A funny bone. . .

As I have written before, to me relics are a strange curiosity at best and an embarrassment to Christianity at worst.  In Lutheran history, the vast collection of relics by Frederick the Wise turned from something to be proud of into a foolish waste of funds.  I am sure that I read somewhere what he ended up doing with the odd collection but it did not end up being displayed for the faithful to earn merits by their devotion -- that is for sure.  But what a Lutheran ended up regretting remains a source of pride and a treasure for Rome.  Why?

I recently read somewhere that Rome boasts a bone from the index finger of St Thomas the Apostle is located here. It is said that this is the same finger that he inserted into the side of the Risen Christ.   Indeed, there is an almost complete skeleton of him!  Tradition has it that Saint Thomas was buried in India until the 3rd century when his bones were dug up and transported to Edessa in Mesopotamia.  A thousand years later his bones were 'rescued' together with the tombstone to be taken to Italy (to remove this treasure from the threatening Turks).  They were apparently stolen while vacationing on the island of Chios in the Aegean and taken to Ortona in Italy.  There most of the bones were kept in the basilica San Thomasso Apostolo but the Turks desecrated them 300 years later.  From the 17th century to the present, the shrine has been opened several times for surveys of the bones and research.  Minus a few arm bones and above mentioned finger bone, there are bits and pieces a few other places.  It would seem that the bones of St. Thomas have had a rather storied career and we know more about that than we actually do the life of the apostles after famously being asked to touch the wounds of the risen Savior.

What does this do for us today?  I am not sure that it helps the case for Jesus nor encourages faith in any doubters.  It makes for a good story but I wonder if there will ever be a time when the bones of the poor man can be laid to rest.  I doubt it.  Much as I love the stories of the lives of the saints, I find the business of relics to be odd and somewhat creepy.  Maybe it is simply my own Lutheran skepticism.  Maybe I am a victim of my own education to have doubts about the bones of the great doubter.  Maybe I fear what someone could do to my own bones that might end up dragging me around for a couple of thousand years.  Or maybe my concern is that all of this, interesting as it might be, detracts from rather than points to Christ.  It also seems to build on the very thing which St. Thomas thought he needed -- a little something to bolster the claim and make faith easier.  But can that be done?  Is is possible to make faith easier?  I doubt it.  Faith is faith.  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.  The only thing which aids and assists the doubter are the things provided for us by Christ.  The Word which gives assurance of the things into which we have been catechized and the Sacraments which convey the very gifts His Word speaks and promises.  At some point, maybe we should let the bones lie, read the Word, and rejoice in the Sacraments.  Maybe then we will all find the assurance St. Thomas was looking for and of which his bones offer no promise.  

On November 11. . .

11 November + St. Martin of Tours, Pastor

Here is a smattering of events that might matter to a Lutheran that occurred on St. Martin of Tours feast day.  Oh, and the third one down might be the most interesting of all but, as important as Armistice Day was, it might not be the most consequential of these events.  You will have to judge.  Anyway, it is interesting from time to time to think about what happens on a particular day and how it might have changed things if they had not occurred.

887 The end of the Carolingian Empire: King Charles III resigns as Emperor after a revolt led by his nephew Arnulf, the empire is then split up

1208 Otto IV, nephew of Richard the Lionheart of England, is elected Holy Roman Emperor at Frankfurt

1215 The Fourth Lateran Council was convened by Pope Innocent III (ca. 1161–1216), meeting until 30 November.

1417 The Council of Constance, by making Martin V  (ca. 1368–1431) pope, ended the long-lasting Western papal schism.

1483 Martin Luther was baptized.

1491 Martin Bucer, German Protestant theologian and reformer, was born (d. 28 February 1551).

1561 Hans Tausen, Danish Lutheran leader, died (b. 1494).

1620 The Mayflower Compact was adopted by the Pilgrims.

1679 Firmin Abauzit, French Reformed scholar of Huguenot parentage, was born in Uzes, Languedoc (d. 1767).

1778 Anne Steele, hymnist, died (b. May 1716).

1793 Missionary William Carey (1761–1834) arrived at Calcutta.

1843 Samuel Alfred Ort was born in Lewistown, Pennsylvania (d. 6 January 1911).

1855 Søren Aabye Kierkegaard, Danish Lutheran theologian and philosopher, died at Copenhagen (b. 5 May 1813).

1868 Richard Wilhelm Heintze librarian at Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis, Missouri) from 1926 to 1936, was born in Berlin, Germany (d. 23 March 1937).

