Visitors crossed the 150,000 threshold today. I only started a site meter a year ago in August, and have no idea how many visitors came before that. It just so happens that #150,000 today was from Wichita, using Coxnet, and a mac user (yes!). I don't know for certain, but suspect that might be my friend, Trent.
In any case, just wanted to thank ALL the folks who drop in from time to time, either to read or to comment. I've enjoyed getting to know many of you, and appreciate very much what I've learned and continue to learn from and with you.
What a glorious thing is the family of God - indeed, "you give marvelous comrades to me."
16 January 2008
Fastenzeit kommt!
We call it Lent in English. Good to remember, though, what it is called in our old service books (and still in the service books of Germany today): Fastenzeit, that is, Fasting Time.
And fasting is not first and foremost about avoiding mechanically a certain kind of food while stuffing yourself with other tasty treats. Recall the words of Martin Chemnitz about such fasting:
"A well-filled or richly treated belly, whether it is done with fish or vegetables, certainly is not fasting." (Examen IV:275)
He reminds us that fasting can be like this:
"When we do not abstain altogether from lunch or from dinner, but remove something when we lunch or dine, either in the quantity or the quality of the food, or do not take as much or also as rich as could be done even while maintaining temperance." (IV:259)
There is also, of course, abstaining totally from lunch or dinner:
"It is that that is most properly called fasting." (IV:260)
Anyway you slice it, real fast simply involves hunger. It involves not stuffing one's self and so letting the hunger of the body discipline us. For we are sad creatures who are used to filling our bellies with the first grumble. Or even worse, I think of mother's motto (truly the very opposite of fasting!): "You don't eat because you're hungry; you eat to keep from getting hungry!" She meant it humorously (I think!), but of course that's the pathway to gluttony and indulgence. Rather, the fast, the hunger, helps us train the body and keep it under subjection. For there is a hunger greater than the hunger of the body, and that is the thirst and hunger of the soul for God. And while food and drink can mask that inner hunger and help you to ignore it, there is nothing like the fast itself, going hungry, to unmask the inner hunger and remind us that in the end there is nothing that satisfies the ache of the human being, but God alone. "One thing have I desire of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple." Psalm 27
One way that the Church has guided her children in fasting is to suggest that the days of Lent, during Fastenzeit, food be significantly pared down. Nothing for breakfast, a regular but plain meal for lunch, and a very light meal at supper. Each Lent I am always amazed at how little it takes to keep the body going, how it is possible by God's grace to go hungry and NOT obey the stomach's dictates and orders, and how freeing it is to have more time for prayer and Scripture and acts of love. This is possible when food is intentionally and joyfully set "on the back burner" of one's life.
Fastenzeit kommt! Now is the time to begin planning on how you will observe it yourself and to discuss the implications of observing it for your home life.
And fasting is not first and foremost about avoiding mechanically a certain kind of food while stuffing yourself with other tasty treats. Recall the words of Martin Chemnitz about such fasting:
"A well-filled or richly treated belly, whether it is done with fish or vegetables, certainly is not fasting." (Examen IV:275)
He reminds us that fasting can be like this:
"When we do not abstain altogether from lunch or from dinner, but remove something when we lunch or dine, either in the quantity or the quality of the food, or do not take as much or also as rich as could be done even while maintaining temperance." (IV:259)
There is also, of course, abstaining totally from lunch or dinner:
"It is that that is most properly called fasting." (IV:260)
Anyway you slice it, real fast simply involves hunger. It involves not stuffing one's self and so letting the hunger of the body discipline us. For we are sad creatures who are used to filling our bellies with the first grumble. Or even worse, I think of mother's motto (truly the very opposite of fasting!): "You don't eat because you're hungry; you eat to keep from getting hungry!" She meant it humorously (I think!), but of course that's the pathway to gluttony and indulgence. Rather, the fast, the hunger, helps us train the body and keep it under subjection. For there is a hunger greater than the hunger of the body, and that is the thirst and hunger of the soul for God. And while food and drink can mask that inner hunger and help you to ignore it, there is nothing like the fast itself, going hungry, to unmask the inner hunger and remind us that in the end there is nothing that satisfies the ache of the human being, but God alone. "One thing have I desire of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple." Psalm 27
One way that the Church has guided her children in fasting is to suggest that the days of Lent, during Fastenzeit, food be significantly pared down. Nothing for breakfast, a regular but plain meal for lunch, and a very light meal at supper. Each Lent I am always amazed at how little it takes to keep the body going, how it is possible by God's grace to go hungry and NOT obey the stomach's dictates and orders, and how freeing it is to have more time for prayer and Scripture and acts of love. This is possible when food is intentionally and joyfully set "on the back burner" of one's life.
