too small, our eyes too sleepy, and our understanding much too weak and too awkward, to grasp and comprehend this noble mystery, this high and great joy, and this immense glory. And although Your enlightened children in this world rightly hear and somewhat understand what they speak of, sing, and write about, yet all their knowledge and wisdom is only piece-meal, a mere bungling and childish beginning. Therefore I am in myself confounded and think: How can I speak and write of the overflowing joy of eternal life, when I cannot fully understand it, nor my thoughts reach so high? And how should what comes to me in my heart, reach my tongue and flow out from my pen?
It is indeed true that even if the likes of Pericles, Demosthenes, Cicero, Socrates or any other famous (p. 21) speaker, rightly understood this article, even with all their erudition and rhetoric they would be far to weak and to inadequate, to express it correctly and sufficiently describe it.
And yet you wish, O God, and indeed command in Your word, that we make a beginning in this world, even though piece-meal, and speak, preach, sing, and announce as much as Holy Scripture reveals about eternal life. O how blessed the people, says David, who can rejoice. Lord, they will walk in the light of Your face. They will daily be joyful in Your name and glory in Your righteousness. They will drink from the rich goods of Your house, and You quench their thirst as with a mighty river. Because with You is the fountain of life, and in Your light we see light. In Your presence is fullness of joy and at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Therefore, O God, this is my earnest plan. I will sing and write. Up, psaltery and harp, I will awake early. Let the heaven rejoice and let the earth be glad, let the sea roar and all that is therein. Let the earth rejoice and all that is in it; let the trees of the forest shout for joy.
Yes, dear God, let us also rejoice, that we may heed the exhortation of Your prophet Dvid and daily rejoice in Your name and glory in Your righteousness. Yes, let us still sing of Your heavenly grace, as much as it has been revealed to us, and make known Your truth with our mouths everywhere. Yes, let us enter Your gates with thanksgiving and Your courts with praise, lauding and magnifying Your name. Bring us to Your holy mountain and to Your dwelling, Lord, our Joy and our Home, that we may see and experience that great goodness, which You have promised to those who fear You and have prepared for all who know You. (22)
Division of the Mirror of Joy in Two Sections
It is with heartfelt joy that I seek help to make a beginning and show with zeal and love from the Apostolic Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments: first, what a noble and life of overflowing joy that eternal life is which the chosen children of God enjoy there in Paradise. Then secondly, from whom this salutary Good comes, and how the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, out of unspeakably sweet love and gentleness prepares this eternal life for us poor children of Adam and permits us to enter therein.
But I pray you, O great King of glory and Ruler of eternal life, my beloved Savior and Benefactor, my Lord Jesus Christ, by Your precious, rose-red blood that merited eternal life for us poor sinners by Your great, heart-felt love for men, and revealed such heavenly wisdom to those that fear you and bring them to know your covenant. O You who ordained Your praise also from the mouths of babes and infants, that Your wonders and Your goodness be widely lauded, announced, and spread abroad: Let me also be one of those infants and open my lips so that through the Holy Spirit’s power and work the precious article of eternal life that I may proclaim it to the glory of Your great majesty and to the blessed comfort of all burdened, sad hearts, who here on earth cry and weep, over whom the world rejoices, and who must for the sake of Your name suffer all kinds of threats, trouble, scorn, and danger. Grant to them, O God of all comfort, that this article may be their chalice of comfort, from which they imbibe the true water of life and may it be to them a salutary, refreshing and comforting drink to rejoice and to enliven their thirsting souls.
The First Part of the Mirror of Joy
Living Comfort, steadfast Joy, and heart-felt Rapture, create and work in us that we may diligently view this high article of our Christian faith regarding eternal life. Rejoice and be glad, all you Christians who, from the heart, seek eternal life. Let us sing, dance, celebrate and be joyful in the Lord, our God and Savior! Just consider the blessed benefaction of the heavenly glory, joy, and splendor, which out of unspeakable sweet love, our God has prepared from the beginning of the world for us his faithful children. This benefaction He will gloriously reveal, that we may behold its presence with our very eyes, when the time of our struggle and knighthood of faith on earth is ended, when by the Holy Spirit’s power we are taken through the last struggle of death to our heavenly fatherland and finally delivered from this sorrowful valley of tears.
Whether indeed there is an Eternal Life?
Proof from the Witness of Our Lord Christ that there Certainly Is an Eternal Life.
The promise of eternal life is my heart’s highest comfort, my joy and rapture and a lovely delight in all kinds of crosses and opposition. Here say to your soul: Why so downcast, O my soul, and why so disquieted within me? You will not abide eternally in this troublesome vale of tears. There is prepared for you an eternal life after this time of exile. And why should I doubt it? Let not your hearts be troubled, says the Son of God. You all believe in God, so believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many dwellings. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will indeed come again and take you to (p. 24) myself that where I am, you may be also. I give my sheep eternal life. Whoever believes in me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Because where I am, there my servant will be also. And whoever serves me, my Father will honor. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, that they may see the glory which you have given to me. But what is this glory? Truly, truly, he spoke to the dying thief on the cross, today you will be with me in paradise.
Here we do not hear a mere man speaking, but God’s Word, God’s promise, and God’s testimony about eternal life. Who would not trust this divine witness? The heathen, especially their poets, write well about the “campis elysiis,” that is, of a new world and beautiful and desirable place, where the souls of fair and virtuous men depart after they die in this world. But who will trust their fables? They are merely human dreams and fantasies, which no one can rely on. But to us the great and true God, Jesus Christ, who is Himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life, preaches and proclaims this noble high mystery, and there is no falsehood found in His mouth! The Lord has decided it, says the Scripture, and who will change it? The Lord’s Word is truth and what He tells us is most certain. And you know that God Himself has said that no prophecy will lie. Because I am the Lord, what I speak will come to pass.