1893 Paul Martin Bretscher, professor at Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis, Missouri) from 1941 until 1969, was born in Wausau, Wisconsin (d. 10 August 1974).

1908 The Synod of Central Canada was organized at Toronto.

1917 The United Lutheran Church in America was approved by the United Synod in the South at Salisbury, North Carolina. The merger occurred in 1918.

1921 P. T. (Peter Taylor) Forsyth (b. 1842), English Congregational clergyman and theologian, died.

1947 Martin Dibelius (b. 14 September 1883), German Lutheran New Testament scholar, died.

1985 Philip Fry, president of the Manitoba and Saskatchewan District of the Missouri Synod from 1970 to 1978, died in Regina, Saskatchewan. He had also been vice-president in that district and in Nebraska. Fry graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1937 and was also pastor of congregations in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta; Yorkton and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; and Beatrice, Nebraska. He retired in 1978. In his earlier years, Fry was a district Walther League president.

1992 The Church of England votes to allow women to become priests. 

A paraphrase too far. . .

I wish I could say that I am anything less than embarrassed by the invention of the hymnic paraphrase to substitute for the parts of the ordinary.  It was probably not a Lutheran invention but that did not stop Martin Luther from establishing the practice of substituting a hynm paraphrase 9from his own hand) for the ordinary of the Divine Service.  It became known as the Deutsche Messe (1526) and was meant to make the Latin ordinary more accessible to a German speaking population.  While they might work as hymns, only the Kyrie is moderately successful and the Gloria less so.  The vaunted Sanctus (Isaiah Mighty Seer) does seem a huge stretch from the words of the actual Sanctus itself.  Again, though Luther was probably not the first to do so, it did sort of establish the hymn substitution of the ordinary as ordinary Lutheran practice.  It is not.  A temporary exception to the norm, maybe.  A regular diet of such, whether penned by Luther or anyone else, is a paraphrase too far.

So let me offend all of Lutheranism here by suggesting that the Deutsche Messe is an anomaly against the confessional Lutheran practice simply singing the ordinary.  That is probably a shocking thing to say on the 500th anniversary of his liturgical offering.  In one sense, Luther's original suggestion (the Formula Missae) was about as traditional as you could get -- so much so that without a few noticeable changes of tones for the chanting of the Gospel and the hearing of the Verba Christi out loud, it would have been difficult for some folks to notice the difference between the Roman version and the Lutheran one.  So we said:  Falsely are our churches accused of abolishing the Mass; for the Mass is retained among us, and celebrated with the highest reverence. Nearly all the usual ceremonies are also preserved, save that the parts sung in Latin are interspersed here and there with German hymns, which have been added to teach the people.  This was even after Luther's liturgical revisions (a set of evangelical rubrics to use with the missal on the altar and then, well, the German Mass.  Here and there with German hymns somehow became no Latin and only German hymnns -- at least among some.

For my part, I think it would be better to simply conveniently forget the German Mass entirely and stick the hymns you want to use in where hymns ordinarily belong -- here and there.  But not use paraphrases of the ordinary either as an occasional shout out to our guy's ideas or as a regular practice.  That would, in my mind, also include the LSB Divine Service IV.  That and DS V's omission from LSB would have freed up some space for something better used on a regular basis.  Oh, I get that DS IV can be used to help restore liturgical practice where it has been abandoned but such a tool belongs in Builder but not in the printed book itself.  So now that I have offended nearly every Lutheran (except those who might find Luther's paraphrases hard to sing), let me suggest that this is not about preference but about learning the texts and sticking with them.  The hymns are not wrong or bad but they are not quite the ordinary either.  So why do it?

One particular hymn that illustrates the point without offending Lutherans too much more is the Apostles' Creed hymn in LSB.  We All Believe in One True God was written by Tobias Clausnitzer (1671) and, of course, translated by Catherine Winkworth a couple of hundred years later.  The hymn is nice enough, fairly popular, even ecumenical -- but does it really jibe with the content or wording of the real Apostles' Creed?  You be the judge.

1 We all believe in one true God,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
Ever-present help in need,
Praised by all the heav'nly host;
All He made His love enfolds,
All creation He upholds.

2 We all believe in Jesus Christ,
Son of God and Mary's son,
Who descended from His throne
And for us salvation won;
By whose cross and death are we
Rescued from all misery.

3 We all confess the Holy Ghost,
Who from both in truth proceeds,
Who sustains and comforts us
In all trials, fears, and needs.
Blessed, holy Trinity,
Praise forever be to Thee! 

