Simply fascinating. . .

Maybe you have been watching the unfolding soap opera called The Borgias on Showtime.  Whether or not you have, the Borgia story is an interesting period in papal history.  Now comes an even more interesting turn on that story.  Read it all below.  HT to Seasons of Grace.

Renaissance artist Pinturicchio. His name means “Little Painter”–and he was so called because of his short stature.

Pinturicchio’s fresco of “The Resurrection” has adorned a wall at the Vatican for 519 years—but someone just noticed that there are native Americans in the scene.



It was 1494 when the Renaissance painter completed the fresco in the Borgia Apartments, now part of the Vatican Library.  Christopher Columbus had just returned from discovering the New World—and had reported that there were men there who danced nude, painting their bodies and wearing feathered headdresses.  Since there were no photographs at the time, Renaissance painter Pinturrichio may have listened to Columbus’ vivid description of the new race of humans he had encountered in America.
John Thavis, on his excellent blog, reported the discovery:

It hasn’t drawn much attention yet, but the Vatican has quietly announced the discovery of what it believes is the first artistic representation of native Americans.
A detail of a fresco by the Renaissance artist Pinturicchio, discovered during restoration work in the Vatican Museums, depicts men dressed only in feathered headdresses who appear to be dancing, and another on horseback.
The painting was completed in 1494, shortly after Christopher Columbus returned from the New World with a detailed description of natives who painted themselves, danced and gave gifts of parrots.
For hundreds of years, the frescoed figures were hiding in plain sight – sort of. They are part of the background in a lunette fresco titled “The Resurrection,” noted for its depiction of Pope Alexander VI, the infamous Rodrigo Borgia, who was elected in 1492.
The detail was obscured by centuries of soot and grime, and came to life only recently when the fresco underwent a careful cleaning by Museum experts.

Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums, announced the discovery in an April 27 article which appeared in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.
Although some news reports say that the figures came to light after recent renovation and cleaning, I looked at some file images of Pinturicchio’s work and saw that the figures were clear, at least as far back as 2007.  It seems, then, that it was not so much the effects of time that hid the native Americans from view; rather, it was lack of attention to detail on the part of Vatican curators and art connoisseurs.
That’s understandable when one considers that the works in the Vatican Library are not as well known or as often visited as are the works in the Vatican Museum’s 54 galleries.  Those galleries are home to the world’s largest collection of art, and are visited by more than 5 million tourists annually.

Full image of Pinturicchio’s “The Resurrection”.       The native American dancers are visible just above the open casket.  (Click to enlarge.)

A presumed conversation. . .

In a mother's womb were two babies. One asked the other: "Do you believe in life after delivery?" The other replies, "Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later." 

 

"Nonsense," says the other. "There is no life after delivery. What would that life be?" "I don't know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths." The other says, "This is absurd! Walking is impossible. And eat with our mouths? Ridiculous. The umbilical cord supplies nutrition. Life after delivery is to be excluded. The umbilical cord is too short." 

 

"I think there is something and maybe it's different than it is here," the other replies. "No one has ever come back from there. Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery it is nothing but darkness and anxiety and it takes us nowhere." 

 

"Well, I don't know," says the other, "but certainly we will see mother and she will take care of us." "Mother??" You believe in mother? Where is she now?"  "She is all around us. It is in her that we live. Without her there would not be this world." "I don't see her, so it's only logical that she doesn't exist." To which the other replied, "Sometimes when you're in silence you can hear her, you can perceive her." I believe there is a reality after delivery and we are here to prepare ourselves for that reality....

 

And thanks to the good soul who emailed this to me!

The new brands of Christianity...

Even as the old "brands" of Christianity fade as interest in and loyalty to them diminish, new brands arise.  There is, however, a deep and significant difference between the new "brands" and the old ones.  The former "brands" (think denominations) were forged by theological consensus and united in confession.  Some may have been looser than others.  Some may have been formal documents while others less concrete confessions.  But the point was that what occasioned and sustained the unity of people and places was a Biblical and doctrinal perspective.

Lutherans have their Concordia.  The Anglicans their Thirty Nine Articles.  The Reformed their Westminster Confession.  The Baptists their fundamentals.  The points at which the clergy and congregations intersected were dogmatic and these formed the boundaries of both their association and their conviction.  As these faded, the denominations also found themselves weaker and less relevant in the greater scope of things.

Many had hoped that as they faded a new association might emerge in which the boundaries of the old "brands" might be bridged so that a realignment could take place.  In this hopeful scenario, those who held to a high view of Scripture, for example, would gravitate together.  Those who held to a high view of the Sacraments would find common ground.  The old barriers of denominational division would give way to a more honest definition of what was truly believed, confessed, and taught.  It was a romantic idea.  But I will admit to being caught up in this romance.  Not so much anymore.

To my surprise, the old "brands" have been replaced by new associations that are less theological than methodological, less doctrinal than personal.  Instead of bringing together people of like confessions, these new "brands" have brought together people who use the same models, paradigms, and methods to be church and grow church.  We have the Saddleback association and the Rick Warren crowd.  Strangely, even some Lutherans have exchanged the forty days of Lent for the Forty Days of Purpose.  Confession has taken a definite back seat to methodology and personality.  We have the Osteen spin offs in which a smidgeon of Christian theology is hidden in a positive, practical, and personal approach to life, seeking less the Kingdom of God and its righteousness and more personal achievement and happiness, less the eternal life prepared by Jesus so that we might be where He is and more the better life now.

