04 October 2024

It Seems Strange

To think that today I enter my 64th year in this world. It didn’t look like I’d make it when I was born. They realized something was quite wrong when I kept throwing up any food they gave me, and apparently the crying was nonstop. I was slowly starving to death. After getting me over to Children’s Hospital in D.C., the doctors did surgery. They found the insides quite a jumble, and finally (almost miraculously back in 1960), located where a malformed intestine was folded over on itself, blocking any nutrition from being absorbed. My mom said they illustrated it with a folded washcloth that was at an angle rather than being straight. I wish I knew the name of the surgeon who found it, but whoever he was, he left a gaping slash down my belly but a functioning digestive system. I lived. 

My mom never forgot that miracle and never wanted me to forget it. She sent me around the neighborhood each year to collect for Children’s Hospital. She reminded me: “You wouldn’t be here today without them.” I confess, introvert that I am, I DETESTED the task. Knocking on the doors of neighbors to ask for a donation was not at all a comfortable task. But mom taught me that comfort has nothing to do with it when it is the right thing to do. So off I went. She even told me that if anyone tried the old “I gave at the office” I was to politely correct them and tell them that Children’s wasn’t part of any other charity network (I assume that has long since changed). 

So here I am, alive at 64. That’s five years older than my poor dad got to be. And it’s only 13 years shy of my mom’s age at death. Anyway you slice it, I’m looking down the last bit of my earthly pilgrimage. Which truly seems so weird. I still feel great most every day. It’s only when I look in the mirror at the wrinkles and the graying hair that I realize I’m not a kid anymore. I never stopped feeling like one! 

Oh, there’s some arthritis in the hands, and opening things is not as easy as it used to be by a long shot. But I still walk almost every day upwards of five miles. I can do pullups and pushups. Physically, I’m still in pretty decent shape. 

And there is no question that I have been blessed way, way beyond my deserving and even my imagining. A wife who has been the very image to me of God’s grace and mercy, and of whom I am not worthy. Three absolutely stellar children whom I am so proud of, and they each married the perfect spouse and I’m equally as proud of them. Best of all, they gave me my grandchildren: 13 of whom I’ve gotten to know and hold, and 2 of whom are in utero at the moment. At their birth I’ll have matched the number of my parent’s grandchildren! They, however, did that across 25 years and my children gave me these wondrous gifts in a mere 12.5 years. 

What’s ahead? I still have three years (God willing) of writing and teaching for Lutheran Public Radio and doing a handful of conferences a year. But when I turn 67 I intend to turn that responsibility over to others. I’ll happily continue to serve as an assistant at St. Paul’s, and once I no longer have to write and record 6 podcasts and 1 Issues show a week, I could probably help out there more. If God spares me and I live to 67, I hope to take a solid three months off from any work and just work on things that I’ve wanted to do and not had the time to. My grandkids will range from 16 to 2.5 by then! They should keep me more than busy. 

Thank you, God, for the doctors at Children’s in D.C. Thank you for my wonderful mom and dad and brothers and sisters. Thank you for my wife and all her family. Thank you for our children and grandchildren. Thank you for the opportunities you have granted this most unworthy servant. Thank you for the laughter, the cards, the feasts, the singing, and the lazy afternoons floating in the pool. Thank you for dear friends to travel and relax with. Thank you for all Your gifts! “Glory to You, O Lord, for all things!”

01 October 2024

Sadness

I had occasion today to send an old blog posting to a friend. It led me to randomly look through old back and forths, and the name of my buddy Paul McCain came up again and again. I miss our back and forths. He could get under some folks’ skin, I know. Tact was just not one of his skills. But I loved the man, and I miss our occasional lunches and our almost daily correspondence. You know, the little bit that shows up on the blog…that’s the least of our discussions. Anything that either one of us found of interest, we’d almost invariably send an email to the other detailing it. And, to be truthful, I also miss receiving his surprise packages from CPH. He’d send them along and I’d write to say thanks, and he’d say: “I knew you would read them and put them to use in teaching the Church.” Old friend, I hope you know how much we miss you!

