I always think of you this time of year. It's almost five years since God brought you from the choir of St. Paul's Hamel to the choir of heaven. Despite the passage of the years, I can never forget your smile and laugh, your funny walk, your gentle and encouraging ways. Whenever I drive by the place in Alhambra where you had your office, I think about stopping in and visiting for a while with you. Just shooting the breeze like we used to. And every once in a while, I pass your Bo on the road and have to do a double take. Goodness, is he ever like you! I am happy to report that there have been no hospital visits for him since you've gone. You remember how he used to break something every other year or so?
I miss seeing Lola, Jess, Vicki and Bo. I think that the Church just held a lot of pain for them because to walk into this room and not be here with you - well, it seemed so wrong. I know you are here with us - for we join all the saints in heaven around the throne. I tried to tell them that, but I don't think I did a very good job.
Whenever we sing "Beautiful Savior" I know you're singing with us and shouting down: "Hey, Weedon, what took you so long to get to this?"
And I can't get out of my head your body that night. Your soul had already fled and there was nothing to be done. But I prayed with your body and I confess, I didn't want to leave it. I just wanted to be with you. I wished I were the Apostle Paul or Peter and could just grab hold of you and bring you back to life. I didn't want to let you go - you were supposed to be playing racketball, dude, so that I wouldn't be the ONLY one that Robert clobbered. We've played some since then, Charlie, but it's never been the same. I think it hurts us both - but we've not really talked about it. We just miss you. You left a gaping hole, my friend.
So I'm always glad when we get to sing in Church and I can "overhear" that voice! And did Robert ever give me a turn on that one with the 150th video. As the camera pans around those gathered around St. Paul's and over the cemetery, the choir is singing "For All the Saints." And YOUR voice is in there. "And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long, steals on the ear the distant triumph song, and hearts are brave again and arms are strong. Alleluia!" And suddenly I'm back to the day we buried you, and your friend Vinnie from up north, walking out the door, shaking his head, saying: "I don't get it; it's like you guys are happy or something." And with tears streaming down our faces we told him we were. As happy as could be, and with hearts breaking at the same time.
Well, I've rambled long enough, but I figured that since I hadn't written you in five years, I really needed to say this to you: Charlie, I love you, buddy. I'm glad to know you're praying for me and for us all. Rest in peace!
Bill
10 December 2006
Patristic Quote for the Day
It was our sorry case that caused the Word to come down, our transgression that called forth His love for us, so that He made haste to help us and appear among us. - St. Athanasius the Great, *On the Incarnation of the Word* par. 4
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
It follows from this there where there is no love, there is no genuine Christianity. Show me your faith with your works, James says in 2:18; as if he meant to say: Live with Christ in you, Gal. 2:20, and you possess a share of the spiritual life which is from God. Thus also the workings of the spiritual life will be recognized in you, just like one recognizes from movements and activity whether the soul still resides in the body and is making it alive. Love your enemies; bless those who curse you; do good to those who hate you; pray for those who hurt your feelings and betray you - so that you be children of your Father in heaven, says the Lord, Matt 5:44-45. As if he wanted to say: If you want to be regarded as children of God, then you must also follow the example of the heavenly Father. Extoling this with one's own mouth is not enough; instead, it has to be shown by doing it. - Johann Gerhard, Homily for Gaudete
What Joy!
Today, I not only got to preach on our Lord's Advent, to teach on our Lord's Passion, to absolve the congregation, and to celebrate and receive into my most unworthy body and soul the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and to give the same to my parish, but I also got to be the instrumentality of our Lord's baptizing Jack Jeffrey Schwarz - son of Jeff and Beth Schwarz. Godparents are Joe and Joan Harwell. Using the beautiful rite from Lutheran Service Book, Jack received the sign of the cross on forehead and heart, was prayed over, renounced Satan, confessed the faith (through his sponsors), was baptized into the Savior, was sealed with the Spirit (signified with oil and the laying on of hands), and was given his baptismal candle as a reminder to live vigilant for the Lord's return that he might enter into the wedding feast of the Lamb with joy.
09 December 2006
Populus Sion
Homily for Populus Sion (2006) [Malachi 4:1-6 / Romans 15:4-13 / Luke 21:25-36]
Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, Your salvation comes!” (Introit) Have you ever noticed that sometimes the very same event is the source of great rejoicing for some and great disappointment for others. Think of how St. Louis reacted to the outcome of this year’s World Series compared to the way that Detroit did. This same event being greeted differently by different groups is the key to today’s readings.
In the first reading, Malachi describes a day coming, burning like an oven, when the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble and that day will set them ablaze. But the self-same event, the arrival of that day, is for those who fear God’s name, the rising of the sun of righteousness, with healing in its wings, in its rays. The thing to understand is that it is most definitely the same event. For “a day comes” precisely when “the sun rises.” So the day that is a terror to the arrogant and the proud, will be a day of joy, indeed of giddiness to those who fear the name of the Lord.
The reference is clearly to our Lord’s second Advent. When He returns in glory, when He appears again upon this earth, the brightness and light of His appearing will be fire - either terror or joy to all human beings. The way Dr. Luther once put it is that if you long to be free from your sins, if you long to be healed of the sorrows you endure in this age, then the glorious Appearing of Christ holds no fear – it only means that His cleansing fire will burn up the sin and arrogance and pride of your life and bring you a healing will be full and complete: the sins gone, the sorrows wiped away forever.