The language and vocabulary of the new "brands" is less Biblical than it is descriptive of the values and processes of these larger than life personalities.  These missional folks think strategies, visions, mission statements, program evaluation, and measurable barometers of success.  The old language of cultus, catechesis, repentance and reformation is hardly mentioned among them.  Instead, they share stories of what works in the ever present move to build and sustain congregations the size of small denominations, franchising their identities through satellites and financing the operation through successful books and workshops that feed back into their marketing side.

I have no doubt that these folks believe in what they are doing, that they sincerely believe that the church is broken and has to be fixed to survive, and that they see themselves as a new move of God and the Spirit, a version of the Reformation(s) of the sixteenth century. My problem is that denominations, even those with larger than life personalities, survived because of common confession.  What will enable these new "brands" to survive past the lifespan of their founders?

I have seen it personally in churches built upon persons and personalities.  They do not transition well past the one who gave them life and identity.  Surely some will point to Lakewood Church and the Osteens as one example of smooth transition.  The only problem here is that the church of the son is a different church than the one begun by the dad.  The family name is the same but the preaching and shape of the church is very different.  We watched as the Crystal Cathedral was sold off to the Roman Catholic Diocese to become a real cathedral.  We watched as the Oral Roberts operation has faded into memory.  Falwell's Liberty University has flourished but his Thomas Road Baptist Church no longer holds the sway it did when Jerry occupied the pulpit and seemingly single handedly organized the moral majority.  The Stanleys are now talking to each other but it is pretty clear that Andy will not follow in his father Charles' footsteps.  I could go on.

What will the future of Christianity be if the old "brands" forged by common confession truly give way to the new "brands" shaped by personality and methodology?  It is anybody's guess.  If I can hope, my hope is that these will fall as quickly as they have arisen and Christian people will return to unity shaped by common understanding of Scripture and common confession of what Scripture teaches (doctrine).  That is my hope, anyway.

To confess is to worship... to worship is to confess

Sermon for Holy Trinity C, preached on Sunday, May 26, 2013.

    If someone were to ask you, "Who is God?"  What would you say?  How would you explain God?  Because that is the task the world has placed before the Church and each of us as baptized Christians.  What words define the God who was, who is, and who is to come, who made all things and became flesh, who bestowed power upon unbelieving hearts and fearful disciples?
    We might be tempted to answer with our speculative thoughts or more personally with our feelings – what seems right or true for us.  Would we answer with the creed?  May we would think that too much.  Too long.  Too theological.  Too mysterious.  But that is exactly the point. We do not define or explain God.  No words can do justice to that.  Or to Him.  We confess Him.  We speak of Him as He has spoken of Himself to us.  And that is enough.  Explanations may be our temptation, definitions our desire, but confession is the only and the true answer.
    Jesus said in the Gospel for today, "Before Abraham was... I am."  The Jews clearly heard that Jesus was not merely claiming to be as old as Abraham but the God of Abraham.  The eternal God always was but He reveals Himself in time through His incarnate Son.  So we know the Father by knowing the Son.  Even this is too much for us unless the Spirit works to break through our hearts and open us to faith.  That is the mystery of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  He is One God in Three Persons and to know one is to know the whole God.  Jesus imparts to us not merely the revelation of Himself as the Son but the fullness of the Holy Trinity. 
    He was and He is.  It is not that He was or will be but He is.  We are so caught in time that we instinctively divide everything according to past, present, and future.  Our Lord Jesus was present before and in all things that He created by His will and word.  Before He took on flesh and blood of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit, He is.  He always was.  He always will be.  Yet He entered time and space for our salvation.  It is the character of God, even the God who entered time and space, that the past and future are the present to Him.
    Who for us and for our salvation became flesh and blood, we confess in the Creed.  He entered creation in order to bear the burden of our sin.  He was born to die that His death bound creation might live.  This is the will of the Father which is fulfilled in His Son and it is this Gospel the Spirit makes known.  It is this mystery into which we were baptized.  It is this God who is God and apart from Him there is no god.
    We know God less for who He is than for what He has done.  He has made all things from nothing.  He has redeemed His fallen creation with a love stronger than any love ever known.  He purchased and won His sinful and dead world with the priceless cost of His own Son's body and blood.  He has paid the debt of us debtors.  He has restored what was taken from Him.  He has redeemed the lost and welcomed them with the open arms of His steadfast love that endures forever.
    What was sinful and unclean, He has declared holy and righteous in Christ.  This is our baptismal gift.  What was dead in trespasses and sin He has made alive by His own sacrificial death.  He rose to bring us to God as those whom He has won for Himself for all eternity, no more can death steal us and no more can Satan control our will.  This is no definition or explanation of God but the proclamation of what He has done.
    We confess this God first of all in worship.  From the invocation that began this service to the absolution that imparts what Christ has won to the creed which joins our voices to the Christians of yesterday and passes on the legacy of faith to those yet to come... we confess God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  In the Holy Communion we encounter Him as the baptized invited, clothed, and set apart for this feast, this moment.
    To confess Him is to worship Him.  In fancy terms we say, orthodoxy always results in orthopraxy.  This is, right belief results in right worship.  To put it in the words of the Athanasian Creed, the catholic faith is this that we worship One God in Three persons.  As tempting as it is to speculate about God, we do not speculate of Him to the world.  Nor do we define Him.  God reveals Himself a defines Himself.  In many and various ways until now He has spoken fully through His Son, the culmination of His self-disclosure whom we know by the Spirit.  The best witness is one that does not speak of what we think but of what we know from the God who has made Himself known to us in His Son by the power of the Spirit.
    So we believe what He has revealed of Himself.  We confess what He has spoken.  We worship this God where He has chosen to come to us in the means of grace.  And we recount what He has done to the world.  Christians witness God best when we witness what God Himself has said of Himself, what He has told us He has done, for saying back to Him we repeat that which is most true and most sure.  The center of this is not philosophy or speculation but worship.  Our presence as well as the liturgy are our witness to the God whom we know only because and as He has disclosed Himself to us.
    The Scriptures reveal, the creeds confess, and the means of grace impart.  Here is where we know God.  This is why worship is sticky.  It clings to us and we cling to it.  This is why worship is the center of our lives for everything we are flows from right here, this water, this Word, this table.
    And today we see it all... the water that gives life, the Word that absolves, the voice that speaks, the bread and wine that feeds us eternal life....  Who is God?  Right here...   Right now...  This is God... The God of our confession, the God whom we worship, and the God who bestows upon us the gifts of His grace, just as He has promised.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

