I was blessed to receive…

…this wonderful little prayer book at The Law of God Is Good and Wise conference. It’s compiled and edited by Joseph Klotz, a faithful layman of the LCMS from Hodgkins, IL. The book, as its preface states, “was produced to provide the layman with a resource, in one volume, which will enable him to engage in regular, systematic prayer, which is in line with the liturgical traditions and rhythms of the Church.” p. ix.

Said another way, this little volume can indeed serve as a simplified breviary or office book. It contains the entire NKJV psalter, pointed for chanting and with music, and spread across the month for those who wish to pray the Psalter each month (using the TLH pattern 31 day pattern, not the one from Common Prayer). It provides seasonal hymns (with traditional tones). The daily prayers include orders for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Trinity. The historic lectionary is provided and then the table of daily readings from the old The Lutheran Hymnal. You’ll find the Litany, the Bidding Prayer, the General Suffrages and those for Morning and Evening; the Prayer of the Church from TLH p. 13 and p. 110; the Creeds; various additional prayers; a selection of Scripture passages assigned to various seasons to supplement the daily readings; the History of the Passion; and the Small Catechism (including the Christian Questions with their Answers). 

In short, this is an extraordinarily rich resource and might indeed commend itself not only for interested laity, but for pastors too. Thank you, Mr. Klotz for giving me this delightful volume. You can order one, if you’re so inclined, right here.

Homily delivered at “The Law of God Is Good and Wise” Conference

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! 

Well, I guess I’m supposed to have a thesis statement. It is this: Included in the gift of Christ as sacramentum is always the gift of Christ as exemplum. He both gives Himself to us and then invites us into communion with His life, doing things His way. A little known feature of the old The Lutheran Liturgy (Altar Book for TLH) is that it provided a collect for each epistle and gospel reading. So I went to the thirteenth Sunday after Trinity and found this prayer for the Good Samaritan gospel which I invite you to join me in praying: 

O Lord Jesus Christ, our Good Samaritan and only Mediator, who, seeing us in our guilt and blood, didst have pity upon us and of Thine infinite mercy didst give Thine innocent blood in payment for our sins that we might live, we humbly thank and praise Thee that Thou hast saved us from destruction and by Thy holy Word hast brought us to the saving knowledge of Thee, our Redeemer: and beseech Thee, enable us by Thy Holy Spirit to love Thee, the true God, with our whole heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves, that we may show mercy on all men in their need, bind up their wounds with tender care, and ever in this evil world follow Thine example of love and service, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. 

Don’t neglect our father’s and grandfather’s prayers when you are seeking to understand their faith! On into the text:

Luke 10:25-37 (KJV) 25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? 

Interesting question the man asks. I think he and his fellow lawyers were more than a little suspicious about Jesus and His propensity to welcome sinners (publicans, prostitutes, Samaritans, Gentiles) and even to hang out with them. He is really asking Jesus whether or not He believes that you have to keep the Law in order to please God and be saved. So the test. What will Jesus say? Curiously, he turn the tables on the lawyer and asks for his opinion. The lawyer was out to catch Jesus in heresy, but Jesus wanted to catch the lawyer with divine love. So, He asks, what’s written? What’s your reading of it.

27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. Right answer, of course. Jesus had given that answer himself earlier. The fellow knew his catechism, alright. And Jesus approves of his answer. 

28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. Was it in the way Jesus said it, that the challenge came across? Was it how He said: “this do”? You see, it’s not KNOWING what the Law demanded, but DOING it that counted. How easily we mix that up. As though the entrance into the kingdom required but getting the answer right, knowing rather than doing. 

29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? He didn’t miss the challenge in Jesus’ words. He caught the implication: that he hadn’t been loving. Striking that he jumps over the first table of the law as if he’d done all that perfectly, and seizes upon the second table by asking “who is my neighbor?” That is, and who do you think I really need to be bothering myself about loving as myself? He wanted to justify himself; but it never works. Jesus wanted to justify not himself, but this man, and you and me. So in good Jewish fashion He answers with a story.

30 And Jesus answering said, A certain [man] went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded [him], and departed, leaving [him] half dead. Active breaking of the fifth commandment: the thieves hurt or harm their neighbor in his body. Pretty clear stuff. They take what they want from him and leave the fellow half dead (in other words, destined to die if no one came along to help). The fathers see in this the way the demons have waylaid Adam and in him all our race.

31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked [on him], and passed by on the other side. Passive breaking of the fifth commandment. It’s rather like the striking example Luther gives in the Large Catechism of the drowning man, with you standing on the shore, doing nothing as he sinks beneath the waves. Bye-bey. By NOT helping, you HAVE harmed. But neither the ancient fathers nor the fathers of the Reformation were wrong when they saw in the priest and the levite the law of Moses and especially its many ordinances and regulations. The Law didn’t help. It could only reveal the damage, but it has no power to mend what ails us. It merely looks  and then passes on, leaving Adam and us in him in as bad a shape as he was when it first encountered him.

