Policy based confusion. . .

Policy based governance and, in particular, the version developed by John Carver, has taken hold across the boardrooms of America and, it should be noted, in churches as well.  Designed to address governing boards that err on the side of micromanaging executives while neglecting their particular duties, we see the evidence of this all across congregations, districts, and agencies of the Synod. Its ten core principles include:

1. Ownership: The board is the legitimate voice and agent of the organization’s owners.  All owners are stakeholders but not all stakeholders are owners.  Go figure.

2. Position of the Board: The board is fully accountable to the owners for the success of the organization.

3. Board Holism: The authority of the board is collective with individual members having no independent authority.

4. Ends Policies: The board defines everything in terms of the outcomes expected.  The concern is ends or strategic priorities and secondary to the means.

5. Board Means Policies: Such policies are the way the ends are to be achieved through the governance process and delegation policies.

6. Executive Limitations: The board governs through policies and the means policies are limits on the employees/CEO/staff (they shall not fail to...).  It is negatively stated.

7. Policy Sizes: Policies are framed in the broadest possible terms with specifics defined only as necessary; these are exhaustive in the limitations the board places on the corporate staff.

8. Clarity and Coherence of Delegation: Authority is delegated unambiguously with the broadest possible freedom given to the CEO/corporate staff to accomplish the ends the board has defined.

9. Any Reasonable Interpretation: The CEO/corporate staff are allowed any reasonable interpretation of board policy.

10. Monitoring: The board monitors and evaluates performance, comparing actual results (success or failure) against the Ends and Executive Limitations stated by the board. 

Policy Governance is a precision governing system that conditions success with following the model without variation.  In Policy Governance, all the above pieces are required for Policy Governance to be effective. Only when all are brought to bear on the organization can there be owner accountability. 

In typical adaptation for church usage, the senior pastor functions as the CEO or the pastor who is elected or appointed for other levels of church governance.  Elders/board members in the congregation are policy makers and monitors of compliance.  Congregations hold their leaders accountable through policies rather than the direct exercise of authority. 

Such is the entrepreneurial model of both governance and the pastoral office at work.  Sometimes it seems to work okay, perhaps even well.  There are, however, things that tend to happen as a result of policy based governance.  One thing is that it confuses spiritual responsibility and authority with physical responsibility and authority for property.  When this happens, it is not unusual for the spiritual to become second to the physical ends or indicators of success.  

The other big problem is that it tends to make lay leadership weak (on the congregational side) and to make for limited input to the governance of the organization except to set ends and make policies.  Even worse, it tends to elevate weak leaders and infuriate strong lay leaders.  

Finally, it tends to turn even the corporate leaders (in this case, the pastor acting as CEO) to comparing statistical results with ends envisioned without really leading at all.  The focus is on doing what the Board has directed and the evaluation is based on fulfilling the ends directed by the board through the policies it has established.   What happens if they are not the real ends or the policies are simply bad policies?  In this way, the governance tends to muddy things up and encourage mediocre leaders.  What happens when a pastor’s primary accountability is measured by whether or not he follows the policies the board has established and achieves the organization outcomes the board has defined but that comes at the cost of the values, doctrine, and confessional integrity of that organization?  What about the faithful proclamation of the Word and the faithful administration of the Sacraments?  

There was a time when we probably had too many boards acting independently of each other and too many committees with overlapping responsibilities.  Maybe there was a time when we functioned rather disjointedly and probably somewhat inefficiently.  But have we over corrected --  effectively throwing the baby out with the bath water all in the name of shorter meetings, transparency, clear expectations, and defined objectives?  Fewer people in governance in an church organization and those few people with less responsibility except to define outcomes and establish policies can be a recipe for disaster.  Furthermore, when everyone is concerned with the physical side of things and no one is paying attention to the spiritual, the Church is definitely in trouble.  And, I am afraid, we are already there.  It is less a problem of pastors wanting to take over what rightfully belongs to the laity than it is nobody wanting do what they are supposed to do.  It also has the problem of judging everything in the church by the wrong set of values and defining success in every way except that which God would judge faithful.

Heaven and earth are full of Your glory. . .

The danger of secularism is the idea that life is independent and solitary, that the only real association is choice and that it only has the meaning we attach to it all.  Stuff.  It is all just stuff and accident and nothing organized or ordered.  The world has for a long time embraced the idea that there is a way to secularize everything in such a way that it has nothing to do with the notion of God. But things are not just things. “Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory,” is the revelation of Scripture, the song of the Church, and the affirmation of the faithful.  Not just heaven but earth.  All the earth is filled with beauty and all things declare the wonder of Him who made all things.  The earth is also the revelation of God's glory.

“Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth, heaven and earth are full of your glory.”

The eternal song of the angels who surround the throne of God in Isaiah's vision of heaven (Is. 6:1-4) is given also to earth to sing. The splendor of that song was lost to us in the Fall but not the splendor God has woven into the fabric of all things.  It had to be revealed to us and so it was and is.  It might seem that the glory of the earth was nothing compared to the miracle of God in flesh, the death that paid for every sin, the resurrection for all who live under death's shadow, and the ascension to the right hand of the Father.  Is it nothing?  In the Holy Eucharist, the God who made all things and entered into our world prepares for us a table to give us the gift of life. 

Heaven and earth are full of Your glory.  Heaven breaks into the world until both heaven and earth must display what cannot be hidden. Oddly enough, Luther proposed moving the Sanctus after the Words of Institution precisely because the reality of these words and their fulfillment in the bread now His body and the cup now His blood.  Here we confess in the blessed song that the earth is full of God's glory and that this is part of the proclamation every bit as much as the heavenly redemption.  It is the end of any neat distinction between sacred and secular, of the lie that it is all just stuff.  It is the end of everything the world wants to believe about religion, about the ability of mankind to deny the spiritual character of our identity and of the image of God placed in us though distorted by sin yet not obliterated.

We sing it in the Te Deum and in the Sanctus and we read it in the Scriptures.  It is our statement that the earth cannot deny the reality of this everlasting truth.  The world battles emptiness and depression with all the wrong remedies.  Stuff is just stuff.  Things are just things.  People are just people.  As much as I hate to speak of it this way, the affirmation that heaven and earth are full of God's glory is therapeutic -- not in the sense of some patient listening to feelings but real therapy that gives honest consolation, comfort, and peace.  The answer to our longing is not a conversation about feelings but the affirmation of the truth.  Heaven and earth ARE full of God's glory.  His glory is His saving love, His merciful countenance, His sin-forgiving heart, and His gracious disposition.

Reason says. . .

A few months ago many of us were gathered in a church somewhere while a finger dusted with ash traced a cross on the foreheads of those who came forward.  The words were shocking enough for an adult to hear, Remember, O man, that you are dust and unto dust you shall return.  But there will be moms and dads bringing small children with curious faces and infants so seemingly innocent to get the same odd anointing.   In the cold reality of reason, this all seems to be an empty gesture for the children and babies carried up in loving arms.  Reason says these are innocents who have no guilt to carry, no shame to hide, and no sins to confess.  But that is the problem.  We were born into this sin that does not seem to be apparent on the smiling and joyful faces of children and babies.  They belong there because of what choice was made not by them but for them when, in Eden, we were all one in Adam.  If they do not belong there, then none of us do.

