...FAR be it from me to boast, when I can let Randy do it for me:
RAsburry
07 February 2009
Homily for Septuagesima
The question put by the owner of the vineyard is an important one: "Why do you stand here idle all day?" When put to those outside the vineyard, the answer can indeed be: "Because no one has hired us." But what when it is put to those inside the vineyard? For it would truly be a terrible thing for one to accept the invitation to work in the vineyard, and then to stand around, doing squat!
So in the Vineyard of the Lord there are none who can say: "I'm just here to watch." In the Vineyard of the Lord, all are called upon to work! In the Vineyard of the Lord, there is more work to get done than we can hope to finish, so our Lord says to us: "We must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no man can work." (John 9:4)
But what does it mean to work in the Vineyard of the Lord? Does it not mean for each and every baptized person to be at work doing the great task which Christ has laid on His Church and His ministers? "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." (Matt 28:19-20)
That obviously does not mean that you as individual Christians are called to go around baptizing and teaching. Rightly does our Augsburg Confession state that: "No one should teach publicly in the church or administer the sacraments unless properly called." (Article XIV) What it does mean, however, is that the Lord of the Church sends forth every member of the Church with the mission of calling and inviting others to come and receive the life that He died and rose again to bestow upon them. He gives that life through the preaching of His Gospel and the giving out of His sacraments. He gives that life away right here in the assembly of His people. So, the great task that is laid on each and every Christian in helping the Church fulfill her Lord's mandate is to invite, urge, encourage, cajole every person you know that is not connected to the life of Christ to come and share in that life, to come and receive what Christ would give.
So, at the end of Revelation, John heard it this way: "The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears, say, 'Come.' And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price." (Rev. 22:17) Get the order straight. The first call to come to the waters is from the Spirit and the Bride, and the Bride is the Church, and that is the invitation issued by the Office of the Ministry: Come and take the water of life without price. The Church isn't about what you give to God; the Church is about what God gives to you. And what He gives to you is free - though priceless. His grace, His forgiveness, His life. The ministry calls you to drink of the water yourself. But, then, there are "those who hear." That's you all. Let those who hear, cry out: "Come!" Christ sends each and every one of you from this place to call others to come and take of the water of life freely. And then there are those who take you up on the invitation.
This is Lutheran evangelism. It's not going out trying to convert someone by your own witness. No wonder we never got far with that approach, and no wonder it scared so many people away from the very idea of witnessing. For then you would have to have all the answers for whatever they might throw your way! Frightening indeed. But for us it's different. For us, we know where God promises to work faith, to strengthen faith, to connect people to His own divine life, to give us forgiveness. We know the Holy Spirit works. He works right here in this assembly of sinners who gather to drink from the water of life!
Consider how our Formula of Concord expresses this: "According to His normal arrangement, the Father draws people by the power of the Holy Spirit through the hearing of His divine Word, as with a net, through which the elect are snatched from the jaws of the devil. For this reason each poor sinner should act in such a way as to hear the Word diligently and not doubt that the Father is drawing people to Himself. For the Holy Spirit wills to be present with His power in the Word and to work through it. This is the drawing of the Father." FC SD XI:76
So the great task laid on all the baptized is to call those who live cut off from the only source of forgiveness and divine life, of communion with God, to come to this assembly where the Holy Spirit works to give and strengthen faith. Do you know of someone who needs the forgiveness, the love of God, the life that you taste here weekly in this gathering? Invite them to come with you to Church! Pray that the Holy Spirit moves their heart to accept the invitation!
You say, but I've invited them before and they didn't respond. So what? Invite them again. Pray again for them. Do realize how many years St. Monica prayed for her son, Augustine, and how long she pleaded with him to join her at Church? Finally, God answered her prayers and her constant invitation in a way that boggles the mind. Her son became the greatest father of the Church after the Apostles themselves.
