The Before Bed Hymn

Lord Jesus, since You love me,
Now spread Your wings above me
And shield me from alarm.
Though Satan would devour me,
Let angel guards sing o'er me:
This child of God shall meet no harm.
LSB 880:4

Now the Queen

Now the queen of seasons, bright
With the day of splendor,
With the royal feasts of feasts,
Comes its joy to render;
Comes to gladden faithful hearts
Which with true affection
Welcome in unwearied strain
Jesus' resurrection!

For today among His own
Christ appeared, bestowing
His deep peace, which evermore
Passes human knowing.
Neither could the gates of death
Nor the tomb's dark portal
Nor the watchers nor the seal
Hold Him as a mortal.

Alleluia! Now we cry
To our King immortal,
Who, triumphant, burst the bars
Of the tomb's dark portal.
Come, you faithful, raise the strain
Of triumphant gladness!
God has brought His Israel
Into joy from sadness.

St. John of Damascus,
LSB 487:3=5

Wondering...

...why I didn't upgrade to Quicktime Pro a LONG time ago.

Last One - Easter, Introit through Collect

Easter - Offering Gathered, Music, Prayer of the Church

Easter - Homily, Part 2

Easter Day - Homily Part 1

Easter Day - Readings and Intervening Chants

Sorry the Video and Audio

aren't in sync. Not sure how Youtube messed that up. I've got a few more I'll post shortly, God willing.

Easter Day - Conclusion of LIturgy

Easter Day - Distribution Music

Easter Day - Preface to Agnus

From Easter Day - Entrance

Patristic Quote of the Day

The reason why the One who completely fills the universe asks for food, why the Bread eats, is not be He hungers for food, but because He always hungers for the love of His own people. -- St. Peter Chrysologus, Homily 78 on John 21

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Thus it is with the general absolution that God announced to the whole world by the resurrection of Christ. All of this is of no help to the poor world if it remains in unbelief. God has already given to each of us the forgiveness of sins, but He will not force any of us to accept it. We must accept it in order for it to be beneficial to us, and we do that only through faith. The resurrected Christ did not offer a single word of condemnation against His disciple's sins - not against Peter's denial and not against the flight of all the others. The only thing He chastised in them was their unbelief. - C. F. W. Walther, *God Grant It!* p. 349

More Photos Heisted from Meaghan

One of the Many

great photos that Meaghan shot today of Bekah and Lauren:

The Easter Season - The Great Fifty Days

from Treasury, p. 189

The Easter season is a fifty day-long season of joy extending from Easter to Pentecost. During this time, the Church celebrates the end of Christ's struggles and proclaims His victory over death and the reception of the benefits of His life, death and resurrection as gracious gifts of love and mercy for all who believe in Him. This is the Church's great season of joy! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

A Week of Vacation

Blogging may be spotty; answering emails will not be a priority; be patient and God willing (and I remember) I'll get back to you!

A blessed Easter week to all Western blog readers, and a blessed Holy Week to my Orthodox friends!

Music of the Feast

I mentioned the distribution hymns earlier, but how much of our joy of the day is carried by the hymnody! We also sang this morning:

Joy to the Heart (Matins and Divine Service)
Awake My Heart with Gladness (Matins)
Christ Jesus Lay in Death's Strong Bands (Divine Service)
Now All the Vault of Heaven Resounds (Divine Service)

and the St. Paul quartet sang for us "Christians to the Paschal Victim" at Divine Service and in preservice the Adult Choir sang a joyous setting of "O Sons and Daughters of the King."

The music of Pascha cannot be topped. Period.

Whew!

I'm wiped and I'm sure so are the good folks who put on the breakfast this morning and sang in the choirs and played the organ and trumpet and rang the bells and beat the drums and recorded the liturgies. It was a joyful feast day indeed. At the Divine Service we sang our way through FIVE distribution hymns:

I know that My Redeemer Lives (8 stanzas - with choir, trumpet and organ)
Jesus Christ is Risen Today (4 stanzas - with bells and organ)
At the Lamb's High Feast (8 stanzas)
Christ has Arisen (5 stanzas)
The Day of Resurrection (4 stanzas)

And STILL they lined up for the Sacrament! Glory to Jesus Christ!

We departed Church in the bright sunlight and with the bell ringing out the joy of the resurrection (thanks, Ron!). Christ indeed from death is risen! Alleluia!

Christos Anesti!

Christ is risen, and you, Hell, are overthrown!
Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen!
Christ is risen, and the Angels rejoice!
Christ is risen, and life reigns!
Christ is risen, and not one remains in the grave!
For Christ, being risen from the dead, has become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen.
--from the Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom, *Treasury* p. 185

Rejoice now!

Rejoice now, all you heav'nly choirs of angels; rejoice now, all creation; sound forth trumpet of salvation, and proclaim the triumph of our King. Rejoice, too, all the earth, in the radiance of the light now poured upon you and made brilliant by the brightness of the everlasting King; know that the ancient darkness has been forever banished. Rejoice, O Church of Christ, clothed in the brightness of this light; let all this house of God ring out with rejoicing, with the praises of all God's faithful people.

...

It is truly good, right, and salutary that we should at all times and in all places, with all our heart and mind and voice praise You, O Lord, Holy Father, almighty everlasting God, and Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. For He is the very Paschal Lamb who offered Himself for the sin of the world, who has cleansed us by the shedding of His precious blood. This is the night when You brought our fathers, the children of Israel, out of bondage in Egypt and led them through the Red Sea on dry ground. This is the night when all who believe in Christ are delivered from bondage to sin and are restored to life and immortality. This is the night when Christ, the Life, arose from the dead. The seal of the grave is broken and the morning of the new creation breaks forth out of night. Oh, how wonderful and beyond all telling is Your mercy toward us, O God, that to redeem a slave You gave Your Son. How holy is this night when all wickedness is put to flight and sin is washed away. How holy is this night when innocence is restored to the fallen and joy given to the downcast. How blessed is this night when man is reconciled to God in Christ. Holy Father, accept now the evening sacrifices of our thanksgiving and praise. Let Christ, the true light and morning star, shine in our hearts, He who gives light to the whole creation, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

From the appointed Liturgy of the Vigil of Easter, LSB Altar Book, 534-536

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Whether we comprehend it with or without pictures is an indifferent matter, as long as we don't become heretics and this article remains intact, that our Lord Jesus Christ did descend into hell, battered hell open, overcame the devil, and delivered those who were held captive by the devil. - Blessed Martin Luther, House Postil I:480

Patristic Quote of the Day

From today's reading in the Treasury:

But in Your resurrection You persuade men concerning Your birth. You were pure in the womb that was sealed and alive in the tomb that was sealed. The womb and the tomb, being sealed, were witnesses to You and to Your divinity.

The belly and hell cried aloud of Your birth and Your resurrection: The belly, which was sealed, conceived You. Hell, which was closed up, brought You forth. Nature did not cause either the belly to conceive You or hell to give You up!...Thus do they proclaim that You are of heaven. -- Ephraim Syrus

On Kissing the Cross

At the conclusion of the veneration of the cross yesterday at the Chief Service, I did what seemed the most natural thing in the world. After getting up from kneeling before our rough-hewn cross, I reached toward it and kissed it. Pastor Gleason did the same. We kiss what we love, and we love the cross of the Savior upon which our Lord offered Himself to blot out our sin and to destroy our death. I'm sure some folks might think that a bit odd (you expect odd with me, no?), but in the context of that Good Friday liturgy it seemed, well, as I said, the most natural thing to do, and it was totally unpremeditated on either of our part. I wondered if the congregation wanted to come and kiss it too - they'd certainly be welcome to if their piety suggested such.

Photographer Greg Holmes

took these last night and posted them to his blog
St. Paul's

A Resurrection Homily: Incorruptible

Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Today we mark yet another step in the unfathomable love of God for the human race. It was not enough for Him to have created us out of nothing in His image and to place us into the paradise of plenty. It was not enough for Him, when we fell into sin, to promise us a Savior. It was not enough for Him, to give us the Law to teach us our need of His mercy. It was not enough for Him, to send us prophets to call us to trust in Him and to turn from all that is death and vanity. It was not enough for Him to send His Son into our flesh. It was not enough for His Son to walk among us, a man among men, the only REAL man among all others who are really only failures at being men. It was not enough for our Lord to stand in the waters of the Jordan in solidarity with sinners. It was not enough for Him to reach out and touch and heal. It was not enough for Him to teach us the counsels of salvation. It was not even enough for Him to offer up His life a ransom for us upon Gologotha’s stony slope. It was not enough for Him to share our graves and taste our death. It was not enough for Him. He would love us even more. And so the joys of THIS day.

