Remember

that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

I remember speaking those words over my children when they were little and the ashes smudged their forehead. Little, vibrant, full of life - so they seemed - but they too were destined for the grave. Same with me. Same with you. "All of us go down to the dust" as a beautiful Russian hymn has it.

And yet. We remember not only that we are dust and returning to dust. We remember something more. We remember Who became dust for us, Who laid His head into the dust, in order to make the dust incorruptible - alive with a life that cannot end. The ashes are received under the sign of His cross as a token of victory.

Yes, all of us go down to the dust. But the dust will never be the end of any who have been baptized into Him and draw in saving faith from union with Him the life that no death could hold. Remember the first thing, but also remember the second. [Yes, it's substantially the same as the post below it. But I wanted to say it again. And I can. It's my blog. ;)]

Yearly Reminder (Another Rerun)

The Ash Wednesday Gospel speaks against disfiguring faces to show others that you are fasting. People sometimes mistakenly think that's what the ashes for which this day is named are all about. Wrong.

The ashes are put on with the words from Genesis 3: "Remember, O Man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return." The ashes show not fasting, but DYING. They are sign not of practicing piety, but of the rock bottom reality of life in a fallen world. They announce to us: "I am dying...and so are you."

But the ashes are always placed on in the form of a cross to remind us that there is a reality that is even more rock-bottom than death: there is One who became our dying Dust for us and took that Dust through death upon a cross and burial into a glorious resurrection and a life that never ends. We are dying; we are headed to death indeed, but we do so in faith in Him who shared our nature to make us divine, who became a child of man doomed to dust, that we might become the children of God, destined for heavenly glory in union with Him.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Even if a man lives uprightly, he will daily perceive how his conscience accuses him and declares him guilty. If a person examines himself according to the Law of God revealed in the Holy Scriptures, he will see countless flaws and weaknesses. If he fails to see them, he must be completely blind, wantonly closing the eyes of his soul to the mirror God holds before us. -- C. F. W. Walther, *God Grant It!* p. 235, 236

Patristic Quote of the Day

Our righteousness in this pilgrimage is this— that we press forward to that perfect and full righteousness in which there shall be perfect and full love in the sight of His glory; and that now we hold to the rectitude and perfection of our course, by keeping under our body and bringing it into subjection, 1 Corinthians 9:27 by doing our alms cheerfully and heartily, while bestowing kindnesses and forgiving the trespasses which have been committed against us, and by continuing instant in prayer; Romans 12:12 — and doing all this with sound doctrine, whereon are built a right faith, a firm hope, and a pure charity. This is now our righteousness, in which we pass through our course hungering and thirsting after the perfect and full righteousness, in order that we may hereafter be satisfied therewith. - St. Augustine, *On Man's Perfection in Righteousness*

Rerun from Last Holy Week - Is There a Lutheran Way to Fast?

Yes! The Augsburg Confession disdains the distinction of meats, and does so solidly based on Colossians But that doesn't mean that Lutherans didn't and don't fast. If we remember that fast mean "to go hungry" the solution is apparent: skip meals! It's not a matter of what FOOD you give up for Lent, but a matter of what MEALS and feeding (as in snacking!) you set aside. If one follows the typical Western fast, one eats but 1 and 1/4 to 1/2 meals per day. This is not done to impress God, but to train our bodies (that our belly is not our boss) and to free up time for prayer and money for charity. I bring this up again because we are preparing to enter Holy Week. During this week as we give time to specially contemplate the Passion of our Lord, the discipline of fasting is highly appropriate for all who can safely do it. A complete fast on Good Friday suggests itself to allow for total concentration upon our Lord's self-immolation for our salvation. Fasting is such a blessed discipline and is a bodily form of prayer - as we are reminded that no earthly food can satisfy the hunger of the human being, which is ultimately a hunger for the Blessed Trinity - to whom be glory forever!

A Full St. Matthias Day

Breakfast with Cindi and Bekah (cereal) + Matins + Visit to Ryton (looked 1000% better; the "good" kind of Leukemia; keep prayers rising; chemo started today) + An unsuccessful hospital call (patient undergoing tests) + Lunch at home with Cindi (lo-carb wraps filled with deli meat and cheese) + Communion to Ruth and a good visit (Delmar was her son-in-law, but we rejoiced that he died a blessed death and that in the Eucharist we still feast together) + Changed Church Sign (YIKES! Last changed during ADVENT) + Prepared Nave for Lent + Vespers + Dinner (traditional pancakes, sausage and eggs) + Communion to Debbie and a nice visit with Janet + Home and a touch of blogging and web surfing.

I still have three communion calls to finish for my shutins; hopefully in the afternoon tomorrow. Thanks be to God for Pastor Gleason's assistance!

Tomorrow the Fast begins. May it be a most blessed time for all the readers of this blog! During these days, the Divine Service at St. Paul invariably ends with this hymn. I leave it with you as a worthy prayer for each day of holy Lent:

On my heart imprint Your image,
Blessed Jesus, King of grace,
That life's riches, cares, and pleasures
Never may Your work erase.
This the clear inscription be:
Jesus crucified for me
Is my life, my hope's foundation
And my glory and salvation!

Reminder

After Vespers today, move your book mark in your Treasury of Daily Prayer to page 24. Today we bid farewell to Job (hey, at least we made it to the joyful words of chapter 19) and John (ending with the woman caught in adultery and Luther's great thoughts on that); tomorrow we plunge into Genesis and Mark.

