30 September 2008
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
We pray, therefore, that God would give us the spirit of regeneration and sanctification that may create in us a new heart, take away our stony heart, and subdue and abolish our carnal stubbornness and impatience. This is done so that we may think upon, desire, will, and do such things that please God. - Martin Chemnitz, *The Lord's Prayer* p. 52
Patristic Quote of the Day
When I read the Gospel and find there testimonies from the Law and from the Prophets, I see only Christ; I so see Moses and the Prophets and I understand them of Christ. Then when I come to the splendor of Christ Himself, and when I gaze at that glorious sunlight, I care not to look at the lamplight. For what light can a lamp give when lit in the daytime? If the sun shines out, the lamplight does not show. So, too, when Christ is present the Law and the Prophets do not show. Not that I would detract from the Law and the Prophets; rather do I praise them in that they show forth Christ. But I so read the Law and the Prophets as not to abide in them but from them to pass to Christ. -- St. Jerome, Tract. in Marc., 9:1-7.
Commemoration of St. Jerome
From our Synod's Website: Jerome, Translator of Holy Scripture Jerome was born in a little village on the Adriatic Sea around the year A.D. 345. At a young age he went to study in Rome, where he was baptized. After extensive travels, he chose the life of a monk and spent five years in the Syrian desert. There he learned Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament . After ordination at Antioch and visits to Rome and Constantinople, Jerome settled in Bethlehem. From the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, he used his ability with languages to translate the Bible into Latin, the common language of his time. This translation, called the Vulgate, was the authoritative version of the Bible in the western Church world for over 1,000 years. Considered one of the great scholars of the early church, Jerome died on September 30, 420. He was originally interred at Bethlehem but his remains were eventually taken to Rome.
Chemnitz says of him: "The genius of Jerome was most outstanding. His unique work entitles him to eternal praise, because he translated the Bible from its original languages." (Loci I:32) In the Lutheran Symbols, St. Jerome is quoted for his witness to the Biblical teaching that there is no divine distinction between a bishop and a priest (Tractatus 61-64), but that in the Sacred Scriptures the terms were interchangeable.
In honor of St. Jerome's devotion to the Sacred Scriptures:
God's Word is our great heritage
And shall be ours forever;
To spread its light from age to age
Shall be our chief endeavor.
Through life it guides our way,
In death it is our stay.
Lord, grant while world endure
We keep its teachings pure
Throughout all generations.
LSB 582
28 September 2008
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
When Zecharias was executing the priest's office in the sacred courts of the temple, the angel of the Lord came to him; so if thou dost rejoice in the use of God's Word and in the exercise of thy devotions, thou, too, shalt rejoice in the blessed ministry of the angels. -- Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XXVI
Patristic Quote of the Day
Yes, for a word from the divine Scriptures, made to sound in the ear, does more than fire soften the hardened soul, and renders it fit for all good things. -- St. John Chrysostom, Homily on Matthew 1
Homily for St. Michael's
They thought the big thing was that they could boss the demons around in the Lord’s name. They could make Satan yield: “Back up and back off, Jack!” And back up and back off they did. The demons trembled at that name and fled before it – for the Lord always goes with his name. Where it is, there He is. Why do you think we begin the liturgy “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”? Where His name is, you’ll find Him and the Him you’ll find is one that NO demon wants to meet. They yowl and yammer in terror before Him.
Do you see then what idiots we are when we treat His name as a nothing? When we take it in vain? “Jesus Christ!” someone mutters under his breath in a moment of disappointment or disgust. The demons turn tail and run at the name, recognizing who is present in it, but we foolishly utter it as though He were not there in it. Do you know they tremble at that name? They know “that the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”
If we can’t see who meets us “in the name of the Lord” they do. They know that the One who owns that name is no mere mortal. THAT flesh and blood belong to the Only-begotten Son of God through whom they were made, against whom they rebelled, and whom they still hate and fear. The name comes striding in and they turn tail and go running out.
Admit it, that’s pretty heady and nifty stuff - you agree with the disciples. And Jesus does not tell them its wrong to have all this joy at the power that is inside of His name. He rejoices with them when He says: “I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven! Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you.”
That is one huge promise. Nothing shall hurt them. Satan shall never be able to overcome them. This does not mean that they would not suffer – you know they did! You know you do. It means instead, that as they live in the name, they are safe from evil being able to damage them. They cannot be hurt by it, taken into it and swallowed up by it. For it is the name of the Crucified and He is the one whom no evil could conquer. His cross cries out: You can’t make me hate you! I love! I forgive! And thus He overcomes evil with good. The hatred and envy and evil of the world cannot own you then as you live in and through the name.
You remember Proverbs 18:10? If you don't, you should. That's one you want to keep in your spiritual arsenal: “The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous man runs into it and is safe.” No power of the enemy can touch the person who lives in that impregnable tower. It cannot be breached. It cannot be overcome. The name of the Lord is strong, secure, and certain, and it’s where our help is. “Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.”
The only way we can be defeated is if Satan seduces us into leaving the name, the name into which we were baptized, the name in which our Catechism teaches us to begin and end each day, the name in which we gather week by week, and by which the holy absolution is placed upon us and the benediction given to us. The name in which we pray and by which we are assured of being heard. The name that alone can rout the enemy. The name of the Triune God, the holy, holy, holy. Live in it and you live in safety. Exit it and you’re open prey to the evil one.