In fact, in more words that the brief and compact Apostles' Creed, the hymn fails to include all that the baptismal creed includes.  That is the problem with hymn paraphrases. They tend to take more words to say less than the actual texts of the ordinary.  I have tried my own hand at writing paraphrases of the ordinary and with even less success, apparently, as Luther.  So my vote is to retire DS IV & V from parish use -- except where DS IV might work to renew a waning liturgical focus where none has been.  But it does not need to be in the hymnal and we do not need to use it.  Sing the hymns if you want to.  But not all of them together displacing the ordinary with less salutary paraphrases.  

The last problem I have with the Deutsche Messe is the ordering of the canon.  Luther, for whatever reason I really do not care about, thought it smart to move the Sanctus to after the Verba Christi so that you sing the Sanctus (German hymn Isaiah Mighty Seer) and right after the Agnus Dei).  Really?  It is almost like Luther was setting us up for pastors and congregations to take the ordo and turn it into smorgasbord of things and then to arrange them like food on a plate.  Was Luther the origin of such tinkering?  Luther should have stuck with the Formula Missae, with a cheat sheet to make the Latin missal work for evangelical purpose, and left it at that.  Of course, your mileage may vary.  So load up and fire your comments at me folks.

Only few mysteries are revealed. . .

Some like to think that religion is the result of man's observation of himself and his surroundings.  There are many things that would fit that bill.  We look, we think, we posit opinions, and we speak of facts.  Some of them are true and some of them end up being foolish as we reconsider them.  Christianity, however, is not a religion of observation and conclusion.  It is a religion of revelation, of disclosure, and of hidden things.  It is a religion of mystery but not in the sense of a puzzle begging to be explained.  No, indeed.  The mysteries of the faith are those things which lie beyond proof and are taken by faith.  These are the things of God which are beyond our knowing.  He reveals Himself and His ways to us but not in full or total so that it is ever a done deal.  He gives us what we need to know of Him and His ways.  The rest He does not disclose to us and we cannot ascertain them by observation or study.  We accept them by faith.

The Book of Sirach (The Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach or The Wisdom of Jesus son of Eleazar, or Ecclesiasticus is of Jewish literary origins, written in Biblical Hebrew probably around the time of the Second Temple period.  It was translated into Koine Greek, expanded with a prologue, and was generally well-known.  It is in the prologue we find what is generally considered to be the earliest witness to a tripartite canon of the books of the Hebrew Bible and so it is a witness to the revelation even if it is not quite revelation.  Although included in the Hebrew Bible nor regarded as Scripture by the Jews, it is included in the Septuagint and the Old Testament of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church, and the Assyrian Church of the East.  While most Protestants have paid less attention to it, Lutherans hold it as an important intertestamental text found in the Apocrypha, noncanonical but not insignificant.  Indeed, until more modern times, Lutheran editions of the Bible always included this work among the other works of the Apocrypha.

Perhaps my favorite verse in the Apocrapha is  Beyond these, many things lie hid; only a few of God’s works have we seen (Sirach 43:34).  It reminds me of the line in the Nicene Creed -- the God who made all things, visible and invisible or seen and unseen.  Among the many marvels of God's creative work and in the exclusive salvific works of God, we have ample testament to His power and to His mercy.  Enough.  But it is, as they say, the tip of the iceberg about God.  Beyond these, only a few of His works are revealed to us.  We know there are more but they are not the more on which we focus.  We turn our attention to His revelation while trusting in the most which eye has not seen nor ear heard nor mind conceived.  It is enough to have what we have but we all know there is so very much more.

In a world which treats a mystery as a problem or riddle to be solved, Christianity does not tread lightly upon the unseen works of God.  We do not let them overwhelm what we are given to know by revelation.  God's self-disclosure, while plenty, is not everything and yet it is enough.  Enough to save.  Enough to forgive.  Enough to end the terror of death and the reign of the devil.  Enough to rescue the soul from despair and the lost from the prison of their darkness.  But there is more.  The mystery remains along side the revelation.  The Psalmist knows this:  The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim his handiwork (Psalm 19:1).  Job is not put down by the revelation that the things of God are too great and His mystery too deep for mere man to ponder.  It is enough that God has stooped low to behold and esteem the plight of man urgent enough for His grace to fill man's every need.  His ways are above ours.  That is not a put down at all.  It is comfort.  We do not need to comprehend everything of God to believe in Him or faith would be impossible.  It is enough to know Jesus Christ whom He has revealed and the only true God.   The things of God do not confound us unless we refuse to trust in Him, do not baffle us unless we choose to ignore what He has revealed.

