The Intercessions from Luther's Latin Litany

That thou wouldst deign to rule and govern thy holy catholic church: we entreat thee to hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to preserve all bishops, pastors, and ministers of the church in sound word and holy life: we entreat thee to hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to remove all sects and all offenses: we entreat thee to hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to lead back the erring and deceived into the way of truth: we entreat thee to hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to trample Satan under our feet: we entreat thee to hear us.

That thou wouldst design to send faithful laborers into thy harvest: we entreat thee to hear us.

That thou woulds deign to grant to all hearers increase in the word and in the fruit of the Spirit: we entreat thee to hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to lift up the lapsed and to strengthen those who stand: we entreat thee to hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to encourage and assist the timid and the tempted: we entreat thee to hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to give peace and concord to all kings and princes: we entreat thee to hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to give our emperor perpetual victory over his enemies: we entreat thee to hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to direct and protect our ruler and his counselors: we entreat thee to hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to bless and protect our magistrates and people: we entreat thee to hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to regard and deliver the afflicted and those in danger: we entreat thee to hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to grant a safe delivery to pregnant mothers and healthy babies to those who give suck: we entreat thee to hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to cherish and guard the infants and the sick: we entreat thee to hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to liberate the captives: we entreat thee to hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to protect and provide for the orphans and widows: we entreat thee to hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to take pity on all men: we entreat thee to hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to forgive our enemies, persecutors and slanderers and to convert them: we entreat thee to hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to give and preserve the fruits of the earth: we entreat thee to hear us.

That thou wouldst deign to hear us: we entreat thee to hear us.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

The life of the church, precisely of the local church, is shaped by the nature of Gospel preaching and Gospel sacraments, and by their inner connections. There is no rivalry whatsoever among these holy instruments of salvation, but only the closest possible integration.—Prof. Kurt Marquart, The Church, p. 198.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

After people have thus been taught and exhorted to confess their sin and amend their ways they should then be most diligently exhorted to prayer and shown that such prayer pleases God, that he has commanded it and promised to hear it, and that no one ought to think lightly of his own praying or have doubts about it, but with firm faith be sure that it will be heard.—Blessed Martin Luther, AE 46:172

Patristic Quote of the Day

For to this end He entered when the doors were closed upon the disciples, and gave them the Holy Spirit by breathing on them, and after giving them the light of understanding opened the secrets of the Holy Scriptures, and again Himself showed them the wound in the side, the prints of the nails, and all the marks of His most recent Passion, whereby it might be acknowledged that in Him the properties of the Divine and Human Nature remained undivided, and we might in such sort know that the Word was not what the flesh is, as to confess God's only Son to be both Word and Flesh.—St. Leo the Great, Sermon 71

Such joy...

...looking forward to a nice long holiday weekend (and get-together with Pr. Pearson and his wife on Sunday and the St. Paul's Choir on Monday), followed by a rather short week at IC, and THEN and THEN!!!!! Beginning in June, Deaconess Sandra J. Bowers will join the Worship staff at IC and I will no longer be carrying this puppy alone.  DEO GRATIAS! Sandy has had years of experience as a deaconess in prison ministry, is a devoted friend of the liturgy and lover of Lutheran hymnody, and is very excited to begin work at the IC helping Worship to continue and expand its offerings to Synod and helping the Chaplain in the care of the workers at the IC. CAN'T WAIT!!!

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

These two sides of our church, its toleration and its narrowness, are an absolute mystery to the Reformed. That the pope should be called the Antichrist, and yet, at the same time, every effort made to preserve the canonical organization of the church; that the Mass should be criticized, as Luther criticized it in his Babylonian Captivity of the Church and Smalcald Articles, and yet that it should not be replaced by an entirely-new evangelical service instead keeping it in a purified form; that the invocation of the saints should be abolished, and yet that the most important saints' days continue to be observed for several generations—all these, in the eyes of a Reformed Christian, are insufferable contradictions.—Hermann Sasse, Here We Stand, p. 105

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Consider the manner of God's giving. You will find that God, the greatest and best giver, gives with a bounty that cannot be measured. For what he gives is not reckoned as something merited, or because he is under obligation, but, as the words read, out of love. Thus he is a giver, who gives from the heart, out of boundless, divine love, as Christ says, "For God so loved the world."—Blessed Martin Luther, House Postils 2:196 (Sermon for Monday after Pentecost)

Patristic Quote of the Day

Let us think nothing our own, seeing even faith itself is not our own, but more God's (than ours). For by grace are you saved through faith; and this, says he, not of ourselves; it is the gift of God. Then let us not think great things of ourselves, nor be puffed up, being as we are, men, dust and ashes, smoke and shadow.—St. John Chrysostom, Homily 30 on Acts

Apocrypha Gem

The compassion of a person is for his neighbor, but the compassion of the Lord is for all living beings. He rebukes and trains and teaches them and turns them back, as a shepherd his flock. Ecclesiasticus 18:13

There are times...

...when I cannot get over the silliness inherent in the chopping up of our great spiritual treasures and offering only bits and pieces.

TLH 598 is a case in point. Only three stanzas survive in LSB (also 598, of all things!). But the WHOLE is needed, I think. Most especially in trying times such as these. Read them and see if you agree:


        1. Who knows when death may overtake me!
Time passes on, my end draws near.
How swiftly can my breath forsake me!
How soon can life's last hour appear!
My God, for Jesus' sake I pray
Thy peace may bless my dying day.

2. The world that smiled when morn was breaking
May change for me ere close of day;
For while on earth my home I'm making,
Death's threat is never far away.
My God, for Jesus' sake I pray
Thy peace may bless my dying day.

3. My end to ponder teach me ever
And, ere the hour of death appears,
To cast my soul on Christ, my Savior,
Nor spare repentant sighs and tears.
My God, for Jesus' sake I pray
Thy peace may bless my dying day.

4. Help me now set my house in order
That always ready I may be
To say in meekness on death's border:
Lord, as Thou wilt, deal Thou with me.
My God, for Jesus' sake I pray
Thy peace may bless my dying day.

5. Reveal the sweetness of Thy heaven,
Earth's galling bitterness unfold;
May I, amid this turmoil riven,
Thy blest eternity behold.
My God, for Jesus' sake I pray
Thy peace may bless my dying day.

6. My many sins blot out forever
Since Jesus has my pardon won;
In mercy robed I then shall never
Fear death, but trust in Thee alone.
My God, for Jesus' sake I pray
Thy peace may bless my dying day.

7. Naught shall my soul from Jesus sever;
In faith I touch His wounded side
And hail Him as my Lord forever.
Nor life nor death shall us divide.
My God, for Jesus' sake I pray
Thy peace may bless my dying day.

8. Once in the blest baptismal waters
I put on Christ and made Him mine;
Now numbered with God's sons and daughters,
I share His peace and love divine.
My God, for Jesus' sake I pray
Thy peace may bless my dying day.

9. His body and His blood I've taken
In His blest Supper, feast divine;
Now I shall never be forsaken,
For I am His, and He is mine.
My God, for Jesus' sake I pray
Thy peace may bless my dying day.

10. Then may death come today, tomorrow,
I know in Christ I perish not;
He grants the peace that stills all sorrow,
Gives me a robe without a spot.
My God, for Jesus' sake I pray
Thy peace may bless my dying day.

11. And thus I live in God contented
And die without a thought of fear;
My soul has to God's plans consented,
For through His Son my faith is clear.
My God, for Jesus' sake I pray
Thy peace may bless my dying day.

