Thursday we eat. . .

On this day the Church recalls Christ's "mandate" and so some name this Maundy Thursday---"maundy" being a shortened form of mandatum (Latin), which means "command."  It was on this day that our Lord commanded His disciples to love one another as He had loved them and displayed this love in the unthinkable act of footwashing.  Peter found it impossible and protested that the Lord should wash his feet but Jesus would have not backtalk.  Either you meet the Lord on His terms or you have no part with Him.  Peter got that part and though he did not have a clue about what betrayal he would show to Jesus the next day, Peter would be with Christ now no matter what.  "Not my feet only," but all of me was his brave show of solidarity.  But this is not about the cleansing of the outward body but about sin -- the dirt that cannot be escaped and that only Christ can wash clean.

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another" (John 13:34).

Jesus never commanded His disciples or us to wash feet.  His command was and is to love as He has loved us.  Footwashing was an example -- a symbol, if you will.  Surely even more distasteful than washing someone's dirty feet is forgiving them as Christ has forgiven us, caring for their needs before our own as Christ has done for us, and dying to self for the sake of another as Christ died for us.  Love is definitely not easy.

Holy Week takes an even more somber and mystifying turn as Thursday continues. From Bethany, Jesus sent Peter and John ahead of Him.  He told them how they would find the Upper Room there in busy Jerusalem where they would prepare for the Passover Feast Jesus wished to eat with them one last time. Before sitting and eating a common meal, much less the Passover, they must be clean.  So on the evening after sunset that Thursday, Jesus washed His disciples' feet so that they would be prepared for all that He was to do for them. Jesus was blunt.  This would not be repeated again before the events of His suffering and death which He had predicted would be fulfilled: "I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins. For I tell you now that I won't eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God." (Luke 22:15-16)

The words which John the Baptist spoke of Jesus would soon be fulfilled.  As the Lamb of God, Jesus was about to be sacrificed but this sacrifice would also become the meal that would continue to bestow the fruits of His sacrificial death.  Jesus did not command them to wash feet but He did insist that they "do this in remembrance of Him" until the day would dawn when He came to feast with them again.  This was the fulfillment of the Passover and the unleavened bread and the cup of blessing would take on new meaning as He said "This is My body" and "This is My blood."  "Do this often in remembrance of Me."  St. Paul would flesh out the meaning of all of this for all time by reminding us that the bread which we break is the communion in His flesh and the cup we bless is the communion in His blood -- not a symbol or a sign but that real flesh and real blood that is our real food until He comes to bring even this to its eternal consummation.  Love one another and abide in Christ's love through the fellowship of His table.  That is the legacy of this night which we live out forgiving one another in Christ's name, caring for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, and gathering together as His people to feast upon His flesh for the life of the world and His blood that cleanses us from all our sin.

Then, having fulfilled all things promised in the Passover and made this meal a foretaste of the eternal yet to come, Jesus took His disciples out of the Upper Room and to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus and the disciples were to pray.  Our Lord prayed in agony to God the Father so that His words were accompanied with "his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (Luke 22:44, ESV). The disciples were too weary to pray and their eyelids closed in sleep when they should have been praying that they remained faithful for the rest of the story yet to come.  Jesus chides them gently and urges them not to choose sleep over the needful preparation before the test of their souls to come.  He had hardly finished before they saw what He was talking about.  There, in Gethsemane, the quiet of prayer was interrupted by the clanging of a brute squad come for ugly business.  Jesus was betrayed with a kiss by Judas Iscariot and arrested by the Sanhedrin. It struck the guard as too easy but Jesus goaded them into doing their terrible duty.  Then He was taken to the home of Caiaphas, the High Priest, where the whole council of the Sanhedrin had gathered to begin making their case against our Lord.

Before the sun rose and as Jesus' trial was getting underway in the kangaroo court of His enemies, Peter denied knowing his Master three times.  The denials seemed to fall easily from his lips but when the rooster crowed Peter could not remain any longer.  Weeping he ran, a shell of a man, who hoped and prayed and waited for the mercy of God to rescue him from his own prison of shame, guilt, and despair.

The events of Thursday of Holy Week are recorded in Matthew 26:17–75, Mark 14:12-72, Luke 22:7-62, and John 13:1-38.

Silent Wednesday. . .

The Scriptures are silent about what Jesus said and did on this day.  That is the reason for the name, Silent Wednesday.  But this also has another name.  Recall how Judas had entered into a bargain with the leaders of the temple to betray Jesus.  So on this day, perhaps Judas was doing some reconnoitering.  He was watching from the shadows, spying on Jesus.  So this day is also called Spy Wednesday.  Judas was secretly watching for a chance to turn Jesus over to the chief priests and what better vantage point than to follow Jesus with the rest of the disciples.  Even as some call this day Silent Wednesday and others call it Spy Wednesday, still others call it Black Wednesday.  This is the name of the shadows for all that is deceitful and dare not see the light of day happens in the shadows and in secret.  In contrast Jesus did everything openly and taunts those who were His enemies by goading them into agreeing that He was with them in the temple and taught openly among all the people.  

No, not too many things to say about this day and probably we all need a pause.  The days to come will not be quiet or silent and the spying will gave way to a betrayal with a kiss right in front of God and everybody.  But not yet.  So pray that you and I are ready and prepared for all that the light exposes.  Pray that we stand openly with Christ whose mercy will not disappoint us.

Holy Tuesday. . .

On the morning of Tuesday of Holy Week, Jesus and his disciples made their way back to Jerusalem. They probably passed the withered fig tree, and Jesus addressed again the subject of genuine faith that lived on the inside and not simply on the outside of a man.