30 September 2024

+Asleep in Jesus: Ralph C. Schultz

“Doc” was President of Concordia College when I attended there. He also was the director of the Festival Chorus (Gerry Coleman—may he also rest in peace—conducted the Tour and Chapel Choirs). When I heard of his passing this past week, my mind went back to a poem his wife had written and that he had set to music.We loved to sing it.

 In part it ran:

Joy is budding trees and raindrops,
Sunswept waves and golden sand;
Joy is amber-tinted forests,
New, white snow from God’s own Hand.
Joy is mother’s tender caring
For her tiny newborn child;
Joy is father’s gentle pruning
Of the young tree growing wild.
Joy is faith and hope and loving
Growing stronger through the years;
Joy is meeting life at sunset
Feeling no despair or fear.

Joy is being truly thankful
For the dawn of each new day.
Joy is working, praying, sharing
Ev’ry step along the way.
Joy is telling little children
Jesus shelters them from harm;
Joy is leading hopeless sinners
To His ever-open arms. 
Joy is Jesus’ strength around me;
Joy is Jesus’ love within;
Joy is knowing my Salvation;
That I’m free from death and sin.

Joy is living here for Him
Who gave Himself for me.
Joy is living there in heaven
To sing for joy eternally.

Life at sunset feeling no despair or fear.. I am sure that is how Doc met his end. For this wonderful man of God and the huge blessing he was to so very many in Christ’s Church: glory be to Thee, O Lord!

My last exchange with Doc was a couple years ago. Choir was singing one of his pieces (a setting of God of Grace) and I let him know we were doing. He asked me if I noticed anything interesting about the bass line. I had not! It was the melody line written backwards. He was truly a marvel. His “To Thee, O Christ Child” will always be one of my favorite Christmas pieces.

As our Eastern friends are wont to say: May his memory be eternal! And as we Westerners say: Rest eternal grant him, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon him.

(Thanks to Pr. Jim Krauser for finding the text for this song)

23 September 2024

Count your many blessings, see what God has done!

 

Sawyer, Flynn, Evangeline, Henry, Felicity, Emmett, Kloe, Chancellor, Griffin, Lydia, Annabelle, Winnie, Oliver. I told Lauren she should get her belly in the picture for the twins, but she declined. Where on earth will be put them all next year for a pic?

22 September 2024

Pastor Gleason’s Outstanding Homily for 17 Trinity

Sermon for Trinity 17, 2024
Luke 14:1–11 • Rev. William Gleason

Our Collect of the Day gets at the heart of God's word to us this morning. “O Lord, we implore You, grant Your people grace to withstand the temptations of the devil and with pure hearts and minds to follow You, the only God.” That's a good prayer. We may say it’s a prayer in response to Paul’s words in the epistle: “I ... urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.” That manner of walking is what it means to follow the only true God with pure hearts and minds. And for that we absolutely need God's grace.


Of course, you know, as well as I, our hearts and minds are not pure. Quite the contrary, they are polluted with sin. An inbred sin that produces all manner of outward sins. And it’s all those outward sins that trip us up in our Christian walk and cause us to fall.


Chief amongst those outward sins is pride. That's pretty much the consensus of the church fathers, too. St. Augustine summed it up when he said pride was the original sin of man and led to The Fall and all its horrible consequences. Picking up from that, Martin Luther said, “Pride is the mother of all heresies; indeed, as both sacred and profane history testifies, it is the source of all sin and ruin.” The Bible is full of passages that speak of pride’s destructive nature: “​When pride comes, then comes disgrace.” (Prov. 11:2) “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Prov. 16:18)​ Our Lord Jesus listed pride as one of the many evils that come from the hearts of men. And I do not think there is any irony in the fact that one of the most socially destructive perversions in our world marches under the rainbow banner of “pride.”


Now, not all pride is sinful. It may carry a positive sense of respect and confidence in someone, such as a child or another loved one. St. Paul spoke proudly of the Christians in Corinth. In 2 Cor. he wrote, “I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together … I have great pride in you…I am overflowing with joy.” (7:3-4) And I confess, I have a great deal of pride in a wonderful church and school in Hamel, Illinois.


