Hate Evil... Seek Good... Listening to the Voice of God

Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 23, preached on Sunday, October 11, 2009

You don't have to be very Lutheran to know the words, "We should fear, love, and trust in God so that..." With these familiar words Luther and his Small Catechism begin their explanations of the commandments. It is familiar territory to us. The Law with all of its big "Thou shalts" and "Thou shalt nots" is well known to us even if we cannot muster an exact rendition of each of the 10 commandments. But as Luther reminds us with these words of introduction, it is not that simple. We are not merely to hate evil but to seek good. There is the rub. The Pharisees understood the Law to be a guide on what to avoid. God's call is not merely to avoid evil but to do what is good and right and true – something we can only do in Christ.

Today we listen again to that three fold purpose of the Law that shapes us and shapes us for our lives in Christ. So if it all sounds a bit familiar, that is a good thing. And if it does not sound familiar, then it will after we are done. The first function of the Law or the Commandments is as a curb. Think of the curb on the street that keeps our cars on the roadway. This function of the Law flows from God's protective love. He has seen the evil that we are capable of and so like the heavenly Father He is, He acts to protect His kids.

The Law is given by God to reign in our behavior using the fear of being found out and the fear of being punished. They are not the same. The first function of the Law is the useful benefit of shame and guilt. Shame and guilt work to reign in the evil in our human hearts. What would our sinful world be like without shame or guilt. No one wants their bad side to show;
in this way God uses shame and guilt to keep people from doing their worst.

With shame and guilt come the fear of punishment. In the old days, the Law eked out its punishment in public – from thrashing of a whip to the extreme of hanging and death. We are too civilized for such public display but who can deny that seeking someone else suffer does not give us pause? Like when we drive down the road and see a driver being ticketed – we slow up because we know it could be me. The fear of being found out and punished is what keeps us from wounding each other and ourselves even more than we do. This is the gift of the Law that protects us from what others might do to us and what we might do to ourselves.

The second use of the Law is as a prelude to the Gospel. The Law acts as a mirror to show us our sin. In the mornings we stand in the bathrooms and look into the mirror not because we like what we see but because we figure we might be able to fix some of the bad stuff before others see us. Well in the same way, God's holiness stands as an accusation against our unholiness, the mirror that exposes what we have said, thought and done wrong. Marked with this guilt, we are made ready by this Law for the work of the Gospel.

This is the gift of the Law that plows up the soil of our hearts and minds so that we see our sinful predicament and what God has done in Christ to accomplish for us what we could not for ourselves. You cannot forgive some one who does not believe he or she is guilty. So even though this wounds us, it is the healing wound that prepares us for God's remedy, for the redemptive work of Christ that wins through suffering and death our forgiveness and life. We must be convicted before pardon has meaning and this function of the Law convicts us not to make us squirm but to prepare us to be saved in Christ. So the Law protects us and now prepares us to meet Jesus Christ, our Savior.

But what happens after the Gospel has made its home in our hearts and covered us with Christ's righteousness. Are we antinomians? Do we ditch the Law and do as we please? Have our hearts been so redeemed that they no longer need any guidance? Are we so sure that the voice of the sinful flesh is under control that we do not need to listen to the voice of righteousness? No, this freedom of the Gospel is new to us and will be abused by us unless we are led to know what is good and right and true. So for Christians the Law also functions not to protect or to accuse, but to guide, to show us the way that pleases God and is good for us.

The third use of the Law can happen only to those who Christ by faith and live in the grace of His forgiveness and redemption. Only in Christ can the Law now speak with a new voice. This voice is the voice that shows us what is good so that we who live in Christ may practice the good God desires. It is a rocky road and filled with wrong turns and failures but Christ is there through forgiveness to lead us and guide us in the way that we are to go.

I have one of the GPS things in my car that tells me how to get there when I do not know the way. For the Christian, the Law also functions in this way. How then shall we live in Christ the new life He has given us? The Law becomes our guide. We learn how we are to live from the very words that outside of Christ only condemned us. This voice of the Law speaks only to the Christian. For it is only in Christ that we are sanctified, being made holy, living and doing the good that He desires and working to avoid the evil that we know is wrong.

So when the prophet says, "Seek good and hate evil" this is a call to consider the Law, the commandments. It is a call to listen. Listen to the Law of God that teaches us fear so that our sinful natures are kept in check and the evil within us does not run over without limits. Listen to the Law of God that speaks to enlighten us, first showing us our sin so that God may show us the Savior who is Christ the Lord. Listen then Christians, to the Law of God, that now shows us Christians, who have been forgiven and granted new life in baptism, how then shall we live. If this sounds a little familiar to you, then great. You have learned the catechism well and understand its wisdom as it teaches us God's Commandments. If this is new to you, then great. We need to understand what the Law is given for – what it can and cannot do, what God intended it for...

First it functions like a curb to reign in our sinful behavior out of control... then it functions like a pointy finger to accuse us of the sin we would deny or hide so that in the light of this exposure Christ might apply the healing balm of forgiveness and life to us... and then, the redeemed of the Lord who the fullness of His love in Christ, hear again the same words speaking with a new voice – the guiding voice that says this is the path of goodness, this is the path of joy, this is the path God intends for us, this is the path Jesus own life displays... Don't confuse these functions or get them out of order or it will lead us astray... but listen and heed this voice and it protect you from others and yourself, prepare you for the application of the Gospel to your sinful life, and guide you in the way you are to live out your Christian freedom. Amen

Rest in Peace Alice C. Ellis

Alice Cristene nee' Skaufel Ellis, born January 17, 1939, in Carpio, North Dakota, to Birger and Ruth Skaufel. She died Saturday, October 17, 2009, about 6:30 pm. She was received into God's Kingdom through the waters of Holy Baptism on June 15, 1939, at First Lutheran Church in Carpio, ND, and was confirmed in her baptismal faith on November 1, 1952. She lived most of her life in Minot, ND. She had been previously a member of Zion Lutheran in Minot, ND, and Prince of Peace, Phoenix, AZ, before moving to Clarksville and becoming a member here at Grace in 1995.

She is survived by three children, sons Bob and Don Gilbertson, and daughter Vicki Colwell, by ten grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter, her sister Verna Schoeberg, and brothers James, Bill, & Larry Skaufel.

Burial will be in Sherwood, North Dakota with a Memorial Service here at Grace, Saturday, October 31, at 1 pm. Memorials are to Grace Lutheran Church Ministry Scholarship Fund.

Rest in Peace Doris Alfrieda Simpson

Doris Alfrieda Simpson was born March 13, 1919 in Detroit, MI daughter of the late William Pankratz and Alice Louise Neumann Pankratz. On November 25, 1937, she was joined in marriage to James Morrison Simpson, a marriage that lasted 63 years before he died in 2000. To this marriage were born a son, David, three daughters, Carole, Cathy, and Karen. She leaves to mourn, her family, grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren and many friends. All her siblings preceded her in death. Doris Simpson was received into God’s Kingdom through baptism, was confirmed, and was a member of Christ Lutheran Church in Detroit before moving to Clarksville where she became a member of Grace Lutheran Church in 1963. She served on the Altar Guild and was active in the congregation until illness prevented her.

One of the great things about being Pastor in one place for a long time is that the people you bury are people you know and this is one of the bad things as well. I met Doris from the beginning of my time here. The well kept shock of white hair, well put together –usually in a suit, and driving a great big car – the most vivid memory a white Cadillac that matched her hair and her style. She was forever a happy person with a smile that both welcomed you in and betrayed the years of struggle with her husband’s many health concerns and the ups and downs of a Detroit city girl who ended up in Tennessee.

If you asked Doris how she was, she was always “Peachy.”
And if you expressed to her your worries or fears, she would always respond, “Do your best and let God do the rest.” These might sound rather simplistic and shallow but nothing could be further from the case. Happiness and contentment are a choice you make – not the result of circumstances but a decision about how you will address them. Doris knew well the challenges and struggles that had touched her life and family but she chose to live in contentment and peace with her Lord always by her side and her heart focused upon His gift of joy.

Do your best and let God do the rest is not some moralism but an honest admission that you cannot control what life brings you nor can predict what the future might offer. But you can control your response to what life places at your doorstep. You do your best - whatever the circumstance - and you lay both your labors and your lack at the foot of the cross where our Lord finishes our feeble beginnings.

Cathy spoke to me of Romans 8:18 and how this passage had been comforting to a family watching as Doris was finally slipping away. “For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory waiting to be revealed to us in Jesus Christ...” During the moments of vigil by the bedside of a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend, these words bring us hope and consolation. What we endure today will give way to what God has prepared for us in joy – that is most certainly true.