But Jesus has more that He wants them to be joying in than just power over the demons. And so He says: “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Joy to live inside of God’s name, but to live inside of the name of God is to realize the unspeakable, unfathomable joy that God knows you. By name. And not only knows you, but has written down YOUR name as belonging to Him. You are His.
In all your sin, in all your failure, in all the mess you’ve made of your life, you are His. He insisted on having you before you could move a hand to help or prevent Him. He knew you – the bright shining moments of your life, and the dark miserable secrets you hope no one will ever see. He knew you in it all. And He loved you.
Unthinkable! Who can get their mind around it? God loved you in His Son and in His Son wrote down your name in heaven, written in the spilled blood of the Eternal Son, the blood that proclaims you forgiven, loved, and His.
And when you are long turned to dust and ashes, you will not be forgotten. Not by the only One that ultimately matters. How could He ever forget you? Your name is written down in heaven in that precious blood. So rejoice!
And as if that all were not enough, there is the more that we celebrate today: St. Michael and All Angels. Today we rejoice that God turns to his servants, the holy angels and he says: “See these names I’ve written down here. They belong to me. You go and protect and serve them.”
And off they go, eager to do His bidding, ministering to the heirs of salvation. They know you both by the fact that God has written your name in heaven and by the fact that His name is on you. Oh, the water is long since dried and gone, but they still see the sign of the cross that once was placed upon your forehead and your heart, marking you as one redeemed by the Crucified. They see it and they know: Here’s the one I must tend to and protect. Here’s one that belongs to My Master in heaven.
And their job is not done until they bring your soul from your body into paradise. “Into paradise may the angels lead you” the Church sings. Or, in another version: “Lord, let at last thine angels come, to Abraham’s bosom bear me home that I may die unfearing.”
And there you will join with them in their songs of praise, and you and they will wait together for the joyful moment when your flesh will be raised, and when the demonic menace will be once and for all time banished, when the joyful feast begins that has no end.
Meanwhile, you’re rejoicing here and now in the name of God and in your name written in heaven and in the angels who keep watch over you. All God’s ideas and for all of which we send up glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, in whose name we live, and in whose name we die, and in whose name we shall live forever! Amen and Amen!
Do you see then what idiots we are when we treat His name as a nothing? When we take it in vain? “Jesus Christ!” someone mutters under his breath in a moment of disappointment or disgust. The demons turn tail and run at the name, recognizing who is present in it, but we foolishly utter it as though He were not there in it. Do you know they tremble at that name? They know “that the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”
If we can’t see who meets us “in the name of the Lord” they do. They know that the One who owns that name is no mere mortal. THAT flesh and blood belong to the Only-begotten Son of God through whom they were made, against whom they rebelled, and whom they still hate and fear. The name comes striding in and they turn tail and go running out.
Admit it, that’s pretty heady and nifty stuff - you agree with the disciples. And Jesus does not tell them its wrong to have all this joy at the power that is inside of His name. He rejoices with them when He says: “I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven! Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you.”
That is one huge promise. Nothing shall hurt them. Satan shall never be able to overcome them. This does not mean that they would not suffer – you know they did! You know you do. It means instead, that as they live in the name, they are safe from evil being able to damage them. They cannot be hurt by it, taken into it and swallowed up by it. For it is the name of the Crucified and He is the one whom no evil could conquer. His cross cries out: You can’t make me hate you! I love! I forgive! And thus He overcomes evil with good. The hatred and envy and evil of the world cannot own you then as you live in and through the name.
You remember Proverbs 18:10? If you don't, you should. That's one you want to keep in your spiritual arsenal: “The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous man runs into it and is safe.” No power of the enemy can touch the person who lives in that impregnable tower. It cannot be breached. It cannot be overcome. The name of the Lord is strong, secure, and certain, and it’s where our help is. “Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.”
The only way we can be defeated is if Satan seduces us into leaving the name, the name into which we were baptized, the name in which our Catechism teaches us to begin and end each day, the name in which we gather week by week, and by which the holy absolution is placed upon us and the benediction given to us. The name in which we pray and by which we are assured of being heard. The name that alone can rout the enemy. The name of the Triune God, the holy, holy, holy. Live in it and you live in safety. Exit it and you’re open prey to the evil one.
But Jesus has more that He wants them to be joying in than just power over the demons. And so He says: “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Joy to live inside of God’s name, but to live inside of the name of God is to realize the unspeakable, unfathomable joy that God knows you. By name. And not only knows you, but has written down YOUR name as belonging to Him. You are His.
In all your sin, in all your failure, in all the mess you’ve made of your life, you are His. He insisted on having you before you could move a hand to help or prevent Him. He knew you – the bright shining moments of your life, and the dark miserable secrets you hope no one will ever see. He knew you in it all. And He loved you.
Unthinkable! Who can get their mind around it? God loved you in His Son and in His Son wrote down your name in heaven, written in the spilled blood of the Eternal Son, the blood that proclaims you forgiven, loved, and His.
And when you are long turned to dust and ashes, you will not be forgotten. Not by the only One that ultimately matters. How could He ever forget you? Your name is written down in heaven in that precious blood. So rejoice!
And as if that all were not enough, there is the more that we celebrate today: St. Michael and All Angels. Today we rejoice that God turns to his servants, the holy angels and he says: “See these names I’ve written down here. They belong to me. You go and protect and serve them.”
