I had no idea. . .

I had no idea that so many Lutherans were fans of Smashing Pumpkins (which some of you are googling right now...).  According to Billy Corgan (lead singer of Smashing Pumpkins), “If practice makes perfect and no one’s perfect, then why practice?”  Such is the state of the discussion among some Lutherans about sanctification.  If practice makes perfect and we cannot be perfect, then why practice?  In other words, focus only on justification and sanctification will come... in its own time as God desires...

The problem with this is that the New Testament is replete with the words on holy living.  If it were automatic, why would so much of the New Testament be filled with exhortations to and encouragments for holy life, conversation, and works?

Just because the goal is unattainable as long as we wear this mortal flesh, this side of glory, does that mean that we should not speak of, speak to, and direct the people of God to strive for all things good, holy, true, beautiful, virtuous, and pure?  I am not sure what to think of the sudden dust up over sanctification and its preaching or lack thereof.  Lutherans are neither antinomians nor are they creatures only of the law.  It is true that sometimes we speak with forked tongue when it comes to this subject.  Statements can be found in the Confessions which speak clearly of our cooperation with God in producing the good works that befit those of the Kingdom of God and this third use of the Law as guide... AND words that say that the law only kills and only the Gospel gives life.  But it seems that we have forgotten the context of these.

In speaking to those not yet of the Kingdom of God, the law only kills, only points out our sins, and drives us as a cruel slave until Christ in His grace sets us free.  But to those within the Kingdom of God, love is the fulfilling of the law and love is both of Christ and the vocation and goal of Christian living.  In this context the law provides the checklist for love -- what it looks like and sounds like as it is lived out in daily life.  It is still the Gospel that is the power (the love) and it is still Christ whose glory it is (since by baptism we have died and been made new in Christ so that Christ in us defines us).  But we are not passive nor do we leave it all to Christ without the regenerate will working for that which Christ has set us free to be and to do.  We cannot boast except in Christ because we do not exist outside of Christ and His mercy and the good works that we do are a reflection of Christ at work in us and not an attempt for us to satisfy or impress Him.

So just maybe Smashing Pumpkins have a following among Lutherans who believe also that if we cannot do it, we need not try it, and if we need not try it, we need not speak of it...  The "it" being growth in grace and in the righteousness of Christ...

Just another reminded of the tension that permeates our faith as we live in but not of the world, living out in these mortal bodies the immortal values of the Kingdom in which death has no power...  There is a deep and profound difference between approaching all of life from the vantage point of salvation and approaching all of life because of the salvation we have in Christ.  Good works do not supplement or even compete with the saving work of Christ through His suffering, death, and resurrection.  But good works are the very things He lived, suffered. died, and rose that we might do -- His the glory and His the power at work in us and through us...

At least she does not condemn those who thank God...

I am certainly thankful for those who survived the storms and pray for those who died, for their families, and for the victims of the terrible destruction... but... it does remind me of Perry Mason's great advice:  Do not ask a question for which you do not already know the answer.  While it applies to the courtroom, it might also apply to TV newsmen... to avoid the embarrassment...  On the other hand, it just shows to go ya, as I used to hear growin up, that in disaster, we presume God's presence even when ease and comfort provide the cover for doubting Him...

A disagreement over the meaning of the word "church"

“You cannot find Jesus outside the Church,” said Pope Francis on April 23 in the Apostolic Palace’s Pauline Chapel. “It is the Mother Church who gives us Jesus, who gives us the identity that is not only a seal, it is a belonging.”

The pontiff repeated again a statement from his April 17 sermon at St. Martha’s residence, that being a Christian is not like having “an identity card.”  “Christian identity is belonging to the Church, because all of these (the apostles) belonged to the Church, the Mother Church, because finding Jesus outside the Church is impossible,” he said.  “The great Paul VI said it is an absurd dichotomy to want to live with Jesus but without the Church, following Jesus out of the Church, loving Jesus without the Church,” he added.

There is not much to quibble with in the Pope's words except the identification of the Roman Catholic Church as THE Mother Church, apart from which one cannot find Jesus.  As a Lutheran I am bound to take offense here.  The sad truth for me and others outside communion with the Bishop of Rome is that this church still suffers from myopia, insisting that church quite properly can only be used of those in communion with the Roman Pontiff and that others, outside this pale, represent at best ecclesial communities that are not yet nor fully church until they enter communion with the Bishop of Rome.  If everything else were worked out, this alone would make the Reformation position viable.

Someone asked me not long ago why I am still Lutheran with all the problems of Lutheranism which I mention on this blog... here is a good example why.  I can agree with all the Pope's words except the implication that THE Mother Church outside of which faith and finding Jesus is impossible is the Roman Catholic Church.  Now this is not the only issue for the great Reformer or his heirs but it is still a big one...