All of this is on prominent display in the Divine Service.  The how of the mystery is never explained but the gift of that mystery of flesh in bread and blood in wine delivers the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.  It gives to us not a solid preview of heaven but the taste of it -- enough to whet our appetite and want the more that is to come even while we affirm with joy that what we have is enough.  That is where we live when we live by faith.  I guess I have Christmas on my mind.... already.

Surviving the winds of change. . .

When traveling too or from my ancestral home in Northeast Nebraska, I generally drive HWY 36 from Hannibal to St. Jo, Missouri and back again.  Inevitably I pass the home of General John J. Pershing (Laclede) and James Cash Penny (Hamilton, Missouri).  I grew up with JC Penney (and Sears and Montgomery Wards and Woolworths and K-Mart).  You know how many of those big names are gone.  JC Penney is still around but has fallen on hard times.  JC Penney's problems were primarily caused by a failed pricing strategy implemented by former CEO Ron Johnson, who replaced traditional coupon sales with everyday low prices, leading to a loss of customer interest and sales. Additionally, the company struggled with increased competition from online retailers and a lack of clear identity in the market.   Even when they abandoned the changes that proved to be their downfall, they suffered and have been on a downward trajectory ever since.  Sometimes surviving the change back is as difficult as surviving the change that caused the problem.  This is true of business but also of religion.

While Pope Leo may be exercising some caution in his changes in the wake of Francis' death, the whole thing illustrates the problems of changing leaders in any context but especially in the Church.  When the pendulum swings to the other side, it brings with it a host of changes which may be salutary and good but which can also extract a real cost to the vitality of the institution.  The Roman Catholic Church cannot survive a pendulum swing back and forth between leaders who have very different visions of what that church is or should be.  With every swing back and forth it loses the confidence of its people, its stature in the world, and momentum.  That is why having a Francis as pope was so destructive.  Unless and until Leo restores what was, that church will continue to struggle and as long as the possibility remains that another Francis can undo what JPII and BXVI have done, the church will continue to run out of gas.

The same is true of Lutherans.  When we elect leaders who have such different styles and visions for our church body, we consume precious energy and resources just surviving the change.  Every institution struggles with this.  Seminaries and universities know the cost of such change -- even the salutary change which restores what was lost by unfaithful leaders.  Both Concordia Theological Seminary and Concordia Seminary have struggled with leadership changes which cost them momentum and credibility over the years.  It is a struggle even when the right direction is restored.  Everyone knows that there was and remains a distinct difference between the LCMS Presidents Harms and Preus, Kieschnick and Harrison.  No matter which side you were in casting a ballot, the hick up of distinct leadership change is hard on the institution.  That is why elections matter.

It is also true in the parish.  When there is a radical difference between one pastor and his successor, the congregation struggles with the change.  Even when the change is to move to restore what was, the very issue of change is its own problem.  People in the pew struggle to survive the change between liturgical and contemporary worship, between a gregarious and introvert pastoral personality, between a hands on pastor and one who seems attentive only to the things directly in his job description.  It does not matter which side you think is right or wrong, the change is hard on the institution.  Change is manageable and helpful when it is deliberate and incremental, when it is accompanied by a long term pastoral tenure, and when it is explained ad nauseam along the way.  Without these, change is just plain hard on us all.

We live in a world of change, a dizzying array of changes which daily provide us with too much to digest and become accustomed to.  When the Church becomes another venue of such change, it betrays part of its purpose and it also betrays the confidence and trust of the people.  So be careful.  Even when you are heading in the right direction, you must be sensitive to how these changes will be felt within the parish.  Sixteen years ago the Missouri Synod turned itself upside down in governance format and we are still trying to sort it all out.  It is a truism worth pondering for those who would like to make changes.  Sometimes it is not the particular change that is the problem but surviving change at all.  The Church is not the kind of institution which ought to be or can be a constant initiator of change.  We are by nature the preserver of tradition, salutary tradition, in which fidelity to Scripture and this tradition is more valuable than being reactive or proactive to every set of circumstances that might present themselves.  We have habits which are not always good but familiar and when we change our habits, we need to proceed with caution.  Shouting we are not your grandfather's church will not necessarily guarantee that we will become the church of the latest generation.  Oldsmobile once insisted it was not your grandfather's car but look where that landed them.  God has not given us the reins to the Church to do with as we see fit but called us to remain faithful, endure, and pass on faithfully what was passed down to us.  That might be enough despite those who think that unless we reinvent ourselves we shall surely die.