As I thought about this and about the ever cheerful face of Doris, my own mind went to another passage from Romans. Turn a page back and St. Paul addresses our peace with God through faith with these words...

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit...

Doris lived a long life. 90 years and most of them content – even happy. This was not due to the ease of her life. Just the opposite. Her joy came amid suffering. Amid other things, Jim’s accidents and wounds so many and so often created sorrow and heartache and anxiety. Yet her heart was focused on joy and she knew peace through them all.

Her suffering became a school that built up her character in faith. She was always in Church where strength and peace fed and nourished her. At the communion rail where so often I said to her, The body of Christ given for you Doris, she received the strength of sins forgiven and life born in hope. Her character was a character of faith, created by faith, and nourished by faith.

Her character, shaped by her knowledge of God’s grace in Christ Jesus, bore the fruit of endurance. When her beloved husband Jim came near the end of his life, she did her best and let God do the rest and she got through it. When memory began to fail and she had to leave her home for a new one, she did her best and let God do the rest and she got through it. We learn in Christ that enduring is its own victory, that we do not have to overcome as long as we are not overcome in faith and victory is, indeed ours.

And in the end it was hope that she has left to us and hope that has received her now, into the arms of her blessed Savior, who called her by name once in baptism and now calls her by name face to face.

Lessons of faith come to us in many ways. Sometimes they come in the form of people we know. The challenges before us will not overcome us if we give them our best and place our trust in the Lord. The sufferings that touch our lives cannot steal away a joy that is rooted and grows in Christ and not in the circumstances around us. The character that marks a noble life is not born of rank or pedigree but of a people who wrestle with life’s struggles using the resources of faith and hope. The endurance that seems so fragile is in and of itself the victory of faith that will not give in to despair and refuses to define life by its disappointments. The hope that we have as Christian people is not some pie in the sky when you die hope but the real hope of a people who daily wrestle with disappointments and darkness yet we live in the light of Christ. So that these momentary sufferings are not worth comparing to the everlasting joy and peace that God has prepared for those who love Him.

So rest Doris... in the arms of Your Savior... rest and be at peace... God is with you... God is your Savior... now and even forevermore.

When Do We Stop Paying Attention To What We Know

Every year our confirmands are required to write a brief, two page report on an assigned topic (Such as "What is Baptism and What does it have to do with my faith?"). I have purposely avoided "What does this mean to me?" questions that might justify a loose canon of opinions. And every year I am amazed at what I read. A couple of years ago I had a kid place quotes from Pope John Paul II speaking on absolution (and they were great quotes). We publish those reports in the newsletter and at the Confirmation Banquet they read them to their peers, parents, godparents and grandparents. People come up to me at the banquet and in the Church expressing surprise at how great these reports are.

This year the eight being confirmed (on Reformation Sunday - October 25) have done another bang up job. Oh, sure, I edit a bit to make sure verbs and subjects agree, to get rid of any clauses trying to pass as sentences, to cut and paste a little bit so that their themes follow more logically, and, yes, remove a bit of heresy every now and then. But wow. They get it. They write with help of catechism, Bible, hymnal, Internet, parents, etc. but they put it together -- I can tell when parents added things here and there. The illustrations are personal and age appropriate and it tells me that the two and one half years of catechism have born some fruit.

What I want to know is how these kids (14 most of them) can get it with such clarity and then grow up to marry someone whose faith is completely foreign to Lutheranism and their own faith and then be content to join a non-sacramental church. How does that happen. They come from solid families, they are well catechized, and they are regular in the Lord's house. All of these things should help keep them true to their pledges of fidelity.

I had thought about this a lot and then it turns out one of those confirmed some years ago has had some family problems and, I am sorry to say, will be going through a divorce. In my conversations with this person (who has returned to their church) the issues included faith. It is not the first time but most of these happen in other geographic locales after they have finished college and moved away so maybe I do not know about them. When faith becomes a wedge between a husband and wife, it can be a very heavy burden to bear.

As a Pastor I deal with it when a child is born and the question of baptism comes up. Apparently many of these couples are dealing with such differences all along -- crystallized by a child but there long before. It points out again how sharing a faith and a church background impact the strength of a couple's relationship and their life together as husband and wife.

Living here in the Bible belt I found out quickly that the Southern Baptists have one of the highest rates of divorce among the churches located here. Lutherans and Roman Catholics are near the bottom. I am making nothing of this in particular but suggest that sharing a faith and a church home is a plus to people entering into what is often a difficult relationship in the best of circumstances -- I say this because of the pressures placed upon couples from the world around them and the other stresses faced by changes in the fabric of our culture (things that I did not have to face or my parents, but my children will).

We talk about faith all the time in my household -- not as a Pastor dictating but as people who believe passionately and who have opinions about subjects where faith's impact leads to conclusions. My children all are regular in God's house and, even though they grew up as PKs they have grown through the negatives to insist that the faith and worship is an active part of their everyday lives -- indeed their identity as people. I am not taking credit for this. I believe it flows from the liturgy, from catechesis, from the faith of their parents and grandparents, and from the open and freewheeling discussions on religion and faith we have so very often.

So I am writing to encourage parents. Bring your children up in the faith. Pray with them from an early age. Discuss things with them about the faith -- and listen to their opinions and engage them as Christian people. Let them see your faith at work. Encourage them when dating to consider faith as a component of their marriage and to address early on differences in religious convictions and upbringing. My point is not to demand but to equip them. There are enough things out there to pull them away from the faith and from a life of worship in God's House and to raise barriers between them as husbands and wives. Let's work very hard to make sure that faith is part of the glue that binds them together as individuals and couples and not one more pressure pulling against them.

As I began, these youth are amazing. I enjoy talking to them about the faith and engaging them on the difficult issues facing us as a people and as a country. I have had catechism students ask me about everything from tattoos and piercings to masturbation and oral sex. (Things I would have never talked to my Pastor about in a million years!) I have had catechism students challenge me to defend my faith in the face of scientific and cultural attacks on Biblical credibility. I have heard painful confessions from them and been privileged to speak God's Word of absolution to them over and over again. I have listened to them relate the struggles in their homes and schools and spoken with them about the healing balm of God's presence, peace, and grace.

I would not given up teaching catechism -- even though sometimes they drive me crazy. Now if I had a better handle on how to keep this going 4-12 years down the road... well, that is why it is not just me... or just parents... but the community of faith...

Now may He who began this good work within you, bring it to completion on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ... that is the prayer I pray as I will watch them confirmed in the faith... and by the way, at Grace we use those words between the absolution and the sharing of peace... to remember that confession and absolution are one of those great gifts from God to make this prayer into reality...

An Orthodox Theologian Looks at Luther's Catholicity

Orthodox theologian John Meyendorff on Luther's catholicity:

“Luther’s main intention was to go back to the New Testament, to revive the sense of the God of the Bible, the living God, the Creator and the Sovereign. He recovers the primitive concept of salvation as a drama, a battle between God and the evil powers of sin and death which have usurped God’s sovereignty over the world... Lutheran theology was indeed a re-establishment of the basic Biblical and Patristic elements in this drama. His concern for the catholic tradition of the church was obvious, and the Augsburg Confession itself claims to be nothing else than a reestablishment of the ancient apostolic faith liberated from all human philosophical systems.”

That quote by a premier Orthodox theologian is a powerful recognition of the purpose and desire of Lutheranism. For those of you interested in looking deeper in the tie between Wittenberg and Constantinople, you might check out a book called Augsburg and Constantinople. I don't know if it is still available or not. It is interesting.

My point is this. Could what Meyendorff said about the Augustana still be said of Lutherans? My fear is that the answer to that question is "no." We are not the church that the Augsburg Confession said we were. There are multiple reasons for this -- not in the least of which is nearly 500 years of history. There is also a more pointed reasons for this -- look at most Lutheran denominations and you find that most do not WANT to be the same church the Augsburg Confession said we were.

The drift between what we were and who we claimed to be and what we have become and who we want to be today has come slowly but surely. It is my conviction that the Lutheran struggle today is not between us and Protestants or Evangelicals or Roman Catholics. Our struggle is internal. We have become uncomfortable with our own skin. We have looked over the fence into the yards of other traditions because we no long like our own. It is not that we ditched all the history, we have reasons for what we do. Mission, outreach, evangelism, marketing, fitting in, becoming more American, science and technology... the list goes on. We have reasons for this and yet we also have a little guilt about the drift. This guilt is kept alive by those within every Lutheran church body who keep alive the confessional identity.

