Patristic Quote for the Day

Let us consider another similar passage: "He that believes in the Son has eternal life, but he that believes not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." John 3:36 That which abides has certainly had a commencement, and that from some offence, viz., that first he not believe. When, then, any one believes, the wrath of God departs and life comes. To believe, then, in Christ is to gain life, for "he that believes in Him is not judged." John 3:18 - St. Ambrose, On Repentance, Book 1, Chapter 12

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

In preaching, the Church does not aim to support the holy Word by human art, but the chief matter is not to hinder its power and operation and not to impose upon the Word any kind or manner of operation that does not befit it. The preacher proclaims salvation in Christ Jesus with the consciousness that not what he does, but the noble contents of the Word, must divide souls from the world and bring them near to God. Of course, the preacher believes and therefore speaks, and it is a detestable contradiction to preach and yet not to believe; but a true preacher will not try to recommend the truth by importing his faith and experience; that would only be to recommend himself; rather does he seek to bring his people to say with the Samaritans: "Now we believe, not because of thy saying; for we have heard Him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world." - Wilhelm Loehe, *Three Books* p. 181

A Prayer from Stark's Prayer Book

My Jesus, how can I sufficiently praise Your great love, since You have not only given Yourrself into death for me, a poor sinner, but also ordained Your holy body and precious blood as food for my soul in the Holy Supper. O Love, Your death brings me life, and Your body and blood strengthen and refresh me to the life everlasting. By this means I abide in You and You in me; You live in me, and in You I obtain righteousness and strength. And so my sin cannot frighten me, and Satan has no power to condemn me, for in this gracious feast I receive the ransom for my sins. Here I receive the body that was given into death for me. Here I receive the blood that was poured for me, for the forgiveness of sin. This is the blood of atonement by which my sins and the sins of all people have been canceled. Now, as surely as I receive it, so surely God is merciful to me, and I have the forgiveness of all my sins. In Holy Baptism, the first Sacrament which I received, You gave me the Holy Spirit as a pledge together with the gift of the new life, thus assuring me that I am Your child and heir. In this Holy Supper, this next Sacrament, You give me the pledge of Your body and blood, to preserve and strengthen me in the new life.

O my God, sanctify my soul, strengthen my faith, that I may receive this feast of love worthily and for my salvation. Grant that my thoughts may always be with You! Drive from my heart all sinful suggestions and desires and everyting that might hinder my devotion, so that You may abide in me and I may be and abide in You to all eternity.

"I'll Pray for You"

But do you? I know I said that for years with the best of intentions. But I inevitably fell prey to forgetfulness. To remember, I have to write it down. [This is something I learned from my wife also!] And so for a while now I've kept a running prayer list. Yes, I've lost it a time or two, and had to reconstruct it. But I try to keep it right in my LSB and tend to use it primarily at Matins, just praying for those at Vespers who come to the mind spontaneously. But if we don't write down the special intentions, chances are we'll just never remember to pray for them all. My suggestion then is to make and keep your prayer list handy in your hymnal. What prayer do I pray for them? It's always the same. I ask God to remember the people who have asked my intercessions or whom other have asked me to remember, then I pray: "grant that they may have mercy, life, health, peace, salvation, and visitation, pardon and remission of all their sins, that they may ever praise and glorify Your holy name." [See the Daily Intercessions in the Treasury of Prayers on St. Paul's Website -This is a daily prayer used by some Orthodox Christians and I find it to simply cover all the bases!]

Another thing that is helpful for prayer, I find, is the use of the Jesus Prayer. "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me [literally!] THE sinner." I use this prayer often, especially when driving. But as I pray it over and over again, I see the faces of the different people I am praying for and I pray that prayer as one with them. Of course, I pray it plenty for myself too - heaven knows I need to! But it's a great way of intercession. It reminds me of the passage in Job that my friend Jeff reminded me of the other day: "someone who could lay a hand on us both." That's the very essence of our intercession: to lay a hand on the person and to lay a hand on God. I know that in its fullness the Job passage speaks of the cry for our Redeemer, our Lord Jesus. But in our prayer life, we literally enter HIS prayer life, and so we touch these people we pray for and we touch our God. Mediators in the ONE Mediator, not in the sense of redemption, but in the sense of prayer.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

She [the Lutheran Church] does not consider it an insult if it is said: This pastor thinks it is enough to preach, catechize, administer the sacraments, hear confessions of penitents, and comfort the sick. She knows that even the most faithful pastors do not enough of this. She does not care for a multiplication of pastoral offices, but she does care for a right use those enjoined in Scripture and laid down from old time. - Wilhelm Loehe, *Three Books* p. 177, 178

Patristic Quote for the Day

Who can measure the happiness of heaven, where no evil at all can touch us, no good will be out of reach; where life is to be one long loud extolling of God, who will be all in all. - St. Augustine, *City of God* Book XXII, chapter 30

Why This Woman...