Yes, what are all the deeds of the great love and tenderness of God for if not to preach to us of eternal life? What were we made for? For what purpose has Christ conquered death, the devil, and hell? For what end were we born again by the Holy Spirit through the Word and holy Sacraments? In truth the all-holy Trinity does not primarily do this nor has done any of it for the short time of our present life in this world. In the same way, not for this (p. 25) present life were we baptized and we don’t come to the Church for the Lord’s Supper, nor attend to God’s Word to this end, that we might learn how a man should farm, sow, build, plant, hunt, sell and so use this world. Such things also the nonChristians, Jews, and Turks can well do, and for them one needs neither Baptism, nor Eucharist, nor Gospel, nor Absolution. But all of these the Lord God has given to secure our heavenly blessedness and eternal life. For eternal life we were created. For eternal life we have been redeemed. For eternal life we have been born again. For eternal life we have been baptized. For eternal life we have been called through the Gospel. What else is the goal of our faith and our blessed hope, other than eternal life? And what does it mean to die as a Christian in the Lord, than that he rests and travels from this world to the life everlasting?
Indeed, my soul, what makes you so distress yourself so, weighed down with anxious and burdensome thoughts? It is true, isn’t it, that all the foremost works of God, such as creation, redemption, and sanctification, after that also God’s Word, Baptism, Absolution, Lord’s Supper, after that our faith and hope and the Christian’s final journey from this valley of tears, each give strong witness to the article on eternal life? In fact everything tends toward and is directed to eternal life, so why should we not rejoice and be glad from the heart? Why should we Christians pull out our hair in our sadness because of anxiety and impatience, and be fretful and anxious and depressed over death just like the heathen who have no hope?
And what are we to make of that precious names that Sacred Scripture repeatedly gives to eternal life? Why is it called a Paradise? Why does our Lord Christ name it a marriage feast? For what cause does it receive so many beautiful names, that it is called God’s kingdom, the house of the eternal Father, the eternal habitations, the holy mountain of the Lord, a river of delights, the life-giving spring, the holy temple, the fullness of joy, an eternal conjugal union with God, a joy of the Lord, an incorruptible, spotless, and unchanging inheritance, an inheritance with the saints in light, (p. 26) a great glory passing all expectation, a lovely existence, the heavenly fatherland, the land of the living, the holy city of the living God, the new Jerusalem!
What purpose do these words serve us, and why does the Holy Spirit give eternal life so many comforting names if not to admonish and urge us in our faith and hope to greater joy and happiness? For what is more desirable than a beautiful paradise and garden of pleasure? What do young people love more than married joy, married love and conjugal union? What more splendid than when great lords meet together and their majestic glory, joy and rapture? What makes children more rich than a great inheritance and many goods? What more desirable than a mighty, beautiful city? What in the whole world is more famous than Jerusalem? What is statelier than a great kingdom? What is loved more than a fatherland? What does not love to look at May-huts and beautiful, fruitful mountains? What is lovelier than pleasure? What revives and restores thirsty souls on earth better than a sweet, dear drink? What appears more glorious than a high, well-built temple? And what more welcome than heart-felt joy, important glory, and a lovely existence?
I see a great vanity under the sun, how the world struggles and strives after corruptible goods, splendor, honor, glory, and pleasure. Kings, princes, and great lords build stately palaces, want great gardens and plant all kinds of fruit trees in them. Young people and virgins fall in love and set their hearts on marriage. Others want the world to see what they know from their far-flung travels to foreign kingdoms in India, America, among the Tartars, China, from Priest John’s land and so on by their writings and speeches. I see where a great inheritance and kingdom can bring former friends to blows and hatred. I see how earthly kings and princes and great lord, cities, provinces, lands and people (p. 27)
06 January 2008
Recently
My good friend Fr. John Fenton wrote a post asking why folks were NOT Orthodox. It generated some interesting discussion. I'd like to take a different tact. I'd like to ask any Lutheran readers of this blog why they ARE Lutheran. At my first parish I realized that there many people who had become Lutheran because of what Lutherans hold in common with other Churches. I knew that I was Lutheran not because of what we held in common, but because of what made us unique. So, what about it, Lutherans, old, new, and everything in between. Why are you a Lutheran? You can be long or short, but I'd be interested in hearing.
Farewell to Christmas
Today after a wonderful brunch (flax pancakes, muffins, eggs and bacon), Cindi, Dean, Lauren and I took down the Christmas tree. And while we were at work dismantling the Weedon home, the Christmas committee was at work dismantling the Church. I've noticed something though: the Church seems nowhere near as bare and empty after Christmas as it used to. The two huge pictures of our Lord that grace the front walls make the difference. The nave is stunning during the Christmas season, but it's so serene and peaceful the rest of the year that you don't mind when the Christmas stuff disappears. Jesus, our Good Shepherd still stands above our Baptismal font, for He leads us to still waters. Jesus, knocking at the door, still invites us to the Eucharist where we sup with Him and He with us. Jesus above the altar, His hands raised in blessing, still reminds us that He has ascended to prepare for us our heavenly home. In other words, the Nave and Chancel continue to celebrate in art all that the Child born for us came to do. Glory to Him forever!
Lord's Prayer Finished Up
Not that we're EVER done with it, but this year's catechesis is done exploring together the topic of prayer and the Our Father. Again, a really wonderful experience. I love the interaction between kids and adults and the questions and discussion that ensues.
Since we finished up the third chief part today, we had our Chief Parts Party served up by Lori! Yummy soups and more food than you can shake a stick at. I love how the folks stay and visit and really get to know one another at these gatherings.
And the coolest thing? Next week we get to start Baptism. I LOVE teaching on Baptism. (Teaching on prayer always seems a little silly - you learn it best by DOING it, not by talking about it. And in the Catechism explanations we note how Luther keeps erupting in prayer: "Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven!")
