13 October 2009
New Lutheran Quote of the Day
Everyone who eats the body and drinks the blood of the Christ through whom and in whom and for whom all things were made can, according to his vocation and influence and resources, conscientiously seek to redeem the area of his own influence for the Christ whose advent into this world had as its aim the destruction of the works of the adversary. -- A. C. Piepkorn, *The Church* p. 198
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
He [the person with "an established heart"] looks alone upon the certain, never-changing Word. This is the precious thing of which our text speaks: an established heart that is not carried about by various and strange doctrines. -- C. F. W. Walther, *God Grant It!* p. 774,5
Patristic Quote of the Day
You were angry, since 'we were by nature children of wrath,' having no hope, and being without God in the world. You had mercy on us when You set forth Your only-begotten Son as a propitiation for our sins in order that in His blood we might find redemption. -- St. Basil the Great, Homily 20
12 October 2009
A Query
So, if we were to put together a seminar here in Southern Illinois which featured learning how to use the LSB to the max, with help on the psalm tones, the choices in the rubrics, three year vs. one year, and so forth - would anyone be interested in attending such a thing? Think Zion's St. Michael's, but in an LSB tonality. Takers? We've discussed it for some years, but we've not got it off the ground, but I'm thinking that it's time may have come.
And Octoberfest
made me quite grateful for the simplicity of the LSB Psalm tones. True, they are no match for the beauty of the Gregorian tones; but they enable us to focus upon the words of the Psalter and even a musical idiot can pull them off!
And one more thing...
...inevitably the question arose of authority. I suggested again, as I have before, that there should be submission to the Liturgy adopted by our Synod. I did not mean particularly that one must use Lutheran Service Book. But if one uses Lutheran Worship, it should be governed by the rubrics contained in Lutheran Worship Altar Book; similarly, if one uses The Lutheran Hymnal, according to the rubrics in The Lutheran Liturgy; and of course, if Lutheran Service Book, according to the rubrics in the Altar Book.
Now, I was challenged on this and it was pointed out that I do not observe these rites as they are printed. The point being that I elevate, I genuflect, I sign myself with the cross on forehead, lips and heart before the Gospel, I kiss the Gospel book and the altar, and so on. In short, I do ceremonies that are neither prescribed nor suggested.
I would respond, though, that there is a great difference between adding ceremonies (especially historic ones) and dropping ceremonies or parts of the rite which are explicitly prescribed. Certainly in the rubrics of all three books, there are ceremonies that are suggested but not prescribed ("may" rubrics). The worth of any ceremony is in what it confesses. And above all, I'd argue, the text and the ordering of the text in each rite should be respected precisely as it stands.
I maintain that we ought, as Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod clerics, to submit ourselves to the "shall" rubrics of the rite our parish employs because of what these rubrics end up confessing and confessing clearly. Other ceremonies beyond those prescribed or suggested may indeed be used if these aid in confessing the faith, and this in no way undermines the general principle: "Read the black, do the red." In fact, it recognizes that many customs that grow up and spread from the grass roots, if you will, end up being "may" rubrics in the next generation. I wouldn't be surprised to see that happen with the elevation, which has spread like wildfire in the Synod in my own life-time, though it is not (yet) so much as mentioned in our rubrics.
So while additional ceremonies may be used without prejudice, I think it utterly fitting that we all learn the humility of DOING the ceremony as prescribed in the rite used within our parish.
Now, I was challenged on this and it was pointed out that I do not observe these rites as they are printed. The point being that I elevate, I genuflect, I sign myself with the cross on forehead, lips and heart before the Gospel, I kiss the Gospel book and the altar, and so on. In short, I do ceremonies that are neither prescribed nor suggested.
I would respond, though, that there is a great difference between adding ceremonies (especially historic ones) and dropping ceremonies or parts of the rite which are explicitly prescribed. Certainly in the rubrics of all three books, there are ceremonies that are suggested but not prescribed ("may" rubrics). The worth of any ceremony is in what it confesses. And above all, I'd argue, the text and the ordering of the text in each rite should be respected precisely as it stands.
I maintain that we ought, as Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod clerics, to submit ourselves to the "shall" rubrics of the rite our parish employs because of what these rubrics end up confessing and confessing clearly. Other ceremonies beyond those prescribed or suggested may indeed be used if these aid in confessing the faith, and this in no way undermines the general principle: "Read the black, do the red." In fact, it recognizes that many customs that grow up and spread from the grass roots, if you will, end up being "may" rubrics in the next generation. I wouldn't be surprised to see that happen with the elevation, which has spread like wildfire in the Synod in my own life-time, though it is not (yet) so much as mentioned in our rubrics.