Joy and Pentecost

Pentecost is the feast of joy, for "the Holy Spirit turns to joy whatever He touches" (Seraphim of Sarov). This is so because the Spirit anchors our joy solidly in the hope of the Age to come which will attend our Lord Jesus' appearing. To give into pessimism, discouragement or despair is to fixate upon the horrors and troubles of this fallen age where death is always the seeming victor. But the Holy Spirit comes to lift our eyes beyond the rock bottom reality of a fallen world and proclaim to us that in our beloved Lord Jesus there is a deeper, truer and more certain reality: for Love Himself will be the end, and in the certainty of His triumph lies the courage to face all the despair and darkness that would devour us with a joy they cannot conquer. Rather, weeping with those who weep, our one prayer, our constant Pentecost inspired prayer, is Marantha!

Homily at Evening Prayer (last night)

Text: Romans 8:12–17

The Holy Spirit is no spirit of bondage, no spirit of fear. That’s another spirit and he’s anything but holy. The unclean spirit, the evil spirit, Satan and his minions, they thrive on you being bound to sin and filled with fear. You know, what I mean. You can’t sleep at night and suddenly, there he is, plopping the old DVD into the player and making you see your sin. Showing you the lies, the hurt look on the faces of the people you’ve treated shamefully (most of all those who might be sleeping under the same roof at the moment), the words that you’ve used to leave other cut and bleeding, the times you’ve failed to confess Christ and slunk away in silence, shamed like Peter. He’s got them all recorded and he loves to watch them with you. All the while saying: “So you are bound. Bound to me. Bound to be with me forever in the fires. You can’t even pretend that you belong to HIM. He wouldn’t have the likes of you, and you know it. You feel it in your bones.”

Ah, you know what I speak of, don’t you? There’s a reason our Lord revealed him as the accuser. For that’s what the devil loves to do. To accuse. And he doesn’t even need to use lies. He can devastate you with the truth.

But against this one God sends a helper for you, an advocate for you, one who pleads for you, but in you. The gift of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit doesn’t lead you to fear. He leads you to peace. He does this because He doesn’t come to accuse, but to proclaim, to testify, to announce that you are not a slave, but a child. A beloved child. That you have a Father who loves you. A Father who gave His Son to spill His blood to blot out your every offense. All those true things that Satan shows you in the middle of the night when you lie awake?  The Spirit shows you that every last one of them has been lifted. Has been carried. Has been taken by the Son of God to His cross and answered for.

Pastor Wolfmueller brought me this joy some months ago: what your Lord does right now in the presence of the Father, to plead for you as your advocate, your paraclete, your defense attorney, never ceasing to plead His own atoning sacrifice on your behalf (1 John 2 stuff!); what Jesus does for you before the Father, this Jesus sends His Spirit to do within you. To testify, to bear withness with your spirit, that you are a child of God, and if a child then an heir. An heir of God and so co-heir with Jesus. Suffering with Him that you also may be glorified with Him. All that’s His by virtue of His being the Beloved Son of the Father, the Spirit proclaims within you, is forked over to you as yours. Everything. You even get to join Him in His “Abba.”

And so the Spirit of Holiness, the Spirit of God, leads you away from slavery to sin, away from the constant fretting and fear that fill anyone if they fixate upon themselves and see the truth about themselves unvarnished. He puts his finger (for He is the finger of God) beneath your chin and lifts your head up from yourself to see your Savior. He leads you to your Jesus, to look upon Him, to see in Him your perfect righteousness as the very gift of divine love poured out on you, proclaimed to you as yours. The Spirit discloses to you the gifts that God freely gives you and says: “Listen not to the evil one. For there is a truth deeper than anything he would ever be able to show you. It is the truth that you have been loved with a love immeasureable, deep and divine. Be at peace. You have a Father, you have a Savior, and you have Me to constantly remind you of the fact.”

As you, people loved by God, begin your work tonight, ask for the grace of the Holy Spirit that you may renounce the way of being accusers of our brothers – the way of the evil spirit – and join in the joy of the Holy Spirit, proclaiming in every resolution you craft: “Rejoice, children of God! You are loved in Jesus! Fear not!” For all this we send up glory and praise to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and to the ages of ages! Amen.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

It would have been better to understand the sacraments in this way as anticipation of the redemption of the end time instead of forcing them into the scheme of the sign theory.—Hermann Sasse, We Confess: The Sacraments, p. 146.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Each sin, a transgression of the divine Law, is an offense to the high majesty of the eternal, holy, and just God and thus merits eternal rejection by God. Nevertheless, there are degrees of offense. A person who is continually plagued by certain sins can still receive forgiveness and stand in God's grace, while other sins necessarily exclude a person from God's kingdom and holy fellowship.—C. F. W. Walther, God Grant It!, p. 440.

Patristic Quote of the Day

Therefore be the more earnest always to be followers first of God and then of the Saints; that after death they also may receive you as well-known friends into the eternal habitations.—St. Anthony as cited by St. Athanasius in the Life of St. Anthony, par. 91.

A good read...

...on the Gosnell case here from LCMS Life Ministries.

Patristic Quote of the Day

But assuredly that which the sacred Psalm sings in our ears, is true; “Because my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord has taken me up.” Then if our parents have forsaken us, how take they part in our cares and affairs? But if parents do not, who else are there of the dead who should know what we are doing, or what we suffer? Isaiah the Prophet says, “For You are our Father: because Abraham has not known us, and Israel is not cognizant of us.” If so great Patriarchs were ignorant what was doing towards the People of them begotten, they to whom, believing God, the People itself to spring from their stock was promised; how are the dead mixed up with affairs and doings of the living, either for cognizance or help? How say we that those were favored who deceased ere the evils came which followed hard upon the decease, if also after death they feel whatever things befall in the calamitousness of human life? Or haply do we err in saying this, and in accounting them to be quietly at rest whom the unquiet life of the living makes solicitous? What then is that which to the most godly king Josias God promised as a great benefit, that he should first die, that he might not see the evils which He threatened should come to that place and People? Which words of God are these: “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: concerning My words which you have heard, and feared before My face when you heard what I have spoken concerning this place and them which dwell therein, that it should be forsaken and under a curse; and hast rent your garments, and wept before Me, and I have heard you, says the Lord of Sabaoth: not so; behold, I will add you unto your fathers, and you shall be added unto them in peace; and your eyes shall not see all the evils which I am bringing upon this place and upon them that dwell therein.” He, frightened by God's comminations, had wept, and rent his garments, and is made, by hastening on of his death, to be without care of all future evils, because he should so rest in peace, that all those things he should not see. There then are the spirits of the departed, where they see not whatever things are doing, or events happening, in this life to men. Then how do they see their own graves, or their own bodies, whether they lie cast away, or buried? How do they take part in the misery of the living, when they are either suffering their own evils, if they have contracted such merits; or do rest in peace, as was promised to this Josiah, where they undergo no evils, either by suffering themselves, or by compassionate suffering with others, freed from all evils which by suffering themselves or with others while they lived here they did undergo?—St. Augustine, Care of the Dead, par. 16

Issues Etc. Interview

on the great hymn "Christians to the Paschal Victim." You can listen here.

Ascension Day Divine Service

I honestly never could understand WHY folks didn't want to come church after a day at work...BEFORE. I can definitely understand it now. I come home in the evening and want to crash. To sit in my chair, to read or surf the net, or do anything but go out again.

Yet I'm so glad that I did go out tonight. Went to the Mass at St. Paul's. A beautiful service.

Though a midweek, it was treated as the feast it is. Crucifer and candle bearers. Incense. Full order of Divine Service. Tonight, though, instead of our usual Divine Service 3, we had Divine Service 4. The congregation numbered about 40 or so, I think, but the singing was loud and joyful.

Bede headed off the day (A Hymn of Glory) and the Vajda/Gerike piece was the Hymn of the Day (Up Through Endless Ranks of Angels). Distribution was the Reformation piece On Christ's Ascension. The close of the service was the Anglican hymn, See the Conqueror Mounts in Triumph. Great joy indeed.

