Patristic Quote of the Day

The life in Christ originates in this life and arises from it.  It is perfected, however, in the life to come, when we shall have reached that last day.  It cannot attain perfection in men's souls in this life, nor even in that which is to come without already having begun here.  -- St. Nicholas Cabasilas, *The Life in Christ* p. 43

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

This is the one thing we must ever seek in Bethlehem - that Bethlehem begets in us that divine love - a selfless, supernatural love, which is the Bethlehem love, a love which alone can ease the heartache of the world.  When we fail in our relationships with our fellowmen, either at home or in business, it is because our love is tainted with self-interest.  But it is only the divine love which can make us irresistible.  And this love alone can save society. - Von Schenk, *The Presence* p. 47

Concert

Bekah played in the Wind Ensemble for Lutheran High's Fall Concert today.  They were really great!  I think my favorite piece that the Wind Ensemble did was "Be Thou My Vision" - there's one part where the clarinets were cruising past the legal speed limit!  It was a lot of fun.  It also used the weird sound of an Irish war drum.  The setting was by Larry Clark.

The choir marched in singing "Praise the Lord" - a traditional Cameroon processional.  They sang it in French and it is really a great piece.  They sang it when Lauren was first in choir there.  They also sang "You Raise Me Up" coupled with "Be Still My Soul" - very effective.  The Old Irish Blessing wrapped up the concert today.  

Congrats to all the St. Paul kids involved:  Robyn, Rebecca, and my own Rebekah.  You all did a GREAT job, together with all your fellow musicians!

It Happens In Clumps

There are many times that I can go through a month or more and not have a single hospital visit, and then everything happens all at once.  Just found out about two more situations today that will be need to be attended to (after Catechism Service).  It is downright odd how struggles and misfortunes seem to come to our parish in clumps.  Lord, have mercy on all those who are hospitalized or going through difficult times and comfort them with the peace that comes from You alone!  Amen!!!

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

The whole sacrifice of Calvary is focused to a point at the Altar.  It is brought home and made a reality as I kneel to receive the true Body and Blood given and shed for me.  Then it was offered on the Cross, now, in heaven triumphant - through the bread and wine.  Here I truly touch Calvary, which is now being pleaded by my High Priest.  Here I find the secret whereby I can touch my God, the secret whereby divine love can also be born in me and thus radiate through me into the lives of my fellow-men. - Berthold von Schenk, *The Presence* p. 91

Patristic Quote of the Day

This is the Body that was slain upon the cross and underwent the preliminaries of the slaying by suffering fear and agony and flowing with sweat, by being betrayed, arrested, and enduring lawless judges.  In its "testimony under Pontius Pilate it made the good confession," as Paul says; it paid the penalty of death for this confession, and that upon the cross.  It received lashes upon the back, nails in the hands and feet, the lance in the side; it suffered pain by being scourged, and torment by being nailed.  The Blood springing out of the wounds darkened the sun and shook the earth; it hallowed the air and washed the whole world clean from the filth of sin. - St. Nicholas Cabasilas, *The Life in Christ* p. 120

Walk About Zion

As the choir was singing the Gradual this morning, I think I understood the words of Psalm 48 for the first time.  "Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels."  The Lord wants us to explore His Zion, His holy Church, to know her nooks and crannies.  He wants us to enjoy and revel in this mighty fortress He has provided for His people to live in.  And what are her towers?  Her ramparts?  Her citadels?  Are they not the mighty teachers He has continually graced His Church with, who keep us from all "false teaching and evil living" and summon us to find in Christ alone our life, our hope?  Today we explored a wee bit of that Church as we remembered and thanked God for the towering witness of the Reformers. But we remember that they stand not alone.  They stand with many others through the years.  We need to know them, to explore their stories, to learn them well that we "tell the next generation that this God, our God forever and ever!"  They all steadfastly point to one Lord and witness to Him with their very lives.  We explore Zion's spacious palaces and especially her defenses that we might the more safely and joyfully witness to the next generation the great deeds of the Lord in preserving for us a Church, a place of refuge in this world.  Glory to Him forever!