So while additional ceremonies may be used without prejudice, I think it utterly fitting that we all learn the humility of DOING the ceremony as prescribed in the rite used within our parish.
Post-Octoberfest Musings
This year's Octoberfest at St. Paul's in Kewanee addressed in general the topic that the divine liturgy is not an indifferent matter - sort of Gottesdiesnst's motto. The format was a panel discussion (this is the second such I've been subjected to in two weeks and my opinion is that they are rather pointless and need to go bye-bye!) and despite the wretched manner of the forum there were some interesting highlights along the way.
Pastor Petersen said a most interesting thing when he noted that we'd likely give a man a pass on shoddy liturgy if he did a bang up job delivering law (that showed us our sin and invited to repentance) and gave us sweet Gospel. I immediately thought: Amen! And then I thought, you know, that's probably a unique Lutheran position. It's not that it justifies mutilation of the liturgy; for a service with the liturgy done well AND an outstanding sermon is simply an unbeatable combo. But if you have to choose between impeccable liturgy with inane or even heretical sermon vs. deformed liturgy with true and solid preaching, well, a Lutheran, I suspect, will choose the latter every time. How did Blessed Loehe put it? "The Church remains what she is even without a liturgy, she remains a queen even in beggar's rags. It is better to give up everything else and to hold only the pure doctrine than to go about in the pomp and glory of splendid services which are without light and life because the doctrine has become impure - Yet it is not necessary to let the Church go in beggar's rags. Much better it is that her prayers, her hymns, her sacred order, the holy thoughts of her Liturgy, should be impressed upon the people innocently, and in sermon and catechetical instruction used as a living book for proof and instruction. The true faith finds voice not only in the sermon, but it is prayed in the prayers and sung in the hymns." (Three Books, p. 198, 199)
Pastor Stuckwisch, as is his wont, invited us to focus on the main thing and to see that we continually speak of the liturgy as our Symbols do - as the Lord's mandated giving out of His absolution, His teaching, His body and His blood for our forgiveness, life, and salvation. Although he didn't allude to the theses he composed, they were definitely in the background and right on.
Pastor Curtis thought that a way around the endless debate on "taste" is to ask why? Why would you change this? What's the thinking behind it? And he posited that in his conversations, the reason usually comes round to this: so that we can reach those who are turned off by the traditional. As though what was converting them was something other than the Word. In fact, Pr. Curtis suggests, there a latent (or not latent in some cases) Arminianism at work, whereby we seek the right emotional tools to get unbelievers to assent to salvation. I think he's truly onto something there. I thought of how Dr. Rast has been pointing out for some time that it's new measures all over again!
Pastor Eckardt did best of all what he always does: he preached us Jesus and he presided with reverence and love at the Holy Table. The votive festival was for the Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist, and beginning with James and how our desires conceive and bring forth and sin finally gives birth to death, the law he delivered to us was from Herod and the insatiable nature of sexual sin, truly a bottomless pit that beguiles and entices, but that ends in death and destruction. Who was free and who was the slave? Herod was slave to his appetites and John was the free man even while he sat in prison and even in his death. John must decrease and Christ must increase. John decreased by a head, to show us that Christ must be our head and the one who fills us with His will and desires. Christ who was increased by being lifted high on a tree to let His blood flow for us. And I'm leaving out more than half of the insights. It was a stunning homily delivered, as is Pr. Eckardt's wont, off the cuff.
Pastor Petersen said a most interesting thing when he noted that we'd likely give a man a pass on shoddy liturgy if he did a bang up job delivering law (that showed us our sin and invited to repentance) and gave us sweet Gospel. I immediately thought: Amen! And then I thought, you know, that's probably a unique Lutheran position. It's not that it justifies mutilation of the liturgy; for a service with the liturgy done well AND an outstanding sermon is simply an unbeatable combo. But if you have to choose between impeccable liturgy with inane or even heretical sermon vs. deformed liturgy with true and solid preaching, well, a Lutheran, I suspect, will choose the latter every time. How did Blessed Loehe put it? "The Church remains what she is even without a liturgy, she remains a queen even in beggar's rags. It is better to give up everything else and to hold only the pure doctrine than to go about in the pomp and glory of splendid services which are without light and life because the doctrine has become impure - Yet it is not necessary to let the Church go in beggar's rags. Much better it is that her prayers, her hymns, her sacred order, the holy thoughts of her Liturgy, should be impressed upon the people innocently, and in sermon and catechetical instruction used as a living book for proof and instruction. The true faith finds voice not only in the sermon, but it is prayed in the prayers and sung in the hymns." (Three Books, p. 198, 199)
Pastor Stuckwisch, as is his wont, invited us to focus on the main thing and to see that we continually speak of the liturgy as our Symbols do - as the Lord's mandated giving out of His absolution, His teaching, His body and His blood for our forgiveness, life, and salvation. Although he didn't allude to the theses he composed, they were definitely in the background and right on.