Back at the Temple, the religious leaders cleaning up Jesus' mess and plotting against Him.  They were offended at how Jesus had established Himself as a spiritual authority and challenged their own authority as the religious leaders of God's people Israel. They put their heads together and organized an ambush to capture Jesus and arrest Him and silence Him but Jesus evaded their traps.  It did not stop Him from issuing a warning upon them: 

"Blind guides!...For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people's bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness...Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?" (Matthew 23:24-33)

Later in the day Jesus took His disciples to the Mount of Olives.  Sitting due east of the Temple, this is a vantage point that overlooked the whole of Jerusalem. Here, Jesus spoke what we have come to call the Olivet Discourse, words that surely caused alarm bells in the minds of His disciples.  Who would not have felt anxiety over talk of Jerusalem's destruction and the end of everything as they knew it.  More parables were spoken by Jesus when the disciples would have preferred some plain and clear talk about the future.

Scripture tells us that it was on this day that Judas had gone to the Sanhedrin and negotiated to betray Jesus and turn Him and the other disciples over to their authority.  Whether Judas had an inkling of what they were going to do or not, Jesus knew the heart of His disciple and was not surprised (Matthew 26:14-16).  Then, after a very long day of confrontation and warnings about the future, Jesus and His disciples returned to Bethany to rest for the night.

The tumultuous events of Tuesday and the Olivet Discourse are recorded in Matthew 21:23–24:51, Mark 11:20–13:37, Luke 20:1–21:36, and John 12:20–38.  Jesus knew where the week was going and that His hour had come and He warned His disciples even more urgently that He would soon be betrayed and crucified (Matthew 26:2).  Still, He continued to teach. A man among men, Jesus is not without feelings and not above the pain of betrayal working itself out and the cross ahead of Him and the plotting and planning of the religious leaders of the day against Him.  But where was His heart?  It was for you and me and for the salvation of the whole world.  His shame, humiliation, testing, betraying, crucifixion, and death was not for show but in order that we might be saved.  Our minds may be on taxes due or momentary problems we are facing but His mind is on us and has always been on us even as the days moved closer to His passion and death on the cross.

 

Holy Monday. . .

After Sunday's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, what happened next?  Surely some of the people were expecting something big -- a King to sit on David's throne and free them from their slavery to Caesar.  But Jesus aiming for something bigger than a people's revolt -- nothing less than the fulfillment of every promise, every Old Testament prophecy.  This Monday was the final Monday under the shadow of death.  A week from now Easter would be the Monday news.  But not yet.   You and I already know that outcome but the disciples then did not and even we are often oblivious to the details, focusing on the big events.
The march of Jesus to the cross would not be some silent journey.  There were things left to do before the armed guard would come for Him.

The Pharisees had ordered Jesus to silence the crowd that laid down the palm branches and shouted Hosanna to the Son of David.  In five days another crowd would need to be silenced but that one was calling for Jesus to be crucified (Luke 19-37-39). The Gospel of Mark tells us that by the time Jesus came into Jerusalem it was already late. Jesus headed to Bethany with the Twelve, only a mile or so away at the foot of the Mount of Olives (Mark 11:11).  On Monday, Jesus and His disciples happened upon a fig tree  full of leaves but without figs. It was not a fluke that it was completely fruitless since it was not yet time to bear fruit.  A couple of months should have seen the figs but for now you might expect the bud of that fruit.  In what could only have surprised and confused His disciples, Jesus cursed the tree for being fruitless, and it withered immediately.  Where was Jesus' patience and compassion so often displayed to people who did not deserve it and surely the tree could not be blamed.

But this was not about a fruitless tree, more about a fruitless generation of people who followed the rites with an outward faith but whose hearts were empty of faith.  So this moment was a teaching moment for His disciples -- faith even the size of a mustard seed could move mountains when it is aligned with God’s will (Matthew 21:21-22).  They would need such a faith for the coming days.  Then to the courtyards that surrounded the temple and Jesus found more to upset Him.  The irreverence for the Lord's House of Prayer was revealed by business as usual.  Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers, driving out the business as usual and accusing the merchants making a living on the requirements of the piety,  accusing them of making His Father’s house a “den of thieves” (Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46).

The money changers were providing a necessary service -- changing coin into the Hebrew coin for the temple and selling animals for the sacrifice on this holy day of the Passover but it had consumed the religious authorities and corrupted them.  They made their living on the requirements of the law.  Jesus’ rebuke of the money changers was clearly directed higher than the merchants and right at the temple leadership — and they knew it (Luke 19:47-48).

For the first time. . .

For the first time in my adult life, I will not be leading the Palm Sunday procession or reading the Passion or celebrating Maundy Thursday or preaching Good Friday or bring the first light in at the Vigil or leading the people of God in singing again the Alleluias of Christ risen from the dead.  So, let me be honest.  I am not sure how to feel about this.  It is not as if I am suggesting that I am the only one who could do these.  I am not and everyone knows that.  But it has been my calling to do these since 1979 (roughly from vicarage on) so this is all new to me.  Thankfully, the rites and readings that form Holy Week and Easter are not new.  They are entirely predictable (that is the value of a lectionary).  So I will leave most of my Holy Week and Easter posts to simply let the Word speak and the music that accompanies that Word sing us through the march into Jerusalem, to the Upper Room, to the cross, to the tomb, and then to empty tomb.  Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

 

 

 

Matthew 26:1—27:66

¹When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, ²“You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”

³Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, ⁴and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. ⁵But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.”

⁶Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, ⁷a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. ⁸And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? ⁹For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” ¹⁰But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. ¹¹For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. ¹²In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. ¹³Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

¹⁴Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests ¹⁵and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. ¹⁶And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.

¹⁷Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?” ¹⁸He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’” ¹⁹And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover.

²⁰When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. ²¹And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” ²²And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?” ²³He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. ²⁴The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” ²⁵Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.”

²⁶Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” ²⁷And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, ²⁸for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. ²⁹I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

³⁰And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. ³¹Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ ³²But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” ³³Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” ³⁴Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” ³⁵Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.

