You know my favorite part of Missionary Orientation?

Chapel! Chapel with the sounds of CHILDREN!!! The most unnatural thing about Chapel at the Synod's International Center is how quiet it usually is. All adults. Blah. I love these weeks when young people are all over the building AND making noise in chapel. And to think these kids will grow up on the mission field and will always be marked by that experience. So very exciting indeed!

Blown away

I was utterly blown away by receiving this at the Making the Case Conference in Collinsville this past weekend:

I am humbled beyond words to be in the company of such men as Dr. Feuerhahn and Pr. Klem Preus. And I want to THANK Issues, Etc. for providing an ongoing catechetical forum and for allowing me to teach on the subjects of liturgy and hymnody which are so dear to me. Today marks the 29th anniversary of my ordination into the Office of the Holy Ministry. It's been an overwhelming blessing to me to share the joy of Christ's forgiveness in preaching and prayer and song. 

Welcome, Joshua Flynn

Born early this morning to Lauren and Dean Herberts, our fourth grandchild and second grandson. He'll be known as Flynn. And here he is wrapped in a blanket his Nana made him:

Logitech, welcome back!

After I got my first iPad, I saw the keyboard that a friend of Dean's had and fell in love with it. A logitech. I got one and it worked well. Then when I bought a mini, I ended up buying the keyboard to go with it from logitech. It took a bit of getting used to, but soon I was flying along on it. Small keys ended up being no problem at all. Probably helps that I have small fingers!

But alas, a drop or three and it would no longer hold my iPad mini upright. I had to get rid of it. A couple months ago I tried out a couple different options, and ended up taking one of them back (the Zagg, it always typed double letters) and bought a cheaper model. It worked okay for a while. And then IT started the double letter thingy. I tossed it and have been using the keyboard on the screen, which I really, really do not like.

Today Cindi surprised me with an early father's day gift: A NEW LOGITECH! YEAH!!! I've been typing up a storm since she gave it to me. It is really the very best little keyboard. And I'm going to try really hard NOT to drop this one...

I really DO love music...

...and the way it accompanies the heights and depths. This past week I played for a wedding last Saturday (including a risky Trumpet Voluntary from memory that actually did fly!), then for a service on Sunday, then for chapels last Thursday and Friday at the International Center, then for a funeral today of one of the sweetest and most wonderful ladies it has even been my privilege to know (during that I accompanied David as he sang Fleischmann's outstanding "Little Lamb"), then for service tonight, and will play (God willing) for service tomorrow.

I love music beyond words, but get more than a tad nervous at public performance. Still, there is something so awesome about assisting the people of God in offering their sacrifice of praise. The joy ends up outweighing the terror.

AND every once in a while there's a hymn that gathers into itself the heights and the depths and offers a a glimpse of sublime glory. I got to play such a critter twice today: "Lord, Thee I Love." Truly one of my all time favorite hymns; indeed, my favorite of all the favorites.

And what a joy to play! There is something about pulling back at the start of stanza three and then letting all heaven break loose with the "And then from death awaken me..." Only, the organ can't make the sound big enough, bright enough for that moment. But it can give a foretaste of resurrection joy.

Which is all a way of saying: Thank you, dear Lord, for the gift of music! For the songs of Your Church to accompany and accomplish our journey through the ups and downs and finally home to You.

"And the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Isaiah 35:10

"Lord Jesus Christ, my prayer attend, my prayer attend, and I will praise Thee without end."

33 Years

That's how long Cin and I have been married as of today. And we've been friends for the past 44 years, and this year we both turn 55.

We had a hoot of a conversation this morning thinking of all the weird things we've done that we'd never have believed we would ever do when we were just getting married. It's been a wild and crazy ride, but wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Cindi, you're the only person in all the world that I would ever want to make this journey through life with! Love you!

Thursday's Chapel

Daily Prayer for Morning, p. 295.

Psalm 29

A reading from Romans 11:

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

This is the Word of the Lord. R.

Glory. It’s a word we throw around quite a bit in the Church. And that’s meet, right and salutary since, as St. Paul notes: All things are from Him and by Him and for Him to Him be GLORY forever!”

Glory is our way of saying: “Blessed are You who created us, the source of our being.You continually sustain our life and give to us all good things for us to enjoy just because You are our Father and You love us. And in His temple all cry GLORY!”

Glory is our way of saying: “What a God you are! Who’d a ever thunk it! Your mercy is over all that You have made. And in His temple all cry GLORY!!”

Glory is our way of saying: “Thank you for loving-kindness, for not dealing with us as our sins deserve! And in His temple all cry GLORY!!”

Glory is our way of saying: “Thank you for Your love, for sending us Your Son, for making Your Son our brother, and for His blood that covers the sin of the whole world in Your sight and sets us free! And in His temple all cry GLORY!!”

Glory is our way of saying: “Praise be to You for the gift of Your Spirit so that we can believe in You and know You and love You and serve You and even reign with You! And in His temple all cry GLORY!!”

Glory is our way of saying: “Hallelujah for the world that is coming, for the Appearing of Christ, for Love burning up and destroying all that is not love, for a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells, for death’s defeat and the grave’s reversal. For an eternal home where there are no more good byes and all tears are wiped away by a nail scared hand. And in His temple all cry GLORY!!”

Glory is our way of saying: “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, You blow us away with Your tender kindness! You are an abyss of forgiveness, an unfailing fountain of pardon, a Trinity of persons that is a Love that is beyond all height, depth, breadth or any measure we can think of. And in His temple all cry GLORY!!”

