The Bread that Divides

The sermon for Pentecost 11, Proper 15, preached on Sunday, August 16, 2009.

Every three years we spend three weeks in John chapter 6. What began for us with a question “What must I do to do the works of God,” and then led to the distinction between food that cannot stave off death and the food that has the power to impart life, now has led to opposition and rejection. Today Jesus confronts those who would reject His words. Like the child who is given good food and says, “I don’t want it,” so there are those who refuse the food of Jesus’ body and blood. Every parent and every child has had some confrontation over food – the food that the kids want and the good food the parents are offering. It is as familiar as life to us. Today Jesus speaks of the division caused by His words and His gift of His body and blood. Jesus offers us the one gift that can feed us forgiveness and life and we reject it. It is not what we wanted or expected. It is not only His gift we reject but Himself, the Giver.

These are hard words. No one, not even Jesus, says His words are easy on our ears or hearts. In the Gospel lesson Jesus does not back down when the Jews take issue with His words. He is even more blunt in response: “My flesh is real food and my blood real drink.” Even the disciples feel the tension. Those closest to Jesus admit that what He is saying is hard to swallow – literally. Our Lord does not ease the burden of His words but pointedly asks them – Are you offended by what I said? And some of them dropped out at that point; they turned away from Jesus. It was too much. The bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world became the bread that divides.

That is exactly the situation in the Church today. Today as then, there are many who are offended by Jesus’s words. They have rejected His Words as too hard to believe, too harsh and unbending, or too distasteful in our modern, sophisticated world. Now as then, they turn away from Jesus. You are not what we want, they say. You are not who we thought You were. Your Gospel is not what we thought it was. In essence, they have chosen the food of their own reason, desire, or will over His flesh for the life of the world.

Give us something easier to believe, they cry. Your Words are too hard. Give us some thing reasonable – something easier to understand, easier to reconcile with the modern mind, with the theories of science and the way people think today. Give us something that fits us better – the people we are today. There are many who wish to have no part of a Gospel with a cross, who refuse to admit sin is so powerful it requires suffering, and who fail to see a death so real it requires a resurrection. They have turned away and are looking for and finding a faith that better fits what they want. The hard truth is not only accepting what Jesus offers. The hard truth is that if we refuse to feast upon Him spiritually by faith and sacramentally in His Holy Supper, then we reject His Word, reject His promise, reject His grace, and ultimately reject Him.

What about you? That is what Jesus said to the twelve. What about YOU? Will you also turn away became of Me? asks Jesus. Jesus’ words so long ago cry out to us today who are tempted to find a church where the message changes, where the deity fits the modern mind, where religion is easier on the schedule, easier on the mind, easier on the heart, and easier on the checkbook. What about YOU? Will you also fall away because of Me, asks Jesus to us.

The disciples had thought this through a bit. This was not the first time they had found it hard to believe in Jesus and follow Him. So Peter speaks up for the whole group. “Lord, it is not like we have looked for a better faith but where? Where else can we go?” Jesus does not ask us to surrender our minds at the door when we come to Him. But Jesus does ask us to trust in Him, to place His Word and promise above our reason, understanding, and desire. We come to Him not with the blind trust of those who have not tested the alternatives but the honest trust of those who have looked around and realized – there is no where else to go. Like the disciples of old we stand before Jesus today and admit we have looked for an easier faith, a more reasonable Scripture, a more believable Gospel... But there is no other. Jesus alone has the word of eternal life. We can find all kinds of religions that offer the chance to feel good today but they cannot deliver eternal life, they cannot ease the terrible burden of our guilt, they cannot wash away the dirt of sin that stains our souls. Only Jesus. Lord, if we had any other place to go, we might. But we don’t. You alone have the words of eternal life.

So what is left is for us to confess Jesus only. To confess His flesh broken for the life of the world. His flesh come to us in this Sacrament to feed us life and forgiveness. In just a few moments we will confess our faith. Like Peter of old we come with all our doubts, all our fears, all our wisdom and we lay them down before Jesus. We have no where else to go. You are the one and only Savior whom the Father has sent, the bread comes down from heaven, to give life to the world. You alone are the Savior who gives to us His very flesh as our food and His very blood as our drink. You alone give us the life that sustains us now in the valley of the shadow and that gives us the life that is stronger than death and the grave.