What takes so long. . .

I read with amusement a letter in the current issue of The Lutheran in which the writer laments:

...So the lead pastor (pope) of the Roman Catholic Church, with more than 1 billion members, resigns and 13 days later his replacement is chosen, installed, and at work... Our 70 member congregation went through nearly three years of hoops before we welcomed our new pastor... what is wrong with this picture?

I understand the frustration.  Four months ago I got word that my own name had appeared on a call list.  I got a phone call just recently that said they have yet to elect someone and send out a call.  I also know of congregations whose process to a new Pastor has taken years -- literally!

The situation is not exact analogous.  There was no call committee to pick and choose.  There were no interviews with the candidates.  There was no District or Synod office sifting through names.  There was no timetable for election that spanned months and had specific requirements about the time between call meetings nor was there a method that had to be used to contact every member (no matter how delinquent) to make sure all had a chance to weigh in on the process, show up for the call meeting, and cast a vote.

We have made the call process into a much more elaborate series of hoops to jump through but the reason for that cannot simply be assigned to the desire of bishops or district presidents to manipulate the process (as some complain).  No, the issue is far more complex.

Congregations approach the call process more with skepticism and fear than with joy and confidence.  We almost presume that there are few competent clergy out there and plenty of duds that we have to sift through.  We act as if we are a hiring committee and so the criteria for calling becomes more like business criteria than a churchly act.  We want volumes of information so that we can predict how a prospective Pastor might act, preach, lead, etc...  We interview them as if the key to the whole thing were to find a Pastor who matches us (like eharmony.com).  In this way we emphasize less the duties and responsibilities of the call documents and emphasize more things like mission statements, strengths and weaknesses, personal characteristics, temperament, and the ever present "pastoral style."  We vote not as people who trust in the Lord of the Church but as people who fear they will make a mistake unless they get the "right" match and as people whose confidence lies more in the wisdom and perceptions of the call committee who has met the candidates than the Spirit's work of discernment and guidance.  It is as if we might be happier if we could cohabit with a prospective Pastor before we actually tie the knot!

Pastors, on the other hand, have considerably more issues than in the past -- not in the least of which is the housing issue.  Can I sell my house?  For how much?  What does housing cost at the site of the call?  How fast can I buy a house and move in? Etc....  Pastors have the careers and employment of wives to consider and how it impacts the decision to go or to stay.  Pastors consider whether the new place will be close to family and how it will impact relationships with in-laws and families, children, grandchildren, etc... This all comes before the prayerful discernment if the Lord is calling them to this new place.  Sometimes Pastors must also consider medical accessibility for family members.  Pastors consider the theological climate of the district and the history of the congregation (is it a clergy eater).  Pastors face the reality of cost of living and compensation. There are many more but this gives a glimpse into the other side of the call coin.

Now, I am not saying Pastor and parish are evil in thinking of these things.  What I am saying is that we have all lost sight of one thing implicit in the selection of a new pope in 13 days.  The cardinals in the room doing the voting and the Roman Catholic Church at large generally believe that man chosen to be pope is God's man -- even when they disagree with him.  That is the core problem today.  Neither the congregations calling nor the clergy they call have confidence in the Lord working in this process.  Instead of welcoming and trusting the people and the places, we begin with skepticism, we continue with some cautious concern, and we wait and see after the process is complete to see if we like or dislike, support or do not support the end result.

Let me make a confession.  I have accepted two calls in my life and one was pretty much done for me through the placement process of our church body.  In both cases, I accepted the calls thinking it was God's will only to find myself caught up in doubt and fear when I actually showed up in both places to begin my ministry there.  Yet, the Lord has shown me His hand in this process and I have come to know and believe that both placements were by His hand.  I did not express this fear and trepidation with my parishes or even my family until after I was convinced that the Lord's hand had triumphed and His will was done.  So I do not speak as one who was immune from the pitfalls of the call process.  Yet, in neither place did I interview and neither place had a clue whom I was until I showed up.  What has allowed me to serve in both places has been the trust in the Lord that the place was His will and the person.  It was not automatic and it was not without some angst but both places and people are more confirmed than ever that the Lord was in this mess we have termed the call process.