For make no mistake about what THIS day celebrates. Not merely that a man was raised from the dead. This Man had raised others from the dead before - Jairus’ little girl, the widow of Nain’s son, Lazarus. But they were all brought back from death into life with still corruptible flesh. That is, they each finally grew sick and died yet again. I don’t imagine that any of them faced death in the same way again - for they had encountered Him whose Word and call was stronger than death. But their coming back to life was not like what we celebrate today.

For THIS day we celebrate that human flesh, like unto our own, of a piece with us, has been raised from death in incorruption. He will never die again. He is forever beyond all that. As we like to sing: “Gone the nailing, gone the railing, gone the pleading, gone the cry, gone the sighing, gone the dying, what was loss lifted high.”

This is the news that the Angel brought to the Marys and Salome at the tomb: “You seek Jesus of Nazareth. He is not here. He is risen. Come, see the place where they laid Him, but go and tell His disciples and Peter that He is risen and goes before you into Galilee. There you will see Him just as He told you.”

As He told you. His words of promise never fail. You can count on them when everything else around you is shaking, when your world crumbles, when your heart breaks, when your body fails. He will not fail you. It wasn’t enough for Him to merely share our flesh and blood. Oh, no. He would have that flesh and blood glorified, raised in incorruption, shining with the light of deity, the very source of our eternal hope. And He will take that glorified flesh and blood and raise it to the right hand of the Father, bringing humanity at long last to that place where God had intended us to live from the beginning.

And do you see what His incorruption means to you? He, who is now forever beyond death, beyond sin, beyond the accusations of the law, beyond hell - He has joined you to Him. In your Baptism you went into that grave with Him and you came out with Him. Alive. One with Him. His life was given you there in the water to be your life - His INCORRUPTIBLE life. But with Him, that’s never enough. There’s always more.

And so He sends His servants out to proclaim His promises - promises that cannot fail, that are as sure and certain as His rising from that grave on this day in incorruption. Incorruptible promises to make you partakers of His divine nature. This is how St. Peter put it: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” (2 Peter 1:3,4) The promises of the Incorruptible One impart to you incorruption and make you a sharer in His divine nature - so that all that He is by nature you become by grace. He, a child of God; You, a child of God; He, the Heir of the Father; You, the heir of the Father.

But with Him there is always more. It was not enough for Him to baptize you into His own indestructible life; not enough for Him to arrange for His promises to be spoken to you to impart to you incorruption through faith. He goes further; He has more; His love knows no limit. He has a meal for you. He wants to put into you, into your corruptible, dying, sinful bodies His incorruptible, undying, sinless Body and Blood for your forgiveness and for you life. He wants to unite you to Himself; to strengthen the bonds of your faith; to comfort you; to hold and still you in all your anxieties and fears. He wants you to know that just as death was not the end of Him, so it will NEVER be the end of you. He wants you to rejoice that YOU have a life that is stronger than all the death in this world.

Old Job could go to his grave in the confidence that his Redeemer lived, and that on the other side of the corruption - yes, though his body be destroyed - yet he would live again in this flesh and his eyes and none other would behold God. And as he thought of it, his heart burned within him.

We see more than Job. For we have known the Redeemer for whom he waited, and we know His triumph over death and the grave. We know that not a single word of His ever proves false.

So, beloved, since Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed, let us keep the feast. Away with the corruptible leavened bread of malice! Away with the corruptible leavened bread of evil! Let us welcome the incorruptible unleavened bread of sincerity and truth: the sincerity that is God’s earnest promise and the truth that with our God and His love for us, nothing was good enough until He had made our nature incorruptible in His Son and united us to Him that we might live in Him forevermore. This is God’s sincerity. This is God’s truth. This is the Bread on which we feast this day - the incorruptible bread that is Christ our Passover Lamb to whom be glory with His Father and the Holy Spirit - the only true God who has loved us with a love immeasurable, deep, divine. Amen.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Random Thoughts from Holy Saturday Matins...

Today's Psalms - wow.

For You have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the land of the living. 56

He will send from heaven and save me; he will put to shame him who tramples on me... My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast! I will sing and make melody! Awake, my glory! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn! I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to You among the nations. 57

Mankind will say, "Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth." 58

And the prayer we pray each Saturday - how it speaks to the conversation on worship on the earlier thread:

Prepare our hearts to take part in the eternal liturgy sung before Your throne, and grant that in the Sacrament we may join in the never-ending feast, until that final day comes. Hear our prayer for the sake of the Lamb, Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

We Have Entered

our Lord's Sabbath rest. As He rested on the seventh day from His work of creation; so He rests in the tomb on the Sabbath day from His work of redemption. Here is a beautiful and comforting homily from the early Church about the events of Holy Saturday (which, of course, in the Church's mind began at sunset this evening):

Something strange is happening - there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: "My Lord be with you all". Christ answered him: "And with your spirit". He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: "Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light".

I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated. For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.

See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.

I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.

An Oops

Altar Book: Epistle for chief service on Good Friday is Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9

Lectionary: Epistle for chief service on Good Friday is 2 Corinthians 5:14-21

On the Holy Week Liturgies

http://www.issuesetc.org/podcast/202040709H2.mp3

Amazing

The Pieta on the front page of the LCMS website today:

LCMS

Behold, the Life-giving Cross!

Behold, the life-giving cross on which was hung the salvation of the world.
O come, let us worship Him!

Thus says the Lord: What have I done to you, O My people, and wherein have I offended you? Answer me. For I have raised you up out of the prison house of sin and death, and you have delivered up your Redeemer to be scourged. For I have redeemed you from the house of bondage, and you have nailed your Savior to the cross. O my people!

Holy Lord God, holy and mighty God, holy and most merciful Redeemer;
God eternal, leave us not to bitter death. O Lord, have mercy!

Lamb of God, pure and holy,
Who on the cross didst suffer,
Ever patient and lowly,
Thyself to scorn didst offer.
All sins Thou borest for us,
Else had despair reigned o'er us:
Have mercy on us, O Jesus! O Jesus!

Thus says the Lord: What have I done to you, O My people, and wherein have I offended you? Answer Me. For I have conquered all your foes, and you have given Me over and delivered Me to those who persecute Me. For I have fed you with My Word and refreshed you with living water, and you have given Me gall and vinegar to drink. O My people!

Holy Lord God, holy and mighty God, holy and most merciful Redeemer;
God eternal, allow us not to lose hope in the face of death and hell. O Lord, have mercy!

Lamb of God, pure and holy,
Who on the cross didst suffer,
Ever patient and lowly,
Thyself to scorn didst offer.
All sins Thou borest for us,
Else had despair reigned o'er us:
Have mercy on us, O Jesus! O Jesus!

Thus says the Lord: What have I done to you, O My people, and wherein have I offended you? Answer Me. What more could have been done for My vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? O My people, is this how you thank you thank your God? O My people!

Holy Lord God, holy and mighty God, holy and most merciful Redeemer:
God eternal, keep us steadfast in the true faith. O Lord, have mercy!

Lamb of God, pure and holy,
Who on the cross didst suffer,
Ever patient and lowly,
Thyself to scorn didst offer.
All sins Thou borest for us,
Else had despair reigned o'er us:
Thy peace be with us, O Jesus! O Jesus!

We adore You, O Lord, and we praise and glorify Your holy resurrection.
For behold, by the wood of Your cross joy has come into all the world.
God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us, and have mercy upon us.
We adore You, O Lord, and we praise and glorify Your holy resurrection.
For behold, by the wood of Your cross joy has come into all the world.

--Good Friday Chief Service - LSB Altar Book

Upon the Cross Extended

Upon the cross extended
See, world, your Lord suspended.
Your Savior yields His breath.
The Prince of life from heaven
Himself has freely given
To shame and blows and bitter death.