Fastenzeit kommt! Now is the time to begin planning on how you will observe it yourself and to discuss the implications of observing it for your home life.
Patristic Quote of the Day
I accepted Thee, O Son of God, to accompany me on my journey, and when I hungered Thou didst satisfy me, O Savior of the world. May fire flee from my members; may the fragrance of Thy flesh and blood drive it away. May baptism be for me an unsinkable ship. May I behold Thee, O our Lord, in that place in the day of resurrection. - St. Ephrem the Syrian, *A Spiritual Psalter* #145
[Cf. to Larger Catechism IV:82 "for the ship of Baptism never breaks, because it is God's ordinance and not our work."]
[Cf. to Larger Catechism IV:82 "for the ship of Baptism never breaks, because it is God's ordinance and not our work."]
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
When God comes with His Word, He also comes with His Holy Ghost, who desires to remove the natural opposition. But God cannot help the one who obstinately opposes the working of the Holy Ghost. He cannot help because He does not force anyone to convert. A forced conversion is no conversion. - C. F. W. Walther, *God Grant It!* p. 196
15 January 2008
Gesimatide...
...also known as Pre-Lent is almost upon us! The three Reformation solas figure largely in this little season of three Sundays.
Septuagesima is grace alone Sunday as witnessed by the Gospel reading (Laborers in the Vineyard), but "grace alone" does not mean that one is free to live like a pig! Hence, the appointed Epistle, warning us of the need to discipline our bodies. The joy of grace is that frees us to WORK in the Lord's vineyard and from the hell of idleness!
Sexagesima is the Word alone Sunday as witnessed by the Gospel, and the newly appointed Epistle (Hebrews 4). If there is to be change wrought in our lives that is lasting and wholesome, the Word of God (in every meaning of that term!) is the agent of that change. This means daily time in hearing the Scriptures yes, and seeking to live from them, and above all the gathering together in the weekly assembly to let the Word of God truly transform our lives as we are united with Christ.
Quinquagesima is Christ alone Sunday as we, with eyes wide open to the mercies of God in Christ, follow our Savior as He heads up to Jerusalem to suffer, die, and rise from the dead, our Victorious Lord and gracious Substitute.
The whole point of Gesimatide is to prepare us, to ready us, for the great journey to Easter which we call Lent. Lent itself reminds us of how often we fail to live from the newness of life that our Lord granted us in the Baptismal waters, and calls us to return to that life of death to sin and resurrection with our victorious Savior. Repentance is not merely about "feeling sorry" but about "getting a new mind," learning to see things from the Lord's perspective and living from that.
So, wherever you are, I pray that you spend the next three weeks preparing for a blessed and joyous Lent! May the time you spend with your Lord Jesus in the weeks to come truly bring you renewal and joy and growth in union with Him who on Calvary's cross won forgiveness for all our sin and by His resurrection victory smashed wide open the grave!
Septuagesima is grace alone Sunday as witnessed by the Gospel reading (Laborers in the Vineyard), but "grace alone" does not mean that one is free to live like a pig! Hence, the appointed Epistle, warning us of the need to discipline our bodies. The joy of grace is that frees us to WORK in the Lord's vineyard and from the hell of idleness!
Sexagesima is the Word alone Sunday as witnessed by the Gospel, and the newly appointed Epistle (Hebrews 4). If there is to be change wrought in our lives that is lasting and wholesome, the Word of God (in every meaning of that term!) is the agent of that change. This means daily time in hearing the Scriptures yes, and seeking to live from them, and above all the gathering together in the weekly assembly to let the Word of God truly transform our lives as we are united with Christ.
