31 July 2012
The Crucifix
all cleaned up! It just becomes ever more beautiful and will shortly again be gracing the Chapel:
New Lutheran Quote of the Day
Canonical law is important for the following works: it restrains the Adamic nature which is always climbing up to God to rearrange and reorder him, and to get its hands on the brothers and sisters to rearrange them. Canonical law is authority to protect us from each other. Our wickedness is such that we will abuse each other at the slightest opportunity.—Dr. Kenneth Korby, The Pastoral Office and the Priesthood of Believers, Lord Jesus Christ, Will You Not Stay? p. 358.
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
You see, the Word—both audible and visible—is the soul of that mystical Body, the church. Church discipline is its strength. The care, preservation, and propagation of both of these have been committed to the minister of the church; and the legitimate administration of both of these pertains to the conversion and salvation of human beings—Blessed Johann Gerhard, On the Ministry, p. 261.
Patristic Quote of the Day
For he knows that all Scripture is one perfect and harmonized instrument of God, which from different sounds gives forth one saving voice to those willing to learn. It stops and restrains every working of an evil spirit, just as the music of David laid to rest the evil spirit in Saul, which was also choking him. —Origen, From the Second Book of the Commentary on Matthew, 2.
An Interesting Proposition
Would it be Lutheran to teach that when we have been justified by faith, we are to keep the Law and in fact, by the Spirit, to grow in fulfilling the Law more and more? It seems that the Lutheran Church certainly thought so. See Apology V:3. How on earth can the anti-growth-in-sanctification folks dispense with such clear testimonies?
Last Evening
I decided to pull out a volume of poetry. I'd not read some in way too long. I noted in front that it was a volume I'd given my mom back in 1980, and that I'd quoted part of this line from Whittier's Snow-Bound:
Who hath not learned, in hours of faith,
The truth to flesh and sense unknown,
That Life is ever lord of Death,
And Love can never lose its own.
The solid hope of the faith rings throughout the piece. I think of it as the poetic version of Currier and Ives. It gives a painting of an America that had, even by Whittier's day, become only memory. But his sketches of those folks known and loved and remembered from long ago - the older I get, the more of a chord it strikes.
So, I really hope to make that a habit: pull out the poetry book and read some before bed every evening.
Who hath not learned, in hours of faith,
The truth to flesh and sense unknown,
That Life is ever lord of Death,
And Love can never lose its own.
The solid hope of the faith rings throughout the piece. I think of it as the poetic version of Currier and Ives. It gives a painting of an America that had, even by Whittier's day, become only memory. But his sketches of those folks known and loved and remembered from long ago - the older I get, the more of a chord it strikes.
So, I really hope to make that a habit: pull out the poetry book and read some before bed every evening.
30 July 2012
New Lutheran Quote of the Day
The evangelical catholic church is the true catholic church. She does not follow the perversion of Rome which fails to distinguish properly between the two ways that God addresses and rules humanity and his church. Nor does the evangelical catholic church fall into the schismatic divorce of these two words from each other. Neither does the evangelical catholic church allow the confusion of these two words with each other as do those of the traditions that are neither evangelical nor Roman Catholic. Preaching and teaching the pure gospel calls for the distinction from the law, which causes one to observe, that the two confessions represented by Rom and Geneva are like the foxes of Samson. Their heads point in different directions. But where the fire is, their tails are tied together. —Dr. Kenneth Korby, The Pastoral Office and the Priesthood of Believers, Lord Jesus Christ, Will You Not Stay?, p. 357.
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Just as the calling of ministers belongs to the entire church, so also their removal belongs to the entire church. — Blessed Johann Gerhard, On the Ministry, p. 252.
Patristic Quote of the Day
Where affliction is, true salvation is also there. —St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Ephesians, 8.
29 July 2012
If you were keeping track...