And off they go, eager to do His bidding, ministering to the heirs of salvation. They know you both by the fact that God has written your name in heaven and by the fact that His name is on you. Oh, the water is long since dried and gone, but they still see the sign of the cross that once was placed upon your forehead and your heart, marking you as one redeemed by the Crucified. They see it and they know: Here’s the one I must tend to and protect. Here’s one that belongs to My Master in heaven.
And their job is not done until they bring your soul from your body into paradise. “Into paradise may the angels lead you” the Church sings. Or, in another version: “Lord, let at last thine angels come, to Abraham’s bosom bear me home that I may die unfearing.”
And there you will join with them in their songs of praise, and you and they will wait together for the joyful moment when your flesh will be raised, and when the demonic menace will be once and for all time banished, when the joyful feast begins that has no end.
Meanwhile, you’re rejoicing here and now in the name of God and in your name written in heaven and in the angels who keep watch over you. All God’s ideas and for all of which we send up glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, in whose name we live, and in whose name we die, and in whose name we shall live forever! Amen and Amen!
St. Michael's Joy
What unspeakable joy to celebrate St. Michael's today! It actually falls tomorrow, so we transferred it to this Sunday as is our wont. White paraments gleamed upon altar, lectern and pulpit (we haven't seen them, I don't believe, since the Nativity of St. John the Baptist). The timpani boomed with the organ on the Sanctus and the closing hymn. The nearness of the angels was palpable as we sang with them today.Outstanding to me were the various ways the LSB has enhanced this celebration. We sang as the Entrance Hymn, the sturdy "Christ, the Lord of Hosts, Unshaken" by Peter Prange: "Conquers sin and death forever; slams them in their steely cage." The assigned Hymn of the Day is Melanchthon's "Lord God, To Thee We Give All Praise" - which is not new to us - but which truly captures the joy of this day in poetry. The Proper Preface is new to LSB (at least not part of the Common Service heritage - though the Saxons retained it as the normal preface for any day not assigned another preface, it hasn't been around in an official Missouri hymnal since the adoption of the Common Service - before LSB, the last time our sanctuary heard it was when it rang out auf Deutsch!):
It is truly good, right, and salutary that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to You, holy Lord, almighty Father, everlasting God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Through Him Your majesty is praised by all the holy angels and celebrated with one accord by the heavens and all the powers therein. The cherubim and seraphim sing Your praise, and with them we laud and magnify Your glorious name, evermore praising You and saying: Holy, holy, holy...
Best of all during the Distribution was the joyful singing of Loehe's great hymn "Wide Open Stand the Gates Adorned with Pearl." That text is simply amazing at confessing what the Holy Eucharist does:
This Sacrament God gives us
Binds us in unity,
Joins earth with heaven
Beyond us,
Time with eternity.
Amen! The angels, the saints, the whole of the Church gathered as one at the throne of the One Lamb of God, whose wounds are yet visible above in beauty glorified. We gather as ONE before Him and rejoice that the angels are our companions in worship and attend all our days and ways.
As the invitatory for Matins in these days reminds us: God is glorious in His angels and saints! O come, let us worship Him!
27 September 2008
BIG Thank You
To ALL the folks who turned out today to help us move Dave and Jo to their new home. We'd never have gotten it done without you all - God bless each of you! When I left the house on Hamel Ave. this afternoon, some counter space was visible, and you could even walk around in the dining room and living room. A thousand and one things left to do (that might be a low estimate!), but at least they are IN. Deo gratias! Cindi took some pics, I think, and I'll post some of those later, God willing. Now to hit the shower and head over for Confession and the Divine Service! Bedtime tonight cannot come early enough...
25 September 2008
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
As the Creed is the rule of faith, so the Lord's Prayer is the rule of all prayers. -- Martin Chemnitz, *The Lord's Prayer* p. 21
Patristic Quote of the Day
We do not in those shrines raise altars on which to sacrifice to the martyrs, but to the one God, who is the martyr's God and ours; and at this sacrifice [the Eucharist] the martyrs are named, in their own place and in the appointed order, as men of God who have overcome the world in the confession of his name. They are not invoked by the priest who offers the sacrifice. For, of course, he is offering the sacrifice to God, not to the martyrs (although he offers it at their shrine) because he is God's priest, not theirs. Indeed, the sacrifice itself is the Body of Christ, who is not offered to them, because they themselves are that Body. -- St. Augustine, *City of God* XXII:10
Moving Day!
Any folks around who are bored and wondering how to spend Saturday - you'd be more than welcome to come and help us move Dave and Jo from their old home to their new one! Take a DEEP breath, Jo. It's almost over. And then you can relax in the new house and put your feet up for a week or two. :)
24 September 2008
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
We seek the Holy Spirit where He is not to be found when we take it as self-evident that the way our church is developing is altogether due to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. - Hermann Sasse, *We Confess: the Church* p. 20
Patristic Quote of the Day
Yea, for it was removal of punishment, and remission of sins, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, and adoption, and an inheritance of Heaven, and a relationship unto the Son of God, which he came declaring unto all; to enemies, to the perverse, to them that were sitting in darkness. What then could ever be equal to these good tidings?
God on earth, man in Heaven; and all became mingled together, angels joined the choirs of men, men had fellowship with the angels, and with the other powers above: and one might see the long war brought to an end, and reconciliation made between God and our nature, the devil brought to shame, demons in flight, death destroyed, Paradise opened, the curse blotted out, sin put out of the way, error driven off, truth returning, the word of godliness everywhere sown, and flourishing in its growth, the polity of those above planted on the earth, those powers in secure intercourse with us, and on earth angels continually haunting, and hope abundant touching things to come.