Choosing a church is not picking out a good fit for you or your family. Picking out a church is not picking food off a menu or clothing that feels good on us or a chair that fits us like a glove. Choosing a church is looking at the choices, evaluating all the words, and finding the church that preaches that one Word that does not lie, that one Word that has the power to deliver upon its promises, that one Word that feeds your hunger and thirst in the Holy Sacrament, that one Word that fully and finally satisfies our great need born of sin and its death. Only Jesus is that Word. That is why we’re here. Like the hymnwriter says, “Here, O Lord, we see Thee face to face...” Here we hear the Word that is a living voice, keeping its promises. Here are heaven’s gifts of forgiveness, life and salvation won by His earthly suffering and death. Here is the water of life that washes us clean and the bread of heaven that feeds us life.

Lord, we don’t have anywhere else to go... Here and no where else is the Word of life. Jesus, give us this bread, give us Yourself always. Amen.

Having An Agenda

Recently I read some some words from those who were concerned that Pastors came into congregations with an "agenda." This was seen as something bad. Pastors should have no agenda but just serve their people. Well... yes and no...

I have an agenda. It is probably not the one people think I have but I will admit to having one. Usually folks think that Pastors all want to run the church and make everything go their way. Some do. Sometimes I do. But my agenda is not something personal. My agenda is not something I have honed or forged. My agenda is is to proclaim the Word in season and out of season. My agenda is to administer the Sacraments in accordance with Christ's institution. My agenda is to shape this congregation not by majority vote or autocratic rule but by the confessional standard in our constitution -- the Evangelical Confessions of the Lutheran Church as contained in the Book of Concord.

Because for too long Lutherans have forgotten who they are in those confessions, much of what I teach and do sounds like a foreign agenda to some folks. They interpret as a personal agenda of Larry Peters such things as a weekly celebration of the Lord's Supper, the rich use of music from all styles and eras, the incorporation of a rich ceremonial life within the liturgy, an outward identity as a evangelical catholic community, and a vibrant presence in the community as an agency of God's giving love and compassionate care. They do not belong to me. They belong to our identity as an Evangelical Lutheran congregation. My agenda is to help us to be true to who we are by knowing that confession, seeing it flow from Scripture, identifying it in the great tradition of the Church dating back to the early fathers, and by living within this confession and faith in a positive and unapologetic way.

When we built our building, I listened to the congregation (though I think it is a wonderful building, it does not reflect my personal taste nor should it). When it comes to assembling a staff of people to help God's people fulfill their calling, I am well aware that none of them work for "me" but for the "Church." It is not my role to interfere or to make them do things my way but to provide a setting where they work with each other, with the congregation, and with me as effective partners toward this high calling as an evangelical Lutheran congregation living out her confession in worship, witness, and service. When it comes to a budget, the priorities that budget reveals are not to be my pet projects but the faithful, financial support of our confessional identity as Lutheran Christians assembled around the Word and Table of the Lord to accomplish His will and purpose with the gifts and resources He has provided to us.

Without an agenda, a Pastor is left to please the people. While they might like to have a Pastor who does that, such a Pastor will leave them weak, vulnerable, and distracted from their identity as a child of God by baptism and faith and from their vocation to love Him, serve Him, thank Him, and walk in His ways.

An agenda... yes I have one... but it is not a personal agenda. It is the calling into which I was baptized with you, into which I was confirmed as you were, into which I was ordained to serve you, and by which we will both be held accountable... today to the larger Church and in eternity to the Lord whose name we bear, whose faith we confess, and whose grace in which we stand.

He Who Sings Prays Twice

According to one sleuth, St. Augustine of Hippo (+430) is often quoted as having said "He who sings, prays twice." The Latin cited for this is "Qui bene cantat bis orat" or "He who sings well prays twice". Actually, we have trouble finding this in anything of St. Augustine that has come down to us but he did write, "cantare amantis est... Singing belongs to one who loves" (s. 336, 1 – PL 38, 1472).

Either way, singing is the method of worship appointed by God. From creation our capacity to sing was impressed within us by our Creator so that we might use it in His praise. Though sin confounded our hearts to the purpose of this music, God intervened to call us to song that worships Him and makes His praise sound forth. It reached its zenith in the Psalms, the song book of the Old Testament. These songs, both personal and corporate, give voice to our faith and make it possible for many lips to speak together one praise -- through melody, rhythm, and rhyme.