³⁶Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” ³⁷And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. ³⁸Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” ³⁹And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” ⁴⁰And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? ⁴¹Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” ⁴²Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” ⁴³And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. ⁴⁴So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. ⁴⁵Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. ⁴⁶Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”

⁴⁷While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. ⁴⁸Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.” ⁴⁹And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. ⁵⁰Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. ⁵¹And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. ⁵²Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. ⁵³Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? ⁵⁴But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” ⁵⁵At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. ⁵⁶But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.

⁵⁷Then those who had seized Jesus led him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered. ⁵⁸And Peter was following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and going inside he sat with the guards to see the end. ⁵⁹Now the chief priests and the whole Council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, ⁶⁰but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward ⁶¹and said, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days.’” ⁶²And the high priest stood up and said, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?” ⁶³But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” ⁶⁴Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” ⁶⁵Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. ⁶⁶What is your judgment?” They answered, “He deserves death.” ⁶⁷Then they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him, ⁶⁸saying, “Prophesy to us, you Christ! Who is it that struck you?”

⁶⁹Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” ⁷⁰But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you mean.” ⁷¹And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” ⁷²And again he denied it with an oath: “I do not know the man.” ⁷³After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” ⁷⁴Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed. ⁷⁵And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

¹When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. ²And they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor.

³Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, ⁴saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” ⁵And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself. ⁶But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.” ⁷So they took counsel and bought with them the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers. ⁸Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. ⁹Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, ¹⁰and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.”

¹¹Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You have said so.” ¹²But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer. ¹³Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?” ¹⁴But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.

¹⁵Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. ¹⁶And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. ¹⁷So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” ¹⁸For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. ¹⁹Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.” ²⁰Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. ²¹The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” ²²Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” ²³And he said, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!”

²⁴So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” ²⁵And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” ²⁶Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.

²⁷Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. ²⁸And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, ²⁹and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” ³⁰And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. ³¹And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.

³²As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. ³³And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), ³⁴they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. ³⁵And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. ³⁶Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. ³⁷And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” ³⁸Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. ³⁹And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads ⁴⁰and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” ⁴¹So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, ⁴²“He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. ⁴³He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” ⁴⁴And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.

⁴⁵Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. ⁴⁶And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ⁴⁷And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” ⁴⁸And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. ⁴⁹But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” ⁵⁰And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

⁵¹And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. ⁵²The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, ⁵³and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. ⁵⁴When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

⁵⁵There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, ⁵⁶among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

⁵⁷When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. ⁵⁸He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. ⁵⁹And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud ⁶⁰and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. ⁶¹Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.

⁶²Next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate ⁶³and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ ⁶⁴Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.” ⁶⁵Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.” ⁶⁶So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.

 

Palms and Hosannas and the Sign of the Cross. . .

Perhaps you have noticed that many pastors cross themselves as we sing Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.  It is not a novel or modern practice but an ancient one and not simply for the clergy or those presiding.  As we sing (or say) during the Sanctus: Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, we are referencing Jesus.  HE is the One who comes in the Name of the Lord.  When the crowds gathered (as in Matt. 21:9) as Jesus entered into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, their hearts were drawn to  Psalm 118:26.  Their words were a confession of faith.  They were naming the One who alone comes in the name of the Lord.  This is a confession of who Christ is -- the “He” refers to Jesus who has come from the Father in order to do His Father's will.  That is the second part of this.  We are confessing not merely our Lord's arrival (which happened at His conception in the womb of the Virgin) but His coming for the cross where sin and its death would be overcome and the devil defeated once for all.  So the sign of the cross at this point is not simply about who Jesus is but why He has come -- for ME.   "Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini."  

Probably the earliest patristic reference to the sign of the cross is from Tertullian (155-220 AD).  Though he is speaking in the third century, he is addressing what traditional customs have come down to him and his time.  He mentions the sign of the cross in such way that it is routine and known by all and commends the practice as ancient and worthy of our continued use.

And how long shall we draw the saw to and fro through this line, when we have an ancient practice, which by anticipation has made for us the state, i.e., of the question? If no passage of Scripture has prescribed it, assuredly custom, which without doubt flowed from tradition, has confirmed it. For how can anything come into use, if it has not first been handed down? Even in pleading tradition, written authority, you say, must be demanded. Let us inquire, therefore, whether tradition, unless it be written, should not be admitted. Certainly we shall say that it ought not to be admitted, if no cases of other practices which, without any written instrument, we maintain on the ground of tradition alone, and the countenance thereafter of custom, affords us any precedent. To deal with this matter briefly… At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign.

If, for these and other such rules, you insist upon having positive Scripture injunction, you will find none. Tradition will be held forth to you as the originator of them, custom as their strengthener, and faith as their observer. That reason will support tradition, and custom, and faith, you will either yourself perceive, or learn from some one who has. Meanwhile you will believe that there is some reason to which submission is due.

Tertullian, The Chaplet 3-4

I write this only to show that this is both a universal custom and a salutary one, especially for a Church and the people of God entering into the contemplation of the holy mysteries of this week.  Under it all is the assurance that Jesus is whom the Father sent and that He has come for you, for me, and for every sinner.  It is a joyful affirmation that we are under the banner of the love that Holy Week begins to unfold with all of its loveless acts of betrayal, suffering, and death.  As we enter into that season devoted to the cross, we make the sign of the cross to note who fulfills the promise of that cross and to note that we are those for whom He has come.

 

For the sake of the world. . .

I will admit for a long time having shelved the ecumenical task of the churches to a less than urgent status.  After all, when the ELCA Lutherans have so far departed from their confession that they are more at ease with those who share none of it than they are with those who confess it still, you have to wonder if it is worth it all.  For good or for ill, both the ELCA and Missouri seem to be at peace having little or nothing to do with each other.  I get it.  It is easier.  