Yup!

John Behnke's "Festival Gloria" is a keeper!  And the whole of the liturgy of Divine Service, Setting Five, is a worthy and wonderful way to praise the goodness of God in our Lord Jesus Christ and to receive from Him His life-giving gifts.  It brought a smile to my face today when Rebekah said to me after the liturgy:  "That was really neat.  Are we going to use that setting again?"  

School of Thought?

NOT!

Here's an irritation: when folks outside Lutheranism reduce our faith to a "school of thought." It is NOT a school of thought. It is made up of real pastors, teachers, and parishes that are infinitely more than "a way of thinking." It is true that she is recognized by her Confession of the Christian faith, preeminently the Augsburg Confession and the Small Catechism. That means:

• You can't tell a Lutheran by polity - Lutheran's can live with just about any kind of polity. 
• You can't tell a Lutheran by liturgy - there's precious little distinctive about that, and Lutherans use their treasure of liturgy in varying degrees, and sadly some leave it mostly shelved.
• You CAN tell a Lutheran by confession of the faith - and therefore by the altar he or she is joined to. 

But if anyone thinks that the Confession of the Christian faith is "a school of thought" - well, they've not understood the first thing about the nature of Christian confession. It's not a "well, you know I think like this and you think like that." It's a solemn confession made in view of the day of judgment, a resounding "we believe, teach, and confess" about the life that has been given us in Christ, sealed by the Holy Spirit, and lived from the Gospel preached and the Sacraments of Jesus used according to His divine institution.  It's not an opinion to us; its our life!

Living with an Artist...

...is a royal pain in the behind. I mean, this is a fabulous charcoal that David has started on. But it's been SITTING in MY chair in the living room for the last three days. It's about to find itself on his bed!!! Grr!

P.S. David informs me that I do not know how to count. The drawing was placed on my chair Wednesday evening. Well, that's Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday it's been in my chair. Three days. See? And don't argue with me. I have Scripture on my side on this one when it uses three days to refer to the time of our Lord's burial.

As the Light Fades

One of the things I love, and have always loved, is to be outside at night, seeing the light that comes from houses lit and warm and dinners prepared and waiting. But in my family there is a slight disagreement on this.

Rebakah feels that if the curtains are not drawn in the dining room, she's on display. So first thing she does in the evening is shut them tight. I remember walking the streets and being cheered by the light from windows and families sitting down together - the aroma of dinners of all sorts drifting on the cold air. So I never think about the open window. I rather think others might be cheered by the light! Besides, the only folks who will look in are people attending a sports event at the school.

One other little problem in my paradise of fading light. Cindi's S.A.D. So she has a light bulb she puts in one of the living room lamps. It doesn't glow that warm yellow glow that I associate with lamps on in the evening. It is supposed to imitate daylight. But from outside - to me at any rate - the thing just looks GREEN. And the fact that it is not the same color as the light from the matching lamp drives me batty.

Oh, well, with green light bulbs and shut curtains, it is still a wonderful cozy feeling to gather in the dark and share a meal and enjoy each other's companionship. "We have come to the setting of the sun and we look to the evening light..."

Calling Christine!

Christine (of Cleveland), would you email me. I have a message that was sent to me for you, and I would like to forward it on, but lack your email. My email is in the profile. Thanks!

Ah, the Running Around Day

Top of the day is Chapel at Metro East Lutheran High School, where Bekah attends.

The cleaners (green and white paraments need to be picked up) and the library need visits. And then there's Cindi's planner that she left at Walmart in Collinsville - we've got to go get that. And we couldn't just go to Walmart without GOING to Walmart, could we? And since we'll be in Collinsville, I think that spells GREEK food, eh? Did she say something about Aldi's? And then home for a wee bit?