The same unthinkable reason that brought infants and small children to the rail for ashes is what brings them to baptismal water.  Need.  Whether that need is expressed in formal words and sentences or whether it is attested to by faithful parents who know what is on the faces of their children as well as what it means to be born into sin, need compels us.  No one can reason themselves into a baby being brought to water meant for sinners who have some guilt to confess, some shame to admit, and some sin to own.  Reason says the child is innocent until they reach some age of accountability, some awareness of right and wrong, some culpability of will and desire.  But infants and children are also born into a world of death, with a will compromised by the inclination to evil, and in their own helpless state to deliver themselves from all of this or even part of it.  

Reason tells us that the resurrection is the hope of those near death and not the baby in the arms of mom or the children carried by their dads.  After all, they have their own lives ahead, full lives with chapters waiting to be written.  That is the illusion.  Reason usually deals with black and white, the clear and the concrete.  In this case reason is wrong.  It clings to a dream while the reality is marked in death upon the flesh even of a child.  We all need what the promise of Easter offers.  We cannot predict when death will come and we dare not presume that the seemingly innocent faces of children are immune from it.  If we come to the empty tomb both out of need and of desire, the infants and children have the same need even as we wait to hear from their lips the words of desire and faith.   

I don't get it. . .

So it would seem that Christianity poses an existential threat to the world.  There is a growing backlash against the Church as if somehow the Church was vibrant and powerful enough to compel unwilling unbelievers to either abide by the tenets of Christianity or to convert.  At least that is how it reads.  Our society is replete with warnings about Christian nationalism, about a Christianity enforced by government and aided by law, or about the imposition of a willing faith upon unwilling people.  Except where is that happening?  Where is Christianity rising up to become the kind of social or political force that would cause liberals and progressives to issue warnings?  At least in the West?

It would seem that the Church is actually at its weakest today than ever before.  Christians do not seem to have played a pivotal role in the ruling which made abortion no longer a constitutionally protected right.  Christians seem to have lost the war against the diversity of sexual desires and gender identities which we perceive as normal.  Christians have watched as marriage has dropped in popularity and children virtually disappeared in the homes of most of us yet some are warning against the Church somehow taking away the freedoms so jealously afforded by the liberal and progressive forces in our land.  Indeed, the whole of the West seems to be on the same page in this.

But somehow those same liberal and progressive folk seem content with Islam.  According to the evidence and the state of affairs in the Middle East (though not alone), Islam appears to be the greater threat to the great American way of life but you would not know it.  Muslims have done a profound job of compelling or forcing the hand of those on the forefront of culture war yet liberal and progressive Christians have little to say in protest to this.  On the other hand, Christians are positively demonic in the eyes of the liberal West.  Who represents a greater threat to the status quo of the world?  Is it Islam with its militant repudiation of all the liberal and progressive values OR is it Christianity, which, by and large, has seemed to accommodate the secular values that it is supposed to reject?  The world has decided that Islam is a victim that needs to be protected from the big, bad Christian demon -- just like all the liberal and progressive values that Western culture holds dear.

Honestly, I wish that Christianity acted like the institutional threat it is generally seen to be by liberal and progressive Western culture.  Of course, there are pockets of threat but Christianity has hardly provided a uniform and solid front against the liberal and progressive secular culture.  Yes, I do believe that Christianity is an existential threat to the values and ideals held by secular progressivism and even the shallow and tepid Christian form of the same thing.  I just don't see how the world around us can judge us to be such a threat since so much of Christianity has capitulated to those values and positions.  That is my sadness.  I wish we were something to threaten the world with a real difference and not just a lukewarm version of ourselves.  Oddly enough, I guess, the stereotype of Christianity feared by the liberal and progressive West is actually worse than the reality.....

 

His wounds are our healing...

Remembering eleven years ago this sermon preached for Easter 2B, on Sunday, April 12, 2015

    Jesus dies and rises again and the best He can get from His disciples is them huddling behind locked dears with hearts closed off from joy by their fear!  Shouldn’t Jesus have expected more?  The locked doors did not stop Jesus but the fearful hearts – well, that’s another story.  The disciples were as afraid of believing in Jesus as they were fearful of the Jews.  Either way their lives were held captive by fear and doubt.  What would bring them peace?  What would comfort them?  What would restore their joy?  What would turn them to hope?
    No one would expect that the wounds of Jesus’ suffering and death could become the healing wounds of our grief and the comforting scars that would teach us hope.  No one but Jesus.  Into their turmoil, Jesus came and all He had to show them were the wounds in His hands and feet.  But it was enough.  And to fearful people, His wounds are still enough.
    Peace be with you. . . said Jesus.  Jesus spoke of peace to calm the real fears of people who have enemies, who face temptations, and who deal with the trials of daily live.  Jesus spoke of peace to bring forgiveness to the guilty consciences of sinners – even those sinners who betrayed Jesus and denied His resurrection from the dead.
    Jesus spoke of peace to turn the sorrows of the grieving into joy and to turn the sadness of their loss into the gladness of salvation.  All this Jesus spoke to them but still they were not ready to give up their fears or surrender their sorrows.
    The disciples who told Thomas they had seen the Lord had already seen His wounds and put their hands in them.  Now Jesus allows Thomas to do the same.  In the wounds of Jesus, Thomas’ doubts and fears melted away.  “My Lord and My God,” he cried.  And his heart finally knew rest, comfort, and peace.
    Jesus said, “Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed...”  Now you might think that was a rebuke to Thomas.  We might be angry if people did not believe us but Jesus is remarkably patient with doubters and the fearful.  Thomas’ refusal does not anger Jesus.  Our Lord does not turn Thomas away but draws Him into the wounds that impart His promised peace.
    You and I worry about being afraid, doubting, sadness, and about fear.  These things only have power over us if we hide them!  It is true.  We face many enemies in this world.  We endure many tests.  We suffer many trials.  But own doubts and fears do not anger Jesus.  But, like Thomas of old, until we surrender our fears, doubts, and turmoil to the wounds of Jesus, we are frozen by them.  But in them we are free.
    Just as Jesus invited Thomas to touch Him and know the full comfort of His presence and His peace, so do we come here today.  Bidden by Jesus to find healing in His wounds, the Spirit works to muster the courage to confess our doubts, to surrender our fears, and to give up our distress.
    What our eyes cannot see, God gives us faith to see.  Faith becomes the eyes that see when the ones in our head see only dead ends, fear, doubt, guilt, shame, and upset.  Through the clear vision of faith, we see Jesus and His promised peace calms our fears, eases our doubts, and invites our trust.
    We wonder what age we will look in heaven.  Like those pictures of people in their youth that accompany obituaries, we dream of glory without scars and wounds.  But Jesus scars and wounds are not His shame; they are His glory. In those wounds is our peace, our forgiveness, and our hope. Far from hiding them, Jesus shows off the marks of His suffering that we might know what His wounds have accomplished for us and for our salvation.  His wounds are not His shame but His power to address each of us with His peace.
    The waters of baptism flows to unlock hearts closed by fear. It is the Spirit’s work, working through the Word, to break through the locked doors of our fears and our closed hearts.  It is the Spirit who moves us to confront our fear and doubt.
 The Word breaks through and in the very place of our doubts and fears, the Spirit plants the peace of Christ.  Where we were once held captive by fear and doubt, eyes of faith see the wounds of Christ and enter into freedom and hope.
    It happened for the ten disciples who first met Jesus after Easter. It happened a week later for Thomas, too.  And it happens for us every Sunday we come to behold the wounds of Jesus that heal our broken lives, forgive our shameful sins, erase our guilt, ease our fears, and answer our doubts.  The wounds of Christ are not His shame but His glory. . . and OUR glory.  Easter does not make them go away but allows us to see those wounds as the means of our salvation and invites us to trust in them always.
    Easter’ hope is not that we forget what Jesus suffered but that we glory in the wounds that have bought us back from sin and death and overcome our fears with hope.  So that in the midst of the worst of life’s troubles and trials, we too might see Jesus with eyes of faith and joyfully proclaim: My Lord and My God.  Amen.  Christ is Risen.  He is Risen Indeed.  Alleluia! 