Pr. Anderson and Staci were in attendance with their children. It was good to meet them in the flesh (I don't think I'd had the privilege before). Pr. Gleason read with his usual grace. Pr. Ball preached the joy of Ascension into our hearts: the cloud that hid our Lord then was likened unto the elements that hide Him now, but still with us, still giving to us all that is His. And the ever-refreshing gift of the Savior's Body and Blood: our forgiveness, life, and resurrection!

Thank you, Lord, for a faithful pastor who never tires of dishing out to Your sinful and weary people the gifts Your Son won for us, doing so with joy at His behest and by His Spirit's power!

Catching up...

...whew! Whirlwind. Drove down to Falls Creek Falls State Park in Tennessee for Midsouth Pastoral Conference (Wilken did apologetics; I did Liturgy and Mission: Enemies or Allies?). It was an eight hour drive there. The moral of the story is: never trust your Apple GPS when out in the wilds! It directed me to a farm lane and instructed me to walk the rest of the way!!! Drove 7 + hours home yesterday and was very proud of myself: ONE potty break, mind you, at the 3.5 hour point. Coffee finally insists on going somewhere else; can't keep it, only borrow it. But I tried my darndest to keep it for as long as I possibly could! Home to find Bekah working on the lawn (what a gem of a child!) and with dinner on and ready (did I mention she was a gem?). This morning had chapel at LCEF and chapel here at IC in about 25 minutes, then to study up for my presentation on Compline on Issues, Etc. this afternoon. Church tonight for the joys of our Lord's Ascension!

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

Those who wish to argue that there is no cooperation by the new man in new obedience need to be candid in acknowledging that they are proposing a reading of the Lutheran Confessions that contradicts the Lutheran dogmatic tradition.  The great burden of proof falls on them because they are advancing a reading that contradicts the plain statements of the Confessions themselves, and of the way Lutherans have historically read them.—Pr. Mark Surburg, http://surburg.blogspot.com/2013/04/sanctification-issues-in-question-and.html

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

For what is asserted without the Scriptures or proven revelation may be held as an opinion but need not be believed.—Blessed Martin Luther, AE 36:29.

Patristic Quote of the Day

Will you deem Him little on this account, that He humbled Himself for your sake, and because to seek for that which had wandered the Good Shepherd, He who lays down His life for the sheep, John 10:11 came upon the mountains and hills upon which you used to sacrifice, John 5:35 and found the wandering one; and having found it, took it upon His shoulders, Hosea 4:13 on which He also bore the wood; and having borne it, brought it back to the life above; and having brought it back, numbered it among those who have never strayed. That He lit a candle, Luke 15:4-5 His own flesh, and swept the house, by cleansing away the sin of the world, and sought for the coin, the Royal Image that was all covered up with passions, and calls together His friends, the Angelic Powers, at the finding of the coin, and makes them sharers of His joy, as He had before made them sharers of the secret of His Incarnation?—St. Gregory Nazianzus, Oration 45

A Schmemann Gem

"For through the cross joy has come into all the world." This joy is pure joy because it does not depend on anything in this world, and is not the reward of anything in us. It is totally and absolutely a gift, the "charis," the grace. And being pure gift, this joy has a transformative power, the only real transformative power in this world. It is "seal" of the Holy Spirit on the life of the Church—on its faith, hope and love.—For the Life of the World, p. 55.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Since faith cannot be idle, it must demonstrate the fruits of love by doing good and avoiding evil. The Holy Spirit is at hand; he does not let us rest but makes us willing and inclined to do all that is good and earnest and diligent in opposing all that is evil. Thus a Christian by such a right use of the sacrament continually, increasingly, day after day, renews himself and grows in Christ, as Paul also teaches us that we should always be renewed [Eph. 4:23] and increase [in holiness].—Blessed Martin Luther, AE 38:126.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

So let me first say that what I have written deals with matters that are a consequence and result of the Gospel and justification.   The Gospel and justification stand at the center of what it is to be Lutheran.  It is only on account of Christ through the work of the Spirit that a Christian can do anything that pleases God.  The Spirit creates and sustains faith through the Means of Grace.  It is through the Means of Grace that we receive forgiveness and our lives continually return to those Means of Grace because that is where Christ is present for us. Everything in the Christian life finds its source there and there can be no Christian life apart from it.—Pr. Mark Surburg http://surburg.blogspot.com/2013/04/sanctification-issues-in-question-and.html

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

I say this to keep anyone from supposing that once faith has been accepted, sin should not be emphasized. Sin is really sin, regardless of whether you commit it before or after you have come to know Christ. And God hates the sin; in fact, so far as the substance of the deed is concerned, every sin is mortal. It is not mortal for the believer; but this is on account of Christ the Propitiator, who expiated it by His death. As for the person who does not believe in Christ, not only are all his sins mortal, but even his good works are sins, in accordance with the statement (Rom. 14:23): “Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”—Blessed Martin Luther, Great Galatians, AE 27:76.

Patristic Quote of the Day

Therefore God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, predestinating us to the adoption of children, not because we were going to be of ourselves holy and immaculate, but He chose and predestinated us that we might be so. Moreover, He did this according to the good pleasure of His will, so that nobody might glory concerning his own will, but about God's will towards himself—St. Augustine, On the Predestination of the Saints, Book I, chapter 37.

Fascinating assertion by Jungmann

"The responsory is the oldest form of the ecclesiastical song employed in the Church... The responsorial song consists of a song built up of strophes or of verses sung by a soloist, and of a recurring refrain or responsum sung by the congregation after each strophe or verse." —Jungmann, The Early Liturgy, p. 285.

How's that work? Funny you should ask. Some examples here and here.

Sad moment

So I was looking a little wistfully at one of my favorite t-shirts. It's got a scene from Charlie Brown's Christmas on it, but it's all but faded away. I commented to the folks at the table that I never really could see the brown in the shirt very well. Bekah crinkled her face and asked: "What brown?" So I dutifully pointed to the faded color. She and Cindi both exclaimed: "That's not brown. That's green." The story of my life: I live with people who simply don't see the world the way it is...

Gosnell

If the name means nothing to you, please check out this story from Fox on the media blackout, featuring our own Mollie Z: here.

All You Historic Lectionary Lovers

get your browser over to this link and take the survey!!!

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

Many Lutheran churches have preserved the order of bishops. Some of them even have apostolic succession. So has the Church of Sweden, and we appreciate it. A Lutheran Church can very well introduce it again where it has been lost. So did the Church of Finland and some Baltic Churches in this century. For the sake of love and in order to facilitate communion with other churches we can accept this order. But if the Episcopalians tell us that this order is essential for the true church and that there can be no valid ministry and no true sacraments without bishops, we must not yield submission even for a moment, that the truth of the gospel might be preserved.—Bishop Bo Giertz, "The Freedom We Have in Christ" in Lord Jesus Christ, Will You Not Stay?, p. 19.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

A doctrine is not proved to be disputable, simply because it is disputed.—C. P. Krauth, Conservative Reformation, p. 604.

Patristic Quote of the Day

Let us, then, understand the calling whereby they become elected,— not those who are elected because they have believed, but who are elected that they may believe. For the Lord Himself also sufficiently explains this calling when He says, You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. John 15:16 For if they had been elected because they had believed, they themselves would certainly have first chosen Him by believing in Him, so that they should deserve to be elected. But He takes away this supposition altogether when He says, You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. And yet they themselves, beyond a doubt, chose Him when they believed on Him.—St. Augustine, On the Predestination of the Saints, I:34.

A Spring Surprise!

I noticed as I was cutting the grass the other day: Jean and Mark not only blessed us with three lilacs (all turning green!), but with some crocuses. Thanks, guys!