Pride becomes sinful when it is self-focused and self-elevating to the point of excluding God and his word from your daily walk. If God and his word is not a part of your daily routine, check yourself. It may be due to an overinflated sense of self-importance. In Psalm 10:4, King David nailed it when he wrote, “In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek [the Lord]; all his thoughts are, ‘There is no God.’” That was the original Sin, of Satan and of Adam and Eve. And if you ever listen to an atheist trying to defend his unbelief, especially in the face of the overwhelming evidence of a good and gracious Creator, it always boils down to a question of his pride. In the end, he just arrogantly and defiantly refuses to bend his knee before almighty God.


Christians are not immune from the sin of pride, either. Whereas the atheist denies God’s existence, the Christian acknowledges his Creator. It's God's word that is his problem. Whenever you see a Christian, layman or clergyman, who is not “walking in a manner worthy of the gospel,” his unchristian behavior almost always hinges on the Scriptures, on the Word of God. He's either misinterpreting it to justify himself or, more likely, he's ignoring it. The atheist may think, “There is no God;” but the haughty Christian thinks, “Did God really say that?”


Satan’s temptations always appeal to your pride to entice your flesh and to subvert God's word. If you, dear Christian, ever find yourself dismissing God's word as unimportant, carelessly living in some sin, and then think “Oh, I'm good; it doesn't matter;” then repent! For it does matter! The salvation of your soul is at risk.


That kind of pride was on display in the gospel. The Pharisees were being hypocritical when they justified work on the Sabbath that helped them but condemned the deeds of others. But it was their puffed-up pride that kept them from simply asking, “What does God say? What is His intent with the Commandment?” In a similar setting in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus asked them plainly, “It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath?” But there, as here, the Pharisees were silent, too proud to admit what they knew to be true. To every proud spirit Jesus says, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”


When He says, “Whoever exalts himself,” he's means those who think too highly of themselves and too little of God. Such people are called sinners. And pride, just like every other sin, condemns us to God's wrath.


And yet, out of His patience and love He does not condemn us. But he does humble us. God pulls us off the proud seats of honor we choose for ourselves, calling us to a penitent life before Him. He holds up His Holy Law before our hearts and minds that justly condemns our self-righteousness and against which we cannot stand before Him. But with that, He also makes us walk down paths of painful trials and humbling tests to kill our prideful flesh; to kill the old man in us that fights tooth and nail to stay alive.


If you are going through a time of trial right now, or anytime, and you're wondering what’s happening, almost assuredly it is your heavenly Father disciplining you and calling you to repentance, to love you and to draw you closer to Him. Hebrews 12:5-6 apply here, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.” In other words, He’s putting a cross on you for good reason: to crucify the proud Pharisee in you that exalts himself above Christ. Let us not complain about the burdens God places upon us; they are a part of the humble walk to which we are called as Christians. Rather, let us say, “God have mercy on me the sinner.”


In fact, when God crushes your arrogance with the cross, rejoice! For He’s reminding you of two crucial things: first, the wages of our sin, which is death; and we must always be reminded of that because we don’t want to hear it. But more importantly, he's pointing you to the cost of your redemption. The cross of Christ is the ultimate sign of God’s humbling of humanity. On the cross, He crucified the pride of all people when He sent His Son to bear our sins in His body. The meaning of the parable in our Gospel is found in Jesus, who humbled Himself before God for you. Christ Jesus, the holy and righteous King of heaven and earth, was humbly born, lived a humble, obedient life under His Father, and went most humbly to the cross. All this to suffer the punishment for our sins of self-righteousness, carnal pride, and stubborn unbelief.


When you begin your Christian walk from the foot of the cross, kneeling before the crucified Savior, pleading for mercy and forgiveness in the agony of Calvary’s tree, then you are making a most humble confession; one truly worthy of your calling in Christ. And those whom God humbles by the cross, He exalts with the only declaration that can purify your heart and your mind: Rise up, your sins are forgiven you. Go in peace. 


And so forgiven we go, walking in a “manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” May God give to each of us His grace and Spirit so that we may walk in such a manner; to withstand the temptations of the devil and with pure hearts and minds to follow Him…the only God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

17 September 2024

It’s been so long!

