Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

The work we do and the pains we take are not contrary to faith, but are useful for the training of the flesh; but anxiety is contrary to God.—Dr. Martin Luther, Day by Day, p. 338.

Patristic Quote of the Day

And some turn aside from the faith, who seek out everything by reasoning; for reasoning produces shipwreck, while faith is as a safe ship.—St. John Chrysostom, Homily 5 on First Timothy

Patristic Quote of the Day

This is what Paul says, that God, willing to give men full assurance that He pardons all their transgressions, chose, as the object of His mercy, him who was more a sinner than any; for when I obtained mercy, he argues, there could be no doubt of others: as familiarly speaking we might say, If God pardons such an one, he will never punish anybody; and thus he shows that he himself, though unworthy of pardon, for the sake of others' salvation, first obtained that pardon. Therefore, he says, since I am saved, let no one doubt of salvation. —St. John Chrysostom, Homily 4 on 1 Timothy

Reflecting on Revitalization

Spring cleaning. No, not THAT kind of spring. The other kind. The kind both of my grandparents had at their farms. The springs that welled up from the ground and brought us the sweetest, most wonderful water. THAT kind of spring cleaning. They need it. They get clogged up over time, and the water stops flowing free and sweet. It stagnates. It needs some cleaning up of whatever is blocking that sweet water flow.

The Church, you see, is literally gathered around the places where the sweet springs of resurrection water spring up and overflow in this fallen age. Revitalizing begins first and foremost congregations examining the state of the spring, and working to remove whatever is blocking the sweet waters of the divine Promises from flowing without let or hinderance in its midst. It's all a matter of spring cleaning.

"I'm going out to clean the pasture spring..."

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

It is logically possible to think of the church as it is in an infinitesimally small moment of time. Theologically and actually it is not possible to do so. For in the church we live, we are part of a process, we are being justified before God by God; there is a constant forgiveness of sins that we - who are simultaneously sinners and holy people - are constantly committing, and we who are being constantly declared holy by God's grace for Christ's sake are constantly becoming holier by God's grace for Christ's sake through faith.—Dr. Arthur Carl Piepkorn, The Church, p. 25

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

In the Supper of the new covenant the same victim which was sacrificed to God for our sins is also given to us in the Lord's Supper and shared in by the communicants, so that through this participation in this same victim we are joined to Christ and made partakers of all His merits.—Blessed Martin Chemnitz, The Lord's Supper, p. 146.

Patristic Quote of the Day

The favors of God so far exceed human hope and expectation, that often they are not believed. For God has bestowed upon us such things as the mind of man never looked for, never thought of. It is for this reason that the Apostles spend much discourse in securing a belief of the gifts that are granted us of God. For as men, upon receiving some great good, ask themselves if it is not a dream, as not believing it; so it is with respect to the gifts of God. What then was it that was thought incredible? That those who were enemies, and sinners, neither justified by the law, nor by works, should immediately through faith alone be advanced to the highest favor. Upon this head accordingly Paul has discoursed at length in his Epistle to the Romans, and here again at length. This is a faithful saying, he says, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.—St. John Chrysostom, Homily 4 on First Timothy

Yeah! Choir!

Can't wait for choir tonight. Such a blessing to sing with Carlo. As with last week, so this week I expect will be a nice blend of Bach, Pachelbel and Rutter. Maybe a new piece thrown in as well too.

Commemoration of Sts. Zecharias and Elizabeth

A meditation from some year's back as we commemorate the day of these precious saints of God:


Ours was always a quiet home. God had not blessed us with children, and after many years together, a husband and wife learn to carry on conversations without words. A look and a look back can speak volumes. Yet we did talk. Sometime at night, after the lamps were put out, I’d stretch out beside my old Zechariah and say: “tell me the promises again.”

You see, he was a priest. He knew the Sacred writings of Torah and the Prophets. And he loved to recite the promises about the Coming One, the One who would make all things right again for a world where so much has gone wrong. He’d begin whispering them to me: “To us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder…” “And you, Bethlehem Ephratha, are by no means least among the tribes of Judah, for out of you will come a Ruler who will govern my people Israel.” “His dominion will be from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.” “The wolf shall lie down with the lamb.” Oh, he could go on forever; he knew them all. He’d long ago stored them away in his heart, and he loved nothing more than to repeat them. They were his prayer, his hope. He was one of the Zedek - the righteous - who looked for the salvation of Israel.

When he came home from doing his priestly duty that year, he didn’t need to tell me he couldn’t talk. One look told me something had happened. His eyes were full of excitement and hope like I’d not seen in him since he was a young man. I thought he might have a fever. It took a while to get the whole story out of him. I think he was a little ashamed. It was not like him - questioning the word of one of the Lord’s angels? That was not like my husband at all. But still, the promise was staggering. We were to have a child? Now? And our child was to be the one that the prophets had foretold? The one to prepare the way for the Lord, the Messenger sent before the Lord’s face? The fulfillment of all things was now? In our lives?