Sunday

After a beautiful Quasimodogeniti service, we came home to snatch a few more precious minutes with Sawyer before Dean and Lauren packed up and began the long trek back to NC. Cindi then worked on breakfast (bacon, mushroom-onion-peppers, fried eggs, some leftover coffee cake, apples and pineapples), then we joined in a few rounds of liverpool. Honors went to David and Bekah, I believe. Cindi and I harnessed up Lucy and walked out to Ray and Arline's (that's how we'll always think of it) - a little over an hour's stroll in the sunshine, and saw some horses on the path and also the Daube family out for a bike ride. Leftovers tonight and then an early bedtime.  Tomorrow we all head back to work. I'm looking forward to it. Not the "vacation" we had planned at all (this week we were originally to spend in NC with Dean and Lauren, with side trips to visit my family in Virginia and Cindi's family in MD; then hearing Dean preach this a.m. and heading home), but as St. James reminds us whenever we make plans it should always be with the proviso: "as the Lord wills."

I think we needed that...

...a trip up to Grafton this afternoon. We took the dogs, hiked up the steep trail and back down a different way, and then Dean, Lauren and Sawyer headed to Bethalto to check in on Dean's sister and brother-in-law, and Bekah, Cindi, Lucy and I stopped in at Aerie's Winery to enjoy a glass of wine and take in the beautiful view.

The sort of worthless things...

...my mind remembers. I was reading Sawyer his abbreviated edition of There's a Wocket in My Pocket and was immediately troubled: the zelf up on the shelf was called a "her." I was certain that was NOT right. I googled online and found the original and sure enough, the zelf like the other critters was a "him." HAH! I KNEW it! Like I said, worthless things, but such is the sort of things stuck in this brain.

Random thoughts...

...Odd how HUGE Jo's presence is by its absence in her home, particularly in the living room... Not quite two weeks ago, I was shovelling (I refuse to change the spelling of that - I hate the way they changed that rule; I still stick to it: double the last letter!) a foot of snow; today I cut grass and weed-wacked...  The intense sadness is tricky: it will begin to abate and then sneak back up on you and seize you when you're least expecting it... Liverpool with just three players works, but again the absence is so loud it's shouting at you (so glad when Bekah got home to join us)... Sawyer's smile is pure healing medicine... Tonight we celebrate Bekah's birthday—poor thing had the absolute worst birthday ever, and on Palm Sunday (when we were supposed to have her celebration), she sat all alone at the kitchen counter eating her dessert. The good thing is that now we'll celebrate with Dean, Lauren and Sawyer joining us and it's in the 70's rather than snowing!... Sunshine and warmth and the smell of freshly cut grass is also cheering... A fresh cup of coffee delivered by your son-in-law is also pretty sweet.

Funeral Homily for Joanne Broadhurst DeVries

Saint Paul Lutheran Church

Easter Tuesday – April 2, 2013

Funeral Sermon for Joanne Mae DeVries

Job 19:20-27

The Rev. BT Ball

In Nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.  Amen.

My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.  Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!  Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh? “Oh that my words were written!   Oh that they were inscribed in a book!  Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!

Alleluia.  Christ is risen.

Dear David, Cindi, Debbie and Dee, beloved grandchildren and sons-in-law, my brother, Christian family and friends.  Jo was a Christian.  So she knew the familiar words of Job, we sang them here just this past Sunday - I know that my Redeemer lives.  To say, I know that my Redeemer lives, is to make a Spirit given, confident confession of faith; particularly it is the confession of a suffering believer.  It is a Christian confession; borne of the reality of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  Christians believe that their Redeemer lives.  Christians believe that Jesus, their Redeemer, died for them and rose from the grave for them three days later. And Jo was a Christian.   So she knew her Redeemer, and she did know that to be redeemed a price was to be paid.  The death of the Son of God is the redemption price.  The price of purchase from sin, death and the power of the devil himself is the Holy death of Jesus; Jesus who is life itself.  And He gave it; life into death to pay the price of Jo’s salvation.  He redeemed her, and he redeemed you too, and it is in this promise that Job and Jo could also believe with boldness that after death they would see with eyes wide open and alive again, this same Jesus, their Lord and their God.  And this is the Christian hope, not heaven alone, but real,tangible, resurrected life with eyes open, bright and clear to see the one who was pierced and crushed death’s power.  The Redeemer is the very one who carried the sin of the whole world, and who was cut down by His Father’s hand. And that is the part that hurts Christians the most, it certainly seemed that way for Jo.

Job confessed in the midst of his pain and suffering what was most certain; the life of hisGod and Redeemer, but he also confessed that it was the same God and Redeemer who had struck him with such pain and suffering.   He cries out to his friends, “Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!”  Job was in pain of body and soul, and there was no one else to lay that on but God himself.  It was God’s hand that caused sores, and pain, loss and great sorrow.  It is God’s hand that causes kidney disease, cancer and debilitating back problems. Our Father in heaven seeks to do his work of drawing His children to himself by causing them to lose what he has given, to give up what he has given, life itself, so that he might give life all the more through faith alone.  And this is hard to take and hard to bear.  Our Lord Jesus Christ was not lying when he said, “if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (St. Luke 9:23). And we know that Jo was familiar with this way of God, David you know most of all.  You saw.  

We all know her thoughts because she wrote them down.  Jo left her journals to Bill and Cindi and she wrote, “Why is it hard to believe what is written in God's word? I want to believe. I want to understand. He's my healer, but yet I'm not healed. I'm not angry anymore, I just want God to help me understand. How long must I suffer? How long before You deliver me from the fowler's snare?”  To ask such questions in faith is not sinful, because answers and understanding are sought from the Word of the gracious God who has done his chief work in suffering, the cross.  

True faith is borne of baptism into the living hope of Christ. In baptism we are crucified with Christ, we are baptized into his sufferings, we are given the redemption he earned and paid for.  The sufferings of a Christian are not redemptive, they are for refining.  Jo confessed her weakness and her inability to believe.  Why is it so hard to believe? Because of the Old Adam, our flesh.  The hand of God strikes so that we might despair of ourselves, turn away from our own reason or strength to the cross of Christ and the life He alone gives.   So what God does is get at our flesh; He refines his children, in fire and pain.  St. Peter wrote, “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:3-7).

God tempts no one, but he does discipline us as a loving Father and he does refine his children and for a little while, puts us to grief by various trials, so that we may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  The revelation of Jesus Christ is the day when he will stand at last on the earth, the redeemer who lives.  The praise, glory and honor will be given by us to Christ for his redemption and praise that he has granted us to share in his sufferings, St. Paul wrote, “For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too”  (2 Corinthians 1:5).  Comfort in suffering comes through the certainty of the forgiveness of sins through the redemption given by the shed blood of Jesus.  Comfort in suffering comes in the certainty that Jesus Christ is raised from the dead, he lives and he will stand at the last day.  Real comfort comes when Christians, and Jo was a Christian, receive the sacred body and blood of Jesus Christ.  Again from her journal, "I really hate it when I miss church and communion. I feel like something is amiss. My healing comes at the communion feast. There is something very personal and uplifting when I take of God's body and blood.”  

So here you had a woman who was asking for healing, and wondering when it was going to come and at the very same time confessing that her healing came from the communion feast, when she would take of her God’s body and blood.  What a redeemer who creates such faith!  When hearts are fainting and failing, when suffering is great, where are you to go?  Jo knew.  She looked to were the promises and healing were promised; the Word, the sacred body and blood of Jesus Christ.  Because you see, Jo was a Christian.  And it is Christians who hold to the promise of Jesus “he who believes and is baptized shall be saved, he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16). It is Christians, the sheep of Christ’s fold, baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit who will live a resurrected eternal life.  It is Christians who have hope in the face of death.  It is Christians who know that their redeemer lives and that he will stand at the last on the earth.  It is Christians who know and confess by the gift of the Spirit, after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. And Jo was a Christian.  Even now as her body sleeps and will be put in the rest of the grave, she sees God, for the true God is not a God of the dead but of the living.  She is alive even now, but there is waiting for her the resurrection.  Even as Christ is risen and lives, so Jo at the last day, when the trumpet shouts she will be raised imperishable.   Christ will draw all who believe and are baptized to life, eternal life.  Jo is one of that number, for Jo is a Christian.

