23 January 2010

Waiting Impatiently...

...for this:



[taken last spring in Missouri]

12 comments:

Larry Luder said...

I'll take 40 degrees Fahrenheit in the NID this time of year. I'm with you, bring on global warming and wondering where is the sun.

William Weedon said...

Yeah, temps haven't been bad for several weeks down state either. But such a run of fog, gloom, gray, ICK!!!

Cristiana said...

It got up to 35 here today, and a lot of the snow melted. It was great to look out and see all of this water everywhere...and now we'll have room for more snow when it comes! :)

Phil said...

A whopping 55 here in Kansas today (I'm on the road...)

Absolutely, totally, shamelessly off topic, but thought you might have some interesting thoughts on this.

I was reading Luther, On the Private Mass and the Consecration of Priests and fell out of my chair when I read this part of Luther's description of the "true Christian mass":

"...we let our pastor say what Christ has ordained, not for himself as though it were for his person, but he is the mouth for all of us and we all speak the words with him from the heart and in faith, directed to the Lamb of God who is present for us and among us, and who according to his ordinance nourishes us with his body and blood." (LW 38, 208-209, emphasis mine)

Have people brought this up with regard to Eucharistic Prayers? Luther would here be directing (one might even say orienting) the celebrant and congregation together toward Christ, which is explained in the section preceding this passage, but he seems to be saying that the celebrant at the Consecration says the Verba to Christ...? (am I rehashing something that's already been dealt with?)

(when you speak to Christ, aren't you praying...?)

And he wrote this in 1533 (after Formula Missae in 1523, Deutsche Messe in 1526)...

(so much for freestanding altars...?)

Anonymous said...

There are some streets in Spring Branch (north Houston, TX) where flowering plum trees bloom every January. Every time I went there I found it hard to believe.

Helen

William Weedon said...

Phil,

Yes, I have. It didn't go anywhere, though. :(

That passage is one of the most amazing descriptions of the Eucharist in Luther's writings.

Helen,

Oh, I'd love to see that! When we lived in NC, the daffodils would first pop up around the first of January, but they didn't bloom till late February, early March.

Phil said...

Pr. Weedon,

What do you mean that it didn't go anywhere? in Luther's thought? in succeeding generations of Lutherans? when you brought it up?

I think that Luther is either right or wrong here--it's one or the other.

William Weedon said...

Phil,

Luther's quite right. And I've pointed to the passage before in defending Eucharistic prayer as being far from inimical to Lutheran theology. If you can get hold of the book, you can read my essay: "Eucharistic Prayer: the Middle Ground" in *Through The Church The Song Goes On."

Phil said...

Funny thing--it's been hiding in plain sight. I own that book, and I read it probably ten years ago when I didn't understand it. I'll promptly shut up and go read what you wrote instead of asking you to rehash it.

William Weedon said...

Oops. But I misremembered where I used that Luther passage - was in the my Thesis which argues the same thing distilled in that essay (but I double checked the essay and I didn't use it there). You can download my thesis here if you have any interest:

http://www.stpaullutheranchurchhamel.org/LiturgicalConfessionoftheLord_s_Supper.pdf

http://www.stpaullutheranchurchhamel.org/The_Mass_as_the_Gospel.pdf

Phil said...

Thank you! I will read it.

I wonder what Dr. Stuckwisch would think about that passage of Luther's. Do you think the two of you are in agreement on it?

Phil said...

Thanks, Pr. Weedon.