Missouri Myth and Legend

Talk to many Missouri Lutherans today and you would think that the LCMS has an instinctive bias against things catholilc -- especially ceremonies, usages, rituals, smells and bells.  Funny, however, because in the Propositions for an Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Constitution  from which the eventual first constitution and its successors originated, the founders of the LCMS show bias not against the catholic ceremonies to which so many turn up their noses today but against the poverty and emptiness in the externals of the service found around them in the vast wasteland of Lutheranism in American in the early 1800s.

Furthermore Synod deems it necessary for the purification of the Lutheran Church in America, that the emptiness and the poverty in the externals of the service be opposed, which, having been introduced here by the false spirit of the Reformed, is now rampant.

In addition, explicit reference (also included in the first constitution) not only asks that private confession be continued where it exists but that pastors are to strive through teaching and instruction to introduce it.  Private Confession, it seems, has a shall rubric while general confession has a may rubric.  Just the opposite of things today.

Where private confession is in use, it is to be kept according to Article 11 of the Augsburg Confession. Where it is not in use, the pastor is to strive through teaching and instruction to introduce it. Yet in congregations where the total abolishing of general confession and absolution is hindered by unsurmountable obstacles, general confession may be kept along with private confession. 

Finally, in an age of celebrated diversity, Synod strove for the just the opposite -- uniformity in the ceremonies!  This was not a minimalism but, due to the use of sound (pure) agendas (books proscribing the form and practice of the Divine Service and occasional services), this meant the use of a fuller, not minimal, ceremonial.

The desired uniformity in the ceremonies is to be brought about especially by the adoption of sound Lutheran agendas (church books).

Ah, the myth and legend of Missouri!  How soon we forget that our forefathers were, with regard to liturgy, ceremony, and confession, much more overtly catholic than many of their heirs today.  Far from being a liturgical wing of the Methodist Church, the Missourians saw themselves explicitly as the evangelical wing of the catholic church.

Conventional wisdom. . .

As one who grew up in the era of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen and his weekly program on TV, it is hard for me not to have some affection and not a little appreciation for both the era and for the man and his message.  He is rich in pithy sayings and there is no shortage of quotes to choose from.

Sheen once said behave as you believe or you will soon believe as you behave.  It is hardly original in theme (do as I say and not as I do could be one form of this and Neuhaus' law slightly different but within the same vein).  Yet this conventional wisdom has become radical in an age when wisdom is anything but conventional.

Behave as you believe or soon you will believe as you behave is certainly the test of morality in a world wherein people claim to have values but pollsters and surveys tell us that those values seem to impact the actual behavior or lives of those people only slightly.  Christians and even those in church bodies that have clear stands on such issues as abortion, promiscuity, extra-marital sex, cohabitation, gay marriage, etc..., seem willing to abandon their beliefs.  We all have cohabiting, cheating, gay, and slutty relatives and friends and so we are reluctant to hold to our moral values if it means condemning Auntie Maude and her new live in or cousin Fritz and his new beau or granddaughter Freda and her affairs while married to Claude.  I could go on...

Behave as you believe or soon you will believe as you behave is certainly the test of doctrine as well.  We find Christians caught between what the Scriptures say, what the catholic faith has confessed, what their own reason finds understandable, and the truths they deem palatable.  So even when we shake our fists and hold up the catechism we pick and choose what we will believe, confess, and teach.  Even when we insist we are a confessional church, we do not take all aspects of our confession as seriously as others.  Even when we confess the creed we are not necessarily confessing every word of it to be true or true for all time.  Lutherans sound more and more like Evangelicals and mainline Protestants to the point where confessional Lutherans speak with an alien voice to the ears of those Lutherans.  It is not an isolated problem for Lutherans either.  Witness the polls that tell us many Roman Catholics do not believe that they receive the actual body (and perhaps blood) of Christ in the Mass.

Behave as you believe or soon you will believe as you behave is certainly the test of worship practices, too.  We worship as we choose, regardless whether or not it pleases God, and we believe the true test of worship is its spontaneity, its sincerity, and its satisfaction of our desires and preferences.  The means of grace have been shoved to the sideline and our piety is thoroughly rooted in what happens in the moment and the whims of a people who like new better than old, novelty better than tradition, and appealing lies better than hard truth.

Behave as you believe or soon you will believe as you behave certainly classifies as one of the more poignant and apropos statements of Sheen -- and quite prescient since it was spoken in the 1950s but came to full fruit and flower 50 years later.  There are many things on which I disagree with Sheen but you have to admire his ability to soundbite a prophetic glimpse into our future (perhaps because it was a truth so clear from the past).

A brief Ascension homily. . .

Once while explaining the Ascension in catechism class, a youth said it finally made sense to her.  The world is in such a mess because Jesus left and went to the right hand of the Father.  That explained everything to her, if only Jesus had stayed, things would not be so bad today!  And maybe sometimes we feel that way as well.  If only we could see Jesus, talk to Him, hold His hand... If only Jesus were still here in visual shape and form to lead and guide us things might be better.

Of course, she was confusing what Ascension means.  Jesus was not leaving a forwarding address and bidding good-bye to His church.  He was not exchanging one geographical location for another but was taking His rightful glory at the right hand of the Father, who after Christ’s death and resurrection, placed all things under His dominion.

Is there any one of us who has not longed for a closer walk with Jesus -- not the one by faith but one like the disciples had when they accompanied Jesus in His earthly ministry?  But that is the point, Jesus has not left us but has come to us in the means through which He will build His kingdom.

In this respect, Jesus was exchanging one form of His presence for another, giving up His visual form for His sacramental presence in His Word, the water of His baptism, the voice of His absolution, and the bread and wine of His meal.  Jesus has not left us alone or on our own but is exactly where He has placed His name and His promise – in the means of grace.  He is there not only for the benefit of those already His but to bring those not yet of His kingdom into the fold of His sheep.

This is so that we might never have to wonder where is Christ.  He is always where He has promised to be – His Word is the sound of the Good Shepherd’s voice still calling to His own and calling His own out from the ways of danger to the good pasture and still quiet waters.  His water has His Word and promise in it so that it never fails to do what He said.  It matters not if it seems that the troublesome child who went down into those waters seems the same kid who came up.  Behavior is not the only nor even the primary measure of God’s work.  Faith and trust are the fruit of the Spirit’s working through the means of grace.  We need never wonder if it is merely bread and wine for wherever Christ’s Word addresses the bread and cup it declares these to be what He has promised: His flesh for the life of the world and His blood that cleanses us from all sin.

