Introverts

Cindi posted this to my FB page and I think it's pretty accurate:

Myths about Introverts

It cracks me up because most folks simply don't get that about me at all. I've heard more than one person exclaim: "You? No way!" But it's very true. Read the above and let me assure that that's a very on target description.

Synodical convention was quite taxing that way; you're rarely alone. But you see, we have our little coping mechanism. We withdrawn into ourselves and the world just becomes a noisy blur, background noise, and we concentrate on something else. The huge blessing at this convention was being able to pray for the intentions that were constantly pouring in. That took lots of time and it was a blessed relief to just withdraw and lift up those concerns. For the introvert, those moments are to us what a resting stroke is to a swimmer. They enable you to go back to the power stroke, back out to the fray. They energize.

I remember my sister observing this long before I understood what was going on. When the family got together, she remarked, I'd hang out for a while and then go be by myself for a while, and then pop back in again. I could never just stay with the group the whole time.

So, yeah, weird as it sounds: where's the perfect vacation? Home! What's the perfect get together? Small, no more than three or four friends. What's the perfect day? A day when you have vast amounts of time to yourself or only with family and close friends.

Big gatherings like Convention ARE a lot of fun and I love seeing and meeting the people - but rather than being pumped by that interaction, it drains. And so off for the spot of quiet, of alone time. And then, invariably refreshed, back to the fray!

If your congregation is vacant or calling...

...you really need to know about this site:

Lost Pastors

Remember and never forget: your District President can suggest names for your congregation, but he cannot forbid your congregation from calling any person who is eligible for call in the Synod. Let's drop the asinine political games and give the complete list of eligible men to EVERY vacant/calling congregation.

Thank you, Pr. Ken Kelly for your caring and valuable work on behalf of our many pastors who are without call, but eligible and eager to serve.

From Office of National Mission...

Well, that was interesting

Convention worship was a great joy.  Working with these topnotch musicians could certainly become addictive!  Before time dulls memory, Sandy and I need to set down in print everything we learned that will be helpful next time round. Little things like insisting that Worship needs Internet access and printer access; bigger things like making sure we have sufficient numbers of backups to cover for people who cannot be present due to last minute emergencies.  High point to me was unquestionably the start, the Holy Eucharist, though commemoration of the faithful departed and service of baptismal remembrance ran close seconds.  More than one person complained to me about the way we shortened certain of the liturgies to accommodate more time for business, but despite that the services still largely stood in their integrity and that's a good thing, I think.

I've never been one for jigsaw puzzles...

...but that's how things feel in preparation for the convention at the moment. All the pieces are here. Tomorrow we start piecing some of them together. Friday we do even more. By Saturday, we should have a decent chancel for the Worship and a chapel where prayer can be offered and penitents absolved during the week. Whew!!!

Today's Catechesis

Catechesis on 2^nd Petition of the Lord’s Prayer: Thy Kingdom Come

Reading: Galatians 5:16-25

It’s a battle of the Kingdoms. The Kingdom of this world as it now is. The Kingdom of God as this world will finally be at Christ’s return. You heard St. Paul describe them in the reading. The one characterized by works of the flesh: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality (living for pleasure, hedonism), idolatry (trying to squeeze eternal life out of the stuff of this fallen world), sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and (he’s not even giving an exhaustive list!) things like these. That’s the world we live in. That’s the world that lives in us all since the Fall.

But the world that will be, the Kingdom that is coming? The fruits of the Spirit characterize it: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

The Kingdom that is coming and that will be the future of this world, made its beach-head into the Kingdom of darkness at the incarnation of our Lord Jesus. There for the first time in human flesh was a person who literally LIVED the fruits of the Spirit without ceasing. Flawlessly.  From conception to death and so from death to resurrection! And from the resurrection the Kingdom expanded and grew. And that growth comes in two ways.

First, it grows by new folks being added to it through the Spirit’s work. They receive the gift of faith, and are baptized and the Church grows. That’s how it has expanded through the whole world and how it continues to expand.

But the second way the Kingdom grows is INSIDE you. For that’s where the battle rages. As long as you live in your fallen flesh, the works of the flesh will continue to try to erupt in your life and disrupt your enjoyment of the Kingdom of God, to destroy the fruits of the Spirit in your life. And in just the same way the Kingdom of God in your life, planted into you at your baptism, engages in an non-stop war against the passions and evil works of your flesh. They never make peace with each other. The one means the death of the other. To be a Christian is to live in this battle.

