Still time to sign up. . .

I have been asked to teach a continuing ed course in August in two locations.  The information is listed below.  Take a gander and if you are interested, sign up and join us.  It is not only for pastors but also for lay folks as well.

August 4–6, 2025 in Auburn, MI &

August, 12-14 in Cupertino, CA 

The Rev. Larry A. Peters is a native of Nebraska and graduated from St. John’s College, Winfield, Kansas, Concordia Senior College, Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne (1980). He vicared on Long Island and served his first call in Cairo, New York, before moving to Clarksville, Tennessee, where he has served Grace Lutheran Church as senior pastor for thirty-two years. He is now pastor emeritas of Grace. In 2017 Concordia Theological Seminary recognized him as alumnus of the year. He has served as a circuit visitor in the Atlantic and Mid-South districts, is currently chairman of the Synod’s Commission on Constitutional Matters, sits on the Synod’s Commission on Handbook, and is also secretary of the Mid-South district. He has also served on the planning committees for the Synod’s Institute for Liturgy, Preaching, and Church Music for the last ten years. Pastor Peters has published many periodical articles and served as a contributor to a number of CPH volumes. He is the author of the popular blog, Pastoral Meanderings. Pastor Peters has been married to his wife, Amy, for more than forty-six years, and they have three adult children and two grandchildren. He is currently trying to figure out what retirement means.  

At All Times and in All Places: All God's People Pray 

More words about prayer can be found in the Scriptures than about most other topics, and yet God’s people struggle with what it means to pray. This course will examine the practice of prayer among God’s Old Testament people, through the time of Christ, through the history of Christianity, and down to the present day. What is prayer? What does it mean to pray? How do we pray? How did the people of God order their prayer lives before us? What is the difference between and what is the connection with the individhttps://witness.lcms.org/the-magazine/ual prayer lives of God’s people and the common prayers of God’s people together? What does God’s Word teach us about prayer? This course will help participants learn and appreciate the lessons of the past on the practice and discipline of prayer both as individuals and as a people gathered together for worship and prayer. All of us are both amateurs and professionals when it comes to praying, and this course is both for those who lead and teach God’s people to pray and for the people of God in their discipline of prayer throughout the circumstances and places of life.  

Locations:    Grace Lutheran Church 303 Ruth St. Auburn, MI 48611 To download the registration form, click here.  

Lutheran Church of Our Savior 5825 Bollinger Rd. Cupertino, CA 95014  To download the registration form, click here.

Coordinators:  Michigan:  Rev. Aaron T. Schian Email: aaronschian@yahoo.com Phone: (607) 972-5792  & California:  Rev. John Bestul Phone: 408.252.0345 Email: pastorjbestul@lcos.org 

Schedule Class begins the first day at 12:00 p.m. and concludes at 12:00 p.m. the final day.
 

 

I renounce Him. . .

This comparison below of Luther's revisions of the Rite of Holy Baptism give shape to the move to declutter the rite from its Latin original.  It was not quite that anything before was terrible except it was so busy as to overshadow the central work of God in Word and water.  What was salutary in Luther's day may not be the situation we face today.  I suspect that few Lutherans today would feel at home with Luther's 1523 version.  It is not because there were too many ceremonies.  It is entirely because there is too much emphasis on the devil and on the break between the child now born again of water and the Word and the demons and their evil.  We just don't talk like that today.

The sad truth is that we save people for something and not from something.  The devil and evil have become antiquated concepts of an ignorant age in which things could not be explained.  It is a convenient lie that the devil surely loves.  He is not evil anymore than any one of us is evil.  We are all merely misunderstood.  Alas, understanding have become the new gospel -- not the one in which our Lord became incarnate for our salvation and lived a holy life to be credited to us as a righteousness we did not earn and die to end the tyranny of sin and rise to end the tyranny of death.  No indeed.  This new gospel is one of tolerance, respect for differences, truth that is a personal possession and defined individually, and life which is fulfilled in happiness.  How easy it is to make diversity, equity, and inclusion into the will of God for us as well as our will for ourselves!  That is certainly not the world of Luther but neither is it our world.  No, the devil is real and evil is real.