But there is one more place where Christ lives.  He lives in you – oh, not in the way the old song says “because He lives within my heart.”  This is surely well and good when our hearts are full, our joys complete, and our lives happy but when feelings fail us we need Jesus more than in a feeling.  Christ lives in us because in baptism we died and He created us anew, a new creature, to live in Him, with Him, under Him, in His kingdom without end. 

Christ lives in you and, as St. Paul reminds us, it is Christ in you who brings forth good works.  The good that I do is not me but Christ in me.  Christ lives in you and is even now in you – not because you feel Him or even sense Him but because He has promised this.  You are His new creation whom He cannot abandon and through whom He works to bring for the good fruit of His kingdom that endures forever.

We do not see this.  We can see no line of moral progress or growth in holiness but that does not mean it is not there.  Our focus is upon Jesus and upon the means of grace where He is accessible to us.  Others may glimpse this growth in sanctification but God sees it and recognizes it as Christ’s own righteousness bearing its fruit in us and through us.  We don’t have to see it and we should not or we will be tempted to think we are doing okay and the cross will no longer be our hope.  But they are there because we live in Christ, we are connected to Him by faith, we receive Him in the means of grace, and He always does what He has promised.

"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."   (2 Cor. 3:18) 

Salvation is the purest and holiest of gifts.  But it is not a thing nor is it a pass on our sins.  Salvation is a living gift that enlivens us.  The old man was dead in trespasses and sin but the new man has been raised to new and everlasting life.  This new creation is Christ in us so that we might cooperate with the Spirit in the good works that God is doing in us and through us and the end result of this is that we attribute all to the action of God working as He has promised in His grace and mercy and not to our own distinct wills and power.

". . . God makes willing  people out of rebellious and unwilling people through the drawing power of the Holy Spirit, and how after this conversion of  the human being the reborn will is not idle in the daily practice of repentance but cooperates in all works of the Holy Spirit that He accomplishes through us."  SD FC  II:88

So do not fear that Christ has left you.  He has come through the means of grace to deliver to you all that He won by His obedient death and His glorious resurrection.  He has ascended to the right hand of the Father to plead for us, to claim us as the children of our heavenly Father, and to bring us with Him when He finishes His new creation.  And when you look into the mirror, look with your eyes of faith to see what the eyes in your head too often miss – You belong to Him and He is at work in you bringing forth the good works of Him who has called us from darkness into His marvelous light.  For your glory, yes, but more importantly, for His glory forever more.

Christ is risen!  Risen, ascended, and glorified.  Alleluia!

nce when explaining the Ascension of our Lord to catechism students, one youth remarked that it all made sense – but not in a pleasant way.  Jesus left and that is why the world is in such a mess.  If Jesus had stayed, things would be better.

On the subject of change. . .

For the last forty-five years or so, the Roman rite has known many Eucharistic Prayers. Four Eucharistic Prayers are appointed for the Mass and there are two additional available for reconciliation masses and three for children's masses (I was never sure what exactly the point of these were). Though the GIRM had instructions on the intended use of these Eucharistic Prayers, the practical reality was that they became part of the personal preference of the presider and, too often, were chosen for the sake of time considerations and little else. It may come as a surprise to many that this was not always so. For some 1600 years pior to the aftermath of Vatican II, the Roman rite knew but one Eucharistic Prayer and it was not even routinely called a Eucharistic Prayer but simply the Roman canon. Roman Catholics are debating this issue and will for some time and well they should. The point of my mention is that liturgical change did not evolve incrementally in the 1970s but took giant steps that not only incorporated significant change but also put in place significant choice.

Lutherans were not far from Rome in this matter. Where the hymnals of 1941 and 1958 left Lutherans with one text (albeit with several musical options in SBH), the Divine Service was uniformly consistent and the other options for Sunday morning were either a "dry mass" (ending with the offertory) or Matins. That all changed for Lutherans when the ILCW began sending out options for trial use in preparation for the expected joint Lutheran hymnal. From the get go this was understood to be the same kind of radical change that Rome had already introduced. The LCMS had already seen several versions of the Eucharist introduced in 1969 with the publication of the Worship Supplement. What also impacted Lutherans was the fact that the photocopier and the beginning of desk top publishing had left them unofficial options for introducing change and diversity -- unintended but still very real and very popular.

Liturgical change prior to the 1970s was almost always incremental. The mass evolved slowly and deliberately and those generations apart would recognize clearly what was familiar and common to both. All of that changed when the myriad of options came with both official sanction in the worship books published and unofficial practice. LW tried to slow this pace by offering a somewhat altered tie to the past in a Divine Service that mirrored page 15 of TLH. LSB was much more deliberate in including as close as possible the familiar common service Missouri version. At the same time, however, it added options -- the Divine Service, Setting Four, which absorbed the modern format of the Deutsche Messe as well as Divine Service, Setting Five, which followed the familiar Luther version of that mass in which hymns replace the ordinary.

Unfortunately, the changes of the 1970s that were due to desk top publishing and printing that now mirrored the quality of professional publishing houses has only broadened the diversity that happens among Lutherans on Sunday morning. For what its worth, I am NOT referring here simply to the reintroduction of ceremonies or ritual from Lutheranism's past but the actual restructuring of the Divine Service or the replacement of that order with another. I consider the use of a more elaborate ceremonial within the parameters of the Divine Service not the same kind of liturgical change as, say, the replacement of the hymnal order (or orders) for the loosely organized liturgy of a seeker service or the adoption of a generic Protestant style liturgy of the Word. While some may argue with me here, when the ordo or pattern and words of the Divine Service remain, albeit enhanced with items that had been missing from more recent incarnations of that liturgy, it is not at all the same as the replacement of one liturgy for another of non-Lutheran (or to use a more confessional term, non-catholic) form.

Ours is a much different situation than Rome. We do not have a GIRM which requires adherence but a long standing congregationalist tradition of local adaptation -- one that was fueled by the rapid character of the official liturgical evolution of the hymnals but which has left even this diversity in the dust by giving free reign to whatever the local congregation and pastor choose to do. If Rome's complaint is that such liturgical giant steps and diversity of practice has created chaos for their people and the understanding of their piety, how much more is this true for a Synod like Missouri which knew relatively little liturgical diversity until the 1960s at the earliest and the 1970s for officially sanctioned change.