...this year WE moved in mid April; we moved Bekah back in at the end of April; we moved David and Meaghan to Highland at the end of May; and today we moved Lauren and Dean's stuff into pods, moving them partially into Grandma and Opa's basement, as they await the birth of Baby Herberts, and then prepare for the final move to North Carolina. It was truly the year of the move. Am I going crazy yet? Yes, I am.
28 July 2012
Lingel - Elsea Wedding Homily
[Readings: Genesis 2:7, 18-24; 1 John 4:7-19]
He gave names. That was how the man exercised the dominion that the Lord God had given him. He could look at a the hopping thing and say: You sir, are a kangaroo. It’s how he rejoiced in the kangaroo as the unique gift it was from God. But among all the wondrous kangaroos and cockatoos, dogs and hogs, rats and cats and bats - among them all, wondrous gifts that they are - there was nothing the man could call Ishah - nothing that came from Ish. No true companion of his heart and soul, no fellow being like unto him and yet different from him, who could rejoice with him in all the good gifts of the Lord.
And because there wasn’t one and the man was helpless to do anything about it, God did the whole thing. Put the man to sleep and performed a miracle. From him, from his very being, brought forth a being and “brought her to the man.” God does the action. He creates the companion for the man and he gives her to him. And what does man do? He names!
At last! Bone of bones! At last! Flesh of my flesh! At last I’ve been waiting for you my whole life. At last! You know what I’ll call her, God? I’ll call her Ishah, because she came out of Ish. Woman for she came out of man. Or as the geneticists would say XX because she got her XX’s from the XY. Woman.
Moses adds - and that’s why a man leaves his father and mother and holds fast to his wife and they become one flesh.
But hasn’t it ever struck two that that’s NOT the way it actually works in hardly any culture across the face of the world? Rather than the man leaving, it’s usually the woman that leaves. If you’re like most folks, Amilia will be taking Chris’s last name and joining his family and not vice-versa. So why would Moses say that?
Could it be that he was pointing ahead to that mystery behind what is happening with you two today? For there was one who came from His Father and then on His cross left His mother in order to fall asleep and for His side to be opened and from it a new creature to arise to be His spouse, His beloved Bride.
And in Him, St. John makes clear, and only in Him do we finally see what love is. Love isn’t the stuff we work up towards God. Love is this: the Father sends His Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Not that we love God, but that He loves us so much as to give His Son to be the wiping out of our sins. He comes among us as the New Adam looking for His Eve, His Church, His Ishah. Taken out of Ish. And so we see the love that God has for us and the call to live in that love.
And we desperately needed the New Adam and his new bride, since the first Ish and the first Ishah totally got it all gummed up. Instead of living in the joy of God’s giving, they decided to do some taking to themselves, as you will recall, and from that taking to self they plunged themselves and you and me and all the people in their pretty clothes into the judgment of God. As helpless as Adam was to make himself his Eve; so helpless were we all to be able to step back into the life that God made us for and which Adam and Eve tossed out the window. But what we couldn’t do, God did. As little cooperation needed from us as from Adam. Just lie there and let God do His giving and suddenly there is new life to rejoice in.
And so we come to the miracle of marriage which unfolds before our eyes today. Here too, it’s not about striving. But about receiving. God has a gift for you, Christopher, that you did nothing to earn, create, achieve. And He’s giving you that gift just like He gave you the gift of His Son - just because. Because He loves you and wants you to have a companion with whom to walk through the journey of this world toward His kingdom. Name her your Ishah. Name her your own. And never forget that she’s a treasure from the King of Kings to you and He will demand an accounting for how you honor and serve her.
And you, Amilia, just as little as Eve had anything to do with being brought to life, so you’ve been given not only the joy of eternal life in Your Jesus, but now Jesus increases your joy with the gift of a husband. Sheet gift for you to receive and treasure and love and honor and serve all the days He will give you. He is your Ish, your man. Hold to him as the Church holds to Jesus and receives from Him love beyond all her imagining.