Purple

I changed the paraments today; the green is gone. Purple is here for a while. Cindi helped me put up the large, rough hewn cross, adorned with a purple hanging and topped with a crown of thorns. A crucifix hangs before the lectern. The room changes as the cross comes into prominence and the purple adorns the altar, lectern and pulpit. Purple such as He was clothed in that fearful night when He went out to offer His body and spill His blood to be the sacrifice that forgives the sin of all his sisters and brothers. Then the purple was mockery. Today it is confession of His true Kingship. Already the Church summons us into the stillness before the Cross where Love reigns triumphant. O come, let us adore Him!

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 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

No man, therefore, can be without sin, even if he wish it, unless he be assisted by the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And that this perfection may be attained, there is even now a training carried on in growing [Christians,] and there will be by all means a completion made, after the conflict with death is spent, and love, which is now cherished by the operation of faith and hope, shall be perfected in the fruition of sight and possession. -- St. Augustine, *On Man's Perfection in Righteousness* Chapter 7

Agape

I love my parish, but there are moments when my joy in them overflows. I rejoice with all my heart to see how they open their hearts in love and compassion when responding to a need. "If we love one another, God lives in us." How utterly true!

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

[hijacked from Treasury of Daily Prayer for this day]

This Polycarp was a disciple and diligent hearer of John the apostle and evangelist, and he called the heretic Marcion, who met him once, a "child of the devil" without any fear. You see, no one should betray the truth with silence. -- Valerius Herberger (TDP, p. 1232)

Patristic Quote of the Day

[On this day when our Synod commemorates Saint Polycarp]:

It was the second day of the first fortnight of Xanthicus, seven days before the kalends of March, when our blessed Polycarp died his martyr's death two hours after midday on the Greater Sabbath. The official responsible for his arrest was Herod; the High Priest was Philip of Tralles; and the proconsul was Statius Quadratus - BUT THE RULING MONARCH WAS JESUS CHRIST, WHO REIGNS FOREVER AND EVER. To Him be ascribed all glory, honor, majesty, and an eternal throne from generation to generation. Amen. - Evarestus, the Scribe *The Martyrdom of Polycarp*

+ Delmar Monken

Asleep in Jesus. Rest eternal grant him, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon him.

Prayers Please

I would be ever so grateful if blog readers would remember in their prayers one of my little parishioners, Ryton. Today he was diagnosed with Leukemia. Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. And remember his parents in your prayers too, please. Thank you.

Babylon's Sad Waters

"But by Babylon's sad waters
Mourning exiles now are we."

Lent begins with this realization. That we are a people in exile. That we are wandering far from our true home. And thus the beginning of repentance isn't merely the terror that one finds in wandering in a strange land; the beginning of repentance is homesickness. Something that the Holy Spirit stirs up inside us to make us long for home. And when at Church sometimes we glimpse that homeland in a way that we experience nowhere else, the Spirit stirs up the hunger for it within. We ache for it, we long for it. Home. Communion with the Blessed Trinity in the company of the holy angels and all His redeemed. Lent teaches us to fess up to how often we settle down in the land of our exile as though it were our true home; attempting to still the yearning the Spirit has created by throwing at it physical or psychological pleasure, and how it never works. Everything, but everything, about the Church's existence stirs this homesickness in us, and through her hymns, her liturgy, her readings, her disciplines, she seeks to help us ache and long for that which can never be satisfied wholly this side of heaven. Why, even the Supper causes the ache to grow more in us, as we realize that this IS what we long for - only not for a moment on our knees at the rail, but forever - to become one with Christ; His life our life; His joy our joy; His peace our peace. But the brief taste is enough to assure us: we HAVE a home; and we should settle for nothing less.

"Only Thee, only Thee."

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

These are the first two elements of the Christian life: Repentance or contrition and grief, and faith through which we receive the forgiveness of sins and are righteous before God. Both should grow and increase in us. The third element of Christian life is doing good works. -- Blessed Martin Luther, *Instruction for the Visitors of Parish Pastors* AE 40:277 (1528)

Patristic Quote of the Day

Therefore so far are the law and grace from being the same thing, that the law is not only unprofitable, but it is absolutely prejudicial, unless grace assists it; and the utility of the law may be shown by this, that it obliges all whom it proves guilty of transgression to betake themselves to grace for deliverance and help to overcome their evil lusts. For it rather commands than assists; it discovers disease, but does not heal it; nay, the malady that is not healed is rather aggravated by it, so that the cure of grace is more earnestly and anxiously sought for, inasmuch as The letter kills, but the spirit gives life. 2 Corinthians 3:6 For if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. Galatians 3:21 -- St. Augustine, *On the Grace of Christ* chapter 9

Elijah was a Lutheran

The thought irreverently came to me during the reading at the closing service today. 2 Kings 2, especially verse 9. "Ask me...BEFORE I am taken from you." Not "pray to me afterwards and I'll do it for you." Go figure.

One Other Convention Thought

As far as efficiently carrying out business, this is (hands down) the best convention I've ever attended - District or Synod. I don't know what's gotten into the SID lately, but the Pastoral Conferences continue to amaze by edifying topics and wonderful worship and now the District Convention even goes so well that my lay delegate (Kevin) tells me he ENJOYED himself and looks forward to serving again! Can't get better accolade than that, I'd say. So, congrats for the new format!