....should not be allowed to work evenings.

First, because then I have to labor over fixing dinner. Like tonight. I sent David to Edwardsville to pick up Pizza-pizza from Little Caesar's.

Second, because the males are ninnies and cannot possibly be expected to keep track of details. As in: David driving all the way to Alton for Tae Kwon Do, even though that woman had already reminded him there were no classes tonight. BUT IF SHE HAD BEEN HOME instead of out working, she would have stopped him before he left.

And as in: Daddy being left in charge of picking up Bekah from pep-band and the game at the high school and getting her to her geometry tutor. Now, daddy was smart enough to get Bekah from point a to point b, but he wasn't smart enough to bring the geometry text book along with him - it was left at home. BUT IF SHE HAD BEEN HOME instead of out work, she would have reminded daddy that he needed to take the text book.

Third, because she remembers to ask the dog the all important question: "Do you need to go potty?" And if you don't ask, Lucy won't tell and then, well, you know the rest...

So, as I'm sure you see, IT'S ALL HER FAULT! "The woman thou gavest to be with me...went to work, and that's why nothing worked right."

Cindi? PLEASE, COME HOME. SOON!!!!

A Vespers Hymn

O Christ, who art the light and day,
Thou drivest night and gloom away;
O Light of Light, whose Word doth show
The light of heav'n to us below.

All holy Lord, in humble prayer
We ask tonight Thy watchful care
O grant us calm repose in Thee,
A quiet night from perils free.

Our sleep be pure from sinful stain;
Let not the temptor vantage gain
Or our unguarded flesh surprise
And make us guilty in Thine eyes.

Alseep though wearied eyes may be
Still keep the heart awake to Thee;
Let Thy right hand, outstretched above
Guard those who serve the Lord they love.

[Latin, c. 6th century - LSB 882, stanzas 1-4]

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Let us never forget that we are saved, not merely by coming to faith, but by persevering in it. We do not reach our heavenly goal because we were once zealous to avoid the sins of the world, but because we remain on that path all our days. We are not heirs of eternal life because we were once united with Christ, but because we maintain fellowship with our Savior until death. - C. F. W. Walther, *God Grant It* p. 215

Patristic Quote for the Day

Well, if this could have been done, or can still be done, then for my part I have to say what the apostle said in regard to the law: "Then Christ died in vain." Galatians 2:21 For if he said this about the law, which only the nation of the Jews received, how much more justly may it be said of the law of nature, which the whole human race has received, "If righteousness come by nature, then Christ died in vain." If, however, Christ did not die in vain, then human nature cannot by any means be justified and redeemed from God's most righteous wrath—in a word, from punishment—except by faith and the sacrament of the blood of Christ. - St. Augustine *On Nature and Grace* Chapter 2

Compline's Hymn

Before the ending of the day,
Creator of the world we pray!
Thy grace and peace to us allow
And be our Guard and Keeper now.

From all the terrors of the night,
From evil dreams defend our sight;
Drive far away our wicked foe
That stain of sin we may not know.

O Father, this we ask be done
Through Jesus Christ, Thine only Son,
Who with the Holy Ghost and Thee
Both lives and reigns eternally. Amen. (LSB #889 - Public Domain)

What IS Salvation?

Christopher Orr raised a very good question on an earlier post. What IS salvation? How is it being understood?

I would offer the following as a kick-off to conversation on this:

Salvation encompasses being saved FROM the ruin wrought by the fall and our participation in that and all it brings (slavery to sin, death, damnation - the unspeakle corruption that distorts) and salvation encompasses being saved FOR a participation in God's eternal life which begins in us now and reaches its perfection in the joy of the beatific vision at the glorious resurrection of the dead.

Salvation, then, is the Blessed Trinity's love in action, doing everything it takes to bring his fallen creatures back to the purpose for which they were created from the get-go: to share in His own unending life, to live in communion with Him.