For the ELCA the Augsburg Confession has become a historical document. It was descriptive and can still be informative when needed but as soon as a church body begins to talk about the spirit of a document instead of the actual words you know what that says. The ELCA like to think of itself as a host bringing together divergent groups in a grand ecumenical and social quest for unity. So far only the Mainline Protestants have heard its call and most of them are dying out in size and influence. The real success has been keeping diversity alive as an agenda while at the same time clinging, ever so gently, to Lutheran identity.

For Missouri the Augsburg Confession has become less important to our history than Walther and democracy and congregationalism. When some in Missouri felt threatened by liberals in control, this became the means to maintaining orthodoxy. When some in Missouri felt threatened by conservatives, this became the means to maintaining their moderation. In the end it has crippled our church body and our style of governance looks like a bruised and battered body held together with splints, tape and bandaids. What Augustana spoke about has been filtered through the democracy of America and the urgency of Walther and a few ship loads of people who needed to justify the voyage. So the conservatives are out conservativing each other and the moderates are insisting that we are dying unless we change enough to make Jesus our first concern... all the while everyone pays lip service to a inerrancy... and confessionals speak a language about liturgy, sacramental theology, and life that flows from them as well as the efficacy of Scripture (that God's Word does what it says) and is attacked by both sides.

I for one believe that Lutheranism's core document, the Augsburg Confession, must be the pivotal confession in our self understanding, our raison d'etre, or we have no real reason for being... the ELCA can simply become the Evangelical Church in America and Missouri can become several churches (the Evangelical Church of Missouri and other States and the Fundamentalist Church of Missouri and Other States). The Confessionals in both can leave and either join to become what Augsburg envisioned or find a home in one of the existing bodies where they can continue Augsburg's identity with another name.

When I say this I am not neglecting the other confessional documents in our Concordia, I am suggesting that this first and pivotal confession is the one from which they flow... not as many streams but as one river of faith, confession, and identity.

Meyedorff paid us a mighty compliment... I only wish we were comfortable with what he said...

A Benefit of Longevity

When I left seminary for my first call 30 years ago, the average tenure of a Pastor in his first parish was about 22 months. There are reasons for that. A few of the congregations calling a candidate were marginal congregations with a history of calling a new Pastor and not addressing compensation until he left. A few of the congregations were hard to shepherd and tended to chew up novice clergy and spit them out after lunch. Some of the congregations were small enough that even with work would soon not be able to compete with the salary paid to a candidate leaving years later. These often received new candidates every 3 or 4 years with a year in between to save up some cash. Many moved because a congregation that wanted a man with a little experience and had more going on issued a call he could not refuse. Don't get me wrong, I am not talking money here but mission and ministry. Often these were suburban congregations and the first parish was rural or urban. Many also moved because they ended up far away from home and family and, as we all know, the Holy Spirit always calls a Pastor in the direction of his in-laws.

A few Pastors stayed in their first calls... and stayed... and stayed... I was one of them. I stayed just under 13 years. I was ready to leave in 2 but, thankfully, the Spirit was not ready. With the assistance of a great Bishop (Ron Fink), a wonderful cadre of circuit clergy (Albany/Schenectady circuits), the counsel of a wise retired Pastor (Howard Lincks), and a solid friendship that continues to endure (Bob Duchow), this young Pastor stayed. And a miracle happened.

A wounded and conflicted parish healed, a weak and struggling Lutheran identity strengthened, an unfocused mission was clarified, and a green, brash Pastor matured. I would have left in a minute those first 2 years but the opportunity never came to me and so I stayed long enough to confirm children I had baptized, marry children I had confirmed, bury people who had become friends, and lead people who learned to trust me even as I had learned to trust them.

When calls began to come, I discovered that the parish was stable and strong, the lay leadership wise and committed, and this newbie had become the one people looked at when someone asked "What did we used to do about this?" In the end, the right call came. I initially resisted it. A close friend asked me, "Don't ask what would happen if you left, ask what would happen if you stayed..." It helped me to see what I did not want to see -- it was the right time to leave. Through tears and a voice barely whispered, I read my letter to the congregation after the Divine Service. Their tears made harder what I knew to be the right time.

Now I have been here just under 17 years -- my second parish. It too was a congregation weakened by previous conflict, wounded by too many years of barely getting by, and clouded by uncertainties about their identity and mission. We have grown (not just in numbers) and our mission has greatly increased. Healing has come, though scars are still there. Defeated hopes and dreams have given way to a new facility some 10 years ago and a new ministries that utilize the additional space -- a can do attitude. It was not me -- don't ever believe it -- it was a window of opportunity, a good match (the work of the Spirit), and much patience and trust (on all sides).

And I have confirmed the first baby I baptized after arriving here... and married some of my confirmands... and watched as people who were my age have become old... and buried some of the people who had become wonderful friends. I have waved good bye to way too many people moved by the army and industry and welcomed more people than I can remember. Some of the young military men and women, met here, married here, had a child here, and, God bless them, have moved back here -- and I got to be a part of their wonderful growth in life and family.

Today a woman in the congregation died in her 90's. I had known Doris when her husband Jim was still alive. I buried him about 9 years ago. Doris seemed never to change until her failing memory began to be a problem. For years her son David brought her to early service until it no longer worked out. When David called me to tell me death was near, we talked for nearly 40 minutes about his mom and dad. We laughed and sighed. She was a stranger to me 17 years ago and on Saturday I will bury a woman who had become a part of my extended family. There is sadness there but also joy -- this woman was no stranger to me... even though at the end of her life I had become a stranger to her... It is the privilege of service and the benefit of longevity.

When I look out on to the pews on Sunday morning, I see new faces of people I have yet to get to know... I see familiar faces of those who I call by name at the altar rail every time they commune... I see the faces of people whose faces have changed as I knew them and who I sometimes cannot remember not knowing... I see the faces of children become adults -- all while I was here to watch them... and young adults mature... I had not one gray strand in hair or beard when I came here and now I, like them, sport more than I ever thought I would. They have put up with me and I with them. They have loved me when I was hard to love and I have loved them when they drove me crazy. And if I were ever to leave this place, it would be just as painful as it was to leave the first. I am not looking for that day -- if it comes, God will tell me. For now I appreciate knowing these people well enough to know who they are, what they have gone through, and how they have endured in faith. I like burying people I can speak about personally -- they were not strangers to me in their lives and they are not strangers to me in death. Like Doris. This is where I will stay until the call of God becomes impossible to ignore... and I do not regret any day of it...

So if you are a Pastor reading this, I hope you have the opportunity to stay... and stay... and stay... in one place. There are benefits to longevity when it comes to being a Pastor... many benefits... to the people in the congregation, to the congregation's identity in the community, and to you and your family...

Basic Differences

At some point in time among Protestants, the worship service began to be seen as a vehicle for evangelism and outreach. In fact, some have said that the chief place where outreach takes place is on Sunday morning. With such a view of worship, what happens on Sunday morning must be made more than intelligible to those not yet believers -- it must be engaging, it must be welcoming, it must be familiar, it must be non-threatening, it must be accessible. Therefore, the mission principle is the justification for what is done on Sunday morning.

As one such minister put it to me, if your target for outreach consists of German folks whose taste in music is classical, who are formal by nature, who like singing hymns with difficult melodies, and who like to be passive instead of involved, then by all means do liturgy. But if your target people are different than this group, then you cannot use the liturgy (hymns, pipe organs, etc.) and be successful in outreach. The culture of Sunday morning must match the culture of the people you are appealing to...

There is only one basic problem with this thesis -- those who are not yet believers cannot worship God. Period. This is not Larry Peters conclusion. This is God speaking through Scripture. Only those who know Him (by baptism and faith) can worship Him in spirit and truth, as He desires, requires, and inspires.

I do not dispute the fact that every Sunday morning has "not yet believers" sitting in the pews with believers. I do not challenge the idea that people walk through the doors on Sunday morning without a clue to what the Christian faith is and that they gauge their impression of what the faith is from what they see and hear. BUT that these people are present does not mean that what is done on Sunday morning is for them or that it must intelligible to them -- much less tailored to those not yet believers (pagan, unbelievers, or even unchurched sounds so judgmental... worse it sounds defeatist... I prefer to call them the not yet believers... the not yet baptized... the not yet part of the community of faith...).