- St. John Chrysostom, Homily on Matthew 1
God on earth, man in Heaven; and all became mingled together, angels joined the choirs of men, men had fellowship with the angels, and with the other powers above: and one might see the long war brought to an end, and reconciliation made between God and our nature, the devil brought to shame, demons in flight, death destroyed, Paradise opened, the curse blotted out, sin put out of the way, error driven off, truth returning, the word of godliness everywhere sown, and flourishing in its growth, the polity of those above planted on the earth, those powers in secure intercourse with us, and on earth angels continually haunting, and hope abundant touching things to come.
- St. John Chrysostom, Homily on Matthew 1
Paper from Symposium
[Nothing new here, but putting thoughts together that I had scattered around a bit before. I delivered this this morning at Concordia Seminary's Theological Symposium on the Church; it was quite refreshing to walk from delivering this to Morning Prayer where Prof. Bartelt said it all again, far better and more eloquently and we got to JOIN in the praises around the throne!]
Ecclesiology in Eschatological Perspective
I believe that to understand the Lutheran perspective on the Church, one must recognize that the Lutheran Church – together with Scripture – sees the Church primarily as an eschatological reality. Said most simply, she’s a product of the future age butting back into the present age. And any way of speaking about her or describing her that does not take cognizance of this, will ultimately fail to be faithful to the Scriptural teaching about her.
St. Paul once wrote that “we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transitory, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” Is the Church transitory or eternal? The answer I would propose is eternal. And so the visible of the Church is merely where the invisible butts into the visible; the eternal shows up in the transitory. The Church as she is in Christ, that is, as she ultimately is in herself, is not in this age an object of sight, though she does mark her presence in certain ways. Let me see if I can get at this by another route.
The current Bishop of Rome published the following words in 1986. They have a familiar ring to them: "Luther did not have in mind founding a Lutheran Church. For him the focus of the concept of the Church was to be found in the congregation. For relationships that transcended the congregation, in view of the logic of developments at that time, one depended as far as organization was concerned on the political structure, in other words on the princes. Thus there arose the Land or provincial Churches in which the political structure took the place of the structure of its own which the Church lacked. Much has changed in this field since 1918, but the Church continues to exist in provincial Churches which are then united in Church federations. It is obvious that when the concept Church is applied to this kind of accidental historical formation the word takes on a different meaning from that which is envisaged in the case of the expression 'Catholic Church'. Provincial Churches are not 'Church' in the theological sense but organizational forms of Christian congregations which are empirically useful or even necessary but which can be swapped for other structures. Luther was only able to transfer Church structures to the princedoms because he did not regard the concept of the Church as established in these structures. But for Catholics, on the contrary, the Catholic Church, that is the community of the bishops among themselves and with the pope, is as such something established by the Lord which is irreplaceable and cannot be swapped for anything else." (Benedict XVI, Church, Ecumenism, and Politics p. 114, 115)
What I think the present Bishop of Rome correctly understands in this is that to Lutherans polity is not a matter divinely mandated, not a matter on which the Church's existence hangs. It’s in the realm of the transitory not the eternal; accidental to the Church’s life rather than to her essence. Lutherans now are and have in the past lived in utterly disparate polities - and this does not hinder the recognition of a shared faith. Thus, for example, right now the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is in communio in sacris with the Archbishop of Latvia and the parishes and priests and bishops that he superintends.
What I am not sure the present Bishop of Rome understands is HOW for "Luther the concept of Church was to be found in the congregation."
For Luther and for the Lutheran Church first and foremost the Church "is, namely, the holy believers and lambs who hear the voice of their Shepherd." SA III, XII:2 This evokes, of course, John 10:16 with the great promise of the Lord: “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” This is in perfect accord with the Apology's assertion: "at its core, it [the Church] is a fellowship of faith and the Holy Spirit in hearts." Ap VII/VIII:5 Thus while the marks which locate the Church are invariably bound up with local congregations, the Church so understood is "no Platonic state, as some wickedly charge. But we do say that this Church exists: truly believing and righteous people, scattered throughout the world." Ap VII/VIII:20.
The Church is not then congregations, but congregation. The singular in AC 7 is vital. The Church is NOT in the Lutheran understanding a series of discrete congregations. The Church properly speaking is rather "the congregation of saints" among whom the Gospel is purely taught and the Sacraments are correctly administered. Not enough thought is given to the force of that singular: congregatio sanctorum in Latin, but even more explicit auf Deutsch die Versammlung ALLER Gläubigen. This is to look at the Church from the view afforded in the Revelation of St. John; it is to look at the Church eschatologically. To see in faith from the End, from the Age to come, what the Church in this age is – something that we can only know in faith.
The Church is the one assembly of all believers. It is not many local assemblies, but ONE assembly. And the reality that is confessed behind this is that what the local congregation manifests is never merely community with a broad spectrum of similar-minded folk alive now – not even if those similar-minded folk are finding their unity in their bishops and their submission to the Roman Pontif. No. The congregation manifests the assembly of ALL believers.