BUT if you love your sins, if you are very happy in your rebellion against God, if you are among the arrogant – that is, if you insist that you will live you lives your own way, and disregard the commandments of the Lord, living and doing as YOU see fit, then that day WILL be a day of terror to you, for on that Day you will suddenly see the Truth, the Light, the Holiness that rules the universe and to whom you must give an account, and you will shrink in terror before Him. His fire will consume the sin you’re holding onto and so it will consume you.
But while the arrogant who despise God and His Word and His ways are shrinking in terror, a totally different moment in occurring for you who fear His name. You will see Him. Shining before You. The One who was born for you and for all in Bethlehem, taking on human flesh to make common cause against the enemies of the human race, against all the pride that was eating us up and destroying us, against all the devil’s power and death itself. You will see Him who for love of you went to a Cross and offered Himself up to the Father as the perfect human life – offering Himself in exchange for you, in exchange for all the people of the world who will humble themselves to receive this gift. You will see in Him the scars that ever cry out for your pardon and that are eternal testimony of the unspeakable love your God bears for you. The Risen One will be before You, the Child of Mary raised from the dead in a body incorruptible, and you will see Him and run to Him. “You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.” Joy, because seeing Him you will be healed at last from all the sin and trouble that you so despise, from all the weakness and the constant falling and the tears of repentance, healed of all the sins that eat away at you and that you fight against, and yet that burden you still. That will all be gone. It will be an eternal spring that awaits you!
And notice how our Lord picks up the exact same theme in the Gospel reading. He minces no words that for the unbelievers, the time of the end will be a time of terror. “People fainting with fear and foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of heaven will be shaken.” But when these events begin to unfold, when creation itself begins to reel and crack open all around us, it is a moment for His people not to tremble and cower, but to stand up, raise your heads, look to the skies and shout for joy. Why? “Because your redemption is drawing near.”
Our Lord Jesus invites us to think of the signs of the end as the tender buds of spring – when we see the trees break out and the buds swell and open, we know that the winter has past, the Spring has come, and summer itself is near. Just as we love the spring-time and don’t dread it all, so our Lord invites us to see in the terrifying signs of the end, the cracking up of the cosmos, the actual moment when eternal joy arrives for us.
And so He warns us against giving our hearts and minds and attentions just to the stuff of this world – a world which is passing away. “Watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation (that is hangovers) and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly as a trap.”
He warns His own lest we become so in love with the pleasures and concerns of this life, that we forget that it is a passing life, and that what endures is still to come. He warns us not to love the things of the world so that we look upon His coming not as our liberation from sin and death, but as the spoiling of our fun and our concerns. He warns us not to settle down here – none of us can find on this earth our final home. None. And to imagine it is, to treat the things of this life as the be all and end all of your existence, to cease to long for the day of Christ’s return and your liberation, is to find yourself unprepared and for that day to take you like a trap.
“But stay awake, praying at all times that you may have strength to escape all these things and to stand before the Son of Man.” Stay awake means not falling into the drowsiness of settling down into this world, and letting its petty cares and pleasures consume your life. Stay awake means when you can’t sleep in the middle of the night to get up and watch and pray for the return of Christ. To pray for strength for yourself, for your family, for your friends and neighbors, that God protect you and them from falling so in love with this life that you forget the better and lasting life that is coming at the Day of the Savior’s return – the day of your redemption.
The Church during these Advent days speaks the Lord’s words of hope and warning to all of us. And she petitions our heavenly Father to stir up our hearts to make the ready the way of His only-begotten Son, so that the Day of His appearing will be a joy and not terror. Already in the Holy Eucharist we are given a foretaste of the joys of that day – for the One who is coming, comes to us even now, mysteriously giving to us that very Body and Blood that we will one day see. The healing begins, but the healing will only be complete on that glorious Day of His return. That is our hope and the Scriptures were written that we might have such hope. (Epistle) Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, Your salvation comes!” (Introit) Amen, He comes!
Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, Your salvation comes!” (Introit) Have you ever noticed that sometimes the very same event is the source of great rejoicing for some and great disappointment for others. Think of how St. Louis reacted to the outcome of this year’s World Series compared to the way that Detroit did. This same event being greeted differently by different groups is the key to today’s readings.
In the first reading, Malachi describes a day coming, burning like an oven, when the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble and that day will set them ablaze. But the self-same event, the arrival of that day, is for those who fear God’s name, the rising of the sun of righteousness, with healing in its wings, in its rays. The thing to understand is that it is most definitely the same event. For “a day comes” precisely when “the sun rises.” So the day that is a terror to the arrogant and the proud, will be a day of joy, indeed of giddiness to those who fear the name of the Lord.
The reference is clearly to our Lord’s second Advent. When He returns in glory, when He appears again upon this earth, the brightness and light of His appearing will be fire - either terror or joy to all human beings. The way Dr. Luther once put it is that if you long to be free from your sins, if you long to be healed of the sorrows you endure in this age, then the glorious Appearing of Christ holds no fear – it only means that His cleansing fire will burn up the sin and arrogance and pride of your life and bring you a healing will be full and complete: the sins gone, the sorrows wiped away forever.
