New Lutheran Quote of the Day

Jesus teaches us how to pray by giving us the Lord's Prayer. This is His prayer, that He prays.... Jesus doesn't set us to work by ourselves with some instructions on the theory and practice of prayer, like some modern teacher of spirituality. Instead, He gets us to join in with Him as He prays to the heavenly Father. -- John Kleinig, *Grace Upon Grace* p. 162

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

He desires it, and it is His will, that you should pour out your trouble before Him, and not let it lie upon yourself, dragging it about with you and being chafed and tortured by it, so that in the end, you make two, or even ten or a hundred calamities out of one. He wills that you should be too weak to bear and overcome such trouble, in order that you may learn to find strength in Him, and that He may be praised through His strength in you. Behold, this is how Christians are made! -- Blessed Martin Luther, Exposition of Psalm 118 (Day by Day, p. 204)

Patristic Quote of the Day

Guide me in fear of Thee and give me tears of contrition. I have lifted up the mental eyes of my soul to Thee, O Lord. Cast me not away from Thy face, for blessed is Thy name unto the ages. -- St. Ephraim the Syrian, *A Spiritual Psalter* #123

The Joy of Disappointments

My daughter and I experienced a bit of a disappointment lately - and it has been a blessing. In Divine Service 5, we pray: "Strengthen us by Your Spirit according to Your will, both in life and in death, in the midst of both good and evil things, that our own wills may be crucified daily and sacrificed to Your good and gracious will." So when something we hoped and dreamed for DIDN'T come to pass, it's not a time to complain or to fret. The Lord, who works all things together for the good of those who love Him, is eager to give us "more than we desire or deserve." [Collect: Trinity 11] We have our ideas and our plans and dreams. Let them all be shattered and broken! Let them fall to the ground and die! We learn with our Savior to say to the Father: "Thy will be done" and in union with Him we will have joy beyond anything we ourselves could ever choose or plan. What a way to live! And to die! Nothing can defeat the person whose prayer is "Thy will be done!"

That Horrid Word

"Catholic." Lutherans tend to be allergic to it, and none more than Lutheran converts from Rome! Yet the word itself which confronts most Lutherans on Trinity Sunday when the Athanasian Creed is confessed is actually defined in that Creed of the Church:

"And the catholic faith is this: that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity, neither confusing the Persons nor dividing the substance."

By this definition, Lutherans (and all other Trinitarian Christians) are CATHOLICS! And when we confess that Creed we confess that ONLY catholics are saved - for they alone are worshipping that God who alone is the true God, full of forgiveness, life, and salvation. He's the only one who CAN give eternal life.

And with that word comes an obligation - an obligation to set for the faith in its fullness. I am reminded of the remarkable words of Krauth:

"She should lead men, not to the least faith, the least holiness which makes salvation possible, but to the very highest - she should not encourage the religion whose root is a selfish fear of hell, a selfish craving of heaven, but she should plant that religion to which pure truth is dear for its own sake, which longs for the fullest illumination, which desires not the easy road, but the sure one." (Conservative Reformation, p. 191)

Such must be the aim of every Church which would be catholic, which would worship the One God in Three Persons and Three Persons in One God. It must of necessity lead people to the fullness that is in Christ Jesus - a faith not of minimals, but of maximals. A faith whose constitutive center is sharing in the divine life that was born of Mary, nailed to a tree for our sins and raised from the dead for our justification. To be catholic simply means not to settle for anything less than the fullness of Jesus Christ, through whom we give glory to His unoriginate Father in His all-Holy Spirit, now and unto the ages of ages!