Especially sweet is that we get to cover the first lesson on Baptism on the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord. That's an added gift of grace!
Since we finished up the third chief part today, we had our Chief Parts Party served up by Lori! Yummy soups and more food than you can shake a stick at. I love how the folks stay and visit and really get to know one another at these gatherings.
And the coolest thing? Next week we get to start Baptism. I LOVE teaching on Baptism. (Teaching on prayer always seems a little silly - you learn it best by DOING it, not by talking about it. And in the Catechism explanations we note how Luther keeps erupting in prayer: "Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven!")
Especially sweet is that we get to cover the first lesson on Baptism on the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord. That's an added gift of grace!
05 January 2008
The Queen of the Chorales
Pastor McCain has goaded me into commenting upon the Queen of the Chorales, which was written by the Blessed Philip Niccolai (both text and tune) and appended to his incomparable *Freudenspiegell*. The so-called King of the Chorales ("Wake, Awake!") reigns in Advent, but the Queen takes over during this season. It is the hymn of the day at Lutheran services throughout the world on Epiphany:
O Morning Star, how fair and bright!
You shine with God's own truth and light,
Aglow with grace and mercy!
Of Jacob's race, King David's son,
Our Lord and Master,
You have won
Our hearts to serve You only!
Lowly, holy!
Great and glorious,
All victorious,
Rich in blessing!
Rule and might o'er all possessing.
Come, heavenly Bridegroom, Light divine,
And deep within our hearts now shine,
There light a flame undying!
In Your one body let us be
As living branches in a tree,
Your life, our life supplying.
Now, though daily,
Earth's deep sadness
May perplex us
And distress us,
Yet with heavenly joy You bless us.
Lord, when You look on us in love,
At once there falls from God above
A ray of purest pleasure!
Your Word and Spirit,
Flesh and blood
Refresh our souls with heavenly food.
You are our dearest treasure!
Let Your mercy
Warm and cheer us!
O draw near us!
For You teach us
God's own love through You has reached us.
That's from LSB 395 and there are four more wonderful stanzas to ponder. What rings through them all is the certainty and joy of salvation in Christ. In our Lord, the light of the Father's love has shone into the world and into our hearts and filled us with a light that no sadness, no darkness, no suffering of this world can ever take away from us. When Nicolai wrote *Freudenspiegel* he was burying parishioners right and left with the plague. Every day brought new sorrow, new suffering. And yet this man of God simply overflowed with joy at the thought of what our Lord Christ has obtained for us. Suffering here cannot be compared with the joy we'll have there - and that joy is not uncertain to us, but sealed to His own in the Holy Sacraments.
Amen! Amen!
Come, Lord Jesus!
Crown of gladness!
We are yearning
For the day of Your returning!
(P.S. A musical question: I am of the opinion that Morning Star should be sung with basically treating the half notes as the quarter pulse. What do you musicians say about that???)
O Morning Star, how fair and bright!
You shine with God's own truth and light,
Aglow with grace and mercy!
Of Jacob's race, King David's son,
Our Lord and Master,
You have won
Our hearts to serve You only!
Lowly, holy!
Great and glorious,
All victorious,
Rich in blessing!
Rule and might o'er all possessing.
Come, heavenly Bridegroom, Light divine,
And deep within our hearts now shine,
There light a flame undying!
In Your one body let us be
As living branches in a tree,
Your life, our life supplying.
Now, though daily,
Earth's deep sadness
May perplex us
And distress us,
Yet with heavenly joy You bless us.
Lord, when You look on us in love,
At once there falls from God above
A ray of purest pleasure!
Your Word and Spirit,
Flesh and blood
Refresh our souls with heavenly food.
You are our dearest treasure!
Let Your mercy
Warm and cheer us!
O draw near us!
For You teach us
God's own love through You has reached us.
That's from LSB 395 and there are four more wonderful stanzas to ponder. What rings through them all is the certainty and joy of salvation in Christ. In our Lord, the light of the Father's love has shone into the world and into our hearts and filled us with a light that no sadness, no darkness, no suffering of this world can ever take away from us. When Nicolai wrote *Freudenspiegel* he was burying parishioners right and left with the plague. Every day brought new sorrow, new suffering. And yet this man of God simply overflowed with joy at the thought of what our Lord Christ has obtained for us. Suffering here cannot be compared with the joy we'll have there - and that joy is not uncertain to us, but sealed to His own in the Holy Sacraments.
Amen! Amen!
Come, Lord Jesus!
Crown of gladness!
We are yearning
For the day of Your returning!
(P.S. A musical question: I am of the opinion that Morning Star should be sung with basically treating the half notes as the quarter pulse. What do you musicians say about that???)
42
Tonight I did the house blessing for the Bowers. After the blessing, we shared a wonderful dinner, and they introduced us (or reintroduced us - we couldn't remember) to the domino game of 42. I confess to being totally befuddled at the beginning, but as the game moved along, it began to make sense. After some patient guidance from Matt and Sandy, Cindi and I were fumbling along on our own. I must confess that it was totally intriguing. We were given a set of dominos for Christmas (thanks, Digger!) and so I think we'll be working hard at mastering 42 for some weeks to come (especially since our card players - Jo and Dave - are out of town at the moment).
