Homily for Good Shepherd at St. Paul's

There's a lot of thinking out there that the Lord only has time for you when you, more or less, have your act together.  That God loves you when you are lovable.  Against such a notion comes this glorious Sunday with its readings.  Miscericordias Domini - the Loving-kindness of the Lord.  That's it's name in Latin, but we usually just call it "Good Shepherd Sunday."

The Lord Jesus lets us know that that's who He is.  "I am the Good Shepherd."  So in today's Gospel reading.  But in saying that He lays claim to be the one speaking in the Old Testament reading from Ezekiel:  "I myself" - that is Yahweh, the Lord God of Israel - "I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God.  I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak." 

Bless Carl Steinmann's heart. Good thing he's not here to hear me say this. He shepherded those paintings through to make sure that the sheep turned out just right. They only thing I've never liked about that beautiful painting is how the little lamb and the others are all so clean and white and beautiful. In the reading from Ezekiel, they're a mess! The sheep that are dirty, wounded, torn up, damaged. They've wandered off, gotten lost, strayed into all the byways of sin and all its sorrows.  They've injured themselves, inflicted damaged on their own persons and those around them. Some are so weary, just plumb worn out, they don't know if they can go on.  The Lord is in the business of gathering them together and making them lie down while He tends them, heals them, loves them.

"Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest!" - that is the cry of your Lord's heart to you.  You see He knows you.  He knows you in your sin.  The lies you've told.  The gossip you've passed on with glee.  The hatred you've harbored.  The bitter words you've let flow from your heart through your lips to sting and hurt the people you were supposed to love.  The betrayal of the promises you made your spouse.  He knows every click of the mouse and every video you've watched. He knows the distrust that overwhelms your heart at times when you wonder if there really even is a God who can bring good out of this mess.  The misuse of your body, treating it as though it were yours to do with as you please, forgetting that you were bought with a price.  The stinginess of your heart that  judges your brother and hypocritically holds him to a standard that you know perfectly well you do not keep yourself.  Oh, yes.  He knows you inside and out.  Me too.  In all the things I've ever done, thought, or said - and the countless good I have failed to do.  

But that's the miracle of grace we celebrate this Sunday.  The One who knows us inside and out like that, didn't come among us to destroy us.  For some utterly unfathomable reason that we'll never understand and will marvel at for all eternity, He loves us.  He came to heal us.  He came to set right the things broken.  He came to bind up the wounds and heal them.  He came above all, to protect us from the wolf.  

You see, to Him the wolf is personal.  To the hired hand, his own life is more valuable than the sheep.  He runs at the first sign of the trouble on four legs with a bush tail. Why?  Jesus puts it so simply:  "he doesn't own the sheep."

To Him, you are valuable.  Don't go scrounging around inside yourself to discover what it is that He finds valuable.  You can't find it that way.  Your value comes from the outside in: you have value because He values you; He doesn't value you because you have intrinsic value.  You're His.  No matter how damaged you are, not matter how beaten up and bruised and wandering.  Now matter how worn out and tired.  You're His.  He made you His own in the font of living water, plopped His name on you and said:  "Mine.  Mine forever."

So the wolf coming after you is very personal business to Him.  And He has no intention of allowing you to end up as a canine snack.  So He interposes His own life.  "The Good Shepherd lays down His LIFE for the sheep."  

"Here, little wolfie!  Come over here and eat me!  Let them go free!"  Of course, the little wolfie has no intention of letting anyone go free, but he freely gobbles down the snack offered.  Bait.  Poison.  You know the story.  The wolf couldn't keep that Good Shepherd in his stinking gullet.  The Good Shepherd burst right through.  Raised from the dead on the third day.  Leaving a hole behind in the wolf's belly that will never ever heal or mend.  And so when the wolf comes after you, you can go cheerfully down its stinking throat without a thought of fear - for you know that your Good Shepherd has already travelled this way, has gone down into the valley of shadow of death, and come up again, and He will bring you with Him.  When all is darkness, and it closes around you - you needn't fear.  His voice rings out:  "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me will live though he die and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."  Death had no right to Him because He had no sin; but it took Him; and so Death forfeited its right to hold you forever.  

Tending the wounds of your sins, giving you rich pasture in His word, refreshing you at His table with His own body and blood, forgiving you every sin - the table set in the very presence of your enemies as the sign and seal of your triumph over them - you begin to see how Good your Shepherd truly is.  Good beyond all deserving, good beyond anything we could even imagine. 

In all of this gift, St. Peter tells us, our Lord has left us also an example - so that we might follow in His steps.  The pattern He set is clear:  trust in the Father who loves you and who will vindicate you and then you have no need to extract vengeance and such on your own.  Rather, like the Lord, when He suffered, He did not threaten, when mocked and reviled He did not revile in return.  He bore our sins in His body on the tree so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.  By His wounds you have been healed.  For you were straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.  

No, He's not the God and Lord of those who have their act together.  Those who imagine they do are, in fact, not His proper clientele and the only ones He really ever chews out.  He's the God and Lord of the sick, injured, and weak, the straying and foolish ones.  He will not turn you away.  He died to release you from sin's power.  He rose to proclaim to you that death itself would never be the end of you.  He invites you to come to Him today at His table and be refreshed and then leave this place to follow His example - to die to your sin and to live in the righteousness that is His gift to you, forgiving and loving those who mistreat you and cause you suffering as you yourself have been forgiven and loved by Him, by Jesus, your Good Shepherd.  Amen.  

Now All the Vault

The final hymn of the Divine Service for the Resurrection at St. Paul's, Hamel today:

Now All the Vault

Lumen Christi!

As the darkness grew, the light grew more. It was wondrous feast for ear, for eye, for mouth and for heart. We began outside fighting the wind to keep our candles lit, but this is Illinois and the prairie. We relit upon entrance into the narthex. "Rejoice!" and "This is the night!" Then the readings. Pastor is no trimmer. We read all of them. Canticles after the crossing of the Red Sea, Jonah, and the Fiery Furnace. Two confirmations and remembrance of our baptism. The Litany of the Resurrection. Full light in the Church and the Easter announcement with the return of the Gloria in Excelsis, just like an old friend you've missed. The Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom, the triumphant Victimae Paschali with the "Christ Is Arisen" and a timpani played almost antiphonally. It was amazing. Then the joys of the Easter Eucharist and we went out with Wesley's "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today." No, it was not an all-night Vigil, but it was a great joy indeed. Bekah and David both commented at the end on why on earth would anyone miss that service and Bekah said, "I'm afraid tomorrow is going to be a bit of a disappointment after that." I think not, but that's how it felt: you couldn't imagine greater joy. And yet with the Lord there is always more. Matins shortly and then the Divine Service for the Resurrection. Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

"And on the seventh day He rested..."

The hours of Holy Saturday creep past. Our faithful hound got us up at 4:30 to get her out and then again at 6:30 begging for food. Ugh. So we enjoyed our coffee and Treasury with that splendid writing from St. Ephrem the Syrian, the closed tomb and the closed womb. The Formula would add the bread and wine of the Eucharist! 

Then to the kitchen to work. Tomorrow we plan to celebrate not just the Easter feast, but Cindi's birthday a few days late. So I undertook to set up the menu and prepare the food. First, made a chocolate cheesecake (thank you, Abel James), then made two kinds of deviled eggs (one regular; one with bacon, avocado and hot sauce), made a big batch of coleslaw, put the porkbutt in the fridge after coating it with a boatload of spices and I'll slip that in the slow cooker right before we head out to Vigil tonight. Put together the homemade sauce for the pulled pork. David's bringing his now famous home-made light rolls; Bekah is bringing a pecan pie (we'll see if we get to eat it before Lucy this time!). Cindi chopped up some fresh and parboiled veggies and made the oh-so-popular Greek dip for those. She rolled up cheese and deli meats, which we'll enjoy after Vigil tonight, along with some brie and salmon. She also set up a tray of chocolates, to which we will add tomorrow the home-made fudge Stephanie gave us at Christmas. Paleo or not, Easter demands chocolate!

While I was occupied in the kitchen, Cindi did the Saturday cleaning.  We planted a lovely Azalea that Dave gave her for her birthday, and did a quick stroll around the neighborhood in the sun and wind. I thought we were done, but when we got home she set to work on a coffee cake for Easter breakfast tomorrow. 

Now, I think all that's left is to extend the table (there will be nine of us tomorrow) and wait for the fast to wend to its joyous end after sunset tonight as the Light of Christ illumines the darkness with a love that death could not hold.

Good Start to Good Friday

So, we have this cool alarm. It's a light. About half an hour before you want to get up, it starts to glow dimly and then gets brighter and brighter. At the time you're supposed to be up, the light is at its brightest and a sound begins. One of the options for the sound was birds chirping. We did that for a long a time. Houston, we have a problem...