Tonight we're headed out someplace with Matt and Sandy. Not sure where. We'll likely end up playing cards of some sort, though, after dinner. Tomorrow Mark, Melanie and Grace will be dropping by in the afternoon - yeah! We've never laid eyes on Grace in the flesh, so we're looking forward to that. Mark was my second vicar, and now serves as Pastor in the Central Illinois District.

So, we're off!

Homily for the Festival of the Reformation

[Revelation 14:6-7 / Romans 3:19-28 / Matthew 11:12-19]
In the artwork of the Reformation, when they drew that angel flying directly overhead with an eternal Gospel to proclaim, well, that angel had a face you’d recognize. The folks in those days thought that Revelation 14, our first reading, pointed directly to the events they were experiencing. The angel bore the face of Luther for them, for his was indeed a loud voice that called for all those who dwell on the earth to “fear God and give Him glory…and worship Him who made” all things.

"Eternal" Gospel suggests that the good news was from the very creation of the world hidden in God and that when the appointed time came, God revealed to all people His hidden heart, and He revealed this heart in His Son.

Today’s second reading gets at this glorious good news. First the bad news: God speaks a word of law that shuts the mouths of sinners. When the Law of God thunders, no room for your or my pitiful excuses. The Law demands one thing of us and one thing only: love. And it demands it whole and entire and unbroken – running through our being from start to finish, in all our words, our thoughts, our actions.

Then the Gospel comes after the Law has shut up our mouths and silenced our excuses; after the law has condemned our lovelessness and made us face our helplessness to fix it. The Gospel comes apart from law, apart from anything you do. Through it, God unveils for you a righteousness that is perfect, flawless, holy. A righteousness that is unending love itself. And that righteousness has a name: Jesus Christ. And God reaches Him to you and says: “Take Him, He is all yours.”

God reaches this gift to all and He wants all to receive it. “There is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God – that’s the Law; and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” That’s the Gospel.

This redemption, says St. Paul, this Jesus, God put forward, He gave Him, to be the propitiation by His blood to be received by faith. Faith clings to the blood of the Lamb of God, shed to cover the sins of the world – yours, mine, everyone’s – and so we see the unfathomable love of our God for us.

He had passed over former sins. It looked like folks had got away with murder – literally. But then He reveals, that not one sin was left unpunished in His Son. All were answered for in the Man hanging dead upon the tree, His blood spills down and wipes out mankind’s sin. So that God is both just – He punishes sin – and He is the Justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus – He credits Christ’s perfect love to all who cling to the blood of their Lamb, their Jesus, for dear life.

Boasting then? No room for it in any Christian’s life. It’s all God’s work, all God’s gift. Room then only to fear God and give Him glory, as the Angel flying directly overhead said in today’s first reading. There’s the everlasting Gospel. It’s more solid than anything you’ll ever encounter in this world. You can build an eternity on it – your eternity. Trust Him! You won’t go wrong. And that’s how God justifies you – apart from your doings, apart from works of the law. He justifies you by giving you Jesus and you hold to Him through the gift of faith.

Another name for holding to Jesus through the gift of faith is “the kingdom of heaven.” We heard about that kingdom in today’s mysterious Gospel.

Our Lord declares quite matter of factly that from the days of John the Baptist, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence. John came announcing some great good news. The Messiah was soon to follow. The Forgiver of all sin was upon the earth. But this news wasn’t welcomed by all. It was opposed by many, by folks who were quite happy with their lives the way they were and didn’t see the need for this meddlesome man preaching repentance, calling them to turn from all that they thought was so important and to embrace the Coming One.

Violence began with John and his arrest and you know how his story ended up. His head on the platter. Violence wouldn’t end with John. It would go on. Our Lord’s own gift of love and pardon would be given to the world precisely as His Kingship was being rejected, mocked even. He would be crucified for being exactly who He said He was, for telling the truth, and inviting all people to turn from what is not life to the God who alone IS life.