So don't let Satan talk you into keep your mouth shut. If you've been in the Lord's Vineyard for years and never joined in this important task, it's not too late to begin. The Lord graciously gives to all who come to work in His vineyard, even to those who begin working only in the eleventh hour. He is generous indeed, beyond our imagining. But only let none of us be found standing idle in the Vineyard. We've got to work to do while it is still day.
At the Table today He reminds us again what it is all about. For here the Lord of the Vineyard reaches to us the very Body and Blood that give us forgiveness and that unite us to God, so that His life becomes our life, and we then are joined to Him in a communion that never ends. "In Thy One body, let me be, E'en as the branch is the tree, Thy life, my life, supplying." God wants every last person on earth to sit down with Him at that table and to receive from Him the gifts His Son died upon Calvary's tree to win and lives eternally at His Father's right hand to give. And He sends us all out to call others into the joy of this communion. So to each and everyone of us, He says: "You also go and work in my vineyard." What will your answer be?
So in the Vineyard of the Lord there are none who can say: "I'm just here to watch." In the Vineyard of the Lord, all are called upon to work! In the Vineyard of the Lord, there is more work to get done than we can hope to finish, so our Lord says to us: "We must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no man can work." (John 9:4)
But what does it mean to work in the Vineyard of the Lord? Does it not mean for each and every baptized person to be at work doing the great task which Christ has laid on His Church and His ministers? "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." (Matt 28:19-20)
That obviously does not mean that you as individual Christians are called to go around baptizing and teaching. Rightly does our Augsburg Confession state that: "No one should teach publicly in the church or administer the sacraments unless properly called." (Article XIV) What it does mean, however, is that the Lord of the Church sends forth every member of the Church with the mission of calling and inviting others to come and receive the life that He died and rose again to bestow upon them. He gives that life through the preaching of His Gospel and the giving out of His sacraments. He gives that life away right here in the assembly of His people. So, the great task that is laid on each and every Christian in helping the Church fulfill her Lord's mandate is to invite, urge, encourage, cajole every person you know that is not connected to the life of Christ to come and share in that life, to come and receive what Christ would give.
So, at the end of Revelation, John heard it this way: "The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears, say, 'Come.' And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price." (Rev. 22:17) Get the order straight. The first call to come to the waters is from the Spirit and the Bride, and the Bride is the Church, and that is the invitation issued by the Office of the Ministry: Come and take the water of life without price. The Church isn't about what you give to God; the Church is about what God gives to you. And what He gives to you is free - though priceless. His grace, His forgiveness, His life. The ministry calls you to drink of the water yourself. But, then, there are "those who hear." That's you all. Let those who hear, cry out: "Come!" Christ sends each and every one of you from this place to call others to come and take of the water of life freely. And then there are those who take you up on the invitation.
This is Lutheran evangelism. It's not going out trying to convert someone by your own witness. No wonder we never got far with that approach, and no wonder it scared so many people away from the very idea of witnessing. For then you would have to have all the answers for whatever they might throw your way! Frightening indeed. But for us it's different. For us, we know where God promises to work faith, to strengthen faith, to connect people to His own divine life, to give us forgiveness. We know the Holy Spirit works. He works right here in this assembly of sinners who gather to drink from the water of life!
Consider how our Formula of Concord expresses this: "According to His normal arrangement, the Father draws people by the power of the Holy Spirit through the hearing of His divine Word, as with a net, through which the elect are snatched from the jaws of the devil. For this reason each poor sinner should act in such a way as to hear the Word diligently and not doubt that the Father is drawing people to Himself. For the Holy Spirit wills to be present with His power in the Word and to work through it. This is the drawing of the Father." FC SD XI:76
So the great task laid on all the baptized is to call those who live cut off from the only source of forgiveness and divine life, of communion with God, to come to this assembly where the Holy Spirit works to give and strengthen faith. Do you know of someone who needs the forgiveness, the love of God, the life that you taste here weekly in this gathering? Invite them to come with you to Church! Pray that the Holy Spirit moves their heart to accept the invitation!
