The Epiphany Day Mass: Evening Divine Service

What an absolute joy tonight’s Divine Service was! I served in the Morning liturgy today, but was able to sit with Cindi at tonight’s. From the first moments when the incense wafts in at the front of the procession accompanied by joyous song, to Pastor Daenzer’s solemn and beautiful chanting of the Gregorian Introit for the day; from the amazing Scripture readings from Isaiah 60, Ephesians 3 and Matthew 2, to the gladsome announcement of the dates of the moveable feasts; from hearing Pastor’s proclamation of the saving Gospel (the glory of our Savior being His humility!) to joining in intercession for our country at this sad and frightening time; from being blessed to sing the Communion liturgy, with the Agnus in harmony and unaccompanied, to receiving the Light of the World in His true body and blood; in short, from start to finish, a day of joy and a peace that no distress of the world in her usual turmoil (and yes, we have had shocking turmoil today) can ever shake. Why? Because, as the Introit confessed, the Lord, the Ruler has come and the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory are in His hand. 

Gerhard and Walther

Along with the Word, God the Lord has given us the holy Sacraments. They are visible signs of grace through which the promises of the Gospel are empowered. Also, they are blessed means through which God the Lord imparts the heavenly treasures and blessings to us in no less measure than through the Word.—Johann Gerhard, Schola Pietatis, I:83.

Unfortunately, in our day, far too many people, including those who are undeniably Christians, think that the mission to the Gentiles, while laudable, is something they can do or not do. With so much distress in the world, they believe the burden of missions should not be imposed on the Church as a potential hindrance to other important work. Such Christians are in error. The Christian Church is a debtor to the whole world that remains outside Christ.—C. F. W. Walther, God Grant It!, p. 100.

Catechesis

We see [from the Incarnation] how He has completely poured forth Himself and withheld nothing from us.—LC II:26

Patristic Quote of the Day

In reality, the people were subject to another curse, which says, Cursed is every one that continues not in the things that are written in the book of the Law. As then both he who hanged on a tree, and he who transgresses the Law, is cursed, and as it was necessary for him who is about to relieve from a curse himself to be free from it, but to receive another instead of it, therefore Christ took upon Him such another, and thereby relieved us from the curse. It was like an innocent man’s undertaking to die for another sentenced to death, and so rescuing him from punishment. For Christ took upon Him not the curse of transgression, but the other curse, in order to remove that of others. For, He had done no violence neither was any deceit in His mouth. And as by dying He rescued from death those who were dying, so by taking upon Himself the curse, He delivered them from it.—St. John Chrysostom, Homily on Gal. 3

Gerhard and Walther

For since God the Lord has allowed us to be presented and offered to us the great heavenly treasures and goods such as reconciliation with God the Lord, God’s grace, faith in Christ, true spiritual freedom, true righteousness, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the heavenly inheritance, eternal life, salvation and blessing, protection against the devil, food for our soul, and the like; so it is right that at the same time we acknowledge such generous goods, grace, and friendship of our heavenly Father with thankful hearts.—Johann Gerhard, Schola Pietatis I:81

Therefore, we who believe in Christ cannot doubt God’s fatherly love, even when He lays upon us much suffering in this life. God punishes and disciplines those whom He loves, knowing that one day He will make them glorious. He may let them struggle here, but He will one day bring them to a celebration of eternal victory. Those who mourn now will find eternal comfort.—C. F. W. Walther, God Grant It!, p. 98.

Patristic Quote of the Day

The genuine faith of those being saved is seen in their exceeding readiness to follow [i.e., what God commands].—St. Cyril of Alexandria, Fragment 258

Catechesis: First Article

The Creed is nothing other than the answer and confession of Christians arranged with respect to the First Commandment.—LC II:10

Today was for the Letter N...

...in preschool at St. Paul’s, so Henry got to show off his Nana by putting her into the N box. 

We woke up this morning

...to a foggy 25º and so when we went for our morning walk, we saw a bit of winter wonderland. Truly “He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?” Cindi snapped a few pictures on her phone:

Tradition

Absolutely love this quote by Donald Kingsbury: 

Tradition is a set of solutions for which we have forgotten the problems. Throw away the solution and you get the problem back. Sometimes the problem has mutated or disappeared. Often it is still there as strong as it ever was.