Sometimes people have said to me that they have never seen an exorcism.  Really?  We have an exorcism every time there is a baptism.  We add back in what rites have removed over time to remember the reality of evil and to make sure that people understand this is about transferring one from a kingdom of death to a kingdom of life in Christ by means of the water and Word.  Furthermore, we make sure everyone in the congregation says with the baptized and the family of the baptized and the sponsors, I renounce and I believe.  There is something going on here more powerful than a pat on the head by God and cutesy behavior at the font.  We do not talk about evil and the evil one to frighten people.  The devil and his minions do a good enough job of that.  But we do acknowledge that baptism is not about our decision anymore than it is a sentimental practice that shows we love babies.  Indeed, we admit that the devil is a roaring lion seeking our destruction and that the Christian life is a dance against the death of Him who would deprive God of one more for whom Christ died and rose.  

“I adjure thee, thou unclean spirit, by the name of the + Father and of the + Son and of the + Holy Ghost that thou come out and depart from this servant of God, (Name)."   Off hand I do not quite recall what other baptismal rites of other churches say but this has always been a powerful statement I have always included.  It is not for flash or style but for substance.  The devil is warned to keep his paws off of the one who belongs to God even as the child of God is warned that the devil does not play fair or nice so keep your distance.  We need that.  We need that now more than ever.  While the world and its evil seems more obvious to some of us than ever before, it is dismissed within and without the churches by a world which does not count these things as evil or the evil one as any real threat anymore.  

Luther’s 1523 Rite	Luther’s 1526 Rite	Lutheran Service Book, p. 268
Excorcism with Exsufflation	Exsufflation	Invocation & Admonition from Holy Scripture
Sign of the Cross	Sign of the Cross	Name & Sign of the Cross
Two Prayers	One Prayer
Giving of Salt
Flood Prayer	Flood Prayer	Flood Prayer
Exorcism	Exorcism (shortened)
		Enrolling of Sponsors
Prayer
Mark 10:13-16	Mark 10:13-16	Mark 10:13-16
Lord’s Prayer w/ Laying on of Hands	Lord’s Prayer w/ Laying on of Hands	Lord’s Prayer w/ Laying on of Hands
Ephphatha
Blessing & Entrance into the Church	Blessing & Entrance into the Church	Blessing & Entrance into the Church
Renunciation of the Devil	Renunciation of the Devil	Renunciation of the Devil
Profession of Faith	Profession of Faith	Profession of Faith
Anointing on Chest & Back
Declaration of Intent	Declaration of Intent	Declaration of Intent
Baptism	Baptism	Baptism
Anointing on Head & Peace		Blessing
White Garment	White Garment	White Garment
Baptismal Candle		Baptismal Candle
		Welcome
		Prayer & Peace

A whole lot of grumbling going on. . .

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, one year series, preached this week.

There is a whole lot of grumbling going on in the readings for today.  The whole congregation of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron for leading them out of slavery only to die of hunger in the wilderness.  Moses complained to God about it.  Though what we heard in Acts seems peaceful enough, a few verses and chapters later the complaints betrayed the calm here.  Finally in the Gospel from St. John, the disciples grumbled to Jesus that He had preached too long, the people were hungry, and it was time to send them home.  When Jesus protested, they complained that they did not have enough money to buy bread for this crowd of thousands even if there was a supply available.  Peter complained that a little boy’s lunch would not go far.  Then after Jesus had done the unthinkable and fed them all with baskets of leftovers for each of the naysaying disciples to take home, the crowd grumbled that Jesus was not going to feed them every day.  Why, it sounds like Church!

In every case, the grumbling echoed the mistake of Eve in Eden.  The grumbling presumes that what we really need are things, things to make us happy, to take away our hunger, to relieve us of the labors of this life, to take away our pain, to make us happy or healthy or wealthy.  God is rich in mercy but to us He is stingy with the things we think we need.  Jesus seems to be holding out on us even though He has given us more than our minds could conceive, our hearts could desire, or our works accomplish.  He has given us life and not just life but the abundant life that death cannot end and trials cannot overwhelm its joy.  He has not come to make today better but to give us eternity, not to provide meals to delight our eye and palate but the good of everlasting life, and not to give us things but Himself – most supremely in His flesh and blood in bread and wine.