You say, but I've invited them before and they didn't respond. So what? Invite them again. Pray again for them. Do realize how many years St. Monica prayed for her son, Augustine, and how long she pleaded with him to join her at Church? Finally, God answered her prayers and her constant invitation in a way that boggles the mind. Her son became the greatest father of the Church after the Apostles themselves.
So don't let Satan talk you into keep your mouth shut. If you've been in the Lord's Vineyard for years and never joined in this important task, it's not too late to begin. The Lord graciously gives to all who come to work in His vineyard, even to those who begin working only in the eleventh hour. He is generous indeed, beyond our imagining. But only let none of us be found standing idle in the Vineyard. We've got to work to do while it is still day.
At the Table today He reminds us again what it is all about. For here the Lord of the Vineyard reaches to us the very Body and Blood that give us forgiveness and that unite us to God, so that His life becomes our life, and we then are joined to Him in a communion that never ends. "In Thy One body, let me be, E'en as the branch is the tree, Thy life, my life, supplying." God wants every last person on earth to sit down with Him at that table and to receive from Him the gifts His Son died upon Calvary's tree to win and lives eternally at His Father's right hand to give. And He sends us all out to call others into the joy of this communion. So to each and everyone of us, He says: "You also go and work in my vineyard." What will your answer be?
Some Thoughts on Ecumenical Conversations
Okay, so ecumenical might be a tad pretentious for the discussions on this blog. But the recent dust-up has me thinking about the value of these sorts of discussions in general.
First, there's no arguing for first principles. And that's where so many of the conversations go sailing past each other - and I'm as guilty of it as anyone. So I wonder if it is worthwhile to really seek to engage each other on that level? It seems inevitably to come across as attack. No, the Orthodox don't think we're Church. Rome doesn't either. We find that horribly offensive, because we know that they both ARE and we too. But we'll never agree then on what "Church" actually denotes. We can talk about it forever, but nothing will make a Lutheran adopt an Orthodox or Roman understanding of Church, short of becoming Orthodox or Roman, and similarly with an Orthodox or Roman adopting a Lutheran understanding of Church, short of becoming Lutheran. So, if this Lutheran writes on Church, you can expect it to be from a Lutheran perspective, and there's no need to try to "correct" this. Should I write on the Orthodox understanding of Church and totally flub it up, it would be more than appropriate for you to comment: "You've got that wrong, dude." I think as long as we recognize that about each other, it can be helpful.
Second, discussion of the interactions of piety and doctrine seem to be to be most beneficial. I was struck in the conversation on "What are You Afraid Of?" that the most intriguing part (at least to me) was Christopher's statement that he didn't think of or use Scripture in the way I was describing - for repelling demonic assaults. I would love to explore that whole area more. It left me wondering: is that a unique Lutheran experience? Or is it only among certain Lutherans? Why didn't Christopher experience this as a Lutheran growing up in WELS? What gives? The demonic assault strikes me particularly as LIE. They use words to tell you a story that is a lie. And if they can get you to believe the lie, they've got you. You battle their story with another Story - the Story that is of God's telling. You counter their assaults with TRUTH. And the truth beyond all truths is the truth that the Spirit inspired witnesses wrote down in the Scriptures about the Word Made Flesh, Crucified, Risen, Glorified, and Returning. More discussion along the lines of things like that would help us all, I can't help but think.
What do you guys think?