Gerhard and Walther

Anyone who has been called into the fellowship of Christ’s kingdom, and then still does not want to take pains to apply himself to holiness and godliness, flies in the face of God’s ordinance and does not understand the end result ordained by God for his calling: to interverti [to be turned around, i.e., in genuine repentance and conversion].—Johann Gerhard, Schola Pietatis I:79

So, then, let us take courage at this time of an almost universal falling away. Christ still lives and His Church will remain even if the whole world should conspire against Him. Therefore, let us faithfully follow Him, though He may lead us through the wilderness and desert, knowing we will arrive with Him at our true fatherland.—C. F. W. Walther, God Grant It!, p. 96.

Patristic Quote of the Day

“Woe” is a voice of sorrowing. For this reason He says that they close the kingdom of heaven, because they hide in the law the consolation of His truth. They lost sight of the advent expected by the prophets.—St. Hilary of Poitiers, On Matthew 24.3

Catechesis: Ten Commandments

But do good to all men. Help them and promote their interest—in every way and where you can—purely out of love for God and to please Him. Do this in the confidence that He will abundantly reward you for everything.—LC I:328

What wonderful time off!

So much joy in spending time with family and friends (even got to see ALL the grandkids twice!). This afternoon, Cindi and I went ahead and took down Christmas (yes, I know we have two more days to go!), because the week promises to be quite busy indeed. As always, I love the Christmas decorations while they’re up; and I love the much simpler look in the house when they have been put away yet again. I AM raring to get back in the saddle, writing and recording podcasts and shows again. Nothing like a stretch of time off to whet the appetite for work. The week ahead will hopefully see six podcasts written and recorded; an Issues series finally wrapped up; an article for the Lutheran Witness online blog; an interview with friend and colleague Chris Rosebrough; and serving as subdeacon at the Epiphany morning Divine Service and then attending the evening service with my wife (who will sadly miss the morning one due to an appointment), and my usual duties on Saturday and Sunday. Deep breath, but totally refreshed and raring to go!

Lovely evening

With Armbrusts. Here we are marveling together at iPhone 12’s weird ability to take these dark mode shots. Our faces are actually all in shadow. However, most of the evening was a joyous romp around the Scriptures.

Just an Outstandingly Informative Discussion

Ivor Cummins discusses with three researchers and experts on Vitamin D for immunity. It is simply spell binding, and you gotta love their accents. 

A recommendation for New Year’s Day...

...if you have your copy of Starck’s Prayer Book, pull it out and pray the prayers upon the New Year. I just did and was hugely blessed. There’s a prayer for New Year’s morning; an exhortation and then longer prayer for midday; and finally an evening prayer. I saved that for later!

Cin put together this collage too...

That chronicles our journey a bit:

Top left, I think I was pushing 200 and Cin was over 300; we were either late 30’s or early 40’s. We both were feeling horrible, and had even eaten vegetarian for years (lots of homemade whole wheat breads and pastas...those dang carbs and seed oils will get you, folks, give it enough time). Top right was basically after Atkins. Cindi dropped to her lowest in years and so did I. It was miraculous, but we gradually started adding in more carbs, as Atkins encouraged. Oops. Then we did a variety of different ways of eating, lower carb always, but Paleo / Primal / Wild Diet; the factor they had in common was more veggies and fruits. Healthy right? And that brings us to the bottom left. You can see Cindi was still inflamed and so was I. It showed above all in the face, but in other places too. We figured we’re getting old, THAT’S why we’re having trouble getting off the floor and climbing the stairs. It’s what we were told. Enter 2018 and Jordan Petersen’s famous interview on Rogan. We tried Carnivore, convinced this was going to be really weird and hard. To our shock, after the couple weeks of adjustment, we’ve been feeling AWESOME overall. Joint pain? GONE. Cravings? GONE. And time? Did we mention how awesome when you get time back because meal prep is so stupidly simple, and we’re usually eating no more than one or two meals a day. And mess? And waste? What waste? We eat almost ALL of our meat. We don’t have to throw things away. Back at the end of September we largely gave up on dairy too and that seems to have worked well. We do intermittent fasting, only not really. As Dr. Shawn Baker calls it, it is intermittent feasting. We eat when we’re hungry and then not till we’re hungry again. Sometimes 24 hours later! And so the last pic from a Christmas gathering at some friend’s house a couple weeks ago. It has been a long journey, but we’re both rather persuaded by the results for our own bodies. Cindi’s still dropping the lbs; I’m rather stable at about 145 (like High School weight!); and we’ve both seen our bodies simply transform before our eyes. It’s been weird beyond belief. Who knew? Eat meat. Drink water. Thrive.

And what Diff Does Eating Carnivore for Going on Three Years Make?

Check it out! Now vs. New Year’s 2017

Some New Year’s Eve Pinochle Joys with Friends