Names given mean gifts rejoiced in. Today you two will name each other my husband, my wife. And it’s a way of confessing that God in His love for you has give you each other and bound two together as one. And because you both still carry within you the old Adam and old Eve, who are always think their way is better and makes more sense than God’s, no matter how many times the evidence shows the contrary - stupid is as stupid does - you will find that you must live your lives within the communion of the New Adam and His New Eve, His Church.
Here there is forgiveness bigger than all the sin you can do to each other, here there is a hope and a future that shines with a light no death can dim. You’ve been loved with a perfect love and that perfect love of His for you is what will cast out all the fears the years may bring. And you will find that your love for each other will only grow as you live in Him, for you will grow in love because together bask in the love with which He first loved you. He has named you His own. He has delighted in receiving you as gift from His Father whom it is His unending joy to serve and to honor. In that love of His you will live forever, and when the time comes to an end to your earthly pilgrimage and you cease to walk together as husband and wife, you will have the joy of going on living as brother and sister of the New Adam to whom be glory with His Father and the Holy Spirit now and ever and to the ages of ages! Amen.
And because there wasn’t one and the man was helpless to do anything about it, God did the whole thing. Put the man to sleep and performed a miracle. From him, from his very being, brought forth a being and “brought her to the man.” God does the action. He creates the companion for the man and he gives her to him. And what does man do? He names!
At last! Bone of bones! At last! Flesh of my flesh! At last I’ve been waiting for you my whole life. At last! You know what I’ll call her, God? I’ll call her Ishah, because she came out of Ish. Woman for she came out of man. Or as the geneticists would say XX because she got her XX’s from the XY. Woman.
Moses adds - and that’s why a man leaves his father and mother and holds fast to his wife and they become one flesh.
But hasn’t it ever struck two that that’s NOT the way it actually works in hardly any culture across the face of the world? Rather than the man leaving, it’s usually the woman that leaves. If you’re like most folks, Amilia will be taking Chris’s last name and joining his family and not vice-versa. So why would Moses say that?
Could it be that he was pointing ahead to that mystery behind what is happening with you two today? For there was one who came from His Father and then on His cross left His mother in order to fall asleep and for His side to be opened and from it a new creature to arise to be His spouse, His beloved Bride.
And in Him, St. John makes clear, and only in Him do we finally see what love is. Love isn’t the stuff we work up towards God. Love is this: the Father sends His Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Not that we love God, but that He loves us so much as to give His Son to be the wiping out of our sins. He comes among us as the New Adam looking for His Eve, His Church, His Ishah. Taken out of Ish. And so we see the love that God has for us and the call to live in that love.
And we desperately needed the New Adam and his new bride, since the first Ish and the first Ishah totally got it all gummed up. Instead of living in the joy of God’s giving, they decided to do some taking to themselves, as you will recall, and from that taking to self they plunged themselves and you and me and all the people in their pretty clothes into the judgment of God. As helpless as Adam was to make himself his Eve; so helpless were we all to be able to step back into the life that God made us for and which Adam and Eve tossed out the window. But what we couldn’t do, God did. As little cooperation needed from us as from Adam. Just lie there and let God do His giving and suddenly there is new life to rejoice in.
And so we come to the miracle of marriage which unfolds before our eyes today. Here too, it’s not about striving. But about receiving. God has a gift for you, Christopher, that you did nothing to earn, create, achieve. And He’s giving you that gift just like He gave you the gift of His Son - just because. Because He loves you and wants you to have a companion with whom to walk through the journey of this world toward His kingdom. Name her your Ishah. Name her your own. And never forget that she’s a treasure from the King of Kings to you and He will demand an accounting for how you honor and serve her.