Patristic Quote of the Day
Today the Magi gaze in deep wonder at what they see: heaven on earth, earth in heaven, man in God, God in man, one whom the whole universe cannot contain now enclosed in a tiny body. As they look, they believe and do not question, as their symbolic gifts bear witness: incense for God, gold for a King, myrrh for One who is to die. - St. Peter Chrysologus, *Christian Prayer* p. 1965
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
God wanted to show all future generations that He do not lead the Gentiles to His dear Son by miracles, by stars, by angels, or by some other extraordinary heavenly appearance. Instead, He directed them by means of men, His already existing church. We see from this that the mission to the Gentiles is a duty of the Church. -- C.F.W. Walther, *God Grant It!* pp. 99, 100
Epiphany
[Isaiah 60:1-6 / Ephesians 3:1-12 / Matthew 2:1-12]
I remember when I was little my mom used to read a story about some children who lived in a cottage in the deep woods. Their mother always told them not to stray too far from the house and its little clearing, lest they get lost in the woods. But they were playing one day and there was still light in the sky and their game of hide and seek led them deeper and deeper into the forest until the trees were all about them and they were not quite sure which way home lay anymore. And then the sun began to set and the shadows crept out from under the trees and bushes. They were really lost now, lost and scared. They couldn’t see the path that led home. There were strange and frightening sounds in the woods around them. They sat down and wept holding onto each other. But then through their tears in the distance, one of them saw a light. Immediately their spirits lifted and they began to walk together toward the light. And do you know what the light was? It was the light that streamed from the inside of their home. It had gotten so late and so dark that their mother had opened the door to the little cottage and stepped out to look for them. The light from the open door guided their paths back through the woods, back to home.
Epiphany is about just such a light. The human race was living in darkness, in the darkness of the shadow of death itself. We were lost. Not sure where we were or who we were or where we were headed. We were frightened because we couldn’t see any way and we just wanted to sit down and cry. But suddenly in the darkness a light began to glow. A warm light. A welcoming light. The light from the door that flung open our true home. And suddenly we knew who we were and where we belonged. We were children of that house; it was our true home - a home we had all but forgotten in the darkness of our misery and sadness. And so the light beckoned us to arise and begin to walk the path to the door. And as we walk toward it we find that there were many others besides ourselves also lost out in the darkness. They too are streaming to the door, coming from every direction. And as we draw closer to the door and its light, we draw closer to one another. Close enough to clasp one another’s hands and walk together in growing joy as the light shines stronger and brighter. The light sets our hearts aflame with love and looses our tongues with songs of joy - the joy of our homecoming, the joy of the light that shines in our darkness. That’s the Epiphany light. It’s the light that shines from the open door to heaven. The light that is Jesus Christ.
Isaiah knew and sang about that light. Listen again to some of his words: “Arise, shine; for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you and His glory will be seen upon you.” (Isaiah 60:1-2) And what happens then? The light beckons those lost in the darkness to come home. “And nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around, and see: they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar and your daughters shall be carried on the hip. Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall thrill and exult.” (Is 60:3-5)
That’s how the prophet describes the joy of the homecoming. The joy of people who live isolated and alone in the darkness of this world, now arising and coming home to the light that shines in Jesus Christ. And so the wisemen from the east came. They were among the first of the Gentiles to be led to worship that light that shines in Jesus Christ. They came and saw him and fell down before him: recognizing in him the open gate to paradise, the open door to the Father’s mansions. They came to worship the newborn king, who is king not only for the Jews, but King for all those - Jew or Gentile - who are lost in the darkness and long for the light.
Do you know people who still wander in the dark? Do you know people over whose lives the light that is Jesus Christ has not shone? Do you know those who live in the despair of death and think that this life, such as it is, is all there is, and that there is nothing beyond, nothing more? You can show them that it is not so. Let them see the light of home reflected on your face. Let them hear from your mouth the invitation to rise and go home. Let them hear from you the good news that they have a Savior who opened the door to heaven that our sin had shut, opened it for all and none who come to it trusting him shall be turned away. Let them hear from you that a Savior has come to us, and gone down into the very darkness of our death on Calvary's tree and filled it with his own eternal light, and by His resurrection from the dead has opened through death itself a pathway home. Let them hear from you that for all who walk into the darkness of death hand in hand with Him, decay is not the end, but the end will be the shining lights of home, the table set and ready, the welcoming arms of a loving Father, and the joy of his presence that is without end.
Epiphany is the feast of light. You were given that light on the day you were baptized. One of the oldest names for the sacrament of Baptism is “the illumination” or “the enlightening.” To show that over the life of the baptized the light of Christ has shown, we give to the newly baptized a candle with the words “live always in the light of Christ.” And the light that shone in Baptism shines on in the Word, which is always “a lamp to the feet and a light for the path.” And at the table you witness that light. You sing as you come down from the Banquet of the Lord the words of old Simeon: “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy Word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a LIGHT to lighten the Gentiles and the GLORY of thy people, Israel.”
Light in the darkness. Jesus, the door to heaven, a door that stands open wide to all in this age of grace. Jesus, the light that shines from the Father’s home. Jesus, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. Our brother who lights the way. Let us cry out to one another and to those yet lost in the darkness: Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. We’re on the way home. A blessed epiphany to all! Amen
I remember when I was little my mom used to read a story about some children who lived in a cottage in the deep woods. Their mother always told them not to stray too far from the house and its little clearing, lest they get lost in the woods. But they were playing one day and there was still light in the sky and their game of hide and seek led them deeper and deeper into the forest until the trees were all about them and they were not quite sure which way home lay anymore. And then the sun began to set and the shadows crept out from under the trees and bushes. They were really lost now, lost and scared. They couldn’t see the path that led home. There were strange and frightening sounds in the woods around them. They sat down and wept holding onto each other. But then through their tears in the distance, one of them saw a light. Immediately their spirits lifted and they began to walk together toward the light. And do you know what the light was? It was the light that streamed from the inside of their home. It had gotten so late and so dark that their mother had opened the door to the little cottage and stepped out to look for them. The light from the open door guided their paths back through the woods, back to home.