Jesus is called the Word made flesh in John's Gospel. We might extend that just a bit to say that Jesus is the ultimate song of God, the ultimate love song, He has sung to us and it is in Jesus that the voice of praise is restored to us -- our purpose in creation and the fruit of our redemption. He who is God's song of love to us has taught us to sing, to marshal our voices, match them to melody, time them to meter, and break forth into glorious praise.

In just a few hours, the church building will be filled with people and the voice of singing will be heard again in its sanctuary, halls, and rafters. I know that God looks forward to this. I wonder sometimes if He looks forward to it as much as I do.

Ask people what they believe and they will tell you most clearly by telling you what hymns they like to sing. Singing is praise to God, catechism to instruct, a vehicle for uniting the myriad of voices into one, and a reflection of what we think and what we like -- all rolled into one.

Today we will join our voices in singing "When Morning Gilds the Skies... May Jesus Christ be praised..." And "You are the Way, to You Alone..." And "O God, my faithful God..." And "Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God..." from different eras, in different musical styles, from the pens of different authors and composers... yet one song... the song of praise the flows from the heart through the mouth. Inspired by the Spirit, given cause by the cross and empty tomb, we sing... not because we are happy or because all is well but because Jesus Christ is Lord and His salvation has been given to us unworthy sinners as the most wonderful gift of all. His grace moves our sorrowing hearts to joy, our fearful minds to peace, and our hesitant voices to sing.

When morning gilds the skies my heart awaking cries:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Alike at work and prayer, to Jesus I repair:
May Jesus Christ be praised! When you begin the day, O never fail to say,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
And at your work rejoice, to sing with heart and voice,
May Jesus Christ be praised! Whene’er the sweet church bell peals over hill and dell,
May Jesus Christ be praised!

O hark to what it sings, as joyously it rings,
May Jesus Christ be praised! My tongue shall never tire of chanting with the choir,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
This song of sacred joy, it never seems to cloy,
May Jesus Christ be praised! Does sadness fill my mind? A solace here I find,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Or fades my earthly bliss? My comfort still is this,
May Jesus Christ be praised! To God, the Word, on high, the host of angels cry,
May Jesus Christ be praised!

Let mortals, too, upraise their voice in hymns of praise,
May Jesus Christ be praised! Be this at meals your grace, in every time and place;
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Be this, when day is past, of all your thoughts the last
May Jesus Christ be praised! When mirth for music longs, this is my song of songs:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
When evening shadows fall, this rings my curfew call,
May Jesus Christ be praised! When sleep her balm denies, my silent spirit sighs,
May Jesus Christ be praised!

When evil thoughts molest, with this I shield my breast,
May Jesus Christ be praised! The night becomes as day when from the heart we say:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
The powers of darkness fear when this sweet chant they hear:
May Jesus Christ be praised! No lovelier antiphon in all high Heav’n is known
Than, Jesus Christ be praised!
There to the eternal Word the eternal psalm is heard:
May Jesus Christ be praised! Let all the earth around ring joyous with the sound:
May Jesus Christ be praised!

In Heaven’s eternal bliss the loveliest strain is this:
May Jesus Christ be praised! Sing, suns and stars of space, sing, ye that see His face,
Sing, Jesus Christ be praised!
God’s whole creation o’er, for aye and evermore
Shall Jesus Christ be praised! In Heav’n’s eternal bliss the loveliest strain is this,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Let earth, and sea and sky from depth to height reply,
May Jesus Christ be praised! Be this, while life is mine, my canticle divine:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Sing this eternal song through all the ages long:
May Jesus Christ be praised!

What a wonderful way to begin a week!!

The Name that Dare Not Be Spoken

In Harry Potter there is a name that dare not be spoken. When Harry speaks that name aloud, he is shushed by those around him. You know better than say his name out loud, they say.

I wonder if the name of Mary, Blessed Virgin, Theotokos (Mother of God), has not become that name for us Lutherans. Luther was not afraid of that name. Read his Commentary on the Magnificat to gain a sense of his feeling, appreciation, and boldness about the Blessed Mother.

Today is the falling asleep of Mary, her dormition, and a feast day worthy of some reflection. Mary is for us more than saint but truly our Mother. She is the first of those who pondered in her heart all that the Lord had said to her through the angel and all that God had done. She was there for Jesus' first miracle, at the cross, and in the Upper Room she waited with the disciples for the gift of the Spirit. She received one of the seven last words from the cross. No, we ignore her to our peril for she can teach us much of Jesus, her Son and Savior.