Now there are some Lutherans who will tell you that there is no progress in the Christian life, no growth in sanctification. But this is false and it is a lie. Luther in the Large Catechism on Baptism describes the ongoing struggle that Christians engage by the Spirit against the flesh, and he speaks of ever increasing in the fruits of the Spirit and ever diminishing in the works of the flesh. To be sure, it is a battle that proceeds in much weakness and with many setbacks, but it presses on relentlessly to the final victory at the Resurrection. Where this isn’t happening, Luther observes that Baptism isn’t being put to use but resisted.

Yet here is an oft-overlooked truth: this new life of the Spirit isn’t given to you piece-meal. It is given whole. When you were baptized you received the very righteousness of Christ, His flawless obedience to the law, as your very own. It’s the Lord’s gift to you. What you grow in is in your living out from that gift more and more, and less and less from the old Kingdom, the Kingdom and works of the flesh.

But this is impossible by your own strength and power. It can only happen by the Holy Spirit. And so the petition: “thy Kingdom come.” That’s your prayer that the Kingdom would increase in this world by gathering others into it, and that’s your prayer that the Kingdom would expand in YOUR life, so that by the gift of the Holy Spirit you believe God’s holy Word and lead a godly life here in time and there in eternity.

That is, when we pray the Second Petition, you ask that by the Spirit’s power your life would become ever more and more filled with the God’s own love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. That’s the Kingdom that WILL be the future of this world at the return of Christ. Thy Kingdom come asks for nothing less that that future gift to grow in your life now. May God grant it to us all!

Home again

Well, we had a really nice long trip. Cindi, Bekah, Shawn and I headed out of here on June 28 before sunrise. We drove straight through to Maryland and spent the night at Doug and Deb's. Broadhurst family reunion was on Saturday. Early Sunday we headed south to Alexandria for worship at Immanuel, and then sat forever on the beltway as we headed to Sis and Jimmy's. Got to see Tammy and John, JC and Andrew, Brayden and Nicole and Hannah, Maup and Nancy, Jessica and Curtis. Woke up on Monday with a pounding migraine and Cindi drove us down to Lauren's through lots of rain. Finally felt better by day's end. Lots of fun in North Carolina with Sawyer. Dean was away most of week at National Youth Gathering, but he came home Friday night. We dropped in on Jim and Amy, Katie and Dustin and Annalise on Saturday. Sunday was Divine Service and packing up. Monday we started home at 4 a.m. and got home at 7:20 p.m. or so. A whirlwind week, but lots of joy. Still wiped.

Some pics:

 

 

President Harrison re-elected

Congrats to President Harrison upon reelection.  More here

What to do about Chapel at your school this year?

Wonder no more! Check out this stunning little volume by Jonathan Schkade, children's author, friend, and neighbor:

Learn the Faith, Live the Faith

I wish I'd had such a critter when I was still doing school chapels! It walks through the entire catechism with an engaging talk each day on something from the chief parts.

Blessed Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist!

[From Synod's Facebook Page]


Today we celebrate the birth of St. John the Baptist. The Lutheran Service Book includes the Nativity of St. John the Baptist among the "principal feasts of Christ." Since it was "in the sixth month" of Elizabeth's pregnancy that the Angel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she would become the God-bearer, and since we celebrate our Lord's birth on December 24-25, the birth of the Baptist falls exactly six months prior. St. Bede the Venerable noted that this fulfilled (at least for us in the Northern Hemisphere) the saying of the Baptist himself: "He must increase but I must decrease." So after our Lord's birth we observe the amount of daylight growing and after St. John's birth we note the daylight beginning to diminish.

From the liturgy for this day: "Behold, I will send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. Through John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, You once proclaimed salvation. Now grant that we may know this salvation and serve You in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life. Before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you. I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations. Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. ...whose way John the Baptist prepared, proclaiming Him the promised Messiah, the very Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and calling sinners to repentance that they might escape the wrath to be revealed when He comes again in glory."

Gotta confess...