Come, see these things and ponder,
Your soul will fill with wonder
As blood pours from each pore.
Through grief beyond all knowing
From His great heart came flowing
Sighs welling from its deepest core.

Who is it, Lord, that bruised You?
Who has so sore abused You
And cause You all Your woe?
We all must make confession
Of sin and dire transgression
While You no ways of evil know.

I caused Your grief and sighing
By evils multiplying
As countless as the sands.
I caused the woes unnumbered
With which Your soul is cumbered,
Your sorrows raised by wicked hands.

Your soul in griefs unbounded,
Your head with thorns surrounded,
You died to ransom me.
The cross for me enduring,
The crown for me securing,
You healed my wounds and set me free.

Your cords of love, my Savior,
Bind me to You forever,
I am no longer mine.
To You I gladly tender
All that my life can render
And all I have to resign.

Your cross I place before me;
Its saving power restore me,
Sustain me in the test.
It will, when life is ending,
Be guiding and attending
My way to Your eternal rest.
LSB 453 - Paul Gerhardt

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

As certain as it is that the graves were opened and the dead went forth after Christ's death, it is just as certain that His death marked the end of our death and issued in a stream of eternal life flowing toward us. -- C. F. W. Walther, *God Grant It!* p. 314

Patristic Quote of the Day

But if any honest Christian wants to know why the Lord suffered death on the cross and not in some other way, we answer thus: in no other way was it expedient for us, indeed the Lord offered for our sakes the one death that was supremely good. He had come to bear the curse that lay on us; and who could He "become a curse" otherwise than by accepting the accursed death. And that death is the cross, for it is written, "cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree." - St. Athanasius, Treasury, p. 176

A Little OP for Good Friday

It is finished.

IT was one of the tense moments in history when time in some strange manner feels more like eternity….There is always a touch of that at the hour of death….At the death of the Son of God in a world where nothing is ever finished there was more than a touch of eternity….His cry came from Calvary, but it had echoed in the heart of God as He watched the angel in the Garden close the gate upon the lost parents of a lost race….The door had closed, the children were gone, the years of separation had begun….Now that had ended….He took the last step on the world’s altar stairs, and eternity was before Him….

Here above all there must be good theology….You see, this is atonement….This is the triumphant end of an infinite plan which comes to perfect consummation when at the close of the third hour the Author and Finisher of our faith breaks the silence with the news that His quest has ended and the yearning of His heart has been stilled….Nothing remains to be done….Not for Him and not for us….Only to believe….Every hour now in the passing of time, at the deathbed, in cathedral, in chapel, in metropolis, village, or wilderness, at the ends of the earth, and to the end of time comes the voice which has cried these nineteen hundred years: “It is finished.”….You have nothing to do but believe…

St. Romanos the Melodist - Again to Paradise!

Pilate fixed three crosses on Golgotha: two for the thieves, and one for the Giver of life. When Hell saw it, he said to those below, “My ministers and powers, who has fixed a nail in my heart? A wooden lance has suddenly pierced me and I am being torn apart! My insides are in pain, my belly in agony, my senses make my spirit tremble, and I am compelled to disgorge Adam and Adam’s race. All men were given to me by the Garden’s tree–but now a tree is bringing them back again to Paradise.”

When he heard this, Satan, the cunning serpent ran crawling and said, “What is it, hell? Why do you groan for no reason? Why produce these wailings? This Tree, at which you tremble, I carpentered up there for Mary’s Child. I suggested it to his enemies for our advantage, for it is a Cross, to which I have nailed Christ, wishing by a tree to do away with the second Adam, just as I did away with the first one. So do not be afraid. It is dry and barren. It will not harm you. Keep hold of those you have. Of those we rule, not one will escape again to Paradise.”

Hell replied to Satan, “You have lost your senses–you, the cunning snake of old! All your wisdom has been swallowed up by the cross, and you have been caught in your own snare. Lift up your eyes and see that you have fallen into the pit you dug! Behold that Tree, which you call dry and barren, bears fruit: a thief tasted it and has become heir to the good things of Eden. Moses’ rod led the people out of Egypt, but this tree brings mankind back again to Paradise.”

Satan answered, “Wretched hell–cease this cowardly talk! Your words reveal your thoughts. Are you afraid of a cross and of the Crucified? Not one of your words has shaken me, for these deeds are part of my plan. I will also open a grave and entomb Christ, so that you may enjoy your cowardice doubly–from his tomb as well as from his cross. When I see you, I will mock you. For when Christ is buried I will come to you and say, “Who now brings Adam back again to Paradise?”

Then hell spoke back, “Now is the moment for you to listen, Satan. Now you will see the power of the Cross and the great authority of the Crucified. For you, the cross is folly. But the world sees it as a throne, on which, as though seated, Jesus is nailed and hears the thief cry to him, ‘Lord, remember me in your kingdom.’  Listen now as he answers, kingly, ‘Today, poor beggar, you will reign with me. For with me, you will go in again to Paradise.”

 At these words, Satan began to wilt, and what he heard he saw: a thief witnessing to Christ crucified. And so, amazed, he struck his breast and said, “Christ did not answer his accusers, and yet he speaks to a thief? To Pilate he never spoke a word; but now he addresses a murderer, saying, “Come, live in pleasure”? What is this? Who has seen words or deeds done by this thief, by means of which he goes again to Paradise?

Again the devil called out, “Receive me, Hell. I turn to you; I submit to your views, I, who did not believe them. I saw the Tree at which you shuddered, made red with blood and water. And I shuddered, not, I tell you, at the blood, but at the water. For the blood shows Jesus’ slaughter, but the water shows his life, for life has gushed from his side. For it was not the first but the second Adam who carried Eve, the mother of all the living, again to Paradise.”

Now Hell and Satan cried out together, “Let us lament as we see the Tree which we planted transformed into a holy trunk, beneath which thieves, murderers, tax collectors and harlots will find shelter, and reap sweet fruit from what seemed barren. For they cling to the Cross as the Tree of Life. Pressed against it and swimming, through it they escape, and come again as to a harbor, again to Paradise.”

Hell said to Satan, “Swear, tyrant, finally to crucify no one.” And Satan replied, “You take an oath to kill no one. We have had our experience, let us draw back our hand. Let neither of us ever again tyrannize the race of Adam, for it has been sealed by the Cross, it has been given life, like a treasure of a precious pearl in a fragile pot; life, which a thief, well-suited to his trade, took on the Cross. For stealing he was nailed up to die ; and having thieved he was called again to Paradise.”

O most high and glorious, God of fathers and of youths, your willing outrage has become our honor. For in your Cross, we all may boast. To it we have nailed our hearts, that on it we may hang our instruments and sing to you, the Lord of all, from the songs of Zion. The ship from Tarshish once brought gold to Solomon; but to us your Tree gives back, every day and every moment, wealth beyond price. For it brings us all again to Paradise.

A Little OP for Holy Thursday

Woman, behold thy son! Behold thy mother!

HE had only another hour, but Mary and John had a few more years….Standing at the gate where the shadows end, He turns for a moment to call back to two who were still a little way down the road…. Life has a way of going on even beyond its crosses and its Calvarys…. The last echo of the lonely walking of God in the ways of men….He knew the loneliness of crowds, the calling in the night for the companionship of heaven, the dark and listening hours of garden and hill….It will be good to know in heaven that His mother will not be alone on earth….

The strange loneliness of a world which moves in the shadow of unreason and of death….Words to hide and walls to separate. …Crowds and hate….It shall not end with this….A head crowned with thorns and universal kinghood bows down again to the crowd that has no home but His….“Behold!”….Since the cross, there is a fellowship so close that anyone of us can with a word ask Him—and whole flights of angels—to join us on the way…. There is a legend that in the years after Calvary, Mary would often kneel alone on the summit of the hill in which were still three holes and the marks of an earthquake and below which were still an empty grave and a broken door….That door is still open….

Hijacked from Jen:

Study this painting. Then you'll get why we can't and won't compromise on the liturgy.

And so it begins...

...with that solemn and beautiful liturgy. From the confessional address with the confession and absolution, to the collect, from the readings to the singing out of "O Lord, We praise Thee," from the Eucharist to the stripping of the altar as the plaintive Psalm 22 is chanted responsively and then the silence as the people file out.