When we worship together, gathered in the Divine Name and receiving the saving Gospel and interceding for the world, and partaking of the Lamb's Feast, we are not present with some piece, some miniscule fraction of the Church. We are present with the whole of it. The words of the Preface point us this way: “Therefore with angels, and archangels, and with all the company of heaven.” This is but some reflection upon the entire New Testament picture of the Church.
Hebrews 12:22ff. bears this out when it describes what you have come to when you gather as Church:
“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering (angels whooping it up might be a modern paraphrase), and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than that of Abel.”
Find Jesus the Lord, the Head of the Body, and you will invariably find not pieces, but the whole of the Body with Him. This no one can see with the eyes of the body, but it is the faith of the Church that when we gather, we never gather with less than the whole family of God – with all believers alive now, yet to come, and those who have gone ahead, and all the angels and heavenly critters of Revelation. They’re all there. And we’re there with them.
So John, when exiled on Patmos, and “being in the Spirit” on the Lord’s Day suddenly finds himself not alone. There is Jesus showing Himself to Him and the saints across Asia minor right there and then the vision opens up bigger and wider and its not just them but all creature in heaven and earth and under the earth, and the martyrs are there, crying from under the altar, the twenty four elders (patriarchs and apostles) are offering up the prayers of the saints and glory is everywhere. You just can’t see it yet. But that’s the reality that the Church lives in.
It shows up in other odd places too. Check out St. Paul’s words to the Corinthians when he had to deal with the excommunication of the man who had taken his father’s wife. What does he say? “When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of the Lord Jesus you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” (1 Cor. 5:4-5). When Paul directs the Corinthians to excommunicate a man, he assures them that he will be there with them in s[S?]pirit.
Does it begin to click? Find the Church and you find not pieces, but the whole. Jesus with all his angels and saints, the one assembly of believers. This shows up also in the liturgy. I’ve mentioned the preface’s conclusion. There are a number of other spots worth considering.
When in the confiteor at Compline we confess "to almighty God before the whole company of heaven and to you my brothers and sisters" you should not be thinking that "brothers and sisters" are only those you can see in the room. We admit that coming together as we have in Jesus’ name, we are present with the whole Church and thus confession is made before the whole company of heaven with whom we have gathered.
We sing it in hymns such as “Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones” – LSB 670. Verse one rings in the choirs of angels – all the titles for angels that roam the Scriptures – as we urge to raise the glad strain and cry out with us. Then there’s the stanza to the Blessed Virgin, verse 2, in which we ask her who is higher than the cherubim and more glorious the seraphim, to “lead their praises” for she, after all, is Bearer of the Eternal Word. But we don’t stop with her. Then there’s the souls in endless rest, the patriarchs, the prophets blest, the holy twelve, the martyrs strong, and finally all saints triumphant join the song. It swirls upward like the visions of revelation, opening a picture bigger and bigger with every verse as together as ONE assembly we sing supernal anthems to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, Three in One. Alleluia!
It shines in the new-to-us hymn from Loehe for communion. If you’ve not learned it yet, put it on the top of your to do list! “Wide open stand the gates adorned with pearl, While round God’s golden throne, The choirs of saints in endless circles curl, And joyous praise the Son! They watch Him no descending To visit waiting earth. The Lord of life unending Bring dying hope new birth. He speaks the Word the bread and wine to bless: ‘This is My flesh and blood!’ He bids us eat and drink with thankfulness This gift of holy food. All human thought must falter – Our God stoops low to heal, Now present on the altar, For us both host and meal. The cherubim, their faces veiled from light, While saints in wonder kneel, Sing praise to Him whose face with glory bright No earthly masks conceal. This Sacrament God gives us Binds us in unity, Joins earth with heav’n beyond us, Time with eternity.” You don’t get it any more clear than that.
Our Eastern brothers and sisters have this one down pat and so they plaster their worship space with their icons to manifest, to show, that the Church is gathered as a whole. We Westerners used to do a similar thing with stained glass and statuary. We’re always the whole family together.
That’s why Walther’s insight was quite profound: the smallest congregation is on a perfectly equal footing with the most grand cathedral parish – for each is only the smallest visible piece of the one great reality that we cannot see – you can’t see most of the worshippers at ANY service! Glorious! The tiniest parish is a megachurch for the Church remains whole, one, indivisible, and entire. It is the assembly SINGULAR, the congregation SINGULAR of all believers. To come together as Church [1 Cor. 11] and partake of the Eucharist is to be manifest that we are NOT one of many, but ONE Body.
How live was that to Luther? Consider these words of Luther cited in Day by Day (that splendid devotional from the old Fortress Press):
“And to everyone who believes through the Word of the Apostles the promise is given for Christ’s sake and by the power of this prayer, that he shall be one body and one loaf with all Christians; that what happens to him as a member for good or ill, shall happen to the whole body for good or ill, and not only one or two saints, but all the prophets, martyrs, apostles, all Christians, both on earth and with God in Heaven, shall suffer and conquer with him, shall fight for him, help, protect, and save him, and shall undertake for him such a gracious exchange that they will all bear his sufferings, want, and afflictions, and he be partaker of all their blessings, comfort, and joy. How could a man wish for anything more blessed than to come into this fellowship or brotherhood and be made a member of this body, which is called Christendom? For who can harm or injure a man who has this confidence, who knows that heaven and earth, and all the angels with the saints will cry to God when the smallest suffering befalls him? “ (Day by Day, p. 353, Luther’s exposition of John xvii 1528)
And so in the Divine Service this comes to such beautiful fruition in the Prayer of the Church, where the scope of the prayer reaches from one end of the earth to the other and we remember as well the saints in heaven with whom in Christ we are one, and we ask the mercy of God for all sorts and conditions of men. [And how utterly sad when parishes allow the scope of the prayer to dwindle to the concerns only of that parish community! How utterly contradictory to everything we believe about the Church!]