Liturgical development is best when it is incremental, when it builds clearly upon the past and does not institutional radical departure from that past, and when it eschews the personal freedom of the pastor and parish for the sake of a commonly recognized order that mirrors our confession and gives high value to our common life and walk together. The reason for this is not simply institutional health but the preservation of the identity of the church and the faithful with the church and the formation of a piety which is shaped by, flows from, and returns to the Divine Service. If this is true from Rome, it must also be true for Wittenberg.

Where will you be today or tonight?

The Ascension of our Lord is part of our confession and creed and yet, liturgically, it has largely dropped from the radar and piety of the church.  There are more people in church on Thanksgiving or an average Wednesday in Advent and Lent.  This is a scandal to the full meaning of the Easter season and our confession of Christ.  We cannot afford to let the Ascension of our Lord slip into obscurity.

What can we do?

1. Lay people can insist upon the restoration of this holy day where it has been dropped from the local liturgical calendar.
2. Pastors can re-introduce this feast into the liturgical life of the parish whether or not many folks will actually attend  (try scheduling a baptism or confirmation for this evening to draw attention to it).
3. Congregations that do not believe they can do this alone can band together for a circuit wide observance of the Ascension.
4. The Church can begin teaching the importance of the Ascension both as feast and as fact -- for the sake of our witness and our catechesis.
5. If the congregation and pastor will not schedule the service, the faithful can at least ask and expect the church to be open for prayer and this to be announced.  Perhaps the faithful can shame us into pious practice.

For my part, we will have two Ascension services -- one spoken liturgy with hymn at 11 am and one full sung liturgy with choir at 7 pm.  The Eucharist will be at both.  So I have laid down the gauntlet.  Now let us begin the work of restoring the Ascension of our Lord to the liturgical calendar of the parish and the piety of the people.  Let it begin!

Kudos to those in uniform and the chaplains who serve them

This was the view of a chaplain working under battlefield conditions, doing his faithful duty, and the soldiers under his care. . . it is from the greatest generation but it could easily be today as well. . .   Kudos to those who wear the uniform proudly in service to our country and our values and to the chaplains who serve them -- especially those in the LCMS.

Here is a photo of a Korea era Lutheran Chaplain giving Holy Communion..

I have added it to the video of the Roman Catholic Chaplain saying Mass.
 .

Who is left to attack?

The recent attacks on white males by a recent hire at Boston College only showcase the vitriol on the park of those who play the part of the victim.  Apparently there are few people left who are safe to pick on.  Among them are while males, the ever popular enemies of all the enlightened, and, of course, Christians.  Those who attack women are called misogynists, those who attack homosexuals are called homophobes, those who attack Islam are called Islamophobes, etc. . . but the only folks who are left to legitimately attack are white males and Christians -- a twofer if you can get them both in one fell swoop.

My point is not merely to complain about this or to point out the injustice but to suggest that the so-called identity politics of the moment prevent any sense of real community or commonality at all.  It is surely related to the common practice of victimization in which we define ourselves against others according to the injustices we have born.  As we say to our children, life is not fair and everyone bears some form of injustice or wound.  A community is not merely a collection of individuals but a people who sacrifice self for the sake of another.  While it is always an imperfect and uneven truth, it is the first mark of the church and it is also the mark of a healthy society and nation.

To listen to Michelle Obama and her commencement speech in which she complains about being mistaken for help, having people walk to the other side of the street from her, or the clerks who watched her with suspicion is to miss that her husband is President of the US and she is first lady -- an ivy league graduate who has lived very well and reached the American pinnacle of success and power.  There seems to be no end to way we wear our wounds and left them define us.  No one but an idiot would suggest that the plight of Blacks in America has been anything less than brutal, tragic, unjust, and shameful.  Racism does persist but it has been banished from the main stage of ideas and relegated to the shadows.  To fail to acknowledge this publicly and to let these strides also define us as a nation and as individual members of this society is to choose victimization and identity politics over the good of the larger community.  By the way, I also have been mistaken for help, looked at with suspicion (for wearing a clerical collar in the South), and had people walk away from me because of an anti-Roman Catholic prejudice that transcends the color barrier (Lutherans get lumped in here because nobody down here knows what a Lutheran is).

We have let our feelings loose to overcome our minds and poison our hearts.  When the old bad people left in the world are white males and Christians who refuse to bow to the gods of political correctness, what we have left is no community, no society, and no future.  The path before us should call us to virtue more than merely recite the injustices we have suffered.  More than this, there ought to be voices out there who challenge the identity politics and victim identity that has come to shape us more and more as a people and as individuals within the American population.

The Church should be ahead of the curve here.  And it is in most cases.  Even in the Church, however, there is a form of racial segregation not of force but of affinity which is not healthy.  Sunday morning in America remains segregated not because churches are closed to people of different color or race but because the churches have become places where ethnic and racial cultures are preserved.  There is nothing wrong with that as long as preachers and people do not allow the choices we make about where and with whom to assemble to color the way we see others.  Christians challenge each other on the basis of Scripture and faithfulness to Christ both in doctrine and in practice and not in the supremacy of one ethnic or cultural identity over another.  Here, too, there are voices who play the same tired old cards of power politics of race and gender within the congregation and denomination as we have learned to do so well in politics.  It will most certainly distract us from our mission of witness and service but it has the power to do much more than this -- to surrender the Church created in Christ Jesus to be merely a creature of our own self-interest or prejudice.

The love that calls us friends has come. . .

Sermon for Easter 6B, preached on Sunday, May 10, 2015.