And there are those who would apply the same strictures to life with in each of those bodies.  There are those who hang on in a liberal body, having refused to follow the lead of the national body and living within the comfort of their own locale (and the hope that the worst will not occur in their own back yard). They are mistaken, of course.  There is little hope for the ELCA to change back into anything that it once was.  But they have found a corner in which to live for a time.  There are those who hang on in a conservative body, distancing themselves from the rest of their church in order to carve out some safe space within a tolerant district or congregation.  They might be less mistaken in their hope since the trajectory overall has been a slower or quicker pace toward liberalization among nearly all church bodies.  Indeed, the LCMS is the one which has formally and, to most observers, successfully turned back the liberal tide.  But this is not the ecumenism of which I speak.

The second thoughts I have are in view of what happens when conservative and orthodox Christians lose their voice in the larger Christian conversation.  Yes, we do have a witness against what those who have thrown Scripture and the catholic doctrinal and liturgical legacy under the bus.  We also have a witness against the world which typically makes little or no distinction between orthodox and heretical Christian views or bodies.  I do think there is value in the ecumenical conversation for several reasons.  One may surprise you.  We know ourselves better when we must define ourselves to others.  Some of the best of Lutheran conversation was when we were serious in our dialogue with serious Roman Catholics and Orthodox and even Protestants.  It broke down not because we lost our voice but it became clear that Lutherans were not headed down the same path and we could not speak as one.  Nonetheless, much of what eventually silenced the conversation between, for example, the ELCA and Missouri was portended already in the ecumenical conversations in which we were engaged.  Having to define yourself to others is not a wasted or bad thing but a fruitful endeavor even for yourself.

In addition, we gain from a critique from others.  Half of all arguments around the world are based on misunderstandings or vagaries that beg for clarity.  We are often clearer in our own minds than we are in conversation with others.  It does not hurt us to have someone ask what this means or what this has to do with that.  They also gain from us.  The honest admission in the early days of the ELCA embrace of sex and gender decisions was telling -- they admitted that they had departed from Lutheran confession and practice and even catholic teaching in choosing to regularize same sex marriage and open the clergy to those who claimed and practiced such once forbidden desires and gender feelings.  That is not a bad thing to have someone point out that you are not doing or believing as you once did.   

Finally, the world will hear only one side of the Christian story without the voices of those who confess along with the saints who have gone before.  It is worth remembering that people are not living comfortably outside the Church because they do not know what Christianity is but because they they think they already know, have decided that what they already know is either not worth it or does not apply, and have rejected Christian truth.  While this is their perception, it is not the reality.  They have a stereotyped version of Christianity which has been corrupted by those who have disdained the Scriptures and the witness of the saints.  How will they know this unless we are still at the table protesting those who give Christianity a false identity?  The ecumenical conversation is one that happens outside the echo chamber of Christian bodies or the world apart from this witness and it is worth our time and effort to continue to engage and to speak for Christ and in His name to those not yet of His kingdom.  We can and we really do accomplish this by the effective work of the ecumenical conversation.

So long ago I barely remember, I was the single LCMS observer at the table when Episcopalians and LCA Lutherans were talking together.  This happened along the Hudson River when I was so green it was embarrassing.  One of the things I discovered is that the Lutherans had a doctrinally sound understanding of the Real Presence but our practice sucked.  When it came to planning the first inter-communion between those in dialogue, the Lutheran participants said their people would not commune unless individual cups were used and the Episcopalians said their people would not commune unless the chalice was used.  All of a sudden my Lutheran smugness at having a solid confessional identity was shaken by the reality that sometimes people without the words are doing a better job of living them out than we were.  By the way, one of the sticking points was not simply how people would commune but how you would deal with the reliquae from so many little bitty cups.  Sadly, some Lutherans revealed how shallow their orthodoxy by admitting that they did not even think about what was done with what remains of the Sacrament.  Ouch.  That was an ecumenical conversation in which I learned as much about Lutherans as I did about Episcopalians!

Got a couple of hours?

Now that I am retired, I have had a spare few hours to listen to a long and very interesting interview with Jeff Schwarz and Pastor Todd Wilken on the history and identity of Issues, Etc.  You will encounter the foolish, the stupid, the inept, the dark history behind the rebirth of this daily podcast promoting the faith.  Neither Schwarz or Wilken can claim credit for it all and they readily admit that where things ended up and where they began was a miracle of God.  Now, to be fair, both Schwarz and Wilken are too modest and they took what were terrible circumstances thrust upon them and made gold out of their situation.  You can here the whole story here. 

I want to focus on another aspect of their success.  This is not about their guests or them but about the way they have put the faith on the map and, in particular, the LCMS.  They have contributed to a brand new thing and that is people who are seeking a faith and a church and who pay attention to what they hear on programs like Issues, Etc.  I experienced this in spades.  We had people who came out of an evangelical or non-denominational or fundamentalist background and ended up hearing about Lutheranism for the first time through people like Jeff Schwarz, Todd Wilken, Rod Rosenbladt, Don Matzat, and many others.  The digital air waves have become a profound vehicle for the message of Christ crucified for sinners.  And it works.

Over the years I cannot tell you how many emails, phone calls, and personal conversations have begun with the words "I heard you on Issues, Etc..."  Many of those people were looking for a church home and some of those people ended up moving to Clarksville, Tennessee, and becoming members of Grace Lutheran Church.  To her credit, my wife, Amy, was the social media content creator for our congregation for more than 9 years and she did a tremendous job in creating a noble and faithful digital face for the congregation and for me (and my blog).  Together, they helped to give our congregation and me a presence that rippled across the miles and brought people into Lutheranism and into this church.  Living in a world where some jobs allow you to work from just about anyplace with a sturdy internet connection has created a phenomenon in which those same people look for a place to live by first looking for a place to worship.