We are all in the wilderness for now but Jesus is here with us.  He is the author and perfecter of the faith, who has gone before us to carve out the way through sin and its death and He has come back to us to lead us to our home in His presence.  But until we learn to stop grumbling and to start looking to Him who has come for us, the faded promise of the moment will always steal our eternal joy.  The people of Israel got food to satisfy the body but they got so much more in the kindness and compassion of the God of their salvation.  The Church may not have a fortune in the bank or great influence in the public square but we have the Gospel of Christ and Him crucified for us and every sinner.  Your table may not be abundantly set for every meal but the abundant food of His flesh and blood are always near you.
Of course, we do not live by bread alone but that does not keep us from the temptation to judge all by the bread of this life.  In the midst of it all, our Lord is still teaching us what He said in His temptation.  We live by the bread of God’s Word.  Of course, the troubles and trials of this mortal life will soon be over but the Word of the Lord, according to Jesus, is eternal and so is its promise to us.  Jesus is the bread of life and all who eat of His flesh and drink of His blood already have eternal life.  We think what we need is some relief from all that is wrong now but Jesus knows we need something far bigger.  We need forgiveness, life, and salvation.  The world and our flesh are always listening to the devil who says this is not enough.  So we grumble to one another and to God.  Jesus is still there among us telling us over and over again, “I am the Bread of Life.”  It will never be proven to us that His word is true until we no longer need any proof.  So we live the life we live by faith.

Once someone grumbled to me that I lived in a pollyannaish world.  You know.  Pastors  have perfect families and don’t even pay taxes, right?  Of course, this is a lie and one that cuts through the heart of every pastor who struggles to shepherd the flock of God as well as the Good Shepherd.  But that is how faith seems.  It seems like blind optimism or naivete in a world where tariffs loom, real wars are fought, the hungry languish, the afflicted are in pain, the righteous suffer, and nothing seems to get better.  Our help is in the Name of the Lord.  Faith is not reasonable but it is the path of hope in a hopeless world – other than constant grumbling.  We do not have everything we want and sometimes we lack everything we need but we have Christ, the power of His Word to bring us to and sustain us in faith.  We have the baptismal water which gave us new birth to everlasting life.  We have absolution to relieve the guilty conscience so that we might focus not on sin but on righteousness.  We have the bread of His flesh and the cup of His blood to feast upon now as the foretaste of the eternal.

Grumbling presumes that perception is reality.  Faith is the conviction of what is unseen.  The grumbling have no room for joy.  The faithful have a joy and a peace that is beyond reason.  The old Adam presumes that we know what is really real but the new man created in Christ Jesus sees and judges by faith.  What no one has money to buy, Jesus gives freely to all who come.  Forgiveness, life, and salvation and the only price of entrance is faith, prompted by the Spirit, returning us week after week right here.  I cannot command you to stop grumbling but I can call you and me to walk in faith, delighting in the good things of God, and doing them.

Oh, how I long for it. . .

A hierarchical structure is as ancient as sinful man and never new.  What has been in dispute, however, is whether or not the Church is hierarchical.  To many the hierarchy of Christian Church is pretty much the same as have been the ancient hierarchies of business, academia, and government.  It was this that was behind the Reformation (at least on Luther's side).  Is such servile obedience given to a man, a council, a teaching magisterium, or Scripture?  Luther, as he certainly discovered, was in battle against a hierarchy that would ultimately become self-destructive and manifest a tyranny that would work against the faith.  As long as the top of the heap was a good or simply benign man, the faith could survive but as we have witnessed in Rome, when that man is neither good nor benign, the hierarchy has the power to silence and destroy the faith along with the faithful.

According to Rome, God has designed the Church to be a hierarchy and not a democracy.  On this Luther would certainly agree.  What is in contention is what or who is at the top of that hierarchy.  For Rome, the successor of Saint Peter is at the top.  The Eastern Church would certainly insist that it was not the man or the office Rome claims.  Luther would also agree to this.  But what was new in the Reformation was the idea that in place of man or council stood the catholic Scripture, the Word of God that does not change and that endures forever.  According to Rome, the pope rules the entire Church and there is no Church apart from him, from his rule, and from his reign.  Rome has not quite figured out what to do with the East and its answer for Luther was excommunication with the presumption that if the Pope wanted Luther in hell, he had the power to make it happen and for God to do it.  So remains the question of the hope of the hierarchy.