A comment on another post on this blog disparaged my disparagement of worship that mirrors our culture and defended: those who are using Lutheran praise worship as a vehicle for communicating Law/Gospel to the lost and bringing them to the cross of Jesus Christ. There is a problem here. First of all I am not even sure what "Lutheran praise worship" is but worship is NOT a vehicle for communicating Law/Gospel to the lost and bringing them to the cross of Jesus Christ. They may hear the Law and Gospel in worship, the Spirit may work through this Word to open their hearts to faith, but only the Body of Christ can worship Christ the head of that Body and the Trinity whom He reveals. Yes, we welcome those who do not yet belong but to suggest that worship is primarily or even secondarily a vehicle for communicating to the lost is just plain wrong. Have we forgotten the old distinction between the Mass of the Catechumens and the Mass of the Faithful?

This remains the biggest chasm between those who advocate a service that appeals to people's wants, needs, and culture, and those who insist that worship must conform the historic pattern of Word and Meal (within the framework of the mass form, with is Service of the Word and Service of the Sacrament). The debate is not about the age or youth of the hymns (read that songs). It is not about whether the confession can be here or somewhere else in the order. It is not about the words being "King James" or twitter speak. It is not about the use or lack of technology. It is not about vestments or lack of vestments. It is first and foremost about the basic question: Who can worship?

My own parish has tripled in size over the years, built a new facility, expanded mission support, established a preschool, multiplied our ministry, and created a very welcoming community (with all kinds of greeters, we care people, etc.). I am for growth. I am for outreach. I believe that we need to reach out to those not yet believers with the Law and Gospel. But worship is not evangelistic outreach. Only those who are already a part of the church by baptism and faith CAN worship. Those "not yet" can appreciate what they see and hear, learn from it, and even be drawn into it's mystery (that is how many of my newest members describe being in the liturgy) -- but worship belongs to those who belong to the community of faith.

Once I went to a worship conference where one contemporary worship person and one traditional worship person both had to address the question "Who is worship for -- those inside the church or those outside the church?" The "traditional" guy said he was at a loss to know what to do because neither of the choices were exactly correct. Worship is for God -- from God, yes, but also for God. The Divine Service with all of its gifts is for those whom He has called His own, washed in the living waters of baptism, and respond with faith under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Evangelism, outreach, catechesis, instruction, and assimilation need to be connected to the liturgy and flow from the Church assembled around the Word and Sacraments. The Church's witness begins within the context of what the Church does on Sunday morning but Sunday morning is not our outreach program.

When good people and good Pastors say "we say we will do whatever it takes on Sunday morning to bring the Law and Gospel to the lost so that they may be brought to the cross of Christ" I understand what they mean, what they hope to accomplish, and what is moving them... But is it correct? Is worship a tool of outreach? Is worship a program to be used for evangelism (or even education, for that matter)?

I believe Sunday morning should be welcoming and winsome -- here we print out the service because we are in the South, we have so many people from non-liturgical backgrounds, we have 3-8 new families who show up for the first time on a Sunday morning. I am not in favor of barriers or making people feel uncomfortable. But if a person off the street walks into the Church and does not feel at least a little uncomfortable, something is wrong. The Gospel is a jarring message that cuts across the reality of what the world outside of Christ believes. The efficacious Word is a strange concept to people who live in the culture of feelings, wants, and desires. The mysterion of the Sacraments is foreign to those outside the community of faith. We cannot bridge the gap to those outside by diminishing what happens on the inside. We are doing them a disservice. We are also doing the greatest disservice to the 95% of the people there who belong there by baptism and faith, catechesis and confession.

I believe in outreach, mission, evangelism, and witness. I believe in using tools that are authentic to our identity as Lutheran Christians. I believe in using the tools of technology in that outreach. I believe that the first priority of the church budget is mission. I believe that need to look at the building, the parking lot, the Sanctuary from the eyes of the new person to make sure we have not placed hidden barriers there. But I believe that what happens on Sunday morning must be dictated NOT by outreach concerns but by the Word, by the context of the community of the baptized believers who gather around that Word and Meal, and by the Church that is this assembly of those whom God has called, gathered, enlightened, and sanctified.

Banishing the Dead from their own Funeral

Funeral practices could probably take up a hundred posts and still we would but scratch the surface. Suffice it to say that the industry is profit driven and that most funeral directors will do whatever the family wants to please the customer. I am not faulting this but suggesting that the goals of the funeral home may be at odds with the Church.

I for one am not a big fan of the big screen TVs that have shown up in every funeral chapel around. They are fine in the viewing areas where family meets friends and often help put a fuller perspective on a person's life than what someone might know only from the perspective of work or neighborhood. If chosen well it can relieve some of the pressure on the family to rehearse over and over again details and stories that can be easily told in the form of a single photo. But...

None of this belongs in the chapel or in the church. There these screens stick out at cross purposes with the funeral liturgy. Here we focus not on the life of the deceased but on the hope that bestows resurrection and life everlasting -- in other words, we focus on Jesus Christ. But it is hard to talk about Jesus while photos of the deceased and the family trip to Yosemite flash behind or on either side of the preacher. And if the family is non-Christian, why do they gather in the "chapel" at all -- it seems a curious place for people with no beliefs.

I am equally uncomfortable about most of the canned music that is played as either background or front and center during many funerals at funeral homes (and, unfortunately, in churches, too). The music for the funeral is the music of the Church -- the sturdy hymns of old that give melody to the message of death and resurrection, forgiveness and life through Jesus Christ. 'Daddy's Hands" may be good for a ton of tears but sentiment is no substitute for the hope that is within us. For that it must be Jesus Christ -- crucified and risen for me and my salvation. Again this is directed to Christians -- to church members -- and not to the unbelieving world which can play whatever they want (with the exception of music of the faith) -- including "You Can't Always Get What You Want" (ala The Big Chill).

But increasingly we are finding the phenomenon of a funeral in which the deceased is not present. People are doing more and more immediate cremations with memorial services that follow later (often sans even the ashes). In other words, a funeral in which the dead have been banished. But why? Well, there are a lot of reasons. Having the dead present only reminds us that funerals are, well, about death. They make it hard to turn the funeral into a happy event when there is the unpleasantness of a dead body lying right there in front everyone. It costs a bit more and who wants to waste money on a body that is already dead? The person isn't really there anyway so that body is just a shell that has been outgrown, right?

But I am all for having the body there. Even if cremation is the choice, having the body there for the funeral is a good thing. Yes, it reminds us that we have not gathered to remember a life but to bury the dead. But that is the reality of it. Death is real. We can cover it up with pancake makeup, we can dress it up in new clothes, we can make it look like sleep (but isn't that a pleasant thought -- your loved one is sleeping in a casket and about to be closed in a covered up forever), but it is death we must deal with.

The resurrection only makes sense as hope if death is real to us -- the thief who steals away our lives... the result of a sin we were born into and added to on our own... the cold darkness that would swallow us up except that Jesus swallowed it up for us...

All our wonderful funeral practices cannot make this reality go away -- only Jesus can. And we do not do ourselves any favors by trying to make it appear as if death were not real. It is. It is real and personal. Only a Savior who is as real and personal can address it and steal away its victory.

And we do our children no favors by shielding them from death. We won't teach them to pray "if I should die before I wake" because we don't want them to have nightmares. We drop them off at the babysitter so that they don't have to suffer seeing grandma in the casket. Are we helping or hurting them? Or, by insulating them, are we are hurting them?

I have a vivid memory of my mother lovingly and gently fixing the hair of her Aunt Alice when she died. It did not scar me. It taught me. Like the men and women who brought the spices to anoint Jesus' body, this was an act of love. Years ago the family washed the body and this duty of love was not only an acknowledgment of death's reality but pointed to a reality even bigger -- of the love that raises the dead to life everlasting. Years ago every home had a formal parlor whose duties included housing the coffin and the dead for the family visitation. Churches has formal parlors for just the same purpose.

I can still recall when my Grandpa Peters died and the pallbearers lifted the heavy casket and body to carry it out the door of the country church and down the hill into the cemetery behind it. I can still see the long line of people who had filled the building in testament to their love for my Grandpa. I can still hear the dirt and the sound it made on the metal casket as the casket was being lowered into the ground. I remember the tombstones of my great-grandparents nearby and other family members as I looked around that day now forty six years ago. These are not terrible memories but comforting ones. Death was real and honest but life was proclaimed in Jesus Christ who is even more real and more truthful. It all combined to tell me where my Grandpa was, who he was a child of God, and what grace supported him in life and now called to him in death with the life only Christ can give.

Let the body be at the funeral... Let the children come, too... Don't let memories be your only consolation -- let it be the Resurrection of our Lord that lifts your spirit. Don't hide the death in the hopes that it will make it all easier. Let us be honest... honest about death and honest about the life that is ours in Christ. It will help and will not hurt. God promises us this...