Here is a sermon on Mary that gives her the honor that the Father accords her and would that all of us might give. Take a minute to read...

She teaches us humility in her song of praise (The Magnificat). She teaches us absolute trust in the Father's will (Let it be to me according to His Word...). She teaches us to love Jesus and to worship Him who comes to us in flesh and blood as the Son of the Most High God. She teaches us faith, willing to be wounded for His sake and yet never as concerned about her own wounds as His.

She can teach us much if we are willing to read, to listen, to pray, and to learn... But it all begins by speaking her name. If Jesus can honor her as He does and if the Church can call her first of the saints and believers in Jesus, then can we not honor her whom the Lord honored with the gift of His one and only Son?

The Simple Faith of Jesus

I knew a man who used to say that I was making the faith to complicated. He often complained about the complexity of things and pined for the "simple faith of Jesus." I was a young Pastor and his critique wounded me at first. Then, instead of apologizing, I began to challenge his notion of that "simple faith."

The Christian faith is anything but simple. If it were so simple, we would not need the aid of the Holy Spirit to believe nor would there be so many empty pews out there. We yearn for simplicity but we live in a complex world. My coffee pot does not have an on and off switch -- it has a control pad to set the timer, to program the unit, and, if you press enough buttons, to turn the brewer on and give me that cup of coffee I want.

We want a faith that is as simple as an on and off switch. We want a faith that is simple, quick and easy -- like all the cooking shows promise. But it ain't so! The faith is CLEAR -- so clear that a child can grasp it for salvation (at the prompting of the Spirit, of course). But it is also so DEEP that you can spend your whole life probing the depths and heights and breadth of the wisdom and knowledge and love of God and still hardly scratch the surface. That is the great mystery of the faith -- its clarity and its depth.

The same is true of Scripture. We call this doctrine the perspicuity of Scripture -- that it's meaning is clear. Luther put it this way in his "The Bondage of the Will."
All the things, therefore, contained in the Scriptures, are made manifest, although some places, from the words not being understood, are yet obscure . . .And, if the words are obscure in one place, yet they are clear in another . . . For Christ has opened our understanding to understand the Scriptures . . .

But Scripture is also deep. The fullness of its truth challenges human understanding -- in part because God's wisdom is limited to the vocabulary, experience, and intellect of humanity and a fallen humanity at that.

Apparently many Christians are content to know only the fringes of the faith, barely to scratch the surface of its depth. So say the polls so many take about the level of Christian knowledge that embarrasses every denomination and every Pastor (or it should). What is clear to us as children should invite, even compel us, to dig deeper. This is the fruit of the Spirit, too.

If you are like me, you have remote controls designed by people who have no clue to making things clear and obvious. But the miracle is that what I want the remote to do is clear when I have been taught and instructed (usually by my kids). So it is with the faith. It is clear to us when we have been taught and instructed by the Holy Spirit, through the means of grace which is His Word and through those who lead us through that Word.

Alas there is no simple faith of Jesus. But there is a clarity to that faith which even a child can understand under the tutelage of the Spirit... and there is a depth to that faith which invites and compels us as adults never to stop being a student of its Truth and of the Word that imparts that Truth (which is Jesus Christ).

Te Deum

Unlike other curmudgeons, I do not miss much from TLH (The Lutheran Hymnal 1941 to those not yet acquainted with the jargon of Lutherland). There are some things I miss from LW (Lutheran Worship 1982, a revision of Lutheran Book of Worship 1978). One thing I do not miss from LW is the messing with the Te Deum that rendered it a great disappointment and the one thing I do miss most from TLH is that Te Deum. There are okay settings of the Te Deum in other hymnals and I sing them with gusto as well... but the Te Deum screams King James language (as old friend Paul Petersen used to insist when the 23rd Psalm was read).