Epiphany is about just such a light. The human race was living in darkness, in the darkness of the shadow of death itself. We were lost. Not sure where we were or who we were or where we were headed. We were frightened because we couldn’t see any way and we just wanted to sit down and cry. But suddenly in the darkness a light began to glow. A warm light. A welcoming light. The light from the door that flung open our true home. And suddenly we knew who we were and where we belonged. We were children of that house; it was our true home - a home we had all but forgotten in the darkness of our misery and sadness. And so the light beckoned us to arise and begin to walk the path to the door. And as we walk toward it we find that there were many others besides ourselves also lost out in the darkness. They too are streaming to the door, coming from every direction. And as we draw closer to the door and its light, we draw closer to one another. Close enough to clasp one another’s hands and walk together in growing joy as the light shines stronger and brighter. The light sets our hearts aflame with love and looses our tongues with songs of joy - the joy of our homecoming, the joy of the light that shines in our darkness. That’s the Epiphany light. It’s the light that shines from the open door to heaven. The light that is Jesus Christ.
Isaiah knew and sang about that light. Listen again to some of his words: “Arise, shine; for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you and His glory will be seen upon you.” (Isaiah 60:1-2) And what happens then? The light beckons those lost in the darkness to come home. “And nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around, and see: they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar and your daughters shall be carried on the hip. Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall thrill and exult.” (Is 60:3-5)
That’s how the prophet describes the joy of the homecoming. The joy of people who live isolated and alone in the darkness of this world, now arising and coming home to the light that shines in Jesus Christ. And so the wisemen from the east came. They were among the first of the Gentiles to be led to worship that light that shines in Jesus Christ. They came and saw him and fell down before him: recognizing in him the open gate to paradise, the open door to the Father’s mansions. They came to worship the newborn king, who is king not only for the Jews, but King for all those - Jew or Gentile - who are lost in the darkness and long for the light.
Do you know people who still wander in the dark? Do you know people over whose lives the light that is Jesus Christ has not shone? Do you know those who live in the despair of death and think that this life, such as it is, is all there is, and that there is nothing beyond, nothing more? You can show them that it is not so. Let them see the light of home reflected on your face. Let them hear from your mouth the invitation to rise and go home. Let them hear from you the good news that they have a Savior who opened the door to heaven that our sin had shut, opened it for all and none who come to it trusting him shall be turned away. Let them hear from you that a Savior has come to us, and gone down into the very darkness of our death on Calvary's tree and filled it with his own eternal light, and by His resurrection from the dead has opened through death itself a pathway home. Let them hear from you that for all who walk into the darkness of death hand in hand with Him, decay is not the end, but the end will be the shining lights of home, the table set and ready, the welcoming arms of a loving Father, and the joy of his presence that is without end.
Epiphany is the feast of light. You were given that light on the day you were baptized. One of the oldest names for the sacrament of Baptism is “the illumination” or “the enlightening.” To show that over the life of the baptized the light of Christ has shown, we give to the newly baptized a candle with the words “live always in the light of Christ.” And the light that shone in Baptism shines on in the Word, which is always “a lamp to the feet and a light for the path.” And at the table you witness that light. You sing as you come down from the Banquet of the Lord the words of old Simeon: “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy Word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a LIGHT to lighten the Gentiles and the GLORY of thy people, Israel.”
Light in the darkness. Jesus, the door to heaven, a door that stands open wide to all in this age of grace. Jesus, the light that shines from the Father’s home. Jesus, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. Our brother who lights the way. Let us cry out to one another and to those yet lost in the darkness: Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. We’re on the way home. A blessed epiphany to all! Amen
04 January 2008
Kudos to Emmanuel Press
My volume of *The Brotherhood Prayerbook* (Second Revised Edition) arrived today. Wow! From what I've seen it improved an already good book to make it truly excellent.
Edward Riojas' artwork graces the pages. The book has been brought down to "normal book size" - it's about the same size as an LSB. Ribbons were added - 8 of them! And if you follow the options provided, you'll need to use about all of them. Unlike the first volume, this edition (like the paper back without music) ditched the LSB daily lectionary in favor of the daily lectionary from TLH. Gregorian notation is used throughout the book - as before - but now it is provided everywhere. Extra Compline hymns have been added.
And of course, the greatest resource for learning to use the book is right there on the net:
www.llpb.us
You can learn to master the chant by listening to Pastor Benjamin Mayes sing the Psalms, Canticles, and Responsories for you.
For $50.00 it is utterly worth it, in my opinion, for those who love Gregorian Chant and wish to pray the Office in its fullness in the very highest and best of the Lutheran tradition.
Edward Riojas' artwork graces the pages. The book has been brought down to "normal book size" - it's about the same size as an LSB. Ribbons were added - 8 of them! And if you follow the options provided, you'll need to use about all of them. Unlike the first volume, this edition (like the paper back without music) ditched the LSB daily lectionary in favor of the daily lectionary from TLH. Gregorian notation is used throughout the book - as before - but now it is provided everywhere. Extra Compline hymns have been added.
And of course, the greatest resource for learning to use the book is right there on the net:
www.llpb.us
You can learn to master the chant by listening to Pastor Benjamin Mayes sing the Psalms, Canticles, and Responsories for you.
For $50.00 it is utterly worth it, in my opinion, for those who love Gregorian Chant and wish to pray the Office in its fullness in the very highest and best of the Lutheran tradition.
03 January 2008
A Great Day
Today I got to:
Study the Augsburg Confession (Article XV) with our men's group early this a.m. at the InnKeeper...
Pray the Offices...
Read the Book of Concord (today was SC Parts IV-VI)...
Drink lots of coffee made in my new coffee maker with grinder; I love it! Thank you, Dean and LEW!...
Visit Woody in St. Louis and Wilma in Staunton (both doing well, thanks be to God, though Wilma was a tad disappointed that she wasn't allowed to go home today - some blood pressure irregularities)...