How we do it is not a divinely established process.  Luther had no call in the sense that we use that term -- no congregation, no committee, no vote.  Some Lutherans use an episcopal process.  I am more inclined to believe that some know better than me and so the judgement of others has not been incidental to either place or process.  But it is the process we have in the LCMS.  As long as we do not abuse it and make it into a head hunting group and goal, it will serve us well.  As long as we do not lose sight of the will and purpose of God and control it as a merely human endeavor, it will serve us well.  As long as we do not over manipulate the process with pre-call interviews and machinations and follow the call with prayerful trust in the Lord, it will serve us well.  It need not drag out years but it will hardly happen as quickly as it did in Rome a few months ago...

From our President to the 2013 LCMS Convention Delegates

Center stage. . .

Peggy Noonan, noted speechwriter for Reagan and frequent political commentator, penned a piece in the Wall Street Journal that I finally happened to read.  It is a good read.  The topic is the funeral for Margaret Thatcher but the wisdom is more generic.  Let me post one paragraph:

Thatcher’s funeral was striking in that it was not, actually, about her. It was about what she thought it important for the mourners to know. The readings were about the fact of God, the gift of Christ, and the necessity of loving your country and working for its betterment. There were no long eulogies. In a friendly and relatively brief address, the bishop of London lauded her kindness and character. No funeral of an American leader would ever be like that: The dead American would be the star, with God in the position of yet another mourner who’d miss his leadership.  [emphasis mine]

Her point is true not merely of the large funerals of national leaders or political figures but of the way we view funerals in general today.  God is in the position of yet another mourner who would miss him/her.  Now there is a mouthful.  Yet, this is exactly what even Christian funerals have become -- celebrations of the life of the deceased with our only comfort being our memory of the dead.  How sad.  But what an apt description of the role we have assigned to God.  Just another mourner.  Not even the mourner in chief. 

The Psalmist reminds us that precious in the Lord's sight is the death of His saints.  Precious here does not mean quaint or even sentimental.  What is precious to the Lord, the Lord acts upon.  Our death is so precious that He sent His one and only Son to live life under the burden and constraint of this mortal life.  Though He was without sin, He was not immune to suffering, to pain, to grief, and to death.  It was for this that Jesus became incarnate.  To carry the burden of our death!  And this is our comfort.  The memory is nice but the promise of our own joyful resurrection to eternal life with those whom we love who have departed in the Lord is better.  God does not grieve with us or even for us.  God's grief is expressed primarily in answering the bondage of death with the gift of life in Christ.  This is what we hear so seldom at funerals -- the comfort of the cross and the promise of Easter.

You can celebrate the life of and enjoy the memories of the dead and it makes little difference to the gaping hole in our hearts.  If for this life only we have hope, we are of all people the most to be pitied.  But that is exactly what Christians have allowed the funeral to become -- a party of remembrance instead of a community of hope.  Melancholy is not hope.  Looking back upon the life and accomplishments of the dead is not hope.  The remembrance of joyful and even hurtful memories is not hope.  We are there as Christian ministers not to offer therapy, not to dismiss the wounds of the grieving, nor to point them to the life and works of the dead.  We are there to connect THIS death with Christ's death for the life of the world.  We are there to connect THIS life to the promise of Christ's life, in which death was refused the final word.

Once we remember this, much of the silliness that takes the place of honest funerals will disappear and the real ministration of the Gospel will take its rightful place as the arena in which we discover what it means for the death of the saints to be precious to the Lord.  So precious that He sent His Son to die that we might live through Him. 

Gall indeed!

You have probably heard the dust up of Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson calling out Roman Catholics to embrace the gay and lesbian agenda.  It might be considered rude for an Episcopal Bishop to interfere in matters within the Roman Catholic Church but that has not stopped most of us from presuming such right.  It might be considered an affront for an Episcopal Bishop to foist his personal lifestyle choices upon any church but especially a church in which he has no standing but personal lifestyle choices have been trumping Scripture and tradition among certain Christians for some time now.  What I find curious is that this particular Episcopal Bishop has the, well, let me say courage, although I mean something else, to call out the Roman Catholic Church as one where people have voted with their feet against the social and moral teachings of their church.  This is curious, to say the least, because during the time Robinson has served the episcopal office in New Hampshire his own diocese has reported a 23% drop in attendance in but a few years!!

AVERAGE SUNDAY ATTENDANCE EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE:
     2001      5,289 people attending
     2011      4,083 people attending         DECLINE 2001-2011 -23.0% over ten years!

Many Catholic laity are experiencing a painful disconnect between the official teachings and pronouncements of the Catholic hierarchy and what they believe in their hearts. It’s no wonder they are voting with their feet... says Bp Robinson.  

Now that is a bold statement from one who exercised episcopal oversight and leadership of a diocese smaller than many Roman Catholic parishes and one which has experienced a precipitous drop in attendance (one of the most objective barometers of church health).  Apparently, the progressive social teachings of Bp Robinson and the "doctrinal integrity" of the Episcopal Church have contributed greatly to the overall health of the diocese in which he has served!  Now that is gall!

I might be inclined to cut him some slack if the drop had come because of courageous stance consistent with Scripture and tradition in the face of a world relativizing truth and transforming worship into an entertainment experience.  But that is exactly what Bp Robinson has presided over.  Truth has become relative, disjointed from its source and norm in Scripture and out of step with those who have gone before us in the faith.  In addition, as much as I appreciate Anglican ceremonial, lacking doctrinal confession, such ceremonial is but a good show.  What matters if you genuflect at the incarnation while confessing the creed if you do not believe it?  What matters if you stand for the Gospel if you do not believe its word?  When confession and ceremony become unhitched, such liturgical worship becomes no more and no less than the entertainment worship like those who put on a show intentionally.