Now, when I hear the birds OUTSIDE start in at 4 a.m. or so, the old bod wakes up! So, yes, we were up bright and early on this fine spring day. We enjoyed our bulletproof coffee and said our prayers from Treasury, and did some planning for the day. Threw some eggs on to boil for Sunday's feast. Then did our workouts. Pushups and pullups done (well, may add a few more pullups as the day wears on) and sprints run. Cindi has started tackling planting her kitchen garden and I'm finishing up one more cup offrench press, straight java before heading out to mow our yard. Not too much dew last night, so the grass is actually quite cuttable, and they're forecasting rain.

Still ahead, Cindi is singing at a funeral, then we have the Chief Service at noon and Tenebrae this evening. The pool folks are coming to open the pool (optimistic we are!) before we're due back from chief service. Have some writing to do, one more run through the Passion to make sure of my lines and part, and then more food to prepare for the upcoming feast. 

Birds. You can't be mad at them; they're just singing their Matins to the Lord. 

Triduum

And so the great three days begins. What a glorious Divine Service this evening at St. Paul's. Pretty much straight out of the Altar Book, except pastor used the traditional Lenten preface with the old wording (yeah!). Maundy Thursday is one of the days we can usually count on Divine Service, Setting Five, and I dearly love singing “Isaiah, Mighty Seer” and “Lamb of God.” The choir sang a lovely piece, another Agnus by Jeffrey Blersch as the offering was gathered. The solemn singing of Psalm 22 as the altar is stripped...it just does something to you. The bulletin always instructs us to leave in strict silence, but I don't think we really need the printed rubric. The Psalm and the stripping hushes you all the way down deep inside. The Chief Service continues our worship tomorrow at noon with the Passion of John, the Bidding Prayer, the Reproaches, the Adoration of the Crucified. Tomorrow evening's Tenebrae will use the lovely sung Passion of St. John by Hillert at 7 p.m. And then we wait for the Vigil to commence on Saturday at 8 p.m.

Just have to love Saturdays

The dog actually slept in! Leisurely cups of bullet proof coffee, sipped as we prayed Treasury together. Then planning the day. Breakfast was sausage and eggs (with mushrooms, onions and spinach!). I did my exercise, while Cindi tackled some wash. Cindi dusted. I vacuumed. She headed outside to start on her dad's yard while I made some loaves of paleo french bread. When the bread came out, I did our yard. A break for a bite of lunch (left overs: buffalo chicken wings with some artichoke spinach dip for veggies). A lovely walk in the sunshine. Home to sit out on the deck and enjoy a green smoothie, and it felt so good out there we decided to eat dinner on the deck. April 1st and we ate outside! Simple fare: a bowl of asparagus soup and some of that bread with cheese. Then Cindi was off to bowl. I swept the driveways and road to get off the grass clippings and then a stroll around the neighborhood, did my day's writing at the dining room table watching the sunset, sipping oolong. Then tackled the rest of cleaning up the kitchen: dishwasher emptied, counters cleaned, table extended. All done, all set and ready for Sunday brunch. And I'm guessing Cindi will be home before too much longer. 

Noted in the past

but it hit me again today, how profound the parallel thought tracks between the classic anaphorae and that all but vanished feature of Lutheran liturgy, the Admonition to Communicants. Looking at the Bugenhagen piece for Braunschweig:

Our plight + the sending of the Son culminating in cross and resurrection + (so that we may more confidently believe this and be strengthened in faith and holy living) the Institution Narrative + Anamnesis of His death and resurrection (do this for His remembrance, showing His death—that He was delivered for our offenses and raised for our justification) + Thanksgiving  + the unity of the Church through the Eucharist in love + a prayer that God may accomplish this (a faithful reception of the Sacrament and a life of love) for us by His Spirit.

Institute on Liturgy, Preaching, and Church Music

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Tea

(Francis S. Saltus)

From what enchanted Eden came thy leaves 

That hide such subtle spirits of perfume?

Did eyes preadamite first see the bloom,

Luscious nepenthe of the soul that grieves? 

By thee the tired and torpid mind conceives 

Fairer than roses brightening life's gloom,

Thy protean charm can every form assume

And turn December nights to April eves.

Thy amber-tinted drops bring back to me 

Fantastic shapes of great Mongolian towers,

Emblazoned banners, and the booming gong;

I hear the sound of feast and revelry,

And smell, far sweeter than the sweetest flowers,

The kiosks of Pekin, fragrant of Oolong.

I remember once reading that poetry is essentially words put together in such a way that they are hard to forget. For many, many years I have had the last line of this sonnet my head as unforgettable. The kiosks of Pekin, fragrant of Oolong.

I'm sipping a cup now of it now. 

A very cool video

My son pointed this out to me some time ago. I find myself returning to it in amazement at its beauty. Aled Jones, thanks to the marvels of modern tech, does a duet with himself as a young boy.

Fitting for today, as we celebrate our youngest daughter's 26th birthday and yet the memories of her childhood still seem like yesterday in my mind. A time warp, just like this video:

Walking in the Air

Some photos from Felicity's Baptism

God has His timing. Felicity Lynn Herberts was baptized into Christ's endless life one year to the day upon which her grandmother, Lynn Herberts, had her baptism completed and fell asleep in Jesus. The beautiful crucifix that adorns the altar in the background of these pictures was given in memory of Lynn. "With angels and archangels and all the company of heaven..." and I think everyone very clearly sensed ONE member of that company of heaven who was having special joy today! Indeed, "death you cannot end my gladness; I am baptized into Christ!" just as we all belted out at the start of the liturgy.

P.S. We were laughing so hard because Felicity was screaming for her food and Sawyer was upset with the picture arrangements and was fussing a bit too. Flynn and Annabelle were just happy as clams, though.

Lift Every Voice

Victoria Taylor sings Lift Every Voice and Sing after Chapel this a.m. She actually sang it for yesterday's chapel, but we didn't get a full recording until today.

Victoria

A beautiful homily

upon Quinquagesima...by Pr. Ball:

St. Paul Lutheran Church
Quinquagesima – February 25/26, 2017 a.d.
St. Luke 18:31-43 – 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
The Rev. BT Ball

"See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.  For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon.  After after flogging him, they will kill him and on the third day he will rise.  But they understood none of these things."

"So now faith, hope and love abide, these, three, but the greatest of them is love."

                   God loves you in Jesus Christ.  The Father has shown his love in sending his Son to accomplish everything written by the prophets.  He was delivered over to the Gentiles, mocked, shamefully treated, spit upon, flogged and killed on the third day he rose again   This is how God loves you.   In this way.   By nature we do not know love, not this Kind.  You can have all kinds of things, the ability to speak in a glorious way, understanding and knowledge and even faith strong enough to uproot a rocky mountain and move it around and without the love that is from Christ and is Christ, it is nothing.  Faith and hope are both passing away.  What lasts forever is love - God's love in Jesus Christ.  God the Father has always loved his Son and in him He always has been loving you.  Before the world was made, He loved you in His Son.  When the Blessed Trinity thought it right, this world was made, and the Three in One created an object of Divine affection.  From forever in the mind of God that object was this world, and more closely, the object of that affection was the Holy Church, and even still, the object of that love, the place right where it is focused -  is you.  And this is why love is the greatest.  It is before time and place, but in time and in place it is directed, all the way, completely to you in Christ.

Sinful man does not want the love in the way that it is given, sinful man seeks to destroy love and the one who loves.  A sinful heart does not want God loving by the cross.  Sinful hearts simply cannot understand or grasp God's love in Jesus Christ.   God sends his Son, and what does the world do in response, the scriptures show it - deliverance over to enemies, mockery, shameful treatment.  Sinful mankind spits on love.  Tries to destroy love by whipping it.  Sinful man would kill love by nailing him to a cross.   And this is true even for you as a Christian, for what do we do?  We crucify the Son of God again (Hebrews 6:6) in our sin as love is redefined to be about self and feelings, false definitions of love that provide only emptiness and shame.  Look how confused and fallen the love of mankind is.  God's law is a revelation of perfect love.  Love is the fulfilling of the law.  But we turn from that with our own sinful selfish desires.  Turning from both the Law of God and from the Gospel by seeking mercy and good and fulfillment from every place, from everything except the One who loves, the One who is love that never ends.

But yet God loves.  His love shown to you, given to you, in the word of the Gospel.  Jesus is headed up to Jerusalem to accomplish everything for you.  To love you, knowing your sin and taking it and its punishment.  That is the depth of his love.  He wants nothing else than to love you to death.   He fulfills His Father's will, He loves His Father and His Father loves you, so Jesus is willing to fulfill the Scriptures to be mocked, and be treated shamefully.  He does not turn from being spat upon and flogged.  He goes to be killed because in all of this He is loving you.  The Passion of Jesus.  His love.  All for you.  And you can see how the disciples couldn't understand it, how they couldn't grasp it.  How to their minds it was incomprehensible.  The foolishness of it all.  Right, only God could love in this way.  Only God does.  And freely, completely, He loves you and the Gospel is the revelation of such love, and the Spirit uses the words to create in you faith and hope in the love of God revealed. 