Birthright citizenship and Roman moral teaching. . .

So the USCCB (US Conference of Catholic Bishops) sent a friend of the court brief on the issue of  “birthright citizenship” -- a longstanding policy ended by a Trump executive order.  Their concern is  “whether the law will protect the human dignity of all God’s children.”  The oddly curious question here is whether or not birthright citizenship applies beyond the US and if it is reflection of Roman Catholic moral teaching overall.  And, if that is the case, why does it not apply to the Vatican?

Only a fool would suggest that there are not valid arguments on both sides but the USCCB has framed this in moral terms and that it evidence of the incoherence of their brief.  Birthright citizenship has flown from the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”  While it was meant to grant citizenship to freed slaves, it has been applied universally ever since -- other than the exceptions to the birthright-citizenship policy such as children born to foreign diplomat or born to members of an invading army.  But whether it was meant to be applied as universally as it has been, that is a debate.

The bishops insist that “children do nothing wrong by being born in the United States” but that does not necessarily lead to the claim that “depriving an innocent child of his citizenship based upon his parents’ immigration status would be an especially outrageous punishment.” Roman Catholic moral teaching has always allowed states the authority to set their own standards for citizenship.  According to their logic here, everyone has an inherent right to citizenship.  “Birthright citizenship,” say the bishops, “accords with the Church’s teachings concerning the State’s obligation to uphold and protect human dignity because it treats birth within a community as a sufficient and objective basis for political belonging.”  If this is the case, then what about other countries?  That is why this is either odd or incoherent.

We can argue the wisdom on both sides of this issue but to claim the moral high ground in favor of birthright citizenship is a bridge too far even for Roman Catholic bishops. 

The elephant in the room. . . .

Across the discussion of seminary vs online, non-LCMS vs official seminary, SMP vs "general" pastors, there is almost a mantra of talk about the shortage of pastors in congregations with 50 or less on Sunday morning.  It is as if the whole conversation is being driven by this one particular situation.  But is it?  According to the stats provided to us by the Synod, the vast majority of these small congregations are being served not by SMP clergy but by retired pastors who are serving part-time or pastors who have another income source who are also serving a small congregation on the side.  Indeed, the big dust up over rule changes to the SMP seems to imply that it is these smaller congregations who will be forced to go without a pastor because the requirements for the program are being changed.  Is that the case?

It would seem that much of the growth in the SMP and much of the impetus in the desire to find a go around for the Synodical seminaries residential path is to raise up local pastors within congregations which are not small and struggling but large enough to look for and fund additional part-time or full-time clergy for their own staff.  It has less to do with a concern for the small parish in the Dakotas or Montana that cannot find a retired pastor or another pastor living close enough to serve them part-time than it does a congregation with a couple of hundred in worship that wants to expand its own staff and is utilizing the SMP for that purpose.  While that was not the intended scope or place for the SMP program when it was sold to the Synod, it is nonetheless technically allowed by the rather broad bylaws and requirements of the program.  There has arisen a deep desire to have local clergy, formed locally and raised up and formed for a specific local setting and although this could include that small and isolated parish somewhere on the plains, it is more likely a suburban parish trying to grow its staff (and, I might add, on the cheap).  I get it and understand the desire but I do think we need to separate the need for pastors for these smaller congregations from the desire of these other parishes to have locally grown pastors serving them part-time or even full-time.

It would also be helpful to separate the training debate from the SMP program.  The SMP is about the establishment of a particular path for a particular need and the hubbub over online and non-Synodical seminary routes is less about that specific situation than it is about pastoral formation overall.  While there are things in common in both perspectives, there are also differences.  Those who advocate for the online option to be normative along side the residential seminary route and who believe that other seminaries besides the official ones should be allowed to train our clergy are talking about general pastors and how they are raised up and how they are formed -- not SMP.  It is helpful if we distinguish the smaller points of the debate while having this conversation in Synod.  

Lastly it is also true that the desire of some to simply regularize SMP with a stroke of a pen and remove all current restrictions on their placement, call, and arena of service have another issue which is related to the two above but not quite the same.  In their minds, these voices are insisting that if a pastor is ordained and conferred with the authority of the Word and Sacraments, there can be no further restriction upon him or any limitation of his jurisdiction.  That is another line of debate and one which we ought to have but it is not quite the same as online, non-LCMS seminary, SMP in small congregations, and localized pastoral formation.  In other words, we have a lot of conversations going on in the Synod and while some of them are related, they are not exactly the same.  From time to time we need to admit this and make the necessary distinctions.  

Reclaiming temperance. . .

Though we speak more often of the seven deadly sins, the seven heavenly virtues are also an ancient Western Christian tradition describing how God would have us live. From the fifth century onward, these seven heavenly virtues have served as a guide to many Christians, holding forth to the virtues of chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility. These virtues were displayed in a virtuous and God-fearing life. Though I could, and probably have, written on these before, I wonder if the word temperance might be worth a look.

There are several definitions of temperance in the dictionary.  I fear that most of the time we are content to define it as abstaining from alcohol or acting moderately so as not to do anything to the extreme.  These are not at all helpful in understanding the word.  I think temperance is less moderation than it is self-control -- the determined moderation of passion or natural desires.  In other words, it is just about the opposite of our world of whims, passions, and indulgences.  The world is in love with the moment and with the indulgence in the moment that disdains consequences in favor of a moment of satisfaction.  Whether in words or deeds or passions, we have become a rather self-indulgent people and most intemperate.