This is both gift and assignment. Gift in that in Jesus Christ the Father by the Holy Spirit reaches us as a sheer act of grace the life that we have forfeited and turned from by our sin - He gives us forgiveness so that His coming to us may be the advent of life itself. Assignment in that while the gift is given whole, He calls us to grow in our living from it (which means also to die to our self-sufficiency and passions).

Is salvation completed? Yes. And no. Yes, in the sense that through His incarnation and the paschal mystery our Lord Jesus Christ has brought forgiveness to the world, has destroyed the power of death, and has opened wide the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Thus, St. Paul is not the least bit hesitant to declare: "But when the goodness and lovingkindness of God our Savior appeared, he SAVED us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy through the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit." Thus, St. John can write: "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God THAT YOU MAY KNOW THAT YOU HAVE ETERNAL LIFE." No, in the sense that His work in us, forging us into creatures that will indeed enjoy the Life that He freely gives, is ongoing and incomplete in this world. Again, as the Apostle put it: "Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God." (2 Cor. 7:1) Or again as St. John put it: "Everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure." (1 John 3:3) Or back to St. Paul, "But to us who are BEING SAVED [the Cross] is the power of God." (1 Cor. 1:18) And again "and by which (the Gospel) you are being saved, if you hold what the word I preached you." (1 Cor. 15:2) And again "For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who ARE BEING SAVED." (2 Cor. 2:15)

This also explains why the incipient righteousness that is to be daily growing in us can never be the basis for our justification - it remains a work in progress. But our justification is predicated upon the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ which is altogether gift - given us through the Sacrament of regeneration. Clothed in that perfection, we are called upon to grow in what we have been given, "to walk in a manner worthy of the calling" to which we have been called until "we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." (Eph 4:1, 13)

Thoughts?

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Our human reason has a hard time comprehending all this. If God really wanted all people to be saved, we may think, then they would certainly all be saved. Since this does not happen, we then conclude, it must be the fault of God's will. But what does God's Word say? It says, on every page, that God has not consigned any man to damnation. Rather, from eternity, He loved and desired that all would be saved. - C.F. W. Walther, *God Grant It* pp. 194,5

Patristic Quote for the Day

For all other sins only prevail in evil deeds; pride only has to be guarded against in things that are rightly done. Whence it happens that those persons are admonished not to attribute to their own power the gifts of God, nor to plume themselves thereon, lest by so doing they should perish with a heavier perdition than if they had done no good at all, to whom it is said: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which works in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Philippians 2:12-13 Why, then, must it be with fear and trembling, and not rather with security, since God is working; except it be because there so quickly steals over our human soul, by reason of our will (without which we can do nothing well), the inclination to esteem simply as our own accomplishment whatever good we do; and so each one of us says in his prosperity: "I shall never be moved?" - St. Augustine, *On Nature and Grace* Chapter 31

An Apology

My good friend, Chris Jones, has pointed out that in my previous post on "You have no right to exist" the words "[Tne Lutheran Church] remains a Church unable to hide her warts and blemishes behind the smoke of incense or the supposed sanctity of her clerics" by their implication are both unkind and untrue. I confess that they were written in a passion of anger (over someone being taught to doubt salvation - something which STILL angers me) and I should know by now that it is NEVER good to write in anger, it never serves the purposes of God. I have met some of the hierarchs of the Orthodox church and have the utmost respect for them; to a man they possessed a humility that I regard as THE hallmark of genuine Orthodoxy, of genuine Christianity. So I do beg forgiveness from any Orthodox or Romans whom I offended with my angry words. Even though I do not believe that the Church is guaranteed or built upon any succession of bishops, I am thankful when bishops witness in peace and joy to the salvation that has come into the world in Christ, to the love that embraces sinners and brings them home. Meanwhile, pray for this poor sinner.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

To deny one's self is to renounce self-love; self-love hinders the love of God in the soul. If you would be a disciple of Christ it is necessary that the root of self-love should wholly die in you. - Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XXXI

Patristic Quote for the Day

Now, all this was so accomplished that nothing in the future escaped the foreknowledge of God, yet nothing in the foreknowledge compelled anyone to sin. - St. Augustine, *City of God* Book XIV, Chapter 27

You Do Not Have the Right To Exist

No, I'm not talking about the way that some mothers speak of their unborn children. I'm talking of the way that other Christians sometimes speak of the Lutheran Church:

"You do not have the right to exist."