With God's love, you call out in hope and in faith, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me."  You are the object of divine affection.  This is what the passion of Jesus reveals to you.  That the mercy of Jesus is yours.  That he will give you what you need, because he has given you himself.  God the Father has given you His Son, and with His Son, all love.  All this in the words and promises backed up by actions.  God said he loved his world, his people, you.  He does.  He showed it, He gave His Son that you, a sinner, would receive divine love, be the object of divine affection.  Now he says it and shows it again.  Love is patient, love is kind.  The cross of Jesus reveals the patience God has toward sinners, the kindness of divine mercy, and such loving kindness can be found.   It is at the altar for you today.  Here is great love of God, which was given and shed on the cross, given right to you.  Love for sure.  With no doubt.  And with this love, all sins taken away and faith and hope have their center, their foundation, their certainty.   And with this love all death  is destroyed.  And with this love – you have mercy, healing and peace.  Then in your life becomes and is one of praise, thanksgiving, following your Savior, keeping His law.  Loving God, loving those around you.  God loves you in Christ, the sinner, the weak, the sorrowing, the downcast, and the poor in spirit.  You love too, because  God first loved you in His Son.  He does right now.  He always will.  Amen.

Some Lenten Music?

I worked with Kevin Armbrust again to put together some Lenten music. I think of it as reflections on  a few of the great hymns of Lent and offer it for any who are interested:

Praise the Precious Blood

A big thank you to Steve Blakey for the use of the image. Too often the “precious blood” is thought of as something of the past, long ago, far away. No. As near as the holy chalice. “Take and drink; this cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins.”

Today's Homily

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Psalm 99

Reading: Exodus 34:29–35
"When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.

Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him. "

Homily

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

So when he spent time in the presence of Yahweh, Moses was changed. And changed in a way that he himself didn't realize or know at first. But others noticed it about him. And it scared them. Maybe particularly those, like Aaron and Miriam who knew him best. And they were afraid to come near to him.

Fallen man senses that there's something, well, threatening a man who has spent time with Yahweh. It may be glory shining on the face like Moses. It may be a new limp like Jacob sported after the Jabbok wrestling match, up close and intimate, grabbed by Yahweh and grabbing him back. It's the odor of resurrection. It's the sense that Yahweh, good and glorious, is DEATH to things that we are not ready to have destroyed, but also compellingly that He is life and His presence, His grabbing hold of us and changing us, is what we were made for. So this glory that frightens us also at the same time, curiously draws us. It leaves one in that wondrous state called "awe." Frightened, intrigued, curious, but above all frightened. Freaked out.

And it's not just that something is "out of the ordinary," something that shakes up our world and turns upside down our sense of what is normal. It is that. But it is more. It is that haunting sense that we're looking at normal for the very time and realizing in its presence how abnormal, and dark, and dull, and twisted, and well, how hopelessly off base our usual thoughts about normal are, indeed, we ourselves are.

You see, don't you, that Moses here doesn't manifest a miraculous exception. Moses manifests what humanity was created to be, what indeed by God's grace it still may become, when it experiences the gracious presence of God: our bodies were made to be transfigured, we were meant to shine.

Jesus on the mountain top, then, gives the disciples a taste, but even bigger, of what Aaron and the Israelites had. Moses' glory wasn't permanent, as Paul does the midrash on this story in Second Corinthians. Moses' glory would fade. It was always a borrowed reality. A glory that came from being in the presence of Yahweh. Not something he had natively or that he could possess. Only always receive. You know, the way tans fade when you no longer spend time in the sun? So this glory faded. And because it was a borrowed light, kind of like the moon borrows light from the sun, it could be veiled over. Covered up. But in the Transfiguration there is no borrowing. The source of glory has come into human flesh. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among...and we have seen His glory, glory as the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" one of the eye witnesses would later write. And so even His clothes shine, His garments become light-bearing. The light isn't ON Him, but IN Him, from HIM. And in that glory Moses and Elijah appear. And the disciples freak out.

And this time the glory for Moses doesn't fade because He with unveiled face now beholds the glory of the Lord, beholds his Jesus. And this is what you were made for, and what you fell from: "all have fallen short of the glory of God." But this is precisely why Jesus has come to you. Come into your flesh to make YOUR flesh shine. And to do so He is headed to the Tree where instead of being wrapped in garments of glory he will bear the naked shame of the human race. Naked, not clothed in glory as humans were meant to be. Naked because He will own all our alien normality that is really foreign to the creatures He made us to be. He will own it all. All our inexplicable "no's" to divine love, all our fleeing and running away from glory and our embrace of shame and sorrow, cruelty and death. He will own it all. He will get into another wrestling match. This time with sin and death and He will hug them tight. So tight He'll squeeze the life out of them. All to effect the sweet swap, to hug YOU so tight that He can now give you the glory that Moses had but a taste of in his life, the glory that Aaron and the Israelites found so compelling and so terrifying, and the glory that Peter, James, and John saw that night on that mountain.

We wrap the newly baptized up in garments of white and cover coffins in white to hint at and suggest it: you've been embraced by Christ and now you are his and your destiny, son of Adam, daughter of Eve, is to shine with the glory of being a child of God! It's weird, scary, spooky, and all that. Yes. But it's where you're headed.

So grab it. Look at it. This stuff. This skin. Kin now to the Son of God, baptized into Him, fed with His immortal body and blood, it will shine! When He returns and you see Him as He is this will shine.  And sometimes even now, a hint of the light sneaks through and people sense it, they smell the odor of resurrection on you, intuit a glory hidden underneath the very present sin and struggles of your life that both draws and repels them. It's the mark that you've been in the presence of God and sometimes, you know, it just shows.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Hymn: "Jesus On The Mountain Peak" #415

RP 1 p. 282

Remember, kind Father, in Your infinite mercy all Your children who call out to You in time of need, especially Allen, Jan, Roger, Paula; Jonathan and his doctors and care givers; Joel and Krista; Randy and all who mourn the passing of his mother; Donna as she mourns the passing of her brother. Grant them a share in Your peace and the hope of Your promises. Remember also Vicar Paul Flo, serving in the Dominican Republic, and bless his time of service and learning in Your name. We ask these things through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

And the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David. I believe that the meaning of this passage is very simple, for in Christ's kingdom the merit of the faithful will no longer be looked at, but only the mercy, grace, and goodness of God, because of which Christ's kingdom is also called the kingdom of grace. In sum, the meaning is: All things work together for good for those who believe, because they are the children of grace. All things are forgiven them. They can't go wrong. Even if they have been foolish and weak at times, divine goodness shuts its eyes to that.—Luther on Zechariah 12, AE 20:137

Patristic Quote of the Day

For, when any one is brought to the font of baptism, not by the sweetness of preaching, but by compulsion, he returns to his former superstition, and dies the worse from having been born again. Let, therefore, your Fraternity stir up such men by frequent preaching, to the end that through the sweetness of their teacher they may desire the more to change their old life.—St. Gregory the Great, Book I, Letter 47

A fascinating, but little known

part of the history of the Eucharistic liturgy in Lutheranism is the King John Red Book of Sweden, and in particular its treatment of the canon. This liturgy was used in the Church of Sweden from 1577 to 1593.

[Prayer of the Church]

Let us pray. Almighty, eternal God, heavenly Father, Thou who hast promised us the Spirit of grace and prayer: We beseech Thee grant us grace that we, according to Thy commandment and promise, may call upon Thee in spirit and in truth. Let Thy Holy Spirit rule our hearts, for without Thee we cannot be pleasing to Thee. We therefore humbly pray Thee and desire most merciful Father, through Thy Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, that Thou wilt suffer our prayers to be pleasing to Thee and graciously hear that which we bring before Thee for Thy holy universal Christian church, that Thou wouldst vouchsafe to grant it peace, to preserve, unite, and govern it throughout the world, together with all government spiritual and worldly of whatsoever dignity loftiness and name it may be, so likewise all true Christians that love and confess the true universal and Apostolic faith.

O Lord God, who willest that Thy Son's holy and most worthy Supper should be unto us a pledge and assurance of Thy mercy awaken our heart that we who celebrate the same, His Supper, may have a salutary remembrance of Thy benefits and humbly give Thee true and bounden thanks, glory, honor and praise for evermore. Help us, Thy servants and Thy people, that we may herewith remember the holy, pure, immaculate, and blessed offering of Thy son which he made upon the cross for us and worthily celebrate the mystery of the new testament and eternal covenant. Bless and sanctify with the power of Thy Holy Spirit that which is prepared and set apart for this holy use, bread and wine, that rightly used it may be unto us the body and blood of Thy Son, the food of eternal life which we may desire and seek with greatest longing. Through the same, Thy Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, who with Thee and the Holy Spirit, liveth and reigneth in one Godhead from everlasting to everlasting. Amen.