According to Rome, the bishops are the successors of the twelve apostles but the Pope is more like Christ.  Jesus does not rule through a collegial authority of bishops but through the Pope.  The authority of a priest remains inextricably bound to the authority of his lawful bishop (during ordination he solemnly promises to respect, obedience, and fidelity along with obedience to the Deposit of Faith).  The abuse scandal in Rome has highlighted the dysfunctional character of this hierarchy in large measure because the pope is not honest with his bishops and his bishops are not honest with him just as bishops are not honest with their priests anymore than the priests are honest with their bishops.  Perhaps even more concerning is the fact that hierarchies always seem to be in pursuit of power and territory.  Even when the papal claims were surrendered in favor of a financial remuneration, popes have continued to sit at table with the world's leaders and speak and act as if they were one of them.  Apparently Jesus' words about His kingdom not be of the world have fallen on deaf ears.

Of course, the hierarchy of the Word of God did not quite pan out like Luther thought.  There were those only too happy to throw the baby out with the bath water.  Lutheranism has been the odd church out since with Protestants of all stripes disdaining everything except their own wisdom and fearful of all things catholic.  Yet, it all said, Lutheranism remains the brightest light before us even if its jurisdictions and people have not lived up to the promise.  A catholic Scripture living at home with catholic doctrine and practice remains the top of our pyramid.  A priestly ministry which lives not over but with, living out a different vocation than the lay but together as one in complementary life between church, home, and world remains still the vision before us.  When Jesus said in His Church there would be no lording it over as they do in earthly kingdoms and realms, He did not mean either a hierarchical monarchy for His Church nor a democracy in which the majority ruled.  He meant something so different that it has remained more goal than achievement -- namely, the hierarchy of God's Word before the hearts and minds of a people so precious to Him that He was willing to become incarnate, live for their righteousness, die for their atonement, and rise for their immortality.  This will not accord well with a papal authority above the Word of God nor the vote of council in a different majority rule even as it will not live in the democratic sacred space of the ballot box.  But it will live where the Spirit works and the means of grace live here so that we might live there with God forever.  Oh, how I long for this vision to become real. 

The Word of God doers not change. . .

If you will recall, in 2016, Crossways, publishers of the English Standard Version of the Bible, said that this would be a permanent version and no more changes made.  Then, they said this: 

“the text of the ESV Bible will remain unchanged in all future editions printed and published by Crossway.” The goal behind this decision to make the text permanent was to stabilize the English Standard Version, serving its readership by establishing the ESV as a translation that could be used “for generations to come.” We desired for there to be a stable and standard text that would serve the reading, memorizing, preaching, and liturgical needs of Christians worldwide from one generation to another. . . We have become convinced that this decision was a mistake.

You can find the four changes (2007, 2011, 2016, and now 2025) online or you can look at them here, here, here, and here.  I will admit that four revisions in over 24 years is not much but it is significant to Christians who do not like people playing with the Biblical text.  While most of these are minor and should not excite anyone but the Neaderthals among us, others are not.  Curiously, some of them are returns to an original rendering undoing previous changes.

Since the LCMS uses the ESV as a typical though not official version, it has stirred things up on the blogosphere.  Social media is replete with voices from those who are indignant about such changes.  For what it is worth, the LCMS uses the 2001 original in its worship, lectionary, and study Bibles.  Some pew versions may use another date but I suspect we have limited ourselves to the 2001 version and to our own edits which Crossways allowed back then.  

I know of no version which satisfies everyone.  It does not have to.  Regardless of what we do to the Word of God or how we hear it, the Word of God does not change.  Versions do not negate this principle even though they do establish just how hard it is to create a text which cannot be misunderstood.  Language is not static and words evolve in meaning in our usage -- none of this affects what God has said but it does affect how we hear it.  Curiously, so many of the things we think will make things clearer only obscure the meaning further.  The key to the Scriptures is not a flawless translation but Christ.  The Scriptures read outside of Christ are not the same Scriptures read in Christ -- not because the words are different but the meaning is.  We ought not be preoccupied by finding or even producing a perfect translation since the language changes and every translation will eventually wear out not because it is wrong but because it is no longer addressing the same people and the same time.  So it is good to remember that no translation ought to be a hill on which we are ready to die.  On the other hand, we ought to strive in every place and at every time to be as faithful to the Word that endures forever no matter how language changes or translations revise.  If you are using a version that ends up requiring some pastor to say What the Bible really says..., you are probably using the wrong one.  Every Lutheran pastor worth his salt will say to you What this means is...  That said, is you use a reliable translation, the places where there are problems really a few and they do nothing to affect the truth that endures forever.