    My parents have had lifelong friends, from grade school to death.  I don't have those kinds of friends.  This is a partial consequence of living their whole lives in one community and my mobility but it is also a consequence of their age and generation.  Facebook has redefined friendship into something that begins and ends with the click of a button.  It is more likely today that we call people friends whom we have never met and our relationship will consist solely of social media.  Such friendship is too easy.  This is not the friendship that Christ is speaking of in the Gospel for today.
    Friendship according to Jesus is not who you hang out with on the internet but the person for whom you will die.  Jesus calls us friends but He is not speaking of the kind of friendship of buddies who share common interests.  Jesus is speaking of the love that will suffer and even die for His friends.  Greater love has no one that to lay down his life for his friends.  He gives us this friendship and He also asks us for this friendship:  to live as His friends in the world, to walk in His ways, to keep His commands, and to love others as He has loved us.
    You are Christ’s friends.  You did not choose Him but He chose you.  We love because He first loved us.  Only from Him did we discover the kind of love strong enough to suffer and strong enough to die.  He chose you and appointed you to be His own, to live under Him in His kingdom, and to bear His fruit in your life.
    He came into the world in order to define the friendship of God and to live up to its definition even to death.  You do not come to Him but He comes for you and to you by the power of the Holy Spirit.  And His friendship is not defined by good times shared but by suffering in your place for your sins and dying your death so that you might live.
    You did not die for Him. . . at least not yet.  In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus prophecies that some of us will face death in order to be faithful to God's friendship.  Some of us will be persecuted for righteousness sake and some of us will lay down our lives for the sake of the kingdom.  It happened to Jesus’ own disciples, in every generation since, and it happens still -- more now than in any time before.
    You are Christ’s friends.  You are the people to whom He has revealed Himself and through Him has made known the Father.  He has spoken to You the Word of life.  He has addressed you with the grace of forgiveness.  He has called you by name in baptism; you belong to Him.  And He has called you out – out of darkness into His light, out from the world and into His service, and out of the ways of sin into lives of holiness, righteousness, and blessedness.
    Christ has called you friends and sealed this friendship with His own blood.  His love lives in you and endures and to you He has gives His presence and His promise.  Once you were friends of the world; now you are His friends.  You cannot have it both ways.  Such is the nature of His friendship!
    And lets be blunt.  Christ calls you friends also because He has set you apart for new and different life -- for good works, for lives of holiness, for voices of witness, for actions of love.  So Scripture reminds us that you cannot be friends with Christ and live invisible lives in the world.  Our friendship with Christ compels us to stand up and stand apart.  We are the witnesses of His saving death and we are the proclaimers of His glorious resurrection; we are the instruments through whom His love reaches the lost and the needy.
    Friendship is at the heart of the Gospel – what it means and how it looks.  It means the suffering and death that purchased and won us and it looks like the cross.  You are His friends because Christ has forged this friendship in blood.  So we are warned against cheapening this friendship by picking and choosing at what we believe from His Word, walking in our own ways, or living anonymously in the the ways of the world.  You and I are called out and called forth to walk in love as Christ has loved us, bringing to the world a radical new definition of friendship.
    On this day we honor moms, the great temptation is to think being a mom means being the kind of friend our kids have with their peers.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  A mom’s friendship with her children is to look like Christ’s friendship to us.  It is not for fun or pleasure but for values that shape lives, of love willing to sacrifice, and the courage to speak truth.  No child fully understands this until he or she is a parent.
    If mom has done her job well, she is a witness to Christ’s friendship in the home to husband, children, and her own parents.  She is an example of Christ's faithful love, a voice of His truth even when it is unpleasant to hear, a safe refuge of His grace when there is no place else to turn, and a certain guide to virtuous and godly living.  And moms, as hard as this is, bless you when you do this.  And kids, blessed are you when you know Christ’s friendship through a faithful mom.
    It is always our temptation to make friendship merely a matter of the heart but Christ shows us it is much more.  It is cross shaped, with arms outstretched in suffering, it bleeds red in sacrifice, and it dies so that we might live.  This is Christ’s friendship to us and with us. And it is in this friendship we are called to walk through this mortal life until we pass to everlasting life.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.  Christ is Risen!

Convinced or coerced. . .

A New York Times columnist and a corporate leader have agreed that Christian churches “must” be convinced, or coerced, to change their teachings on sexual morality and abandon an “ossified” doctrinal teaching that sex outside heterosexual marriage is immoral.

Frank Bruni wrote that traditional Christianity – whether among evangelicals, Catholics, or Orthodox – provides the greatest resistance to normalizing homosexuality in the United States in a recent column in the New York Times.

“Homosexuality and Christianity don’t have to be in conflict in any church anywhere,” Bruni insisted. “The continued view of gays, lesbians and bisexuals as sinners is a decision. It’s a choice. It prioritizes scattered passages of ancient texts over all that has been learned since — as if time had stood still, as if the advances of science and knowledge meant nothing.”

Neuhaus said it best if not first:  “Where orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will sooner or later be proscribed.”  The growing intolerance of those who claim to be tolerant will soon require Christians to make hard choices.  When it will become untenable for the modern age to allow Christians to disagree with the prevailing mantra of full gay acceptance I do not know.  But it is coming.  And then we will find the reason why rendering unto Caesar and unto God the things that belong to each is not nearly as easy nor as comfortable as other eras may have found it. . .

Kudos to the cartoonist and the Chattanooga Times Free Press. . .

The categories of the faith. . .

Francis Cardinal George who died recently was always good for a rich and powerful quote.  I have repeated here is most famous line about how his successors will die.  Another line is also a favorite of mine. Right after his installation as Archbishop of Chicago, he said at his first Chicago press conference in 1997, the Church is about true and false, not left and right.

For Roman Catholics, the markers changed in Vatican II and its aftermath.  For them their church was forever divided between liberal and conservative, liberal being good and conservative being bad.  This was mirrored in the mainline Protestant denominations as well.  For Evangelicalism and, to a certain extent for Lutherans, this has been transcended by the god of personal preference.  Those who agree that the preaching, liturgy, and witness of the faith should be centered in the person and those who believe it should be centered in Christ now fight worship wars, battles over doctrine, and a war to end all wars in the morality and ethic about marriage and sexuality which is faithful to Christ and His Word.

Because we tend to see things exclusively through the lens of personal preference, like and dislike, and desire, we have surrendered too much to the political boundaries and no longer believe that truth itself is at stake in the skirmishes regularly fought over what happens on Sunday morning, what we confess and teach about God and His Word, and what we believe and practice with regard to sexuality and marriage.  These are, for many people in our churches, no longer matters of truth and error, right and wrong, but simply what seems good in your own eyes and what appeals to and is formed by your personality and experiences.

This is what we must awaken to if we are to meet head on those who are determined to trade the heart and soul of the faith for the god of personal preference.  This has nothing to do with liberal or conservative but everything to do with truth and falsehood.  This has nothing to do with what you or me or most people like and everything to do  with whether or not our truth is faithful and strong enough on which to hang the full weight of our sins and hold up the full hope of everlasting life.  This has to do with Christ and His work.

Worship wars are not about the competition over preference or epoch in liturgical history we choose to hold up as some golden era.  Not at all.  Worship wars have to do with faithfulness to Christ.  Either we meet Christ on the terms He has set -- the means of grace --  or we do not know Him as He has chosen to be known.  This is about truth and error.  This is not about what kind of instruments accompany the church's song or even about the style of that liturgy but about whether or not Christ is preached faithfully and met with faith where He has promised to be -- in water, bread, wine, the voice of absolution, and His Word.