Preface / Consecration [Verba Testamenti] / Sanctus and Benedictus, then this:

Therefore, we also remember, O Lord God, this blessed command and the same Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ's holy passion and death, His resurrection and ascension. And this Thy son Thou hast in Thy boundless mercy sent and given unto us that he might be an offering for our sins and by his one offering on the cross pay the price of our redemption, fulfil Thy justice, and make perfect such an offering as might serve for the welfare of all the elect unto the end of the world. The same Thy Son, the same offering which is a pure holy and unblemished offering, set before us for our reconciliation, our shield, defense, and covering against Thy wrath, against the terror of sins and of death, we take and receive with faith and offer before thy glorious majesty with our humble supplications. For these Thy great benefits we give Thee fervent thanks with heart and mouth, yet not as our bounden duty is but according to our power. And we humbly beseech Thee, through the same, Thy Son, whom Thou in thy Godly and secret counsel hast set before us as our only mediator, that Thou wilt vouchsafe to look upon us and our prayers with mercy and pitying eye, suffer them to come to Thy heavenly altar before Thy Divine majesty, and be pleasing unto Thee, that all we who are partakers at this altar of the blessed and holy food and drink, the holy bread of eternal life and the cup of eternal salvation, which is the holy body and precious blood of Thy Son, may also be filled with all heavenly benediction and grace. We pray Thee likewise, O Lord God, that Thou wilt vouchsafe to grant us poor sinful men who trust in Thy manifold mercies that we may be received among Thy holy Apostles, Martyrs and all Thy saints, in the number of whom suffer us to be, not of our merit, but of Thy compassion, who forgivest our sins and failings. Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, by whom Thou, O Lord dost ever create, sanctify, quicken, bless, and grant us every good thing. Through Him, with Him, and in Him be all honour, glory and praise unto Thee, almighty God Father and to the Holy Spirit, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen.

Homily on Romans 12:6ff.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Have you ever pondered what drew people to Jesus? I mean, we know some folks tried to treat him as a divine vending machine in human flesh. Shoot, you've probably done that too. I know I have. But why would they want to be stay with him, to hang around with him, to listen to him?

I suspect it was as simple as this: because He really cared. His love was "genuine" (without hypocrisy, which is more at the Greek in Romans 12). He never put on a show. And He didn't just care or love in the sense of having some kind emotion toward others. He really did take their problems, their heartaches, their troubles, as His own. I mean, that IS one aspect of what His cross was all about. "He carried our sorrows...."

So this real investment in others, so selfless, never once asking what was in it for Him, but only seeing your need and mine, and yours, and yours...this is what draws. This is the light that shines in Him. And we discover that this is the light of God Himself shining in this man. "In Him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness."

And it spills out. It spills out from Him into you. Into His Church. That's what Paul was describing in that lovely reading from Romans. If you're like me, when the imperatives start piling up, you're tempted to start tuning out. Or you pull the old Lutheran "well, that's law and I haven't done it and it's a good thing my sins are forgiven." It IS a good thing your sins are forgiven, but you've got to hear those imperatives for what they really are: they are invitations to you to partake of Christ's life. Because if you are clear that they don't describe you, they sure as shooting describe Him. Bless those who persecute you: how about I let 'em kill Me to blot out their sins and give them the gift of home with me and my Father and to pour upon them my Spirit to believe that my love for them is real and unshakeable. Contributing to the needs of the saints? How about feeding the hungry with His body and the thirsty with His blood and wrapping the naked in His perfect righteousness, and inviting the homeless into His home, and the lonely into a friendship that never ends. Do you see? All Paul did was to describe the life of Jesus and let you see that's no achievement you come up with; that's a gracious gift He's reaching you in the church, in His body. 

It's the beating heart of worship. His love poured out on sinners. Him calling us to come into His embrace and taste a love that abides forever. And that light of love that shines from Him animates His community, His Church, His family. That's the light that calls the nations still to come and hangout with Jesus. Without that love, the world will always yawn at our words. Mission. Evangelism. Call it what you will, but without love, the world calls it bull. But when we're known as the people who bless those who persecute us and live in constant prayer, and freely give to any brother or sister we see in need, then the world will ask about this light shining through us and among us, and it will be our joy to declare that it's not US, but it is Him, and it's for them too. So we invite the nations to join us in our worship of this God who never ceases to bathe us in the unfathomable and joyous light of His divine love in Jesus, His Son.

Hymn: #396 Arise and Shine in Splendor

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

However, no human wisdom can understand the Creed. It must be taught by the Holy Spirit alone.—Martin Luther, Large Catechism II, Third Article, 67.

Patristic Quote of the Day

But with respect to trine immersion in baptism, no truer answer can be given than what you have yourself felt to be right; namely that, where there is one faith, a diversity of usage does no harm to holy Church.—St. Gregory the Great, Book I, Letter 43

Today's Chapel Homily

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Let us pray. Father in heaven, at the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River You proclaimed Him Your beloved Son and anointed Him with the Holy Spirit. Make all who are baptized in His name faithful in their calling as Your children and inheritors with Him of everlasting life; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Psalm 85

A reading from 1Corinthians 1:26–31:

26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."

This is the Word of the Lord. R.

Homily

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

St. Paul invites the Corinthians and us to reflect on our calling. How almost none of us would be counted as "the movers and shakers" of the world, then or now. Using worldly standards the overwhelming majority of Christians across history are sheer nobodies. And that makes us perfect stuff for our God to work with, because the God of the Sacred Scriptures seems to take a particular delight in making something out of nothing. He does it at creation, He does it with Abraham and Sarah, He does it little David whom nobody thought important enough to call to dinner where he ends up the anointed one, He does it with the way His Son slipped into the world at Bethlehem, and even the way He won our salvation on Calvary's cross. "He was in the world and the world was made by Him and the world did not know Him."

Didn't know Him and so doesn't know you. Not for whom you really are. Children of God walking around, having a life that we're never going to lose, heirs of the entire planet, everything yours, all things working together, serving you for our good and blessing, reigning in life with Jesus.

The rich and powerful of the world raise a weary eye and say: "Yeah, you all going on telling yourselves that. See, Marx was right. This is the opiate these idiots inhale to keep 'em happy and hopeful as they stumble along as our slaves. Whatever works to keep 'em working and not thinking." And sometimes you wonder too, and doubt. But fear not!

The weak shame the strong, the low and despised and things that are not bring to nothing the things that are. And all to what end? To wipe out all human boasting in the presence of God. All our "look at me and what I did" with my own smarts, power, money, fame. Look and be glad that you have a servant like me, O God!

All that wiped out. Gone. Instead the Father looks at the man in the Jordan, His servant, His son (delightful how in the Greek of the Septuagint you can't tell which is which). Standing there in the water and the Father says: "This is my beloved Son. In Him I am well pleased." And this is IS your calling, people loved by God. To get in the water with Him, to stand where He stands and to hear the Father say the same of YOU. For it happened. When you got in the water with Jesus. Whether you remember it happening is irrelevant. Just remember that it happened. The Father looked at you and said: "This is my child, my daughter, my son, whom I love, with them I am well pleased."

Consider your calling. In your Baptism everything, absolutely everything, that is His is made over to you. His Father becomes your Father, His mother your mother, His home your home, His life becomes your life, His righteousness your righteousness, and then He becomes your sole boast. Your wisdom from God, your sanctification, righteousness, redemption. All Him. To be in Him, then, is to have absolutely everything; to be outside Him while having the best this world has to offer is to have only dust and ashes and to lose even that in the end.

The handful of water and the words He commanded deliver you into Him. Word and water seem so weak and lowly and despised. And yet, in them the power of God is at work. It is not the opiate the world imagines or that your worst doubts fear, but it is intoxicating! The LXX has Psalm 23 reads: Your cup of inebriation, how pleasant it is! Sweet. Yes, drunk with the Spirit and His sober joy we dance through life forevermore. The world will always think we're great fools, but better to be the Lord's fool than the world's wise or strong man! And so we invite the world to embrace the folly and join with us in the life that is in Jesus and in Him alone. Amen.