We praise thee, O God : we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship thee : the Father everlasting.
To thee all Angels cry aloud :
the Heavens, and all the Powers therein.
To thee Cherubim and Seraphim : continually do cry,
Holy, Holy, Holy : Lord God of Sabaoth;
Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty : of thy glory.
The glorious company of the Apostles : praise thee.
The goodly fellowship of the Prophets : praise thee.
The noble army of Martyrs : praise thee.
The holy Church throughout all the world :
doth acknowledge thee;
The Father : of an infinite Majesty;
Thine adorable, true : and only Son;
Also the Holy Ghost : the Comforter.
Thou art the King of Glory : O Christ.
Thou art the everlasting Son : of the Father.
When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man :
thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb.
When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death :
thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers.
Thou sittest at the right hand of God :
n the glory of the Father.
We believe that thou shalt come : to be our Judge.
We therefore pray thee, help thy servants :
whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood.
Make them to be numbered with thy Saints : in glory everlasting.
O Lord, save thy people : and bless thine heritage.
Govern them : and lift them up for ever.
Day by day : we magnify thee;
And we worship thy Name : ever world without end.
Vouchsafe, O Lord : to keep us this day without sin.
O Lord, have mercy upon us : have mercy upon us.
O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us : as our trust is in thee.
O Lord, in thee have I trusted : let me never be confounded.

The Te Deum was for me the highlight of Matins. I still pray it daily whether I pray/sing Matins or not. Its words have become a central part of its piety and its music as well.

Ascribed to Saints Ambrose and Augustine, on the occasion of the latter's baptism by the former in AD 387, these words have a long history as an Early Christian hymn of praise associated with the traditional Office. The Te Deum is sung at the end of Matins on all days when the Gloria is said at Mass. It is also used together with the standard canticles in Morning Prayer as prescribed in the Roman Catholic Liturgy of the Hours, in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, in Matins for Lutherans. It is also used by the Eastern Orthodox Churches in the Paraklesis (Moleben) of Thanksgiving.

The musical settings of the Te Deum are many. The Healy Willan setting is a particular favorite of my wife and me. Among larger versions are these beautiful settings by Rutter, by Rachmaninoff, by Haydn, by Berlioz, by Purcell, by Britten, by Dettingen, and for my daughter, by Dvorak, etc... (Thanks to YouTube for the examples...)

I suggest that first you commit the text to memory and let it accompany your daily prayers... perhaps as the chief morning prayer. It is a powerful text and when I sing/pray it I am drawn to the rich memories of those who in so many generations have gathered for the hours and for prayer around these words.

Te Deum has become shorthand for an announcement of praise at the end of something grand or at the hearing of good news. See the earlier post on Henry V and the singing of Te Deum and Non Nobis.

Some of the great hymns of the faith are metrical settings of the Te Deum: Holy God, We Praise Thy Name being perhaps the most popular, and my favorite modern version, set to Holst marvelous tune Thaxted, is by Lutheran hymnwriter Stephen Starke is LSB 941 - We Praise You and Acknowledge You.

So sing a Te Deum... Sing it today... Sing it with gusto...

Question Authority

I was in the car the other day and read a bumper sticker on the tailgate of the pickup ahead of me -- one of many. It said: Question Authority.

It seems to me that we don't need to be encouraged in that direction. Especially when it comes to faith. We question authority to the point that we believe no one and trust in nothing. That does us no good. There are still people who believe the moon walk took place in the sands of Arizona and it was all staged. There are a ton of folks who believe Obama was not born in the US and his birth certificate was staged. There is that grassy knoll in Dallas. There is the fear and suspicion that Congress can fix anything. There are classrooms where students dare the teacher to instruct them in anything and courtrooms where the last thing on the agenda seems to be justice. The list could go on and on.

Such suspicion and refusal to believe cannot help but harden our hearts to the voice of God. We cannot be suspicious of everyone and everything and still be open to God. Just the opposite. It is easy for us to believe everyone and everything and still be closed to God.

I don't think that we should blindly accept anything and everything but neither do I believe that we should, and especially our children should be taught to question authority. The hardness of sin is encouraged even more when we become closed minded and fearful.

Respect for authority is the fruit of the Gospel. It is because of the Gospel that we have respect for the commandments and for the beneficial role they play in ordering our lives -- once we are freedom from their pointy finger through the blood of Jesus. It is because of the Gospel that we respect those in authority and pray for them (not because they do what we want or think like we do). It is because of the Gospel that we seek not our own way but learn the path of service and submission (in marriage, in family, and in society).

Honest respect for authority -- not blind obedience which is generally the fruit of fear -- honest respect for authority needs to taught to our children for the sake of the world and their lives in it and because this is in keeping with the Gospel.