First, there's no arguing for first principles. And that's where so many of the conversations go sailing past each other - and I'm as guilty of it as anyone. So I wonder if it is worthwhile to really seek to engage each other on that level? It seems inevitably to come across as attack. No, the Orthodox don't think we're Church. Rome doesn't either. We find that horribly offensive, because we know that they both ARE and we too. But we'll never agree then on what "Church" actually denotes. We can talk about it forever, but nothing will make a Lutheran adopt an Orthodox or Roman understanding of Church, short of becoming Orthodox or Roman, and similarly with an Orthodox or Roman adopting a Lutheran understanding of Church, short of becoming Lutheran. So, if this Lutheran writes on Church, you can expect it to be from a Lutheran perspective, and there's no need to try to "correct" this. Should I write on the Orthodox understanding of Church and totally flub it up, it would be more than appropriate for you to comment: "You've got that wrong, dude." I think as long as we recognize that about each other, it can be helpful.
Second, discussion of the interactions of piety and doctrine seem to be to be most beneficial. I was struck in the conversation on "What are You Afraid Of?" that the most intriguing part (at least to me) was Christopher's statement that he didn't think of or use Scripture in the way I was describing - for repelling demonic assaults. I would love to explore that whole area more. It left me wondering: is that a unique Lutheran experience? Or is it only among certain Lutherans? Why didn't Christopher experience this as a Lutheran growing up in WELS? What gives? The demonic assault strikes me particularly as LIE. They use words to tell you a story that is a lie. And if they can get you to believe the lie, they've got you. You battle their story with another Story - the Story that is of God's telling. You counter their assaults with TRUTH. And the truth beyond all truths is the truth that the Spirit inspired witnesses wrote down in the Scriptures about the Word Made Flesh, Crucified, Risen, Glorified, and Returning. More discussion along the lines of things like that would help us all, I can't help but think.
What do you guys think?
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
I remember, too, the same mysterious power in the scene before Caiaphas and Pilate... The curious uneasiness of the world when it is face to face with God... In no other way can I explain all attacks upon Him and His Church... The world becomes tense and uneasy when it faces the eternal Christ... - O.P. Kretzmann, *The Pilgrim* p. 85
Patristic Quote of the Day
"This is the cause of all evils, the not knowing the Scriptures. We go into battle without arms, and how are we to come off safe?" St. John Chrysostom, (Hom. IX On Colossians)
[Note this will be first in a series of wonderful quotes assembled by Bishop Basil, which my dear friend Trent Sebits was kind enough to share with me; all of them feature thoughts from St. John Chrysostom on the importance of reading the Sacred Scriptures]
[Note this will be first in a series of wonderful quotes assembled by Bishop Basil, which my dear friend Trent Sebits was kind enough to share with me; all of them feature thoughts from St. John Chrysostom on the importance of reading the Sacred Scriptures]
06 February 2009
Patristic Quote of the Day
"When the Lord taught us the doctrine of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, He did not make arithmetic a part of this gift!" St. Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit, par. 44
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
All events in the history of the world must serve the Church... The universe, from the Pleiades to Hitler, stands because the Church is here. -- O.P. Kretzmann, *The Pilgrim* p. 59 [originally written during WWII]
05 February 2009
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Christ offered Himself, within His heart, before God, and this no one saw or noticed; therefore His bodily flesh and blood are a spiritual offering. -- Blessed Martin Luther, *Day by Day* p. 152 (1525)
Patristic Quote of the Day
So, then, the Father is holy, the Son is holy, and the Spirit is holy, but they are not three Holies; for there is one Holy God, one Lord. For the true holiness is one, as the true Godhead is one, as that true holiness belonging to the Divine Nature is one. - St. Ambrose, Book III on the Holy Spirit
Whence "elders"?
I refer to the Missouri Synod brand - not the technical term for presbyter. I was discussing this yesterday with a friend, and thought it might be of interest to post. Schmemann speaks of how the original form of the bishop as head of local parish, surrounded by fellow presbyters, gave way to the bishop as head of a diocese and the local presbyters as heads of the congregations. Due to the conciliar nature of the Church herself, this led to the inevitable rise of SOMETHING to replace the council of presbyters AROUND the local pastor. He was speaking of the parish council in the Orthodox Church, but I recall when I first read his words thinking: "Yes!" It's a description of what the elders, auf Deutsch, die Vorsteher, are!