A compromise that satisfies no one...

Undoubtedly you have read or heard of the decisions of the Boy Scouts to admit gay scouts even while continuing the ban on gay adult leaders.  Some are hailing this as a break through decision on behalf of the full acceptance and assimilation of gays.  Others lament the snail pace of such acceptance since the same freedom accorded boys is not allowed for adult leaders.  Many, the numbers of which we do not yet know, are wondering if the organization will continue in the same shape and form following a decision that will most certainly affect the churches willingness to sponsor troops and house them.

Some insist that this is a civil rights issue on the same plane as the long battle to eliminate racial barriers and integrate American society.  The problem with this is both the nature of the gay movement and its scope.  Gays encompass at the most nearly 10% and the majority would put the percentage at closer to 5% of the population.  In addition, the movement is less about the extension of rights and privileges to a very small minority than it is a desire to transform the very institutions it seeks to provide for its protected class and the intent to dismantle a whole host of institutions and structures within societies since the beginning of time.  It is this that makes the decision of the scouts even more disconcerting.  Gays have no rights prevented to them but they insist that they must have every privilege, even when that privilege means that the institutions and estates they desire will never be the same again.  Gays are not prevented educational or occupational opportunity nor denied any civil rights.  They are as a class more highly educated, wealthier, with greater access to the media and political power than any other minority in America.  How is it that the struggle of gays is equated with the civil rights movement and its trajectory from slavery and a less than fully human status to equal place in American society and culture?

In the end, the Boy Scout decision will be but a bus stop away from the full acceptance and integration of gays both as adult leaders as well as youth participants.  Everyone who can see can read the writing on the wall.  But will this mean an end to scouting as we know it?  I am pretty sure that this is also the writing on the wall.  Churches who sponsor most scout troops are by vast majority those opposed to this change.  The seemingly stable partnership between scouting and churches that sponsor them will be undone by this decision and scouting will venture into unknown territory as a less protected and supported agency.  Again, the point of gay integration has never been to obtain the same right and privilege as others but to transform and, in the end, dismantle the organization it seeks to enter.  What the future scouting organization will look like is at this point uncertain but it will bear only a passing resemblance to its current image and a fading memory of its past.

Contrary to what some will read in my words, I am not homophobic and bear no grudge against gays.  I do believe that there is a governmental interest in protecting the family of man, woman, and children -- quite apart from any theological or moral definition.  It is no different than the government's decision to subsidize home ownership as an interest that outweighs the injustice to those who rent.  In addition to this non-religious reasoning, Christians see in marriage the image of God's own giving and loving nature, designed not for pleasure or self-interest but for children, for the care and support of the family, and the promotion of virtue and godliness.  As children, sacrifice, and moral goodness have been further and further removed from any definition of marriage, it has suffered assaults from gays and straights until many have determined it is itself an unnecessary estate that must be transformed.  This is what I am against -- not because I want to preserve the past but because it has been consistently shown that this is both the design of our Creator and the best interest of society and all of us.

When morality is immoral. . .

There are voices, not many now but some, who insist that the hook up culture that seems to dominate youth is not the free and easy sex it seems.  In a piece called The End of Meaningless Sex, Nathaniel Peters (no relation) writes convincingly of the inability of the hook up culture to satisfy and of the acting that goes on by those who seem content with sex without emotion, pure physical "pleasure".  You can read it all here.

I was struck by those who argue against the hook up culture and its superficiality of sex and emotion -- not because it is wrong.  Lord, no!  They argue against it because they believe it inhibits better sex.  In other words, they do not believe that chastity is reasonable or that youth will accept restrictions in their pursuit of pleasure (self-imposed or those imposed on them by others), but they do believe that they may be persuaded that to feel better about doing it and to do it better, some changes need to be made.

In other words, though we might be tempted to think that this was a type of new morality which challenges the idea that perfect contraceptive sex (reproductively and emotionally) is the best sex of all, it isn't.  Instead of morality, which is still unacceptable, the underlying argument is that better sex, you feel better about, needs emotion and commitment.  It is still not wrong, it just is not as right as it could be.  Even if it derails the hook up culture and reigns in the rampant promiscuity and sex without emotional investment, this is no morality at all.

The goal argued here is not that virginity is good, that abstinence is good, or that marriage is good.  No, the goal is whatever helps students expand their sense of rights-- whatever makes them happier!  The author believes that "traditional" morality of faithfulness in marriage and chastity outside of marriage is unrealistic.  “It is an extreme to the point that students cannot imagine living it, nor do they wish to.”

Now this is where the seeming morality becomes itself immoral.  We cannot imagine doing something we do not want to do...  Ahhh, now that is the ultimate immorality and yet it is the highly prized virtue of modern culture and life.  We do what we want.  If that is the criteria, even if it leads to a slow down of the hook up culture, it is not a victory for morality.  It is no more a victory for morality than if we counted early death as an aid to the problem of world hunger or a benefit for the economic health of the social security program!

... we should reclaim abstinence from “a single, politically interested, religious group” and teach students that abstaining from sex could be a healthy temporary decision for them. Pressing pause on your sex life “could become one of the most subversive, profoundly effective tools” students have. “It is abstinence within reason. It is abstinence that makes sense, given the sexual activity that young adults already engage in.”

In other words, a temporary pause from sex is first of all temporary (no one could or should be expected to refrain from this "natural" urge and desire).  Second is it not an end in and of itself but a tool toward, well, better sex and sex with a better class of people (because, remember, no one could ever be expected to deny their pleasure seeking desires).  As one put it, sex is “a big deal” and that the hookup culture is harmful because it makes many students have bad sex.