It’s been way too long since I posted. I just find that I’m writing so much that most days, when I’m done writing my podcast or Issues shows or devotions for Advent or Lent, well, I’m DONE. I don’t want to sit down and write anything more. Kind of on empty.

But today I have half a cup of tea left, so thought I’d throw out there what a typical Tuesday for me involves:

Cindi and I don’t set alarms (save for Sundays), so we let the sun get us up. We walk out to see the sunrise just as it is coming up, and doing that daily seems to keep me waking on average about an hour prior. So I get up, make up our crio brew chocolate, pray Matins and read from the Book of Concord. After the chocolate is ready, I throw it in the blender with some butter and pour Cin and me a cup of deliciousness. 

Then I get back to my reading. As I mentioned before, Pr. Kevin Martin talked me into using the LW Daily Bible Reading schedule, and I absolutely love it. I read along in The New Living Bible translation. No, it’s really NOTHING like that old The Living Bible of my youth. This one is actually decent and superbly honest in its footnotes. Anywho, once I finish up the reading it is usually time for sunrise.

We walk out to old Route 66 and then head home, hopefully remembering to throw the bacon in the oven. Each morning I prepare four slices, two for each of us. When we get back, I’ll usually settle down to doing my internet puzzles and Cindi finishes up her readings as the steak cooks and the pan heats up for eggs. We split a steak (usually NY Strip, sometimes Ribeye) between us, and then each have two eggs (hers are fried, mine scrambled with hot sauce), and our bacon. Voila! The perfect breakfast. We have it most every day and NEVER get tired of it. The steak is frozen, and popped into the airfryer to cook and it turns out perfectly without fail.

After breakfast and clean up, we head for our post-prandial stroll. We get back and I brew up a cuppa Joe and finish anything I haven’t done yet on my puzzles and then read the news from 1440. What a great service that is!

When that’s gone, I head out for the rest of my 10K steps. If I walk the perimeter of the concrete streets in our neighborhood, that does the trick. I head back in for another cuppa Joe (I’m experimenting with upping it to two cups a day and so far, no problems), and head to my office to write.

When the first show is finished, I do half my workout: 100 pushups, 20 pullups, 20 45-lb. KB swings. Then get a cup of tea (with splash of raw milk) and write the second show. Then off to do the second half of workout. So today I got in 200 pushups, 40 pullups and 40 KB swings. THEN it was time for another cup of tea and writing two more Lenten devotions. Aiming to finish that booklet by October 5. 

Now that all that is through, I’m heading out to the pool for a late summer float in the sunshine. Still ahead: Vespers; dinner with Opa at 4 p.m.; a game of Liverpool; more reading in Chemnitz’ The Two Natures in Christ, some practice with Duolingo in Spanish, some meditation and other reading. Then it will be bedtime. 

So that’s what I’ve been up to lately. At least on Tuesdays! 

18 August 2024

Be Sure

To check out Pastor Schooping’s fine piece in this summer’s Issues, Etc. Journal. He served as an Orthodox priest for some five years and now he is a Lutheran pastor. Here’s a link (it takes a while to load). 

17 August 2024

Fun Video to Do

With my brother in Christ, Javier. Enjoy! Video

05 August 2024

The Prayer for Vespers, Trinity 10

From The Daily Office, page 389:

O Lord, we beseech Thee, remember Thy holy church that is from one end of the earth to the other, and pacify her that Thou hast purchased with Thy precious blood, and stablish her even unto the end of the world; remember them that bring forth fruit and do good works in Thy holy churches and are mindful of the poor and needy; recompense them with Thy rich and heavenly gifts; remember every Christian soul, especially the afflicted and oppressed and struggling and those needing Thy mercy and helping hand, supplying return to the wanderers, health to the sick, and rest to them that have fallen asleep in Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. 

Published by CPH in 1965. Why, it is almost as though whoever composed that prayer believed what we say in our Book of Concord: “Epiphanius testifies that Aerius believed that prayers for the dead were useless. This he rejects. We do not support Aerius either.” Ap XXIV:96