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear” says the Lord. The Word that He invites us to hear is the Gospel Word, the Word about the Lord who comes eating and drink, befriending tax-collectors and sinners. Inviting them and all people to find in fellowship with Him, in union with Him, the very purpose for which they were created. Such union is His gift. Nothing that we could ever earn, deserve, merit. We had no ladders high enough to climb to heaven where He was, so in His unfathomable love, He climbed down to where we are. And that’s where He goes on meeting us even today. Where we live. No accident then, that He comes to you in the stuff of this world. He doesn’t ask you for flights of spiritual fancy to soar up into the heavens. Heaven comes all the way down to you. Just like at Bethlehem, the Divine Love was born and wrapped in human flesh. Just like at Calvary, the Divine Love suffered and covered the sins of the world with His bright red blood. So today He comes to you in the stuff of creation – the same Divine Love, the same Lord Jesus, now risen from the dead and glorified. In water, in bread, in wine, in the words of sinful people spoken to each other. He comes and the One who comes is always the same. The Propitiation, the One who is the blotting out of all sin, the Eternal Son of the Father come into the flesh and then back from the dead to bring you to union with God.

That eternal Gospel – that the One who once came for you now comes also to you to live in you and fill you with a life that death cannot destroy, a pardon stronger than all your sin – that’s the Gospel that the angel in Revelation was shouting about. And Martin Luther would take us to task for wondering about the face of the angel. He’d say: “His face? What does that matter! Rather, LISTEN to what he says. Listen to the eternal Gospel given him to speak, rejoice in the Jesus to which He points you. The Jesus who is your Propitiation, your At-one-ment with God.” For that gift, free, unmerited, undeserved and ours by faith, we cry out with saints and angels: All glory be to God on high! Amen.

Patristic Quote of the Day

According through these sacred Mysteries (the Sacraments) as through windows the Sun of Righteousness enters this dark world.  --St. Nicholas Cabasilas, *The Life in Christ* p. 50

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Another Von Schenk:

"Our greatest problem is our sin, perhaps the little sins, respectable sins, these sad betrayals of our Lord in our daily life.  How they defeat us! To struggle against them is not the solution. We have tried this. Here again, we must surrender to Christ in faith, and then we have the certainty. Of myself I cannot do it, but for me to live is Christ; Christ in me, and I can do all things through Him - and in that moment we live the victorious life." - *The Presence* p. 163

Did Korby know this man?

He preaches like Korby:

It was a sad loss to the church, a grave mistake, when a few stupid people pushed the saints out of the picture. It was a sad mistake when they took them out of the life of the church, but it was even a greater mistake to place them into the niche of supernatural people. What has the church substituted for saints and their glorious triumphant lives? Perhaps respectability, which is not holiness. It usually only means that you have not been found out. And that is exactly what we too often have in our churches - deadly, cold, stiff, starchy respectability, people who have lived sheltered lives, with no need, no poverty. The reason why some of them have not been bad is because they did not have much of an opportunity to be bad, and perhaps no courage to step out of their routine. And that is what a lot of people call religion.  Respectability can never be genuine religion.  Because it has often been substituted for true sanctity, it has not infrequently taken the life out of the Church.

In place of that smug, cold, soulless respectability we must put the passionate love, first for Jesus, and then for sinners for Jesus' sake.  We must have a reckless, supernatural, sacrificial love, supernatural in its vision; supernatural in its power to transform our lives; supernatural in its power to heal the souls of men. Let us get off that pedestal of respectability and fall on our knees and learn to be saints!

No wonder that we have lost our savor.  And if the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall the church be salted?  We need saints.  If it helps to have their statues around, let us have them.  We have pictures of our loved ones in our homes.  Why not the saints?  Thus being reminded of them we can realize that men and women, of flesh and blood, have actually lived and have been saints.  And then we shall begin to believe once more that what men and women have been and have done for Christ, men and women can be, and can do, today.  We can bring the saints to earth again when we realize that the glory, which they now have, began here on earth; their supernatural love began while they lived on earth as men and women.  