And you, Amilia, just as little as Eve had anything to do with being brought to life, so you’ve been given not only the joy of eternal life in Your Jesus, but now Jesus increases your joy with the gift of a husband. Sheet gift for you to receive and treasure and love and honor and serve all the days He will give you. He is your Ish, your man. Hold to him as the Church holds to Jesus and receives from Him love beyond all her imagining.
Names given mean gifts rejoiced in. Today you two will name each other my husband, my wife. And it’s a way of confessing that God in His love for you has give you each other and bound two together as one. And because you both still carry within you the old Adam and old Eve, who are always think their way is better and makes more sense than God’s, no matter how many times the evidence shows the contrary - stupid is as stupid does - you will find that you must live your lives within the communion of the New Adam and His New Eve, His Church.
Here there is forgiveness bigger than all the sin you can do to each other, here there is a hope and a future that shines with a light no death can dim. You’ve been loved with a perfect love and that perfect love of His for you is what will cast out all the fears the years may bring. And you will find that your love for each other will only grow as you live in Him, for you will grow in love because together bask in the love with which He first loved you. He has named you His own. He has delighted in receiving you as gift from His Father whom it is His unending joy to serve and to honor. In that love of His you will live forever, and when the time comes to an end to your earthly pilgrimage and you cease to walk together as husband and wife, you will have the joy of going on living as brother and sister of the New Adam to whom be glory with His Father and the Holy Spirit now and ever and to the ages of ages! Amen.
Home
Being rather an introvert by nature, home has always been where I prefer being more than any place in the world. That hasn't changed with the move to our new (to us) home back in April. In fact, the preference for home has grown more intense now that I no longer work from my home. I treasure every moment that I get to spend here - from the early morning breakfasts on the deck, sipping our coffee, watching the humming birds dance and the robins nest, to a lazy Saturday afternoon when the sun drenches the dining area and living room (they flow together), to the quiet evenings with some Bach playing softly on the surround-sound (I'd never had that before!) as we enjoy a glass or two of Pinot Noir to the flicker of candles on the piano and the old bench we're using as a coffee table. But most of all, most of all, I treasure the times when the children are home for a meal and the house is filled again with their raucous laughter and the conversations grow louder and louder, and the cards get pulled out.I'm especially eager for starting new memories of holidays here. A home doesn't quite properly seem a home until there are memories in it of Thanksgiving turkeys, Christmas hymn sings, and New Year Eve parties.
I've heard tell that smell is one of the most evocative senses for nostalgia. I know that has been true for me with the smell of a wood fire. I get one whiff on a cold and gray day, and images float before my mind of the old kitchen at Grandma Bess' or Aunt Emma's - cornbread baking in the oven and coffee sitting on the stove, and somehow the warmth in the house (which was more than the fire in the wood stove, but that seems closely akin to it) had the promise beating back the encroaching chill. This house has a real fire-place and even though if you step outside it feels like you're IN a roaring fire, I am still eagerly anticipating the day I come home and there's a fire in the hearth with that wondrous smell that says "home" to my nose and memory like nothing else.
Funeral Music
Can be tricky. I mean, the family may have their heart set on some pieces that simply do not serve the Church's mandate to proclaim the resurrection and the comfort and joy of Christ's victory over the grave. They want the "familiar" but then that really sets a challenge before pastors when their wishes ask for pieces not in our hymnal (my former parish had a policy that no hymns not in the hymnal would be sung at weddings and funerals - it's kind of limiting, but it helps the pastor to be able to say: "Oh, I'm sorry. We can only do what's in the hymnal - that's our congregation's practice. Can we look at some of these?") or for pieces that simply have nothing to do with the hope and joy of resurrection.
My pastoral practice for good or ill in the past was always to insist that the first hymn HAD to be a hymn of the resurrection. It connects with the lighted paschal candle and the pall as a sign of our baptismal sharing in Christ's righteousness and victory. I'd have several suggestions available to choose from. I'd encourage the hymn before the sermon to be a favorite of the person who had died. If they had two strong favorites, maybe include another one right after the sermon.