Listen to my new CD's on my iPod as I travelled (thanks to Bekah and Cindi!)...
Verified an erroneous reference to the Weimar Ausgabe in *Day by Day We Magnify Thee* - yes, fellows, the American Edition actually was correct and the little devotional is inexplicably in error - "hang the translator!"...
Hand to Joanie the Compline Service to run off, and worked up the Catechism Service and gave that to her too
Finish Sermon for Sunday and run it off...
Finish Bible Study for Sunday (we're ploughing into the Nicene Creed)...
Celebrate the Divine Service (at which I let Walther preach!)...
Do the annual house blessing for Phil and Darlene's and have a nice visit (and yes, my friends, the nuts were history before I reached the Hamel exit - when you send the cheesecake recipe, if you think of it, you can send that one too!)...
It all made for a long day, but joy-filled. I'm tired, though, and heading to bed - if you wrote me an email this evening or posted something on the blog, I'll try to get back to you sometime tomorrow, God willing (and provided I don't forget).
Study the Augsburg Confession (Article XV) with our men's group early this a.m. at the InnKeeper...
Pray the Offices...
Read the Book of Concord (today was SC Parts IV-VI)...
Drink lots of coffee made in my new coffee maker with grinder; I love it! Thank you, Dean and LEW!...
Visit Woody in St. Louis and Wilma in Staunton (both doing well, thanks be to God, though Wilma was a tad disappointed that she wasn't allowed to go home today - some blood pressure irregularities)...
Listen to my new CD's on my iPod as I travelled (thanks to Bekah and Cindi!)...
Verified an erroneous reference to the Weimar Ausgabe in *Day by Day We Magnify Thee* - yes, fellows, the American Edition actually was correct and the little devotional is inexplicably in error - "hang the translator!"...
Hand to Joanie the Compline Service to run off, and worked up the Catechism Service and gave that to her too
Finish Sermon for Sunday and run it off...
Finish Bible Study for Sunday (we're ploughing into the Nicene Creed)...
Celebrate the Divine Service (at which I let Walther preach!)...
Do the annual house blessing for Phil and Darlene's and have a nice visit (and yes, my friends, the nuts were history before I reached the Hamel exit - when you send the cheesecake recipe, if you think of it, you can send that one too!)...
It all made for a long day, but joy-filled. I'm tired, though, and heading to bed - if you wrote me an email this evening or posted something on the blog, I'll try to get back to you sometime tomorrow, God willing (and provided I don't forget).
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
A crown of eternal glory hath been promised thee, but thou must pass through a severe conflict before thou canst wear that crown. God's promises are unchangeable; but then thou must not relax for a moment thy zeal in a holy life. -- Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XXIX
Patristic Quote of the Day
According to Thy compassion, O our Lord, forgive mine iniquities; by Thy grace blot out the record of my stains and remember not my sins. Praise be to the Lord God Who does not desire the death of a sinner! Praise to Thee, Who hast mercy on sinners! Praise to Thee Who receivest the penitent! -- St. Ephrem the Syrian, *A Spiritual Psalter* #65
02 January 2008
Speaking of Books
There are three books that CPH should be blushing in shame for not reprinting:
Ernst Koenker's *Worship in Word and Sacrament* (CPH 1959)
Richard Jungkuntz' *The Gospel of Baptism* (CPH 1968)
O. P. Kretzmann's *The Pilgrim* (CPH 1944)
If *I* worked there, these three volumes would be out on the shelves yesterday. So much golden insight in those pages - and a message that can't be outdated. But I don't work there. So if any of you CPH types are listening, give it a thought. You own the copyright on them - go for it!
Ernst Koenker's *Worship in Word and Sacrament* (CPH 1959)
Richard Jungkuntz' *The Gospel of Baptism* (CPH 1968)
O. P. Kretzmann's *The Pilgrim* (CPH 1944)
If *I* worked there, these three volumes would be out on the shelves yesterday. So much golden insight in those pages - and a message that can't be outdated. But I don't work there. So if any of you CPH types are listening, give it a thought. You own the copyright on them - go for it!
There Are Times
that I can be really, really dense. Here we've had the Lutheran Service Builder for months and months. And we pray Compline each Wednesday, and nothing changes in it, the same week after week. But to use it in LSB we're constantly paging this way and that and I have to interrupt the service to call out Psalm numbers, Hymn number, page number and so on. Hello? Why on earth didn't I print out a sufficient number of copies for our Wednesday Compline with everything printed out in order ages ago? I don't know why. But I know I came home tonight and in about 15 minutes whipped up the service and printed it out. Perfect. Now we can really concentrate on God and our prayer and not worry one bit about where we're supposed to turn next in the book!!!
And despite the paging, it was wonderful to pray Compline tonight. Like the return of an old and treasured friend.
And despite the paging, it was wonderful to pray Compline tonight. Like the return of an old and treasured friend.