Did you ever know that you're my hero...

Bette Midler's is one of my favorite voices -- I will long remember when Johnny Carson signed off the Tonight Show and Bette sang his tenure there to an end... And I am a sucker for such sentimental hits like "Wind Beneath My Wings." As much as I enjoy her voice, I do not look to Hollywood for my heroic figures. Actors and singers, directors and authors -- they have large sized talent in flawed and sinful lives -- much like the rest of us with smaller talents. But more and more those with big sized talents have made big size headlines not only for their failings but more as if they were above judgment and beyond the pale of right and wrong.

Letterman admitted his sins and turned it into comedy schtick (without much of an apology). Polanski's arrest for notorious if ancient crimes was met with an outcry among the Hollywood elite that it wasn't all that bad, it was a long time ago, and "can't we all just be friends?" Affairs and babies born out of wedlock have become the staple of the political circuit. Now Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize without a single piece of accomplishment that justifies his place among the heroic figures who earned the prize (Martin Luther King for civil rights, Mother Teresa for work among the poorest of the poor, etc.) I could go on but I won't. There is a point I want to make and it is not about the morality (or lack there of) among the Hollywood, political, or sports figures in America.

My point is this. We need heroes. We need people we can look up, admire, emulate... We need heroic figures who will call forth the best in us. We need people who are sinful but who do not parade their sins before us with justifications and excuses -- people who admit their failings, confess them, and still call forth a higher and nobler calling and who seek it themselves. I am not talking about perfect heroes but heroic figures whose flaws are not flaunted and who hold themselves to higher standards.

For those who thinking in religious terms and about to lecture me on the flawed righteousness of even the best of heroes on earth, I am not speaking in faith terms. I am speaking of heroes in the civil realm. I am speaking about people who inspire, people who encourage, people who call forth more from us -- in part by their own example and also because of their earnest character (even within the bounds of flawed humanity).

Look at the children of America -- who inspires them to be something more than a cash machine or a pleasure seeker? Yes we have a few people -- take Captain Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III whose calm and heroic actions saved so many lives on a plane that was not designed to land on water... Yes there are few Lutherans on that list of Nobel prize winners -- take Norman E. Borlaug who won in 1970 for advances in agriculture that have fed millions upon millions (who died just this year)... But these are not enough. We need to seek out these folks and tell their stories and raise them up or our kids will be left with figures whose lives and exploits are a shameful exploitation of their talent for all the wrong purposes. I am not speaking here of fifteen minutes of fame but honest heroes whose lives inspire, encourage, and uplift the human spirit.

We cannot wait for the media to find these folks and tell their stories. We need to seize the day (carpe diem) and refocus the minds and hearts of our children upon those who ennoble us and not diminish us. I am not speaking of marching on the streets or refusing to go to theaters or buy CDs and DVDs. I am speaking of what happens in the home where mom and dad teach their children the stories of those heroic figures (not only in the past but in the present day) who encourage us to step out and step up.

This is not about Church or Sunday school but about the home, the community, and the nation. It is about kids growing up and wanting to be airplane pilots like Sully instead of pop/rock starts like Michael Jackson. It is about kids who growing up wanting to be soldiers, sailors, pilots, marines, police, firefighters, nurses, doctors, teachers, etc... noble professions who have answered the call to service even when that service comes with a sacrificial price tag...

I am tired of confessions that do not confess, of behavior that is no longer shocking to us, of heroes who achieve greatness by what they earn instead of what they do and by what they do for themselves instead of what they do for others... I believe this is an urgent matter for our country and for our children...

If Not, Why Not?

I recently read something on line that announced that young people are increasingly illiterate when it comes to the church's song -- the great hymns of old. I thought to myself, whoa, big surprise! It did not take a great social scientist to come up with that observation.

The vast majority of churches no longer sing hymns -- they sing (if and when the people in the pews -- make that theater seats -- sing) the praise choruses and contemporary songs of the current crop of Christian artists and songwriters (you watch TV... Songs for Worship, Vols. 1-1,000). Even those young people who were raised in the faith, raised in the church, do not know the hymns of old (save a few lines from the most generic of them). Second, the vast majority of churches sing only bits and pieces of these hymns (stanzas 1 & 4, etc.) so the poetry of the hymn is often lost by singing only a few lines here and a few lines there. Third, the whole of music education in public school has moved from real singing to the karaoke sing alongs that make pop music accessible to the few teens who sing in high school choirs. And the list goes on...

The big question -- why is this a big deal? Let me first say that it is a big deal. For all our talk about Sunday school and Bible study, a goodly portion of the faith is passed on through the music of the faith -- in other words, what we sing is a good reflection of what we believe and what we believe becomes our favorite song. Music is important because it does not just set the mood or warm up folks. The great hymns of the faith teach the faith, nurture us in the faith, speak to us the Word of God, and allow us to join in singing that faith and Word... both to God and to each other. You know, the Luther quotes about music being second only to the Word... the handmaid to the Word, etc.

Knowing the hymns of previous generations is important because that is one way the faith is passed on to the next generation and one profound way in which we realize that faith did not begin with ME or end with ME... By giving us the great hymns of old, our forefathers and foremothers in the faith were passing on to us a living heritage and a great legacy. If we do not know these or sing this it represents a great disconnect with our Christian past and calls into question what it is that we are passing on to the Christian future.

Page through the Lutheran Service Book of the LCMS and you find a grand chorus of hymns and hymnwriters that extend from the earliest of days right down to the day before that book his the press. It preserves the great hymns of the faith so that we can sing with the Didache or Augustine or Bernard of Clairvaux or Thomas Aquinas or Martin Luther or Paul Gerhardt or Isaac Watts or Charles Wesley or Horatius Bonar or Samuel Stone or Jaroslav Vajda or Timothy Dudley Smith or Stephen Starke... just to name a few from nearly every era...

We ARE heirs of an astonishingly rich heritage. But what we receive from those who have gone before is not some museum piece but a living faith and a living heritage. From them we learn, to them we add the best of what we have, and through these both we pass on the grand legacy to those whose voices have not yet been added to theirs and ours...

You are what you eat... they say... I wonder... could it be that we are what we sing? If so, I think it is time to pull out some of grandma's old recipes and cut the fast food for a while... speaking in musical terms... it is time to relearn the Church's song before we lose that important tie to our past and become adrift in the sea of now... it is time to relearn the Church's song so that we may add our voices to the voices that sang and still sing "May Jesus Christ be praised!"... it is time to relearn the Church's song so that we can add the best we have to offer and add to this living legacy until a new generation, schooled in the faith through the Church's song, can add their own contributions...

It Is A Shame We Talk So Much About Money...

Go to the average church meeting and much of the conversation ends up about money... Go to a Board of Directors/Church Council meeting and the treasurer's report is the most important piece of paper there. Talk to people about the health of the congregation and both leaders and followers point to the bottom line -- are we up or are we down.

For a long time I thought it was because we did not talk enough about money -- we danced around it but did not address it up front. Sort of like the way parents talk about sex with their kids but end up really saying nothing at all.

But I am growing increasingly sure that the reason the money issue is so difficult is because the ministry issue is so difficult to talk about. In the LCMS we are in the midst of a restructuring campaign that was begun largely because of financial issues but the more you read, the more you see that it is a mission issue. We do not agree on the purpose (mission) of Synod and District and so therefore its funding lags. What used to be the reasons for Synod and District, have morphed into other reasons -- not by decision but by "mission creep." We started things, we started doing other things and now the things that used to be our core mission have gotten lost (seminaries, training church workers, publishing, missions beyond our shores, etc.).

In the same way, the District was originally a rather lean crew of people to take care of the essential issues of calls, ordinations, and installations. Now Districts have staffs, programs, and budgets that have exploded to the point that most of the money coming in is spent in the District and instead of money going to colleges and seminaries, they provide student aid for "their" students in these schools. Part-time District Presidents (really Bishops) who served a parish as well as the District, have given way to full-time administrators and trouble shooters and vision casters who bear little resemblance to Bishops anymore (or Pastors, for that matter, they neither preside nor preach regularly nor do they have any specific people they are responsible for...).

And then there is the congregation... We have undertaken many things but forgotten the purpose. It is not that these things are bad, but they have fuzzied up the mission. Worse, they have detracted from the central purpose of worship, of bringing people into the worshiping community by proclaiming the Gospel, and of equipping people to share the love of Christ with neighbor, family members, co-worker, friend, and stranger.