Hymn of the Day: #399 The Star Proclaims the King Is Here

Responsive Prayer I, p. 282 Morning Suffrages

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

For (as explained above) we could never grasp the knowledge of the Father's grace and favor except through the Lord Christ. Jesus is a mirror of the fatherly heart.—Martin Luther, Large Catechism, III, 65

Patristic Quote of the Day

For those who dissent from the Christian religion must needs be gathered together to unity of faith by gentleness, kindness, admonition, persuasion, lest those whom the sweetness of preaching and the anticipated terror of future judgment might have invited to believe should be repelled by threats and terrors. It is right, then, that they should come together kindly to hear the word of Godfrom you rather than that they should become afraid of overstrained austerity.—St. Gregory the Great, Book I, Letter 35

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

For here in all three articles God has revealed Himself and opened the deepest abyss of His fatherly heart and His pure, inexpressible love. He has created us for this very reason, that He might redeem and sanctify us. In addition to giving and imparting to us everything in heaven and upon earth, He has even given to us His Son and the Holy Spirit, who brings us to Himself —Martin Luther, Large Catechism, Third Article, par. 64

Patristic Quote of the Day

May almighty God make known to your heart with what love and with what charity my heart embraces you, though so far only as not to offend against divine grace. For I so attack your fault as to love your person; I so love your person as not to embrace the viciousness of your fault. —St. Gregory the Great, Book I, Letter 34

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

For now we are only half pure and holy. So the Holy Spirit always has some reason to continue His work in us through the Word. He must daily administer forgiveness until we reach the life to come. At that time there will be no more forgiveness, but only perfectly pure and holy people. We will be full of godliness and righteousness, removed and free from sin, death, and all evil, in a new, immortal, and glorified body.—Martin Luther, Large Catechism, Third Article, par. 58

Patristic Quote of the Day

In proportion as the judgments of God are unsearchable ought they to be an object of fear to human apprehension; so that mortal reason, being unable to comprehend them, may of necessity bow under them the neck of a humble heart, to the end that it may follow with the mind's obedient steps where the will of the Ruler may lead.—St. Gregory the Great, Book I, Letter 27

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

However, while sanctification has begun and is growing daily, we expect that our flesh will be destroyed and buried with all its uncleanness. Then we will come forth gloriously and arise in a new, eternal life of entire and perfect holines.—Luther, Large Catechism, Creed III:57

Patristic Quote of the Day

God seems to me to be continency, because He desires nothing, but has all things in Himself.—St. Basil the Great, Letter 366

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

God’s grace is secured through Christ, and sanctification is wrought by the Holy Spirit through God’s Word in the unity of the Christian Church.—Martin Luther, Large Catechism, Article III

Patristic Quote of the Day

And experience proves my words: those who lived many years before teach posterity by instruction preserved in their writings; and we, though so far separated in the body, are always near in thought, and converse together with ease.—St. Basil the Great, Letter 294

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

So that this treasure might not stay buried, but be received and enjoyed, God has caused the Word to go forth and be proclaimed. In the Word He has the Holy Spirit bring this treasure home and make it our own. Therefore, sanctifying is just bringing us to Christ so we receive this good, which we could not get ourselves.—Martin Luther, Large Catechism, Creed, 38, 39.

Patristic Quote of the Day

The upright man is touched by neither loss, nor sickness, nor the other ills of life; for he walks in heart with God, keeps his gaze fixed upon the future, and easily and lightly weathers the storms that rise from earth.—St. Basil the Great, Letter 293

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Everything, therefore, in the Christian Church is ordered toward this goal: we shall daily receive in the Church nothing but the forgiveness of sin through the Word and signs, to comfort and encourage our consciences as long as we live here.—Martin Luther, Large Catechism, Third Article

Patristic Quote of the Day

Thus God of His goodness has now alienated you from sin, united you to Himself, has opened the doors of Heaven, and pointed out the paths that lead to heavenly bliss. I entreat you therefore by that wisdom wherein you excel all other men, that you receive the divine favour circumspectly, proving a faithful guardian of this treasure, as the repository of this royal gift, keeping watch over it with all carefulness.—St. Basil the Great, Letter 292, to a newly baptized Christian

A Little O.P. for New Year's Eve

Sanctuary at Midnight
The last candle burned gently on the altar... Beyond the dark windows the midnight was already alive with bells and whistles, but here they seemed now like sounds from a lost world... In a sudden wind from the sacristy door the candle flickered forward and threw into bold relief the face on the crucifix... Shadows played over the red wounds, and in the eyes in which pain had been a prisoner these nineteen hundred years there was darkness... At the foot of the sanctuary steps stood the tree and the manger... The place of His birth was in the gloom, the place of His death was in the light... All the years of His way from the Manger to the Cross were in the brief steps up the sanctuary, up to the Everlasting Altar... Here were beginning and end... Not by the years could His Life and Power be measured, nor by the dust of centuries, but only by the wounds still red against the white dominion of His throne...

Was it the darkness or the hour which seemed to move His patient face in pity?... Surely no sculptor had caught the moment of "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"... That was so very long ago... The bells and whistles beyond me in the dark were marking the end of another year between His heaven and my world... There had been many of them now - almost twice as many as the number of His days before the eyes of men... Strange that all our years should be measured by His days and all the time of man by one day when, in darkness and pain, God was making eternity ready and history was preparing for B.C. and A.D.... Strange, too, with the wonder of heaven and hope, that I can repeat His prayer tonight... "Father, forgive."... Forgive me - for the lost but unforgotten hours of the dying year, for the erring way and barren heart... The pivot of the year is too brief to say more than the one word which makes the years an altar stair and the time of life the lifting of the angelic trumpets... Midnight is lonely now with lonely bells, and my candle of prayer burns low... There is only one cross on the altar tonight... On the hill there were three, but the children of the man on the cross to the left are blowing whistles tonight, and the children of the man on the right are in sanctuaries the world over... His time was short, perhaps shorter than mine, but his prayer was good, much better than mine... Remember me... Make my failures Thy victories and the years of my sins the eternity of Thy grace... Remember me... Thy footsteps grow brighter as the years grow dim, and no calendar can limit Thy power... Remember me... This moment, not of yesterday nor of tomorrow, is Thine just as the years are Thine...

There are other voices in the sanctuary now, the waiting saints made perfect at last and the great multitude past human numbering who have been remembered at altars in heaven and on earth... In a little while we shall be wise as they whose wisdom is a song: "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing."...

The Pilgrim, pp. 23, 24

So a friend

and I were chatting the other day and he was telling me about his Christmas. I challenged him to write his experience up and he did. Read it; it will warm your heart!

Ghosts of Christmas Past

 

As many of you know I maintain a home upstate, though I don't spend as much time there as I might like. This year was only the second time in more than forty-five years that a Thanksgiving dinner was not eaten there. Last Christmas was the only time in my entire life that I did not spend any part of the Twelve Days in the house.  

 

My mother was the last full time resident of the house (apart from the dog). She had lived there for five years following my sister's death. After Mom had died I used to call it "Schoko's house," my dog being the survivor. Now, of course, he is gone too. In the first few years that the house was mine, spending time there was very melancholy. Most everything was (and much still is) exactly where my mother had left it. Usually my stays are brief and with little time to get much done. Time has stopped there in a way.  

 

Many of her clothes are still there. The living room is still pretty much the way it was in December 2009 when my mother said, "Good-bye house." We had spent Christmas with the family before we coming down to Long Island where mom intended to stay through the rest of the winter. But that was her final "good-bye" to the house where with her husband of 44 years she had her children and lived for fifty-seven years. Recalling her voice, I say "Hello house" and "Good-bye house" each time I arrive and leave. Silly, of course! What does a house know about my comings and goings? I suppose it is in some ways a greeting not to the house but to the memory of mother, sister and father who lived there are whose memory is enshrined there for me every bit as much as it is in the cemetery.

 

That was indeed a part of the melancholy of going there. It was a haunted house. Not in the things-that-go-bump-in-the-night sense since I don't believe in that kind of ghosts. It isn't the haunting of a presence at all; it is the haunting absence that plays on the emotions. It was true even when my mother and sister were there after dad's passing; when my mother was there after Jane's passing, and when I was there after mom's passing. "A house is not a home." How many of us have heard that? A home is a living place where people live. When I would go there most often it didn't feel like home but very much like a tomb. A place of the dead.

 

Then, in two consecutive years, hurricanes came to Long Island and I headed north to ride out the storms there. The first time some effects of the storm were felt there, but little of "Superstorm Sandy" reached that far north. Each time I spent four or five days there alone; no holidays or houseguests. And a funny thing happened. An element of home began to return to the house. It was once again a place of refuge, not merely a place to visit. In those few days, I was sheltered not only by the walls and roof, but by the memories of what that house had seen, but also by the sense of safety and security it had been for me for so much of my life. It was the place where I had been brought home to from the hospital after I was born, where the bus picked me up for my first day of school, where my confirmation party was held and where I celebrated my graduation from high school and college. The day of my ordination began and ended there. Memories of these and so many other occasions both singular and recurring are for me embedded in that place. Because of these it is not really a place of the dead, because I yet live in possession of them; it is a place of living memory. Even if sometimes these are frozen in time. Or…just frozen.

 

My parents born in the 1920's never fully made peace with technology. My father never really knew the personal computer (he was barely comfortable on the telephone…for years my mother dialed long-distance calls for him!) My mother loved computer games, made much use of email and did some computer shopping, she never quite comprehended facebook. Neither of them ever was comfortable with ATM's. So to ensure access to ready cash they always kept some at hand…hidden away. Dad had squirreled some $3000 away in a secret hiding place which he revealed to my incredulous sister and mother a month or so before his death. To my surprise, about three years ago, hidden in the kitchen freezer, when after a malfunction of the ice maker I had to empty and defrost it, I found in a packet labeled "flat bacon" nearly $1000 dollars. Coincidentally, that amount covered most of the cost of a new furnace unit a few weeks later. A bit of treasure frozen in time had come to the rescue. This year another treasure, once again frozen, was revealed. I finally completed the emptying of the big basement freezer. Most of the stuff there was long past shelf life, mom being six years in her grave. But a single box contained a couple dozen homemade chocolate chip cookies: a plastic time capsule of love!  

