16 July 2009

Just Thinking About It...

...fills me with joy:

The Lutheran Study Bible!

We're adding this wonderful resource to Lutheran Service Book, Treasury of Daily Prayer, Starck's Prayer Book (which I think will be available ahead of the TLSB) and Pastoral Care Companion.

My fellow Lutherans, the resources astound, simply astound me. I think back to the beginning of my ministry when we were divided into three hymnals (LBW, TLH, LW), the NIV Study Bible with its lightly revised Reformed notes reigned, and the best we could offer for the Daily Office was Sauer's work (a fine work in itself in many ways, but not able to touch Treasury for comprehensiveness) and the "Little Agenda" offered a meagre fare of Scriptural help to set before people in crises of various sorts.

Wow, oh, wow! We've come a long way, baby! I'm so thankful to CPH and our Synod for making these wonderful resources available. And just as the LSB should be in every Lutheran home, so also The Lutheran Study Bible. You're reading along in the Treasury and you come to something that really causes the brow to furrow? Pull out your TLSB and check out what the Fathers (ancient and Reformation) have to say on the matter and more importantly what other Scriptures shed light on a given passage.

Yeah, I'm PSYCHED. I can't wait to get my hands on it!

29 comments:

dakotapastor said...

Two words: Paul McCain!

Anonymous said...

This is a little off subject, but I need to pray for a pastor considering a call. I checked out LSB, the Agenda, and even the Pastoral Care Companion, and could not find any.

I love the collect form that the LSB prayers use, and want to use that form to pray for this pastor. Any ideas where this might exist?

Of course, God hears my own words, even if I have trouble formulating them, but I find this tried-and-true collect form helps me focus more on God and less on myself.

IggyAntiochus

Past Elder said...

Can't speak to the Agenda or the PCC because I'm not a blackbird, or even a motley magpie. The NIV Study Bible, like the NIV itself, should have stayed with the Reformed/"evangelicals", though I had to endure it in WELS too.

I too am looking forward to TLSB, not that I'm at all dissatisfied with my Concordia Edition ESV. Hope it's not like TDP which I also looked forward to, until it came to be.

As to LSB, on the one hand, watching it come to be, that such a thing, bad as it is yet good as it is, could even happen at all given the condition of the churches, was one of the reasons I joined LCMS. But on the other, it didn't resolve anything, just put the division between two covers, resolving nothing and leaving the rest wondering why more can't be put between our covers or why we need covers at all, so to speak.

What about the Concordia BOC? I came up on Tappert, but like it just fine except for a line or two here and there. Service books and prayer books come and go, but the Confessions are the Confessions!

Rev. Paul T. McCain said...

Thanks, Pr. WW, for your kind post.

The Essential Lutheran Library consists of the following six titles:

The Lutheran Study Bible
Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions
Lutheran Service Book
Luther's Small Catechism
Treasury of Daily Prayer
Lutheran Book of Prayer

To this "core" there are other volumes designed to look similar:

Reading the Psalms with Luther
Starck's Prayerbook
Heaven on Earth by Just

The choice of titles for The Lutheran Study Bible was very intentional, in that we want to encourage people to think "Bible" when they think "Hymnal" and think "Hymnal" when they think "Bible" and the choice of a matching color scheme, at least on the spines of the volumes is to help fix in people's mind the deep and essential connection between:

Scripture
Confessions
Hymnal/Daily Prayer

There's the method to the method, the reason to the rhyme, etc.

Appreciate your kind and supportive words!

Anonymous said...

Reading the Psalms with Luther

Yes!!! I discovered this gem this week when I was perusing the CPH Warehouse Sale. It is a beautiful hardback book and I can't recommend it enough to others who are looking for a Lutheran resource on the Psalms that includes commentary by Luther and a prayer for each Psalm. It is a bargain at the sale price.

Same kudos for Heaven on Earth and "To Live With Christ" which I also now have.

I also agree that the NIV should be totally phased out in the LCMS. My Pastor still uses it on the basis that it is "easily understandable" at several age levels. I really don't think most people would have problems understanding the ESV, which is a much better translation in my opinion. I'm very much looking forward to The Lutheran Study Bible.