I think the elders of the Missouri Synod, oddly enough, are a testimony to the conciliar nature of the Church. They are there not in place of the pastor, nor as his bosses, nor as his servants, but as his COUNSELORS in the task of overseeing the life of the congregation. Where there is a healthy relationship between pastors and elders there is never an "him" vs. "them" going on, but rather a listening to one another and an upholding of each other in prayer and in helping each other to be faithful in the offering of the means of the Spirit so that the life that is in Christ can dwell fully and richly among the people of God in that locality. I think them or something like them are simply inevitable in any gathering of God's people.
I think the elders of the Missouri Synod, oddly enough, are a testimony to the conciliar nature of the Church. They are there not in place of the pastor, nor as his bosses, nor as his servants, but as his COUNSELORS in the task of overseeing the life of the congregation. Where there is a healthy relationship between pastors and elders there is never an "him" vs. "them" going on, but rather a listening to one another and an upholding of each other in prayer and in helping each other to be faithful in the offering of the means of the Spirit so that the life that is in Christ can dwell fully and richly among the people of God in that locality. I think them or something like them are simply inevitable in any gathering of God's people.
04 February 2009
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Therefore, lock up your reason, tread your wisdom under foot, and do not let them grope about, or feel, or think, in matters that concern your salvation, but simply and solely listen to what the Son of God says, to what is His Word, and stop there. Hearken! Hearken! is the command. That is truly and honestly doing our Lord God's will, and He has promised that whosoever hearkens to the Son will receive the Holy Ghost, to enlighten and kindle him so that he will rightly understand the Word of God. God will change him into a man after His own heart. That He will really do. -- Blessed Martin Luther, *Sermons on John vii*
Patristic Quote of the Day
And from this we gather that we have derived from Adam, in whom we all have sinned, not all our actual sins, but only original sin; whereas from Christ, in whom we are all justified, we obtain the remission not merely of that original sin, but of the rest of our sins also, which we have added. -- St. Augustine, *On Merit and the Forgiveness of Sins and Infant Baptism* Book I, chapter 16
03 February 2009
"What are you afraid of?"
That is a question that can often be quite telling. Judging from certain comments on various blog posts, I have heard several folks chime in in what sounds to me to be fear, that we may NOT appeal to private (or personal) judgment when we ask people to evaluate the claims of the Lutheran Symbols against the touchstone of the Sacred Scripture.
Why not? Are people afraid of what will be discovered if they read the Scriptures themselves with a prayer for the Holy Spirit to help them understand them aright and then diligently compare them to the Lutheran Symbols?
I will be honest: I think certain Christians communions DO fear that. For they know perfectly well that they hold to practices and doctrine which CANNOT be demonstrated from the Sacred Scriptures - not even by inference. Was it not at Augsburg that a Roman apologist confessed that he could not refute the Lutheran position on the basis of the Scripture alone and an irate Roman layman said: "Am I given to understand that the Lutherans sit within the Scriptures and we without?"
A Lutheran does not fear the question: "Where is this written?" Rather, a Lutheran trains up his children to ask it ever. Not that our Church tosses that which is harmonious with the Scriptures and drawn from inference from them, even while not explicit in them (we DO baptize children, after all), but we hold that the dogma of the Church, her saving doctrine, is to be drawn explicitly and clearly from the Divine Scriptures and that what cannot be so drawn, or shown to be harmonious with them, cannot be set forth before the people of God as that to which they must submit on the grounds of the Church's authority alone. We flat out deny that the Church HAS such authority. She is indeed "the pillar and ground of the truth," but she is such as she speaks her Shepherd's life-giving words after Him, and not as license to dream up notions of her own.