• Abstinence from or moderation in drinking alcoholic beverages.
• Moderation and self-restraint, as in behavior or expression.
• Habitual moderation in regard to the indulgence of the natural appetites and passions;
• Moderation of passion; patience; calmness; sedateness. 
• State with regard to heat or cold; temperature.  
• One of the seven heavenly virtues. 

Oddly enough, we have some collects that actually teach us to pray for this:

Hear us, Almighty and merciful God, and favorably grant us the gifts of salutary temperance; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. 

Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that the dignity of the human condition, which hath been wounded by excess, may be renewed by the pursuit of healthful moderation; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.

This temperance, or self-control, as a heavenly virtue presents as an inward spiritual inclination both outwardly controlling one's words and actions while inwardly controlling one's thoughts and desires.  This self-control is not just about being submissive but in actuality exerting dominance -- being in control of your emotions, words, and actions.  This is also not simply a gesture to express mastery over such whims and impulses but to allow the Holy Spirit to guide you so that you do not sin.  How truly out of step in a world in which whims define everything from truth to sexual desire to gender identity!  And here are Christians praying the Lord not to accept them as they are or to bless their mess.  No, indeed, these same Christians are praying the Lord to help them step out of the realm of uncontrolled desire and want and to explore by the power of that Spirit the life of control of self.  Or are we?

Could it be that we are not at all interested in giving up the reigns of our lives from the whims and fancies of feeling, desire, want, and justified need?  Could it be that we simply want the Church around to bless our reckless abandon at giving in wholly and fully to the whims and fancies of such desire?  We come to God less with sins to confess and be wiped away with the blood of Christ than we come with a taunt that unless God approves of all that is disordered or simply wrong in us, we will not allow Him to be God at all!  The calm that is associated with such temperance is not that desire has finally been satisfied but desire has been reordered and shaped by the voice of God and the example of Christ.  This would seem to be exactly what St. Paul seems to commend -- along with the giving up of undisciplined lives of indulgence to become the new man of God that the Spirit declares we are in baptism.  Surely this is also Jesus' command when He calls us to deny ourselves and take up the cross to follow Him.  Surely this is not simply a Lenten prayer but the constant prayer of a people whose passions and willful desire indulged is the very definition of sin?

An amazing video. . .

If we have to have AI, at least it can help us imagine things like this.  HT William Tighe

What is the outcome of therapy?

Having more than a passing acquaintance with the mental health industry, I speak with more familiarity than I ever wanted to the disappointment out there for those with mental illness, in emotional distress, and in with psychological wounds.  A diagnosis is hardly the answer.  It helps with the medical billing but it does not cure the patient.  Diagnostic codes seem of the greatest importance to the medical establishment for it is the key to what kind of therapy and what kind of meds get covered.  But it does not seem that all of this promise is actually curing people.

We think that diagnostic codes and the path through the medical maze we have constructed has a real track record when it comes to the mental health industry.  Does it?  We have more meds available than ever before but are those meds dealing with symptoms or actually treating causes?  We have more kinds of mental health resources to choose from -- including online providers to non-profits -- than ever before.  But the therapeutic arm of it all seems only there to bridge a crisis and not exactly to address the root of the problem.  In the hospital ER, the most important question is whether or not the patient still seems to be an urgent threat to themselves or anyone else.  If that standard is met, it is highly likely the individual will be sent home with a promise to find help with their current or a new provider.  That often seems like the entire mental health industry -- bridging one crisis after another without actually fixing anything.  I know I am being harsh but this is from the prospective of an insider.  The avenues of hope for those I have dealt with most intimately were helped not by government or an agency of a health care provider but by non-traditional sources understaffed and underfunded but often doing incredible work.  Actually fixing the problems or simply helping the wounded to be the walking wounded and not littering up the ERs of this world.

Therein lies the problem for a church with offers a religious version of therapy.  Therein lies the problem for a God who offers therapy.  Therein lies the problem of a therapeutic deism that replaces Christ and Him crucified.  We have turned God into a vendor for our mental health industry, a God who is willing to listen to us, encourage us to make peace with our demons, be true to ourselves accepting who we are with all our warts, and smile our way through the crap as if it were all good.  But the one thing that this God cannot do is actually save us, fix what ails us, and offer us something more than a reconciliation we have with what is wrong with us and around us.  Imagine pretending that sin is not sin or death is not death.  Is that all this therapeutic deity can offer us?  

This God is, as Anthony Esolen reminds us, a smiley face deity who smiles with us through it all but has no legs to run to us or arms to lift us up.  An emoji God who is little more than a cute picture.  We need more than this kind of false god.  We need a real God who can offer real help.  We don't need a God to address symptoms but one who can reach into the core of what is wrong and offer us a remedy, a rescue, and a real redemption.  That is why we got a God who came in flesh to have real arms and real legs to do something more than smile away the days of disappointment and despair.  The therapeutic part of this is in reality no therapy at all and it just might appeal to us because we would rather have our hands held and be told lies than to hear the truth that saves.

Another waiting day. . .

Holy Saturday is the odd day of Holy Week.  It is a day when seemingly nothing happened.  The Gospels are largely silent about this day, the Sabbath Day whose coming pressured the faithful to rest Jesus' body in the grave as quickly as they could.  Well, I guess you could say we do know something about this day.  It was a day of worship.  The faithful went to church (synagogue?).  They found refuge where they knew they would -- in the community of the faithful, around the Word of the Lord.  Perhaps that is the first lesson of this day.  Those who think that doubts or troubles or anger with pastors or parishioners will dissipate because they stay home from church find no support from the faithful long ago.  They knew that the only rest anyone can find is the rest that flows from God's promise and our faith in that promise.

So they went to church. . . and they waited.  We have a lot of trouble waiting for things.  We are generally not very patient as people We have fast food, drive up windows, and self-check out lines because we don't want to wait.  It should not surprise us that waiting is the hardest part of faith.  Yet waiting is an act of faith.  We do not wait as the aimless whose restless hearts live in anxiety and fear.  We wait upon the Lord.  We know this Lord as the one who loved us that He gave His only-begotten Son who was born in our flesh and blood to suffer and die in our place upon the cross.  We are not waiting for the unknown but for that which we know in the promise of Christ.

On this day the Church has historically welcomed new people to the faith through baptism and confirmation.  The dark night of Holy Saturday gives way to the bright morning of Christ's resurrection and this has been a symbolic moment rich in imagery and meaning for the newly baptized and confirmed.  You might say that the whole life of the baptized is a life of waiting, of joyful expectation not complete until we close our eyes this side of glory and awaken them to see Jesus face to face.  I think of my Dad who we buried only a week or so ago and of the fulfillment of the baptismal promise given to him so long ago.  I think of my own wait for the blest reunion with those who have gone before, who died in Christ.  I think of the restless character of the soul searching for place and belonging that is not stilled or met until we rest in Christ.  Yes, whether you like it or not, Christian life involves much waiting.