BUT if you love your sins, if you are very happy in your rebellion against God, if you are among the arrogant – that is, if you insist that you will live you lives your own way, and disregard the commandments of the Lord, living and doing as YOU see fit, then that day WILL be a day of terror to you, for on that Day you will suddenly see the Truth, the Light, the Holiness that rules the universe and to whom you must give an account, and you will shrink in terror before Him. His fire will consume the sin you’re holding onto and so it will consume you.
But while the arrogant who despise God and His Word and His ways are shrinking in terror, a totally different moment in occurring for you who fear His name. You will see Him. Shining before You. The One who was born for you and for all in Bethlehem, taking on human flesh to make common cause against the enemies of the human race, against all the pride that was eating us up and destroying us, against all the devil’s power and death itself. You will see Him who for love of you went to a Cross and offered Himself up to the Father as the perfect human life – offering Himself in exchange for you, in exchange for all the people of the world who will humble themselves to receive this gift. You will see in Him the scars that ever cry out for your pardon and that are eternal testimony of the unspeakable love your God bears for you. The Risen One will be before You, the Child of Mary raised from the dead in a body incorruptible, and you will see Him and run to Him. “You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.” Joy, because seeing Him you will be healed at last from all the sin and trouble that you so despise, from all the weakness and the constant falling and the tears of repentance, healed of all the sins that eat away at you and that you fight against, and yet that burden you still. That will all be gone. It will be an eternal spring that awaits you!
And notice how our Lord picks up the exact same theme in the Gospel reading. He minces no words that for the unbelievers, the time of the end will be a time of terror. “People fainting with fear and foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of heaven will be shaken.” But when these events begin to unfold, when creation itself begins to reel and crack open all around us, it is a moment for His people not to tremble and cower, but to stand up, raise your heads, look to the skies and shout for joy. Why? “Because your redemption is drawing near.”
Our Lord Jesus invites us to think of the signs of the end as the tender buds of spring – when we see the trees break out and the buds swell and open, we know that the winter has past, the Spring has come, and summer itself is near. Just as we love the spring-time and don’t dread it all, so our Lord invites us to see in the terrifying signs of the end, the cracking up of the cosmos, the actual moment when eternal joy arrives for us.
And so He warns us against giving our hearts and minds and attentions just to the stuff of this world – a world which is passing away. “Watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation (that is hangovers) and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly as a trap.”
He warns His own lest we become so in love with the pleasures and concerns of this life, that we forget that it is a passing life, and that what endures is still to come. He warns us not to love the things of the world so that we look upon His coming not as our liberation from sin and death, but as the spoiling of our fun and our concerns. He warns us not to settle down here – none of us can find on this earth our final home. None. And to imagine it is, to treat the things of this life as the be all and end all of your existence, to cease to long for the day of Christ’s return and your liberation, is to find yourself unprepared and for that day to take you like a trap.
“But stay awake, praying at all times that you may have strength to escape all these things and to stand before the Son of Man.” Stay awake means not falling into the drowsiness of settling down into this world, and letting its petty cares and pleasures consume your life. Stay awake means when you can’t sleep in the middle of the night to get up and watch and pray for the return of Christ. To pray for strength for yourself, for your family, for your friends and neighbors, that God protect you and them from falling so in love with this life that you forget the better and lasting life that is coming at the Day of the Savior’s return – the day of your redemption.
The Church during these Advent days speaks the Lord’s words of hope and warning to all of us. And she petitions our heavenly Father to stir up our hearts to make the ready the way of His only-begotten Son, so that the Day of His appearing will be a joy and not terror. Already in the Holy Eucharist we are given a foretaste of the joys of that day – for the One who is coming, comes to us even now, mysteriously giving to us that very Body and Blood that we will one day see. The healing begins, but the healing will only be complete on that glorious Day of His return. That is our hope and the Scriptures were written that we might have such hope. (Epistle) Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, Your salvation comes!” (Introit) Amen, He comes!
08 December 2006
Immaculate Conception
Today our sisters and brothers in the Roman Communion celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. It is the dogma of their Church that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived without taint of original sin on this day by St. Anne.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a most interesting document. You see, it uses something akin to Walther's theological method of adducing the weightier evidence first (Scripture), and then the less weighty (Liturgy, fathers, councils, etc.). So when we come to Mary's immaculate conception, we have these words:
"Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, "full of grace" through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the immaculate conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in *****1854*****: The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the mercy of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin." (491)
What I find striking here is the admission that the teaching is not ancient ("through the centuries") and the insistence that her redemption from the womb consists of her being immune to all stain of original sin - a teaching that we can date as dogma as late as 1854, which every Roman Christian is called upon to believe as infallible dogma - for the pope spoke this ex cathedra.
Now, many a Lutheran would be utterly shocked to hear Luther's take on the whole question (that Mary was indeed conceived with original sin, but that the Holy Spirit did a clean up job on her in Anne's womb so that she was preserved from all actual sin throughout her life - don't ask me where, but it's in the St. Louis [German] Edition of Luther's works - a sermon on the Conception of Mary). Shoot, many Lutherans start to squirm when pastors refer to the Blessed Virgin as our own Symbols do: "sanctissima" - "most holy."
Yet, what troubles me about the Roman dogma of the immaculate conception is how it appears to contradict the clear teaching that our Lord alone was without sin, that He alone lived in an unbroken yes to the Father not only with his conscious acts, but with every fibre of his being. Luther's position at least allowed for the fact that Mary struggled with sin the same as all of us, and by God's merciful grace was successful in overcoming it, but the bitter root of sin remained in her and needed forgiveness. She had sinful passions that had to be fought against.