All of this is a reality, which by its very nature must be believed and cannot be seen. But it is confessed and manifested in the Scriptures and in the liturgy. "Holy believers and lambs who hear the voice of their Shepherd."
What this means for the ecumenical task is not resignation to the mess that now is, but it does mean that we are given the responsibility of manifesting rather than creating this churchly unity, for the churchly unity always will be and remain a gift given by God the Holy Spirit as He binds hearts to Jesus Christ and so one another and brings us into unity with the inner communion of the Blessed Trinity.
In that sense, remembering the definition of Church that Luther and we Lutherans work with, the congregation is indeed the locus of our thought on "church." How could it be otherwise? The ONE congregation, which manifests itself mostly invisibly in countless parishes across the face of the globe as they all assemble at the ONE altar where the Lamb of God reigns in love.
Ecclesiology in Eschatological Perspective
I believe that to understand the Lutheran perspective on the Church, one must recognize that the Lutheran Church – together with Scripture – sees the Church primarily as an eschatological reality. Said most simply, she’s a product of the future age butting back into the present age. And any way of speaking about her or describing her that does not take cognizance of this, will ultimately fail to be faithful to the Scriptural teaching about her.
St. Paul once wrote that “we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transitory, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” Is the Church transitory or eternal? The answer I would propose is eternal. And so the visible of the Church is merely where the invisible butts into the visible; the eternal shows up in the transitory. The Church as she is in Christ, that is, as she ultimately is in herself, is not in this age an object of sight, though she does mark her presence in certain ways. Let me see if I can get at this by another route.
The current Bishop of Rome published the following words in 1986. They have a familiar ring to them: "Luther did not have in mind founding a Lutheran Church. For him the focus of the concept of the Church was to be found in the congregation. For relationships that transcended the congregation, in view of the logic of developments at that time, one depended as far as organization was concerned on the political structure, in other words on the princes. Thus there arose the Land or provincial Churches in which the political structure took the place of the structure of its own which the Church lacked. Much has changed in this field since 1918, but the Church continues to exist in provincial Churches which are then united in Church federations. It is obvious that when the concept Church is applied to this kind of accidental historical formation the word takes on a different meaning from that which is envisaged in the case of the expression 'Catholic Church'. Provincial Churches are not 'Church' in the theological sense but organizational forms of Christian congregations which are empirically useful or even necessary but which can be swapped for other structures. Luther was only able to transfer Church structures to the princedoms because he did not regard the concept of the Church as established in these structures. But for Catholics, on the contrary, the Catholic Church, that is the community of the bishops among themselves and with the pope, is as such something established by the Lord which is irreplaceable and cannot be swapped for anything else." (Benedict XVI, Church, Ecumenism, and Politics p. 114, 115)
What I think the present Bishop of Rome correctly understands in this is that to Lutherans polity is not a matter divinely mandated, not a matter on which the Church's existence hangs. It’s in the realm of the transitory not the eternal; accidental to the Church’s life rather than to her essence. Lutherans now are and have in the past lived in utterly disparate polities - and this does not hinder the recognition of a shared faith. Thus, for example, right now the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is in communio in sacris with the Archbishop of Latvia and the parishes and priests and bishops that he superintends.
What I am not sure the present Bishop of Rome understands is HOW for "Luther the concept of Church was to be found in the congregation."
For Luther and for the Lutheran Church first and foremost the Church "is, namely, the holy believers and lambs who hear the voice of their Shepherd." SA III, XII:2 This evokes, of course, John 10:16 with the great promise of the Lord: “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” This is in perfect accord with the Apology's assertion: "at its core, it [the Church] is a fellowship of faith and the Holy Spirit in hearts." Ap VII/VIII:5 Thus while the marks which locate the Church are invariably bound up with local congregations, the Church so understood is "no Platonic state, as some wickedly charge. But we do say that this Church exists: truly believing and righteous people, scattered throughout the world." Ap VII/VIII:20.
The Church is not then congregations, but congregation. The singular in AC 7 is vital. The Church is NOT in the Lutheran understanding a series of discrete congregations. The Church properly speaking is rather "the congregation of saints" among whom the Gospel is purely taught and the Sacraments are correctly administered. Not enough thought is given to the force of that singular: congregatio sanctorum in Latin, but even more explicit auf Deutsch die Versammlung ALLER Gläubigen. This is to look at the Church from the view afforded in the Revelation of St. John; it is to look at the Church eschatologically. To see in faith from the End, from the Age to come, what the Church in this age is – something that we can only know in faith.
The Church is the one assembly of all believers. It is not many local assemblies, but ONE assembly. And the reality that is confessed behind this is that what the local congregation manifests is never merely community with a broad spectrum of similar-minded folk alive now – not even if those similar-minded folk are finding their unity in their bishops and their submission to the Roman Pontif. No. The congregation manifests the assembly of ALL believers.