Easter is not a surprise ending for us but the ending we know and for which we hope.  This day is sort of like the children waiting for Christmas morning to see what gifts were brought.  We wait because we know there are gifts given, blessing awaiting us, and a future prepared.  Such a wait is not drudgery even when it may seem long.  It is how we anticipate in this life the promise of the life to come.  So wait with me. . . what is to come is beyond imagination and far beyond our expectations -- what God has prepared for those who love Him.  And it all starts with an empty tomb.  Shhhhhhh.... Easter is coming! 

The Friday we call Good. . .

Again, from O. P. Kretzmann:

A great number of tragedies have come over the church during the past two thousand years, but none more terrible than the fact that our own generation has come to consider the Christian re­ligion something soft. It has no place in the mod­ern world. It can offer nothing to the most ruthless civilization of money and power which the world has ever known. The reason for this is undoubt­edly the caricature of the person of Christ to which so many pulpits have devoted their ener­gies during the last thirty years. Instead of the world-conquering, world-dominating Christ who two thousand years ago walked from the Cross to the throne, they have given us a dream-haunted wanderer far from the ways of men who walked about Judea two thousand years ago, pathetically trying to do good to a few people, and who then finally died on the Cross, a failure - beaten' by His enemies, beaten by life, beaten and crushed by a Cross.

This picture of the conquering Christ is a lie.

It ignores the majesty of the Cross. Look at Him for a few moments as He went down into death. The three hours of darkness have ended. The scene has become more quiet. The crowd has been awed into silence by the darkness and by the words of the dying Man on the cross. The Roman soldiers look on with indifference, glad that the whole mean business will soon be over. Suddenly He raises His head once more, looks far out over the crowd and cries in supreme, absolute triumph, «It is finished." To the Pharisees at the foot of the cross, the scribes and elders and the Roman soldiers these words must have sounded like the crack of doom. They did not understand them, but there was something wrong. Had they after all failed? They were killing Him. But He seemed to feel that He had won a victory. Had they lost? They had lost. Their last defeat was written in the face of the thorn-crowned Sufferer into whose eyes there had now come the glow of another world and the light of eternal victory.

If those men and women standing at the foot of the cross had but eyes to see, they would have seen every thorn in His crown become a shining gem in His diadem of glory. If they had but ears to hear, they would have heard the voices of wit­nesses, ten thousand times ten thousand"trium­phant with God-given power, hurling into the world the message of the conquering and domi­nating Christ who has the keys of hell and of death. God the Father reaches down from heaven and touches the cross. The arms of the glorified cross reach out and cover humanity. Under them stands the royal apostle St. Paul crying: "Because He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, therefore God has also highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that He is the Lord to the glory of God the Father." Under the arms of the cross stands St. John saying: "He is the first­-begotten of the Father and the Prince of the kings of the earth."

The cross grows until it becomes the vision of the Lamb enthroned in the midst of heaven, brighter than the sun and more glorious than an army with banners. The hands that were pierced with nails wield the sceptre of the uni­verse. On the brow that was thorn-crowned and bleeding are the many crowns of universal king­hood. Here is the world-conquering Christ who even today carries a heart-demanding and heart­-searching power to which only the best and no­blest in Christian manhood and womanhood can respond.

It is time for the world to become afraid of Him. He has a strange and terrible way of coming back into a hostile, sin-loving world and a cold, indifferent church and throwing down the candle­sticks as He did two thousand years ago. On the evening of that first Good Friday thousands went down the hill and promptly forgot all about Him. It was so easy to forget. Thirty-four years later, almost to the day, our Lord Christ came back again in the noise and confusion of war, and be­fore His crowned head and uplifted arm Jerusalem crumbled into dust and ashes. Where one cross had stood there now were thousands. They had shouted, "We have no king but Caesar," and they had no king but Caesar...

There is still no room for defeatism and weariness in the Kingdom.  But we shall never know it until we hear His voice saying quietly and assuringly: "Fear now, I have overcome the world..." 

No drama for show. . .

One of the pitfalls of the modern liturgical movement has been its pursuit of the sources not simply for information or explanation of the present but as something to be reclaimed and reenacted in our own times.  If the earliest liturgy was simple, then simplicity is our goal today (even though there is little more than a presupposition that the early Christian liturgy was simple).  If the earliest liturgy was celebrated around a table, then an altar gets in the way.  If the earliest liturgy was a communal meal, then a communal meal is what we must have.  It has reduced the whole of Christ's legacy and testament to a mere even to be remembered or, more profoundly, reenacted.  That is precisely NOT what we do tonight.

Reenactors we are not.  We are not here to mimic what Christ did as if that were the appreciation He desires nor are we here to imagine what the Upper Room must have been like (so much different than our gathering).  No, that is not our goal or our purpose.  We come tonight as the called, gathered, enlightened, and sanctified by the Spirit.  We are a people washed in baptismal water and a people who have heard in our ears the living voice of the Son of God.  We are the guilty who have been forgiven and the unclean who have been made righteous.  We are not here to remember a mere event but to receive what was given to the disciples first that they might give to those who come after them.  

The meal is not ours to play with (one of the reasons I am not a fan of Seder meals held by Christians).  We are here to receive what Christ has placed in this blessed Sacrament -- His flesh and blood given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins.  We are not actors but those who receive, who humbly receive in repentance and faith, what Christ has pledged and promised.  On this Holy Thursday, it is not about us but for us.  On this Maundy Thursday, it is not about a new law to love as Christ loves us but about a sacrament so filled with grace that it transforms our hearts and wills.  The love we have received moves us to love others -- not to earn or merit anything but simply as the response of faith.

 This solemn but joyful night begins with absolution to the sinner.  This is not some perfunctory rite that must be done but the privilege of grace upon those unworthy and undeserving of such kindness.  God comes to us sinners but He does not leave us in sin.  Where Christ is (in His Word and Sacrament), there is forgiveness, life, and salvation.  What we receive is not only the fulfillment of the Passover but the foretaste of the eternal feast to come.  Christ is the center of it all.  From this absolution, we hear the Word of God place this night in the context of His Passion.  Then we are bidden by Christ to come and eat believing His Word -- This is My body and This is My blood. 

 This mystery is not meant for the mind to comprehend or the explanation to simplify its majesty.  No, indeed, we meet the mystery on the ground of faith, praising God for doing what He promised and acknowledging that the Lamb of God is not an image to impart understanding but bread that tastes of His flesh and wine that tastes of His blood.  In the face of this mystery, we kneel, give thanks, adore, and feast.  This night is not its own but part of a sacred three day service and the benediction will have to wait until the alleluia is back and Easter has dawned.  Until then the body we eat is Christ's flesh for the life of the world and the blood we drink is His blood that cleanses us from all our sin.  The service will pause until it begins anew on Good Friday.  It will continue in the waiting of Holy Saturday.  But the end will not come until the Vigil and its Eucharist -- the first of many to announce that He who died is risen!