Freitas fails to offer a robust alternative to the hookup culture. She founds her solutions on the same relativism, emotivism, and pragmatism behind the problem she seeks to combat.  To put it my way, when seeming morality is itself immoral...  The best way to combat the hookup culture is to help students seek not just what feels good, but what is good.  Now there is a breath of fresh air!  Imagine that, things do not merely feel good, some things are good.  What a shock that we should seek after such things and follow the cause of virtue more nearly than we follow the fickle desires of a heart helplessly defined by me, the moment, and a total lack of values attached to my thoughts, feelings, and actions....

The goal of the Church is not better sex or more sex or no sex or less sex.  The goal of the Church is godliness, Christ-likeness, the good that ennobles instead of the evil that diminishes.  Perhaps if we could learn to say this out loud in high schools and in colleges, we might find that some of those folks are listening and are not as good with the hook up culture and its idea of sex without cost or investment.  If we really were bold enough to say it out loud and to believe it without embarrassment!

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! 

Enemies with Benefits?

Unless you have been living under a rock, you have heard about friends with benefits -- friends who are not lovers but who hook up for sex when they get the urge.  In the Church we have spoken of this as if it were some evil out there in the world.  Maybe it is closer than we think.  Perhaps you do not even have to be friends to enjoy these benefits.  Even enemies can come with benefits.

As C. S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity so long ago, there are few of Christianity’s teachings more offensive, more unpalatable, and more likely to drive people away from a hearing the Gospel than the sexual ethic of the Kingdom.  Now it seems that those within the Church are not paying much attention to that ethic either.  In fact, one of the most influential voices of evangelicalism, Dr. Tim Keller, one of the great inhibitors of church growth and true spiritual revival is fornication.  One commentator put it this way:   Illicit sex is an idol in our generation that cannot be ignored, but must be dethroned if the worship of the true God is going to fill the Temple of His Church.

Respected authors are giving us a bleak if honest picture of things.  In Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate, and Think about Marrying, we read that perhaps 90% of young Americans will experience intercourse before getting married.  This includes Evangelicals, Roman Catholics, and even Lutherans.  According to Dr. Keller, one of the biggest obstacles to repentance for revival in the Church is the basic fact that almost all singles outside the Church and a majority inside the Church are sleeping with each other.  Just like sex became a signal problem in the Garden of Eden, it is the signal problem we face inside and outside of the Church today.

One of the biggest problems with God is that He has things to say about how we live our lives.  One of the biggest problems with the Church is that it seems the only thing we know to say is "No.  Bad boy.  Bad girl."  We have forgotten how to speak the yes of God's gracious intention in creation, of the nobility of the love of husband and wife which signifies the love betwixt Christ and His Church, and of the positive nature of holy living.  When we do, we make it sound about as crass as it can sound -- stop fooling around because there is something in it for you.  Is that all we have is an appeal to vanity?  There is something in it for you if you try to be holy?  Holiness is not a path to get what you want.  It is the fruit of Christ living and working in You by the power of His Spirit.  Holiness does not open new doors or self-fulfillment; holiness is the shape of our lives when God has declared us to be new in baptism and placed His Spirit within our hearts to teach us this newness.  It is not easy.  It is not painless.  But it is the path laid out for us by Christ Himself, forged through death by His own sacrifice, so that we might follow Him.  True Christianity does not give the false promise that you can have all you want with half the guilt.  True Christianity does not lie to us about the character of life in Christ.  True Christianity depends not upon gimmicks to tempt us into the right nor fear to keep us from the wrong.  True Christianity works through the means of grace to create in us new and clean hearts, to renew a right spirit within us, restoring to us the joy of our salvation, upheld in this way by the Spirit of Christ and of His resurrection.

It is not that sex is the problem.  It is that unclean hearts are the problem.  Repentance which has become emotional "forthiness" (to quote one source) or an attempt to renovate the heart by the use of the Law instead of the Gospel.  Christian life that has become too comfortable in the ways of sin and too fearful of the ways of holiness, truth, beauty, and virtue.  It is not enough to hate sin.  We need also to love good.  As long as we hate evil more than we love good, we will be caught in temptation, fall victim to temptation, and suffer its guilt and isolation.  Maybe in the beginning of Christian life we will hate sin more than we love good but maturity of life and growth in grace and in the Spirit will certainly lead us to love the good (Christ) more than we even hate the evil.  This is not merely a problem for those not yet of the Kingdom of God; it is the constant struggle of those who are of the Kingdom of God by baptism and faith, who live in but not of the world, who are declared righteous in Christ but are only becoming holy in small steps by the Spirit's power and Christ working in us.

Sex is the first place sin showed up according to Genesis.  It remains the back door to our hearts which the devil uses to attempt to screw up what God has begun in us.  Sexual immorality is one of the first places where those who call themselves Christian need to start in their quest for holiness under the tutelage of the Spirit with the power of God's grace at work in them.  Perhaps Keller has it right.  The Church has too long looked with a blind eye or spoken with a selective tongue to the desires of the flesh.  It is time for us to speak bluntly but positively both of evil and of good.

All Who Would Valiant Be...