So, yes, as a Lutheran I'd say to anyone: Here is the Bible, please take it and read it. Begin with the NT. Pray for God's enlightenment as you read. Trust that He will grant it. Seek to practice what you read and your understanding will grow. And compare what you read here to what our Church confesses in the Augsburg Confession or in the Small Catechism. We'd love to have you as a Lutheran, but only if you have been convinced that our teaching accords fully with that written in the Sacred Scriptures under inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
P.S. If you come and live with us for a while, you can see how we seek to live out this faith, and you'll no doubt notice that we are very weak in our lives even when we are strong in our doctrine. Such we find to be the case of fallen human beings who are being healing by God's mercy and grace. We are but poor sinners, and we literally live from the saving mercy of our God in Christ Jesus. Thus we rejoice that "all the law and the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins in His name." Everyone. He means that. Glory to God in the highest!
Why not? Are people afraid of what will be discovered if they read the Scriptures themselves with a prayer for the Holy Spirit to help them understand them aright and then diligently compare them to the Lutheran Symbols?
I will be honest: I think certain Christians communions DO fear that. For they know perfectly well that they hold to practices and doctrine which CANNOT be demonstrated from the Sacred Scriptures - not even by inference. Was it not at Augsburg that a Roman apologist confessed that he could not refute the Lutheran position on the basis of the Scripture alone and an irate Roman layman said: "Am I given to understand that the Lutherans sit within the Scriptures and we without?"
A Lutheran does not fear the question: "Where is this written?" Rather, a Lutheran trains up his children to ask it ever. Not that our Church tosses that which is harmonious with the Scriptures and drawn from inference from them, even while not explicit in them (we DO baptize children, after all), but we hold that the dogma of the Church, her saving doctrine, is to be drawn explicitly and clearly from the Divine Scriptures and that what cannot be so drawn, or shown to be harmonious with them, cannot be set forth before the people of God as that to which they must submit on the grounds of the Church's authority alone. We flat out deny that the Church HAS such authority. She is indeed "the pillar and ground of the truth," but she is such as she speaks her Shepherd's life-giving words after Him, and not as license to dream up notions of her own.
So, yes, as a Lutheran I'd say to anyone: Here is the Bible, please take it and read it. Begin with the NT. Pray for God's enlightenment as you read. Trust that He will grant it. Seek to practice what you read and your understanding will grow. And compare what you read here to what our Church confesses in the Augsburg Confession or in the Small Catechism. We'd love to have you as a Lutheran, but only if you have been convinced that our teaching accords fully with that written in the Sacred Scriptures under inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
P.S. If you come and live with us for a while, you can see how we seek to live out this faith, and you'll no doubt notice that we are very weak in our lives even when we are strong in our doctrine. Such we find to be the case of fallen human beings who are being healing by God's mercy and grace. We are but poor sinners, and we literally live from the saving mercy of our God in Christ Jesus. Thus we rejoice that "all the law and the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins in His name." Everyone. He means that. Glory to God in the highest!
From Lutherans and Catholics in Dialog IV
Reumann turns to Krauth for a summary of AC V:
As one ninteenth-century theologian, Charles Porterfield Krauth, summed up the import of Article 5 of the Augsburg Confession: "there is such a thing as the ministry," it is "an institution" which did not "expire with the apostleship," but is "founded by authority," "exists by necessity," and "is intended to be permanent"' this ministry is "instituted by God" with its functions "to teach the Gospel" and "impart the Sacraments"; this ministry, which no man enters without a call of God mediated through the church, is "the ordinary medium by which men, led by the Word and Sacraments to a living faith, obtain salvation." (p. 236)
As one ninteenth-century theologian, Charles Porterfield Krauth, summed up the import of Article 5 of the Augsburg Confession: "there is such a thing as the ministry," it is "an institution" which did not "expire with the apostleship," but is "founded by authority," "exists by necessity," and "is intended to be permanent"' this ministry is "instituted by God" with its functions "to teach the Gospel" and "impart the Sacraments"; this ministry, which no man enters without a call of God mediated through the church, is "the ordinary medium by which men, led by the Word and Sacraments to a living faith, obtain salvation." (p. 236)
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
No man is so high nor can he be raised so high, that he need no longer fear that he may be made the lowest. And again: no man has fallen so low, nor can he fall so low, that there is no hope for him becoming the highest, for herein all merit is set at naught and God's mercy alone is praise. -- Blessed Martin Luther, *Day by Day* p. 99
Patristic Quote of the Day
The one who is unwilling to be held by God is willing to be held by every sickness. -- St. Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 99A, par. 5
A Plea for Blog Etiquette
1. This is a Lutheran blog. You are welcome here to discuss theology even if you are not Lutheran; you are not welcome here to attack the Lutheran Church. If you're interested in that, please don't bother to post, and I'm not even sure why you'd visit.