I have my days when it seems I trust no one and my fears lead me to complain about the misery those fears have created... but thanks be to God I have a wife and family that call me out... a group of co-workers that challenge this brooding mood... and a Lord who speaks to my fearful heart that I may learn trust... and from trust may learn obedience. Soli Deo Gloria

A Real Food Savior in a Junk Food World

Sermon for Pentecost 10, Proper 14, preached Sunday, August 9, 2009.

Have you noticed how menus only picture the food that is not so good for you? How the “healthy food” (low carbs, low fat, etc) is relegated to the back page of the menu? That is because our eating habits, advertising, and finally our bodies all want the food that is not so good for us and only after severe training do we learn to train our taste for something healthier.

We all know the stereotype of the pregnant mother and her cravings. The truth is that we all confuse cravings with hunger, taste with nourishment. That is why we can have fully bellies and be malnourished. That is why children should not be allowed to decide what they eat – because they will choose what meets their craving instead of what will help them grow. Although we often say we are hungry, we generally mean that our cravings are not satisfied – not that we are undernourished. How many of us here have actually gone hungry – so desperately hungry that we will eat anything just to be full? For most of us we talk about hunger when we mean cravings.

Jesus comes not to satisfy our cravings but to fulfill our hunger. Remember last week how Jesus spoke of those who followed Him because they got food to eat and not because they saw in Him the kingdom of God? Jesus challenged them because what they wanted and what He was offering were very different things. Jesus came to give us life – not a mere extension of life or better version of today but real life that death cannot overcome. Instead we crave a little something for the moment. Sadly, we are often willing to settle for what we crave instead of what we need. Jesus is prepared to give us to much more.

Eat and die. This is the reality of life here on earth. Food is necessary to our bodies or we will die. But even if we eat well, we will die. So we face a choice – do we eat the food we want to or the healthy food we should? The food we imagine in our minds is not the food our bodies need. Here on earth we find ourselves caught between what we want and what we need. The wrong choice will fill our bellies but leave us malnourished. So do you force yourself to eat what you do not want or do you give in to your wants and ignore what is good for you?

Jesus offers us another alternative. Jesus offers us the food feeds us life. If we eat of this food, we have life – now even within this world of sin and death, and eternally in the heaven He rose to bestow upon us. But the food that Christ gives to us offers us is not what we want. We want a Savior who gives us what we crave. Jesus has not come to satisfy our cravings. He is not a snack food Savior but the Holy Redeemer who feeds us upon heaven’s bread and salvation’s cup. This is not the food we want, but it is surely the food we need.

If we feed upon Christ, the earthly cravings that sin has taught us will go unfulfilled but the hunger of our mortality crying out for life will be met beyond imagination. To feed on Christ is both a spiritual activity and the concrete activity of eating and drinking – both come together in the real food of Christ’s body hidden in the bread of the Eucharist and His blood hidden in the Cup of Holy Communion. When we feed upon Christ, where Christ has made Himself accessible to us at His Table, then we eat the food that both feeds us for today and for all eternity.

Christ is not about what makes us feel good but leaves us malnourished to eternal life. Christ has not come to figure out the changing whims of our taste and satisfy the craving of the moment. He is no bread King who gives us what we want. No, He gives to us the food that we need. He feeds us grace, rich with forgiveness, life and salvation. He comes to us with the gifts He won in the suffering of the cross, in His death for the life of the world, and in His resurrection that was the death of death itself. Sin has taught us to want and crave other things, but this is the only food that gives us life now and life forever. Jesus is determined not to make us feel good for the moment at the expense of our eternal lives. So He gives to us His Spirit so that He can expose to us the truth of what feeds us life and what can only feed us death. This Spirit teaches us faith so that we learn to desire the food Jesus offers.

Though we must eat to sustain these mortal bodies, the food we eat cannot keep us from dying. To those of you into organic food or healthy eating, I am sorry to say that even if you eat the healthiest food there is, you will still die. To those of you who do not care what you eat, I am sorry to say that you can make your life more difficult and even hasten death by answering your cravings and ignoring the nourishment your body hungers for. That is the sad reality of mortal life. We can force ourselves to eat good foods that do not satisfy our cravings and we will still die. Or, we can give into our cravings and eat what is bad for us – making today a burden and shortening this mortal life.
Jesus offers another kind of food. It is His flesh for the life of the world. This is the only food of which we eat and we will live today and forevermore. His flesh is our food here in this Holy Sacrament. The Church is not a fast food counter to satisfy our need for snack food that meets our cravings. The Church is here to give us Jesus Christ, to bestow upon us the fruits of His saving death and life giving resurrection, in the places where Jesus has made these accessible to us. Unless the Church faithfully proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ and administers His sacraments, the Church has the potential to do the same damage as junk food – to fill our bellies and leave us malnourished for eternal life.