Percy Deamer is hardly among the most favored hymn writers for most Lutherans.  That is not to say he is not a person of substance and consequence.  He was a man of boundless energy, various interests, and many pursuits.  I remember his Parson's Handbook and his work with Ralph Vaughan Williams on The English Hymnal. It was somewhat of a surprise to find it included in Lutheran Book of Worship in 1978.  I was even more surprised that when Lutheran Worship came out in 1982 his text All Who Would Valiant Be would take up two full pages and offer two different tunes.  Prior to its inclusion in LBW I do not believe it had ever appeared in a Lutheran hymnbook and the premium of space in any hymnal make it remarkable that LW offered it in two tunes on two full pages..

All of this would lie forgotten in my memory except I happened to watch part of Margaret Thatcher's funeral at St. Pauls in London and All Who Would Valiant Be was sung as one of the hymns for the service.  The gates of my mind flooded with memories occasioned by hearing this hymn after so many years.  As I recall we sang it only a couple of times where I served in New York.  The first was when we were getting to know the then "new" LW and we had an impromptu hymn sing prior to a congregational event.  An English fellow in the parish asked if we might sing hymn 383.  When we turned to it, we realized that few of us but him had ever sung it before.  So an unlikely Lutheran from across the pond taught it to us American Lutherans.

It was the song of him who was Valiant-for-Truth, from Part II of Paul Bunyan's The Pilgrims' Progress.   The version below from Lutheran Worship.

All who would valiant be ’gainst all disaster,
Let them in constancy follow the Master.
There’s no discouragement shall make them once relent
Their first avowed intent to be true pilgrims.

Who so beset them round with dismal stories
Do but themselves confound—their strength the more is.
No foes shall stay their might; though they with giants fight,
They will make good their right to be true pilgrims.

Since, Lord, You will defend us with Your Spirit,
We know we at the end, shall life inherit.
Then fancies flee away! We’ll fear not what they say,
We’ll labor night and day to be true pilgrims.

The hymn recalls the words of Hebrews 11:13: "...and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."  Pilgrim here does not mean one who is cowed by the constraints, conflicts, and uncertainties of the journey taken through foreign land to the home of heaven.  No, the point here is that the pilgrims are bold, valiant, undaunted by trial and trouble, and their home undimmed by disappointment and earthly failure.  For their minds and eyes are upon Christ who has gone before to prepare the way, who promises none will be snatched from His hand, and who calls us to be the people we were declared to  be in our baptism.  Christians are not the defeated whose lives are burdened by failure and marred by scars.  Christians are those whose victory is already sealed in Christ, whose hope endures in the face of suffering, and whose confidence continues amid uncertainty.  I wish we sang such hymns with more enthusiasm.  They honestly admit the struggles and difficulty of living as Christians in but not of the world.  Yet they do not admit defeat nor do they surrender the nobility of their cause as the children of God who follow in Christ's way.

It is said in the hymnal companions that this hymn was once popular in schools but now is less frequently sung by children.  This is too bad.  It is not a hymn we know but one we learn.  Is that not the nature of our Christian life -- learning each day anew from the repentance born of our failures to seek ever new the good that forgiveness makes possible.  Surely if anyone should view the pilgrims' progress as the valiant fight of faith it should be children.  Before they learn from the weariness and wounds of their elders to hope for little and expect even less, they should be encouraged to strive for more, for the fullness of the life and hope that only Christ makes possible.

BTW... to finish that which began my recollection... Watch the Margaret Thatcher funeral (not memorial, not celebration of life, not enthronement to sainthood but funeral).  Good music and good liturgy... the preaching was good as well -- especially for a "state" event, if not a state funeral.

The pursuit of fulfillment. . .

In the old days when a parent had a kid who could not finish college or hold a job or settle down, they would say "he [or she, though it was more often a boy] is still finding themselves..."  Now, until you’ve found yourself, has become the reason for delaying marriage and choosing cohabitation.  No one wants a spouse who is not there yet -- apparently it is okay to live with a guy or girl who has not arrived at the magic moment of maturity and personal fulfillment.

What does it mean to find yourself?  I am not sure I have ever gotten to that point.  I still do goofy things (ask my family).  I often feel like a child.  My mind goes in a thousand different directions at the same time.  I get all wrapped in something and then forget about it for a long time.  I start many projects and do not complete everything I begin.  I still dream dreams of what could be or might still be.  I change my mind.  I am curious about many things.  I read car magazines and day dream of hot rods (always have).  I doodle.  I do not think that I am as old as the years say and it kind of scares me to think that one day I will look in the mirror and not see the mid-20s person I have seen for thirty years.

If I had waited for things to fall into place, for me to grow up, for me to find myself, well, I never would have gotten married or had kids or become a Pastor.  I am still "finding myself" and do not consider that an "aha!" moment will ever come to let me know I have arrived.  It not only saddens me but shocks me to think that there are significant numbers of folks who are putting their lives on hold in order to "find themselves".

As Premarital Sex in America found, young adults think you shouldn’t get married until your personality is basically fixed, until you’ve found yourself.  So they live their lives indulging in things without making commitments -- career, job, spouse, family, etc...  In this way, living at home or returning to home to live carries less of its old baggage and becomes legitimate cover the legitimate pursuit of the completed self -- a necessary conclusion before new chapters of life may begin.

But why am I surprised...  We talk as if we have no time for anything until we retire and then we fill our time with things that prevent us from doing what we said must wait until retirement (volunteering).  We treat life as an inward pursuit of self instead of the external pursuit of others, service, and love that gives without expecting return.  We think that maturity comes first and then commitment instead of commitment becoming the means to maturity.  We expect that marriage must wait until we are "ready" for it and then exploit our immaturity and make it last as long as possible as if marriage and family were burdens to be postponed as long as humanly possible.