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

Our prayer is part of our work in Christ's heavenly administration of His Father's realm. Through our union with Jesus we have access to the Father's presence and have become co-workers with Him... Through our prayers we work with Him in the administration of God's grace. -- John Kleinig, *Grace Upon Grace* p. 155, 156

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Whenever I have prayed earnestly about a matter which has concerned me very deeply, it has been richly answered and I have received more than I asked. Sometimes God has been slow in coming, but He has always come. -- Blessed Martin Luther, *Day by Day* p. 203

Patristic Quote of the Day

Who can withstand the Evil One, if Thy grace withdraws from him for even one minute, O Master? -- St. Ephraim the Syrian, *A Spiritual Psalter* #113

Words from Holy Trinity

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty!... Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity; let us give glory to Him because He has shown His mercy to us!... You have given us grace to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity by the confession of a true faith and to worship the Unity in the power of the Divine Majesty. Keep us steadfast in this faith... Blessed are You, O Lord, who beholds the deep, and who dwells between the cherubim... Blessed are You, O God of our Fathers, and greatly to be praised and glorified forever... And the catholic faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance... Praise we the Father and the Son And Holy Spirit with them One, And may the Son on us bestow The gifts that from the Spirit flow!... In the confession of the only true God, we worship the Trinity in person and Unity in substance of majesty coequal... Isaiah, mighty seer, in spirit soared and saw enthroned in majesty the Lord... Maker of all things, all Thy creatures praise Thee; All for Thy worship were and are created... Then the holy, holy, holy celebration jubilee Thine the splendor Thine the brightness only Thee, only Thee

The Joy of the Day

Today we got to celebrate the Festival of the Holy Trinity - joy beyond words! Not only did we get to sing some of my favorite hymns ("Come, Holy Ghost Creator Blest", "Isaiah, Mighty Seer," "Father, Most Holy," "Ye Watchers") and receive our Lord's holy Body and Blood, but I also got to see my dear friend Fr. David Meinzen; welcome Pr. Ries and his family join us for worship; and finally, solemnize the marriage of my beloved colleague and friend Pr. Larry Meinzen - the marriage followed immediately after the late service.

Let me tell you, you've not heard singing till you have a roomful of Meinzens and Sachtlebens joying in the Blessed Trinity together! Glorious!!!

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

Through our reception of Christ's most holy body and blood we become God-bearers; we become "little christs," theophanic people, the light of the world. -- John Kleinig, *Grace Upon Grace* p. 283

Patristic Quote of the Day

Thou, O Christ our Savior, hast become for me the path of life which leads to the Father. There is but one path, and it is my joy, and at the end of it is the heavenly Kingdom. -- St. Ephraim the Syrian, *A Spiritual Psalter* #7

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Consider this: even if everything else becomes doubtful and uncertain, your Baptism stands fast. It happened once, and God does not go back on His Word. There God has, so to speak, made Himself your captive. Only do not let Him go; do not let your hand of faith let go of His covenant of grace. HE cannot leave you. -- C. F. W. Walther, *Treasury*, p. 351

Wedding Homily for Pr. Larry Meinzen and Peggy Sacthleben

[Gen. 2:7, 18-24; Eph 5:1-4, 21-33; Mark 9:1-10]

No, it is not the case of the fellow of 27 years of marriage passing on wisdom to those who far exceed him in experience of that blessed state. Today is rather all about the Lord’s wisdom - and from Him we get an earful - and even those who know marriage inside and out are blessed to hear Him speak of it anew.

In the first reading, we hear the great “oops.” All through Genesis 1, like a mighty bell ringing, we had heard the refrain: “And it was good. And it was good. And it was TOV MAOD - exceptionally, overflowingly, wonderfully good.” But then the oops. In all the goodness of the good creation, the Good Creator sees something that is NOT good: aloneness. You both have known the pain of that since your spouses died. It is not good to be alone. And so God provided Adam his Eve, and so the God who provides you your spouses before gives His gifts anew. Today Larry gets his Peggy and Peggy, her Larry. Aloneness is not good; God doesn’t want you to be alone.