Yes, the service goes on. It doesn't end with our departure. We spend these hours with our Lord in His suffering, we watch with Him in prayer, we rejoice that He prays for us, and we will bow before His cross and give glory to His resurrection!

A Prayer Before Approaching the Holy Eucharist

Almighty Lord Jesus Christ,
as often as I shall come
to Your holy table
to refresh my spirit,
I pray You to make me,
unworthy as I am,
worthy through Your grace;
impure as I am,
to make me clean;
naked as I am
to clothe me,
so that Your Body,
so full of divine power,
and Your most precious Blood
may not become for me, Your servant,
the occasion for judgment or punishment,
but a memorial of the death
You underwent for me,
a strengthening of my faith,
a proof of the taking away of my sins,
a bond of closer union with You and Your people,
an increase of holiness,
the basis of a glad resurrection,
and a pledge of everlasting life. Amen.
--Blessed David Hollaz

Now, My Tongue

Now, my tongue, the myst'ry telling,
Of the glorious body sing,
And the blood, all price-excelling,
Which the Gentile's Lord and King
Once on earth among us dwelling
Shed for this world's ransoming.

Giv'n for us and condescending
To be born for us below,
He with us in converse blending
Dwelt, the seed of truth to sow,
Till He closed with wondrous ending
That most patient life of woe.

That last night at supper lying
Mid the Twelve, His chosen band,
Jesus, with the Law complying,
Keeps the feast its rites demand;
Then, more precious food supplying,
Gives Himself with His own hand.

Word made flesh, the bread He taketh,
By His Word His flesh to be;
Wine His sacred blood He maketh
Though the senses fail to see;
Faith alone the true heart waketh
To behold the mystery.

Glory let us give and blessing
To the Father and the Son,
Honor, thanks and praise addressing
While eternal ages run;
Ever too His love confessing
Who from both with both is One.
- St. Thomas Aquinas
LSB 630

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

In this Meal, the subject and his king, the slave and his master, the beggar and the rich, and child and the old man, the wife and the husband, the simple and the learned, truly all communicants stand as the same poor sinners and beggars, hungry and thirsty for grace. Although one may appear in a rough apron while another in velvet and satin, adorned with gold and pearls, when they depart, all take with them that for which they hunger and thirst: Christ's blood and righteousness as their beauty and glorious dress. No one receives a better food and better drink than the other. All receive the same Jesus, and with Him, the same righteousness. -- C. F. W. Walther, *Treasury*, p. 173

Patristic Quote of the Day

When is a King more glorious? When he is decked out in his purple, adorned with diadem, covered with gold, high on his throne, only when he is ready to go in solemn procession or seated in private? Or is he more glorious when wearing ordinary attire for the battlefield, last in honor, first in perils, laden with a sword, heavily equipped with arms, when for his country, for his citizens, for his children and for the life of all the people he destroys the enemy, despises dangers, thinks little of wounds, and is willing to endure his own death for the safety of his people, so that he gains a greater victory and triumph by despising death than by defeating the enemy itself?

And so what is the problem if Christ came to our condition of slavery from the bosom of the Father, from the hidden realm of divinity, in order to restore us to his liberty; he endured our death in order that we might have life by his death; when by disdaining death he brought us mortals back as gods, and put us earthly beings on the same level as heavenly ones? -- St. Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 72b

ER Visit

Cindi, Dave and I spent the morning at the ER with Jo. She was having terrible pain in her knee and leg - quite swollen. We needed to rule out blood clot. It wasn't, Deo gratias. But it's still a bit of mystery what exactly is going on.

Confessional Address

[from the Maundy Thursday Divine Service, Altar Book, p. 507, 508]

During this Lenten season we have heard our Lord's call to intensify our struggle against sin, death, and the devil—all that prevents us from trusting in God and loving each other. Since it is our intention to receive the Holy Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ on this night when He instituted this blessed meal for our salvation, it is proper that we complete our Lenten discipline by diligently examining ourselves, as St. Paul urges us to do. This holy Sacrament has been instituted for the special comfort of those who are troubled because of their sin and who humbly confess their sins, fear God's wrath, and hunger and thirst for righteousness.

But when we examine our hearts and consciences, we find nothing in us but sin and death, from which we are incapable of delivering ourselves. Therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ has had mercy on us. For our benefit He became man so that He might fulfill for us the whole will and law of God and, to deliver us, took upon Himself our sin and the punishment we deserve.

So that we may more confidently believe this and be strengthened in the faith and in holy living, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread, broke it, and gave it to His disciples and said: "Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you." It is as if He said, "I became man, and all that I do and suffer is for your good. As a pledge of this, I give you My body to eat."

In the same way also He took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying: "Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins." Again, it is as if He said, "I have had mercy on you by taking into Myself all your iniquities. I give Myself into death, shedding My blood to obtain grace and forgiveness of sins, and to comfort and establish the new testament, which gives forgiveness and everlasting salvation. As a pledge of this, I give you My blood to drink."

Therefore, whoever eats this bread and drinks this cup, confidently believing this Word and promise of Christ, dwells in Christ and Christ in him and has eternal life.

We should also do this in remembrance of Him, showing His death—that He was delivered for our offenses and raised for our justification. Giving Him our most heartfelt thanks, we take up our cross and follow Him and, according to His commandment, love one another as He has loved us. As our Lord on this night exemplified this love by washing His disciples' feet, so we by our words and actions serve one another in love. For we are all one bread and one cup. For just as the one cup is filled with wine of many grapes and one bread made from countless grains, so also we, being many, are one body in Christ. Because of Him, we love one another, not only in word, but in deed and in truth.

May the almighty and merciful God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by His Holy Spirit, accomplish this in us.

Sing My Tongue

[Sung in Good Friday's Liturgy]

Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle:
Sing the ending of the fray.
Now above the Cross, the trophy,
Sound the loud triumphant lay;
Tell how Christ, the world's redeemer,
As a victim won the day.

Tell how, when at length the fullness
Of the appointed time was come,
He, the Word was born of woman,
Left for us His Father's home,
Blazed the path of true obedience,
Shone as light amidst the gloom.

Thus, with thirty years accomplished
He went forth from Nazareth,
Destined, dedicated, willing,
Did His work and met His death;
Like a lamb He humbly yielded
On the Cross His dying breath.

Faithful cross, true sign of triumph,
Be for all the noblest tree;
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thine equal be;
Symbol of the world's redemption,
For the weight that hung on thee.

Unto God be praise and glory,
To the Father and the Son,
To the eternal Spirit honor
Now and evermore be done;
Praise and glory in the highest
While the timeless ages run.

LSB 454 (by Venantius Honorius Fortunatus, c. 530-609)

[We'll use the Fortunatus New tune that is provided in LSB, but if you'd like to hear the hymn with the traditional tune and ALL the verses, you can listen to Pr. Ben Mayes singing it here:

Sing My Tongue
Sing My Tongue (the rest)]

It's ONLY five?

It feels later. Day started early with Matins and then our Holy Wednesday Eucharist - with St. Luke's Passion and Pastor Gleason's fine homily upon "Father, forgive them." Cindi and I headed to the gym for a workout, and then off to pericope study, lunch with pastors and deaconess, hospital visit in St. Louis (pray for Bev!), and then home. Was planning on seeing another shutin, but couldn't get off at the exit I needed to (TRUCKS!). Caught up on my Bible reading and then prayed Vespers and now it's almost five. Nothing on the agenda this evening, though, Deo gratias. It might be early to bed!

Pics from Atlantic District's Chrism Mass

at which the Bishop consecrates the various oils used in the Church's services throughout the year (Traditionally the morning of Maundy Thursday):

Chrism Mass

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Give ear, O my soul, and take courage. Formerly we were sinners by nature; but now are we justified by grace. Before, we were His enemies, now are we His friends and kindred. Before, our help was in the death of Christ, not is in His life; once we were dead in our sins, now are we quickened with Christ. O the immeasurable love of God! - Blessed Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditation* XI

Patristic Quote of the Day

At Thy wedding, O Lord, clothe me in a worthy garment, which Thy grace will prepare for me while I am still here. -- St. Ephraim, the Syrian, *A Spiritual Psalter* #31

A Little MORE OP - Silent Wednesday

Holy week... The most important seven days in the history of man... Although the exact sequence of events is not always clear to us, we can discern, even now, the straight lines of divine order... Sunday: The garments in the dust - the Hosannahs as the prelude to the "Crucify."... Monday: Sermons with the urgent note of finality - the withered fig tree - Caesar's coin... Tuesday: The terrifying wrath of the Lamb over institutionalized and personal sin among the Scribes and Pharisees - the fire and color of His last sermon to the city and the world - the sureness of justice and the coming of judgment... Night and prayer in the light of the Easter moon on the Mount of Olives...