The Roman doctrine sets up TWO people untouched by the sin of Adam. What's worse: Rome also insists that this MUST be believed; Luther never insisted that anyone buy his theory (which he hijacked lock, stock, and barrel from St. Thomas Aquinas, I believe). Nor, I believe, it is fair to say has the Eastern Church ever proclaimed it a dogma that must be believed by all Christians that the most Blessed Virgin was conceived without sin. St. John Chrysostom certainly didn't believe such!
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a most interesting document. You see, it uses something akin to Walther's theological method of adducing the weightier evidence first (Scripture), and then the less weighty (Liturgy, fathers, councils, etc.). So when we come to Mary's immaculate conception, we have these words:
"Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, "full of grace" through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the immaculate conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in *****1854*****: The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the mercy of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin." (491)
What I find striking here is the admission that the teaching is not ancient ("through the centuries") and the insistence that her redemption from the womb consists of her being immune to all stain of original sin - a teaching that we can date as dogma as late as 1854, which every Roman Christian is called upon to believe as infallible dogma - for the pope spoke this ex cathedra.
Now, many a Lutheran would be utterly shocked to hear Luther's take on the whole question (that Mary was indeed conceived with original sin, but that the Holy Spirit did a clean up job on her in Anne's womb so that she was preserved from all actual sin throughout her life - don't ask me where, but it's in the St. Louis [German] Edition of Luther's works - a sermon on the Conception of Mary). Shoot, many Lutherans start to squirm when pastors refer to the Blessed Virgin as our own Symbols do: "sanctissima" - "most holy."
Yet, what troubles me about the Roman dogma of the immaculate conception is how it appears to contradict the clear teaching that our Lord alone was without sin, that He alone lived in an unbroken yes to the Father not only with his conscious acts, but with every fibre of his being. Luther's position at least allowed for the fact that Mary struggled with sin the same as all of us, and by God's merciful grace was successful in overcoming it, but the bitter root of sin remained in her and needed forgiveness. She had sinful passions that had to be fought against.
The Roman doctrine sets up TWO people untouched by the sin of Adam. What's worse: Rome also insists that this MUST be believed; Luther never insisted that anyone buy his theory (which he hijacked lock, stock, and barrel from St. Thomas Aquinas, I believe). Nor, I believe, it is fair to say has the Eastern Church ever proclaimed it a dogma that must be believed by all Christians that the most Blessed Virgin was conceived without sin. St. John Chrysostom certainly didn't believe such!
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
He came as the PHYSICIAN to those who were spiritually sick,
as the REDEEMER to the captives of sin,
as the WAY to those who had wandered afar off,
as the LIFE to the dead in trespasses and sins,
and as a SAVIOR to the lost.
As Moses was sent by the Lord to deliver the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt, so was Christ sent by the Father to redeem mankind from the bondage of the devil.
--Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XV: "The Saving Benefits of the Incarnation"
Patristic Quote for the Day
For the true city of the saints is in heaven, though here on earth it produces citizens in whom it wanders as on a pilgrimage through time looking for the Kingdom of eternity. When that day comes it will gather together all those who, rising in their bodies, shall have the Kingdom given to them in which, along with their Prince, the King of Eternity, they shall reign forever and ever. - St. Augustine, *City of God* Book, XV, chapter 1
07 December 2006
Advent II Homily from Yesteryear (ten years ago, in fact!)
I don’t know about you, but I really get irritated at video-tapes anymore. I mean, you go to the video shop and pick out the tape you want to view. You get your popcorn or your cheese and crackers all ready. You plop down on the sofa and hit the button and do you get to watch your movie? Oh, no. You get to watch clips of about five other movies: Coming soon to a theater near you! And then clips from about five more that you can now own for home video library. By the time the movie you wanted to watch comes on the screen, you’ve already eaten your snack and drunk your shake. And don’t tell me that’s what fast-forward buttons are for. Cause if it’s a movie you’ve never seen you don’t know what its opening scene is like and I always like to see the movie from start to finish. Anyway, there you are. Sitting and waiting. Waiting for the show to begin. Waiting for the screen to say: “And now for our feature presentation.”
Yeah. Waiting for the show to begin. That’s what we Christians are doing in these Advent days. We’re waiting for the show to start. We know that Christ has come and has suffered and died for our sins. We know that He has risen again in glory. We know that His work of redemption is all through, but His work of renewal has barely begun. Oh, it’s begun in us - begun the day we were baptized - and we can’t wait for it to be completed in us, but we’re really waiting for that awesome moment when He appears in the clouds of light to make all things new again, to bring an end to sorrow and to usher in eternal joy.
And when we see the creation falling to pieces around us, like Jesus described in today’s Gospel, that’s the sign that the time of waiting is at an end. It’s the heavenly “And Now for our Feature Presentation.” While the unbelievers are screaming and running for cover as everything they thought was stable and rock solid is shaken to the core, we who wait for Jesus Christ will lift up our heads and shout for joy, because the End is here. The End of what? The End of waiting. You see, the real joys will have finally begun.
Jesus tries to get across the joy of that day to his followers in the parable of the fig tree. You see, when Jesus thinks of the End, he doesn’t think of the fall and winter, of death and decay. When He thinks of the End, He thinks of the Spring and Summer and all things fresh and new again. He says: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near. So you also, when you see these things happening (the signs in the sun and the moon and the stars. The distress of nations and the roaring of the sea and men’s hearts failing them for fear), when you see these things, look up! Lift up your heads and know that the kingdom of God is near. That the moment for God’s eternal summer is now upon you.”