Schwarz and Wilken built upon what Matzat had begun but they excelled at a couple of things so needed in our day.  First of all, they were apologetically Lutheran.  Second, they were apologists for the faith (not in the sense of I am sorry but in the sense of defense of the faith).  Third, they provided the listener with solid content from knowledgeable sources (even non-Lutheran ones) which equipped them to know better and live out more fully what it means to be a Christian.  Finally, never far from the words spoken is the cause of Christ and Him crucified and risen.  God bless them.  Now some 17 years after the show was foolishly cancelled by then then leadership of the LCMS, Issues, Etc. has positioned itself so very well to do what Walter A. Maier did in his day -- use the technology and platforms to tell the story of Christ and defend the faith.  In one sense, what some thought was a small thing to cancel the program in 2008 has contributed to its growth, success, and influence over the years.  It is certainly a decision which has had profound consequences for the LCMS and its leadership and direction over the years.

Grace has been a longtime financial supporter of Issues, Etc., has had members traverse the miles to their "Making the Case Conferences," and has testimonies from those who came to Lutheranism and to our fellowship of faith by listening to the program on the airwaves and as a podcast.  Both Jeff and Todd have been more than gracious in bringing me on their program from time to time and I count it as a great privilege to be among the many giant names which have graced the platform over the years.  It is time to formally say a word of thanks to both Jeff Schwarz and Pastor Todd Wilken for their faithful and successful work over these years.  Their success has contributed to our own local success over four hours away as the people who listened to them first ending up sitting in the pews and listening to me.

Thank you, Jeff and Todd! 

Survey says: A top Lutheran blog. . .

Perhaps the blogs are going away or are less popular than before but, no matter the reason, I received an email saying that my own little enterprise got a little recognition -- something for which I am most grateful to those who read it now and then or even more regularly.

I do not know all that much about Feedspot but do subscribe to some of their offerings.

You can find out more about it all here.  Again, I am not promoting it but simply putting the info out there.  For Individuals, it does enable you to subscribe to your favorite Blogs in one place on FeedSpot Reader.
 

Two Giants. . .

Within days of each other, two Lutheran giants passed away.  I should feel the deeper affinity to Marty E. Marty.  After all he was born not many miles from where I was born and we both hail from the great state of Nebraska.  His dad was the pastor there and he grew up in a parsonage on the precious soil of the Cornhusker State.  The other was born in St. Louis and grew up at Concordia Seminary where his dad was none other than Walter A. Maier the radio preacher.  One biography said that Marty left never to return.  Paul Maier never left. At least on the surface, my life and Martin E. Marty have more in common than me and Paul L. Maier.  Dig deeper and you will find a study in contrasts and the reason why I have respect for Marty but love for Paul.

Martin E. Marty was the author of some 60 books and a world acclaimed authority on Christian history.  He was affable and well spoken.  He enjoyed the respect of his peers and those interested in Christian history all across the world.  I met him a couple of times and was in awe of him.  Paul L. Maier was also the author of many books and endless articles and also had a distinguished career as an educator and historian.  I knew Paul well, hosted him four or five times as a speaker and preacher in my parish, and broke bread with him at least as often.  I was not in awe of him but I adored him.  Let me tell you the difference.

Everyone knew where Martin Marty stood on the messiness of the 1960s-1980s in the Missouri Synod.  He left.  He found a home eventually within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  Though he was not mean about it, he did not have much respect for the Missouri Synod.  Paul Maier did not get mixed up in the wars of Missouri as a general but you knew where he stood.  He contended for the Word of God.  He was an historian but he was also an apologist (in the classical sense of that term).  He defended the faith and the historicity of the Scriptures and the truthfulness of its claims.  He was elected Vice-President and served the LCMS in this way over many years.  Both were highly acclaimed within their university settings (Marty at the the University of Chicago Divinity School and Maier at Western Michigan University).  Marty adept at navigating the relationship between culture and religion (even working with Norman Lear) and Maier adept at making the case for the faith in words every person could understand and yet without making simplistic.

On one occasion, my middle child accompanied us for supper.  My son thought it would be boring.  He loved and hung on every word Paul said.  Paul talked about his yellow Pontiac Solstice (or was it the Saturn version?).  He talked about a 50 foot drag line crane he bought and used to dig holes in his property, along with driving his bulldozer, tractor, and such.  He had the ability to transcend a difference in age and experience and yet hidden in his words and witness lived large the image of Christ.  I cannot help but remember this aspect of the man who was not simply a commentator but a defender of the one and forever truth of Christ crucified and risen.  He often said the best thing that could happen for Christianity is people digging up Palestine to build new buildings for everything they unearthed gave testimony to the truth and truthfulness of the Scriptures.  Martin Mary could tell us about movements and connections and the development of church bodies and Christian influence but Paul Maier could tell us that we need not be embarrassed about the faith we confess because it's facts have every foundation in archeology and history.  I will continue to read and reread the works of Martin Marty but I will long for the conversations with Paul with my son who learned something of the faith while imagining Paul operating the drag line crane making his backyard look like the craters on the moon.

Living in An "R" Rated World. . .

I am not quite a prude but I am very uncomfortable with and concerned for the shape of life in an "R" rated world.  The sad reality is that teens, even Christian teens, routinely view "R" rated movies, listen to "R" rated lyrics in popular music, watch what might be considered "R" rated TV shows, play "R" rated video games, and look at "R" rated videos and conversations on such platforms as TikTok.  Our kids are inundated by course, vulgar language -- and not simply sex related stuff but violent and abusive words related to their relationships with others and especially with the opposite sex.  For the life of me I cannot understand why we are not more concerned about this.

We live in a world and at a time when it seems that children have adult sized choices and decisions thrust upon them, robbing them of their childhood and forcing them to deal with things they are not emotionally or experientially equipped to deal with. It ought to be to our sadness and regret that our children live in an "R" rated world and have had to suffer through words which describe and images that depict some of our worst and most depraved desires.  Yet this is the world we have given them and this is the obstacle course they must make their way through to a whole and responsible adulthood.  Yes, we do have the power to give them a safer world and environment in which to grow up into adulthood but at some point and for some reason we as a culture decided the hardest edges of life and the most realistic depictions of our chosen reality were the things our children should know from childhood on.