640 Thee We Adore, O Hidden Savior

1 Thee we adore, O hidden Savior, Thee,
Who in Thy Sacrament art pleased to be;
Both flesh and spirit in Thy presence fail,
Yet here Thy presence we devoutly hail.

 2 In this memorial of Thy death, O Lord,
Thou dost Thy body and Thy blood afford:
Oh, may our souls forever feed on Thee,
And Thou, O Christ, forever precious be.

3 Thou, like the pelican to feed her brood,
Didst pierce Thyself to give us living food;
Thy blood, O Lord, one drop has pow’r to win
Forgiveness for our world and all its sin.

4 Fountain of goodness, Jesus, Lord and God:
Cleanse us, unclean, with Thy most cleansing blood;
Increase our faith and love, that we may know
The hope and peace which from Thy presence flow.

5 O Christ, whom now beneath a veil we see,
May what we thirst for soon our portion be:
To gaze on Thee unveiled and see Thy face,
The vision of Thy glory, and Thy grace.
Amen.

Text (sts. 1, 4–5): Public domain; Text (sts. 2–3): © 1998 Concordia Publishing House. Used by permission: LSB Hymn License no. 110004930

 

A day of silence. . .

Holy week... The most important seven days in the history of man... Although the exact sequence of events is not always clear to us, we can discern, even now, the straight lines of divine order... Sunday: The garments in the dust - the Hosannas as the prelude to the "Crucify."... Monday: Sermons with the urgent note of finality - the withered fig tree - Caesar's coin... Tuesday: The terrifying wrath of the Lamb over institutionalized and personal sin among the Scribes and Pharisees - the fire and color of His last sermon to the city and the world - the sureness of justice and the coming of judgment... Night and prayer in the light of the Easter moon on the Mount of Olives...

Wednesday is silent... If anything happened, the holy writers have drawn the veil... Everything that God could say before the Upper Room had been said... It was man's turn now... Perhaps there were quiet words in a corner of the Garden, both to His children who would flee and to His Father who would stay... Wednesday was His... The heart of that mad, crowded Holy Week was quiet... Tomorrow the soliders would come, and Friday there would be God's great signature in the sky... Thursday and Friday would belong to time and eternity, but Wednesday was of heaven alone...

Silent Wednesday... If our Lord needed it, how much more we whose life is the story of the Hosanna and the Crucify... Time for prayer, for adoration... Time to call the soul into the inner court and the Garden... In our crowded world we are lonely because we are never alone... No time to go where prayer is the only sound and God is the only light... We need more silent Wednesdays... In the glory of the Cross above our dust our silence can become purging and peace... God speaks most clearly to the heart that is silent before Him... 

 [from the devotional writings of O. P Kretzmann, published in The Pilgrim, pp. 27, 28]

 

Rebuking the Pharisees. . .

Matthew 21:23-46 (Jesus rebukes the Pharisees)

“By what authority are You doing these things? Who gave You this authority?”  This is from those who were charged to prepare the people so that when the Father determined the time was ripe and sent forth His redemption, they would be ready to receive Him who comes in the Name of the Lord.  They had already turned on John the Forerunner, despite his obvious popularity and success.  They had already decided that Jesus was not helping but hurting and had to be dealt with -- even if it meant innocent blood on the hands of the guilty.  It may not be pretty but it was prudent, even expedient, that one die to preserve the way of life for the many.  This was not God talking but unbelief.  Jesus calls out unbelief wherever He finds it.  Even worse than unbelief which owes the rejection, the Pharisees took the easy but damning way out.  "We don't know."  Those who ought to have known the Scriptures and that they testify of Jesus the messiah were now left to the lie that they did not know.  They were not so uncertain about rejecting John the Baptist and tainting his work.  They were not so uncertain about marking Jesus as a problem that had to be dealt with.  But they could not even admit up front their rejection.  "We just don't know."  Jesus did know and still does know.  Open your hearts to Him who already knows what He will find there.

 Almighty and everlasting God, grant us by Your grace so to pass through this holy time of our Lord’s passion that we may obtain the forgiveness of our sins; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

1 Prepare the royal highway;
    The King of kings is near!
Let ev’ry hill and valley
    A level road appear!
Then greet the King of Glory
Foretold in sacred story: Refrain

ref Hosanna to the Lord,
For He fulfills God’s Word!

2 God’s people, see Him coming:
    Your own eternal king!
Palm branches strew before Him!
    Spread garments! Shout and sing!
God’s promise will not fail you!
No more shall doubt assail you! Refrain

3 Then fling the gates wide open
    To greet your promised king!
Your king, yet ev’ry nation
    Its tribute too should bring.
All lands, bow down before Him!
All nations, now adore Him! Refrain

4 His is no earthly kingdom;
    It comes from heav’n above.
His rule is peace and freedom
    And justice, truth, and love.
So let your praise be sounding
For kindness so abounding: Refrain

 

Cleansing the temple. . .

Matthew 21:12-19 (Jesus cleanses the temple)

He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver.  or so says Malachi chapter three.  The promise took a bit of time in coming but it did.  Jesus entered the temple to cleanse what had become tainted so that the promise of God's House might be fulfilled.  

Malachi addressed the restoration of the worship life of the people of God by the messenger of the Lord whom He sent to fulfill the promise.  In this way Christ purifies the priests although Jesus fulfills these words of promise in a way that no one could have expected. He walked into the Temple scene amid  people who were bustling in the outer court of the temple, known also as the court of the Gentiles.  This was to be a place for the nations to meet with God in worship, praise, and prayer.  That could not happen.  Instead of a house of prayer, Jesus found a thriving commercial business taking care of the selling of the sacrifices and exchanging money for a fee to pay the Temple tax.  It had become the consuming focus of the Temple -- the real purpose of the temple forgotten and lost amid people trading, buying and selling off of one another all the while taking advantage to make a profit off of things required.  What was Jesus to do?  In righteous anger, He drove them all out of the Temple and its courts.  He did not merely command them to leave but overturned their tables and their seats (Matthew 21:12), keeping them from getting back to business.  All the while He addressed them with the prophet's voice, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer.’ But you are making it a den of thieves!” In Isaiah 56:7, God prophesies through the prophet that His house will be called a “house of prayer for all nations.” 

Almighty God, grant that in the midst of our failures and weaknesses we may be restored through the passion and intercession of Your only-begotten Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

You strode within the Temple, Lord,
Where merchants vied for gain,
And cried, “Your wares corrupt God’s house,
This place of prayer profane!”
With corded whip and fiery wrath
You put God’s foes to flight.
They could not bear the searching beam
Of your unshielded light.

The temple of your body, Lord,
They crushed when you were slain;
But after three days’ sleep in death,
God raised it up again.
And now you have a dwelling place
On earth, in all its lands.
Your people are your temple, Lord,
A house not made with hands.