...we are LOVING the pool. Not quite finished - we've still got to order the steps and connect the deck to the pool itself. Hopefully will be done in short order. It's been amazingly relaxing to get home from work and spend some time floating, soaking up the rays. I just need to figure out how to sip my wine while soaking in the sun.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

Today as always people ask, What does the church actually do? It prays. The praying church is one of the constantly recurring themes of early Christian art. The church prays.—Hermann Sasse, We Confess: the Sacraments, p. 151.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

In order that He might not destroy those whom He had made, He donned the body of a servant that His flesh might free our flesh. This is the surest argument as to His will for our redemption.—Blessed Martin Chemnitz, Two Natures, p. 45.

Patristic Quote of the Day

Our Lord Jesus Christ, then, prays not for the twelve Apostles alone, but rather for all who were destined in every age to yield to and obey the words that exhort those who hear to receive that sanctification that is through faith, and to that purification which is accomplished in them through partaking of the Spirit. —St. Cyril of Alexandria on John 17

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

But if anyone wonders why we should receive forgiveness twice, what it means that one should be absolved of sins and then still receive the Sacrament for the forgiveness of sins, to such a one we may answer—Luther caught the spirit of it—"You have not yet pondered how great is the weight of sin."—Hermann Sasse, We Confess: the Sacraments, p. 131.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

This dispute concerning the two wills and the two natural operations in Christ is no idle thing, for in addition to the points we have mentioned, it also has this use that the Son of God assumed our nature in such a way that first in and through Himself He restored our nature to its pristine beauty which had been despoiled and corrupted in Adam, as Cyril says, In Johannem Book 11, ch. 25. Therefore, He did not assume a part of human nature without a mind, without a will, without human activity, but He assumed all the things which were planted in our nature by God, as Damascenus says, that is, He assumed a complete human nature possessing all the powers and faculties which belong to and were arranged for human nature, so that He restored even the powers which our nature had lost because of sin, and in Himself He first repaired and renewed the powers which had been corrupted through sin. And through Himself He bestowed upon the human race this renewal and restoration, which begins in this life and finds its completion in the future life. For that part of human nature which was not assumed by the Son of God has not been healed, as Nazianzus says. Damascenus, Book 4, chapter 14 cites this ancient statement: "Christ in Himself sketched out or reformed our will," as it had been in our perfect nature before sin. This restoration begins in this life and will be perfected in the life to come.—Blessed Martin Chemnitz, Two Natures in Christ, p. 238, 239.

Patristic Quote of the Day

For He that was truly God, and had no sin in Him, was yet Man; and just as the sentence of condemnation for transgression went forth over all mankind, through one man, the first Adam, so likewise, also, the blessing of justification by Christ is extended to all through One Man, the Second Adam. Paul is our witness, who says: As through one the judgment came unto all men to condemnation; even so through One the free gift came unto all men to justification of life. We therefore are diseased through the disobedience of the first Adam and its curse, but are enriched through the obedience of the Second and its blessing. —St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John 19:4.

A Little Luther on Private Confession

As to the current practice of private confession, I am heartily in favor of it, even though it cannot be proved from the Scriptures. It is useful, even necessary, and I would not have it abolished. Indeed, I rejoice that it exists in the church of Christ, for it is a cure without equal for distressed consciences. For when we have laid bare our conscience to our brother and privately made known to him the evil that lurked within, we receive from our brother’s lips the word of comfort spoken by God himself. And, if we accept this in faith, we find peace in the mercy of God speaking to us through our brother. AE 36:86

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

Sins are just the symptom; our real dilemma is death.—Pr. Hal Senkbeil, Sanctification, p. 132.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Faith without love for God is an empty product of our imagining, a hull without fruit, a shell without a kernel, a painted picture without life. Wherever there is true faith, love comes forth like the shining of the sun. Wherever love is absent from the heart, God, the eternal love, cannot be found there. And where there is no God, there is also not faith.—C. F. W. Walther, God Grant It!, p. 495.

