27 December 2010

Every Lutheran Pastor...

...should spend much time reading Luther's sermons.  Period.  Enough excuses.  Just do it.  Seriously.  You and your hearers will be blessed.

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:52 AM

    You are such a Luther fan-boy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous7:00 AM

    I suspect that is because "Luther" was such a "Fan" of "The Son of Man" ..."The Son of God" and so on...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Right on, especially with Luther's House Postils.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous2:34 PM

    Sometimes Dr. Luther gets carried
    away with his verbal warfare against
    the Pope and the Turks. That being
    said Luther has the ability to
    exegete the text better than most
    contemporary Lutheran Seminary
    professors.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I agree. Got the church and house postils myself, and I'm not even a pastor!

    However, so many of us have abandoned the centuries old lectionary to which these sermons are keyed for a version of Rome's novus ordo that effectiveness is not what it once was -- -- which was a goal of the revisionists, to break the connexion to that preaching tradition.

    At least in Luther's time churches had the excuse of being forced to do such things. Now we do it ourselves!

    Dr Luther's verbal warfare against the papacy, far from being carried away, is quite mild and, considering the magnitude of the papacy's Babylonian Captivity, worse now than in his time, if anything not vehement enough.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've been curious to read some of Luther's sermons myself, but hardly know where to start as a novice to that kind of thing.

    Could you recommend a collection for a starter?

    Take care & God bless
    Anne / WF

    ReplyDelete
  7. My suggestion is with the House Postils - they're relatively shorter, certainly more mature, and bring great joy. You can order them from CPH or from Baker Book House, I believe.

    ReplyDelete
  8. http://www.amazon.com/Sermons-Martin-Luther/dp/080101199X

    "The Complete Sermons of Martin Luther", actually the complete Church and House Postils.

    I got mine at christianbook.com, but could not find the set on their site now. Probably just as well -- they sell a ton of trendy junk and email you forever if you once buy something.

    Rome, having long abandoned the Gospel, has finally abandoned the calendar too for its new one -- and they say we changed stuff -- and why we should now follow suit with a version of our own is utterly, totally, and completely beyond my understanding.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you.

    Luther was certainly prolific ...

    Take care & God bless
    Anne / WF

    ReplyDelete