Congregations have become filled with self-help groups that have no real purpose except to make us feel better. Church buildings have become homes for all kinds of groups that have no purpose consistent with the purpose and mission of the congregation (such as ballroom dancing groups for the Ablaze program and the like). At the same time, traditional mission agencies have declined -- like LWML, LLL, etc. We have increasingly catered to the self-interest of people and have gotten on the self-serving bandwagon of smorgasbord groups, ministries, and programs that are increasingly distant from what happens on Sunday morning. So it ought to come as no surprise that people come to these without coming to the Service of Word and Sacrament -- and they see nothing wrong with this.

Maybe we need to talk less about money and more about mission... less about resources and more about purpose... less about what people want and more about what Christ calls us to do and to be... Could it be that the reason the Church is losing out in the minds of many is that we find too little difference between the Church and the YMCA (to quote Lost and Found)? Where I am the churches that are growing and are models of cutting edge ministry have health clubs in their facilities, have sports programs, have dances for singles, wifi cafes for twenty-somethings, coffee shops like Starbucks, mall like campuses, multi purpose worship spaces, big screens, big bands (rock not Glenn Miller), and a good time is had by all... all that is, except Jesus.

It is not that I think my own congregation is so off the deep end in this, but clearly, that is where we are pressured to go -- by folks in our Synod and by the growing churches and Osteens of this world. Mission fuzz makes dollars all that more important to talk about... To that end, we are bringing up some proposals to the congregation to make mission front and center... like translating the Small Catechism and publishing enough copies to meet a foreign mission field need... to fill an African seminary library with Lutheran books (that they cry for and have so few)... to build buildings to house a congregation and its work in places where shade is considered home... to connect with a place that will remind us what is easy to forget in the US... it is about proclaiming the Gospel, baptizing and teaching, building a community of faith around the Word and Table of the Lord, and sending the people forth into their homelands to share what they have learned and bring these people to where Christ has promised always to be -- His Word, His Water, and His Meal...

A Great Communicator Is Not the Same as a Great Preacher

I had a conversation the other day about preaching. The person with whom I was speaking had never spent a minute in a pulpit but had some very interesting things to say from his vantage point in the pew. It has had me thinking.

This man said he had heard many great communicators in the pulpit but fewer great preachers. I asked the difference. He was hard pressed to put it into words but he spoke in these terms. A great communicator does not need to know so much about the people listening as he does his subject and his message. A great communicator entertains as well as inspires, brings laughter as well as information. A great preacher has to know the people he is speaking to. A great preacher has to know the wounds as well as the remedy, the hurts as well as the relief, the darkness as well as the light.

It was not a long or detailed conversation but I have thought about it over and over again. It was this man's opinion that too many preachers aspire to be great communicators and what they need to be are pastoral preachers. He particularly complained about the story, Bible passage, point; story, Bible passage, point sermons that use Scripture as footnotes to their arguments instead of preaching the Word of God. He also said that it is okay to laugh in church but the function of the sermon is not to make me laugh -- or to send me home with a smile on my face. In fact he said that the best sermon he ever heard left him sitting in the pew long after the people had gone -- convicted and cleansed and left with the awe of the Spirit who knew him and spoke to him through that sermon in a way that was at the same time scary and comforting.


I was in my first parish about 13 years. My best sermons there was at the end of those 13 years -- not because I was new to the Pastoral Ministry but because in the beginning I did not know much about the folks sitting out there. By the end of my time there, they came to my mind before I began to put pen to the page. [An aside -- I write out on paper in long hand with fountain pen all the first drafts of my sermons from exegetical notes and other scribbles that begin this sermon prep about 3-4 months before it ends up being preached... at some point I transfer this to the computer and then work it over on the screen until Thursday morning when I print it out in full and take the manuscript with me into the pulpit... not to read but as an anchor to keep me from roaming and droning on...]

I have been in this parish about 17 years and my sermons have much improved for the same reason -- I have a much better sense of the people to whom I am proclaiming God's Word. I credit the improvement to many factors but chief among them is that the people whose faces I see on Sunday morning are known to me and their lives and their troubles and their trials...

And one more thing... to all of those who believe I am speaking of you or to you on Sunday morning, a wise Pastor once told me to preach to yourself first and you will find plenty of hearers who need and want to hear it for them as well. Could it be that the preacher's most effective sermons are those that are preached to his own weakness and pain? Someone once said or wrote that if you preach to pain, there will be plenty of hearers out there.

Great communication and great preaching can sometimes be at odds. I hope that we Pastors choose great preaching -- with its requirement to speak clearly the Law that convicts and the Gospel that gives life... with its vantage point as someone who knows the people in the pew and their pain and their lives... with its goal to speak clearly the Word of God and apply it faithfully and not to impress or inspire...

For a time I heard preachers in our church who modeled themselves after Walter A. Maier the powerful preacher of The Lutheran Hour... or later Ozzie Hoffmann the premier Lutheran Hour preacher of my life... but we cannot model our preaching after another preacher. We must learn to find our own voice.

At the end this man told me that while he enjoys every now and then when we bring in the big guns to the pulpit (Dale Meyer, Paul Maier, etc...) he loves most of all looking up and hearing his Pastor speak to him and to his congregation every Sunday morning... "Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.... Amen."

Something I Have Learned

For much of Christian history, the Church catechized through the liturgy -- that is through the Mass and the Daily Offices (Matins/Morning Prayer, etc.). Luther describes catechesis in this way with his elaborate preaching system of assigning lessons to particular offices as well as the Mass. In other words people learned and grew in the faith with in a worship setting.

It may have been that this process was moving away from a worship setting to a classroom setting all along -- I do not know -- and there were periods of decline as well as renewal for such things as the Daily Offices. But I do know that after the Reformation a new "paradigm" was born.

When Protestantism got into the mix, this catechesis was formally detached from the worship life in which it was connected and thus things like Bible study and Sunday school were born. Now I have no grudge against these but I wonder about the fruits of detaching of catechesis in the mind and practice of people and the Church. What have we lost because of this?

It is my assumption -- historians out there prove me wrong -- that you do not find much that looks like the modern day parish program of Bible studies (Pastor or lay led), Sunday school, youth catechism classes, and adult instruction classes. It is my assumption -- again I have not researched this) that these things all took place within the praying context of the Daily Offices or within the liturgical context of the Divine Service.

Our parish rents our chapel to a struggling Orthodox mission. Our association began with the personal request of an Army chaplain (Orthodox) who had hosted this small mission on post until he was reassigned from Ft. Campbell. His concern for this mission's continuation led us to let them use our chapel until their future was more certain. After an interim period of time served by priests from throughout the area, they recently received a full-time priest as the mission developer of this parish. Judging from his plans, it may well be that they are not long for our chapel... we will see.

But what I have noticed is that this priest intends to catechize through the Daily Offices and the Divine Liturgy. He expects that catechesis into the Orthodox faith is through liturgical means. So on Saturday evening this small group gathers for Vespers. Then the evening fast begins which will carry them through to the Sunday Divine Liturgy. But before the Divine Liturgy, they sing Matins. And after the Divine Liturgy they gather for a community meal and then for Vespers. And the mission holds to a full schedule of holy days with a similar service schedule for them. It is my assumption that this is what a regular Orthodox congregation does.

Scripture has long been separated from the worshiping community -- this is fact of life in American congregations. Why not return to a more liturgical setting for catechesis and instruction? Certainly it is in our own Lutheran history and tradition. And I think it is a wise course to confront some of the issues and challenges that we face today.

Furthermore it would incorporate the people into the liturgical life of the Church as well as teach and communicate to them the Word of the Lord. If we used a lectionary and followed the calendar with its holy days, feasts, festivals, commemorations, etc. there would be an abundance of Scripture on which to focus and through which to teach the faith. It would be a whole lot more work than I am currently used to -- perhaps a better way of putting it is that it would be different work than I am currently used to -- but it may be a whole lot more fruitful in communicating the faith while at the same time connecting people to the community of faith as that community gathers for what is our most important "business" -- worship...

Well... some random thoughts... meanderings... what do you think?

Listening and Speaking

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once wrote "We have so much to say about the Bible that we are not prepared to hear what the Bible has to say about us..." This rabbi definitely is able to say the profound in a few simple words. But it is a painful truth.

In the morning paper a column by George Will decried the abundance of personal pronouns in the speeches of the President and Michelle Obama in Copenhagen as the site of the 2016 Olympics was being decided. Will counted 44 uses of "I" in Mrs. Obama's speech and 26 in the President's brief remarks. He suggested that perhaps they had forgotten that this was about Chicago and its bid -- not about them, their feelings, their history, or their aspirations. Ouch.