Doctrine is neither informed by nor does it derive its authority from the willingness of the people to believe it or like what it is.  Doctrine is informed by Scripture and has its authority from the God whose living voice speaks through His Word -- speaking the yesterday, today, and forever steadfast and enduring Word that alone can deliver forgiveness, life, and salvation to the sinner in His shame, the wounded in their pain, the dying in their death, and the living in their struggle.  We do not vote up or vote down what the Word of God teaches.  We can reject it but if we reject it, we are rejecting Christ (if not now, later).

Morality is not about disdain for homosexuality or the belief that the homosexual has no choice in his or her desire and was made that way.  It has everything to do with the shape God intended for His creation, the order established in that creation and still known through natural law, and the redemptive corollary to that shape and order (think Ephesians 5 and Paul's conclusion that this is Christ and the Church as well as man and woman before God).  This morality is not something we choose but what has chosen us in creation, what has been restored to us in redemption, and what becomes our path and our glory in sanctification.

We are too cheap with God's Word when we make it all about preference or political labels of liberal or conservative.  This is costly grace that is freely given and whenever we make cheap what God has delivered to us at the expense of Christ's own suffering and death, we surrender our birthrights as Christian people.  No, the good Cardinal had it right in 1997 and it is still correct.  This is not about liberal or conservative but about truth and falsehood, not about right or left but about the truth that endures forever and the error that leaves us in our sin and death for all eternity.

There's more to come but you can't bear it!

Sermon for a weekday Eucharist, preached Thursday, May 7, 2015.

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”  What did you think when you heard this?  I will tell you what I thought: This is not good!

There is a fear in Christians that God has hidden some things from us that we don’t want to know, some secrets that will surely disappoint us.  Mom or dad will be strangers to us in heaven or Fluffy our dog won’t get into heaven.  Or maybe worse.  The sinful pleasures we gave up on earth will not be replaced by better things in heaven.  We will live with our regrets when we could have continued our guilty pleasures and still at the last minute called upon the Lord and been saved.  It is sin itself that has predisposed us to fear God and distrust Him.

So what is Jesus talking about – the things He has to say but the disciples could not bear to hear them?  Surely if anybody was capable of hearing such disappointing words or bad news, the disciples were.  After all they actually walked and talked with Jesus; would not they be in a better position than we are – johnny come lately’s some 2000 years later.

The suspicion is wrongly placed.  God has no hidden disappointment waiting for us but the blessed gifts and unimaginable wonders that no human mind can handle apart from the Spirit leading and guiding.  Jesus has not withheld the terrible bad news for later but has promised us great and wondrous gifts and blessings that eye cannot see, mind cannot dream, and heart cannot imagine what God has prepared for those who love Him.

In other words, the best things of this life are but pale and poor appetizers of the great wonders that God has prepared for us.  We fear that we might be leaving behind something good from the present moment but God fears that the future is so blessed and great that we will be completely dissatisfied with today if we know the full truth of His eternal tomorrow.

And so it would be unless the Spirit prepares our hearts, sustains us in our struggles, fills us with the good things of His grace today even while preparing us for the greater things of His grace to come.  Baptism is not the end but the beginning of our everlasting new life in Christ.  Absolution is not the end of our sins but the prelude to a life glorious without sin at all.  Holy Communion is not our last supper but the first glimpse that anticipates the final and eternal meal, the marriage supper of the Lamb that is without end.

What is this?  All that the Father has is mine and I choose to declare it and give it to you.  Those are Jesus words.  The ruler of this world is already judged.  This world is already passing away, fading away, to be replaced by the new heavens and new earth of His promise.  Our sins will not live on but will be eternally forgotten without a memory to haunt us.  Death will not longer afflict us nor cause us to fear and it will most certainly lead us to forget what it means to grieve.  So great is that which God has prepared for those who love Him, those for whom Christ has prepared a place.

In the end, we need the Spirit because apart from Him we are still afflicted by fear, held tightly in the grasp of regret, and unsure if it will all be worth the struggle.  It is the Spirit and the Spirit alone who enables us to say Jesus Christ is Lord, to see His gift of new and eternal life in the baptismal water, to acknowledge and confess our sins for absolution, and to taste Jesus Christ in the bread and up of His Supper. 
It is the Spirit alone who enables us to look past the best joys of this moment and behold eternal joy, to focus on that future when regret, fear, doubt, and pain is demanding all our attention, and to believe that His promise is enough to sustain us today, tomorrow, and forever. 

Jesus goes away to come again, this life departs so that it may return in greater form than we ever imagined, the relationships of this life will be filled so that the wonderful intimacy of friendship with God will include everyone who believes, and the old bodies will be exchanged for the glorious flesh and blood that Jesus Himself wore at His resurrection.  This is more than I can bear and more than you can, as well.  Only the Spirit can teach us to believe without seeing and to see by believing.  Christ is Risen!  Amen.

Funny but true. . .

Christ the vine, we the branches. . .

Sermon for Easter 5B, preached on Sunday, May 3, 2015.

    A while ago we thought planting a vine was a good idea.  The vines have done too well and now we must battle them every year or they will take over.  The branches are light and easy enough to trim back but the vine and roots refuse to give up.  They have made vines sturdy and seemingly impossible to kill.  Think of all the kudzu we see around us.  This is what the Lord directs us to see in the imagery of Christ the vine and we His branches.
    The strength lies not in the branch but in the vine.  Let me say it again.  The strength lies not in the branch but in the vine.  Branches possess the strength of the vine only so long as they are on the vine, drawing from its life and accomplishing its purpose.  Without the vine, the branches have no life.  They wither in the sun, shrivel in drought, and die as soon as they are cut off from the vine.  We all know the truth of these words.
    But Christ is not a branch.  Christ is the vine.  He is our strength and our life.  As long as we are connected to Him we have His strength to support us and His life flows in us and through us.  How we do this is not a riddle for us to solve.  Our Lord has given us His Word and Sacraments and by receiving these with faith, we are in Christ; we abide in Him and He in us.