Not an aesthetic difference. . .

Ever since we accepted the phrase beauty is in the eye of the beholder every ordinary standard of beauty has disappeared and everything and anything goes.  Go to any modern art gallery and see what passes for art (never mind the crude and vulgar stuff).  The same is true in music.  My wife and I loved being season ticket holders at the Nashville Symphony for many, many years.  Then we began to notice that the classical repertoire seemed to repeat (how many times did we hear Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle -- lovely but repeats were not what we were paying for!).  Then we began to notice that half of the program was devoted to modern music -- typically non-melodic and experimental such as an electric violin.  We also noticed that when the modern half of the program was first, people came during intermission and the seats that were empty at the beginning filled up.  The reverse happened as well when we saw empty seats in the second half which was some sort of modern music which we endured rather than enjoyed.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder -- except that the people paying the bills knew the difference.  Even if you cannot quite put it into words, we all know the difference.

When it comes to church music the typical framework of the argument is over beauty.  I would argue that pop music in Christian form fails in the beauty department for sure but there is another realm of failure.  Church music is not simply beautiful but the servant of the Word.  So much of contemporary Christian music fails not only on the sound but the content.  How many times can you sing about what you want to do for Jesus or how He is your BFF or lover or whatever?  How many times can you sing about how Jesus has been there in hard times and will lead you to happiness or success?  The failure here is not the failure simply to be beautiful but the failure to accurately convey the church's song.  The actual charge is bigger than beauty -- it is triviality, banality, sentimentality, and discardable music that is meant for the moment rather than eternity.  This is the problem.  It is not an aesthetic that we are contending for but faithful and noble song worthy of the voices of God's people as well as the ears of God.

This is not a conflict between low culture which mirrors the entertainment sound on our playlists and the high culture of classical music.  This is about a genre of music which is even less than the sounds of our secular playlists.  Indeed, how many so-called contemporary Christian artists' music would survive the competition with the major players among their secular counterparts?  Few, to be sure.  It is not that the sound of worship has begun to mirror what we hear in our ear buds but that it is not even as good as that playlist.  Worse than this, we have become immunized against real church music with a solid message and what those who went before bequeathed to us has become an alien sound to people who listen to contemporary Christian music all the time.  It is not simply folk music that has replaced the church's song and even if it were folk music we can think of what Vaughn-Williams and Holst and Brahms and so many others have done in restoring and passing on the folk music of the past.  No, this is not about folk setting vs the concert hall but about the true and solid content of our song -- singing back to God what God has said to us.

We all know that there are modern authors and composers who have kept up the tradition.  This is rather about the names of those who have not.  They make us sing of ourselves and our feelings and our wonder instead of what God has said and done to save and redeem His lost creation.  They urge us to see God in the little things and miss the great revelation of the incarnation and holy life, the cross and empty tomb.  They address God in familiar terms that are meant to help us with a warm and fuzzy feeling about Him when there is no conflict between awe and love at all.  Don't fall into the trap of arguing over a moving standard like beauty or meaningfulness and stay on the sturdy ground of God's Word and the Gospel itself.  This is enough for any listening Christian (and Lutheran!) to say that most of what we hear today that passes of hymnody and a Christian soundtrack is unworthy of God and of us.

Cause for concern. . .

With my newly minted Medicare card in my wallet, I read over the Christmas break about warning signs which ought to be cause for concern for everyone -- not just Medicare recipients -- in America.  National healthcare spending increased 7.5% year over year in 2023 to $4.867 trillion, or $14,570 per person, according to data released Wednesday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services  -- accounting for 17.6% of gross domestic product. The price index for what the Labor Department classifies as medical care—which includes visits to doctors, hospital stays, prescription drugs and medical equipment—has risen roughly 40% faster than the overall pace of inflation.  For the half who receive health insurance from their employer, their employers are shouldering a lot of those costs. For example, the average worker spent $6,296 in premiums for family coverage in 2024, according to KFF. Employers spent $19,276.  Medicare, which pays at a discounted rate for all medical claims, is not immune from this spiral and is set to run out of money in 5-6 years -- as more and more Americans depend upon Medicare as their primary insurance.  It is not a problem but a crisis.