When we worship together, gathered in the Divine Name and receiving the saving Gospel and interceding for the world, and partaking of the Lamb's Feast, we are not present with some piece, some miniscule fraction of the Church. We are present with the whole of it. The words of the Preface point us this way: “Therefore with angels, and archangels, and with all the company of heaven.” This is but some reflection upon the entire New Testament picture of the Church.
Hebrews 12:22ff. bears this out when it describes what you have come to when you gather as Church:
“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering (angels whooping it up might be a modern paraphrase), and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than that of Abel.”
Find Jesus the Lord, the Head of the Body, and you will invariably find not pieces, but the whole of the Body with Him. This no one can see with the eyes of the body, but it is the faith of the Church that when we gather, we never gather with less than the whole family of God – with all believers alive now, yet to come, and those who have gone ahead, and all the angels and heavenly critters of Revelation. They’re all there. And we’re there with them.
So John, when exiled on Patmos, and “being in the Spirit” on the Lord’s Day suddenly finds himself not alone. There is Jesus showing Himself to Him and the saints across Asia minor right there and then the vision opens up bigger and wider and its not just them but all creature in heaven and earth and under the earth, and the martyrs are there, crying from under the altar, the twenty four elders (patriarchs and apostles) are offering up the prayers of the saints and glory is everywhere. You just can’t see it yet. But that’s the reality that the Church lives in.
It shows up in other odd places too. Check out St. Paul’s words to the Corinthians when he had to deal with the excommunication of the man who had taken his father’s wife. What does he say? “When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of the Lord Jesus you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” (1 Cor. 5:4-5). When Paul directs the Corinthians to excommunicate a man, he assures them that he will be there with them in s[S?]pirit.
Does it begin to click? Find the Church and you find not pieces, but the whole. Jesus with all his angels and saints, the one assembly of believers. This shows up also in the liturgy. I’ve mentioned the preface’s conclusion. There are a number of other spots worth considering.
When in the confiteor at Compline we confess "to almighty God before the whole company of heaven and to you my brothers and sisters" you should not be thinking that "brothers and sisters" are only those you can see in the room. We admit that coming together as we have in Jesus’ name, we are present with the whole Church and thus confession is made before the whole company of heaven with whom we have gathered.
We sing it in hymns such as “Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones” – LSB 670. Verse one rings in the choirs of angels – all the titles for angels that roam the Scriptures – as we urge to raise the glad strain and cry out with us. Then there’s the stanza to the Blessed Virgin, verse 2, in which we ask her who is higher than the cherubim and more glorious the seraphim, to “lead their praises” for she, after all, is Bearer of the Eternal Word. But we don’t stop with her. Then there’s the souls in endless rest, the patriarchs, the prophets blest, the holy twelve, the martyrs strong, and finally all saints triumphant join the song. It swirls upward like the visions of revelation, opening a picture bigger and bigger with every verse as together as ONE assembly we sing supernal anthems to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, Three in One. Alleluia!
It shines in the new-to-us hymn from Loehe for communion. If you’ve not learned it yet, put it on the top of your to do list! “Wide open stand the gates adorned with pearl, While round God’s golden throne, The choirs of saints in endless circles curl, And joyous praise the Son! They watch Him no descending To visit waiting earth. The Lord of life unending Bring dying hope new birth. He speaks the Word the bread and wine to bless: ‘This is My flesh and blood!’ He bids us eat and drink with thankfulness This gift of holy food. All human thought must falter – Our God stoops low to heal, Now present on the altar, For us both host and meal. The cherubim, their faces veiled from light, While saints in wonder kneel, Sing praise to Him whose face with glory bright No earthly masks conceal. This Sacrament God gives us Binds us in unity, Joins earth with heav’n beyond us, Time with eternity.” You don’t get it any more clear than that.
Our Eastern brothers and sisters have this one down pat and so they plaster their worship space with their icons to manifest, to show, that the Church is gathered as a whole. We Westerners used to do a similar thing with stained glass and statuary. We’re always the whole family together.
That’s why Walther’s insight was quite profound: the smallest congregation is on a perfectly equal footing with the most grand cathedral parish – for each is only the smallest visible piece of the one great reality that we cannot see – you can’t see most of the worshippers at ANY service! Glorious! The tiniest parish is a megachurch for the Church remains whole, one, indivisible, and entire. It is the assembly SINGULAR, the congregation SINGULAR of all believers. To come together as Church [1 Cor. 11] and partake of the Eucharist is to be manifest that we are NOT one of many, but ONE Body.
How live was that to Luther? Consider these words of Luther cited in Day by Day (that splendid devotional from the old Fortress Press):
“And to everyone who believes through the Word of the Apostles the promise is given for Christ’s sake and by the power of this prayer, that he shall be one body and one loaf with all Christians; that what happens to him as a member for good or ill, shall happen to the whole body for good or ill, and not only one or two saints, but all the prophets, martyrs, apostles, all Christians, both on earth and with God in Heaven, shall suffer and conquer with him, shall fight for him, help, protect, and save him, and shall undertake for him such a gracious exchange that they will all bear his sufferings, want, and afflictions, and he be partaker of all their blessings, comfort, and joy. How could a man wish for anything more blessed than to come into this fellowship or brotherhood and be made a member of this body, which is called Christendom? For who can harm or injure a man who has this confidence, who knows that heaven and earth, and all the angels with the saints will cry to God when the smallest suffering befalls him? “ (Day by Day, p. 353, Luther’s exposition of John xvii 1528)
And so in the Divine Service this comes to such beautiful fruition in the Prayer of the Church, where the scope of the prayer reaches from one end of the earth to the other and we remember as well the saints in heaven with whom in Christ we are one, and we ask the mercy of God for all sorts and conditions of men. [And how utterly sad when parishes allow the scope of the prayer to dwindle to the concerns only of that parish community! How utterly contradictory to everything we believe about the Church!]