33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion [on him], 34 And went to [him], and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. Jesus loved to stir the pot. He could have chosen a pious Jew to make his point, but he instead lifts up a Samaritan, a pariah. You remember that in John 8, Jesus is accused by his enemies of being a Samaritan and having a demon. He tells them He doesn’t have a demon; and curiously says nothing about not being a Samaritan. Almost as though He had this parable in mind. For surely Jesus IS the Samaritan. The One that His own people regarded as a pariah, and yet who has compassion on His own. “He came to His own” St. John wrote. And so this Samaritan doesn’t pass by. He comes to the wounded man, to humanity fallen in Adam, and He begins to tend the man’s wounds, getting bloody and dirty as he does so. His compassion is the key. Every other place in the NT it is Jesus who has compassion, so also here. They may regard him as a pariah, but he will not let that get in the way of His mercy, and so He carries the man to the Inn and provides for His care and restoration. 

35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave [them] to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. When I come again. Heavy, choice words in the mouth of Christ. He promises that whatever we spend on the healing of those committed to our care is something He will tend to. It’s just like He said in Proverbs 19:17 (ESV) Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed. Jesus will talk about that in a few chapters: Matthew 25:40 (ESV) And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

 36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? Which is to shift the man’s deflecting question from “Who is my neighbor?” To the far more pertinent and vital question of “Am I a neighbor? Have I been a neighbor?” 

37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. The lawyer cannot bring himself to say the hated word “the Samaritan.” But Jesus has gotten him to the very word at the heart of the Law, to what God’s after with it: mercy. And so: “He that showed mercy on him” is the very definition of neighborliness. Of not passing by, but of going to the neighbor in his time of need. People loved by God, there is no doubt that Jesus sees Himself as the Good Samaritan and that He wants you to recognize Him in that guise. But you cannot, you must not lose the force of the final words He spake: “Go, and do thou likewise.” Jesus, you see, has no problem with ending a sermon on the law. So this whole parable about love and the fulfillment of the law which happens fully and finally only in Jesus and in His obedience to His Father, obedience which leads Him to lay down His life for us and to provide all we need for our healing in the arms of His Church through His word and sacraments, this is but an illustration and invitation to what He would tell His disciples on the night of His betrayal: John 13:34 (KJV) A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. Go and do thou likewise, then, means “go love as I have loved you. Go show mercy as lavishly and freely as I, your Good Samaritan, have showed you. Come, be a Pariah with me: don’t be put off by fear of association. Be neighborly to one and to all. No, you will not do it  perfectly,  purely, or as ardently as I have done. Your love is going to always need my forgiveness and my perfection to cover all the imperfections of Your love. But you have that as my gift to cover you and you have My Spirit as My gift to work this love more and more inside you. And on the last day, the day when I come back, I will bring that love to perfection within you. For you see, I can do what the law by itself couldn’t do, but what the law faithfully points you to. Love. Mercy. Life. All in me.”

People loved by God, let us then love then as we have been loved: not in mere word or talk, but in deed and in truth. Jesus, your good samaritan, bids you too: “Go and do thou likewise.” 

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

“Honey, this IS normal!”

That’s what my RUDE wife always tells me when I complain about a packed schedule, saying: “I just want to return to normal.” So last week we had some excitement with Dave winding up in the hospital for a couple days with chest pain. It turned out NOT to be a heart-attack, and we got him home on Thursday. Friday, we flew over to Denver where we met up with Lucy and Laura, and headed up to Estes Park for a wonderful few days together in the Word with Norene Linke’s wonderful Northern Colorado Women’s Retreat. And there I got my marching orders from Rosa! (Ha! See, I haven’t forgotten!). We got back to the Denver airport earlier than expected, and almost got on an earlier flight. The person manning the Southwest booth assured us we were on it, but… they finally told us they had room only for 1. Le sigh. Laura DID manage to get an earlier and direct flight to San Diego, but we went with the scheduled flight that left at nearly 7:45 p.m. We got home about 11:30 p.m. and then headed to bed. You see, the next day we were up early for Eclipse Day. Cindi’s aunt, her sister and her sister’s husband joined us for the trip out to the Herberts and we got to see the beauty of the eclipse surrounded by our nearest and dearest. Bekah and family had spent the night so were there when we arrived; David’s family went down to Jacob to watch. Then Tuesday was Annunciation and writing three podcasts and an Issues Show. The family will be leaving tomorrow morning and it’s been a wonderful time with them. Tomorrow will be three more podcasts to write, plus the sermon for the conference I’ll be attending this weekend. Such is life… A few pics: 

Wow!