Our world is not safe.  It is not safe for them to use the tools of the internet or even the toys we give them for play.  We get all excited when some lead paint shows up in a toy from China or a car seat needs to be recalled but we cannot seem to muster the same sort of indignation over the explicit sex acts and violence which is routinely fed to them in those unsupervised screens.  We think we are paying attention to the best interests of our children when we violate their bodies because of a momentary whim for a boy to be a girl or a girl a boy but we cannot find it within ourselves to allow them any freedom to be children.  Maybe the birth rate ought to be going down if this is all we can manage as a culture and society to protect our children and insulate them from the worst around them.

Hillary Clinton was vilified for saying it takes a village to raise a child.  She may have been wrong about everything else but she was not wrong about that.  It does take a village and we have been doing a rather poor job as a village taking care of our children.  When they act out or display adult size temperaments for sex or violence, we are shocked and appalled.  Where did they learn this?  I can tell you.  Look in the mirror. They learned it from self-indulgent adults who have lost their common sense and forsaken the sense of duty and responsibility our children deserve in order to hand them a weapon which they do not know how to use.  How could they not hurt themselves or others!  

There was a time when my kids were small and I turned the channel or took the page out of their hand because it was not appropriate to their age or maturity.  We need to take more care as adults to protect those most vulnerable more than indulge them with adult sized freedom and choices that will hurt them for the whole of their lives.  Before we expect our children to grown up and act their age, we adults need to do exactly that.

The stones cry out. . .

One of the saddest fruits of the modern desire to reinvent the architecture of the Church has been how modern buildings struggle to speak with any clear voice of who the Church is and what the Church does.   In the place of the old, we do not have the new but instead a cacophony of incoherent voices shouting to be heard instead of speaking of what God has said.  There was a time when even the stones cried out of Christ and Him crucified, when the clear message was the body and blood of our Lord, incarnate in the Virgin's womb, living holy for the unholy, dying for the terrible cost of sin, living so that sin would never gain the last word in death, and giving the fruits of His redeeming work without cost to those who deserved nothing of His mercy.

Clearly certain forms were clearer in this than others, so much more clear than the confusion of circular shapes that test the boundaries of usefulness for the Church they are supposed to hold.  The cruciform shape of the building made it clear that we preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  Easter does not leave behind the cross but frames its meaning and power.  And in that cruciform shape there is the altar.  The altar is Christ on that cross shaped foundation.  From that altar the blood and water flow in the Eucharistic and baptismal means of grace.  The Gospel is words but not only words.  The pulpit is the mouth that speaks but not in place of the body and blood and water.  No, it is with these that together Christ is made known, known, and made known more.

It occurs to me (though undoubtedly I have borrowed this from someone along the way) that the only ones who really see this are the members of the altar guild.  They have the best job in the Church or at least the best vantage point of it all.  They are like the men who brought the body to the tomb and the women who came to complete the burial.  They are near while the rest are far removed from the center of it all.  The altar is marked on the top with five crosses to mark the five wounds of Jesus.  The altar cloth is like the burial linen, the shroud if you will, that wraps the body and touches its flesh.  On this altar cloth are transferred the burial marks, the five wounds.  They absorb the blood that flows from the body not as a back up in case of accident but because that is the reason for their existence, why they were made.  With the altar cloth is the corporal on which the sacred vessels sit and the purficator which cleanses the chalice as the blood is distributed.  These are like the face cloth of Jesus which He folded up and placed on the side of where His body lay.  And the paraments are like the outer garments, the seamless robe too precious to tear which adorns Him who is alone worthy of wearing it.  The sacred vessels are lifted up not in offering of sacrifice to the Father but so that the Father might countenance their filling -- the blood that flows into the cup turning sacrifice into sacrament.

Everything in the building and at the altar speaks.  It speaks of body and blood.  From the pulpit body and blood.  The stones do cry out and with them the ministers who carry these gifts in their hands and lend to Christ their voices and every aspect of the chancel and nave.  The stained glass are visual words of God's work of our salvation in His Son.  The organ is the massed choir of voices of God's people who have been set free to sing the unending song of what God has done.  It is and, according to Revelation, will always be about the body and blood, the Lamb who sits upon His throne and the saints gathered around Him.  But of all people, the altar guild folk get it best.  They who handle the things of God along with the ministers of Christ see what too often the people in the pews do not see.  Christ is here.  He is literally here.  The same body in Mary's belly comes to yours that the Lord of life might be incarnate in you too.  The same body hung upon the cross that you might bear yours in Him as He bore for you.  The same body laid in the tomb but the tomb could not hold Him.  As He was stripped and laid bare, the Church will soon strip the chancel and lay it bare -- so bare that it cannot be anymore missed or ignored.  Christ crucified for me.

The palms wave with joy for the day -- not because they know not what awaits the Lord of glory as He comes but precisely because they do.  He is come for this.  My hour is now.  My glory is here.  And the busy altar guild leads us through the unfolding of the days from palms to lilies, from death to life, not as a play but as the true and real divine drama is done before us in remembrance of the once for all and forever is told.  Curiously enough, the body and blood of Christ are never spoken of as signs or symbols ever.  One of the reasons why John 6 cannot be symbolic.  Real food, real drink, real flesh, and real blood.  No, Jesus does not and no Scriptures speaks of His body and blood as symbol of another else or sign of something not there.  Sure, other things may symbolize that which is the most real of all reality but not the other way around.  And the altar guild knows it all, sees it all, hears it all, and works that we all might know and see and hear it so that we might give witness to it in word and deed.  Thanks be to God for the altar guild.  Join up.  It is the closest seat to the mystery of the ages which unfolds before us every week.