Alleluia.  Christ is risen.

In Nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.  Amen.

Easter Greeting

Here is an Easter greeting from President Harrison: Video. This man never ceases to impress me. He showed up at my mother-in-law's visitation yesterday evening; we were all very touched that he came (and I was especially shocked knowing his insanely busy schedule), but such acts of kindness and a chance to speak a word of resurrection comfort are his hallmarks. Thank you, President Harrison, for being yourself!

He Descended into Hell...

Our Lord 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)

Christ has crushed hell, opened up heaven, bound and taken captive the devil, and delivered the prisoners. (Blessed Martin Luther: House Postil I:480)

The soul, having obtained union with the Word; descended into hell; but using its divine power and efficacy, it said to the ones in bondage, "Go forth!" (St. Cyril of Alexandria, as cited in Catalog of Testimonies VI)

Jesus has come as the mighty Redeemer.
See now the threatening strong one disarmed.
Jesus breaks down all the walls of death's fortress,
Brings forth the prisoners triumphant, unharmed.
Satan, you wicked one, own now your master!
Jesus has come, He the mighty redeemer! LSB 533:3

Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday

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 sorrows 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 has 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 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 a 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 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 the 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 Ancient Homily, read at Matins of Holy Saturday

Chief Service

We went in weary and depressed. We've had trouble just focusing on stuff that needs doing. Somehow the first part of the liturgy was hard to concentrate on. It was a chore to sing through O Sacred Head interspersed between the Passion reading from St. John. But Pastor preached us a powerful sermon on the mighty tetelesthai and the service became easier thereafter. The great Bidding Prayer was followed by the adoration of the cross. Then both pastors stepped out to set the altar, and Pastor Ball returned with a beautiful black chasuble and the very simple celebration of the Supper commenced. Lutheran Service Book: Altar Book provides for a spoken preface, and the proper preface for Holy Week moving directly to the Our Father and then the Words of Christ and the peace. Distribution takes place without singing. A collect and then "The Royal Banners" close out the liturgy. We left still quite sad, but not nearly so weighed down. "He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows..."

Cross-post

from ALPB, but touching on one of the key liturgical songs of this day:

A child of a Lutheran parsonage who ended up an atheist and died in a lunatic asylum, Nietzsche, once observed essentially the same: "You Christians lost the world when you lost your joy." Schmemann thought this profound and cited it more than once. For the Christian faith came into the world as good news of a great joy; and it spread throughout the world as the message and gift of a joy that the world cannot give. Again to the words of this day: "For behold! By the wood of the cross joy has come into all the world!" Without becoming anew witnesses to this great joy, the Church's inner life withers and dies; but when her children again taste it, when her pastors are again witnesses to it, when her entire liturgical life is the very gift of it to the sad and weary world, then renewal comes to the Church. The shower of the Gospel, pregnant with the new life of God, rains upon the earth and joy springs anew in the hearts of men. "What joy to know when life is past, the Lord we love is first and last, the end as the beginning; he will someday, O glorious grace!, transport us to that happy place beyond all tears and sinning."

Pastor Curtis

cited this in his Maundy Thursday sermon last night, from St. Augustine. He noted how the liturgy described here in the Roman province of Africa some 1600 years ago is still quite familiar to the family of God at Trinity, Worden. Good stuff:

I haven't forgotten my promise. I had promised those of you who have just been baptized a sermon to explain the sacrament of the Lord's table, which you can see right now, and which you shared in last night. You ought to know what you have received, what you are about to receive, what you ought to receive every day. That bread which you can see on the altar, sanctified by the word of God, is the body of Christ. That cup, or rather what the cup contains, sanctified by the word of God, is the blood of Christ. It was by means of these things that the Lord Christ wished to present us with his body and blood, which he shed for our sake for the forgiveness of sins. If you receive them well, you are yourselves what you receive. You see, the apostle says, We, being many, are one loaf, one body (1 Cor 10:17). That's how he explained the sacrament of the Lord's table; one loaf, one body, is what we all are, many though we be....

Now you have the sacraments in the order they occur. First, after the prayer, you are urged to lift up your hearts; that's only right for the members of Christ. After all, if you have become members of Christ, where is your head? Members have a head. If the head hadn't gone ahead before, the members would never follow. Where has our head gone? What did you give back in the creed? On the third day he rose again from the dead, he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father. So our head is in heaven. That's why, after the words Lift up your hearts, you reply, We have lifted them up to the Lord.

And you mustn't attribute it to your own powers, your own merits, your own efforts, this lifting up of your hearts to the Lord, because it's God's gift that you should have your heart up above. That's why the bishop, or the presbyter who's offering, goes on to say, when the people have answered We have lifted them up to the Lord, why he goes on to say, Let us give thanks to the Lord our God, because we have lifted up our hearts. Let us give thanks, because unless he had enabled us to lift them up, we would still have our hearts down here on earth. And you signify your agreement by saying, It is right and just to give thanks to the one who caused us to lift up our hearts to our head.

Then, after the consecration of the sacrifice of God, because he wanted us to be ourselves his sacrifice, which is indicated by where that sacrifice was first put, that is the sign of the thing that we are; why, then after the consecration is accomplished, we say the Lord's prayer, which you have received and given back. After that comes the greeting, Peace be with you, and Christians kiss one another with a holy kiss. It's a sign of peace; what is indicated by the lips should happen in the conscience; that is, just as your lips approach the lips of your brothers or sisters, so your heart should not be withdrawn from theirs.
   
So they are great sacraments and signs, really serious and important sacraments.

http://david.heitzman.net/sermons227-229a.html

Jo Left Cindi and Me Her Journal

and all I can say is: Wow. Such a wonderful read. She wrote in the beginning that I could use it as I saw fit in preaching or teaching. I think I might share some excerpts on this blog. It is very moving, as a faithful Christian woman wrestles with the promises...waiting for a healing that would not come in this life. More later, but some appetizers:

"I really hate it when I miss church and communion. I feel like something is amiss. My healing comes at the communion feast. There is something very personal and uplifting when I take of God's body and blood. I'll ask Bill to give me communion this week - very important to me."

"As I sit in church a peace comes over me, a quietness, communion with the Lord, the lighting of the candles. I wish it was Christmas every day of the year."

Joanne's Funeral

will be at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Hamel IL, on Easter Tuesday at 10 a.m. Visitation will be Easter Monday from 4 to 8 p.m. and Easter Tuesday from 9 to 9:45 a.m. also at St. Paul's.

I think it was back in 1972

It was a Spring day. We were still in school. I was in seventh grade. My friend Donald insisted we ride our bikes over. "You've got to meet Mama Jo." Cindi I knew from school, but I'd not met her mom. Off we rode and I was kind of shy - I mean, why would I go meet Cindi's mom? Cindi and I didn't even get along that well! It was the start of a long, long friendship, though. Donald was right. She was something else.

Unlike so many adults: she actually seemed interested in what we thought. She talked and laughed and before long I was hanging out at the house whether Donald was along or not. The friendship grew and deepened.  I often hitched a ride with Jo and Dave down to T.A.G. (Take and Give - a huge Charismatic prayer meeting in D.C. on Tuesday evenings). We'd squeeze a boatload of kids into a small Volkswagen and off we'd go.

With hormones popping, Jo was nonchalant and funny. "Hand check!" she'd shout out and we'd have to show that our hands were not where they had no business being.  She and Dave did the youth group at their church for a while. Lots of fun times. I remember one winter's day spent at the toboggan run in Potomac with them.