    But we do not exist merely to abide, to twiddle our thumbs and wait with careless abandon.  The branches of a vine exist to bear the vine’s fruit.  So do we remain in Christ in order to bear His fruit, the good works that glorify Him and do His bidding in the world.  Our purpose is not to get strong on our own but to remain dependent upon Christ and to draw our life from Him.
    We are strong not simply to endure the struggles and trials of this mortal life.  No, we are strong so that we might bear the good fruit of Him who has called us from darkness into His marvelous light.  Branches do not get to choose what they do – they exist to bear fruit.  They bear fruit because they are branches. 
    This is what went astray in Eden.  Adam and Eve were not content to bear fruit but wanted to be the vine.  And look where that got us.  We learned sin and guilt.  We learned weakness, illness, and death.  We learned that the world we were created to exert God’s dominion over could become a burden and even an enemy we must fight to try and do the Lord’s bidding.
    Without the vine, branches have no purpose.  Without our connection to the God who made us, we lost sight of who we are and why we were made. Christ was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and born to fulfill all righteousness for us, to suffer to atone for our rebellion and sin, and to restore to us our divine purpose.
    Scripture is blunt.  When you think you are strong, you are weak.  When you are weak in Christ, you are strong.  This is the paradox.  The world teaches us to live independent lives and the call of the Gospel is to live in Christ the life He died so that we might live.  The world tells us that living for yourself is the way to make sure you get what you want.  The call of the Gospel is to the glory of service, giving up our lives for the Lord in service to the neighbor and the Lord and you will keep your life for all eternity.  God does not want us to develop our own strength apart from Christ but to be strong IN Christ.  Christians grow not toward independence but to become ever more dependent upon Christ.
    Christ is strong and tenacious.  He has fought Satan.  He has surrendered His life for us.  He rose to bestow the fruits of that life to you and me.  All of this is ours only because we live in Christ.  We live in Christ by hearing His Word and believing in it, by being baptized and living the new life baptism bestows in faith.  We live in Christ by eating His flesh and drinking His blood as He bids us do in the Holy Communion.
    But the goal is not merely to survive.  The goal is that the kingdom of God might thrive in us and through us to others.  We exist to bear His good fruit.  He is relentless.  No sin, not death, and not even the devil can prevail against Christ.  We are weak but if we abide in Christ by faith, we are strong in the grace of forgiveness and life.  And we will finally get to do what God created us to do – to bear His good fruit in good works.  Good works can’t pay salvation’s price but they show our faith.
    We bear this fruit not as an act of our will or choice but as a consequence of who we are.  We do not need to see this fruit – our focus is not on us but on Christ.  And in fact, most of us do not see the fruits and works we bear in Christ and for Him.  But that does not mean the fruit will not come.  And that is the point.  Branches to not contemplate who they are or what they are to do.  They know it.  You don’t need to ponder this as if it were some great mystery to solve.  You have a spouse, a home, a neighbor, gifts, abilities.  Serve the Lord right where you are.  Keep the focus not on you but on Christ.  Abide in Him through His Word you trust and the Sacraments you receive with great confidence.  And that is it.  That is enough. 

Rachel Evans. . . again

"I caution against the idea that the way to get young people into church is to be hip and cool and have a pastor who wears skinny jeans." Rachel Held Evans could have been talking about any number of much-hyped contemporary evangelical congregations: the Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, for example, whose pastor started a website called PastorFashion.com, or Mars Hill, the Seattle megachurch that dissolved amid controversy in 2014, but left behind a large network of congregations. Many of the fastest growing churches in America are exactly what Evans describes: Places with Sunday morning rock bands and chic websites and pastors who occasionally, yes, wear skinny jeans.  Read more here. . .

So begins another article on Rachel Evans and her perspective on the Millenials. She is smart and she is sassy.  You can love her or hate her -- she gets under the skin of both liberal and conservative Christians.  But on the whole I am tiring a bit of her.  Her new book will not be one I pick up.  But there is one thing she says that I do take issue with -- "The reasons Millennials are leaving are more complex than a lack of cool," she said in an interview. "We’ve been advertised to our entire lives. We can smell B.S. from a mile away. So if you’re just trying to sell us a product, we can tell.”

No, Rachel, neither you nor your cohorts among the Millenials can smell B. S. a mile away.  It has become the familiar smell that so permeates your culture and mine that we cannot smell it until we are chin deep in it.  Millenials are not automatically savy because they have grown up with constant advertising.  They still presume that technology is king, that the self-absorption of the advertising perspective is still the right one, and that they, they consumer, are the judges of what is right and wrong (even with doctrine and truth).

I am not picking on Millenials.  We are all pretty darn stupid in the face of the lies we love to be told and we only smell the B. S. we have been conditioned to smell (like her own comments that anything less than full acceptance of the GLBT community negates the Gospel).  A few years ago somebody gave me as a joke a bottle of B. S. repellant.  I wish it worked.  But if it did, I would repel myself.  Jesus insists that the B. S. is not the stuff outside of you but the stuff from within your own heart.  Sin is what pervades our culture and our natures since the fall.  We are not savy except in our own minds.  There we are perfectly objective and able to root out the fake and the charlatan.  If that is the case, why are Millenials still drawn (like others) to the Osteens and Mars Hills and Rob Bells of this world?  Why do we settle for Christianity lite without a hint of Biblical truth over the faithful Christian communities rooted in creed and liturgy and preaching and teaching the whole counsel of God's Word, yesterday, today, and forever the same?

If we could smell the B. S., then we would not need much help from God's Spirit.  That is the whole problem.  Millenials are not better or worse at the odor since the scent of sin has pretty much corrupted our sense of smell entirely.  Millenials are not harder nuts to crack or too savvy to be converted by the Gospel.  They are like us all -- some more so but none immune.  So the work of the Spirit remains our urgent and essential hope.  We are still our own worst enemies -- no one can say Jesus Christ is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Pastors in skinny jeans who mouth the vocabulary of the moment and those in cassocks who speak in King James tongue are neither automatically villains nor good guys.  It is the Gospel in all its fullness that we need.  I am convinced that it is much more likely to come from the mouths of those in historic vestments than it is those who like skinny jeans as their cultic uniform but at this point I will leave that for another blog post. . .

Another pointed finger. . .

I will freely admit it.  I am a workaholic pastor.  I am completely submerged in my vocation.  My leisure time reading is almost all church related.  I don't watch much TV.  I don't see many movies.  I go to the symphony and listen to classical music but music does not consume me.  I do have my hand in too much.  But one thing I do not appreciate is someone who tells me that if I am having a touch time of things, it is my fault.  I know I am a screw up and make my own life harder than I should.  Telling me that adopting a few new habits is not going to fix me.  I am well beyond repair by a motivational speaker.