A liturgical confession and life. . .

The Augustana confesses about the Church that she is and what the Church is in liturgical terms.  As Lutherans, this point is sometimes lost to us.  The Church as “the assembly of saints in which the Gospel is taught purely and the Sacraments are administered rightly” (AC VII).  Unless you think of this in theoretical terms, this is concrete and liturgical language.  The Church is what she does and where she does it.  This should not come as a surprise.  This is the catholic way of speaking and this catholic doctrine and practice is the claim of the same Confession.

Sometimes Lutherans get so caught up in the invisible character of the Church's fullness that it is easy to presume that the Church is not local, a specific assembly in which the Word speaks, sins are forgiven, sinners washed clean, and the hungry fed upon the Bread of Life.  As Norman Nagel often said, a God who is everywhere is nowhere when you need Him.  This is reflective of the incarnational theology of St. John.  Jesus is the God who is precisely that -- somewhere.  He is here.  In the flesh of His mother as like any child and yet without sin.  In the bread of His flesh and yet gloriously so.  In the bread that is the Word that proceeds from the mouth of God and yet not simply words.  

It is a wonderful thing to have a written confession -- Lutherans are blessed to have such in the Concordia.  But the Confession does not live in some theoretical or artificial idea.  The Confessions live in the assembly of the saints and they live where and through the Word of the Gospel purely proclaimed and the Sacraments rightly administered according to our Lord's bidding.  In some respects, we have lost this dynamic and think of the Confessions as a book of words to which one subscribes.  Confessional subscription, while affirmed in words, is something lived out as the people of God gather around the Word of God and the Table of God.  You cannot build a wall between what is believed and how it is lived out, between what we say and what we do.  Sadly, that is exactly what some have tried to do and in so doing have rendered academic and weak what is practical and strong.

Doctrinal integrity means nothing if those who kneel at the rail have different confessions and those with one confession have no unity unless they kneel together.  There is no church fellowship that does not meet also at the rail and there is no rail that welcomes those who have no fellowship.  The independent congregation without a formal fellowship of confession and liturgical life is an oddity that cannot live long and begs to the rescued.  The congregation in which the fellowship is so wide that it does not expect or manifest a unity of confession is also odd and empty, begging to be fulfilled with the riches of a confession that is lived out in liturgical life.  

In the same way, though this liturgical life does not demand an exact uniformity of rite or ritual, it certainly desires such -- as close as can be.  Just as this liturgical life does not demand appointments or architecture, it certainly does not disdain the riches of more over less.  What must not be demanded is nonetheless the desire -- oneness of confession and Table, of liturgy and church usages, of beauty and ceremony.  Such unity and uniformity is not some theoretical ideal but that to which we work not because we must but because we desire it.  There is something lost when we become so comfortable with a diversity of beliefs and practices that we find unity an alien thing instead of a familiar.  Maybe it is true that the Church will never realize this goal on earth but that should not prevent us from striving for just that -- a unity not of less but of more, not of minimums but of fullness.  If this is not that to which we are committed, for which we work, and the desire of our hearts, we are not worthy of being called the Church.

Finally, the standard we apply is not personal nor individual but catholic and of the whole.  For this reason, we value tradition over novelty, what has been received over what has been invented, what marks us in continuity with those who have gone before over that which marks us as new and different.  In the end this is the arena in which the old adage lives, lex orandi, lex credendi.  And this ancient principle is reflected in our Confessions even as it is reflective of who we are as a church and what are the marks of this church.  Our unity and life is liturgical just as our confession is.  It is worth remembering in an age in which diversity seems to value the freedom to be different over the freedom to look like our fathers in the faith.

 

Asking Jesus into our heart. . .

I read intently a defense of the idea that we ask Jesus into our hearts.  As you may know, Lutherans are not big on this language.  Sure, we know that Scripture references the heart as the seat of the will and faith reposes in the heart.  The problem is that there is nothing in Scripture about asking Jesus into anyone's heart nor is there anything that would give support to the idea that we make a decision for the Lord.  The Scriptures record abundant calls to repent and believe but also with the clarification that no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.  In other words, conversion is not a matter of our will and decision but of God's work in us by the Spirit working through His Word.  Period. The danger of making Jesus captive to an emotive feeling or choice made in a moment is that faith becomes a feeling and a choice which can be unfelt and unwilled as quickly and even more easily than any decision for the Lord.

The danger is also that we remove faith from the concrete of the means of grace and the work of the Spirit from those means of grace so that even God becomes an idea to inhabit the imagination rather than the God who fills the present so that He might fill eternity with us.  The more we distance God from the means of grace the more we distance Him from anything we would call real and unchangeable.  God is not an idea.  He is a personal being who is known to us in a personal way through the concrete of the Word and Sacraments.  Faith is not an idea or even an idea of this God.  Faith is the trust in the God who has revealed Himself to us and made Himself known to us precisely because without His aid and Spirit, we would be left to a mere idea of Him and not the reality of Him and what He has accomplished for us.

Of all the things that are dangerous to Christianity, one of them is surely the idea that we turn God on and off like a feeling, that we decide for Him or against Him at will and whim, and that He lives in us as an idea in our imagination.  No God like this has any power to save us eternally nor has He the power to change us in the present moment.  Such a God does not need to be worshiped, is hardly with the time to pray, and will countenance our surrender to whatever desire we have -- including the one to disown Him when He no longer is needed or fulfills any purpose in our eyes.  This God is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not the God of the prophets, and not the God who was made flesh in Jesus Christ.  While I can only hope that evangelicals will tire of this view of God, I can warn the Lutherans who want to be like the evangelicals that this is not the God of our confession, not the God of our liturgy, and not the God of our prayers.