The first real trip away from my parents that I ever recall, they took me with them to Jesus 77 down in Orlando, Florida. Sometime around then we started a Wednesday night study group at their house (or at a friend's - Patty Brown's) and we just studied and prayed and sang. I began playing piano for that gathering and doing some occasional teaching of the Scriptures. I shudder to think what I must have taught back then!

But the Word of God was a great discovery for us all - and many, many was the night that Jo and I would sit up till the wee hours of the morning talking about God, about His Word. She loved her Lord and she loved to teach.

Memories just cluster right now. The trip to Prince Edward Island (and David walloping her upside the head with the rock - "Hey, grandma! Watch me throw this!" - THUD and her dropping Sandy's camcorder into the sound!)... Fun days with Dave's whole crew at the Purple Pad in Ocean City... Times together at Bethany Beech... Visits to North Carolina and later to Illinois... Finally, them moving out here. We were SOOOOOOO excited to have them close by.

Even with the health problems that plagued her, her spirit didn't flag until these last years. And even then FEISTY is an understatement to describe our Jo, especially when she was winning at cards. So obnoxious the way she'd rub it in!  Oh, we're going to miss her at cards so much.

Can't write more now, but just wanted to put up something about this wonderful woman that I was privileged to know as my friend for over 40 years...this crazy woman who would befriend a bunch of teenagers and teach us about the Lord. Thank you, Mama Jo, for everything...

Words from Emily...

The bustle in a house
The morning after death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted upon earth, -

The sweeping up the heart,
And putting love away
We shall not want to use again
Until eternity.

+ Joanne DeVries

Asleep in Jesus, awaiting the joyous resurrection. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." Ps. 116.

A Beautiful Rendering

Check out Matt Carver's latest offering.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

We cannot determine the moment of the beginning and the end of the real presence of Christ's body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar with watch in hand... We may never forget that the presence of Christ, His divine and human nature, is always an eschatological miracle in which time and eternity meet.—Hermann Sasse, We Confess: the Sacraments, p. 137.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Man offers to God; this is sacrifice. God gives back to man; this is sacrament. The oblation, or thing offered, supplies both the sacrifice and the sacrament, but with this difference, that under the Old Dispensation God received part and man received part; but under the New, God receives all and give back all: Jesus Christ, in His own divine person, makes that complete which was narrowed under the Old Covenant, by the necessary limitations of mere matter.—C. P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, p. 591.

Patristic Quote of the Day

Is it, then, fitting for us to say, that to mortify the deeds of the flesh is not a gift of God, and not to confess it to be a gift of God, because we hear it required of us, with the offer of life as a reward if we shall do it? Away with this being approved by the partakers and champions of grace! This is the condemnable error of the Pelagians, whose mouths the apostle immediately stopped when he added, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God; Romans 8:14 lest we should believe that we mortify the deeds of the flesh, not by God's Spirit, but by our own.—St. Augustine, On the Predestination of the Saints, Book I, Chapter 22.

This was too fascinating...

...to let languish in a comment box. See if you agree!

Pr. Matthew Johnson made this observation:


Pr. Weedon-

This past Wednesday our congregation covered the Table of Duties, noting that it follows immediately upon the Daily Prayers. I noted that prayer and work belong together and that we ought to give at least as much attention, preparation, and energy to our prayers as to our work and callings (and then made the Lenten connection to Christ's High Priestly Prayer and the prayer at the Garden of Gethsemane before He undertook is great work and calling).

In commenting on the Table of Duties I noted that in the Large Catechism Luther underscores the household estate as the foundational estate of the three, so then we pondered on why the order is this in the S.C.: ecclesiastical, political, household (though Arand notes that the majority of Scripture passages are found under the foundational household estate in his "That I May Be His Own"). Is it possible or even likely that because of prayer Luther ordered the Small Catechism in this way? Consider the Prayer of the Church, in which we pray first for the Church/churches/ministers (as in the old diptychs), then for the government/military, and then for the married/children/youth/industry/commerce/arts/the sick, etc. Perhaps prayer (the Prayer of the Church) served as the basis for the ordering of the table of duties/work? 

Well, the typical prayer form used after the sermon can be found at the end of the third volume of the House Postils, on page 390.

The order of the bids?

[For pastors]
So let us pray first of all for the spiritual government and the beloved office of the holy ministry...

[For hearers]
That He would give us a grateful heart so that we might love his Holy Word, have great regard for it, and by hearing it, bear fruit and amend our lives, so that we not only understand it correctly, but also live in accordance with it and do good works and daily grow in faith and good works...

[For civil authority]
Let us pray also for the civil government... the emperor... our prince.

[For citizens]
the common weal governed well that we may be obedient and upright.

[husbands]
May each pray for himself.

[wives]
his wife.

[children]
and children.

[workers]
and for whatever is entrusted to him.

[all]
for all who are distressed in body and soul.

Now, whether the Table of Duties shapes the prayer or the prayer shapes the Table of Duties, I think Pr. Johnson's "aha" is most helpful. In it we see something of the symbiosis of lex orandi, lex credendi. So, thanks, Pr. Johnson for the insight!

On the way to work this a.m.

I wish I had had the forethought to stop and get a picture. Bob Esch told me years ago that 140 was originally an Indian trail and it ran due east-west and at the time of the equinox the sun rose and sat on the road. This morning it was just peeping directly in front of me as I turned onto 140 and it sure was beautiful. [Updated - snapped the photo this morning!]

Easter Lessons and Carols

I had an inquiry come into the office about such a resource. I don't have one, but the more I thought of certain hymns in our LSB, the more I realized how simple it would be to construct such a service. Here is a suggested outline of the core part of the service:

Hymn: LSB 475 Good Christian Friends, Rejoice and Sing

Psalm 118 prayed responsively or antiphonally

Matthew 28:1–8 LSB 478 The Day of Resurrection

John 20:11–18 LSB 459/460 Victimae Paschali

Luke 24:13–35 LSB 476 Who Are You Who Walk in Sorrow

John 20:19-31 LSB 470/471 O Sons and Daughters of the King or LSB 472 These Things Did Thomas

John 21:1–14 LSB 485 Long before the World is Waking

John 21:15–25 LSB 681 Send, O Lord, Your Holy Spirit (a prayer for your pastor)

Luke 24:36–53 LSB 466 Christ Has Arisen, Alleluia

Meditation (Homily of St. John Chrysostom or some such)

Kyrie

Our Father

Collect

Blessing

Hymn: LSB 482 This Joyful Eastertide

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

The consecrated bread is the body of Christ also when it lies on the altar or when the pastor holds it in his hand. This is the Lutheran view.—Hermann Sasse, We Confess: the Sacraments, p. 136.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

The cross of Christ is the tree of life, and He the precious fruit borne by heavenly grace upon it. The cross is the centre of Paradise Regained, as the tree of life was the centre of the first Paradise. Christ's body is the organ of life purchased by His obedience and death. The Holy Supper is the sacrament of that body, and, through that body, the sacrament of life which that body brings.—C. P. Krauth, Conservative Reformation, p. 586.

Patristic Quote of the Day

Further, between grace and predestination there is only this difference, that predestination is the preparation for grace, while grace is the donation itself.—St. Augustine, On the Predestination of the Saints, Book I, Chapter 19.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

But the people's hunger for the bread of life remains unsatisfied. The yearning for Christ, who according to His true divinity and humanity is present with His Church in His means of grace for all time to the world's end, remains unappeased. For our theologians do not know whether that is the case, and if they do know it, they talk as if they were not quite sure. The Christian congregations and the people who are today looking longingly to the church want to know. They do not want to know whether the Catechism speaks "too directly," "too unguardedly," or "not dialectically enough," but whether what it says is true.—Hermann Sasse, We Confess: the Sacraments, pp. 101, 102.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Whatever, therefore, may be the relation of imputation to original sin, our Church holds it to be an impious opinion, that our misery and liability are merely the results of imputation. The primary point is, that we do actually participate, in our nature, in the corruption wrought by the Fall.—C. P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, p. 378.