But it runs deeper than that, as you know. Our second reading lifted the whole of marriage up and took it into Christ and His church. Which is to say that what happens to you today is bigger than either of the two of you alone or together. Today there is an enactment of Christ and the Church in what you do. All that Christ is for His bride, He wants you to be for Peggy, Larry. All that the Church is for her Bridegroom, He wants you to be for Larry, Peggy. A week ago we witnessed my niece’s wedding, and the big thing were the crowns. As the priest explained: crowns of martyrdom. Marriage is the realm of martyrdom - and you both know it. It is the place for you each to die to the impulse of having your own way, and to rejoice in the love that seeks what is best for the other, what will bless their socks off. You’re heading into that martyrdom well aware of what it means from your previous marriages - and yet it will be different in this marriage. A different and new kind of dying to self for each of you - and a bit of martyrdom for your families too, who are not used to conceiving of you in marriage to each other. What a gift from the Lord! A bigger family and the joys roll on! Together you will draw each other and your families deeper into the ways of the Lord, who takes two and makes of them one.

And that’s the biggy in the Gospel for the day. The two become one flesh - that’s also in the Old Testament reading - but our Lord adds the zinger: “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” We like to think of marriage as OUR joining together, but Jesus turns that on its head. Today HE is the one who binds two lives into one. HE sets His guard upon this marriage and tells His holy angels to guard and keep it well. Oneness, then, isn’t your achievement, but His gift. It comes when each receives the other from His hand - the hands with the nail scars that forever testify to how precious you are to Him, at what cost He purchased you to be His own. United in Him as sister and brother, you will also for a time be united in Him as husband and wife. For a time. Who knows how long? You say: “Til death us do part” because death has the power to part you as man and wife; but of course, since you are both in Christ, it has no power to part you as sister and brother in Him.

So, walk in love as Christ has loved us and given Himself for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God - and He who binds the two of you into one will bless and keep you all the days of your earthly pilgrimage until you are brought with His blessed Mother and all his saints and angels to celebrate with all the faithful the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom which has no end, to which may God grant us all to attain by His grace and love for mankind. Amen.

For Treasury Users

Note that tomorrow's readings are found on page 349 - the Feast of the Holy Trinity. Then you skip on Monday to page 412 and pick up Monday with June 8 and follow the Calendar year from that day until next Ash Wednesday. Sigh. I LIKE this time of the year very much...

THEY MUST HAVE FOLLOWED US HOME!

The Bees! My sister-in-law has just taken up beekeeping. Not my idea of a fun time. But today when I went to get a bulletin out of the sacristy I heard a LOUD buzzing and saw a bee or two and killed them. But the buzzing persisted. I looked up and above the plastic covering to the light in the drop ceiling you could see them crawling. And I stepped outside the door and ran into a handful. I looked around the backside of the building and it is alive with them. GRR. Make them go away!!! I got the vestments for tonight and tomorrow out of the sacristy and shut it up, but there's wide spaces under the door for them to get out in the church if they have a mind to. I hope they don't.

Patristic Quote of the Day

Faith consisteth not, O Nicodemus, in what thou thinkest. Speech sufficeth not unto thee for righteousness, neither wilt thou achieve piety by mere words. For not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father Which is in Heaven. But the will of the Father is, that man be made partaker of the Holy Ghost, that the citizen of earth reborn unto an unaccustomed and new life, be called a citizen of Heaven. -- St. Cyril of Alexandria, Homily on John 3

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Such prayer is a precious and powerful defense against the devil and his assaults. For in it, all Christendom combines its forces with one accord. -- Martin Luther on Common Prayer, AE 21:140

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

We, however, drink the most holy blood of Christ, the blood that atoned for our sins, frees us from the stain of sin, protects us from the powers of darkness, fills us with the Holy Spirit, transfuses us with the divine life of Christ. That meal is our theophany, the appearance of the triune God among us for our salvation. -- John Kleinig, *Grace Upon Grace* p. 282

Happy Anniversary, Cindi!

It was 27 years ago yesterday...hopefully we'll find time on Sunday to get away and enjoy a quiet dinner somewhere.