And wow seems entirely inadequate to describe the Triduum at St. Paul’s this year. Choir sang at the Maundy Thursday evening liturgy, including Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus and Stainer’s “God So Loved the World.” Good Friday’s Chief Service was up in attendance at noon. It wasn’t too quiet because of the joyous noise of little children. At Tenebrae Vespers that day Megan Pellock gave us an outstanding setting of Handel’s “But he was wounded” and the choir sang the entirety of Schalk’s St. John Passion. Saturday the vigil was probably our best attended ever. We gathered in the courtyard of the school, processed to the Church (with a relatively light wind, so most candles stayed lit), and then had the joy of that long liturgy. It took over two hours. We rejoiced in Momo’s baptism, in Andrew’s confirmation, and in the reception of new members. Then we celebrated the Holy Eucharist, and went home with hearts full of joy and peace. This morning early I preached at Matins (sermon below) where the choir sang Schalk’s Psalm 16, then Easter breakfast, and finally the Feast of Feasts: the Divine Service for the Resurrection of our Lord. My son said he didn’t remember the Church being that packed in many a year. Folding chairs across the pack and partway down the aisle. The choir sang “Alleluia! Christ is Arisen!”, “Alleluia! Alleluia! Gelobet sei Gott!” and a repeat on the Schalk. The liturgy took nearly an hour and a half, with distribution of the Sacrament consuming lots of time (five distribution hymns, one choir anthem, and lots of organ volunatry). Such overflowing joy! A few pics and then the homily from early:

Homily for Easter Sunrise 2024

Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

In our first reading, the Lord through the prophet Isaiah had promised His people a feast, and what a feast it was to be! Rich food, well-aged wine, rich food full of marrow (and I never knew how tasty that stuff was until Cindi and I began to feast on bone marrow - snarf!), and back to the wine again: aged and well refined. In other words, this was one choice feast, folks. But tasty and wonderful as all that sounds, it is the OCCASION of the feast that astounds. For this feast will be thrown in honor of Yahweh’s mighty act: he will “swallow up” - eat - on this mountain the covering and veil spread over all peoples and nations: that is, He will eat up death forever. He will take into Himself and the result will be a relief that humanity has ached for since the days of the garden. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the reproach, the shame of His people, the stuff in their lives that makes them hang their heads in shame, it will vanish and be gone. So feast in honor of no more death and in honor of no more shame in our lives. How sweet that sounds! No wonder on that day, the day of the feast, the people cry out in joy: “Behold, this is our God! We have waited for Him that He might save us! This is Yahweh, we have waited for Him and now let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” 

When Mary Magdalene heads off to the tomb before daybreak that first Easter, she thought the opposite of the feast had happened. She thought that death itself had just done its usual job and swallowed down one more tasty morsel, but the heart-break for her and for all the followers of Jesus was doubled and tripled because they had THOUGHT that Jesus was the one who would bring in that great and promised feast. Apparently they were wrong. He too had been gobbled up by the great gobbler of all. But the first hint that it might not be so was the stone being moved, and the gaping darkness, devoid of the body of her beloved Master. Apparently at this point, she separates from the other women and high tails it back to the city to find Peter and John and tell them all about it. They go check it out. And in typical fashion, John, by tradition the youngest of the disciples, outruns old Peter, but is a bit timid about entering. Peter, huffing and puffing along as an older gent, boldly enters in, and John follows. How odd. Mary was right: the body was gone, but if this was a grave robbery, it was exceedingly odd. The wrappings and the face cloth, neatly folded and in separate places. The great Catechism question arises: “What does this mean?” They weren’t sure and they leave the scene.

But not Mary. Mary stands outside the tomb and her tears flow. Her heart is so broken, that when she stoops to look into the tomb, and even sees two angels in white, sitting exactly where Jesus body had been, one at the foot, the other at the head, she doesn’t register what she’s looking at. But you certainly should. It should remind exactly of the two cherubim on either side of the mercy seat, where the blood of atonement had been sprinkled. They ask why the tears. She tells them: “They (some unknown they) have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 

She turns away and there’s a man there. Standing by her. He repeats the question of the angels: “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” She thought he must be the gardener and so tells him: “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” She, a lone woman, lugging a corpse of a grown man. Not likely, I’m thinking. But of course, there is no corpse. The One she was seeking simply said her name: “Mary.”

Earlier Jesus had said: “He calls His own sheep by name” (Jn 10:3). As He says her name, she, as one of His sheep heard His voice and knew him in an instant. In a moment, her grief vanished and astonishment seized her. “Rabboni!” She cried out, “My teacher!” And she lunged for him, probably falling at His feet and holding Him tightly, like now that she has found Him she would never let Him go ago (though, of course, it was He who had in fact found her). What filled her heart in that moment? Weeping still, I imagine, she was thinking “O thank God! He IS alive! I’m never letting Him get away from me ever again. It will be like before.”