 

Mom was a pretty good baker, but really only made cookies at Christmastime; usually of several kinds. Some would become holiday gifts; others shared and enjoyed by the family. She had brought some with her to Long Island that last Christmas; these must have been stored away for her return. I ate some when I found them in September (I had to see if they were salvageable after all!). They were still good, so I resolved to save the rest for my Christmas sojourn. Though I wasn't there for Thanksgiving, on the first Sunday in Advent I headed north to put up some decorations and the tree in the living room. I hadn't last year because I wasn't to be there over Christmas, but I always felt I'd let the "ghosts" down. Once again the tree would come to life each night of Advent to say "this is a living home." It was there waiting when I arrived the day after Christmas and as if to say "welcome" the lights switched on just moments after I walked through the door. I removed the plastic "treasure chest" from where I had stowed it in the kitchen freezer and when I returned from a Christmas dinner and sharing with my first cousins, I settled down in front of that tree with a cup of tea and a plate full of these ghosts of Christmas past. I doubt I will ever receive such an unexpected, welcome, and memorable Christmas gift again. But who knows, Ebenezer Scrooge reminds us that the Ghosts of Christmas can do whatever they like.  

 

Merry Christmas, Mamma! Merry Christmas, Jane! Merry Christmas, Papa! Merry Christmas, house!

A happy New Year to you all.

 

 

 

Just heard tonight

that my dorm mom, Kathy Weidmann, has died. She was such a remarkable woman. I'll never forget her kindness to a kid who had just lost his dad, wasn't sure about so very much in life, and above all wasn't sure about himself. She showed the path of unfailing gentleness and hospitality as THE path to follow. Thank you, Kathy, and may you ever rest in peace!

A Repost from 2009

Homily upon St. Stephen's Day

[2 Chronicles 24:17-22; Acts 6:8-7:2a, 51-60; Matthew 23:34-39]

One cannot help but notice the contrast. At the end of the first reading, Zechariah's dying words: "The Lord look on it and avenge!" and at the end of the second reading, St. Stephen's dying words: "Lord, do not charge them with this sin." 

Zechariah's words we understand, for do not all the horrid crimes of injustice cry out to heaven for redress? We remember the words of the Lord to Cain: "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground." And the blood of how many of his brothers and sisters has mingled with Abel's blood to stain the earth since then, all pleading to God for justice! 

But then what on earth are we to make of St. Stephen's final words? Here was a man who simply spoke the truth that his hearers did not want to listen to. As a result, he was judged worthy of death by stoning. Under the rain of rock, tearing his flesh and crushing his bones, he prayed and commended his spirit to the Lord Jesus and with his final words begged absolution for those who were murdering him. 

How does one get from Zechariah's "go get them, God!" to St. Stephen's "pardon them, God!" What intervenes? Well, we should of course ask it differently: Who intervenes? 

The One who speaks in today's Gospel reading, that's who. The Lord Jesus Himself. He made no bones about the fact that those He sends to speak His words will not be welcomed and honored. They will be ridiculed and some will be killed and even crucified, some they will beat, and some will be chased from one town to another. So it happens, said Jesus, that all the blood of the ages from Abel down to Zechariah "comes on you." 

Given such a prediction, one would have expected His next words to be words of woe and warning. Instead, they are words that break open the deep recesses of God's heart for all to see the mercy that beats there: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. See, your house is left to you desolate."

This is the God revealed in Jesus Christ. The God who does not like to take the sinner's "Go away and leave me alone" as the sinner's final word. Who always hopes for repentance and so in mercy keeps on trying to speak to his people the Word that will shake them up and turn them from their sins and bring them home to Him. This is the God who when the holy City of Jersualem got hold of Him, handed Him over to the Romans, and took Him outside the city gate, and nailed His arms and legs to the wood of the cross. And it was as He was being nailed to the cross that He prayed it. The words that change everything: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Father, forgive. He could pray that. He who knew what it was to suffer unjustly, betrayed by a friend, abandoned in his pain, ridiculed and mocked, scourged, and pummeled. And it was as his blood - which is truly the blood of God, for He is the Word Made Flesh as we celebrated yesterday - as his blood touched the earth that everything changed. For here was blood that did not cry out for vengeance and retribution. Here was blood that cried out for mercy and for pardon. Unconquered by the hatred it received, it conquered hatred with love. With each drop running down the cross, staining the earth, smearing across the face of His beloved Mother as she kissed his feet, and pouring from his side with the water as the spear ran him through – with each drop, I say, the cry was heard in heaven louder and louder: "Father, forgive! Father, forgive! Father, forgive!" 

And so all the blood of the righteous dead in all the world met together upon that generation: for all their cries for vengeance were heard and answered, but in a way that none could expect or anticipate. 

The blood of Jesus winning pardon did more achieve forgiveness of sins. It positively destroyed the power of death itself. Christ's own resurrection was the sign from God that death has been destroyed for all who trust in the blood of Jesus to wipe away their sins. And if we remember that, we can perhaps see why Zechariah, who did not know of the power of Jesus' blood to forgive sins and to overcome death, could only pray as he lay dying: "Lord, don't forget me and the injustice I have suffered." The blood of Jesus was God's answer to Zechariah's prayer: "I have not forgotten you, but I have come to share your fate and to raise you from the dead!" But Stephen, who knew the power of Jesus' blood and who knew precisely what that blood meant, could meet his death without any desire for revenge and without fear. He knew that his sins were covered by the blood of God in the flesh and he knew that His Lord and Master lived again on the other side of death and would call him out of death into eternal life. He saw his Lord stand up to bid him come home and to welcome him into His embrace? So why cry for vengeance? Rather, joining his martyr's blood to the Lord's, he cries for pardon. And who knows if it was not precisely that prayer that saved Saul, who was there consenting to Stephen's death and who became Paul, the great Apostle?

Rather a bloody homily and subject matter for Christmas some might be thinking. Banish the thought! We still live in a world where atrocities of injustice happen with alarming regularity and where the innocent are still slain. In fact, our government is preparing to tax us and use the money to pay for the slaughter of unborn children. Lord, have mercy! How good to remember that it was to win forgiveness for all the sins that bring sadness into this world that our Lord was born! How beautiful it is to remember that the Eternal Word became a fetus and was born of Mary so that He might become also the first-born from the dead, that He might destroy the might of the devil himself and fling wide open the doors to the Kingdom! In the blood of St. Stephen's Day the Church remembers why we so desperately need this Child and the life that is found in His blood – blood He still bids us to receive at His altar, crying for our pardon and promising us His unending life; blood that enable us to join St. Stephen in praying that God would bless and forgive our enemies. Amen.

On Beauty

I was blessed to hold grandson Henry for the whole of the Christmas Divine Service today. He was good as gold, I was even able to sing all the choir pieces with him in arm, and then he fell alseep during the homily and remained so to the very last note of the postlude, at which he awoke. All the time I held him, beauty swirled around us. The visual beauty of that lovely sanctuary, made even more glorious for the Christmas feast. The audible beauty of Gospel preaching, ancient chant, harmonious hymns, and the triumphant sound of trumpet and timpani alternating with the sweet sound of strings and human voices. And I looked at the baby in my arm. Amazing and wow. Our God becoming such a one and THAT was the beauty to end all beauties: for what is more beautiful than such unfathomable love? And who cannot love a baby? Beauty begets beauty, and so the blessed sounds and space in which we gathered and approached the holy altar to meet Him who came born of the Virgin with the praises and harmonies ringing all around. I'm glad they will grow up in such beauty, and I pray they will always love and rejoice in His beauty, the beauty that provoked it all.

Merry Christmas!

From the Martyrology

In the year 2015 from the birth of Abraham, in the year 1510 from the exodus of the people of Israel out of Egypt, in the year 1032 from the enthronement of David the Prophet and King, in the sixtieth "week" of the prophecy of Daniel, in the forty-second year of the reign of Caesar Augustus, in the thirty-third year of the reign of Herod, when the staff had gone from Judah has had been prophesied by Jacob the Patriarch, at a time when the whole world was at peace, it pleased God to send His only-begotten Son and Eternal Word to the world to become Man and to teach us God's love, to suffer, die, and rise from the dead for our salvation.

At that time, the Lord Jesus was born in a humble cave in Bethlehem of Judah, and no one knew of it but the immaculate Virgin Mary his Mother and Joseph her spouse. No one heard of this miracle surpassing all miracles but a few humble shepherds who had been told by angels in the sky that sang this hymn: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men." Then the Magi came from the East, led by a star in the heaven: they found their way to where the Divine Infant rested, and they adored Him, and opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts of gold, incense and myrrh.

To God Incarnate, to the suckling Infant who humbled Himself and took our form, becoming one of us to make us divine; to the One who later walked among us to teach us the way of salvation and who loved us so much as to give His life for it: to Him be glory, honor, and adoration forever and ever. Oh, come, let us adore Him! 