But leaving the Church, the procession out headed to the grave? This is the time for the Church's huge "You have not won, Death! You have not won at all!" to be proclaimed. There are a handful of hymns in our hymnal that do the job, but I've come to believe that the absolute best piece at that moment is: "God's Own Child."
"There is nothing worth comparing to this life-long comfort sure. Open-eyed my grave is staring, even there I'll sleep secure. Though my flesh awaits its raising, Still my soul continues praising. I am baptized into Christ! I'm a child of paradise."
When people leave church singing THAT, they can virtually DANCE to the grave in the joy that is the unique experience of the Christian faith. Such funerals then witness as no other service of the Church does (because of the larger number of unchurched who end up showing up for funerals) of the Life that has been given the deceased, a life that is way stronger than the death that seems (but only seems!) to have triumphed. We know it is not so and sing our joy in the face of death.
Pastors, whatever you do when it comes to addressing the problem of hymns in the funeral, work to make sure that every funeral that comes along witnesses in song the joy of the resurrection itself - that the flesh that lies in that coffin dead and decaying will rise incorruptible and shining in glory!
My pastoral practice for good or ill in the past was always to insist that the first hymn HAD to be a hymn of the resurrection. It connects with the lighted paschal candle and the pall as a sign of our baptismal sharing in Christ's righteousness and victory. I'd have several suggestions available to choose from. I'd encourage the hymn before the sermon to be a favorite of the person who had died. If they had two strong favorites, maybe include another one right after the sermon.
But leaving the Church, the procession out headed to the grave? This is the time for the Church's huge "You have not won, Death! You have not won at all!" to be proclaimed. There are a handful of hymns in our hymnal that do the job, but I've come to believe that the absolute best piece at that moment is: "God's Own Child."
"There is nothing worth comparing to this life-long comfort sure. Open-eyed my grave is staring, even there I'll sleep secure. Though my flesh awaits its raising, Still my soul continues praising. I am baptized into Christ! I'm a child of paradise."
When people leave church singing THAT, they can virtually DANCE to the grave in the joy that is the unique experience of the Christian faith. Such funerals then witness as no other service of the Church does (because of the larger number of unchurched who end up showing up for funerals) of the Life that has been given the deceased, a life that is way stronger than the death that seems (but only seems!) to have triumphed. We know it is not so and sing our joy in the face of death.
Pastors, whatever you do when it comes to addressing the problem of hymns in the funeral, work to make sure that every funeral that comes along witnesses in song the joy of the resurrection itself - that the flesh that lies in that coffin dead and decaying will rise incorruptible and shining in glory!
27 July 2012
New Lutheran Quote of the Day
The predicates of Christ are the predicates of the church. — Dr. Kenneth Korby, The Pastoral Office and the Priesthood of Believers, Lord Jesus Christ, Will You Not Stay? p. 355.
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Investiture differs from ordination because ordination occurs just once, but investiture is repeated as often as anyone who has been ordained to the ministry is called to another church or to another grade of office in the same church. — Blessed Johann Gerhard, On the Ministry, p. 246.
Patristic Quote of the Day
For your sake He suffered death, that you might die to your sins. His face endured spitting, that you might not shrink from scorn. He drank vinegar and gall, that you might be set apart from wrath. He received stripes in His body, that you might not fear suffering. — St. Ephraim the Syrian (cited in Today's Treasury).
26 July 2012
25 July 2012
New Lutheran Quote of the Day
It is in his body that Jesus offers the sacrifice. It is in his body that we draw near to God. The temple in which we now worship God is the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. The very body, born of Mary, crucified for us and raised from the dead is fed to us. We are created into his mystical body, joined to Christ the Head. In him and in this mystical body we worship God. —Dr. Kenneth Korby, "The Pastoral Office and the Priesthood of Believers" Lord Jesus Christ, Will You Not Stay? p. 354.
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