Patristic Quote of the Day

For truly, He has not only delivered from sins, but has also placed among the approved. For, not that He might deliver us from evils only, did He suffer so great things, but that also we might obtain the first rewards; as if one should not only free a condemned criminal from his punishment, but also advance him to honor. And he has ranked you with those who have not sinned, yea rather not with those who have done no sin only, but even with those who have wrought the greatest righteousness; and, what is truly a great thing, has given the holiness which is before Him, and the being unreprovable. Now an advance upon unblamable is unreprovable, when we have done nothing either to be condemned for, or charged with. But, since he ascribed the whole to Him, because through His death He achieved these things; what then, says one, is it to us? We need nothing. Therefore he added,

Ver. 23. If so be that you continue in the faith grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Gospel.

Here he strikes a blow at their listlessness. And he said not simply continue, for it is possible to continue wavering, and vacillating; it is possible to stand, and continue, though turned this way and that. If so be that you continue, he says, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away. Wonderful! What a forcible metaphor he uses; he says not only not tossed to and fro, but not even moved. And observe, he lays down so far nothing burdensome, nor toilsome, but faith and hope; that is, if you continue believing, that the hope of the things to come is true. For this indeed is possible; but, as regards virtuous living, it is not possible to avoid being shaken about, though it be but a little; so (what he enjoins) is not grievous.

—St. John Chrysostom on Colossians 1:22, 23

Commemoration of St. Boniface, Missionary to the Germans

An Englishman who brought the Good News to Germany and to the Netherlands. Martyred upon this day in 754.

From The Treasury:

Almighty God, You called Boniface to be a witness and martyr in Germany, and by his labor and suffering You raised up a people for Your own possession. Pour out Your Holy Spirit upon Your Church in every land, that by the service and sacrifice of many Your holy name may be glorified and Your kingdom enlarged; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

This summer

I'm working through Casimir Kucharek's The Byzantine-Slav Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. His chapters on the early centuries are quite interesting, and particularly the chapter on Pre-Nicene Uniformity-Diversity. This starts out with the statement: "Despite the great variations of detail, expected of the more-or-less extemporary character of all pre-Nicene prayer, the celebration of the Eucharist in the second century can still be considered uniform. This uniformity consisted not only in the general ideas (identity of meaning) contained in those extemporary prayers, but also in the order or arrangement of their component parts." (p. 54) He points out that Pope Anicetus inviting Polycarp of Smyrna to celebrate the Eucharist in Rome as an example of a shared sense of uniform order in the Eucharist, but still freedom to formulate the actual prayers according to varying local custom. Anyway, some very good reading.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

We must remember that the closer we come to the Last Day, the more cunningly our evil enemy will attempt to deceive us into thinking that the treasure of the Word is uncertain and suspect. Let us, then, be on our guard! Our adherence to the Word is crucial for our salvation.—C. F. W. Walther, God Grant It!, p. 489.

Patristic Quote of the Day

Therefore not in mere hearing is the word of salvation, nor in only learning is life, but in keeping what was heard, and as a certain rule and guide of life was He setting before [them] the Divine word. He says that the sure keeper of His words shall not see death for ever, not surely as taking away death in the flesh, but as God not accounting that death is death, for to Him nought is dead, in that His it is both to bring to the birth that which is not and easily to quicken that which when so wrought has decayed. —St. Cyril of Alexandria, Sermons on John 8

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

Because a particular answer was in harmony with Scripture and tradition and therefore orthodox, Rome  [i.e., in the days of the early church] supported it. Invert this and you have the foundation of papal infallibility. Because Rome supported an answer, it was in harmony with Scripture and tradition and therefore orthodox. —Jaroslav Pelikan, The Riddle of Roman Catholicism, p. 40.

[Before you protest, Pelikan was a Lutheran when he wrote this work.]

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

"When there is no vision" or prophesy, that is, when the public, ecclesiastical ministry ceases, "the people will rebel."... When the preaching of the Word is taken away, the people are stripped of the true and saving knowledge of God; they become rebellious and disobedient to God their Creator; they are idle and cease to be eager for good works; and they "are scattered like sheep not having a shepherd."—Blessed Johann Gerhard, On the Ministry I:6.

Patristic Quote of the Day

There are differences in regard to many of the divine sacraments; nor are all things observed there [i.e., at Rome] as at Jerusalem; indeed, in the other provinces many things are different according to the diversity of men and places, yet there is no division from the peace and unity of the universal Church because of this.—St. Firmilian to St. Cyprian, 75, 6.

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!