Wednesday is silent... If anything happened, the holy writers have drawn the veil... Everything that God could say before the Upper Room had been said... It was man's turn now... Perhaps there were quiet words in a corner of the Garden, both to His children who would flee and to His Father who would stay... Wednesday was His... The heart of that mad, crowded Holy Week was quiet... Tomorrow the soliders would come, and Friday there would be God's great signature in the sky... Thursday and Friday would belong to time and eternity, but Wednesday was of heaven alone...

Silent Wednesday... If our Lord needed it, how much more we whose life is the story of the Hosannah and the Crucify... Time for prayer, for adoration... Time to call the soul into the inner court and the Garden... In our crowded world we are lonely because we are never alone... No time to go where prayer is the only sound and God is the only light... We need more silent Wednesdays... In the glory of the Cross above our dust our silence can become purging and peace... God speaks most clearly to the heart that is silent before Him... [The Pilgrim, pp. 27, 28]

A Little OP for Holy Wednesday

Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.

WE do not know the story of the Penitent Thief…..Like all of us, he had gone wrong; unlike most of us, he had been caught…. As all of us must, he saw his life now, and at last, in one piece: All that he might have been and all that he had become….God gave him the last gift of the dying, the full vision of the beginning and the end….Out of it, as so often since that afternoon, came the sweet flower of his repentance: “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.”… He who had just prayed for pardon for His murderers cannot turn away from a thief: “Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.”…. “Today!”…. The word falls, serene and sure, unshadowed by doubt….

Men may argue endlessly about eternity and speculate fruitlessly about the hereafter….Here it is, the inn of heaven for two travelers who had met at the crossing of the Way of Sorrows and the way of sin….It was already past noon….Before twilight they were friends, inseparable forever….“With Me!”... “In Paradise.”…God and a thief….God and we….So He will be kind to us at the Last Day….He knows what we are and what we shall be….Now we can be content to wait until our own day fades to its dim evening….His voice will be the music of bells at evensong, no longer from a cross, but from a throne, with the warm immediacy and urgency of a heaven nearer than we had dared to hope….“Today!”…

EWTN

Today during the preparation of the gifts, the cantor sang a lovely piece: "O Dearest Jesus." I love it when a Lutheran chorale is sung on that broadcast. As I said before, somehow, somewhere, deep down, the unity of the Western Church still holds - and shows up in such moments.

From the Original AV

- right before the daily lectionary which richly assigns 4 chapters a day (two in morning, two in evening) and reads through the Psalter each month:

"It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the liuing God; but a blessed thing it is, and will bring us to euerlasting blessednes in the end, when God speaketh vnto us, to hearken; when he setteth his word before vs, to reade it; when hee stretcheth out his hand and calleth, to answere, Here am I; here we are to doe thy will, O God. The Lord worke a care and conscience in vs to know him and serue him, that we may be acknowledged of him at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with the holy Ghost, be all prayse and thankesgiuing."

What a Protestant!

There comes a heathen and says, "I wish to become a Christian, but I know not whom to join: there is much fighting and faction among you, much confusion: which doctrine am I to choose?" How shall we answer him? "Each of you" (says he) "asserts, 'I speak the truth.'" No doubt: this is in our favor. For if we told you to be persuaded by arguments, you might well be perplexed: but if we bid you believe the Scriptures, and these are simple and true, the decision is easy for you. If any agree with the Scriptures, he is the Christian; if any fight against them, he is far from this rule. -- St. John Chrysostom, (Homily 33 in Acts of the Apostles [NPNF1,11:210-11; PG 60.243-44])

From Today's Lenten Catechesis...

Therefore, the Sacrament is given as a daily pasture and sustenance, that faith may refresh and strengthen itself so that it will not fall back in such a battle, but become ever stronger and stronger. The new life must be guided so that it continually increases and progresses. Treasury, p. 127

Yes, Virginia, there IS progress in the new life as it "increases and progresses" - and the Sacrament of the Altar is a precious sustenance for that new life.

Liturgy Thought for the Day

The reason most often behind folks not liking the liturgy, I suspect, is that they don't like the Word of God that is embodied therein; they sense in it something alien, foreign, even threatening. Best steer clear of it. MOST foreign is that it doesn't pander to what they like. In fact, it treats "what I like" as completely irrelevant and the impulse to demand "what I like" as something that needs to die.

"The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Cor. 1:14

Seen and Unseen

Seen:

A man dying, nailed up to a tree
A man dead and being carried to a tomb
A blue sky
Water poured upon a person with words
Bread over which words are spoken and then it is eaten
Wine over which words are spoken and then it is drunk
People coming together regularly in various assemblies around a book, a man who talks to them, and who talk to someone no one sees and a pitifully small meal they share
A book that is read in the assembly, and a book that is read at home
A man talking to a bunch of people
A man touching a person's head and speaking words
A bunch of people who attend to all the above
Love in the life

Unseen:

Christ entering the true most holy place by means of His own blood
Christ offering Himself once and for all through the Eternal Spirit without blemish to the Father
Christ at the right hand of God, interceding for us.
The blood of Jesus in the waters of Baptism
The communion of the Body of Christ with the consecrated bread
The communion of the Blood of Christ with the consecrated wine
The unity of all baptized believers in Christ
The Holy Spirit in the Words of Scripture
The Holy Spirit in faithful preaching
The Holy Spirit in the words of absolution
The Blessed Trinity living in the hearts of His people
Faith in the heart


"For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:17,18

The Big Sigh

I've got all the bulletins in my hands now (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday Chief Service, Good Friday Tenebrae Vespers, Easter Vigil, Easter Matins, Easter Divine Service) and the homilies are completed. Still have a few shutins I want to finish up this week, but mostly the week will be free for prayer, Scripture readings, and meditation - baring any unforeseen emergencies.

A Little OP for Holy Tuesday

I thirst.


THE first and last reflection of the agony of crucifixion…. Perhaps He thought for a moment of the time when, long ago, He had said the same words….To a woman at a well in Samaria….He had told her about the living waters that would never fail…Now He was bringing them to the world….

We cannot be very proud of what happened then….Someone took a sponge, wet it with vinegar, and held it to His lips…. Perhaps it was better than nothing….The world’s last offering to its King….Humanity carelessly brushing the lips of its God with vinegar….

If you have ever asked for a glass of water, He belongs to You….“For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.”….He knows them all….There is no need through which He has not made a path….

Perhaps we are not very important….But His complete humanity makes Him the Lord of little things….The broken pencil of the child, the broken home, the broken life—nothing is too small or unimportant to Him who sees a sparrow fall and here, as He was saving the world, was thirsty….

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

The life of God in the life of the parish implies that the parish take worship seriously, that it nourishes itself at the font, the lectern, the pulpit, the altar. It is here Christ gives Himself to us so that we may become "other Christs" to others by serving them. -- A. C. Piepkorn *The Church* p. 134

Patristic Quote of the Day

Glory to Thee, Who didst descend to save our souls!
Glory to Thee, Who didst take flesh in the womb of the Virgin!
Glory to Thee, Who didst suffer bondage!
Glory to Thee, Who didst accept scourging!
Glory to Thee, Who wast made an object of humiliation!
Glory to Thee, Who was crucified!
Glory to Thee, Who wast buried!
Glory to Thee, Who didst rise from the dead!
--St. Ephraim, the Syrian *A Spiritual Psalter* #2

Holy Tuesday and Maundy Thursday Antiphon

But far be it from me to boast
except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In Him is salvation, life, and resurrection from the dead;
by Him we are redeemed and set at liberty.

A Palm Sunday Laugh

So at Matins, in the examination of the Catechumens, I asked:

"What's included in daily bread?"