This is in essence the message which is sent back to us by Lutherans who have swum the Tiber or the Bosphorus. It is the message received from our sisters and brothers in the various Reformed Churches at times too - who are aggravated that we cannot deny the Scriptural Confession of the Supper long enough to welcome them with open arms.

DOES the Lutheran Church have a right to exist? Truthfully, no. She has no such right.

IF she exists, she exists solely by the grace of God, who raises her up as a witness to His Son's free salvation - a salvation richly given in Baptism, the preaching of the Word, the Holy Absolution, and the Most Holy Eucharist. She doesn't have a right to exist, but by the grace of God she persists nonetheless BECAUSE of the power of God which is at work in His means of grace. She remains a Church unable to hide her warts and blemishes behind the smoke of incense or the supposed sanctity of her clerics. A Church full of the sinfulness of men that nevertheless fails to overcome the compassion of a forgiving God, who manifests His undying love for the world in the gift of His Son and His Holy Spirit.

Would the world be the poorer for her disappearance? Yes, I believe so. Immeasureably. But that's no cause for pride on the part of those who live within her. For us, it's enough that the grace of God is made perfect in weakness, that the folly of God is wiser than the smarts of man and that the weakness of God is stronger than the strength of man. We have one hope, one boast: Christ crucified for us and for all. In Him alone, we are privileged to shout to the world and to the church, there is hope, there is life, there is salvation.

Just as the world told him: "You have no right to exist," so it tells us. We shouldn't be surprised. We should instead delight to live through and with Him a life that this world and no one in it can destroy or ever take away.

Glory to You, Lord Jesus Christ! Glory to You alone! Keep us faithful to You that we may give all glory to God and all comfort to poor sinners. Use as a witness to your whole people - we who are so weak, sinful, and afraid. Amen

A Tale of Two Passages

The two in question: Mark 9:38-40 and Matthew 12:30. These are my thoughts to a meditation posted by my good friend, John Fenton, on his blog.

I would submit that the key to understanding the two is in the plural of Mark 9 and the singular of Matthew 12: "were not following US" vs. "whoever is not with ME."

Our Lord in this would perhaps warn us off from judging those who are His followers, but not in our particular fellowship. The Church truly is the Body of Christ, but it would be mistake to equate union with our jurisdiction of that Church with union with Christ Himself. A mistake on two levels: first, there will always be those in the external fellowship of the Church who are not truly "with Christ" - hypocricy remains a plague of the Church's journey through this world. Secondly, whether an individual is in union with Christ through the gift of the Holy Spirit is not ours to judge. Let our concern be whether or not WE ourselves are living in repentance and true faith in our blessed Savior, and let us leave all judgment about those who "are not following US" in the hands of Him who alone will decide at the last day who has in fact belonged to Him and who did not.

Homily for Septuagesima 2007

Lent is quickly coming upon us and we must make a decision. Will this Lent be business as usual? Or will we hear and heed the Church’s call for us to repent, to turn from the ways of the world and our sinful flesh, to fight our way back to the font of living water, to the life that Christ gave us in our Baptism and to live from it? Which will it be? Same old, same old? Or will we seek the newness of life that God wants to give us?

Our first reading sets the Israelites before us on their journey from the bondage in Egypt to the Promised Land. We’re right there with them. We’ve been baptized and so brought out of our slavery to Satan and sin, and we’re journeying with God toward the eternal homeland that He has promised us. But like them, we gripe and grumble along the way. Why? Because of our wretched unbelief. We have trouble believing that the God who has set us free from the bondage of Egypt will finish the job and see us through. We’re afraid he’s going to leave us high and dry, that we’ll perish along the way. And so the life of complaining. The Church calls today: Repent! Turn from it! The one who came into your flesh to suffer and die on Golgotha is not going to fail you!

And then we heard the second reading. St. Paul reminds us as he did the Corinthians that this new life in Christ does not just happen like magic. No, it does take work and effort to live the life that Christ has given us in our Baptism. Runners compete and athletes exercise self-control for a perishable prize. Today (tomorrow) one well-trained, disciplined, conditioned football team will take home a shiny football on a shiny stand, but it’s still a perishable prize. Well, we Christians train and discipline for the eternal crown of life, given by Christ Himself. As we prepare for Lent, let’s follow St. Paul’s lead and discipline our bodies and keep them under control.