Pastor Curtis thought that a way around the endless debate on "taste" is to ask why? Why would you change this? What's the thinking behind it? And he posited that in his conversations, the reason usually comes round to this: so that we can reach those who are turned off by the traditional. As though what was converting them was something other than the Word. In fact, Pr. Curtis suggests, there a latent (or not latent in some cases) Arminianism at work, whereby we seek the right emotional tools to get unbelievers to assent to salvation. I think he's truly onto something there. I thought of how Dr. Rast has been pointing out for some time that it's new measures all over again!
Pastor Eckardt did best of all what he always does: he preached us Jesus and he presided with reverence and love at the Holy Table. The votive festival was for the Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist, and beginning with James and how our desires conceive and bring forth and sin finally gives birth to death, the law he delivered to us was from Herod and the insatiable nature of sexual sin, truly a bottomless pit that beguiles and entices, but that ends in death and destruction. Who was free and who was the slave? Herod was slave to his appetites and John was the free man even while he sat in prison and even in his death. John must decrease and Christ must increase. John decreased by a head, to show us that Christ must be our head and the one who fills us with His will and desires. Christ who was increased by being lifted high on a tree to let His blood flow for us. And I'm leaving out more than half of the insights. It was a stunning homily delivered, as is Pr. Eckardt's wont, off the cuff.
New Lutheran Quote of the Day
Whoever and whatever these invisible powers are [the angelic choirs], they are. The church has been particularly aware of them as she gathers about the altar for the Eucharist ever since the Holy, Holy, Holy became part of the canon. -- A. C. Piepkorn, *The Church* p. 196
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
[Speaking as Christ] "For through the power which I shall have at the right hand of the Father, being of the same divine Majesty, and openly transfigured and shown forth to be very God and Lord over all creatures, I shall work in you who believe in me and who, having received My Word, Baptism, and the Sacrament, steadfastly abide in them." -- Blessed Martin Luther, Exposition of John xiv and xv (Day by Day, p. 366)
Patristic Quote of the Day
Look at that which was given in exchange for you and realize your own worth. You were bought with the precious blood of Christ; do not become a slave of sin. Understand your own honor, in order that you may not be made like the senseless beasts. -- St. Basil the Great, Homily 19
Nicene Creed Series
Last week's broadcasts of the Nicene Creed series I did with Pr. Wilken are now up on Issues "on demand" page. You just have to scroll down a little bit:
Nicene Creed
Nicene Creed
11 October 2009
I wonder how often
it will happen that a reading in Church on a given day matches part of the reading in Treasury. Today we were treated to Deuteronomy 10 twice - and I'm not complaining. That little bit in there "for your good" doesn't get emphasized enough!
Excellent Articles
If you get The Lutheran Witness, there is a very fine article in the October edition written by Fr. Christopher Hall on "Unrealistic - AND FAITHFUL - Prayer" on the "impossible" collect for grace at Matins. He not only writes about one of my favorite prayers, but manages to cite one of my favorite Luther quotes. Of his own words, I found these to be particularly apt:
Hope is not hope if the thing hoped for is easily realized or immanently revealed. Faith is not faith if the things believed in are seen. The Christian who has received this faith and hope in things to come is a most unrealistic man or a most idealistic woman.
Amen!
And as if that were not enough, Dr. Al Colver has a fine article on Dr. Luther's famous hymn "A Mighty Fortress." He mentions being in Madagascar for the celebration of Lent - yes, Virginia, there ARE Madagascan Lutherans, millions of them! Dr. Colver writes:
Here in Madagascar, thousands of miles from our churches in America, the Malagasy were singing this great hymn of comfort. Through a common liturgy, lectionary, and this famous hymn by Luther, Lutherans around the world were united in confessing how the Lord is a Mighty Fortress.
Good stuff again - the whole is worth enjoying.
Oh, and some Weedon fellow did the Search the Scriptures on the Great Solas in the same issue...
Hope is not hope if the thing hoped for is easily realized or immanently revealed. Faith is not faith if the things believed in are seen. The Christian who has received this faith and hope in things to come is a most unrealistic man or a most idealistic woman.