The Old Testament reading pictures the joy of believers in that day. God promises through the prophet: “Behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up. BUT to you who fear my name the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves.” You farmers know what the prophet was talking about. You know how crazy and silly those calves act when they’re let out in the spring. They run around and kick up their heels for sheer joy of life itself. That’s how it will be for those who trust in Jesus Christ at the day of His return. When He shines the light of His face on this earth again and we see it in our own flesh, the our healing will be complete and our joy will have no end.
But look, there’s a warning in the Gospel reading. Jesus said: “Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing and drunkenness, and cares of this life and that Day come on you unexpectedly.” (vs. 34). You see, hearts that are weighed down are hearts that no longer look up, no longer wait in expectation for the joys of that day, hearts that instead try to find all the joy of life in overdosing on the pleasures of this life. In these Advent days Jesus calls for us to pitch overboard all the preoccupations that take our attention away from the skies and He bids us fix our heart and our hope there and to look up often and watch and wait.
You might think: Yes, but his people have waited for almost 2,000 years, and still He hasn’t come. Well, yes and no. No, He hasn’t come and stood upon the earth in that visible glory that will make all things new. But yes, He has answered the prayers of His people. He has come and given them the foretaste of the joys that will be theirs in heaven. You know what I’m talking about: His table, His sacrament.
At this Table Jesus Christ still comes to His people, the same Jesus who was born in Bethlehem and that Mary held in her arms, the same Jesus who hung on Calvary’s cross carrying your sin and mine, the same Jesus who rose again in might and majesty on Easter morning, the same Jesus who sits at His Father’s right hand, the same Jesus who will stand yet again on this earth and in the collapse of everything will create a new heavens and a new earth and bring His people into the eternal home He has prepared for them. It is the same Jesus who comes to us in His body and blood under bread and wine. He comes to promise us: “No, I haven’t forgotten you. Hold on to me as I hold onto you. The time of waiting draws to a close and the time of fulfillment is near at hand. Wait in faith and wait in hope.”
So in Advent we wait. So in Advent we remember to do what we ought to do at all times, to turn our eyes to the skies and watch and long for the day of the restoration and healing of this creation. So in Advent we look forward to that day when the previews are over and the feature presentation finally begins. Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Yeah. Waiting for the show to begin. That’s what we Christians are doing in these Advent days. We’re waiting for the show to start. We know that Christ has come and has suffered and died for our sins. We know that He has risen again in glory. We know that His work of redemption is all through, but His work of renewal has barely begun. Oh, it’s begun in us - begun the day we were baptized - and we can’t wait for it to be completed in us, but we’re really waiting for that awesome moment when He appears in the clouds of light to make all things new again, to bring an end to sorrow and to usher in eternal joy.
And when we see the creation falling to pieces around us, like Jesus described in today’s Gospel, that’s the sign that the time of waiting is at an end. It’s the heavenly “And Now for our Feature Presentation.” While the unbelievers are screaming and running for cover as everything they thought was stable and rock solid is shaken to the core, we who wait for Jesus Christ will lift up our heads and shout for joy, because the End is here. The End of what? The End of waiting. You see, the real joys will have finally begun.
Jesus tries to get across the joy of that day to his followers in the parable of the fig tree. You see, when Jesus thinks of the End, he doesn’t think of the fall and winter, of death and decay. When He thinks of the End, He thinks of the Spring and Summer and all things fresh and new again. He says: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near. So you also, when you see these things happening (the signs in the sun and the moon and the stars. The distress of nations and the roaring of the sea and men’s hearts failing them for fear), when you see these things, look up! Lift up your heads and know that the kingdom of God is near. That the moment for God’s eternal summer is now upon you.”
The Old Testament reading pictures the joy of believers in that day. God promises through the prophet: “Behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up. BUT to you who fear my name the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves.” You farmers know what the prophet was talking about. You know how crazy and silly those calves act when they’re let out in the spring. They run around and kick up their heels for sheer joy of life itself. That’s how it will be for those who trust in Jesus Christ at the day of His return. When He shines the light of His face on this earth again and we see it in our own flesh, the our healing will be complete and our joy will have no end.
But look, there’s a warning in the Gospel reading. Jesus said: “Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing and drunkenness, and cares of this life and that Day come on you unexpectedly.” (vs. 34). You see, hearts that are weighed down are hearts that no longer look up, no longer wait in expectation for the joys of that day, hearts that instead try to find all the joy of life in overdosing on the pleasures of this life. In these Advent days Jesus calls for us to pitch overboard all the preoccupations that take our attention away from the skies and He bids us fix our heart and our hope there and to look up often and watch and wait.
You might think: Yes, but his people have waited for almost 2,000 years, and still He hasn’t come. Well, yes and no. No, He hasn’t come and stood upon the earth in that visible glory that will make all things new. But yes, He has answered the prayers of His people. He has come and given them the foretaste of the joys that will be theirs in heaven. You know what I’m talking about: His table, His sacrament.