Reasonable and calm but still wrong. . .

Occasionally someone will ask me if the progressives and liberals are raging lunatics.  Sometimes it may seem so but the reality is just the opposite.  Most of them are cordial and reasoned (though some of the fringe are, well, lunatics).  Take the Lutheran Church in Australia and New Zealand and their decision to skip the rules, skip history, skip Lutheran doctrine 101, and skip the fragile unity of their own church body in order to pursue the ordination of women (something they have been trying to do for years but failed according to the rules even though a majority were for it).

If you listen to  Pastor Paul Smith, Bishop, Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand, answering the usual questions, you do not hear the voice of someone who seems strange or odd or scary.  He is perfectly calm in his explanation of what was being done, why it was being done, and how the church was going to live and thrive because of what was done.  It is the kind of calm that suggests that there is no reasonable person who could possibly disagree with him on this matter and no one of good heart and sound mind who would object.  Anyway, according to Smith, we are all going to get along and this is all going to be wonderful -- diversity is the byword of a vibrant and alive Christianity, you know.

You can listen to the series of videos here.  They are generally short, a couple of minutes, and nicely done.  The problem is not that he is not nice or that the decisions made are not reasonable in the light of social understanding in the 21st century.  No, the problem is that this is wrong.  It does not accord with Scripture.  It does not accord with the Lutheran Confessions.  It does not accord with history.  It does not accord with catholic doctrine or practice.  More than making things better, it has already spun off one more Lutheran group of those who object to this departure from all things Biblical and catholic.

If it is a choice between nice and reasonable and in accord with the thinking of most folks (especially those outside the Church) and Christ and His Word that does not change and endures forever, which side should a Lutheran be on?  I do not doubt that those in favor of this radical departure from the Scriptures and our Lutheran heritage of faith and practice are nice people and reasonable and probably fun to be with over a glass of Lutheran beverage.  But the sad reality is that this group has chosen to be on the wrong side if God's Word, Lutheran doctrine, and Lutheran practice.  

My point is simply this. If you wish a reasoned Christianity which might be inspired by Scripture but which actually accords with social and cultural thought across religious and secular realms, this is your path.  Diversity over truth, flexibility over orthodoxy, mind over Scripture, and a smile to fix every problem.  We can all get along and look good in the eyes of a culture which does not care a whit what Jesus says, what the Church has said and done, and how it will affect the unity of a particular communion. Pastor Smith is nice.  Those who disagree with him are not so nice.  Well, then, perhaps God is not so nice either -- at least as we would reason it all in the same brains that exchanged a perfect Eden for an earthly fight for daily life until death wins.  Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  By the way, you might just want to pray for the LCANZ and also for those good folk who have decided it is better to be on the side of Jesus than the world --  Lutheran Mission Austraila.  They, by their own words, committed to continuing 'to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints' (Jude 3).

 

The liturgical is not gone but fulfilled. . .

In a very insightful essay over at First Things, Peter Leithart has written eloquently about how the Epistle to the Hebrews is misinterpreted by most of Protestantism and even some Lutherans and Roman Catholics.  I would urge a wider reading of his words.  His point is that the contrast in Hebrews is not between the temporal or earthly and the eternal and heavenly but about that which symbolized and prefigured what Christ has fulfilled and is present now.  It is a good read.

These words should remind us that our institutional forms and ritual habits are neither holdovers from the ceremonial order of the old covenant nor are they empty gestures no longer needed or godly in the new covenant.  Indeed, they have been fulfilled.  What were once merely forms and habits are now filled with Christ.  This is a vibrant liturgy not because the people are with it or into it or it has all the bells and whistles but because Christ is there, the One who fulfilled all that went before and who gives to the present the taste of the eternal which is coming.  Listen to his words:

Once upon a time, Israel offered sacrificial worship at a sanctuary through the ministrations of priests, but Jesus opened the door to a post-religious world sans sacrifice, sans sanctuary, sans priest, sans everything. That’s a misreading. Augustine captures the actual thrust of the letter when he characterizes the transition as one from shadow to reality, symbol to truth. Christian liturgical practice is still sacrificial and priestly, but through Jesus we have access to the real, original, heavenly things. What Israel did in twilight, the church does in the full light of day. The new doesn’t inaugurate an a-liturgical form of life and worship, but radically rearranges liturgy itself.

That is the point we so often either take for granted and thus relegate to the realm of the theoretical or we miss entirely.  Through Christ we do have access to the eternal and that access does not come to us by escaping or eschewing the earthly forms of the means of grace but directly through them.  It is as if we have become the woman caught in her sin who distracts the conversation to the idea of which mountain.  Jesus does not denigrate the mountains that where they worshiped but insisted that it was not a choice between those hills in the past but the revelation of what was here now in Christ -- the heavenly brought to earth to bring us to our home on high and fulfill all the promises of yesterday.

It is clear that most of what passes for worship is an almost gleeful abandonment of anything that would resemble the past in favor of an individualist and emotional piety in which worship is almost irrelevant and the earthly replaced entirely.  This surely ends up being either an other worldly spirituality in which nothing of today has meaning or it ends up with a present day spirituality in which today is the only things that has meaning.  God must be shedding tears.  He has fulfilled all that was promised and filled the present with Christ so that we may glimpse the future and be kept unto the consummation of all things and here we are clapping our hands, stomping our feet, and propelling ourselves into an emotional high or arguing ourselves into heaven as if all the work of Christ depended upon a yea or a nay from us.  Lutherans have, as I have often said, the fullness of it all in the efficacious Word AND Sacraments, catholic doctrine, liturgy, and practice, and the vibrant fruit of God's work in the present through the doctrine of vocation.  What a shame we do not value and live out what we have.  In this, we are not unlike that woman arguing with Jesus at the well while He is giving us what is beyond our wildest hopes and dreams in the mystery of His grace that saves us now for eternity.