All of this, of course, comes after we are pretty much back to normal (except for the accumulated debt of it all) since Covid.  But that is the problem.  This has become the new normal.  Labor costs, drug costs, provider costs, and insurance costs are all increasing faster than any other aspect of our economy.  So what can be done?  I have no answers.  I do wonder why Americans face spending increases that are far in excess of the costs around the rest of the world.  While I will be okay, I worry more about my kids and grandkids.  This is not sustainable.  The new normal is sounding the death knell for our pride and our daily lives.  Surely there is somebody smarter than I am who can figure out a path forward to guarantee a level of quality and affordability for the cost of medical care in the US.  I do not think it is a matter of one thing or another but a combination of things that must be considered and repaired to make sure that our children and grandchildren will enjoy a quality level of health care and we can afford it.  

For the life of me I cannot figure out why we as a nation are not more worried about this.  I will not demonize hospitals or physicians but I have grave concerns about the for profit health care industry and the effect of all of this on how business gets done in that industry.  I worry about the decisions that insurers are making about our health care and the huge proliferation of middle level managers who are neither physicians nor medical professionals and yet they are deciding what is normal treatment, what will be covered, and what it will cost.  I worry about the government taking it all over and I worry about the government not taking it all over -- either outcome is concerning.  I worry about the constant barrage of TV commercials for things neither I nor any other consumer can purchase without a prescription.  Again, I am old and nothing will happen to change much during my lifetime but no society can sustain itself without access to affordable and credible medical care.  The churches were once players in this but even where the names sound religious the churches have long ago ceded control of their hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care agencies to others (for profit who bought our names or to non=profit companies who act just like the profit making ones).  I am concerned.  You ought to be as well.

A back story. . .

While some laugh at the idea expressed by Pres. Trump of America purchasing Greenland from Denmark, there is a rather sordid back story to the relationship between Denmark and Greenland that is no laughing matter.  In the 1960s and 1970s, Denmark put into place a forced contraception policy aimed to put an end to what the government in Copenhagen viewed as excessive numbers of children born out of wedlock in Greenland.  In addition, they found it prudent to slow overall the birthrates on the island.  Some of this was done by the public health department without the knowledge of the girl's parents.  IUDs were forcibly placed in the girls.  They eventually sued the Danish government last year, demanding compensation and an official apology.   The IUD scandal from decades ago has never been resolved and represents just one tension in an already tense relationship between Greenland and Denmark.  In addition, a second scandal involved the removal of 22 Inuit children from Greenland to make them more overtly Danish and to help the culture of Greenland become more Danish when they returned.  The experiment was a failure and the children were never returned to their parents.  Some ended up in orphanages in Greenland and a few remained in Denmark where they were adopted. Many developed psychological problems and half died in early adulthood.

The sad reality is that the idea of reproductive freedom is solely to prevent reproduction and that birth control and even sterilization have a long and shocking history in the hands of governments who think they know best.  While some might think that people should decide for themselves such things, the decision always seems to involve depriving the child in the womb of the most basic of human rights, the right to life.  As tragic as it has become for whole societies to deem this life unworthy of any real and substantive protections, it is even more scandalous when those societies find it useful or expedient to deprive those considered less than desirable of their right to have a child.  Why is it that nearly everything that has to do with controlling a population somehow ends up about birth control and abortion?  I sometimes wonder if we have missed the hidden agenda behind current efforts on the part of any group to provide reproductive freedom is not in and of itself a means of controlling the people.  The curious thing in all of this, of course, is that those accused of controlling people are only trying to protect the children from those who have no value to them. 

What is it that we wish to convey?

As my wife and I were driving along, we listened to an LCMS congregation on the radio.  We figured it would be an uplifting choice against the constant struggle to find something decent while traveling.  It was not what we had expected.  The liturgy, what there was of it, was clearly written from start to finish and, although it could have been worse, it was a paraphrase of Bible passages strung together to form a substitute for the ordinary.  There were women's voices reading the lessons and the music left much to be desired.  Some of the hymns were generic hymns from the fundamentalist hymnal and others seemed to have little to do with either the lectionary or their place in the "liturgy".  The sermon was hard to follow since English was clearly a second language to the preacher.  The prayers were decently written but delivered as if the audience was not God but the people listening.