Jenna, a young lady, answered:

"Clothes!"

Jonathan, a young man, answered:

"Food!"

Chelsey, a young lady, answered:

"Shoes!"

And that, folks, says VOLUMES about the difference between your typical man and woman...

In the midst

I loved the collect for Divine Service this morning. Could we ask for anything more to the point?

"grant that in the midst of our failures and weaknesses we may be restored through the passion and intercession of Your only-begotten Son."

Snow in April

brought back the memories today. The phone rang at 5:30 or so in the morning on Palm Sunday. I answered it and my mother said: "Bill, Joe's dead." What does one say at such a moment? If you are idiot like myself you say: "You're kidding, right?" She responded in anger: "Would I kid about a thing like that?" After getting off the phone I had to face Church. It was Palm Sunday - one of the most joyous days of the Church Year - and I was preaching. In fact I was preaching on the Old Testament reading from Zechariah: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion..." I went to Pastor Plvan when I saw he'd come to his office and told him. Wise man was silent. Said little, except: "Can you still do the service?" I didn't know if I could, but I thought I'd try. "Yes."

During the first half of the liturgy, as the majestic hymns rolled through the Church I simply lost it. Tears flowed without any check. Pastor, across the chancel was getting more and more nervous. The acolyte, who didn't know what was going on, looked shocked and concerned. The time came to get into the pulpit. God is good and gracious. I was able to preach on joy to the people and most left that day without knowing what had happened. I begged Pastor not to announce it because I knew I couldn't handle the sympathy and still make it through both services.

We told the youth group - for I was supposed to lead Bible class. They were unbelievable. They went into action, booking our flight, arranging to get us to the airport after the Cantata that evening.

The ride was awful. A small plane. Lots of turbulence. It seemed fitting. I think we arrived in rain, and Cindi's parents and grandparents were there, with a car for us to use. Then off to the apartment and facing the family.

The absolute worst of those days was when the funeral director would not allow us to see the body. He insisted it was too damaged. The car wreck had been vicious. I think to this day I was wrong not to have insisted. For years I was haunted by the conviction that he wasn't really dead; that he managed to get away and get out. I'd have the dream over and over again.

The funeral director asked for socks. We DID put down our feet on that. Joseph did not like socks and next to never wore them (he did for our wedding, but I wasn't sure until he showed up that he'd have them on). We insisted he be buried in shoes. They didn't have any. We wore the same size and the same shoe - always a penny loafer. I went across the street and bought a pair of shoes and returned and gave mine to my brother. His body is still wearing them, I suppose.

My sister-in-law asked me to do the burial. It was, I think, a Thursday. It was early April. And it snowed. A light snow - just a tad more than a flurry. And my little nieces were shivering in their Easter dresses with white sweaters. It was a short service.

I love my brothers and my sister; but I think everyone of us had a very special relationship with Joseph. He was the middle child of the family. He always thought *I* was mom's favorite and it used to drive him crazy - the poor boy couldn't see what all the rest of us knew: Joe was everyone's favorite. We all loved him, respected him, and wanted his approval. He always seemed so much more alive than the rest of us. He and I used to love to argue - intellectual kind of arguments. It would drive the rest of them from the room, but we could keep it going for hours and hours. My dearest memory of him is one night after work (I worked in the summers at his warehouse), we went out for drinks and dinner and then back to talk. We talked until the light grew in the sky again. One night. It was one of the best nights of my life.

Enough melancholy. I thought if I wrote about it, it might make it better, but I'm thinking that snow in April right after Palm Sunday is going to get me every time - until I lay down in the grave myself.

Memory eternal, Joseph! Memory eternal!

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

The new life of God implies that every parish be a parish of worshippers, that we respond to God's total redemptive action by offering ourselves in our totality - all that we are and all that we have of the gifts of God's creation - back to Him in thanksgiving and praise. -- A. C. Piepkorn, *The Church* p. 134

Patristic Quote of the Day

I bow down to Thee, O Master; I bless Thee, O Good One; I beseech Thee, O Holy One; I fall down before Thee, O Lover of mankind; and I glorify Thee, O Christ; for Thou, O Only-begotten Master of all, O Only Sinless One, wast, for the sake of me, an unworthy sinner, given up to death on the cross in order to free the soul of a sinner from the bondage of sin. And how shall I repay Thee, O Master? Glory to Thee, O Lover of Mankind! Glory to Thee, O Merciful One! Glory to Thee, O Longsuffering One! Glory to Thee, who forgivest every fall into sin! -- St. Ephraim, the Syrian *A Spiritual Psalter* #2

A Little OP for Holy Monday

Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

THIS was not the first mistake Roman justice had made…. Other innocent men had been crucified and had protested their innocence through lips swollen with agony….But here was some-thing new on a Roman cross….No cry of protest or of pain…Only a prayer that those who were doing this thing to Him might be forgiven…When men crucify their God, they can expect to hear something different…Nor had a voice like this been heard at Athens or Rome or Delphi….Other men had reached up into the Unknown; now God Himself was reaching into the Known.


His first word is His last prayer….It sweeps up to heaven burdened as no other prayer in the history of men…Burdened with sin…All the loneliness and hate and terror of the centuries before and after…A man’s sin is after all limited by the time and space allotted to him…He is completely sin, but he has only seventy years and a few square miles to work out his sinfulness… By the cross, however, all sin is swept up and placed on a hill be-yond Jerusalem…Here totals meet…All sin, total sin; and all for-giveness, total forgiveness…The sum of man’s years and man’s shame and the greater sum of God’s forgiveness and God’s love…

This is our faith…A religion without forgiveness is only the ghost of religion which haunts the grave of dead faith and lost hope…No wisdom, no culture, no philosophy can give answer to the first need of man, the need of a hand so strong that it can break down the wall of separation between the two worlds in which we must live and the need of a heart so great that it can take all his sins into itself and still have room for forgiveness… Surely one day this year—Good Friday—these two matters, sin and forgiveness, should be remembered …With the breathlessness of approaching death, a voice too long unheard cries in the shadow of the crosses we have raised for ourselves and others: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”… O.P. Kretzmann *The Pilgrim*

Palm/Passion Sunday

I love this Sunday - there are no two ways about it. The music ranks right up next to Easter itself (the people belted it out; and the fabulous trumpet was the icing on the cake). The solemn transition from the Procession with Palms to the Service of the Word with the veiling of the crosses; the St. Matthew Passion; the confirmations and the ringing of the great church bell as hands are laid upon each head; and the joyous celebration of the Sacrament and first communions - words fail.

Carol told me today that she asked her husband's brother (a Roman Catholic) how he liked the service. He said he loved it - just like their old service (I think he was referring to pre-Vatican II - and I take that as a compliment indeed).

The solemnity of a Lutheran Eucharist IS a beautiful thing to behold and participate in - the chanting of the proper preface, the chanting of Our Father and its doxology, the chanting of the Words of Christ with elevation and genuflection. All of the ceremony bespeaks the reverence which the Holy Church seeks to nurture in all her children as they approach the dread mystery of Christ's body and blood. We are, in the Divine Service, after all, coram Deo.

To You before Your Passion
They sang their hymns of praise.
To You now high exalted
Our melodies we raise!

Out of the Mouth of an Ass

So, let me tell you my story. Do you have any idea what it’s like to be saddled with ears like what I got? And when I go to open my mouth, what comes out but this obnoxious sound: “Hee-haw! Hee-haw!”

Everyone made fun of me. All the other animals. They said I was half-grown. They said I was God’s joke on the animal kingdom. They said I wasn’t good for anything but carrying heavy burdens on my back. They said I was as stupid was I was stubborn.

I used to let it get to me. I used to feel kinda low. But then one day something happened. Something that changed me forever. And now, when I swagger down the street, all those smarty animals look at me with envy. Let me tell you about it. It happened like this.

There I was, mindin’ my own business, munchin’ away on some grass. It was spring and boy did that fresh grass taste great. I mean, you gotta imagine what it’s like to have straw shoved down your throat all winter long. Yuck! Now, where was I? Oh, yea. I was eatin’ this new grass, when along come these people that I never laid eyes on before. They walked right up to me, untied me and started to lead me away.