At this Table Jesus Christ still comes to His people, the same Jesus who was born in Bethlehem and that Mary held in her arms, the same Jesus who hung on Calvary’s cross carrying your sin and mine, the same Jesus who rose again in might and majesty on Easter morning, the same Jesus who sits at His Father’s right hand, the same Jesus who will stand yet again on this earth and in the collapse of everything will create a new heavens and a new earth and bring His people into the eternal home He has prepared for them. It is the same Jesus who comes to us in His body and blood under bread and wine. He comes to promise us: “No, I haven’t forgotten you. Hold on to me as I hold onto you. The time of waiting draws to a close and the time of fulfillment is near at hand. Wait in faith and wait in hope.”
So in Advent we wait. So in Advent we remember to do what we ought to do at all times, to turn our eyes to the skies and watch and long for the day of the restoration and healing of this creation. So in Advent we look forward to that day when the previews are over and the feature presentation finally begins. Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
A Pertinent Quote for the Blogging Endeavor As A Whole
"You had nothing to say about it and yet made the nothing up into words." - The Lady of Perelandra, Perelandra, p. 75.
(Which I bring up because it's one of our family's favorite quotes and my wife used it on me tonight when I was talking my usual gibberish as we were cleaning up dinner - at which, I might add, I was compelled to empty the dishwasher before I could load it again. Oh, the burdens of modern life! See, that sort of stuff!)
(Which I bring up because it's one of our family's favorite quotes and my wife used it on me tonight when I was talking my usual gibberish as we were cleaning up dinner - at which, I might add, I was compelled to empty the dishwasher before I could load it again. Oh, the burdens of modern life! See, that sort of stuff!)
Hymns that Transcend the Divisions
The concord of the Western Church is fractured and broken in so many ways, and yet one thing that amazes me is how the music of the Church, her hymnody, continues to cross all lines. So Lutherans cheerfully sing "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name" and never think of it as a Roman Catholic hymn. This morning on EWTN the Entrance Hymn at the mass was "Lift Up Your Heads" by the Lutheran pastor Georg Weissel. Pity that the Roman Catholics don't sing terribly well - because the hymn deserves far more gusto than it was given. Of course, the tune they used didn't help! Yet how instructive that they sing it at all. They recognize in its words their faith, words they can pray. And we do too. It would be very interesting to make a study of the Adoremus hymnal and compare how many hymns overlap with LSB. Here's the list, by the way, for any who want to do the homework:
Adoremus Hymnal
Adoremus Hymnal
Advent Tapestry
"Stir up, O Lord..." + "Savior of the nations, come!" + "Creator of the stars of night..." + "Behold, a Virgin Shall Conceive" + "The Angel Gabriel from heaven came..." + "O come, O come, Emmanuel..." + "Great O's: Wisdom, Adonai, Root of Jesse, Key of David, Dayspring, King of the nations, Emmanuel - SARC ORE" + Gaudete! and the rose candle + the growing light of the Advent wreath + Sts. Andrew, Nicholas, Lucy, Thomas + Parish Vespers on Wednesdays + "My soul magnifies the Lord..." + Candlelight Lessons and Carols + Maranatha! + "Prepare My heart, Lord Jesus; turn not from me aside, and help me to receive You this blessed Adventtide."
Patristic Quote for the Day
On this day of St. Ambrose, some of his most beautiful words:
"Moreover, the world was subjected to him through the law, because by the prescriptions of the law everyone was indicted and by the works of the law no one is justified. In other words, through the law sin is recognized, but its guilt is not relieved. The law was shown to be harmful since all are made sinners, but when the Lord Jesus came, he forgave the sin for everyone, which no one could avoid, and he blotted out the bill of indictment that stood against us by pouring out his blood." - Letter 73 to Irenaeus (a layman), cited in the The Apology to the Augsburg Confession, IV:103
"Moreover, the world was subjected to him through the law, because by the prescriptions of the law everyone was indicted and by the works of the law no one is justified. In other words, through the law sin is recognized, but its guilt is not relieved. The law was shown to be harmful since all are made sinners, but when the Lord Jesus came, he forgave the sin for everyone, which no one could avoid, and he blotted out the bill of indictment that stood against us by pouring out his blood." - Letter 73 to Irenaeus (a layman), cited in the The Apology to the Augsburg Confession, IV:103
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Let us humble ourselves in this life that we may be exalted in that which is to come. Ever consider, O faithful soul, not what thou hast, but what thou lackest. Far rather greive for the virtue thou hast not, than glory over those which thou hast. Rather conceal thy virtues, and make known thy sins, for indeed it is to be feared that if thou dost openly boast of thy treasure of good works, the devil may rob thee of it through thy pride. Thou canst preserve burning coals by covering them with ashes. And so the fire of our love to God is never more securely guarded than when it is buried under the ashes of true humility. Pride is the seed of all sin. - Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XXXIV.
06 December 2006
Homily for Advent I Midweek Vespers
[Text is Sunday's OT reading: Jeremiah 23:5-8
Oh that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.
So we sang in tonight’s first Psalm. This salvation for Israel, this restoration of the fortunes of God’s people that gladdens their heart is what Jeremiah prophesied in our reading. Jeremiah, recall, served in the waning days of the Kingdom of Judah. Israel, the northern Kingdom, had long since succumbed to the Assyrians – it was only a memory. And now Judah was facing imminent destruction. Jeremiah made no bones about that – Babylon was coming and when she came, she would wipe out the nation.