It seems to me that the great lie of finding self and the endless pursuit of personal fulfillment is one of the great success stories of the devil.  He has done a pretty good job of convincing us that the things which once came first in life are so important that they must be delayed until we are ready for them.  At this rate we will never be ready and this is his giggle behind the whispered lies of "finding self".

I often take delight in telling couples who have slept around for years, tried out living together with a number of different potential spouses (or not potentials), and have cohabited for years to try it out and see if it is right, while saving up money for the big wedding of their (mainly her) dreams, that the folks who are happiest in marriage tend to be those who went right from a dorm room or parents house into their home and life together as husband and wife.  That all the stuff we think makes us ready, also seems to make us less satisfied by what we waited for than those who married without a trial period.  In other words, could it be that the very thing that we are holding off for is the thing that helps us realize who we are?  We live in a time of incessant navel gazing and constant analysis of whether or not we are happy or should be happy or will be happy... all the while life goes merrily along leaving the ponderers in its dust...  Don't get caught up in the pursuit of personal fulfillment and don't buy into the lie of finding yourself.  That is what started sin in the first place...

Amen... Come!

Sermon for Easter VII c, preached Sunday, May 12, 2013.

How often don’t we encounter words on a menu that warn us: No Substitutions.  We like our freedom of choice.  We like being able to adapt and adjust things to suit us.  We bristle at the idea that there are no substitutions, no choices or changes allowed.  So it comes as no surprise that want a God who honors our choices.  That is what makes the commandments so onerous – no substitutions, choices, or changes.  It is what it says.  Ours is not a God of choices but of consequences.
    When we pray “Come, Lord Jesus” we receive not only the Lord and His promises but the Spirit who comes in the name of the Lord, who gives us faith to trust in what He promises.  When we pray for the Spirit, the Spirit teaches us to seek and pray “Come, Lord Jesus.”  God offers us not faces and choices of access, but salvation through His Son and the Spirit who imparts knowledge and trust in Jesus Christ. 
    So when we pray, we are not praying for our options but for the Lord, for His gifts, and for His will.  Every pray we pray in the Name of Jesus is a prayer that prays “Thy will be done.”  We do not give God options and choices.  What the cross has taught us and the Spirit has led us to believe is that no substitutions is a good thing.  That God’s will is not something to be feared, but good, gracious, and loving.  To pray is to pray for the will of God to be done in us, among us, and through us.  This is how the Spirit teaches us to pray and this is what it means to pray in Jesus’ name.  Not choices but confidence in God’s gracious will.
    The Spirit and the Church cry out, “Come, Lord Jesus!”  It is the prayer of the faithful in times of courage and in times of weakness, in times of great expectation and in times of great fear.  Faith has confidence in God’s good and gracious will.  When we pray in Jesus’ name, it is this good and gracious will for which we pray.  The Spirit who teaches us to pray this way, teaches us that His will is good and gracious.
    Those who hear the Word of the Lord and by the Spirit believe that Word, do not approach God in fear of His will but precisely because we have confidence in His prudential and gracious will.  We cry to God not for options we can chose but because God has chosen to give us His Son and to give us His Kingdom and we are confident He gives us all things in Christ.  As hungry cry out for food and thirsty for water, so do the prayers of God’s people cry out for one thing.  God’s gracious will.
    That will has consequences for us and our lives.  The holiness that we were clothed with in baptism becomes our delight.  The new way of the Kingdom becomes our joyful path.  The yesterdays that once consumed us give way to the tomorrow we did not know we had.  The work of the Spirit is to teach us Christ, teach us confidence in Christ, and lead us to joy in Christ.  Christ comes with the Spirit who gives us faith.
    Christ cannot be born again in flesh and blood as He was in Bethlehem.  But He is born in bread and wine of the Holy Communion, in the water of baptism, and in the living voice of His Word.  Christ does not repeat what He has done on the cross but He comes to repeatedly bestow on us and in us the gifts He won by His death and resurrection.
    He comes not to transform today into heaven but to lead us through this day to the eternal life and heavenly glory He has prepared for us.  He keeps us in His grace so that we are holy and blameless, fully ready and prepared for Him when He comes again in His glory.  And we encounter Him and His grace, His gifts and His Spirit, in the Word and Sacraments. Just like we do not eat once or breath in once but continually are nourished with food and continually breath in air, so do we as God’s people continually pray “Come, Lord Jesus” and continually receive and rejoice in Lord who comes to us in the means of grace.
    The Spirit whom Christ sends is not some new and different God but the Spirit of Christ and of His resurrection.  The Spirit does not give us new revelation or different revelation but reveals Christ to us.  He opens our hearts to receive the Christ who shows us the Father and imparts to us the Kingdom of God in the Word and Sacraments.  That is why we wait upon the Lord.  We have confidence in God’s good and gracious will.  The cross has shown us what it means for Him to love us, the resurrection has proven to us we have a future worthy of our trust, and so in life and in death our hope and comfort is the same – God’s gracious and saving will.
    As a child I learned to pray at meals “Come, Lord Jesus be our guest...”  Maybe you did also.  But the prayer can be misunderstood.  We do not pray for the Lord to be our guests subject to our terms.  We acknowledge that we are always His guests.  He is the Giver.  We receive from His goodness.  That is enough.  We live in confidence of this and so we are not afraid to pray, not afraid of what His answer will be, and not afraid of the future.  So the Church and all Christians cry out, Amen!  Come, Lord Jesus!