Well, do you think I was just going to let them donkey-nap me? No way. I started my hee-hawing and planted my feet firm. And pretty soon my owner showed up and wanted to know what these bozos were up to, making off with his prize donkey, right? So, I settle back to hear him tell them off. Only he doesn’t. They say to him: “The Lord has need of him.” And right away my owner wacks me with a stick and tells me to start with these men I’ve never seen. Now, I ask you, does this make any sense?

So there I was, feeling dejected, rejected, and humbled. Handed over to strangers without a fight. But then, they bring me to Him. You humans. You humans are so blind. You can’t see what’s right before your eyes. But not us animals. We are not so stupid as to not recognize the hand that made us. I started shivering and shaking, let me tell you. I was scared. I mean, there was God. All got up like a human. Well, I mean, He was a human. But it was God. You get what I mean? And He looks into my eyes and He knows that I know who He is, right? And you know what He done?

He smiled. He smiled and He winked. Like it was a big secret between me and Him. And then they lift him up on my back. My back. Here I was, your average donkey, and the Creator of all actually sat Himself down on my back. Let me tell you, I held my head up high.

Who notices a donkey? I mean, you’d have to be a donkey to realize how everybody ignores you. But not that day, no siree. They crowded around me and they sang to Him. Clothes were coming off as people lined the path before my feet. Palm branches filled the air. And everyone everywhere was shoutin’ “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. Hosanna in the highest!”

Down that big hill and then up to the city walls, I carried Him. And I could tell He was glad, and yet sad. You see, He was riding to that City to die. His look told me that too. He was going to die to fix this world. He was going to die to get rid of the death and sorrow that fills this place. He was going die to open up the way back home – back to where we all really belong. Donkeys too.

When He got off my back we were right outside the temple. He looked into my eyes and I don’t mind tellin’ youse – I couldn’t hold back the tears. But the look He gave me was as clear as it could be: “It’s not good-bye, donkey! It’s until we meet again! Because even though I die, I am not going to remain dead. I’m going rise again!” And then He smiled that smile and I was the happiest donkey in the world.

Now, like I said, you humans sometimes are so blind. I’m sure you don’t mean to be, but it amazes us animals. Because just like the Master rode into town on that fine spring day in Jerusalem, He still rides into your town. Only this time, I don’t get to carry Him, this time He comes on bread and wine. I mean, if you had animal eyes you’d see Him right there, right there on that altar after the words are spoken: “This is my body given for you; this is my blood shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins.” The same Jesus – the one that rode on my back. He comes to you right there, and then I wish I was a human so I could smile and receive Him too. Because when you sing: “Hosanna in the highest and blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” each week, it’s just like it happened all over again, and I’m carrying Him into town.

Humans! Do you even begin to realize the blessings you got? Open your eyes. Take it from a donkey.

Last Minute Reminder

St. Paul's schedule for tomorrow:

7:45 MATINS with Examination of Catechumens
9:00 RECEPTION for Catechumens and their families
10:00 DIVINE SERVICE with Rite of Confirmation and First Communion

Holy Week:

Holy Monday - 7:00 a.m. Spoken DIVINE SERVICE
Holy Tuesday - 7:00 a.m. Spoken DIVINE SERVICE
Holy Wednesday - 7:00 a.m. Spoken DIVINE SERVICE

Triduum:

Maundy Thursday - 7:15 p.m. Sung DIVINE SERVICE with stripping of the Altar
Good Friday - Noon, Chief Service; 7:15 p.m., Tenebrae Vespers
Vigil of Easter - 8:00 p.m. DIVINE SERVICE with Adult Confirmations

Holy Pascha:

Matins - 6:30
Easter Breakfast - 7:30
Easter Egg Hunt - 8:00
Preservice Music - 8:30
DIVINE SERVICE FOR THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD - 9:00 a.m.

Passiontide Hymn

The royal banners forward go;
The cross shows forth redemption's flow,
Where He, by whom our flesh was made,
Our ransom in His flesh has paid:

Where deep for us the spear was dyed,
Life's torrent rushing from His side,
To wash us in that precious flood
Where flowed the water and the blood.

Fulfilled is all that David told
In sure prophetic song of old,
That God the nation's king should be
And reign in triumph from the tree.

On whose hard arms so widely flung
The weight of this world's ransom hung,
The price of human kind to pay,
And spoil the spoiler of his prey.

O tree of beauty, tree most fair,
Ordained those holy limbs to bear:
Gone is the shame, each crimsoned bough
Proclaims the King of Glory now.

To Thee, eternal Three in One,
Let homage meet by all be done;
As by the cross Thou dost restore,
So guide and keep us evermore. Amen.

--Venatius Honorius Fortunatus

LSB 455

David and I just shared

some music back and forth on our computers (he, a fabulous piano piece by a Korean composer; me some of the High Kings video). I said: "Can you imagine how it would be to be a family with no music?" He answered back: "AWFUL!" I can't even begin to conceive of a life without music. No how. No way. Truth is, we're always in Bombadil's house and singing is always more natural than speaking. It's practice for heaven, after all.

So, Lucy

starts barking like crazy at the back door. Now, I'm sure no one has come in, but I open it up and look downstairs when in my face a BIRD flies up the stairs. Yikes. Before I can get the window open in the kitchen, it's in the living room. That's a good spot. It's flying against our front windows, but we maneuver it behind the sheers and shoo it out an open window. But the biggy is HOW DID IT GET IN OUR BASEMENT IN THE FIRST PLACE???

Good, Lucy. She's a great watchdog...for lost birds.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

[Holy Baptism] is the door by which a person enters the Kingdom of grace. -- C. F. W. Walther, *God Grant It!* p. 328

Patristic Quote of the Day

For Thy servant Thy grace has become a refuge, strength, a defense, ennoblement, praise and food for the whole of his life. How can Thy servant be silent, O Master, after having tasted the great sweetness of Thy love and grace? -- St. Ephraim the Syrian, *A Spiritual Psalter* #7

The Whole of Holy Week

and the whole of our lives as Christians is the conviction expressed in this line from our Good Friday liturgy:

We adore You, O Lord,
and we praise and glorify
Your holy resurrection.
For behold,
by the wood of Your cross
joy has come into all the world.

Oh, beloved in the Lord, let these words sink deeply into our souls. Pray them each day. And above all, come to see them fulfilled this week in the various liturgies that open up for us the Paschal mystery.

Under the Category of: "I Wish I Had Written That"

Dr. Stuckwisch on ecclesiastical idolatry - INSIDE of Lutheranism!

Getting Ready for Palm Sunday and Confirmations

Congratulations to Jenna, Jonathan, Chelsey, Alex and Austin!

Luther on Palm Sunday

Here, then, is the difference between this King and worldly rulers: They are concerned about people managing house and home, governing lands and subjects, acquiring money and property, becoming rich and powerful - all for the present time. Our Christ-King, on the other hand, wants us to know how to inherit the Kingdom of heaven, how to be saved and become eternally rich, so that we may finally enter the other better life. Over there, eating, drinking, and working to sustain physical life will no longer be necessary, as it always is in this world. Yes, there these bodies of ours will be more beautiful, more lovely than the dear sun itself! There we will no longer be sad, weak, or sick, but everlastingly happy and healthy, strong and vigorous. House Postil I:368

Friday's Run and Fun

Finishing up my pot of coffee this morning when the phone rings. Eric from Metro reminding me I have chapel today. UGH! Off to print off liturgy at the school (thank heavens the new copier prints so quickly). Cindi and I head over to Walmart to pick up material for the cross veils for this Sunday. Then over to Metro for chapel. Gas up the Honda. Then to Y for a great workout - I think back and shoulder days are my favorites. Home for lunch - burger on greens - and I've devised a great new dressing: ranch with habenero sauce (youch!). Blogging and surfing this afternoon while Cin ran Jo to a Dr.'s appointment. Tonight will be liverpool and this time, surely this time, I might win? Miracles still happen!!!

I REALLY Wish

I had seen this concert:



Isn't that just amazing?

Of all the money e'er I had,
I spent it in good company.
And all the harm I've ever done,
Alas! it was to none but me.
And all I've done for want of wit
To mem'ry now I can't recall
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all


Oh, all the comrades e'er I had,
They're sorry for my going away,
And all the sweethearts e'er I had,
They'd wish me one more day to stay,
But since it falls unto my lot,
That I should go and you should not,
I gently rise and softly call,
Good night and joy be with you all.