Patristic Quote of the Day

But why He delivers one rather than another—His judgments are unsearchable, and His ways past finding out. Romans 11:33 For it is better in this case for us to hear or to say, O man, who are you that repliest against God? Romans 9:20 than to dare to speak as if we could know what He has chosen to be kept secret.—St. Augustine, On the Predestination of the Saints, Book I, Chapter 16.

Patristic Quote of the Day

Believers ask that their faith may be increased; they ask on behalf of those who do not believe, that faith may be given to them; therefore both in its increase and in its beginnings, faith is the gift of God.—St. Augustine, On the Predestination of the Saints, Book I, Chapter 22.

You know...

...THIS should be required reading for every District President and Circuit Counselor. Wouldn't hurt if seminary presidents read it too.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

The Lord's Supper has kept this memory so deeply alive precisely because it is even more than a memorial meal. It is not only a celebration of reminiscence like the Passover, in which the human spirit recalled the past for itself, but it is a genuine, actual bringing into the present of God's redeeming act through the gift of the body and blood of Christ.—Dr. Hermann Sasse, We Confess: the Sacraments, p. 91.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Take away Christ, and every human creature dies in Adam; take away Adam, and every human creature lives in Christ. But though the range of Adam's work and of Christ's work be the same, the power of Christ's work transcends that of Adam's. God's love in Christ outweighs all.—C. P. Krauth, Conservative Reformation, p. 414.

Patristic Quote of the Day

May Thy grace, O Lord, accompany us and lead us to the great morning.—St. Ephraim the Syrian, A Spiritual Psalter, #95.

As Cindi read

today's second reading from Treasury in our morning prayers, it occurred to me that maybe I've misunderstood it. The scribe drawn to Jesus by the controversy over the resurrection with the Sadducees asks Him about the Great Commandment. Jesus answers with the twin commandments. And the scribe approves: "You are right, Teacher. You have truly said HE is one, there is no other besides HIM. And to love HIM with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as one's self is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."

Jesus responds to this with: "You are not far from the kingdom of God."

The distance, though, is in the pronoun. For the kingdom of God was closer than the scribe imagined. It was there in the flesh standing before him. Oh, if only the scribe had had the eyes to see. NOT "HE is one" but YOU are one. Not "there is no other besides Him" but "there is no other besides YOU." Not "to love HIM with all the understanding..." but "to love YOU with all the understanding!"

And to drive to this point, Jesus asks the next question: the Christ, whose Son is he? David calls Him 'Lord' so how is He his son?

When we come to Jesus, we stand before the God who became our neighbor, who came into the flesh because we COULD not love Him with all our heart, mind, and strength. Nor our neighbor as ourself. He came into our flesh to accomplish this. God becomes man in order that there might be a perfect and complete human righteousness - which is just the exact same thing as saying a human life in which there was nothing but love. And the gift of that love to us to be our very own, that gift IS the gift of the kingdom.

Yes, the kingdom of God was nearer to the fellow than he expected. For the King of the kingdom was standing right before Him, and would soon take up His throne upon a cross.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

The question they [the Confessors] then had to answer was wherein the true unity of the church consists. On the basis of God's Word they confessed that it is not to be found in unity of traditions or ceremonies, but in the one God and in the sacraments instituted by our Lord. They declined the false view of the church's unity which sees this unity in what human beings have arranged or devised, such as a great constitution or a uniform liturgy. Our church has never taught that in areas such as these there have to be differences. On the contrary, there have always been efforts to preserve unity also in these area.—Hermann Sasse, We Confess: the Church, p. 56.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

It might be as well said, that because the Romanist does not discern the bread in the Supper, he receives no bread, as that the unbeliever, because he does not discern the body of the Lord, does not commune with it sacramentally... The Sacramental communion rests on His person, not our ideas.—C. P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, p. 492.

Patristic Quote of the Day

He has already shown His great love for you; He has broken His body for you and given you His blood to drink.—St. Ephraim the Syrian, A Spiritual Psalter, #60

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

And when here on earth the tragic case occurs, which happens again and again where the question of truth is earnestly engaged, that one confession of faith is set against another, conscience against conscience, then we must leave the decision to Him who in the Last Judgment will finally separate truth from error. We do not know God's judgments, and can and may not anticipate them. Also when we speak the "condemned" against a false teaching, God's forgiving grace may bring the erring sinner into the church triumphant, where there is no more untruth. On the other hand, this door will be shut to many a one who has done battle for the truth in perfect orthodoxy but forgotten that he too was only a poor sinner who lives only by forgiving grace.—Hermann Sasse, We Confess: the Church, pp. 57, 58.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

They [the words of institution] are an immovable foundation for faith in the Sacramental mystery, and the gates of hell cannot shake the faith of the Church, that our Lord Jesus with the true body and true blood which He gave for our redemption on the Cross, is truly present in the Holy Supper, to apply the redemption through the very organs by which it was wrought out. The sacrifice was made once for all—its application goes on till the end of time. The offence of the Master's Cross now rests upon His table, and thither the triumph of the Cross shall follow it.—C. P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, p. 619.

Patristic Quote of the Day

If you are an ardent reader, seek not brilliant and erudite texts; otherwise the demon of haughtiness will strike your heart. But like a wise bee that gathers honey from flowers, through your reading obtain healing for your soul.—St. Ephraim the Syrian, A Spiritual Psalter, #57.

The Last Day

No, not THAT last day: just the last day of the Historic Liturgy Series on Issues, Etc. (or as Todd has taken to calling it "classical Christian worship").  You can listen to the series here: Historic Liturgy.

Chapel Homily on the Ninth Commandment

[Text was 1 Kings 21:1–16]


Like pouting Ahab and his bloodthirsty wife, Jezebel (the mafia queen of the Old Testament!), you think you have to have THAT (whatever your that may be) in order to be happy. As though your happiness, your life itself came from the stuff you possess. But hear your Lord’s words loud and clear: “A man’s life does NOT consist in the abundance of his possessions.” You are looking for happiness in all the wrong places, and deep down you know it. I know it. I’ve been there.

We were visiting my cousins and they had KNIVES. Brand new, big honking hunting knives. Of course, they HUNTED. They lived on my family’s farm in Virginia and they actually killed animals and skinned them. I, by way of contrast, lived in suburban Maryland. I had never hunted an animal in my life. But I saw the big new knives. They were so bad. I just had to have one. It is at least an hour and half trip from Richardsville Virginia to Wheaton Maryland, and I used the entire trip home to work on my daddy. I NEED a knife. I JUST HAVE to have one. Now, understand, I am the youngest. I knew how to work my parents. I don’t think we’d made it to the Beltway yet before my dad exploded with: “All right, if you just shut up, I’ll get you a knife.” To which I responded: “Today? Can we go today?”

Off we went to sears and I picked out my new knife. And I don’t think I’ll ever forget the odd sort of sinking feeling that I got in the very moment of possession. Oh, I have my knife. Hmm. Isn’t life grand? I still have it, you know. And how many times do you think I have used it to skin anything? Yeah, that’s right. Still, I keep it around to remind Weedon of the folly of thinking that happiness comes from things.

Your Lord would open your eyes to see that happiness, joy, contentment, that which makes life worthwhile, it just isn’t found in stuff no matter what the stuff is: new tractors or combines, new motor homes or furniture, new cars, the boat and place at the lake or even new eletronic toys. None of those things can deliver what you’re actually aching for, dying for inside. Because finally what you ache for isn’t a possession. Not an "it" at all. He’s a person, a who, and a gift. “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our souls are restless until they rest in you” is how St. Augustine finally saw it.