Christine

Dixie said...

Past Elder is such a stitch. He is the great antidote for sugary sweetness...humor with a bite. It doesn't matter if I agree or disagree with him on a subject, invariably...coffee must be cleaned from my monitor.

If there were a Facebook fan club for him...I would join it!

Bon WE, y'all

William Weedon said...

Ditto that, Dixie. PE is one of the joys of internet friendships. You are another!

WM Cwirla said...

Study Bibles always leave me a bit apprehensive as they tend to be seen by some as the "authoritative" interpretation of the text. Fortunately, the current Concordia Study Bible has taught us how to quibble with the study notes, so we will be in good shape to critically evaluate the exegetical opinions of the new LSB (is everything LSB these days?).

Study Bible notes always have an element of "yes, but..." in them. That's what makes teachers indispensable.

WM Cwirla said...

This is a little off subject, but I need to pray for a pastor considering a call.

Please, Lord, let his wife tell him clearly where she wants to live.

William Weedon said...

Pastor Cwirla's prayer is certainly a good one, but the Altar Book (p. 431) offers the following:

Lord Jesus Christ, You instituted the office of the public ministry and instructed Your Church to call ministers of Your Word. Having prayed for the guidance of Your Holy Spirit, we have called a Pastor, the Rev. N., to proclaim Your saving Gospel among us. Assist him to recognize the needs of this congregation and the welfare of Your kingdom and, if it be Your will, grant that He accept the call and serve among us. Hear us for Your own sake, as You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

It's easy to adapt the collect even if you are not in the parish calling that particular pastor. Hope it helps.

Past Elder said...

God bless me if Pastor Cwirla's prayer ought not be included immediately in all further synod approved prayer books.

God is neither so obscure nor difficult as we make him sometimes.

And call me Tevye, but with all the blessings in the other post I didn't see one for sewing machines. Got one?

And I'll be dipped, whipped, nipped and clipped if I am not astounded to have been complimented by an EO, and right here on Weedon's Blog. Thank you, Dixie. I am glad you find something in my measured cadences based on the classic models, even if I did study them in Latin, not Greek. I bloody loathe Facebook, but I love to tweet and you are always welcome on Past Elder, where the rules are, no time limit, no DQ.

The fact is, CPH itself is another of the reasons I joined LCMS, which I would not want to be lost in some of my other comments.

There isn't a book in my own essential Lutheran library list that didn't come from them, even if only one is on their essential list. Maybe two once TLSB comes out. Well, there's this little paperback with the 1520 essays in it, but I guess Fortress has a lock on that, which at least leaves one Lutheran book in their offerings.

I'm a veteran of the original modern worship wars, aka Vatican II, now the common property of all liturgical heterodox churches in the West, so all this seems pretty mild to me, except the tacit unionism and syncretism of instead of zealously defending and guarding the mass per our confessional intentions, we try to look like them yet say we're different yet discourage others who look to other sources of contemporary worship than 1960s Rome from doing same.

Rev. Paul T. McCain said...

Cwirla: You are a hoot!

PE: Remind me once more why you are crabby about the Treasury of Daily Prayer. I forgot.

William Weedon said...

Paul,

PE was the sort that Brotherhood Prayer Book was meant for. There are pre-Vatican II Lutherans and post-Vatican II Lutherans, and old PE is 100% pre.

William Weedon said...

Oh, and Terry, YES to the great Concordia: Readers Edition. It's become my all time favorite that I use regularly, only occasionally consulting the others.

Anonymous said...

Blech!! I certainly won't presume to answer for his most excellent Wordsmith Past Elder, but being a bit of a survivor of the Vatican II worship wars myself, I have developed a distinct allergy to the words "Vatican" and "Lutheran" being in the same sentence (-:

Christine

Past Elder said...

Geez, I forgot too! Don't have one around so don't think about it much.

I think it went something like this:

It's not a breviary, and I think said it didn't intend to be, but it's being taken and used as such, which means it isn't true to either the Office or its intentions.