It does not matter which congregation this was or where they were located.  What matters is this.  Do we put our best foot forward in presenting ourselves to the world or do we present the average or even less?  Do we put out there the best face of the LCMS or the typical that passes for Lutheran but does not seem to want to be Lutheran?  Let me be clear.  I was not expecting a cathedral choir, Gregorian chant, or perfectly produced liturgy but I was expecting something that looked and sounded more like our official hymnal -- especially with respect to the hymns.  I was not expecting the world's best of anything but I did expect that those being showcased on air would be working harder to be the best at what they do than what we heard that day.  I was not expecting high liturgy or low but I did expect to recognize that this congregation was part of the fellowship to which I belong.  My wife told me to turn it off.  I insisted upon listening until the whole thing was over.  We were both expecting something that reflected the labor of hands and voices trying to do our best for His glory and as representatives of the LCMS.  What we got was embarrassing.

Lord knows things can and do go wrong on Sunday morning.  Where I have served we have had the heat or AC quit, birds dive bombing the nave, wasps looking for someone to sting, a choir anthem come undone while being sung, cell phone rings go off at the worst possible moment, emergency vehicles scream by, children scream, and a motorcycle break the sound barrier.  I get it.  Things happen.  But even these cannot undo all the planning and preparation that is designed to put our best foot forward and to strive to be and do our best for the Lord's glory.  The service was an example of how we fail by settling for that muddy middle in which we are neither good nor worse.  I suppose I should settle for that.  I am not sure God has to, though.  If you want to have a microphone, at least have something to say and practice it a bit before the red light goes on and the countdown is finished.  Even something designed solely for our entertainment should show evidence that they were trying.  If that is true for us, it is even more true of God.

 

Is the poison leaving our culture?

There are those who have for a very long time suggested that religion is a poison for the soul, for our life together as a nation and society, and for humanity as a whole.  Well, take a look around you.  Religion appears to be in decline in the West and do we see any improvement in our behavior or our values or our humanity?  It does not appear that marginalizing religion has helped to make much better.  We are divided and religion accounts for some of that division but not all of it.  Without a common set of values to guide us, we are relatively free to reinvent ourselves -- much in the same way we have reinvented marriage and gender.  But has it improved anything?  Has depression declined and are people nicer and happier without the ominous shadow of faith to rain on their parade?

The reality is that in poll after poll people responding from the vantage point of faith respond more positively about their happiness and the state of their well-being.  Instead of adding to their misery, faith (even those I would never embrace) seems to help them and they freely admit it.  The goal of a solid wall between church and state, religion and life, faith and the public square has been the goal of the secularists for a very long time.  It has been fueled by the false idea that religion is the cause of our problems.  Now we are waking up to and ever less religious society in the West and we seem to have more and more problems -- among them the decline of the West in population.  We have done a very fine job of separating sex from love and from marriage and children from everything so that we might have more money and time to pursue our own happiness and fulfillment but it has not gone according to the progressive plan.  We are old and alone and facing the prospect that the generations after us may not be able to support the social net of programs once designed to ensure a long and happy and healthy retirement.  Maybe the time for assisted suicide is now.  At least the aged among us will decide when it is no longer worth living.  Is that the golden future promised by a religion free society and life?  Obviously, I am speaking tongue in cheek.

The reality is this.  Christianity IS responsible for the elevation of the status of women, for the sacred protection of life, for the well-being of the child, for the esteem of the aged, for the honor of the home, for the binding shape of marriage, for the nobility of work, for the morality which is less words than deeds, for prayers even for enemies, for the increase in mercy and institutions that practice it, and a host of other things.  I do not believe it would be farfetched to suggest that Christianity has been the source of great happiness and if not happiness then contentment.  If Christianity is a poison, it is a poison we are in dire need of having today what with the politics of hate, the rigid lines of division, the self-indulgence that leads to despair, the cheapness of life, the fragility of love and marriage, and the diminishing families and homes of our people.  Those outside love to credit Christianity with everything bad but it is a false narrative and one that we would be smart to deny and discredit.  Christianity has been a force for good and its departure from Western culture and life has resulted not in sustainable bliss but unsustainable depression and fear.  No, we Christians are not perfect and far from it but the alternative offered to us by a religion free society is and should be our worst nightmare.