Your Lord, Your Jesus, His embrace, His forgiveness, His love, His Spirit, His Father, His LIFE. You were made for Him, people loved by God. Without Him you miss out on your life’s very meaning. So repent. Stop giving your heart to stuff and realize that absolutely none of it can ever satisfy your longing or still your spirit. For, of course, you will take absolutely none of it with you when you leave this world. You can’t take it with you anymore than Naboth or Ahab could take that vineyard or I my knife when the breath departs and we were laid low in the dust.

But Him, Him you can take. Or rather, He will take you. Think of it: to give you Himself and to impart to you His own inheritance, He lived a life of poverty. Not owning a blasted thing but the clothes on His back (though all the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof). You see, He was not out to take things from you (well, except your sin) but only to give Himself to you. He proved that a man’s life consists in the relationship he has with the Father through the Son and in His Spirit and in that alone. He didn’t only show it. He died and rose again to give it away to you. To make all that is His your very own. To impart to you His inheritance and house, a life with Him forever that is beyond all the wealth this world can offer.  And it is all wrapped up in the gift of His forgiveness in His blood, His kind embrace, a resurrection from the dead, and a life that never ends.

That sets you free from trying to get your neighbor’s stuff; you can rather gladly help him to keep it. You have been set free from thinking happiness will come to you in the new knife or new whatever. You are free to help the neighbor instead, because you have Jesus and knowing He is yours and you are His is enough and more than enough. To Him be the glory! Amen.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

The catechism shapes the piety of Lutheranism as it not only provides a compendium of Christian doctrine, but a pattern for praying.—Pr. John Pless "The Triangular Shape of the Pastor's Devotional Life" in Lord Jesus Christ, Will You Not Stay?, p. 329.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

We repeat the proposition, confirmed by the whole history of the Church, that moral repugnance to the doctrine that the body and blood of Christ are the medium through which redemption is applied, has its root in a moral repugnance to the doctrine that His precious body and blood are the medium through which redemption was wrought.—C. P. Krauth, Conservative Reformation, p. 657.

Patristic Quote of the Day

I shall sing of the glory of the Master of heavenly powers and shall magnify Thy grace, O Christ, our Savior, and my tongue shall not cease to chant of Thy love.—St. Ephraim the Syrian, A Spiritual Psalter, #7

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

The Evangelical Lutheran pastor uses three primary books for the life of study and prayer. He uses the Scriptures, the fountain and source of all true doctrine; the Small Catechism, which confesses the doctrine drawn from the sacred Scripture; and the hymnal as it expresses this doctrine liturgically and doxologically.—John. T. Pless "The Triangular Shape of the Pastor's Devotional Life" in Lord Jesus Christ, Will You Not Stay?, p. 328.

[To which I must note the wonderful gathering of the three into one in the Treasury of Daily Prayer...]

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Our [Lutheran] Church in common with both the Roman and the Greek Churches, does hold to a true presence of the whole Christ, the factor of which is not our mind, but his own divine person... Faith does not put him there, but finds him there.—C. P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation, p. 343.

Patristic Quote of the Day

Thou knowest, O Master, the failings of human nature. Remember that from his youth evil thoughts press diligently upon a man and be not wroth with me to the end, but open to me Thy hand and the door of Thy loving-kindness.—St. Ephraim the Syrian, A Spiritual Psalter, #123.

Where angels fear to tread...

I got an interesting phone call today from a friend about screens. Some folks at her church are wanting to put one up in the nave. She wanted my thoughts.

Well, for what they are worth:

1. First of all, let's recognize that screens are neither commanded nor forbidden in God's Word. That seems like a huge "duh" because they're a result of technology moving in ways that the folks back then couldn't even begin to imagine. Which means they fall into the technical category of adiaphora.

2. That should lead us to the next question: is their use wise? For not all things are wise which we are free to do. And that's where I'd invite us to do a bit more pondering than we are wont to do in such matters.

Here I'd ask a few more questions: What does the use of a large screen suggest about context? It's not a neutral thing. It, like most everything else, has associations in our culture. What are those typically? I would think we could agree that they tend to fall into that form of media consumption we call "entertainment." Is that a context we want carried into the Church?

Nothing against entertainment, mind you. It has its place in our lives. But is that place in that wondrous transaction where God assembles His Holy Bride to lavish upon her the gifts His Son died to win for her and lives to deliver to her?

Looking at Hebrews 12 is always helpful. Check out the summary of the Chapter: our God is an all-consuming fire. Let our worship be acceptable, therefore, that is, offered with reverence and awe. Is it possible to extricate the screen from its cultural setting (think Theatre or Man Cave) and bring it into that holy assembly without carrying along with it something casual, something bordering on the frivolous? Not saying that it cannot be done; but I am saying that it's a lot harder to do than we imagine. Somehow, it shouldn't surprise us that folks are in the theatre type seats, sipping their lattes that they bought (!) in the "narthex" and evidencing no sense of actually being in the presence of the One before whom angels veil their faces in awe; in the presence of the Lord Jesus, before whom John fell at his feet as one dead.

One final reflection: idols. The people of God have always struggled against them, these things. These creations of our own hands from which we expect every good. Surely to any impartial observer in this day and age, technology is our idol. We lie to ourselves when we talk about just "using it." No, the way our kids are with the texting on their phones, staring into screens, isn't just "using" their phones. Watch the panic when you can't connect to the net! YIKES. Hey, I know whereof I speak because I have passing familiarity with that idol too (just not the texting variety - ugh! I HATE getting or sending texts. There. I said it.). But many times when the arguments for the screen are bandied about, what runs beneath the surface is exactly idolatry over technology: "If only we could get a nice with-it screen and projector, we might get folks back...or keep the kids...or..." well, you get the idea. It's looking for from technology what we no longer trust the Word of God, simply spoken, to deliver. And we need to repent of it. It's a silly as thinking that reproducing the perfect museum piece liturgy from 17th century Magdeburg is the cure to what ails us. Um, no. That's not the solution to anything (and you know that I LOVE 17th century Magdeburg). Still I can't help but wonder if there isn't ONE place left on God's green earth where I can go and NOT be assaulted by a screen (where, underneath the entertainment, someone is usually trying to sell me something!)?

Going forward, let's have some of these conversations about screens and such. Let's affirm Christian freedom and mean it, and yet because it's Christian freedom it doesn't mean "no one can tell me what to do!" (that's old Adam's idea of freedom) - rather it means, God's Word doesn't tell us one way or the other about this, but it sure gives us some helpful questions to ask in evaluating whether or not using our freedom in this or that way would be beneficial to worship in the Church.

I hope the above might move the discussion beyond the usual:

But *I* like screens! Yeah, well *I* don't.

But I have my doubts... What are your thoughts?

From Sirach 5

Do not be so sure of forgiveness that you add sin to sin. And do not say, "His compassion is great, and he will forgive me my many sins"; for with him are both mercy and wrath, and his rage bears heavy on sinners. Do not delay your return to the Lord, do not put it off day after day; for suddenly the Lord's wrath will blaze out, and at the time of vengeance you will be utterly destroyed. 

What a stunning warning against what our old theologians called "carnal security." The Weedon version is shorter: "God loves to forgive; I love to sin; such a deal!" Rather, remember the terrifying nature of divine wrath, of pure holiness and absolute love, and cry out:

Lord, have mercy upon me! Set me free!

I so often think of Luther's Ad Te Levavi homily: the person who longs to be set free from sin has nothing to fear from the Last Day. It comes as the answer to his prayers. Lord, give us such hearts as long to be freed from the chains of sin and enter into the liberty of the sons of God. Amen.