Quinquagesima is Christ alone Sunday as we, with eyes wide open to the mercies of God in Christ, follow our Savior as He heads up to Jerusalem to suffer, die, and rise from the dead, our Victorious Lord and gracious Substitute.
The whole point of Gesimatide is to prepare us, to ready us, for the great journey to Easter which we call Lent. Lent itself reminds us of how often we fail to live from the newness of life that our Lord granted us in the Baptismal waters, and calls us to return to that life of death to sin and resurrection with our victorious Savior. Repentance is not merely about "feeling sorry" but about "getting a new mind," learning to see things from the Lord's perspective and living from that.
So, wherever you are, I pray that you spend the next three weeks preparing for a blessed and joyous Lent! May the time you spend with your Lord Jesus in the weeks to come truly bring you renewal and joy and growth in union with Him who on Calvary's cross won forgiveness for all our sin and by His resurrection victory smashed wide open the grave!
Reminder: Transfiguration
Will be observed at St. Paul's at the Thursday Divine Service this week (on January 17th) at 6:15.
Funeral Arrangement for Adolph Sievers
FRIDAY - Visitation at St. Paul's, from 4 to 7 p.m.
SATURDAY - Visitation at St. Paul's from 9-10; Funeral at 10 a.m.
SATURDAY - Visitation at St. Paul's from 9-10; Funeral at 10 a.m.
LSB Propers of the Day
In case anyone else is misunderstanding their advertising, as I did:
Lutheran Service Book: Propers of the Day
does NOT include the readings - it includes a LIST of the readings - it is basically just a reprint of the the Propers setting of the Altar Book and it's in el cheapo paperback form, due to fall apart with minimal use. My suggestion: it is NOT worth $20.00, no way, no how.
So far its the only part of the LSB "set" that I think is rather much a rip off. Better to spend the money to have a copy of the Altar Book itself by your desk, IMHO.
Lutheran Service Book: Propers of the Day
does NOT include the readings - it includes a LIST of the readings - it is basically just a reprint of the the Propers setting of the Altar Book and it's in el cheapo paperback form, due to fall apart with minimal use. My suggestion: it is NOT worth $20.00, no way, no how.
So far its the only part of the LSB "set" that I think is rather much a rip off. Better to spend the money to have a copy of the Altar Book itself by your desk, IMHO.
Another Old Lutheran Quote for the Day
We should always have this holy name in our mouth, so that the devil may not be able to injure us as he wishes. -- Blessed Martin Luther in the Larger Catechism (I:72)
[As in: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner! ?]
[As in: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner! ?]
Patristic Quote of the Day
Thy blows are filled with love. Thy punishment burns with compassion. In accordance with Thy love, even when Thou punishest Thou strivest only for good. -- St. Ephrem the Syrian, *A Spiritual Psalter* #124
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Our faithful God withholds nothing from us, but sends us both His Son and His Spirit to provide for the salvation of us miserable sinners. - Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XXII
14 January 2008
+Adolph Sievers
I just found out that Adolph, a man of cheerful spirit and wise counsel, has passed from this age to the glories of the age to come. Please remember him and his dear wife Alice and his family in your prayers. They are shining lights in Christ, every one of them. Adolph received the Eucharist for the last time six days ago. "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life."
We cling to Your promises, our Lord, and our hope is entirely in Your mercy!
Give rest, O Christ, to Your servant Adolph with your saints, where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting!
We cling to Your promises, our Lord, and our hope is entirely in Your mercy!
Give rest, O Christ, to Your servant Adolph with your saints, where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting!
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Contrition is the spiritual hunger of our souls; and by faith our souls are spiritually fed. -- Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XVI
Patristic Quote of the Day
If we have condemned ourselves, we will not be condemned, then, at the great and eternal judgment. - St. Ephrem the Syrian, *A Spiritual Psalter* #67
13 January 2008
What a Difference...
...a year makes!
This year with Easter so terribly early, we're cramped trying to finish up catechesis prior to Palm Sunday/Vigil of Easter. It will be tight and we're praying for NO snow days.
Next year, we've got all kinds of time built in. The way I figure my schedule from September to the end of March, we'll meet 24 times, but there will still be six Sundays WITHOUT the Catechism Service built into the schedule (Sausage Supper, Thanksgiving weekend, 2 weekends for Christmas break, MLK, and Superbowl).