To a people who had no future in earthly terms, to a people who faced the loss of everything in their lives that they took for granted, to a people terrified and hopeless, Jeremiah spoke words of hope from God. He spoke hope because he saw the day when salvation for Israel would arrive – Salvation for both kingdoms, south and north.
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord. Messianic words from the get-go. A new kind of day is arising, the Lord announces, and it will be a different kind of day from all that has gone before.
“I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as King and deal wisely.”
Branch sounds strange to us. But Jeremiah prophesied long years after Isaiah, and Isaiah’s words were emblazoned on his heart and on the heart of all who ached for the restoration of the fortunes of God’s people. You see, Isaiah had foretold that the Lord would cut down his people like a tree, till there would be nothing left but a stump. Yet the holy seed would be in the stump, and from the stump God would raise a righteous branch.
From the long cut-down house of Judah, from the royal house of King David, a tender branch would spring and bloom. Hope for all Israel, for Judah and for the north Kingdom. Hope also for the Gentiles. A king would come who would be king for all and bring His justice into all the earth.
The angel, coming in, spoke to the Virgin: “You shall conceive in your womb and bear a Son. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His Father David, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
From the Virgin, she of royal David’s line - a line long bereft of any earthly glory or kingship, from the stump that seemed dead, would come the tender Branch, the King who would deal wisely, and execute justice and righteousness in the land.
Execute how? Not by paying the wicked back for their wickedness, no tit for tat with this King! Instead, with Him there is another kind of righteousness. He executes righteousness not by making us measure up, but by being our righteousness Himself. “In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely, and this is the name by which He will be called: Yahweh Zedekenu, the Lord IS our righteousness.”
The peace and security He comes to bring is unshakable because He is our righteousness. Think of what that means! For all the days of your life and also for the day of your death, when you stand before the All Holy One, whose holiness is a terror to all unrighteousness, you need have no fear if you have Him as your righteousness, the Lord Himself.
In the Branch of David’s house, the royal child of the Virgin, you have the one whom God made for you wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. He is your shield before the All-Holy One, God in your flesh come to take your sin upon Himself, to suffer and die for you, to rise from the grave for you, that you might stand before the All-Holy one as holy yourself, holy in Him, and so serve and worship the Blessed Trinity forever. That is life!
Zacharias upon the birth of the Baptist had his tongue loosed and he sang a song of praise: “That we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that He swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hands of our enemies might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.”
If you can stand before the all-holy one without fear because you stand in holiness and righteousness then you know the fulfillment of the promises of God. Such holiness and righteousness is yours in the Branch, in Child of the Virgin. He IS your righteousness. You either stand before God robed in His righteousness as gift; or you presume to stand before God in the tattered and spotted garment of your own righteousness. That is to despise the gift He gives and to think you don’t need it.
But you do. For, as we also sang in the Psalm: “The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of men to see if they were any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” None except for that One who is the Lord of heaven come down to earth in human and flesh and blood, to do for us what we could not do for ourselves, to be for us what we could never be in ourselves, to give to us what we could never achieve for ourselves.
“The Lord our Righteousness.”
Here is something you can hold tight to when everything in your world is collapsing around you. It holds in the good times and in the bad, in youth and middle age and when we are old and gray. It holds because it is certain and sure in Him.
“The Lord is our Righteousness.”
Having Him, we need no other righteousness with which to stand before God but the Righteousness which IS the Child of Mary, the Branch of David, the Son of God, given into the flesh to be our brother and our Savior. To Him with the Father and the Spirit be all glory and honor, now and ever and unto the ages of ages! Amen.
Oh that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.
So we sang in tonight’s first Psalm. This salvation for Israel, this restoration of the fortunes of God’s people that gladdens their heart is what Jeremiah prophesied in our reading. Jeremiah, recall, served in the waning days of the Kingdom of Judah. Israel, the northern Kingdom, had long since succumbed to the Assyrians – it was only a memory. And now Judah was facing imminent destruction. Jeremiah made no bones about that – Babylon was coming and when she came, she would wipe out the nation.
To a people who had no future in earthly terms, to a people who faced the loss of everything in their lives that they took for granted, to a people terrified and hopeless, Jeremiah spoke words of hope from God. He spoke hope because he saw the day when salvation for Israel would arrive – Salvation for both kingdoms, south and north.
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord. Messianic words from the get-go. A new kind of day is arising, the Lord announces, and it will be a different kind of day from all that has gone before.
“I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as King and deal wisely.”
Branch sounds strange to us. But Jeremiah prophesied long years after Isaiah, and Isaiah’s words were emblazoned on his heart and on the heart of all who ached for the restoration of the fortunes of God’s people. You see, Isaiah had foretold that the Lord would cut down his people like a tree, till there would be nothing left but a stump. Yet the holy seed would be in the stump, and from the stump God would raise a righteous branch.
From the long cut-down house of Judah, from the royal house of King David, a tender branch would spring and bloom. Hope for all Israel, for Judah and for the north Kingdom. Hope also for the Gentiles. A king would come who would be king for all and bring His justice into all the earth.
The angel, coming in, spoke to the Virgin: “You shall conceive in your womb and bear a Son. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His Father David, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
From the Virgin, she of royal David’s line - a line long bereft of any earthly glory or kingship, from the stump that seemed dead, would come the tender Branch, the King who would deal wisely, and execute justice and righteousness in the land.