2. I believe that blogs work best when they function like conversations. In the comments, please do NOT post numerous responses at once. If you post, don't post again until a post is answered. If you think I've forgotten, you can feel free to remind me. But do not inundate the entries with comments - that's the equivalent of not shutting up long enough for another person to get a word in edgewise.
3. Remember that blogging is something I do as a hobby. I have a more than full-time job in my parish. If you think I'm not responding in a timely manner, please recall that blogging is something I do when I can. It takes but a few minutes for me to dash off an initial thought; but to respond to every poster takes considerable time, and frankly, I don't have it.
4. The sorts of responses I'm most interested in are not those that necessarily agree with something I've written, but those that build up the readers in their faith and encourage them in their living out of our joyful life in union with Christ Jesus. Even if I DON'T get around to responding to such, I always appreciate reading them myself. For example, I love Sean's work of giving us Magdeburg in modern notation. But I didn't respond and say "thank you" as I should have; for that, Sean, forgive! And here's a belated "thanks!"
2. I believe that blogs work best when they function like conversations. In the comments, please do NOT post numerous responses at once. If you post, don't post again until a post is answered. If you think I've forgotten, you can feel free to remind me. But do not inundate the entries with comments - that's the equivalent of not shutting up long enough for another person to get a word in edgewise.
3. Remember that blogging is something I do as a hobby. I have a more than full-time job in my parish. If you think I'm not responding in a timely manner, please recall that blogging is something I do when I can. It takes but a few minutes for me to dash off an initial thought; but to respond to every poster takes considerable time, and frankly, I don't have it.
4. The sorts of responses I'm most interested in are not those that necessarily agree with something I've written, but those that build up the readers in their faith and encourage them in their living out of our joyful life in union with Christ Jesus. Even if I DON'T get around to responding to such, I always appreciate reading them myself. For example, I love Sean's work of giving us Magdeburg in modern notation. But I didn't respond and say "thank you" as I should have; for that, Sean, forgive! And here's a belated "thanks!"
02 February 2009
Quote of the Day
"Seen from certain perspectives, the Henrician settlement looks less like 'Catholicism without the Pope' than like Lutheranism without justification by faith." - Alec Ryrie (The Strange Death of Lutheran England)
- HT Dr. Tighe (and thanks for a most fascinating article!)
- HT Dr. Tighe (and thanks for a most fascinating article!)
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Therefore the holy church cannot and may not lie or suffer false doctrine, but must teach nothing except what is holy and true, that is, God's word alone; and where it teaches a lie it is idolatrous and the whore-church of the devil. -- Blessed Martin Luther, *Against Hanswurst* AE 41:214
Patristic Quote of the Day
Since, therefore, the tradition from the apostles does thus exist in the Church, and is permanent among us, let us revert to the Scriptural proof furnished by those apostles who did also write the Gospel, in which they recorded the doctrine regarding God, pointing out that our Lord Jesus Christ is the truth, John 14:6 and that no lie is in Him. -- St. Irenaeus, Ad. Haer. 3.5.1
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