Read here. . .

I challenge the whole premise -- that life should be easy, that it should be easy to separate and wall off the different aspects of life (pastor, son, husband, father, and just plain old me...).  I believe that life is challenging enough when you go with the flow but when you swim upstream (like Christians are called to do).  Jesus no where promises us an easy life or a particularly satisfying life -- much less a life centered around me.  Jesus calls us to uncomfortable service, to the narrow path of eternal life, and to a life of self-denial in which we dethrone desire from its central focus.  He bestows upon us the power, the dynamis, who makes this happen and He give us the blessed opportunity to cooperate with Him in the sanctification of our justified lives.

Pastors have it hard -- not necessarily harder than my wife the nurse, for example, but hard.  The hardest part of the pastoral vocation is the realization that not only are we unworthy of the office but incapable of being the kind of pastor we think we should be -- especially when juggling wife, children, and home.  I knew that going in.  I was given wise counsel that unless I could not be something else, I should not seek ordination.  My wife knew my vocation before I even proposed.  This was not a surprise all the way around.  So I knew it was going to be hard and it has not disappointed me but I can live with that.

What makes my life harder and what I struggle with more than this are things not uncommon to others.  I lament the deaths that have stolen my dad, my father-in-law, a half dozen uncles and aunts, and a few cousins this past year.  I feel terribly alone and lonely.  That is what death does.  It does it even to pastors.  It does it even to Christians.  That is why we long for the real comfort of the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

I have been in this parish going on 23 years and a pastor 35 years and the down side of long pastorates is that the people I bury and the families I console have become friends and, in a very real way, family members.  Every funeral is personal and it only reinforces the sadness of death and the urgent need for the Savior who bestows upon us the promise of everlasting life and the blest reunion with those whom we love who have departed this life in faith.


I am close enough to retirement to being thinking about it and I don't like it.  I have no desire to reinvent my life and become a different person simply because I do not have a job.  So unlike those who count down the hours and minutes until the day when they kiss the job good-bye, I will find another way to continue to serve the Lord in some sort of pastoral way and will continue to do the things that are both my vocation and my love.  I am discovering that I am not the only one who does not welcome retirement.

So lets be real here.  The opening of the mail or the over scheduling of my calendar or the things I do that others could or should is not the big problem for me or all people.  It is death -- the death of memory that steals away our past, the death of flesh and blood that steals away our present, and the death of the grave that steals away our future.  Easter is not some pious hope to ease the burden of living -- it is the one face on which my whole life is built and without it I, like you, am of all people most to be pitied.  These little articles that presume to tell us how to find an easier way of life forget that the real enemy is death, the real answer is Christ, and the daily struggle of life is to live in this faith and hope as the form of this world and life passes away and we must await the final form of the new heavens and the new earth.  I don't need an efficiency expert or life coach to help me find peace.  I need the crucified and risen Lord Jesus.  And I would suspect you are in the same boat as me. . .

Happy to pass it on. . .

5 Reasons to Keep the Organ in Worship

When I was growing up in a Baptist church, pipe organs were on their way out. In fact, the church I attended never even had one, and they unceremoniously trashed their weak electronic number over 25 years ago in favor of a succession of latest and greatest synthesizers. These days, their numbers have dwindled among Catholic and mainline Protestant congregations, and are close to extinction in evangelical circles. In more than a few cases, they sit decaying like the one above: sad, uncomfortable reminders of the church’s former place in American society.
You can imagine my surprise to see this recent post shared several times in my Facebook feed. Written by a Baptist, the director of LifeWay Worship, no less. While I’m sure the two of us are quite different both in theology and approach to corporate worship, I was more than a bit intrigued. I don’t know when the last time I heard clear support for the pipe organ coming from the SBC.
That led me to think a bit about why the organ is so important to me personally, and more importantly, why it was unchallenged for centuries as the best accompanying instrument for corporate worship. Here are a few reasons I came up with.
1. It sustains. When it comes to singing, this is the most unique and important aspect of the pipe organ. Think of any other instrument commonly used in worship. Guitars, piano, percussion, or anything else. Once you play a sound on any of these instruments, what happens? It immediately begins to decay, necessitating more fills on the piano and more chords on the guitar. But singing doesn’t work this way, and the continuity of the sung line is often disrupted, sometimes violently so, by the constant reiteration of pitch required by the limitations of other instruments. But the organ’s sound lifts and sustains the voice of the congregation through each phrase.
Here’s a great example of how sensitive organ accompaniment can sustain a congregation’s voice.
2. It fills a room naturally. Speaking of limitations, without amplification, it’s impossible for any other instrument to fill any but the smallest of spaces. The organ thrives in an open room, and consequently allows for a more organic accompanying sound. There is a reason organ accompaniment in church endured for centuries. It wasn’t because it was current. It wasn’t because it was cool. It wasn’t that it helped people feel “connected.” It was because the organ is uniquely able to support sustained, hearty congregational singing. As it fills the room almost like sunlight through open windows, the organ warmly invites even hesitant and untrained singers to join in. I have nothing against the piano or guitar. I’m even an enthusiastic (though terrible) pianist myself. I listen to guitar driven music all the time. But those instruments were simply never meant to accompany congregational singing, and even with amplification, they are not well-suited to the task.

3. Its range is massive. The organ can play from the quietest piano to the broadest forte, and can do so with a countless number of sound combinations. It’s palate of textures and colors is seemingly unending, and when played artistically and sensitively, it can breathe musical life into any part of the Gospel story.
4. It facilitates a wide range of musical styles. As I talked about in another recent post, there are many styles of music that reside under the umbrella of traditional worship, and the organ can quite competently accompany almost any of these.
5. Organs are relatively inexpensive. Now hold on a minute, you mean all those good folks who have commented that organs are too expensive for most congregations are wrong? Well, not exactly. They do require a substantial investment. But there are alternatives to building a brand new organ. You can buy an older, restored instrument that will more than adequately meet your needs. But even a new organ would likely require a lower overall investment than a state-of-the-art audio system. With routine maintenance, your organ could last for centuries, while the new audio technology, also requiring a substantial initial investment, would need to be replaced many times over.
Is an organ absolutely necessary for corporate worship? Absolutely not. In fact, I’ve known many people from acappella traditions, and I heartily affirm the way they keep and maintain the human voice as the primary instrument in Christian worship.