Books Worth Rereading
Walther in *Proper Distinction* stresses that it is not reading many things, but reading much of several good things that is truly beneficial. I think he's right on about that. Here's my list of things to reread for this coming year:
Sasse's *Here We Stand*
Krauth's *The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology*
Elert's *Eucharist and Church Fellowship in the First Four Centuries*
Piepkorn's *The Church* and *The Sacred Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions*
Chemnitz' *Examination*
Luther's *Great Galatians*
St. Ephrem's *A Spiritual Psalter*
St. Nicholas Cabasilas' *The Life in Christ*
Von Schenk's *The Presence*
Gerhard's *Sacred Meditations*
Walther's *Proper Distinction*
St. Augustine's *Enchiridion*
Hamann's *On Being a Christian*
Sasse's *Here We Stand*
Krauth's *The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology*
Elert's *Eucharist and Church Fellowship in the First Four Centuries*
Piepkorn's *The Church* and *The Sacred Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions*
Chemnitz' *Examination*
Luther's *Great Galatians*
St. Ephrem's *A Spiritual Psalter*
St. Nicholas Cabasilas' *The Life in Christ*
Von Schenk's *The Presence*
Gerhard's *Sacred Meditations*
Walther's *Proper Distinction*
St. Augustine's *Enchiridion*
Hamann's *On Being a Christian*
Patristic Quote of the Day
When Thou didst see, our Lord, that I had lost Thy glory, Thy love did not suffer it to be so. Thou Who descendedst in Thy birth hast delivered me from Satan by Thy suffering and Thy death on the Cross. -- St. Ephrem, the Syrian, *A Spiritual Psalter* #79
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Only the person who celebrates a happy Christmas can also celebrate a happy new year. Only the person who knows that he has a Savior can be comforted on the pilgrim's journey of his life. Such a person may always be a poor sinner, but he does not deceive himself when he looks into the future with great joys, hopes, and confidence. In him, God will do more than he can ask and understand. He has the Savior as helmsman and His cross as sail. He can, then, rejoicingly weigh anchor and boldly pilot on the open sea of life. His ship does not run aground, it is not wrecked, and it does not go under. Instead, it will certainly arrive in safe harbor, in this year or another. -- C. F. W. Walther, *God Grant It!* p. 91
C&C
OT Catechesis and Compline return tonight! Catechesis will pick up with Lesson 23: Gideon - The Judges Rule a Rebellious Israel in the New Land.
Brr
I was making coffee this morning in the kitchen and just glanced over at the thermometer (it sits on the counter beside the coffee) and looked at it again to make sure I was seeing correctly. 9 degrees. And that was up against the house. Whew! We've not been that cold in quite some time.
It reminded me of stepping out on the back porch at my mom's family home when we would visit during the Christmas holidays. It was a massive old farmhouse (six bedrooms, three sitting rooms, kitchen and dining room, and three huge porches). I remember, though, one time seeing early one morning the temperature below zero. You couldn't stay on the porch for long, but it's where you got your drinks of water - there was a sink there and a single dipper. I remember nipping back into the blazing warmth of the kitchen, warmed by a huge wood stove where breakfast was a-cooking. I don't think hot coffee ever tasted better going down than it did that morning! Coffee and hot buttered toast (home made country butter too - nothing like it!) set against the winter chill.
It reminded me of stepping out on the back porch at my mom's family home when we would visit during the Christmas holidays. It was a massive old farmhouse (six bedrooms, three sitting rooms, kitchen and dining room, and three huge porches). I remember, though, one time seeing early one morning the temperature below zero. You couldn't stay on the porch for long, but it's where you got your drinks of water - there was a sink there and a single dipper. I remember nipping back into the blazing warmth of the kitchen, warmed by a huge wood stove where breakfast was a-cooking. I don't think hot coffee ever tasted better going down than it did that morning! Coffee and hot buttered toast (home made country butter too - nothing like it!) set against the winter chill.
House Blessing Time
LSB Agenda reminds us: "It is appropriate that homes of Christians be blessed by the Word of God and prayer.... Homes may be blessed annually. Usually this is done during the season of Epiphany due to the connection of the visitation of the Magi to the home of the infant Christ. On such annual observances of this rite, the Magnificat with antiphon may be chanted in place of the Psalmody." (p. 313) This is also an appropriate time to have new crosses, paintings, icons, and statues blessed for use at the family altar. (pp. 322, 323)
I have had two families schedule home blessings so far, but a reminder to my members that I'm happy to schedule a time to visit your home and pray God's blessing upon it. Just email me or phone me and we can set up a time!
I have had two families schedule home blessings so far, but a reminder to my members that I'm happy to schedule a time to visit your home and pray God's blessing upon it. Just email me or phone me and we can set up a time!
01 January 2008
Ack! Where'd Epiphany go?
Several folks have written asking what exactly should happen this year with Epiphany being such a short season. Here is my best reading of the material provided in Lutheran Service Book for those who are observing the one year (historic) lectionary:
January 6 - celebrate the Epiphany of our Lord
January 13 - celebrate the Baptism of our Lord (in the historic practice of the Western Church the Baptism is the octave after the Epiphany and so would trump the readings for First Sunday after Epiphany)
Transfiguration? - celebrate it at a midweek liturgy after January 13th
January 20 - celebrate Septuagesima, first Sunday of pre-Lent
January 27 - celebrate Sexagesima, second Sunday of pre-Lent
February 3 - celebrate Quinquagesima, third Sunday of pre-Lent
On other matters: LSB prescribes white for both Epiphany and Baptism and then Green for Gesimatide. The alleluia is omitted during Gesimatide, replaced by the Tract. LSB does not indicate dropping the Gloria in Excelsis, however, until Lent itself. Additionally, LSB prescribes the Epiphany preface throughout the Gesima Sundays. If I missed any rubrics in LSB, I'd appreciate correction. It certainly is an unusual year with an almost non-existent Epiphany season!
January 6 - celebrate the Epiphany of our Lord
January 13 - celebrate the Baptism of our Lord (in the historic practice of the Western Church the Baptism is the octave after the Epiphany and so would trump the readings for First Sunday after Epiphany)
Transfiguration? - celebrate it at a midweek liturgy after January 13th
January 20 - celebrate Septuagesima, first Sunday of pre-Lent
January 27 - celebrate Sexagesima, second Sunday of pre-Lent
February 3 - celebrate Quinquagesima, third Sunday of pre-Lent
On other matters: LSB prescribes white for both Epiphany and Baptism and then Green for Gesimatide. The alleluia is omitted during Gesimatide, replaced by the Tract. LSB does not indicate dropping the Gloria in Excelsis, however, until Lent itself. Additionally, LSB prescribes the Epiphany preface throughout the Gesima Sundays. If I missed any rubrics in LSB, I'd appreciate correction. It certainly is an unusual year with an almost non-existent Epiphany season!
