tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post1558562492891030563..comments2024-03-29T04:31:15.219-05:00Comments on Pastoral Meanderings: An Easy Religion...Pastor Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10653554256101480140noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-26772830021687084022010-03-15T10:12:49.409-05:002010-03-15T10:12:49.409-05:00Fr. Peters,
We the Body need no chits or program...Fr. Peters, <br /><br />We the Body need no chits or programs, we need true excitement. Enthusiasm not in the form of pleading ("Oh, please come to our 500 session study on Jude! We need you!") Enthusiasm (sorry, I know that's not a good word for a Lutheran to use) in the form of our own excitement about what we read and learn. Real joy about what we receive from the Lord each Sunday in Word and Sacrament.<br /><br />Don't we sometimes hold back with the verbalization of our joy? We might get weird looks from that missing member, be accused of being Pentecostal. That person we're speaking to might not understand... Well of COURSE they don't understand! That's why they are absent, why we need to tell. <br /><br />One of the wonderful things that our Lord used to draw me to Lutheranism is the truth that the Gospel is not only for the lost. Is there some sort of disconnect between pastor and people? Why do we expect the pastor to preach Gospel every Sunday, and we think we should only "use" it on our lost neighbors? We who are "faithful" in attendance must speak Gospel to our lagging brothers and sisters, and pray that our Lord will use that to draw them back.<br /><br />Dietrich Bonhoeffer spoke of "cheap Grace." Have we the members cheapened it by keeping it inside amongst ourselves the family?Janis Williamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02947508427040251166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-86422272038392791262010-03-15T09:06:33.449-05:002010-03-15T09:06:33.449-05:00The following humble distillation of my thoughts i...The following humble distillation of my thoughts is in response to the ideas presented in your posting Pastor Peters. <br /><br />We are saved by God's grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone, as taught by Scripture alone. What a wonderful message complete and instructive - yet the words of Billy Graham seem so pertinent. "Lutherans have the theology, they just don't know how to use it." <br /><br />We Lutherans need the poor, widows and orphans. Fill the church (with the least of these) until the congregation has to stand during services and leave the rest to the providence of God. <br /><br />In humble prayer, I ask that we as a church might make known the love of Christ by word and deed within our churches, communities and the world.ErnestOhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13077415409728022160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-66858635668253692902010-03-15T08:41:21.828-05:002010-03-15T08:41:21.828-05:00>>So….how do we explain the importance of we...>>So….how do we explain the importance of weekly attendance to church without being accused of holding to works-righteousness?<br /><br />I think you just answered your own question: "This world is a cruel place. But the Lord is good…and Sunday morning offers a sure glimpse of that reality to come."<br /><br />The first statement cannot be disputed, that is my experience many times. The second is a promise that God fulfills constantly, to bring me to only small, constantly satisfying taste of the Paradise to come in His house.Arielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00984063505439262515noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-51744243045220451922010-03-15T08:12:32.354-05:002010-03-15T08:12:32.354-05:00Pastor Peters,
I think you may have shaped my wee...Pastor Peters,<br /><br />I think you may have shaped my weekly e-mail meditation which I send out each week based on the Epistle. It is <a href="http://confessionalgadfly.blogspot.com/2010/03/weekly-meditation-lent-4.html" rel="nofollow"> here</a>.Rev. Eric J Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17747919365522145094noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-925236893926098312010-03-15T08:01:37.068-05:002010-03-15T08:01:37.068-05:00I converted to Christianity at age 22 from zero ba...I converted to Christianity at age 22 from zero background in Christianity. My divorced parents had no faith background-and I was a self proclaimed Buddhist. I am 31 now. I have experienced the multifaceted Protestant experience-indeed, like many, struggled with it in order to be a faithful Christian-from being baptized in an African American congregation in the Deep South, Southern Baptists, and Presbyterians. In this journey, I have struggled most with understanding the Gospel of Grace-and my deep penchant for legalism and works righteousness. <br /><br />In 2005 I discovered Luther. I found a man, with obvious weaknesses and flaws, who himself struggled to grasp and understand the Gospel. He has been a very large source of encouragement to me-as he always points to the cross. Without realizing it, I would say he has shaped my understanding of the faith greatly. <br /><br />I have immense trouble understanding relatives who claim an emotional relationship with Jesus but refuse to attend church and seem to walk with zero reflection on faith and repentance. It could be that I am a Pharisee; and for that I am sorry. But I don’t understand it. How can they understand God’s grace outside of the church? But they are evangelical; they don’t hold that the sacraments are more than mere symbols. For them, worship is not God giving to us but us having an emotional high and giving that to God-and they don’t need church for that. <br /><br />As frustrating as that is for me (which does reflect my own struggles with legalism, no doubt) even more troubling is that Lutherans, who hold that the bread and wine is the body and blood of Christ, would routinely miss the Divine Service that offers that. <br /><br />This world is a cruel place. But the Lord is good…and Sunday morning offers a sure glimpse of that reality to come. <br /><br />So….how do we explain the importance of weekly attendance to church without being accused of holding to works-righteousness?the fact that I’m mehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06484927351134384312noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-83378604163367394572010-03-15T07:31:05.475-05:002010-03-15T07:31:05.475-05:00But perhaps this will always happen. How often di...But perhaps this will always happen. How often did people leave Jesus after He preached? Did He not tell us that many will receive with joy, but the cares of life will choke them out? Now, this is not to encourage despair or inactivity on our part, but perhaps to direct our expectations.<br /><br />So often, folks who attend regularly, who know the importance and need for worship, who say "Lord to whom shall we go - You have the Words of Eternal Life?" - these folks become frustrated by the back door folk. We don't understand them - and to a certain extent we can't -- it would be unthinkable to abandon the Word. But perhaps we should view them as a warning to ourselves, lest we abandon repentance - and perhaps we should work on calling them to repentance more.<br /><br />A few will show up and start returning now and again - the Word still works upon people - but there will be no glory days, no golden age. Never was, never will be. Ours is always a religion of the minority - surveys only speak of the delusions of the masses.Rev. Eric J Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17747919365522145094noreply@blogger.com