Seems to have redirected what is the church year around something that appeals to scholars, something about working out from Easter I think, as distinct from the church year around for centuries the church actually uses.

Some of the promo material I can't find online anymore, so I can't chapter and verse on it.

What is online, though, eg when you come to 17 October gives that as the feast of St Iganatius. Which it wasn't until 1970. It's 1 February if you're West, 20 December if you're East. Which would lead me to think "church year" must be the one dating from 1970 Rome too.

PW pretty much got it right. Contemporary worship is contemporary worship whether it originates with Rome or Willow Creek.

Great Judas in a mitre, was Vatican II held in St Louis? Does the ghost of Bugnini roam the Purple Palace?

That said, given the state of the churches, it's a miracle there is something like it at all.

I like the short orders in the Concordia ESV. I'll stop now, before I insist it ain't lectio divina unless you eat in silence while someone reads to you. That'll ruin a trip to Red Robin for damn near anybody.

Anonymous said...

I'll stop now, before I insist it ain't lectio divina unless you eat in silence while someone reads to you.

Oh now doggone it, PE, if it's good enough for the Benedictines it's good enough for us!!

Christine

William Weedon said...

Actually, it makes a GREAT Breviary, PE. That was clearly one of its intended uses, but not the only one. You really would like the Brotherhood Prayer Book, though. All in Gregorian Chant. All the old office hymns. It has offices for Vigils, Morning Prayer (Lauds), Noonday, Vespers and Compline.

Past Elder said...

What? No none? Then we can move it up so we can stay out in the fields all afternoon?!?!

Hey, if you want your Steak Sliders while somebody reads to you, cool, but I'm asking for a different table. Maybe we can text (under the table).

Found the old promo stuff. About reached for the Pepto when they mentioned Rome calling it ordinary time. Not before 1970 on that either.

I'm not against the book, but like the LSB, it combines the real deal with Vatican II For Lutherans, and the real deal is enough. And as long as we combine the real deal with something else, somebody else will always be pushing to combine it with another something else too. We let it in the back door and try to keep it out the front.

WM Cwirla said...

PE: Remind me once more why you are crabby about the Treasury of Daily Prayer. I forgot.

He's like Mickey on those old LIfe cereal commercials. He hates everything.

William Weedon said...

Not Mickey, Mikey, right?

Rev. Paul T. McCain said...

Oh, PE, let me comment on your comments. First, it is quite painfully apparent from your remarks that you, in fact, never have bothered actually to sit down and read carefully the wealth of introductory materials in the front of the Treasury.

It's not a breviary, and I think said it didn't intend to be, but it's being taken and used as such, which means it isn't true to either the Office or its intentions.

It is and was intended to be a Lutheran breviary. It is not, and was not intended to be, a Roman Catholic useless-babbling-growling-howling of the hours Breviary [I'm reflecting Luther's language in the LC and SA].

The only reason we did not call it, "The Lutheran Breviary" is that it would have given some Lutherans a case of the hives, others a case of the vapors.

But, it is, in my book, as close to a breviary as any good Lutheran should ever want. Your mileage may vary.

: )

Seems to have redirected what is the church year around something that appeals to scholars, something about working out from Easter I think, as distinct from the church year around for centuries the church actually uses.

No idea what you are talking about. It is organized broadly, in the propers in the daily offices, around the Church Year. The readings are organized around the daily lectionary of the Lutheran Service Book. The Right Reverend Doctor Richard Stuckwisch can disclaim on the merits, joys, virtues and what-not precisely of this daily lectionary, which he personally had a lot to do with putting together and designing. He would take great umbrage, in his own very polite way, at your suggestion it was designed to please scholars. Nothing, actually, could be more far from the truth.

Finally, your most fatal error in judgment is assuming that somehow Medieval Roman Mass forms are the "high water mark" for any thing liturgical, at all, for Lutherans.

Other than that, you make a number of good points, but again, I am having a hard time remembering what they are.

: ) !!

Anonymous said...

Thanks to Pastors Cwirla and Weedon for the prayer suggestions. I think BOTH are important!