If I had money enough to spend,
And leisure time to sit awhile,
There is a fair maid in this town,
That sorely has my heart beguiled.
Her rosy cheeks and ruby lips,
I own she has my heart in thrall,
Then fill to me the parting glass,
Good night and joy be with you all.

How do Higher Critics

with their take on Yam Suph deal with 1 Kings 9 and Solomon's navy docking at Ezion-Geber on the edge of the Yam Suph?

Ride On!

Ride on, ride on in majesty!
Hark! All the tribes hosanna cry.
O Savior meek, pursue Thy road
With palms and scattered garments strowed.

Ride on, ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp rise on to die.
O Christ, Thy triumphs now begin
O'er captive death and conquered sin.

Ride on, ride on in majesty!
The angel armies of the sky
Look down with sad and wondering eyes
To see the approaching sacrifice.

Ride on, ride on in majesty!
Thy last and fiercest strife is nigh.
The Father on His sapphire throne
Awaits His own anointed Son.

Ride on, ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die.
Bow Thy meek head to mortal pain
Then take, O Christ, Thy power and reign.
LSB 441

What a Gift

to discouraged pastors does the Treasury give us today. Moses standing there, having been soundly chewed out by the foremen of the people of Israel. "O Lord, why have you done this evil to your people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people and you have not delivered your people at all."

It all seemed so pointless at that moment. Such a colossal failure and the attempt to help only brought increased sorrow.

So God pushes us to the zero point. To the point where we have no confidence left in ourselves at all. And then he cheerfully tosses our way: "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh." Hang on to your britches, Mr. Moses, you ain't seen NOTHIN yet! His Word will not fail; it will do what He sent it to do. Glory to You, Lord Jesus! Glory to You!

When Another One Leaves

It is no secret to anyone with open eyes and ears that Lutherans have lost a shocking number of clergy over the past several years to the East or to Rome. Whenever another one leaves, we sometimes hear quite unrealistic opining over what led them to go. The silliest is that they liked fancy clothes and sweet smelling incense. Please.

The far deeper and harder thing for Lutherans to face is that so many of these pastors have left because they became convinced that Lutherans no longer wished nor intend to BE Lutheran. And so they were drawn to communions where the things that they valued (a stable liturgy, a life of prayer, the centering of the Church's life in the Holy Eucharist, active practice of confession and absolution) were in evidence. And gradually they became convinced by those communions that each one (respectively) WAS the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of the Creed.

So when word comes that yet another has departed our ranks, I'd suggest that the wiser course is to admit up front that Lutheranism is in a world of hurt; that each departure move us to work all the harder toward the repair of what we can. A day ago or so, several Lutheran blogs posted the wise words of Neuhaus:

"If the Lutheran Church has a future, it will be as the Lutheran Church. It will not be as imitation Baptists, Presbyterians, or anything else. If people are to become, remain, and rejoice in being Lutheran, it is because they understand the distinctively Lutheran way of being Christian. Being Lutheran is an evangelical catholic and catholic evangelical way of being in unity with the entire Church of Christ. The present state of American Lutheranism is not just "not satisfactory." It is a sickness unto death. The alternative is not beating the drums to revive flagging spirits, nor is it to move evangelism a few notches up on the bureaucratic agenda. The alternative is renewal -- theological, pastoral, sacramental, catechetical. The alternative is to be something that others might have some reason to join." Richard John Neuhaus, 1986 (quoted in Forum Letter March 09)

These words need to be taken to heart. I don't know if Lutheranism in this country can be saved or not. But that's not ultimately my job or yours. My task as a Lutheran pastor is to seek to foster that renewal which Neuhaus described: a renewal in theology; a renewal in pastoral practice; a renewal in sacramental life; a renewal in catechesis. He left off what is perhaps the most important of all, for it is where all renewal begins: a renewal in the Word of God and in prayer. These will be LUTHERAN renewal if they are lived out from the joyous "aha" that is AC IV.

It is not ours to judge another Man's servant. Our Lord makes that clear and so does the Apostle. Our task is always to examine ourselves and look to our own repentance. Let us do so cheerfully and with hope. We are indeed sick unto death, but the Lord whose mercy we will be seeking is the Master of raising the dead and restoring hope to the hopeless. Ne desperemus, my brothers and sisters. Ne desperemus - for behold, by the Cross joy has come into all the world (and not merely the Roman or Orthodox corner of it)!

Wishing you each the joy of the Paschal Mystery as we enter into Holy Week!

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

The Holy Spirit renews the face of the earth not only with the annual renewal with which all things begin to turn green and produce foliage in the springtime after they had become dead during the winter but also with a daily renewal by which other things are born everyday to preserve the species. These newborn things again take the place of those that have been subjected to death and destruction. He renews the face of the earth not only externally and corporeally in the way just explained, but also internally and spiritually because He illumines, regenerates, and renews the hearts of men; takes them out of the darkness of error and ignorance; and places them in the light of the saving knowledge of God. -- Blessed Johann Gerhard, *On the Trinity* par. 132

Patristic Quote of the Day

Great assurance has God given! Well may we celebrate the Passover, wherein was shed the blood of the Lord, by which we are cleansed "from all sin!" Let us be assured: the "handwriting which was against us," Colossians 2:14 the bond of our slavery, the devil held, but by the blood of Christ it is blotted out. "The blood," says he, "of His Son shall purge us from all sin." -- St. Augustine, Homilies on 1 John

A Not So Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

There is nothing more basic to the Christian faith and life than prayer. For prayer is the very voice of faith itself and the primary good work of the Christian life, an act of love for both God and the neighbor. -- Dr. D. Richard Stuckwisch, Treasury, p. 14

A Treasury Oops?

You might notice that on page O-64, the heading in the second column is "Holy (Maundy) Thursday." But you might also notice that come Palm Sunday, you're directed to these pages for Holy Week propers. So you might finally notice that the Invitatory is expressly noted as for Holy Week even though it is under the heading for Maundy Thursday, though the antiphon and Responsory do seem to be keyed specifically to Maundy Thursday. My best guess is that the Invitatory alone switches on Holy Week, while the Responsory remains the Lenten one until Maundy Thursday.

Christ has become obedient to death, even death on a cross.
O come, let us worship Him!

[We might also wish to note: Brotherhood Prayer Book provides a Responsory for Passiontide (He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter... p. 438) but follows the practice of the Roman Breviary of omitting the Invitatory, Venite and any Responsories during the Triduum itself. The Magedburg book, however, retains all these]

Mission Statement

By the bye, I've decided (admittedly inspired by Dr. Piepkorn) that each and every congregation of the Synod should scrap their mission statements and adopt a new one. And here it is:

"To be the Church of God in this place."

That would cover all the bases wouldn't it?

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

The life of God in the Church implies that each parish become more the body of Christ, continuing His ministry in loving and serving the world, that it deepen its corporate commitment and allegiance to God and to His Son as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, that it become more the family of God in which grace for obedience is to be had, in which faith is increased for facing life as it is in the confidence that we are not alone, but are related to God and to one another, and that nothing, not even death, can separate us from this relationship. -- A. C. Piepkorn, *The Church* p. 134

Patristic Quote of the Day

There is here something ineffable which cannot be explained in words, that there should both be, and not be, number. For see if there appear not a kind of number, Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost— the Trinity. If three, three what? Here number fails. And so God neither keeps apart from number, nor is comprehended by number. -- St. Augustine, Tractates on John 8

Sadness

Tonight we pray the last Passion Vespers of this Lenten season. I dearly love these services and really miss them when Lent is over.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Again, the church is not a school for those who want to take courses either in religion or in morals, but a community of love, the family of God whom He has called to sonship in His Son to whom He has revealed His love and His will for their lives and for the whole world. -- A. C. Piepkorn, *The Church* p. 127

Patristic Quote of the Day

But what more shall I say? I think that I have taught sufficiently, or rather more than sufficiently, that both the beginning of faith in the Lord, and continuance in the Lord unto the end, are God's gifts. -- St. Augustine, On Rebuke and Grace (II:66)