(From the Roman Martyrology)

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

We do not believe that the virgin mother bore a son and that he is the Lord and Savior unless, added to this, I believe the second thing, namely, that he is my Savior and Lord. When I can say: This I accept as my own, because the angel meant it for me, then, if I believe it in my heart, I shall not fail to love the mother Mary, and even more then child, and especially the Father. For, if it is true that the child was born of the virgin and is mine, then I have no angry God and I must know the feel that there is nothing but laughter and joy in the heart of the Father and no sadness in my heart.—Martin Luther, Sermon upon Christmas Day, 1530

Patristic Quote of the Day

Nothing in theosis is the product of human nature, for nature cannot comprehend God. It is only the mercy of God that has the capacity to endow theosis unto the existing... In theosis, man (the image of God) becomes likened to God, he rejoices in all the plenitude that does not belong to him by nature, because the grace of the Spirit triumphs within him, and because God acts in him.—St. Maximus the Confessor, Letter 22

Advent IV Reflections

Such joys today in the liturgy. We began with that awesome Basque carol: "The Angel Gabriel." The solemnity of the Advent season continued with the absence of Gloria, which has a peculiar way of making the Kyrie all the weightier. The awesome collect asking for relief from the weight of our sins (and is it not a fact that they just seem to weigh heavier on us as we grow in the faith?). The readings: Moses' promise of the prophet like himself; my all time favorite epistle from Philippians 4; the Visitation Gospel with the blessedness (and blessing) of Mary. The Nicene Creed that also seems to grow in weight and freight as we approach nearer to the Christmas feast. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. The lovely homily provided just below this post. Violin, viola and organ on O Come during offering. At St. Paul's from Advent through Pentecost, the Our Father is chanted by the pastor, with the congregation joining in the joyful doxology. The genuflection during the Creed mirrors the genuflection at the Verba, both confessing His real presence in our flesh and blood. Then the distribution hymns as the Sacrament is administered: O Savior, Rend... Creator of the Stars of Night... Let the Earth Now Praise the Lord. The second post-communion collect, with its "who in lovingkindness sent Your only-begotten Son into the flesh." And then after the benediction, the singing of the first hymn of Christmas: "A Great and Mighty Wonder"—St. Germanus' amazing song, though LSB definitely lost the meaning of the last verse: "And idol forms shall perish, and error shall decay, and Christ shall weild His scepter, our Lord and God for aye," reflecting the retreat of idolatry before the proclamation of the Gospel that astounded the ancient world (and should astound us). So the Divine Service ended with a hint of the Gloria about to return come Christmas Midnight: "To God on high be glory and peace to all the earth!"

Fine, fine homily...

...this morning from Pr. Gleason.

Sermon for Advent IV, 2016

Luke 1:39-45 (46-56)

Last Sunday, the Apostle Paul invited us to rejoice in the Lord with his words from Philippians 4, which were part of the introit. Today that invitation became instruction as we heard, again, that passage from his epistle. But, today also tells us why we ought to rejoice. The Blessed Virgin Mary tells us in her hymn of praise to God: "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation." The cause of this joyful song is because she carries in her womb the very Lord and Savior whom she praises, the holy One who has done great things for her and whose mercy shall be upon all those who call her "blessed."

The occasion for this song highlights one of the most amazing themes in the Scriptures: that God unites His promise of salvation to child bearing. In Genesis, God promised a Savior from the seed of the woman. That promise runs through the whole Old Testament with names like Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David; as well as through a line of Israelite mothers such as Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel, and Gentiles like Rahab and Ruth. The promise is found in the prophets. Isaiah: "A Virgin will conceive and give birth to a son." Micah: "Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth." The Old Testament Word is clear. God would save the world from sin and death through the birth of a Child from God.

So, our Gospel for this fourth Sunday of Advent tells of the meeting of two pregnant women. They are cousins, and both are miraculously with child. Elizabeth was an elderly woman well past child-bearing age. She was six months along with John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ. Mary was a very young woman, certainly no older than eighteen. She had conceived a child in her virginity by the Holy Spirit. Both of them were pregnant by the power of God's Word. They were living testimony that "with God nothing is impossible."

Mary had heard from the angel that "she who was barren is in her sixth month," so she hurried off to the hill country of Judea to visit her cousin and share her joy. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, John jumped for joy in her womb.

Consider the wonder of that moment. The sound of Mary's voice caused John to leap for joy. There he was, a fetus barely six months old in his mother's womb, and already he was exalting Christ! Who says that babies can't believe? And who would argue that even unborn children cannot benefit by being in church and hearing the Word? Being in the Liturgy, hearing God's Word, eating and drinking the Sacrament are vital parts of every Christian woman's pre-natal care. Can anyone say that an unborn child does not benefit from God's Word?

The same is true for all our little ones. They need to hear God's Word even before they know what those words mean. Our children need to rejoice in the sound of the forgiveness of sins, of salvation and eternal life. They need to be filled with the sound of God's Word, with the historic hymns of the faith, with the ancient creeds and confessions that have been handed down to us. They need to grow into the vocabulary of eternal life. They will have all eternity to master it, but the earlier they start, the better.

Now, though older than Mary, Elizabeth considered it an honor that Mary should come and visit her. She honored her younger cousin as "the mother of my Lord." And so she is. That's why the church calls Mary "the Theotokos—the bearer of God" or "the mother of God." She was the bearer of the eternal Word, the mother of the Christ, God's Son. She was the chosen and honored instrument of the Lord's Incarnation, through whom God's Son received a body to offer for the life of the world. Mary is rightly to be blessed among women and blessed by all generations to come.

I know some people have difficulty in blessing Mary. I wonder if it's because we have difficulty with holy things in general. We've almost lost the idea of the sacred—sacred time, sacred space, sacred people and sacred things. Everything tends to be ordinary for our culture, the same, generic, interchangeable…ordinary. Our age wants churches to be comfortably unadorned. Pastors to be "just plain guys." Worship to be indistinguishable from the latest entertainment. The world would be thrilled to treat the Lord's Supper as just another fast food Happy Meal, Baptism as a religious bath, and Mary as just another pregnant teenager.

But, we treat a church building as a holy space. We don't just stomp in here as though we were entering a stadium or an auditorium. It's not because the flooring is holy, or the plaster or the upholstery. It's because the holy Word of God is preached and heard here. The Word makes this space holy and blessed. And we regard the pastor as a holy man, not because he is holy (to which I may personally attest), but because the Word he is ordered to preach is holy.

And so it is with Mary. She is blessed and holy not because of her own holiness or purity. She is holy because of the holy Child that was conceived in her by the Holy Spirit. She was the instrument of our Lord's incarnation, and for that reason she is holy and to be blessed by all who believe in her Son for their salvation.

Mary's song teaches us not to take our place with the proud and the powerful, the ruling and the rich of this world, for the Lord is a toppler of thrones. There is nothing in this world that can withstand the strength of God's arm. And, He destroys everything that competes for our trust in Him.

And yet God is merciful. His arm is mighty to save us from sin. His arm lifts up those who are humbled and bowed down with guilt. His arm reaches out to fill the hungry with good things—those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. His arm extended from the heights of heaven to embrace the world, to join Himself with us. He extended His arms on a cross to save us. He extends His arm to us now, as we hear His Word and receive His gifts.

Mary and Elizabeth teach us to receive those gifts in the way of faith. They reminds us that God is One who keeps His Word. He remembers "to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as He spoke to our fathers." God keeps His promises. The promise He made to Adam and Eve. The promise He made to the patriarchs and prophets of Israel. The promise He made to you when you were baptized. The promise He renews whenever you hear His Word of forgiveness.

So, then, let us rejoice today, and every day. Our Lord and Savior has looked on the humble estate of His servants; and the Mighty One has done great things for us. Holy is His Name, indeed. Amen.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

For the Word of God always runs; it is never at rest.—Martin Luther, on Zechariah 6

Patristic Quote of the Day

Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has deigned to style the universal Church of God His body, and has made us individually members one of another, has moreover granted to all of us to live in intimate association with one another, as befits the agreement of the members. Wherefore, although we dwell far away from one another, yet, as regards our close conjunction, we are very near.—St. Basil the Great, Letter 243

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

To sum up, the Lord is saying here that fasting is not done for Him, that all these things are worthless because He has not commanded them, but that He approves of those things which stem from a good source—from a faithful heart. You see, once the heart is sanctified and pure, whatever comes afterwards is also pure and holy, whether one fasts or eats, whether one keeps watch or falls asleep.—Martin Luther, on Zechariah 7

Patristic Quote of the Day

We know how, for the sake of the name of the Lord, trials have beset alike individuals and cities that have put their trust in Him. Nevertheless, one and all have passed away, and the distress caused by the days of darkness has not been everlasting. For just as when hail-storm and flood, and all natural calamities, at once injure and destroy things that have no strength, while they are only themselves affected by falling on the strong, so the terrible trials set in action against the Church have been proved feebler than the firm foundation of our faith in Christ.—St. Basil the Great, Letter 240

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

It is as if Zechariah were saying: "These things which I have foretold will happen. You, however, see to it that you do not regard the Word of God with contempt. The voice of the Lord will build that structure. He will use that voice only for so glorious and magnificent an undertaking. With the ministry of the Word He will accomplish all things."—Martin Luther on Zechariah 6.