Given the hectic pace of catechesis this year, next year looks like we might jog to the finish, rather than sprint! I don't know about you, but I think I'm ready to slow down and catch my breath.
This year with Easter so terribly early, we're cramped trying to finish up catechesis prior to Palm Sunday/Vigil of Easter. It will be tight and we're praying for NO snow days.
Next year, we've got all kinds of time built in. The way I figure my schedule from September to the end of March, we'll meet 24 times, but there will still be six Sundays WITHOUT the Catechism Service built into the schedule (Sausage Supper, Thanksgiving weekend, 2 weekends for Christmas break, MLK, and Superbowl).
Given the hectic pace of catechesis this year, next year looks like we might jog to the finish, rather than sprint! I don't know about you, but I think I'm ready to slow down and catch my breath.
Getting the Question Right
Today at our Catechism service someone asked the question: "But how can a two week old baby believe?"
I was so glad it was asked, because the thought surely floats around in many a person's head. It just seems so impossible. What helps is to remember how utterly impossible faith is for anyone - adults included. Faith isn't something we conjure up on our own; faith is something which God gives. "And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." Eph 2
And so that leads to a change, an important shift in the question. NOT "how can a two week old baby believe?" BUT "can God give faith to a two week old baby?"
About that, we needn't have any doubts. Think of the beautiful words of Psalm 22:9,10:
"Yet you are he who took me from the womb, YOU MADE ME TRUST YOU AT MY MOTHER'S BREASTS. On you was I cast from my birth and from my mother's womb you have been my God."
Knowing, then, that God CAN give faith to an infant; knowing further that God wants all people, including this infant, to be saved and come to know the truth; the Church in the rite of Baptism asks a mighty thing of God: "bless N. with true faith by the Holy Spirit!"
Confident that God's answer to that prayer is "yea and amen" the Church dares to speak on behalf of the infant and confess the faith in the God who by Baptism makes the child His own. It is not an accident that our Lord used "birth" as a picture of Baptism. "You must be born again of water and the Spirit." Just as in your natural birth, you were nothing but given to, life was bestowed unasked and unsought, and yet there it was; so it is in the rebirth of Holy Baptism. Life is given, forgiveness given, the Holy Spirit given, faith given. All without you lifting a hand to help or prevent it - such is the way of the God who calls into being the things that are not.
I was so glad it was asked, because the thought surely floats around in many a person's head. It just seems so impossible. What helps is to remember how utterly impossible faith is for anyone - adults included. Faith isn't something we conjure up on our own; faith is something which God gives. "And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." Eph 2
And so that leads to a change, an important shift in the question. NOT "how can a two week old baby believe?" BUT "can God give faith to a two week old baby?"
About that, we needn't have any doubts. Think of the beautiful words of Psalm 22:9,10:
"Yet you are he who took me from the womb, YOU MADE ME TRUST YOU AT MY MOTHER'S BREASTS. On you was I cast from my birth and from my mother's womb you have been my God."
Knowing, then, that God CAN give faith to an infant; knowing further that God wants all people, including this infant, to be saved and come to know the truth; the Church in the rite of Baptism asks a mighty thing of God: "bless N. with true faith by the Holy Spirit!"
Confident that God's answer to that prayer is "yea and amen" the Church dares to speak on behalf of the infant and confess the faith in the God who by Baptism makes the child His own. It is not an accident that our Lord used "birth" as a picture of Baptism. "You must be born again of water and the Spirit." Just as in your natural birth, you were nothing but given to, life was bestowed unasked and unsought, and yet there it was; so it is in the rebirth of Holy Baptism. Life is given, forgiveness given, the Holy Spirit given, faith given. All without you lifting a hand to help or prevent it - such is the way of the God who calls into being the things that are not.
Joyous Day
What a joyous day is the Baptism of Our Lord! This morning (and last night) we were privileged to celebrate the Divine Service commemorating this joyous event - and in the mysterious way that the Liturgy makes possible, became witnesses to it ourselves. Catechism Service begins in a less than an hour, and in a beautiful concurrence, we'll be treating once again of the greatest Theophany of the Blessed Trinity recorded in Sacred Scripture.