Make ev’ry heart your temple, Lord,
Each life a holy place.
Forgive the sins that flaw your plan,
Your patient work deface.
In love that does not shrink from truth
These temples purify.
And then in mercy, Lord, remain;
Your Spirit’s gifts supply.

Come, visit, Lord of righteousness,
The Church that bears your name.
Drive out our fear and unbelief,
The pride that is our shame.
Renew the life we share, O Christ,
In love and prayer and praise.
Then send us forth, our strength restored,
To serve you all our days.

 

Palms or Passion. . .

As we begin Holy Week, there is a perennial debate among Lutherans over the Sunday which was called Palm Sunday and now is called Passion Sunday.  I must admit that it is a curious one for me.  When I grew up the majority of Lutherans I knew had confirmation on Palm Sunday.  Instead of Jesus riding in on the back of a donkey, a row or two of finely groomed young men in the first real suits and young women in their white, lacy dresses were assembled for the rite Luther loved to hate -- confirmation.  So we did not hear much of Jesus entrance into Jerusalem amid palms and hosannas nor did we pay much attention to what was coming later in the week.  It meant one thing to us -- no more catechism class!  Yeah!  The two hours on Saturday mornings sitting quietly except to repeat memory work would finally come to an end.  Who could not be happy about that?  It was, at least in our minds and the minds of our relieved parents who saw us finally finished, a much more important occasion than what happened in the Gospel. So maybe this has soiled my perception of the argument in favor of palms and tilted my sympathies toward the passion over the palms.  I cannot say that I am objective about this but I am not without appreciation for the argument which changed the day.

Some complain that the reading of the Passion overshadows the rest of the week and renders the individual stories of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday superfluous.  I disagree.  We do have palms and hosannas -- where they belong in the great procession that enters Holy Week by following Jesus through the crowds to the cross.  We do pay attention to the grand welcome in which the Savior came to His appointed destiny humble and mounted on a donkey.  But we do this in the context of the larger outcome.  Jesus did NOT come for the crowds or the accolades or the welcome.  He came for the cross.  In the past the palms gave us a glory moment which was not Jesus' primary glory.  He came for the glory of the cross.

Yes, I agree.  It is cumbersome to read the whole Passion story in one fell swoop.  It is long.  It taxes the skill of the reader and the listener.  But such is the weight of these words that we at least once in Holy Week hear it all -- from beginning to end -- before we explore the smaller stories inside the big one.  Yes, it does kill the surprise ending but the Church and those who have gathered to celebrate the day already know the surprise ending -- we know He dies and we know He rises again.  This is exactly why we come.  To hear it all again -- the old story retold again, not for dramatic effect, but because this IS the Gospel. 

So sing All Glory, Laud, and Honor and wave the palms and shout the hosannas.  But make sure that on this Sunday everyone knows where this goes -- to the cross.  And don't forget to sing one of the great Lenten chorales (O Sacred Head, A Lamb Alone Goes Willingly, etc.) or one of my personal favorites, No Tramp of Soldier's Marching Feet. 

Every day in every way better. . .

The beautiful image of progress is indeed alluring.  Every day in every way we are getting better.  No one would deny that this is what we wish, what we hope to believe, and what we expect.  But is it true?  Can anyone realistically say that we are getting better and better as individuals, as families, as neighborhoods, as communities, as nations, and as a world?  

It is true, of course, that there are different ills, different sins, different problems, and different vices in every age and time.  They are not exactly the same but they are not exactly unique either.  Modernity has always brought with it its own slant on the age old sins of the commandments.  They are more often only more complicated than before and with more problematic consequences than before.  Those consequences are usually the increased numbers of victims and casualties we face because of this thing call progress.

We are pitiful in our defense of progress.  We point out with glee to the terrible things of the past that were once acceptable or tolerable or even promoted.  Slavery and misogyny are the typical things we name as areas in which we have made progress.  And we have.  But with this progress has come with a host of other problems which were never envisioned when race and sex caused some to be unfairly oppressed.  Our own willingness to accept and promote the death of countless millions in the womb while contemplating how to make death simply a choice for those who want it, when they want it, and painless to boot.  What about the increasing numbers of people who have given up on marriage or children and those who enter marriage and exit with impunity?  What about the promise of social media and its end result of cyber bullying and the incredible portion of its capacity devoted solely to porn?  What about the hopes placed in artificial intelligence and our seeming inability to distinguish between what machines say and do and people say and do?  What about the progress of technology that has come at what kind of cost to us -- costs in relationship, loneliness, and depression.  What about the grand expectations of the UN and world arenas designed to prevent or stop wars and the state of war and conflict that is literally all over the globe?  What about the attention given to the environment and climate change and the way we seem to use more dangerous and toxic minerals and elements without a thought to what to do with them when we are finished with them?      

There is no promise of improvement to the future.  In fact, the whole perspective of the Scriptures is just the opposite.  Things are not getting better.  Things are not improving at all.  The world is in a death ward spiral down.  It is not in an upward movement toward a better world but a world marred by sin and death reaching down further and further into this abyss.  That does not mean every part of technology is bad or every part of life is crap but it certainly diffuses the idea that we should have hope in our ability to sort out the past in the future and make it better.  We are not here to simply warn the world of this regress but to speak hope to the hopeless.  That does not pin such hope on a date in the past but on the one who alone can redeem the future with a new heaven and a new earth, one raised up through death to a life death cannot overcome and one in which the terrible cycle of sin and failure are finally ended.

One acquittal, one conviction. . .

Finland’s Supreme Court has acquitted Päivi Räsänen for her 2019 Bible verse tweet but Räsänen and Bishop Juhana Pohjola were found guilty in 3-2 decision for expressing their beliefs in a decades old church pamphlet  It was a narrow 3–2 decision, but the Finnish Supreme Court has agreed that disagreeing with the sacred tenets of gay marriage and LGBTQ+ rights is a criminal act guilty of hate speech. So after twenty years of legal wrangling, Räsänen has been criminally convicted for publishing the 2004 pamphlet for her church, along with Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola. The conviction is for “making and keeping available to the public a text that insults a group”. The Supreme Court unanimously acquitted Räsänen for her 2019 Bible verse tweet.  Räsänen was previously unanimously acquitted on all charges by two lower courts. 

The long serving parliamentarian and former Minister of the Interior has been convicted for “hate speech” under a section of the Finnish criminal code titled “war crimes and crimes against humanity”. The medical doctor and grandmother of twelve was tried in early 2022 and again in 2023 for expressing her beliefs in a 2019 tweet, which included a Bible verse, in addition to a 2019 radio debate and 2004 church booklet.  

After the prosecutor appealed for the second time, the Supreme Court, which heard the case in October 2025, has now ruled on two of the three original charges: concerning the tweet and the church booklet. The Supreme Court was not asked to rule on the radio debate as the prosecution did not appeal it, so Räsänen’s acquittal for the debate stands. 