Here is the adaptation:

Lord Jesus Christ, You instituted the office of the public ministry and instructed Your Church to call ministers of Your Word. Having prayed for the guidance of Your Holy Spirit, a congregation has called a Pastor, the Rev. Peter Prange, to proclaim Your saving Gospel in their midst. Assist him to recognize the needs of both congregations and the welfare of Your kingdom. Grant that you’re will be done in his life. Hear us for Your own sake, as You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Please, Lord, let his wife tell him clearly where she wants to live. Amen.

I couldn't figure out how to blend the two.

IggyAntiochus

Past Elder said...

Actually, I read all of the turn-the-page stuff online before deciding not to buy it. That stuff is primarily why I decided not to buy it.

Reminds me of when I was given the LBW to familiarise myself with Lutheran worship years ago when I wrote programme notes for a Lutheran choral group. I thought, if this is all they got, might as well stick with Rome and the original rather than novus ordo wannabes. And I wasn't about to stick with Rome.

I didn't say it was designed to please scholars. I said, or at least meant, it pleases scholars to design stuff like a "Church Year" starting in the middle of the church year and and jumping back and forth between civil and church calendars.

Nobody takes mediaeval mass orders as the end point. Rather, the idea is to conserve and defend the existing order by reforming it, not to wholly form a new order. It's being a pre-Trent catholic, not just a pre-Vatican II catholic. They didn't get it right at Trent, and they didn't at Vatican II either.

Past Elder said...

Private aside to PW:

I was gonna tell PTM the reason I didn't buy TDP is I was tapped out after buying Jimmy Swaggart's Expositor's Study Bible.

But I thought why mess with my carefully built reputation for dry as all hell academic prose and no jacking around.

Anonymous said...

Also missing from my collect collection is a prayer for single people. From LSB Pew Edition we have "For those who are married," "For young persons," and "For those who are lonely." FYI, that last one assumes that lonely people are also living alone. What if you are adolescent and feel you just don't fit in? What if you are widowed and living with your children? Perhaps you have a loving family yet suffer from depression? (I grabbed an alternate prayer for that one from the Pastoral Care Companion.)

IggyAntiochus

WM Cwirla said...

I was gonna tell PTM the reason I didn't buy TDP is I was tapped out after buying Jimmy Swaggart's Expositor's Study Bible.

And here I thought I was the only one to use that thing!

Anonymous said...

Before the Episcopal church entered its downward path towards heterodoxy I always thought very highly of the Book of Common Prayer, even in its 1970's incarnation. It was highly beloved by the laity and provided several options for communal and individual prayer, just as TDP does. True, even Luther envisioned the restoration of Matins and Vespers to the congregation and hopefully there will be LCMS parishes that use it that way.

Much of the TDP mirrors the excellence of the BOC in providing orders for prayers for individual/family situations, the Responsive Prayers, the Psalter and a superb selection of daily Scripture readings.

Portals of Prayer and other such devotional resources are fine, I have nothing against them. But the TDP with its writings from Luther, the Fathers, the Confessions, etc. may well assist the laity in connecting their daily prayer to that of what they encounter on Sundays and form a liturgical mindset and that can only be good.

Christine

Past Elder said...

Maybe I really should have taken the Jesuits' push to get me to go to St Louis U. Then I could have watched the whole Seminex thing come to a boil on site. As it was, I opted for the Benedictines, where useless babbling howling growling proceeded apace with the "liturgical reform" of which it was a champion.

The last thing I want is a return to babbling howling growling -- right along with the contemporary worship just in funny clothes with a liturgical veneer.

It is possible to retain the characteristics of the three main hours, which trace themselves as times of prayer back to the Patriarchs, without making it a burden let alone something for which one leaves family and life itself to do professionally.

Benedict (Saint, not pope) himself drew the basis for the Hours from the parish practices of Roman churches. To return these to the parishes is a great thing indeed. Return, not invent. Reformation is re-formation, not formation; reform of what is, not the invention of "new orders".

In doing the latter, we only fall in with the latest from Rome in useless babbling howling growling.