A Step Toward Further Illiteracy...

As if it were not bad enough that the parsing of the English language favored in texts and tweets has become somewhat legitimized, now it appears that a computer program will define what constitutes a good essay question.  Essays are opportunities for the student to think on the spot, to organize their thoughts, and to put them to paper (so to speak) in cohesive arguments that use the richness of the language and vocabulary to defend their point.  Once I received a passing grade for an essay that was wrong but the professor felt that I had done such a fine job laying out my position and defending it that he felt compelled to honor the writing if not the answer.

Imagine taking a college exam, and, instead of handing in a blue book and getting a grade from a professor a few weeks later, clicking the “send” button when you are done and receiving a grade back instantly, your essay scored by a software program. And then, instead of being done with that exam, imagine that the system would immediately let you rewrite the test to try to improve your grade.

That is the scenario envisioned by EdX.  EdX, the nonprofit enterprise founded by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to offer courses on the Internet, has just introduced such a system and will make its automated software available free on the Web to any institution that wants to use it. The software uses artificial intelligence to grade student essays and short written answers, freeing professors for other tasks. 

Read it all here...  

A group critical of the proposal says:  “Let’s face the realities of automatic essay scoring,” the group’s statement reads in part. “Computers cannot ‘read.’ They cannot measure the essentials of effective written communication: accuracy, reasoning, adequacy of evidence, good sense, ethical stance, convincing argument, meaningful organization, clarity, and veracity, among others.” 

While some are concerned with grades, I am concerned with the devaluation of our linguistic skills and the ability to write creatively, in an organized fashion, using the rich tools of the language to turn a phrase into a literary enterprise.  It would seem to me that we have struggled in this area for a long time and this technology does nothing to allay my fears that our descent into illiteracy is well underway.  It was always my understanding that essay and short answer questions were as much opportunities to exercise literary skill as a thinker, author, and writer as much as they were to simply display a correct or incorrect answer.  Maybe I am old fashioned... or perhaps just plain wrong...  I often am I am reminded...

A choice to be faithful. . . and its consequences. . .

Pictured clockwise from Left) Pr Joel Kerosuo, Bp With, Bp Matti Väisänen, Bp Roland Gustafsson and Anssi Simojoki.

Photo courtesy of Jouko Makkonen.


Dear Praying Friends,
I am filled with deep gratitude to you who have prayed for my meeting with the Tunsberg bishop today. An extra thank you to all of you who responded so quickly. Assured of prayers and support from all of you, I traveled to Tønsberg with confidence. During the meeting, I felt comfort and peace.
The conversation in Tønsberg was characterized by a surprisingly calm seriousness. The Church of Norway has placed Mrs. Laila Riksaasen Dahl as bishop of Tunsberg diocese. Since I now live in Tunsberg diocese, it is her official duty to make the final decision on disciplinary measures, because I let myself be consecrated bishop in violation of applicable canon law provisions of the Church of Norway.

In the conversation I elaborated the basis for the actions that began with doctrinal conversations at my initiative with my then Bishop of Nidaros, and ended with my episcopal ordination in Tromsø in 2012. Laila Riksaasen Dahl listened attentively and sympathetically, revealing good theological insight and respect. She expressed, in an unexpectedly clear manner, her understanding that this matter shall at the Last Day be of profound seriousness to both parties.

I pointed out that when the bishops and CoN’s General Assembly accept unbiblical teachings in the Church, they break apart the unity of the Church of Norway. Because of the new doctrine of the bishop of Nidaros, I had to exclude him from the church communion fellowship. And when church members, because of what has happened elsewhere, have no shepherd and call me to help, my ordination vow commits me to take care of the flock – even as a bishop. With fervent desire I encouraged her, along with my former Bishop of Nidaros, to change their doctrine, and I promised my prayer for that to happen.

Laila Riksaasen Dahl concluded the conversation by stating that​​, particularly due to the episcopal ordination in Tromsø, she decided to terminate my authorization as a pastor in the Church of Norway. To this I replied that the new doctrine contrary to Scripture has led us to this rupture, and to the consequences that are now taking place. There and then I put on my episcopal cross and made visible in this way our claim to be a diocese in the church. Explicit notice was taken of this symbolic act.

Epilogue:

I see an image of the Norwegian church as a large and pleasant area, built on floats. Priests, bishops – and laity in the CoN General Assembly – cut away the tendons that keep this area secured to land – one mooring after the other. When the floating area now drifts from shore, it can easily seem that they who control developments are sending us who have other foundations under our feet away from themselves. But we, who stand on the firm ground, know that really it is they who drift away from the mainland of Christ’s Church; they drift away before the weather and wind of this age.