A Tad Late, but Good Stuff
from O. P. Kretzmann:Sanctuary at Midnight
The last candle burned gently on the altar... Beyond the dark windows the midnight was already alive with bells and whistles, but here they seemed now like sounds from a lost world... In a sudden wind from the sacristy door the candle flickered forward and threw into bold relief the face of the crucifix... Shadows played over the red wounds, and in the eyes in which pain has been a prisoner for nineteen hundred years there was darkness... At the foot of the sanctuary steps stood the tree and the manger... The place of His birth was in the gloom, the place of His death was in the light... All the years of His way from the Manger to the Cross were in the brief steps up the sanctuary, up to the Everlasting Altar... Here was beginning and end... Not by the years could His Life and Power be measured, nor by the dust of centuries, but only by the wounds still red against the white dominion of His throne...
Was it the darkness or the hour which seemed to move the patient face in pity?... Surely no sculptor had caught the moment of "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."... That was so very long ago... The bells and whistles beyond it the dark were marking the end of another year between His heaven and my world... There had been many of them now - almost twice as many as the number of His days before the eyes of men... Strange that all our years should be measure be His days and all the times of man by one day when, in darkness and pain, God was making eternity ready and history was preparing for B.C. and A.D. ... Strange, too, with the wonder of heaven and hope, that I can repeat His prayer tonight... "Father, forgive." ... Forgive me - for the lost but unforgotten hours of the dying year, for the erring way and barren heart... The pivot of the year is too brief to say more than the one word which makes the years an altar stair and the time of life the lifting of the angelic trumpeters... Midnight is lonely now with lonely bells, and my candle of prayer burns low... There is only one cross on the altar tonight... On the hill there were three, but the children of the man on the cross to the left are blowing whistles tonight, and the children of the man on the right are in sanctuaries the world over... His time was short, perhaps shorter than mine, but his prayer was good, much better than mine... Remember me... Make my failures Thy victories and the years of my sins the eternity of Thy grace... Remember me... Thy footsteps grow brighter as the years grow dim, and no calendar can limit Thy power... Remember me... This moment, not of yesterday nor of tomorrow, is Thine just as the years are Thine...
There are other voices in the sanctuary now, the waiting saints made perfect at last and the great multitude past human numbering who have been remembered at altars in heaven and on earth... In a little while we shall be as wise as they whose wisdom is a song: "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing"... [The Pilgrim, p. 25-26]
Patristic Quote of the Day
The authority on which we believe is the authority of God himself ; and the teaching which we follow is the very teaching of God himself. Therefore it is true, whether we lend an ear to the testimony of the Law, or to the sayings of the Prophets, or to the trumpet of the Gospel. -- St. Leo the Great, Homily, Circumcision
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
The drops of blood Christ shed at His circumcision were the first of the payments He made for the immeasurable debts of the world's sin. Oh, let us in faith and with joy embrace the holy Christ Child who today so willingly submitted Himself to the most humble divine Law for us. Now no law we have transgressed can damn us. Now God Himself, whom we have offended, can no longer be angry with us. Now, like the old year itself, all our old sins have eternally disappeared. -- C. F. W. Walther, *God Grant It!* p. 89
Hymn for the Circumcision and Name of Jesus
Jesus! Name of wondrous love,
Name all other names above,
Unto which must every knee
Bow in deep humility.
Jesus! Name decreed of old,
To the maiden mother told,
Kneeling in her lowly cell,
By the angel Gabriel.
Jesus! Name of priceless worth
To the fallen of the earth
For the promise that it gave
"Jesus shall His people save."
Jesus! Name of mercy mild,
Given to the holy Child
When the cup of human woe
First He tasted here below.
Jesus! Only name that's given
Under all the mighty heav'n
Whereby those to sin enslaved
Burst their fetters and are saved.
Jesus! Name of wondrous love,
Human name of God above;
Pleading only this, we flee
Helpless, O our God, to Thee.
LSB 900:1-6
Name all other names above,
Unto which must every knee
Bow in deep humility.
Jesus! Name decreed of old,
To the maiden mother told,
Kneeling in her lowly cell,
By the angel Gabriel.
Jesus! Name of priceless worth
To the fallen of the earth
For the promise that it gave
"Jesus shall His people save."
Jesus! Name of mercy mild,
Given to the holy Child
When the cup of human woe
First He tasted here below.
Jesus! Only name that's given
Under all the mighty heav'n
Whereby those to sin enslaved
Burst their fetters and are saved.
Jesus! Name of wondrous love,
Human name of God above;
Pleading only this, we flee
Helpless, O our God, to Thee.
LSB 900:1-6
Our Lord's First-Bloodshed
was celebrated this morning with Matins at 9. I am still a bit astounded that we had 45 folks show up to sing Matins and to remember and thank God for the Circumcision of our Lord on this bitterly cold day in Southern Illinois. The number has dropped every year I've been here - and it's easy to see that what was taken for granted by an older generation is embraced somewhat less enthusiastically by their children and grandchildren. Yet in Church today I was happy to note a handful of younger faces too. Today an important teaching of Christ's church is celebrated and so I thank God for those folks - almost all of whom had celebrated together Divine Service last night - that wiped the sleepies out of their eyes and gathered to sing a Te Deum Laudamus to Him who went under the knife and under the law in order to fulfill for us a perfect righteousness that Baptism gives us as our very own. Glory to the Child who is both God and man - glory to Him for His love for us and for His coming to us in such humility, and glory to Him for the spilling of His blood in the keeping of the Law on our behalf!
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