What if someone kept track of the number of personal pronouns in the average sermon? Or Bible study? Would we Pastors be so embarrassed? What if someone looked over the grammar of our prayers and checked up on the number of "I" statements there? Would we be shocked by the way even our prayers are more about us than about God?

The painful truth is that too many sermons speak about Scripture without listening to Scripture. Too many times we Pastors think of the pulpit as the place where we talk about God, about the faith, about Scripture -- but from our own personal perspective -- instead of speaking the Word. Period. So we provide a good bad example to our people that this is the way to approach the Word of God.

The painful truth is that so often we have so much to say, we do not listen. What might be a faux pas in polite conversation becomes a terrible failing when the conversation is with God. Ultimately the goal of the preacher is to listen to the Word so that you can speak it to the people -- in the language of today, to the situations you know in the lives of the people of the parish, explaining it without detracting from what it says and applying it without removing yourself from the application as another sinner in need of the gifts and grace that Scripture bestows upon those who listen.

Listening here does not merely mean polite silence -- it means faith. Faith is what is required to hear the voice of God and to silence our own hearts so that His voice may speak and do its wonderful bidding within us and through us.

It is not a bad thing to look over the sermon and see who is speaking through its words -- is it filled with "I" messages that make it about me or from me... or does it speak strongly and clearly with the voice of God -- His authority, His message, and His result... it gives the preacher pause...

The Technology of Change...

It does not take more than a few seconds to search for articles and videos (click here for a very informative video) on change and technology. You can find churches with names that capitalize on the rapidly evolving landscape of technology (epichurch, relevant church, etc.). Even more, you can find churches whose worship is shaped by and dependent upon this very technological change (video, twitter, industrial architecture, instrumentation, communication, etc...).

The change is dizzying -- not just to an old fogy like me but to young people as well. The rapid pace of change is felt beyond technology into fashion and family, work and worship, recreation and resources. It is nearly impossible to keep up with all the change. I know personally of people who fear that rest time will leave them behind as change continues while our minds and bodies sleep. What will I miss if I am not tuned in to the internet, tweeting, facebooking, etc... For example, I learned of the status of a person having surgery through her facebook page postings done on her I-phone in pre op, recovery and her room following the surgery...

But all this change can leave people vulnerable in ways that past generations could not imagine. Because of the rapid pace of this change and its immediate impact upon people (for good or for ill), we are all tossed about on this sea of change without much control about where things are headed and without much time to reflect upon where things have been. Almost instinctively, many young folks have sought to balance this rapidly changing landscape with an anchor in worship forms that draw upon the rich treasures of the past -- things like chanting, incense, elaborate ceremony and ritual, and silence.

I do not think this is a fad. I think that it is a cry for stability and security in a world with little of either. Their faith is finding a home in the yesterdays that so much of Christianity has forgotten and so many Christians had written off as old fashioned or irrelevant.

But for those who rush to add Evening Prayer with incense to the list of services offered at the local Baptist, non-denominational, or emergent church, I suggest caution here. These folks are sophisticated enough to know when something is not authentic -- when things are being done without meaning or connection to what is believed and taught.

For those in liturgical traditions like Lutherans, it is a call for us to stop trying to be techno churches with generic worship forms driven by the latest rage and to start being true to who we say we are in our Confessions. Not because it is in style but because it is authentically who we are. In the face of such rapid change, it is time for us to wake up and smell the roses. When we act like half-baked Baptists, non-denominationals, and emergent whatevers, that is exactly what we are half-baked wannabes sort of like the Platte River in Nebraska (where I come from) -- a mile wide but only an inch deep.

I believe that this techno moment of rapid change is a kick in the pants to us as Lutheran Christians -- be who you are. Can you hear the voice of Obi-wan Kenobe saying to Luke "Trust the force?" You should. Trust in who you are. Word and Sacrament people... Law and Gospel people... Creedal and Confessional people... Ritual and ceremonial people... Catholic and evangelical people... For too darn long we have felt the pressure and sought to be something foreign to us in order to be missional, to embrace a new paradigm, to be transformational... It ain't working. We are even more adrift, divided, and confused. We cannot keep up with all the new things some are doing. BUT... we don't have to...

All we need to be concerned about is being faithful to the Word and Sacraments, to the Law and Gospel proclamation of the Word, to the Evangelical and Catholic identity of our confession and history, and God will bless us. Granted we need to connect with people, welcome the stranger, incorporate the newbie into our astonishingly rich liturgical life, and assimilate people into the family of faith and community of Christ which is the Church... we need people seek out the folks around them, who like them are dizzied by the rapid pace of change and desperately seeking an anchor for their faith and life... we need Pastors comfortable as apologists for the faith in living rooms and coffee houses as well as liturgists within the house of God...

Lets be practical. In my home town here of 130,000 people there are a ton of churches doing the techno, cutting edge, happy clappy, with it style of Christian worship and only 2-3 congregations sticking with the liturgy. Those sticking with the liturgy are not declining. We have people who come here for the first time and return -- why, they cannot explain, but they have to be back, to sit in the pew, to see what is happening, to hear the Word of the Lord talking about sin and forgiveness, death and life, and to witness the mystery of the meal where heaven's food becomes our earthly eats... and still they come... and they will continue... not because of me but because of the Word and Sacraments which do God's bidding and return to Him with the fruits of their gracious work...

I think it is time for Lutherans to put away the Halloween costumes that mask our identity in order to look like the latest in thing and to be content with who we are... Remember the wise old saying, "the church that marries the spirit of the age will be a widow in the next generation..." We can try all the face lifting techniques available but how many times will we change before we will not remember who we really are?

Let the Little Children Come to Me...

We were privileged to have Dr. Paul Maier preach at both services yesterday, in addition to a seminar on Saturday. He said it was the first time he had ever preached on the end of Mark's Gospel and this welcome to the little children. He placed this in marvelous context (as a great historian can do) and challenged us to see if we indeed are doing what Jesus did in welcoming the children.

He reminded us that in the culture of Jesus' day children had little stature. Infanticide was commonly practiced in the pagan world. If a father did not pick up the infant, that infant was rejected by the father and had no status. He reminded us that Jesus' Himself had to wait until age 30 before beginning His public ministry because there were no child preachers in Jesus' day. The old proverb counseled the young man to go away and wait until his beard grows in before presenting himself as a teacher.

On the other side, Paul reminded us that God chose to come into the world as a baby, to grow up as a child, and to taste the way of life that each of us knows as a child growing up into adulthood. In this profound way God went against the grain of culture. He could have sent His Son as a fully mature adult walking out of the wilderness but He chose to have Him incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. Paul reminded us of circumcision and the great implications of an eight day old infant who became part of the covenant relationship with God's people and of infant baptism (we had one yesterday) that claims a little one for the Lord -- without respect to anything that little has to offer or bring to the font.

Paul raised up the importance of teaching the children to know Jesus and Scripture and related his own childhood curiosity inspired and fueled in Sunday school. To the childlike faith that so instinctively trusts comes the great opportunity to teach the Word of God and to make known the message of that Word in Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, and ascended. It was a not so subtle call to make sure your children were in Sunday school, make sure you were in Bible study, and continue the conversation at home.

Paul reminded us that in our culture youth is glorified and the gray hair of age is seen in a negative light. Not so in Israel or the world of Jesus' day but today we hold on to youth, we glorify it, we indulge it, and we let it teach us. Clearly the challenge before us is clear -- we must reclaim the role of teacher and make sure that we impart to our children that which is youth's glory even as the glory of old age -- Jesus Christ.

I was reminded of Harry Wendt's comment that Jesus blessed the children and taught the adults and we teach the children and bless the adults. Of course, it is not so simple as that and yet there is much truth to his words. We are attuned to the child in Sunday school, catechism classes, youth ministry, etc... yet how many adults who are in the pew on Sunday morning are not sitting in Bible study? Later Paul complimented the fact that we had 150+ in Bible study that day (a few more due to his presence as study leader, yes) but encouraged us to see ourselves as lifelong students of His Word.

It was a blessed day for our congregation, a great highlight of the 50th anniversary year (Grace Abounds), and a good word to hearten our hearts, minds, and souls. And I must say the congregation shone in all the arrangements -- food delicious and aplenty, well organized plans, dedicated workers!! God bless you folks!! And then some hearty bread, beef stew, and some quiet time and he was off on the plane to continue his role as teacher in other places.