All of this is a reality, which by its very nature must be believed and cannot be seen. But it is confessed and manifested in the Scriptures and in the liturgy. "Holy believers and lambs who hear the voice of their Shepherd."
What this means for the ecumenical task is not resignation to the mess that now is, but it does mean that we are given the responsibility of manifesting rather than creating this churchly unity, for the churchly unity always will be and remain a gift given by God the Holy Spirit as He binds hearts to Jesus Christ and so one another and brings us into unity with the inner communion of the Blessed Trinity.
In that sense, remembering the definition of Church that Luther and we Lutherans work with, the congregation is indeed the locus of our thought on "church." How could it be otherwise? The ONE congregation, which manifests itself mostly invisibly in countless parishes across the face of the globe as they all assemble at the ONE altar where the Lamb of God reigns in love.
23 September 2008
Tagged!
Fr. Heinz has tagged me (and also very kindly included me in his list) for this meme:
What five people - past or present - inspire your spiritual life??
Hmmm...
OK, we know that our Lord Himself has to be at the top of the list, so He is assumed. Your five simply follow Him. In Lutheran circles, we will also presume "Fr. Martin of Wittenberg" as well. :-)
So the five would be additional people who (humanly speaking) have greatly impacted your life of faith and love on this earth.
For me:
Norman Nagel - he opened a world that I never dreamed of as he taught us to be "nothing but given to" by the Lord.
Kenneth Korby - as Cwirla once said, if Nagel taught us the Gospel, Korby taught us the Law. YOUCH. Great insights.
Thomas Nelson Green - Dean of Students at Concordia, Bronxville, whose love for our Lord and His Eucharist was positively infectious.
Alexander Schmemman - only known through reading his writings (though I was at one service with him at St. Vlad's - Holy Cross Day 1980), yet whose insight into Christ and His Church never ceases to delight and astonish. He's the master of stepping outside the question to let you ask a bigger and better one.
Arthur Carl Piepkorn - again, known only from his writings, who enabled me to remain a Lutheran Christian by showing the true catholicity of Lutheran doctrine (and with him, I have to also mention, though only a "recent" friend, Charles Porterfield Krauth).
Now I have to tag some others. I tag Fr. Asburry; Fr. Brown; Mrs. Heath Curtis; and Fr. Michael Keith
What five people - past or present - inspire your spiritual life??
Hmmm...
OK, we know that our Lord Himself has to be at the top of the list, so He is assumed. Your five simply follow Him. In Lutheran circles, we will also presume "Fr. Martin of Wittenberg" as well. :-)
So the five would be additional people who (humanly speaking) have greatly impacted your life of faith and love on this earth.
For me:
Norman Nagel - he opened a world that I never dreamed of as he taught us to be "nothing but given to" by the Lord.
Kenneth Korby - as Cwirla once said, if Nagel taught us the Gospel, Korby taught us the Law. YOUCH. Great insights.
Thomas Nelson Green - Dean of Students at Concordia, Bronxville, whose love for our Lord and His Eucharist was positively infectious.
Alexander Schmemman - only known through reading his writings (though I was at one service with him at St. Vlad's - Holy Cross Day 1980), yet whose insight into Christ and His Church never ceases to delight and astonish. He's the master of stepping outside the question to let you ask a bigger and better one.
Arthur Carl Piepkorn - again, known only from his writings, who enabled me to remain a Lutheran Christian by showing the true catholicity of Lutheran doctrine (and with him, I have to also mention, though only a "recent" friend, Charles Porterfield Krauth).
Now I have to tag some others. I tag Fr. Asburry; Fr. Brown; Mrs. Heath Curtis; and Fr. Michael Keith
An Interesting Observation
[After observing that the thing really took off in the 4th century:] The story of the rise of the cult of the saints and its development into an identifiably Christian phenomenon is one of the adoption and transformation of a number of related concepts and practices that already existed in the ancient Mediterranean world. *That is, few of the elements of the cult are unique to Christianity. Many, in fact, were already present in the society out of which Christianity grew and were familiar to people of all religious backgrounds.* -- from the introduction to The Cult of the Saints: St. John Chrysostom, Select homilies and letters introduced, translated, and annotated by Wendy Mayer with Bronwen Neil (SVS Press, 2006)
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Let the sad fate of those on His left hand strike fear in thy heart, because they are there not for doing evil so much as for not doing good. -- Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XXXV
Patristic Quote of the Day
Beloved, our condition needs much endurance; and endurance is produced when doctrines are deeply rooted. For as no wind is able by its assaults to tear up the oak, which sends down its root into the lower recesses of the earth, and is firmly clenched there; so too the soul which is nailed by the fear of God none will be able to overturn. -- St. John Chrysostom, Homily on John 8
22 September 2008
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Great indeed is the honor put upon our bodies, inasmuch as they are the dwelling places of our souls redeemed and fed by the body of Christ, and are the temples of the Holy Ghost and the abodes of the adorable Trinity. It cannot be that they should ever remain in the grave, since they are thus nourished with the body and blood of our Lord. -- Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XVIII
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