Let us pray that the Lord may have mercy!

Yours in Christ
+Thor Henrik

My comments. . . 

I am sorry for the difficulty created by Pr. Henrik's decision to choose the higher call of faithfulness over complacency... I am only sad that so often the consequences of such a choice require suffering.  Pray for him and for those, who like him, choose the path of faithfulness...

HT to Al Colver and the Witness, Mercy, and Life Together blog. . . 

The ?Myth? of the Decline of the Episcopal Church

When you find a truth you do not like, you either ignore it, redefine it so that it means something different than it says, or justify it in the name of prophetic witness...  This is the losing strategy of those within the Episcopal Church (and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).  But the truth does not support the Polly Anna view the decline.

In the Episcopal Church:
Change in church school enrollment: -33%
Change in number of marriages performed: -41%
Change in number of burials/funerals: -21%
Change in the number of child baptisms: -36%
Change in the number of adult baptisms: -40%
Change in the number of confirmations: -32%

Apparently this is all lost to one Dean Markham of the Virginia Theological Seminary.  As we all know, denial of truth is hard work and it cannot happen in one part.  Two parts are minimum for explaining away the obvious!!

 
Warning... such pallid attempts to challenge the facts is hard on the soul... That is why the sad decline of the once noble Episcopal Church is so hard; no one wins or gloats when one more church body drifts toward apostasy...

Do not fear... only believe.

Sermon for Pentecost, preached on Sunday, May 19, 2013.

    Could Pentecost be an unwelcome surprise?  Put yourselves in the shoes of the disciples.  You have just gone from watching the Lord die on the cross, to be raised from the dead, to ascending into heaven.  Can we fault them for thinking, hoping even, that things might calm down now?  The drama of death and resurrection had taken a lot out of them.  So ten days of quiet waiting would have been a welcome respite against the backdrop of all that had happened.
    But the days of quiet and waiting end in a most unsettling way.  The Spirit emboldens the disciples in ways they had not expected.  No more locked doors.  They left the safety of the upper room and risked every thing by entering public life, venturing forth in the name of Jesus.  If in their place, we too might have found the security of the locked door and the upper room comforting.  Yet God has not established His church to be comfortable.  In fact, just the opposite.
    The radical aspect of faith is that people believe the unbelievable.  The disciples believed that Jesus had died a real death, that this death had made payment for the sins of the world, and that He rose again on the third day.  They met the risen Jesus whom they feared was a ghost but they found Him eating, drinking, and inviting them to touch His wounds.  As He died a real death, so they found Him really alive, never to die again.
    Now He sent them His Spirit to make them act on this faith. They could no more be hidden.  They had to be plain and obvious. To the 120 who were praying together in the hidden reaches of that Upper Room,     Jesus bids them come out and go forth.  To the 11 who had been with Him from the beginning and Matthias who had taken Judas' place, Jesus bids them come out and go forth.  To the 3,000 who heard Peter preach the Pentecost defense of the faith, Jesus bids them come out and go forth.
    It is a radical faith in a radical truth that shows itself in radical witness.  None of them could be content to hide what they believed or keep the Gospel to themselves any longer.
This holy boldness is both comforting and unsettling.  It is a comfort and blessing to us that the Spirit moved them in faith to speak and to act but this very witness is unsettling to a people accustomed to the comfort of the shadows.
    Conviction is both comforting and scarey.  It is comforting to be so confident of the truth
but such faith is not comfortable.  It moves us from the safe and secure spheres of our hidden lives to go public with the word of Jesus Christ and the good news of the Gospel.
    What then shall we do?  The first choice is to do nothing at all.  This is the choice too many of us make.  Though we are called out to be set apart but we feel more comfortable in and retreat to the fringes and shadows.  God will have none of this.  He did not move heaven and earth to love us and save us by His only Son's death and resurrection – only to remain silent and hidden and fearful, so that the world goes on as if nothing had happened.
    Conviction always calls us to stand up and to stand out. Conviction moves us from what is easy and comfortable to what is risky and dangerous.  The crowds called them drunk and fools.
Before these disciples could even begin to speak of Jesus they had to disarm the myth that they were deluded or drunk.  When was the last time we practiced such holy boldness that the world called us drunken fools?  Could it be that conviction makes us uneasy  and this leads us to be quiet where God has told us to be bold?
    Conviction results in transformation.  The disciples had already believed the Gospel but the Spirit moved that faith deep in the heart to the voice and to the life.  They are reborn not only to become new people in Christ but the Spirit moves these new people to act in new ways. They can no longer be content with the shadows and fringes.
    They moved front and center into the world with the words of the Gospel and with the actions of love and holiness.  This is what we consider today on Pentecost.  We have believed the Gospel and been born anew in baptism.  Will we allow the Spirit to transform us that we may become bold instruments and faithful voices to speak of Christ and the cross to the world?  Will we live out this truth in words and works or hide it in fear?  Safety is always found at home, in the comfort of the familiar and in doing what is easy.
    The great temptation for Christians is to hide behind locked doors and huddle in the upper rooms     while the world goes on around us.  To commiserate and lament instead of living as those who know the Gospel and have full confidence in its words and promises.  We are not of the world but we live out our faith in the world, and not in fear of the world.  Greater is He who is in you, than he who is in the world. Believing these words means living them out in daily life.
    The Spirit was not given to us to make us comfortable.  We can find and hide in comfort without the aid of God.   The Spirit was given to us to unsettle us and make us bold.  The Spirit opens our voices to speak faith.  The Spirit teaches us to venture beyond the confines of the comfortable to live out our faith in the world.  The liturgy empowers us with the means of grace to be the Church in the world and not simply speak of it as if it were not here.
    With faithful words of witness and with holy lives seeking what is good and right and true and of Christ, the Spirit moves us past the safe and secure.  The most unsettling part of faith is that it works.  We may find it easy to live life within the comfortable misery of broken promises and unmet hopes.  To surrender to the old nature and its fears.  But that is not the way of the Gospel.  The good news of Jesus Christ is that the debt of sin has been paid in full, that life has been set free from its cruel bondage to evil and fleshly desires, that no longer are captive to death and its shadow over our lives...  We live not the old life of the flesh but the new life of the Spirit, flowing from baptism, to engage the world with the will and work of God in Christ.
    Faith works because Christ has done for us exactly what He promised.  It is this hope in which we live and it is this Gospel we bring to the world.  Pentecost speaks of a Church and a people who could no more live within the past and its fears...  Of a Church and a people who became bold by the power of the Spirit to live out their convictions...  To walk in the way of Christ and not the broad avenue of the world...  Of a future given to us in Christ...  Of repentance and faith are life changing...  The gift of the Spirit is the power from on high that moves us from the shadows to live the Light of Christ.  The example of the disciples is the promise that is meant for each of us and for all of us in this place right now.
    The old joke was that once the kids had left the farm and found the big city, you could not keep them down on the farm any longer.  It is an old joke.  The truth is that faith is not content with the shadows; with the ways of fear; with the dominion of law and the works.  Faith seeks the Light of Christ  and it seeks to live the Light of Christ.  Once we saw it in the lives of 12 disciples, 120 Christians, and more than 3,000 on Pentecost...  Pray today, that we see it here... today.
    In Jesus' name.   Amen.