When I first felt the little one move in my womb I could do nothing. I stood still and tears streamed down my face. Then laughter and joy. Our God? He comes up with the craziest ideas! Old ladies carrying little babies. Our God, the God of the universe, He promises the impossible and then He makes it happen. No good trying to wrap your mind around His ways. His goodness is beyond our thinking, His love beyond our dreams.

Five months our house was mostly silent. Zechariah watched impatiently as my womb began to swell. And there were days he’d lay his hand upon it and we’d look into each others eyes and one would start laughing and the other crying. Five months of silence in the house and then one day, a miracle greater than our little boy’s conception came running up to the door.

I heard her voice. She was calling a greeting: Shalom, Cousin Elizabeth! And that is when it happened. My little one was doing summersaults in my womb - summersaults of joy. And the Holy Spirit came upon me and I saw the whole thing. My eyes were opened like they’d never been opened before. All the past seemed like a dream and in shock and awe at what I had seen I stood to my feet.

She came to me, a look on her face, a questioning look. She thought no one knew. I let her know different right away. “Blessed!” I cried. “Blessed are you among women!” And blessed indeed, for no other woman would be both Virgin and Mother, and not just the mother of a miracle baby like my own.
The mother of… The mother of so much more. I can barely bring myself to say it even after all these years. “Blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Ah, that was the heart of it. She walked into my house and it was though the Ark of Covenant had arrived, and hidden in the Ark, the beating heart of my God taken flesh. The Messiah, the One about whom all the promises centered. The One God told Abraham would bring blessing to all the families of the earth. The Serpent Crusher. The One to lead us back to Paradise. He was in my house. In her womb. His infant heart beating beneath her heart. “And why is this granted to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?” The look on her face. The child melted. I held her as she wept. It was a fearful secret she had been hiding. But here it was safe.

I pulled back from her and gave my old goat sitting in the corner a proper look. I pointed to her and said: “Blessed is she who BELIEVED that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” My old goat, my Zechariah, he laughed and laughed his silent laugh, agreeing with me. She had believed, and she was blessed.

And then she opened her mouth again and spoke - a hymn of praise to the One who had chosen her in love, and she foretold how every generation from that day to the end of time would remember and join in calling her blessed. Ah, the poetry of her song and the fire of her words that day!

She stayed with us for the next three months. How we talked much during those days - our house was silent no more. The last months are never easy, certainly not for old women. And she was there to help me through those hard days and to share our joy when the little lad revealed his face. She saw her divine Son’s fore-bearer, our John. And then she left, she went home to meet her Joseph and to face whatever it was that God willed for her.

There are those who think she is a almost a goddess - but they are being foolish. There are those who think that she is just an ordinary person like themselves - they are just as foolish. You must think of her as the Holy Spirit taught me that day she came to me: Blessed among women, Blessed in the fruit of her womb, and blessed above all in believing the Words of her Lord.

You can’t go wrong if you follow her example, you people who live in the time of the great fulfillment. You can’t go wrong if you also learn to say to God: “Let it be to me according to your Word” and if you learn to trust every promise God makes you, no matter how impossible, how shocking, how unreasonable. You can’t go wrong if you open up your heart and your life and give space for the Child of Mary to come and live in you, bringing you the joy of presence. It won’t mean an easy time in this world - how she found that out! - but it will mean the joy of a life that death cannot bring to an end. For it will be God’s life, the life He reaches us all in His Son, the Child of Mary, the Mother of God. Blessed be He! Blessed be He forever! Amen.

Patristic Quote of the Day

For not only has God released us from the impending punishment, but He has made us righteous too, and sons, and brethren, and heirs, and joint-heirs. Therefore it is he says, that grace was exceeding abundant. For the gifts bestowed were beyond mercy, since they are not such as would come of mercy only, but of affection and excessive love.—St. John Chrysostom, Homily 3 on 1 Timothy

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

With God's glory glowing behind the Old Testament sacrifices, they cast a shadow in the shape of a cross.—Daniel Brege, Eating God's Sacrifice, p. 193.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Love fulfills the law in the sense that it is itself the fulfilling of the law, but faith fulfills it in the sense that it supplies the doer and love remains the deed.—Blessed Martin Luther, Day by Day, p. 334.

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

As one considers the Lord's Supper and its ingredients, one should realize that Christ's will and testament is to be treated as precise and irrevocable. Even as one would never consider modifying a mere human's will and testament, neither should one consider tampering with the words or elements of the Son of God's testament.—Daniel J. Brege, Eating God's Sacrifice, p. 305.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Therefore, if we grow saintly or wicked, it does not begin with works, but with faith, as the wise man says (Ecclesiasticus X.12): "The beginning of all sin is the turning away from God and not trusting in Him."—Blessed Martin Luther, Day by Day, p. 333.

Wednesday's Catechesis: "Deliver us from evil"

Scripture Reading:
Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”
So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.
Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
(Job 2:4-10 ESV)

Catechism p. 324 :  Deliver us from evil. What does this mean? We pray in this petition, in summary, that our Father in heaven would rescue us from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally, when our last hour comes, give us a blessed end and graciously take us from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven.

Deliver us from evil. Luther more accurately got it in the Larger Catechism where he reminds us that the Greek implies rather “deliver us from the evil one,” the devil.