Glory is way of saying: “We’re out of words. We’re astonished and humbled and filled with over flowing joy. And in His temple all cry GLORY!!”

Oh, you can do better than saying it. You can sing it!

Glory be to God the Father! – LSB 506

Our Father…

Our Father...

Glory, forever and ever!

Glory to You, King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Glory to You!

Glory to You for the promise that You welcome our prayers, that You invite us to cast on You every burden of our heart.

Glory to You for the people you’ve given us to love and whose burdens we now raise to You: Felicia, Allen, Jan, Cindy, Pastor Christiansen and Lori, and for all who cry out to You for healing and for peace.

Glory to You for the love that enwraps us and holds us. Bring us finally to share with all Your saints the Feast that never ends, to hear with our ears the triumph song, and to see with our eyes the face of Mary’s Son, our eternal King and will all those in the temple to cry: Glory!

I thank You…

Let us bless the Lord. R.

Today's Chapel: Sub Contrarii

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the + Holy Spirit. Amen.

Let us pray. Eternal God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, grant us Your Holy Spirit, who writes the preached Word into our hearts so that we may receive and believe it, and be gladdened and comforted by it in eternity. Glorify Your Word in our hearts. Make it so bright and warm that we may find pleasure in it, and through Your inspiration think what is right. By Your power fulfill the Word, for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

A reading from 2 Corinthians 4:

It is not ourselves that we are preaching, but Christ Jesus as the Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. It is the same God that said, “Let there be light shining out of darkness,” who has shone in our minds to radiate the light of the knowledge of God’s glory, the glory on the face of Christ.

We are only the earthenware jars that hold this treasure, to make it clear that such an overwhelming power comes from God and not from us. We are in difficulties on all sides, but never cornered; we see no answer to our problems, but never despair; we have been persecuted, but never deserted; knocked down, but never killed; always, wherever we may be, we carry with us in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus, too, may always be seen in our body. Indeed, while we are still alive, we are consigned to death every day, for the sake of Jesus, so that in our mortal flesh the life of Jesus too may be shown. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

This is the Word of the Lord. R.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Bible is a hard book, no two ways about it. On my daily commute, I’ve been listening on Audible to the Scriptures, and I’m up to 2 Chronicles now. As I listen I keep making mental notes along the way: “I need to check this out, and that, and the other.” The list so far will probably take me the rest of my life. And did I mention I’m only up to 2 Chronicles? Sigh. Yes, the Bible is a hard book.

But the conviction of St. Paul in today’s reading is that the God we meet in the pages of the Old Testament, the God who right there at the start spoke “Let there be light” is the God we meet in Jesus. You see, when Paul says we proclaim Jesus as Lord, you have to hear that like a Jew. He’s not talking what evangelicals refer to as Lordship theology, as in "He’s your Savior, but have you made Him your Lord." No, he is saying something far more radical. We proclaim Jesus as Lord means we proclaim Mary’s Son, this man who walked the earth, as Yahweh, as the Great I Am, as the very God we do meet in the perplexing pages of the Old Testament.

And that’s actually very helpful. Jesus is the light then that shines in the darkness, even in the darkness of our understanding, our minds, in the darkness of the darkest pages of Holy Scripture! He’s the light that illumines them. And isn’t there something quite symmetrical about the perplexing story of salvation that is enshrined in the Scriptures and the perplexing way He works in our lives? Luther once captured it: By putting to death, He makes alive. To bring you to heaven, He sends you to hell. Through death into life.

On Thy Strong Word, we just wrapped up Genesis and had plenty of perplexing moments, but what an ending! When God decides to save that wretched bunch of sinners known as the children of Jacob, He lets them betray their brother Joseph, sell him as slave, and then in Egypt, falsely accused of attempted rape, tossed into the prison, and then forgotten. And Joseph must have been right there with St. Paul wondering what on earth God was up to? Was this how He would fulfill the great promises He had made? Turns out the answer was yes, as you remember. Joseph exalted, made Pharaoh’s right hand man. And instead of getting even with his brothers, he forgives them. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, for the saving of many lives alive!

And then we take the Gospel and hold it up to that story and we go: Wow! Jesus’s cross. His horrible suffering and death. His cry of abandonment from Psalm 2: Eli, eli lama sabachthani? And yet through the darkness, the suffering, the death, the perplexity, God was busy doing His life-giving job for the very ones who caused the suffering. Even for you and me!

Paul sees this wild way God has of working to be the literal pattern of our life in Christ. It’s not just how He worked in Joseph’s life. Not just how He wrought our salvation in Christ. It’s how He still chooses to work in us. Listen again: 

We are in difficulties on all sides, but never cornered; we see no answer to our problems, but never despair; we have been persecuted, but never deserted; knocked down, but never killed; always, wherever we may be, we carry with us in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus, too, may always be seen in our body. Indeed, while we are still alive, we are consigned to death every day, for the sake of Jesus, so that in our mortal flesh the life of Jesus too may be shown. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Yes, there’s a lot of perplexing things in Scripture, and a lot of perplexing things in how God governs your life. You who hold the treasure of Jesus in your earthenware jars, baptized into His name, see the Scriptures and your very life illumined by the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ: God puts to death in order to make alive. Under the bright light of the hope of the resurrection, you receive the hardships of your lives just like St. Paul received the hardships of the apostolic ministry. Even when there are no answers to your problems, you do not despair. You know the end of His work in you will be glorious! To our ever-living and reigning Lord Jesus, be all the glory, now and forever. Amen.

Hymn 538 “Praise Be to Christ”

Responsive Prayer I, p. 282