I thought this was settled law...

Some of you may recall when the LCMS through one of its schools ended up before the Supreme Court on the subject of a church's right to employ or terminate employment or not to employ people.  You might have thought that this victory on the side of the church to hire and fire as deems consistent with theology and appropriate with the confession of the church would be the final statement on the subject.  You would be wrong... Here we go again... different situation, different church body, and different cause but the same issue...

Read it here or a hundred other places on the internet...

Bishop Frederick Campbell and other school officials in the Diocese of Columbus could face criminal charges under the city of Columbus’ anti-discrimination laws for upholding the Church’s moral teachings on sexuality by firing a lesbian gym teacher.

The diocese has come under fire for terminating the contract of Carla Hale, 57, a physical education teacher employed for 19 years at Bishop Watterson High School, after learning of Hale’s “spousal relationship” with another woman. The diocese fired Hale after an unnamed Bishop Watterson parent forwarded to diocesan officials a local obituary for Hale’s mother Jeanne Roe, which listed Hale’s lesbian companion Julie as one of her survivors.

My point is this.  Victory after victory before the courts in which the rights of religious groups and churches will not stem the tide of assaults from those who insist that higher than the right of religion is the principle of diversity in which no one is right and no one is wrong (except those who stand against diversity) and every does what is right in his or her own eyes (as long as nobody gets hurt).

Vanderbilt insists that Christian campus groups MUST accept agnostics and atheists and open positions of leadership to them... The City of Columbus insists that their laws against discrimination preclude a church from having a position on morality and putting that into practice...  The Obama administration remains silent about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East while refusing to call Islamic terrorists terrorists... The military and some other terrorism watch dogs define Roman Catholics and some Evangelicals and Fundamentalists as extremists worthy of observation as much as established Islamic terrorists who foment war and violence in the name of faith...

The faith and the Church is under assault -- not only in the empty Christian neighborhoods of Iraq or the persecuted streets of Egypt but right here in America, where freedom of religion (not just worship) is enshrined as a fundamental right to be abridged by no one and especially the government!