One hymn we did not sing today (I haven't taught them the tune yet) which absolutely captures the day, both in its text and in its joyful tune is "From God the Father" (LSB 401), an ancient Latin Office hymn:
From God the Father, virgin-born
To us the only Son came down;
By death the font to consecrate,
The faithful to regenerate.
Beginning from His throne on high,
In human flesh He came to die;
Creation by His death restored,
And shed new joys of life abroad.
Glide on, O glorious Sun, and bring
The gift of healing on Your wing;
To ev'ry dull and clouded sense
The clearness of Your light dispense.
Abide with us, O Lord, we pray;
The gloom of darkness chase away;
Your work of healing, Lord, begin
And take away the stain of sin.
Lord, once You came to earth's domain
And, we believe, shall come again;
Be with us on the battlefield,
From ev'ry harm Your people shield.
To You, O Lord, all glory be
For this, Your blest epiphany;
To God whom all His hosts adore,
And Holy Spirit evermore. Amen.
(LSB 401)
12 January 2008
Saturday's This 'n That
After a rather hectic week, next week (thus far and God willing!) looks to be a "normal" week for the first time since, what? November? I'm looking forward to it.
I've got an annual report to prepare for the parish, a presentation to ready for a workshop out in Colorado, a Lenten series to figure out (more on Lent and Prelent at the start of next week, God willing), and some other planning to tend to.
God willing, it will be a largely quiet week and I'll get that stuff done by the end of it.
Now, onto something totally different, I am befuddled at why coffee beans whole should end up costing more than coffee beans ground. It makes no sense to me. And, alas, the coffee tastes soooo much better from the bean freshly ground than from the prepackaged grounds.
And for those of you who are balking at the recent decision to sell eggs as though the yokes were made of gold, I am happy to report that we continue to enjoy the most wonderful eggs from our dear neighbors and parishioners, the Luekers, though the price has now risen to, ahem, $.80 per dozen. Yup, farm fresh eggs from free range chickens for $.80. A miracle in this day and age - and absolutely delicious.
Stuff for service is all tended to. Bekah and Cindi are out playing tennis (they think it's that warm; I think they're nuts). David is at work. And I have a novel that is waiting to be finished. A great Saturday indeed. Wishing one and all a joyous feast of Our Lord's Baptism!
I've got an annual report to prepare for the parish, a presentation to ready for a workshop out in Colorado, a Lenten series to figure out (more on Lent and Prelent at the start of next week, God willing), and some other planning to tend to.
God willing, it will be a largely quiet week and I'll get that stuff done by the end of it.
Now, onto something totally different, I am befuddled at why coffee beans whole should end up costing more than coffee beans ground. It makes no sense to me. And, alas, the coffee tastes soooo much better from the bean freshly ground than from the prepackaged grounds.
And for those of you who are balking at the recent decision to sell eggs as though the yokes were made of gold, I am happy to report that we continue to enjoy the most wonderful eggs from our dear neighbors and parishioners, the Luekers, though the price has now risen to, ahem, $.80 per dozen. Yup, farm fresh eggs from free range chickens for $.80. A miracle in this day and age - and absolutely delicious.
Stuff for service is all tended to. Bekah and Cindi are out playing tennis (they think it's that warm; I think they're nuts). David is at work. And I have a novel that is waiting to be finished. A great Saturday indeed. Wishing one and all a joyous feast of Our Lord's Baptism!
Patristic Quote of the Day
From what has been said it is thus evident that from all the visible acts in Baptism, from the very order itself, the names which we call it, the ceremonies which are performed in it, and the words which accompany it, we learn that the life in Christ receives the beginning of its existence from the baptismal washing. -- St. Nicholas Cabasilas, *The Life in Christ* pp. 75, 76
Old Lutheran Quote of the Day
Call to mind, O faithful soul, the wonderful grace of God bestowed upon thee in holy baptism. Baptism is the washing of regeneration; therefore he who hath been spiritually washed in the laver of baptism is no longer held, body and soul, under the power of a carnal nature, but because he hath been born again of God, through water and the Spirit, he is a son of God, and if a son then an heir of eternal blessings. -- Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XVII
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