Why? Because St. Paul reminds us of another truth: mere external participation in the sacraments guarantees exactly nothing. Just because you’re hanging out with the crowd that receives the good gifts of God does not automatically make you a true Christian. No way. He reminds us that the Israelites were baptized into Moses in the sea and in the cloud and that they all ate the same spiritual food – the manna from heaven – and all drank the same spiritual drink, but nevertheless with most of them God was NOT pleased and their bodies scattered the wilderness. They didn’t MAKE it to the land of promise, despite the rich provisions God supplied them with! Why not? They received those Old Testament sacraments without really using them. Sacraments are meant to be used in faith. The Word is meant to be heard and heeded in faith. If you think that by just planting your posterior in a pew each week and letting the Word float in one ear and out the other, and then coming and receiving the Eucharist – if you think any of that guarantees you salvation, the Church cries to you today: Wake up, child! Hell will be populated by those who heard, but did not heed, the Word, who received the Body and Blood of Christ, but did so without repentant faith. Just like crossing the Red Sea and eating the heavenly manna and drinking from that spiritual rock were absolutely NO guarantees of finishing the journey, so Baptism, the Word and the Eucharist are not guarantees of such a thing for us either.

The Church says to us: don’t just receive the Word and Sacraments, USE them. Use them for what they were intended to be: signs of God’s good will toward you for the purpose of awakening and strengthening repentant faith. Because their very nature is a promise, to receive them without trusting the promise God makes in them is to abuse them – and that brings not blessing, but judgment.

Finally, we come to the Gospel reading. We can almost hear the folks in it cry out: “But it’s not fair.” And we’d have to agree with them: in the way things work in this world, it is NOT fair for folks who worked for one hour to receive the same amount of pay as those who worked for eight or more hours. But the whole point of the parable is that the ways of the Kingdom are NOT the ways of this world. In the Kingdom, it’s never about “what you’re owed” but about the generosity of the Master – who delights to give what is NOT deserved to all. Those who think that they’re entitled, that they’re owed, will have a rude wake up call when the evening falls and the final accounting arrives.

Maybe you’ve been a Christian all your life. Maybe you’ve taught others about Jesus. Maybe you’ve served on all sorts of boards of committees. Maybe you tried to raise your children in the Word of God and maybe you pray daily to keep them from the ways of the world. All that is good stuff! But if you think that any of that earns you MORE than the poor sinner who at the last hour of his life turns to Jesus and pleads for mercy, you’ll find you never understood the first thing about the Kingdom of God. The very nature of the Kingdom is that we get what we don’t deserve. We get in fact, what Another has deserved.

For there was One who came to work the Master’s vineyard and who toiled tirelessly in it. He truly bore the burden of the work and the heat of the day. He was not like the Israelites and us – grumbling in distrust and fear. He never abused the promises of His Father. He lived from them. Literally. Every moment of His life, and He trusted that His Father’s will was good and just and would come out right in the end.

He trusted in that goodness of His Father even when His Father rolled up the sum of our grumbling and complaining and all our sins and dumped them squarely on His shoulders. He took them all and bore the consequences of such sin in His own flesh to set us free from them forever. His resurrection proved that His faith was not in vain. And so He opened up for us a whole new way of living – of being. A life where grumbling is a thing of the past, because we trust that in all things God is working for the good of those who love Him. A life where thanksgiving and praise characterize every day, for we see the gifts of God in Christ showering down on us constantly. A life where the Word and Sacraments are gratefully received AND properly used. A life where we never look at God’s dealings with others and cry out: “Not fair” because our hearts have been so filled with love that when we see others being blessed, we can only cry out in amazement at the generosity and goodness of the God who dishes out to one and all what is NOT deserved, what is pure gift.

Today as we come again to the Table of the Lord, THIS is the life that Jesus is offering us. We don’t get that life by merely imitating Him. We get it by being joined to Him. HE comes to us to plant that way of living within. “I am the vine, you are the branches, apart from me you can do nothing” He says.

Lent is coming quickly, and today the Church calls out: “Get ready, get set, WORK!” Now is the time for renewal. Now is the time to forsake our foolish unbelief and its fruit of grumbling and complaining. Now, by the grace and mercy of God, is the time to discipline and control our bodies. Now is the time to revel in the goodness of our God who is thankfully so unfair. After all, He does give us life with Himself, life joined to Christ our true Vine, life that never ends. And with that life, it is true joy to work in His vineyard. Amen.

[Note: this week's homily was a collaborative effort between myself and Pastor Randy Asburry of Hope Lutheran Church in St. Louis]