"Who are these arrayed in white?"  The answer is given by John:  "These are the saints who have come forth out of great tribulation."  The one essential condition in the life of every saint which made it possible for life in heaven to begin on earth was the one thing which we seek so madly to avoid, the one universal fact which faces every single soul on earth - suffering.  These are the saints.  Not a few angel-faced, spineless people.  They were human, of flesh and blood.  Very human at times, beaten, wounded, scarred, for saints always bear the stigmata of their Lord.  When they were persecuted, what did they do?  They returned love, invincible, divine love, purified of self, and in union with their crucified Lord they received their foretaste of heaven.  This is the mystery of the Cross.  These saints got their divine love on Calvary.  That is where you and I must get it.

(*The Presence* pp. 124, 125)

More

(This stuff is fabulous!)

What does love do? Love always gives itself. When love meet self, what happens? Love just keeps on being love. That's all. Love cannot be cruel, nor hate, nor attack. All that love, divine love, can do when it meets its foe is to bare its arms and go straight to the Cross. Suffering is love's only weapon.  (*The Presence* p. 71)

On the third day He rose again and thereby showed that divine love triumphs over self.  From that time on it was possible also for men who love to triumph.  The sins of men were expiated on Calvary.  But Calvary which unites men with God also draws them up to divine love, so that it now becomes their love.  This love, the divine love, the Calvary love, is the only love worthwhile.  

From all this we draw a mighty conclusion. Why is it that we so often fail our fellowmen? Why is it that we fail in our witnessing, in our mission work? It is because we lack the one thing which will save the world - divine love - Calvary love. It does not radiate through us.

It is not our human love that the world needs. This is what the world has been trying to tell us church people for a long time. But we will not agree. We place the blame for our failure everywhere but the right place, and then we keep on trying to foist our human love, tainted with self-interest, on the world, to which it says, "We don't want it; we don't trust it. We can be just as good, if not better, outside the church."

Why is it that the early Christians showed such power? It was because Calvary love, the divine love, radiated in their message and in their lives. That love was irresistible. The fascinating story of the martyrs fertilized the acres of the Church. That love alone will build the kingdom of God on earth. That love is the only missionary policy for us to follow. The pure Calvary love will draw men up. It is the only love which achieves a final victory. It is the only love which has an Easter. any other love leaves just ashes. (*The Presence* p. 72)

The Presence

64 pages in.  Some things that raise the eyebrow, but overwhelmingly my response is WOW!  This man gets it.  Gets it a way that blows me away:

So we must learn to know what our true destiny in life is.  How is it that we so often miss this great fundamental lesson, which is so basic on almost every page of the Gospels? Take that story of the poor lad who left his home. His greatest wrong was not that he wanted to enjoy wine, women and song, nor that he asked his father for the inheritance, but that he wanted to be independent of his father.  

The great problem which we face in the world is not the problem of sin committed. That problem was solved on Calvary. The baffling problem of the prophet is that man still wants to be independent of God. This was the big mistake of our first parents in Paradise. They wanted to be like God. They wanted to be like God. They wanted a place where they could be absolutely independent. Man still loses Paradise because of his God-almightiness.  

...

What is your destiny? Labor will say "Shorter hours, better living conditions, increased wages."  The industrialist will answer, "Greater industry." The capitalist, "Money." How many will say, "My destiny is to be One with God?"

So.... I am thinking you all are going to be hearing a LOT more from Von Schenk in the days to come.  :)

Another Old Lutheran Quote for the Day

There is little love for the Holy Communion among the Pharisees who thank God that they are not as other men.  On the other hand, a deep love for the Sacrament is found among the publicans who have surrendered their sins, their pride, their knowledge, and their prejudices at the Cross and cry, "Kyrie Eleison!" - Von Schenk, *The Presence* p. 24