But the reality is that most congregations need accompanying instruments. If your church is thinking about getting rid of the organ, don’t. Just don’t. And if your church is one of the many that houses an unused pipe organ, thinking it’s inferior, uncool, or passé, call someone who knows what they’re doing at the AGO, another church, or a nearby university to help you uncover the endless possibilities that sit ignored while the band strums on. It could completely change the way your congregation singing and bring a new dimension to your sacred storytelling.

Defrocked for faithfulness

There is no intolerance more strident and more foolish than that of liberalism and its refusal to allow dissent from the party line.  It is ugly in politics, deceitful in culture, but poison in the Church.  Pray for these faithful who have refused to compromise even when threatened with defrocking.

At their meeting on 8 April 2015, the Cathedral Chapter of the Archdiocese of Turku decided to defrock five pastors serving in the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland: Rev Sakari Korpinen, Rev Miika Nieminen, Rev Dr Anssi Simojoki, Rev Markku Sumiala and Rev Dr Martti Vaahtoranta.
Bishop Risto Soramies of the Mission Diocese states that the now-defrocked pastors will nevertheless continue ministering to the congregations of the Mission Diocese.
– They have not lost their Office in our congregations. From our perspective, their call to serve in the Office of the Ministry remains even though they no longer have the right to act as pastors within the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.
Rev Miika Nieminen denies breaking his ordination vows, despite such claims by the Cathedral Chapter.
– I surely stand guilty of many transgressions before my Holy God, even as a pastor, but in different matters and in a different way from that which the Cathedral Chapter implies.
– When I wrote my response to the Cathedral Chapter, I did so relying on the word of the Scriptures. That is the supreme authority in the Lutheran Church, and to that I, too, have committed myself in my vows.

Read more from one of those pastors here. . .

What I can do from the safety of my parish, many pastors must do at risk of their own church body refusing them and their offices. . . pray for these brothers and their families and, of course, the cause of faithfulness!

The fruits of modern higher criticism of the Bible. . .

Some folks are offended by the very idea of textual criticism.  They should not be instinctively antagonistic toward this discipline.  It is not the same as the higher critical movement which has decided the individual parts are worth more than the whole of the Biblical text we have now.  Further, it is a legitimate discipline in which the edge is still with the authenticity and accuracy of the received text of Scripture.  In contrast, the modern higher critical methodology has done little but undermine our confidence in the received text, has contributed pretty much a big zero to the preaching and teaching task, and has left us less than convinced that the readings on Sunday truly are the Word of the Lord.

B16, the former and better than current pope, is a fine scholar and has written more than a little on the limits of modern higher criticism and its undoing of the text.  You can read some of it here. . .  He finds the problem with this approach is that “it did not pay sufficient attention to the final form of the biblical text and to the message which it conveyed in the state in which it actually exists.”  The basic charge with modern exegetes is that they forget that “the text in its final stage, rather than in its earlier editions … is the expression of the word of God."  The missing element—the central fatal flaw—of the method is its unwillingness to realize that “faith is itself a way of knowing.”

He certainly gets it.  Unfortunately, many Roman Catholic exegetes have joined the ranks of the liberal Protestants who think that the chief job of the Biblical scholar is to undo the text, undermine what it says, and undercut the confidence of the people of God in the Word of the Lord.  Would that more Roman Catholic exegetical theologians listened to Bp Ratzinger and Benedict XVI.  The end result of most modern higher criticism is not a conclusion except the one that says what we thought we knew was wrong but we have nothing but fragile theories to replace what we thought we knew.  Meanwhile the rest of us know that this is not enough.  Faith is its own way of knowing.

The limits of Luther's two kingdom ideas. . .

Luther's two kingdoms idea has been attacked by those who think it set up a scenario for the rise of National Socialism in Germany to those who think it is a retreat from the political sphere entirely.  It is, of course, neither.  But that does not prevent us from raising some questions when the government we had counted upon to be neutral toward Christianity has come to view it with hostility and act accordingly.  Luther had it easier in dealing with a few royals but we are seeing Christianity unfriended by whole segments of American thought and public life.  He surely could not have foreseen such a day as this when Christianity faces the kind of challenges we now routinely face.  Luther counted on the kingdom of the left ruling through moral law, reason, and just authority but today we have little moral law left in force, reason has been displaced by feelings and desire, and authority has re-defined justice entirely.

Now I have little fear that someone will shut down our buildings or intrude on what happens on Sunday morning -- no matter how distasteful this might be for the politically correct crowd of the enlightened.  But I do have a real and honest fear that the voice of orthodox Christianity will no longer be tolerated in the public square.  We live in a time when the political majority is choosing very public retribution against those who dare to disagree with the prevailing sexual morality, stance on gay marriage, and a woman's proprietary right to her body even if it means the abortion of children.

Because it is the will of the liberal elite controlling the media and because it has at least the tacit approval of the silent majority of Americans (even some with religious convictions), the time is coming when Lutherans may have to re-evaluate how the two kingdoms are lived out in daily life.  Pastors and parishes may have to choose between faithfulness and acting as agents of the state in marriage.  Churches may find themselves forced to comply with more and more restrictions of their freedom to exercise the faith beyond the core identity of worship and prayer.  Parochial schools may be pressured more and more to conform to standards against the discrimination of gays, lesbians, and heterosexuals who choose lifestyles contrary to the traditional Judea-Christian morality.  Christian business owners may have to put up or shut up in the face of threats upon their businesses should they desire to run them in ways that reflect the Christian values and ethic.

Certainly I have no crystal ball nor do I have any real answers but I do know it has become more and more difficult to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's without conflicting with the things that are God's.  When that moment comes, we Lutherans may have to re-think how we live in a society increasingly at odds with our values and doctrines and increasingly intolerant of our independence.  This is not theoretical but eminently practical in a world that has shifted by degrees but at a quicker pace than ever before to making Christian dogma and morality an outcast from the public life of America.  No one will dare to intrude on Sunday mornings but I predict the day is coming when we will find Jesus' words uncomfortably prescient -- Blessed are you when men persecute you and slander you on my account...  It was unthinkable when I grew up in the 1950s, a few were worried in the 1960s but hoped this was merely a phase we would pass through.  Now fifty years later, it is easier to see the handwriting on the wall that led us from there to here, from faith being welcomed both as a community in worship and a voice in the public square to the day when it will be banned from speech that is no longer tolerated by those who claim to be tolerant.

Late but not forgotten. . . Remembering Ronald Feuerhahn