But of course, it was not to be like before. She Jesus tells her: “Don’t cling to me, don’t try to hold me back. I’ve got more to do and so do you. I have yet to ascend to the Father, but this is what I have for you to do: Go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God.” For this is what our Jesus has accomplished by His death and sealed by His resurrection: that He who came forth from the Father alone could lead home in triumph many sisters and brothers and present with joy to His Father. “Lo I, and the children thou hast given me.” 

Mary obeyed. Probably more than a bit reluctantly and with many a glance back, she got up and left Him and ran to find the disciples gathered and announced that she had indeed seen the Lord and that He had said all these things to her. 

Which swings you, with them, right back into Isaiah 25. On Good Friday it had looked as though death had swallowed down Jesus, but on Easter morning it became apparent to Mary, Peter, James and John and all the disciples that it was God in the flesh who had done the swallowing. Death had met its match. As Pastor preached last night in the words of St. John Chrysostom: “Let no one weep for his iniquities, for pardon has shone forth from the grave. Let no on fear death, for the Savior’s death has set us free. He who was held prisoner of it, has annihilated it…. It took earth and encountered heaven. It took what was seen, and fell upon the unseen. O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory?” (Paschal Homily, Treasury, p. 185) 

The confusing events of that long ago Easter morning took more than a little bit of time for the disciples to sort out. But eventually by the Holy Spirit’s help they saw it. They saw in what Mary experienced at the tomb and in her encounter with Jesus the fulfillment of everything God had promised through Isaiah in chapter 25. The resurrection of Jesus in the flesh was the first act in the inauguration of the great Feast and it guarantees all that is to come. Later today when we come to the Table, we will again get to taste the joy of sins full forgiveness and death’s utter defeat with the promise that that holds for us, and that we with all believers will be there on the last day when the great feast begins that never ends: joy everlasting, life eternal, peace forever, and together with our Lord as His brothers and sisters. 

Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

The peace of God which passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

The Easter Feast

….not THAT one, the “after” feast. My friend Jamie wanted to know what the Weedons were serving, so here is this year’s menu: 

Appetizers of assorted cheeses, crackers or pork rinds, with sliced summer sausage.

Main course is roast lamb loin for those who care for that, and then lots of ground lamb-beef-feta balls for those who find the lamb by itself to be a little offputting (that would be me!). The lamb-beef-feta balls will be topped with either tzaziki or alfredo (I’m going with the alfredo myself).

Side dishes include Saganaki (cheese doused with brandy and set alight, though we’re trying a different of cheese for that this year), grapes, pitas, tortellini (again with Alfredo), and salad. 

Dessert for Cindi and I will be Oopsy-cakes (no carb, save for the lemon peel) and for everyone else Baklava. 

Cindi and I also plan on downing some of our Tres Generaciones tequila tomorrow with a splash of Topo Chico sparkling water and a lime. But there will also be Limoncello, some wines, and “the house wine of the South” (aka iced tea).

That’s about it!  

The Great Passion: St. Matthew’s in English

Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion was originally written to be performed in the Good Friday Vespers liturgy. I did not know that there was an English version of the Passion until today! It’s available in either Apple Music or Spotify (just search for St. Matthew’s Passion; Jeffrey Skidmore). And if you’d like to learn a bit more about the Passion, here’s a fine article.

Thanks to Darlene and Philip Cawthon…

…for sharing this beautiful picture with me. It's looking from Dr. Lee Maxwell's grave back to the old St. John's Lutheran Church in Maryville. Lee served there as pastor for many years, and was preceded there more than a century before by none other than the great Friederich Lochner. It's also the mother parish of St. Paul's in Hamel. Sadly, the church was closed a few years after Lee's death.

A taste of Paradise…

…that is what I think every time we are blessed to visit Mexico. Here are some pics from our latest adventures: 

Remember, O Man…

…that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

A good thought for holy Lent, whose arrival is so soon:

“The one who knows that the enemy stands before the gates and straightway lets him enter the city; the one who has been warned of the descending steps of sin but does not heed the warning; the one who knows what is the armor of faith and has been clothed with it but does not use it to repel the evil spirits, mocks and despises the good gifts of the kingdom of God more than the heathen. The violent conflict with shame, dread, and hesitation that always rages in his heart before a Christian consents to sin, in contrast to the easy course of a ‘child of the world’ does not lessen the grievousness of that sin but makes it worse.”—Adolf Köberle, Quest for Holiness, p. 214, 215

I am thinking about rereading the entirety of the book again for Lent. His information on the spiritual battle is so sorely missing among us. 

And…

…I got a little grandpa snuggling in Winnie Mae, our youngest grandchild (#13):

It was a little early

But we had a birthday party for this young man who turns 1 on Tuesday:

Happy birthday, Emmett William Ibisch!

Quinquagesima