Execute how? Not by paying the wicked back for their wickedness, no tit for tat with this King! Instead, with Him there is another kind of righteousness. He executes righteousness not by making us measure up, but by being our righteousness Himself. “In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely, and this is the name by which He will be called: Yahweh Zedekenu, the Lord IS our righteousness.”
The peace and security He comes to bring is unshakable because He is our righteousness. Think of what that means! For all the days of your life and also for the day of your death, when you stand before the All Holy One, whose holiness is a terror to all unrighteousness, you need have no fear if you have Him as your righteousness, the Lord Himself.
In the Branch of David’s house, the royal child of the Virgin, you have the one whom God made for you wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. He is your shield before the All-Holy One, God in your flesh come to take your sin upon Himself, to suffer and die for you, to rise from the grave for you, that you might stand before the All-Holy one as holy yourself, holy in Him, and so serve and worship the Blessed Trinity forever. That is life!
Zacharias upon the birth of the Baptist had his tongue loosed and he sang a song of praise: “That we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that He swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hands of our enemies might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.”
If you can stand before the all-holy one without fear because you stand in holiness and righteousness then you know the fulfillment of the promises of God. Such holiness and righteousness is yours in the Branch, in Child of the Virgin. He IS your righteousness. You either stand before God robed in His righteousness as gift; or you presume to stand before God in the tattered and spotted garment of your own righteousness. That is to despise the gift He gives and to think you don’t need it.
But you do. For, as we also sang in the Psalm: “The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of men to see if they were any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” None except for that One who is the Lord of heaven come down to earth in human and flesh and blood, to do for us what we could not do for ourselves, to be for us what we could never be in ourselves, to give to us what we could never achieve for ourselves.
“The Lord our Righteousness.”
Here is something you can hold tight to when everything in your world is collapsing around you. It holds in the good times and in the bad, in youth and middle age and when we are old and gray. It holds because it is certain and sure in Him.
“The Lord is our Righteousness.”
Having Him, we need no other righteousness with which to stand before God but the Righteousness which IS the Child of Mary, the Branch of David, the Son of God, given into the flesh to be our brother and our Savior. To Him with the Father and the Spirit be all glory and honor, now and ever and unto the ages of ages! Amen.
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Let us now go with the shepherds to the manger of Christ, that is, His Church, and as He lay in that manger in swaddling clothes, so in the sacred Scriptures, we shall find our Savior. Let us also with a lively recollection of the words of this mystery, like Mary, the blessed mother of our Lord, keep pondering them continually in our hearts. Let us with glad voices join in the angels song and render unto the Lord the thanks due unto His name for His marvelous benefits to us. - Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XIV
Patristic Quote for the Day
The renewal of creation has been wrought by the self-same Word Who made it in the beginning. There is thus no inconsistency between creation and salvation; for the One Father has employed the same Agent for both works, effecting the salvation of the world through the same Word Who made it at first. - St. Athanasius the Great, *On the Incarnation of the Word* par. 1
Commemorations
On Monday, the Church remembered in thanksgiving to God St. John of Damascus, theologian and hymn-writer. St. John was a mighty warrior of the Church during the iconclastic controversy, and his approach to theology profoundly influenced the Lutheran dogmaticians in their theological method (loci theologici). His fine book *On the Orthodox Faith* is a great (if challenging) read.
Today, the Church remembers and praises God for St. Nicholas, a pastor of the holy Church from the 4th century, and one of the fathers present at the Council of Nicea - where, reputedly, he struck Arius, the notorious heretic who denied the true divinity of the Eternal Son and Word of the Father! A far cry from what he became in popular imagination: Santa Claus. He served the Church in Myra. My favorite quote on St. Nicholas is from Fr. Thomas Hopko (*The Winter Pascha*): "The extraordinary thing about the image of St. Nicholas in the Church is that he is not known for anything extraordinary." Hopko summarizes: "In a word, he was a good pastor, father, and bishop to his flock, known especially for his love and care for the poor."
As we remember these blessed saints of old, we give God thanks and praise:
Apostles, prophets, martyrs,
And all the noble throng
Who wear the spotless raiment
And raise the ceaseless song -
For these passed on before us,
We offer praises due
And, walking in their footsteps,
Would live our lives for You!
Today, the Church remembers and praises God for St. Nicholas, a pastor of the holy Church from the 4th century, and one of the fathers present at the Council of Nicea - where, reputedly, he struck Arius, the notorious heretic who denied the true divinity of the Eternal Son and Word of the Father! A far cry from what he became in popular imagination: Santa Claus. He served the Church in Myra. My favorite quote on St. Nicholas is from Fr. Thomas Hopko (*The Winter Pascha*): "The extraordinary thing about the image of St. Nicholas in the Church is that he is not known for anything extraordinary." Hopko summarizes: "In a word, he was a good pastor, father, and bishop to his flock, known especially for his love and care for the poor."
As we remember these blessed saints of old, we give God thanks and praise:
Apostles, prophets, martyrs,
And all the noble throng
Who wear the spotless raiment
And raise the ceaseless song -
For these passed on before us,
We offer praises due
And, walking in their footsteps,
Would live our lives for You!
05 December 2006
New Gottesdienst Arrived!
The new edition of Gottesdienst arrived today. Lots of good stuff. Most hilarious is *The Rite of Blessing of New Issues of Gottesdienst.* Does it remain a hymnal if its not in use? This is definitely a rolling on the floor, laughing out loud page. Way to go Fr. Eckardt!
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