You see, you have an enemy. An enemy who likes to appear as your friend. An enemy who suggests to you so many things that seem so reasonable, so desirable. A enemy who, let me be clear on this, does not love you. Nor he is simply neutral toward you. An enemy who covets you, who wants you for his own. Not to bless you, not to give you gifts and shower you with love. No. An enemy who wants you for his own that he may torture you forever with his own empty bitterness and malice. And this enemy parades around as an angel of light, hiding his true colors from you, hiding from you the intense hatred that fills his heart when he thinks of you.

Deliver us from the evil one, our Lord taught us to pray. And how we need that prayer. Because, of course, the evil one has a wretched ally inside of you and me: our fallen nature, our flesh. And what the devil would suggest to you – and he never runs out of suggestions for you, bombarding your mind and heart and night and day – what he suggests can seem so choice, so wonderful and enjoyable. And you know how he operates. You are not ignorant of his devices. You know how he gets you first just to consider, then to think hard about something, then to obsess on it and to desire it and then to reach out your hand and take what God has not given and to do this with ever diminishing returns until you realize in the end that instead of being free and having fun, you’ve landed yourself into chains and a trap. There’s a reason that we call these sinful habits that get a grip on you “vices.” Satan lures you in, locks you up and smiles at your misery when you realize, how he seduced you using your very own desires against yourself.

You know this battle. You’ve lived it. You’ve tasted the bitter defeat and felt the smirk of the enemy who finally was disclosed to you as no friend. A spirit of malice and hatred. And yet he had you. Your experience in this is no different than that of all the rest of the human race. All except for One, and so the One who IS Deliverance from the Evil One.

There was One for whom the Enemy reserved his greatest hatred and the more he failed to snare that One, the more infuriated with Him he became. You will not understand the mystery of the cross until you also see it as this: the full hatred of the enemy of the human race exposed for all to see. This is what he would do to you if he could. He hates you, as he hated him, as he hated Job, but his anger over the One in whom he could gain no foothold, that exceeds all bounds. The Lord knew that this is what he was headed for. He told them, remember? “The Ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father commanded me that the world may know that I love the Father.” (John 14)

Look to the Cross then, people loved by God, and you will have unmasked for you the malice of the evil one. Look to the Cross, then, and you will see the demonic at work: “For if the rulers of this age had understood this, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory!” (1 Cor. 2) But look to the Cross and see Him triumph over them. See Him deliver you from evil. See Him give you everything for which you plead in the Our Father. He unmasks that supposed friend; exposes his hatred and violence toward you. And He overcomes him, not by a show of might, but by a humble, obedient sacrifice, an unbroken faith that trusts His Father for deliverance from evil, and that is vindicated. His resurrection was His deliverance from the Evil One’s assault that could take his life, but not destroy his soul. And so His resurrection is the guarantee for you that He will deliver you in the same way. Oh, the enemy may tear you to pieces as he wishes, but he can’t win. Your soul gathered safely into His hands and His resurrection the guarantee that in the end, when the final granting of “deliver us from the evil one” is given, your body too shall be raised and you will be free forever from the Evil One’s schemes. This is the joyful conviction of the holy martyrs.

In the end: “Deliver us from evil, from the evil one” is the same as the prayer: “Come, Lord Jesus!” And it is a prayer that our Lord gives to be on our lips every day: Show me my enemy for who he is, let me not align myself with him, rescue me from my own sinful nature’s desires, and bring me at last to Your kingdom, forever safe from this hideous and hateful one, the devil and his minions. Come, yes, come, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Patristic Quote of the Day

The law, if you use it aright, sends you to Christ. For since its aim is to justify man, and it fails to effect this, it remits us to Him who can do so. —St. John Chrysostom, Homily 2 on First Timothy.

The Our Father

a superlative article in the latest Gottesdienst by Fr. Peter M. Berg on the Our Father and the Eucharist. If you don't subscribe, you ought to...juicy!

New Lutheran Quote of the Day

The covenant blood is indeed now the blood of the Living One; greater than the OT sprinkled blood, it is to be consumed! Though Christ is the Living One, yet it at His crucifixion where the power of such blood is unleashed, for there it was shed for man's salvation. After His resurrection, God's people—like the Jews of old—join in divine worship to celebrate the renewed application of God's covenant to His people, and here they regularly receive of the Lord's Supper—the grandest of covenant meals.—Daniel J. Brege, Eating God's Sacrifice, p. 301.

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

For my holiness, righteousness and purity do not grow from myself, nor do they rest upon myself, but are in Christ alone and come from Him, into whom I am rooted through faith, as the sap passes into the grapes, and I have been made like Him, that He and I are not of one nature and substance, and through Him I bear fruit, which is not mine, but the vine's. Thus Christ and the Christian become one loaf, and one body, and the Christians bear the proper fruit, not Adam's and not their own, but Christ's!—Blessed Martin Luther, Day by Day, p. 330.

Patristic Quote of the Day

The end of medicine is health, but where there is health, there is no need to make much ado; so where there is love, there is no need of much commanding.—St. John Chrysostom, Homily 2 on 1 Timothy