Amen!
And as if that were not enough, Dr. Al Colver has a fine article on Dr. Luther's famous hymn "A Mighty Fortress." He mentions being in Madagascar for the celebration of Lent - yes, Virginia, there ARE Madagascan Lutherans, millions of them! Dr. Colver writes:
Here in Madagascar, thousands of miles from our churches in America, the Malagasy were singing this great hymn of comfort. Through a common liturgy, lectionary, and this famous hymn by Luther, Lutherans around the world were united in confessing how the Lord is a Mighty Fortress.
Good stuff again - the whole is worth enjoying.
Oh, and some Weedon fellow did the Search the Scriptures on the Great Solas in the same issue...
Satisfying
A silly word for it, perhaps. But that's how I find it: the Divine Service. It's satisfying. I walk away from the Divine Service with a full tummy - spiritually speaking. I mean, the joy of confessing our sins and receiving the holy absolution; of singing the praises of the Blessed Trinity with angel hosts and in words of the Psalms (and today even in the words of Ecclesiasticus!) and hymns - some from long ago and some from not so long ago; of hearing as God speaks to us in His Word; of offering to Him our tithes and thank offerings and above all, our intercessions; of bowing with angels and archangels before the Blessed One who comes to us in the name of the Lord, bringing salvation, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world; of feasting together as one family with those beloved saints in our congregation and all Christians throughout the world and the saints who have gone before us; of receiving His blessing and being sent forth as witnesses to our Lord and the miracle of His Church - truly a haven of peace in a troubled world.
When folks can no longer get to Church who have made the Divine Service their life-long habit, the sorrow of missing this gathering is palpable. They long for it, ache for it. They are among those who were "glad when they said, 'Let us go up to the house of the Lord'" (today's Introit).
"Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it!" says the Lord in Psalm 81. As we open our mouths to confess our sins, to declare His praise, to receive the Savior's body and blood, He does indeed fill our mouths with good things beyond all our imagining or deserving. "Bless the Lord, O my soul... who satisfies you with good, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's!" (Ps. 103)
P.S. The truly odd thing is that thoroughly satisfied, it rouses a hunger for more.
St. Philip the Deacon
On this day, our Synod commemorates St. Philip, the Deacon and Evangelist. From the Treasury and our Synod's website:Philip, also called the Evangelist (Acts 21:8), was one of the seven men appointed to assist in the work of the twelve Apostles and of the rapidly growing early church by overseeing the distribution of food to the poor (6:1–6). Following the martyrdom of Stephen, Philip proclaimed the Gospel in Samaria and led Simon the Sorcerer to become a believer in Christ (8:4–13). He was also instrumental in bringing about the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch (8:26–39), through whom Philip became indirectly responsible for bringing the Good News of Jesus to the people on the continent of Africa. In the town of Caesarea he was host for several days to the Apostle Paul, who stopped there on his last journey to Jerusalem (21:8–15).
In the collect for the commemoration we pray: "...we give thanks to You for Your servant Philip the Deacon. You called him to preach the Gospel to the people of Samaria and Ethiopia. Raise up in this and every land messengers of Your kingdom, that Your Church may proclaim the immeasurable riches of our Savior..."
New Lutheran Quote of the Day
The Word of God, the true light that enlightens every man, the divine hypostasis that became man in order that human beings might be partakers of the divine nature, and so divinized, is precisely the focal point of creation. -- A. C. Piepkorn, *The Church* p. 195
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
The flame of true love for God and neighbor, even for the enemy, has been lit in the hearts of all true Christians, and where this heavenly fire does not burn, a person's so-called Christianity is nothing but self-deception. -- C. F. W. Walther, *God Grant It!* p. 770
Patristic Quote of the Day
Now, do not assume, because He sojourned with us 'in the likeness of sinful flesh' that our Lord is only man, failing to discern the power of the divinity, who had no need to give God a ransom for Himself nor to redeem His own soul because 'He did no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.' No one is sufficient to redeem himself, unless He comes who turns away the captivity of the people, not with ransoms nor with gifts, as it is written in Isaiah, but in His own blood. -- St. Basil the Great, Homily 19
What a Treat!
To have Pr. Vieker as organist this morning. He played a fantastic setting of "In Thee Is Gladness" that he himself composed as postlude. He brings many gifts to the congregation as he plays, but one area that he positively excels at is bringing the congregation in when it is time to start singing. No guess work - it's clear as can be. Thanks, Pr. Vieker! Always a blessing to have you with us.
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