E'en So Lord Jesus Quickly Come

When I was 13 or so my congregation needed an organist to sub while our regular organist would be away. Since I played piano, I was drafted. The congregation had an Estey tracker from the late 1800's but in pretty good shape. My piano teacher was organist at the Methodist Church in town and she pulled out an instructional book by John Stainer and suddenly I was an organist. At the time the big Lutheran church in town (Augustana Synod) had a tubby Moller from the early 1950's and it seemed so much better than the tracker I played. And then I went away to college (St. John's Winfield) and encountered a couple of Moller Artistes, an old Austin unit, and the Schlicker in the Chapel. I had never heard such a wonderful sound.

My second year I went to a hymn festival put on by Paul Manz. I think the congregation which hosted had a Reuter (native to Kansas) and it was not too bad. Choir, organ, and congregation combined for a wonderful experience -- all with Paul Manz at the console. The same year I was introduced to Paul Manz, I heard for the first time his anthem, "E'en So Lord Jesus, Quickly Come." It still sends goose bumps up my spine. I have sung it many times in choirs and heard it performed many times and often listen to it on my cd player or just tune in to a YouTube video just because...

I discovered from a friend that Manz's anthem was one of the few American choral anthems to have the stature to be included regularly in the great choral traditions of England (Evensong, Lessons and Carols, etc...) I know why. It has the simple yet haunting quality that unites text and tune together so that it becomes the most profound of prayers set to music.

According to Manz, the piece was written in 1953 when his 3 year old son John was desperately ill in the hospital. Little hope was given to the parents. Paul's wife Ruth had worked the words together from Revelation 22 and gave it to Paul to do something with... And so he did. After John had recovered the sketch was revisited and Paul published it, dedicating the piece to "John and all who prayed for him."

If you want to know what is genius in liturgy and music, I think of this anthem. I think of the faith rooted in Jesus Christ from which the words flowed and the music of the man so anxious about his son and the mystery of the moment of pain that gave birth to such words and music of hope, confidence, and peace. It is one of those wonderful intersections of music and words where neither is bigger than the other but both form a piece of what is larger than either -- the message understood in the mind with words but felt in the soul with the notes that speak the same message.

When I die I want the choir to sing this piece in the funeral. It is about all that needs to be said of me... of any Christian... Even so, Lord Jesus, quickly come.... You can listen to it here or here or here.

Peace be to you and grace from Him
Who freed us from our sin Who loved us all, and shed his blood
That we might saved be.
Sing holy, holy to our Lord
The Lord almighty God Who was and is, and is to come
Sing holy, holy Lord.
Rejoice in heaven,
all ye that dwell therein
Rejoice on earth, ye saints below
For Christ is coming,
Is coming soon
For Christ is coming soon.
E'en so Lord Jesus quickly come
And night shall be no more
They need no light, no lamp, nor sun
For Christ will be their All!

Nothing Else Matters...

Reminded to me today by my friend Paul Maier... from Jaroslav Pelikan...

If Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, nothing else matters...

If Jesus Christ is not risen from the dead, nothing else matters...

Ah... clarity in the midst of a muddle world...

Who Is On The Defensive?

Some years ago a girl in my parish began dating a Church of Christ boy and attending with him with some regularity (at the same time attending at Grace Lutheran)... Eventually a discussion of baptism in that congregation led her to wonder if indeed she had been baptized since she had been baptized as an infant without her consent or understanding (not to mention without immersion).

Several conversations with the family ensued until we met one more time... unbeknownst to me they had brought along the Church of Christ minister to this last meeting where we were expected to fight it out with the right answer being the answer of the last pastor left standing (albeit bloodied and bruised).

But I refused. Before even going to the Scriptures, I pointed out from broad historical consensus that infant baptism had been the unbroken practice of the Church for 1600 years without serious objection and that serious objection had been given legitimacy it had not had before due to the fracturing created by Protestantism (loosed as it were from any teaching magisterium)...

And then the usual Scriptural discussion... but he would not be moved and neither would I... until the end when I indicated that he had a very weak deity if, as it were true, for 16 centuries and still through the present day infant baptism is the dominant practice or accepted practice of the majority of Christians and yet it is so abhorrent to God... Yes, you must have a very weak deity after all for Him to sit idly by wringing His hands while His Church fosters this terrible abomination... and then there was silence...

The girl ended up dumping the boy and, well, I wish I could say there was a happy ending to it all... but it raises a point...

When the objection is an exception to the established practice or teaching of the Church, then the innovators have to prove the point... not those who continue that established practice or teaching... Imagine if (reference the discussions below) we did not have to prove in every generation baptismal regeneration, the Eucharistic mystery, the efficacy of the Word, the wisdom of penance, the importance of faithfulness, the maintenance of the Truth (and not its adjustment) in times of question... whether Lutheran or Orthodox or Roman... ah... if that were the day... when those raising objections to or departing from historic and accepted teaching and practice had to prove not only the rightness of their point but the wrongness of the accepted tradition...

From my perspective, this is the genius of the Lutheran Confessions... they do not innovate but reach back to what was and claim it as what is... from Scripture and the fathers... No, not perfect at all, but a vast improvement upon the corruption that was average parish life in Luther's day... and if only we Lutherans kept to it... what a dynamo it might mean for today...

Righteous Indignation

"True righteousness has compassion, false righteousness is indignant." by Gregory the Great, quoted by Martin Luther, quoted by David Yeago...

The context for this quote was a discussion about reaction to the ELCA decision to depart from Christian tradition, Scripture, and the Lutheran Confessions and embrace homosexuality as equal to marriage between a man and a woman and to extend the privilege of ordination to gay and lesbians in committed, monogamous relationships... I am not going to talk about the ELCA but about this compassion which is the mark of true righteousness.

It seems to me that the world, the devil, and the sinful flesh are enough to throw stones at the Church and seek her downfall. We do not need Christians doing that as well. Whenever we glory over the pitfalls and failings of specific church bodies, we show forth a false righteousness. I skim many blogs and read many journals and many of them are not very nice. Beyond the obvious mark of Pharisaical indignation, there is a dangerous glee that some have over finding fault with their own church body or that of others. It is as if we think we gain by gloating when the truth is that such only diminishes us and does not advance the cause of orthodoxy that we champion.

This is true of the local congregation and the Church as a whole. There are voices within my own congregation who delight in complaining about the inadequacies of me as their Pastor, of other staff members, of lay leaders, of the choir, of the organist, and of most folks in the pew. It can be as simple as a typo in the Sunday bulletin or "righteous" anger over slights that are taken for this reason or that, but it can be downright nasty.

If I have done so, and I know I have, I take this opportunity to beg forgiveness from those who were the objects of my unkindness as well as those who heard it. I urge repentance of all of us when our false righteousness displays and unkindly indignation that delights in finding fault. This is not the way of Christ.

That does not mean we must stay silent when we encounter such errors and failings -- no, by no means -- but it does mean that we approach them with a compassionate heart that seeks not blame but renewal, not condemnation but reformation. True righteousness is compassionate. We can think for a moment on the log and speck in the eye, in the adulterous woman who finds no one left to condemn but the encouragement to go and sin no more, or a hundred other passages where sin and error are identified but the goal is not tearing down... the goal is rebuilding.

The fact that congregations and the Church are filled with sinners who think and act and speak in sinful ways... well, it is fact of life this side of glory. When we encounter it, we need to be armed with more than indignation. We need to meet these things with compassion. I cannot tell you how many times people have said to me "I never thought you would find....(insert sin/fault/failing here)... in a Christian Church!" Hrump! Big Sigh! Pained Expression! "I might have to find another church home." Good luck.

In contrast I have apologized for failing to address people in their time of pain, to visit them when sick, to ask them about this or that, to remember their family member's names, and on and on... only to find them not indignant but forgiving. They addressed me with the compassion that seeks not to wear the wound but to find healing for it. These folks have taught me much and still teach me.

“Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day” (Matt. 6:34) There will be many battles yet to come in the Church and many failings... in each congregation, too... in each Pastor and church worker, also... and don't forget lay leaders. Wrong decisions will be made, errors will be hidden, faulty choices made... about many things (including sex)... We are called to point them out and address them up front -- not in judgment or condemnation only but so that they may be righted, forgiven, and the path of orthodoxy, love, and community restored.

When we delight in finding error, we manifest the very thing that the innocent heart of our Savior came to redeem... so let us stand for Truth and righteousness, for orthodoxy and faithfulness... but with a compassionate spirit and a loving heart whose goal is higher than shame and more noble than embarrassment... but repentance, renewal, and restoration...