Patristic Quote of the Day

If the Lord be propitious to us, what other thing do we need?—St. Basil the Great, Letter 239

Today's Chapel Homily

Revelation 1 & 3:

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying: Fear not. I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the Keys of Death and Hades... The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one shuts; who shuts and no one opens. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut.

Homily

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

An open door and a closed one. And he holds the keys to both. We sing a bit of it at Christmas tide: He is the key and He the door to blessed paradise, the angel bars the way no more, to God our praises rise, to God our praises rise!

He's the key to paradise and its door. But what is paradise? Too often we're thinking of what follows after we die. We die and then because of Jesus we go to "heaven." But that's to miss the astonishing joy of what He brings. For paradise isn't just where you go when you die. Paradise is where you live when you step through the door that He has opened and that cannot be shut. You know what that door leads? To the Father's heart. Jesus is the key that opens the door of the Father's heart and you then discover that you have been loved with a love eternal, divine, unutterable, unimaginable. You. Through Jesus you find that the Father has loved you and loves you still and will not ever cease to love you. It's a door that no one can shut. And when you know and taste that, then you see that paradise isn't merely what comes after death, paradise is living even in this world as a child who has a heavenly Father who loves him. What a difference it makes. It's the difference between how folk normally live in this world and how Jesus lived. He IS the beloved Son. He doesn't create a space in the Father for that love to reach out and adopt other children. He eternally IS that space. It's the Father's love that sends Him into the flesh and to the cross.

The cross because there's also another door. A door that is shut and no one can open. You know what he's stuffed behind that door? Take a gander! All your sins and mine and all the sins of this whole world, with all their consequences. Stuffed into that closet and then shut and no one can open. This is His cross, this the huge manifestation of His divine love for you. That His blood locks them away. Shut and sealed and locked. Stop trying to pick the lock and get back to them. They are gone. And this is a gift of His grace.

So heaven that Jesus opens to us by revealing His Father's love and locking away our sins, it's not just future. It's here and now, you can taste it already. We get this when we think of the Sacraments. But we leave it in the third article and miss the great joy of seeing it in the first.

She reached out her hand and touched the hem of His garment. Not Jesus. The hem of the garment Jesus was wearing. And He who is the open door and key to the heart of the Father, who came to lock away sin, hell, and death, Love incarnate flowed right to her and that bleeding stopped and she knew she was healed. But it was only the garment she touched. God comes in the flesh to touch His creation and His creation becomes what it could never have been apart from Him, from Emmanuel, from God with us.

Heaven not far away, paradise not just when you die, the Kingdom here and now, present for you because God's open heart became present for you in this world through Your Jesus. This creation already now is the front porch of your Father's house, and the door inside to the feast is already open and you're just waiting for the dinner bell and the family to gather and the Father's feast to begin.

What a hoot!

Just read this quip on a site that was lamenting some of the things being attributed to the Holy Spirit by the current pope:

"This Holy Spirit does things that the Holy Ghost would never do!"

Love it!

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Obviously, then, Christ is at the same time both our King and our Priest. He is our King as He rules over us and guards and protects us against every might and power of physical as well as spiritual foes, so that no creature can harm us without His permission. He is our Priest—and this is by far the sweetest and greatest comfort for consciences—as He intercedes for us before His Father and bears the iniquities of us all as if they were His own to make us coheirs with Him of all the good things of His Father and to reconcile us to His Father.—Martin Luther, on Zechariah 6

Patristic Quote of the Day

The good man, however, neither turns his heart to wealth when he has it, nor seeks after it if he has it not. He treats what is given him as given him not for his selfish enjoyment, but for wise administration. —St. Basil the Great, Letter 236

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Heralds of the Word must thus assume the responsibility of directing the Word to that place where they see consciences suffering the most, where they seem the most frightened.—Martin Luther on Zechariah 6

Patristic Quote of the Day

The statement that God shall be known from the mercy seat means that He will be known to His worshippers.—St. Basil the Great, Letter 235

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

It is an absolutely wonderful thing and completely beyond human understanding to know for a fact that some work pleases God.—Martin Luther, on Zechariah 4

Patristic Quote of the Day

The operations are various, and the essence simple, but we say that we know our God from His operations, but do not undertake to approach near to His essence. His operations come down to us, but His essence remains beyond our reach.—St. Basil the Great, Letter 234

On the iPad again...

...I have indeed replaced the laptop entirely with my iPad Pro. I love how this has simplified my working environment (which I carry with me most anywhere). It's also been a lot of fun figuring out the odd thing that I didn't know how to do on the iPad. For example: one thing was image manipulation: I had an image at a certain resolution but needed it to be at a lesser resolution. For the life of me, I couldn't figure this out. The solution of course was to ask google (isn't that the solution to everything these days?), and lo and behold: there are websites that do this for free. Just upload the image and choose the desired resolution and save the resulting image. Voila! Painless and free. I've found this actually to be a bit of a pattern—not just the google thing, of course THAT is a pattern—but the stuff that you can do on the web with three or four clicks to remedy problems. Working with PDFs also is like that.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Those people who intend to interpret Moses have here an opportunity to reflect, from which they should learn that in the entire building and construction of the Mosaic tabernacle the Lord meant nothing else than what happens in the world through the ministry of the Word.—Martin Luther on Zechariah 4

Patristic Quote of the Day

Let them dismiss, therefore, these questions of dialectics and examine the truth, not with mischievous exactness but with reverence. The judgment of our mind is given us for the understanding of the truth.—St. Basil the Great, Letter 233

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

On the day of His suffering He bore all our sins, as Isaiah writes (cf. Is. 53:4): “He Himself carried our sins.” You see, through and in the crucified Christ, God took away the sin of the whole world. In this way the prophet indicates that true Priest finally will come to take away the sin of His people and to free them from their sins. This finally will be the true sacrifice, of which the priesthood of Joshua, the high priest of the Law, was incapable. He further declares that this will happen in a single day.—Martin Luther on Zechariah 3

Patristic Quote of the Day

I am sure that a work done by one or two pious men is not done without the cooperation of the Holy Spirit. For when nothing merely human is put before us, when holy men are moved to action with no thought of their own personal gratification, and with the sole object of pleasing God, it is plain that it is the Lord Who is directing their hearts.—St. Basil the Great, Letter 229

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

This genuine joy is incredible when we realize that with our weakness we are overcoming the tremendous power of Satan.—Martin Luther, On Zecharaiah 2

Patristic Quote of the Day

I confess what I have received, that the Paraclete is ranked with Father and Son, and not numbered with created beings. We have made profession of our faith in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and we are baptized in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Wherefore we never separate the Spirit from conjunction with the Father and the Son. For our mind, enlightened by the Spirit, looks at the Son, and in Him, as in an image, beholds the Father.—St. Basil the Great, Letter 226

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

The faith of the Church now is identical with what it was in the Apostolic time, but the relation of identity does not preclude growth - it only excludes changes of identity. That faith must always be its essential self - whether as a babe receiving milk, or as a man enjoying strong meat. In a word, the advances are wrought, not by change in the Church's faith, but by the perpetual activity of that faith, a faith which because it is incapable of change itself, assimilates more and more to it the consciousness of the Church, her system of doctrine, her language, and her life.—Charles P. Krauth, Conservative Reformation, p. 270 [Had he been reading his Basil???]

Patristic Quote of the Day

The teaching about God which I had received as a boy from my blessed mother and my grandmother Macrina, I have ever held with increased conviction. On my coming to ripe years of reason I did not shift my opinions from one to another, but carried out the principles delivered to me by my parents. Just as the seed when it grows is first tiny and then gets bigger but always preserves its identity, not changed in kind though gradually perfected in growth, so I reckon the same doctrine to have grown in my case through gradually advancing stages. What I hold now has not replaced what I held at the beginning.—St. Basil the Great, Letter 223

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Because these are ministers of the Word, they fight not with their own strength but with the Word. Their fighting capability appears insignificant, their weapons very weak. Yet with that very Word, which the world sees as some ridiculous fiction, they cause the greatest and most powerful kingdoms to flee from us. They cause us to pity them rather than to fear them and to grieve because they are so vainly wasting their wrath and indignation.—Martin Luther, On Zechariah 2

Patristic Quote of the Day

I beseech you, then, to cling to one another, as you are doing and as you will do. I beseech you who are entrusted with the care of souls to keep each and all together, and to cherish them like beloved children. I beseech the people to continue to show you the respect and honour due to fathers, that in the goodly order of your Church you may keep your strength and the foundation of your faith in Christ; that God's name may be glorified and the good gift of love increase and abound.—St. Basil the Great, Letter 222.