“I am shocked and profoundly disappointed that the court has failed to recognize my basic human right to freedom of expression. I stand by the teachings of my Christian faith, and will continue to defend my and every person’s right to share their convictions in the public square.” stated Päivi Räsänen after receiving the judgment.

“I am taking legal advice on a possible appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. This is not about my free speech alone, but that of every person in Finland. A positive ruling would help to prevent other innocent people from experiencing the same ordeal for simply sharing their beliefs,” added Räsänen.  

This is one profound example of how far the so called Christian Europe has deviated from its roots and how orthodox Christianity has become that speech which is no longer tolerated.  So much for freedom. 

The rebellious teenager. . .

There is hardly a stereotype more common than the rebellious teenager who has come to reject everything of the parent and disown his own family.  Curiously, that might be the apt description of the state of the university today.  Everyone knows that the Church all but invented the university but the truth is that today it has all but divorced itself from the Church that gave it birth and a home for most of history.  You could take that one step further.  The university has become such a secular institution -- without respect or place for the Church -- that it cannot allow even token colleges who wish to own and live out their Christian identity.  That is surely the state of things today and it is also true for Lutheran universities who are hardly a realistic competitor for the big names in higher education.  It is also the dilemma for those institutions since they are tempted in both directions -- one which honors their Lutheran identity and is consistent with their Lutheran faith and one which minimizes both so that they enjoy the cache without being committed to all its articles of faith.

The reality is that a school like Luther Classical College is small and less than a blimp on the radar even for Lutheran schools.  The reality is that it is hard to imagine that Lutheran universities would ever begin to look like Hillsdale even though they drool at the prospect.  We do not have the history or the money or the reputation to make that possible.  So what does the Lutheran university look like?  That is the question plaguing every historic Lutheran college today.  What does that look like?  There are Lutheran identity statements which are engaging and positive but it is not the theory that is the problem.  It is living out this idea every day and finding good faculty and interested students to make it all possible.  Underneath the skin of all those decent Lutheran colleges is the desire to be in the big leagues, to become a world class institution and not simply a world class Lutheran institution.  That is the temptation.  We may not be able to play in the big leagues but we would like to be respected by them and appreciated for who we are and what we do.

Roman Catholic universities have surely bought into this desire.  Consider what I posted not long ago about Notre Dame.  It is not alone.  Nearly every Roman Catholic college and university has not only been drawn to the light like bugs on the back porch but has been willing to sacrifice much of its theological baggage and doctrinal fidelity to get the dream.  Honestly, I have trouble remembering the names of any Roman Catholic institutions of higher education which have actually traded the dream for fidelity.  Maybe you can supply some of the names to help me out on this point.  It is not just that these schools do not foster the Roman Catholic mission on their campuses but they seem to be working very hard to undermine that mission.  

Some of it is the employment of non-Roman Catholic faculty, staff, and leadership.  The lottery for big names who might give them secular credibility and attract the diminishing number of young people in our nation is hot.  So what if they do not own the doctrine or support the Roman Catholic mission or, even, contradict it?  Academic freedom demands you have some naysayers to argue against such things, right?  And what is the critical mass here?  How many faculty who dispute your doctrinal identity are enough and how many are too many?  Somebody once said a little bit of leaven leavens the whole lump... or something like that.

I wonder if it might be easier if we gave up the illusion that the Lutheran University is a mission to the unchurched students and world.  Oh, of course, that happens but that is and never was the reason for the Church to establish universities in the first place and it is not the reason why we Lutherans began our colleges.  All of those rationales were internal.  We needed church workers and we valued those church workers as teachers of the faith as well as pastors.  So we began a school in which the mission was to provide such church workers, especially pastors.  Has that changed?  Is that mission now replaced by preparing medical professionals, lawyers, engineers, and a host of other valuable people and occupations with a hint of religious education thrown in?  It does seem like the small numbers of church work students means that no one can really admit that this is the primary mission of nearly all of our schools.  What is the mission?  If we are a religious version of a secular school doing the same things that secular school does but with a twist, that is pretty expensive to provide and pretty expensive for the student.  Is that a credible mission?  Can we afford it?  Is it worthwhile?  Rome must be wondering the same thing.  They have so many more institutions to worry about and so many more schools to monitor to get it right. 

Anyway, those are some of the things I wonder about.  Will the rebellious teenager ever come back home and be happy to be there?  I can hope so but my record of predicting things is so pathetic.  We can pray and I suspect there are many praying with me.

Nine months to Christmas. . .

Today is March 25 so Merry Christmas!?  Don't get it?  Well, today is the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary.  Nine months from today, Jesus' birth will be celebrated.  Oh, sure, you probably have been sold the bill of goods that says that Christmas is some sort of pagan holiday that was taken over the Church to shut down the heathen and fill the gap with something more spiritual.  There are those who continue to spew the old saw that Christ is little more than a baptized version of a Roman, pagan winter solstice celebration. The false history, long ago debunked, is that the Church did not know what to do with this pagan celebration of the "sun" god and so it “Christianized” the celebration to given the recently converted pagans their day back but with its focus on Jesus instead of Saturn or Sol or whatever other pagan deity was associated with the switch from shortening days to longer ones.

The early Church did not celebrate Christmas much -- this is true -- but that was because the focus was centrally on the resurrection of Christ from the dead (Read what Paul wrote to the Corinthians).  This was the big deal -- dying and rising.  Easter remains the Queen of Seasons even though the marketplace has not done to Easter what it did to Christmas.  The date of Christmas was fixed not by pagan celebrations but by the passion and death of Christ.  In the West the date calculated was March 25 (in the East they used and still use a different calendar system).  March 25 was the first date fixed because at the time of Christ it was commonly held that prophets died on their birth or conception date. It’s the idea of “integral age,” as scholar William J. Tighe has noted in such detail. The Annunciation of our Lord to the Blessed Virgin Mary is liturgically celebrated on March 25, the date of Christ’s conception through the Word spoken by Gabriel and enacted by the Spirit.   In addition, you can read of the theologically-important connection between the womb and tomb in the work of  John Behr in The Mystery of Christ.  So because Christ died on the same date of the Annunciation (his conception), then Christmas Day has to be exactly nine months later OR March 25.

But this is not the only reason to interrupt Lent with this wonderful day of rejoicing.  For Blessed Mary is the first Christian (pondering all these things in her heart after consenting to the will of the Lord).  She is our own best example of faith under fire, of trust where eyes and experience say "no".  She is our mother in the faith and from her we learn what it means to believe the Word of the Lord (which came to her with more than an inconvenient message and one that challenged everything she had come to know and believe of life).  On this day we rejoice to stand with her before her Lord and ours, in whom we have forgiveness, life, and salvation.

Let me close this day with a little paragraph from Augustine from On The Trinity:

For He is believed to have been conceived on the 25th of March, upon which day also He suffered; so the womb of the Virgin, in which He was conceived, where no one of mortals was begotten, corresponds to the new grave in which He was buried, wherein was never man laid, neither before nor since. But He was born, according to tradition, upon December the 25th.