We live in a junk food world and sin has taught us to want a junk food Savior. Thanks be to God that Jesus refuses to be that kind of Savior. Thanks be to God for those churches that refuse to give in to that junk food mentality. What we want is not what we need. What we crave can cause us great harm. Today Jesus makes the choice plain. We can eat and die or we can eat and live. In just a few moments He will give us food that is an acquired taste – food we learn to want, to crave, and to eat only by faith, under the prompting of the Holy Spirit. This is the real food of His flesh and blood. Eat this food and live. Eat this food and you have His life in you now and His life that bestows eternity upon you. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” So, come. Come in faith. Come to eat. Come to eat and live. Amen

The Gospel Has a Voice

Lutherans have always understood that the Gospel has a voice. The Gospel has a sound. It’s not complicated. It happens everyday in your family and church. The Gospel sounds like this... “I forgive you.” So begins a sermon at the installation of a new Pastor into his first parish. A friend in blogdom put me on to this sermon. It reads very nice. Thought I would pass it on for you to read...

And Touched the Face of God

That wonderful line from the wonderful poem of John Gillespie Magee, Jr called High Flight became familiar to most Americans when President Ronald Reagan used several of its lines memorializing the crew of the space shuttle Columbia. It is a remarkable sonnet and the story of its author is equally impressive. I believe that we are indebted to Peggy Noonan, Reagan's primary speech writer, for placing these lines into such prominence.

To touch the face of God has long been the pursuit of mankind. From the days of earliest pagan religion to the mystical experiences of the God's theophanies in the Old Testament, our longing to touch God is part of that likeness that was placed within us in creation. Sin has kept us from fulfilling that longing and even Israel grew so tired of waiting that they created a golden calf to serve as an accessible God whose face could be known.

It stands to reason that we are curious. Consider all the fuss about a possible painting of William Shakespeare -- a figure so larger than life that his history is more mythology than fact. If this author of so many of our favorite lines is the subject of our great curiosity then even more so our passion to know what God looks like since we were created to know Him. But knowing Him has been hidden in the darkness and distortion of fearful hearts because of sin. That is until God desired to reveal to us what had been hidden.

That is the significance of the Incarnation of our Lord. God has revealed to us what was long hidden to us -- His very face. Unlike our mythical images of God, His face is none other than the face of a man, of mortal flesh and human frame. He comes to us as one of us -- yet without sin. He was born not only as our God but as our Brother through the Virgin Mary and the power of the Holy Spirit.

What the commandments had long restricted -- speculation about God's image and likeness was not to be tolerated in art -- now has been revealed to us. Since God has made Himself known to us in the face of the human flesh and blood of the God-man Jesus Christ, we now see His face. "Whoever has seen Me, has seen the Father," said Jesus to Philip. To portray the image of Jesus is no violation of this restriction against graven images -- just the opposite -- God invites us to look upon Him through His Son.

Every race and ethnic distinction has fashioned the face of Jesus to look like them. In Africa the image of the Savior is black, in Asia, it is Asian, and so on. This is not wrong but so very right. All of us need to see in the face of Jesus our own face -- for He comes to us as one of us.

But the icon has a different history and theology. In the icon Jesus image is purposely distorted from an accurate painting. The child Jesus looks like a small adult in iconography. The fingers and feet, head and torso, not fully in proportion. It is as if we are being reminded that this is not a photographic image but a sacramental one. We see Jesus, like us and yet not like us -- what the Athanasian Creed describes as

we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man; God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man of the substance of his mother, born in the world; Perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father as touching his Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching his manhood; Who, although he is God and man, yet he is not two but one Christ. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking the manhood into God;. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man,

so God and man is one Christ...

For all our yearnings to know God, to touch His face, and for all that art helps us see, the one image of God that is fully accessible to us and the place where He is most fully known lies most certainly in the bread and wine of the Sacrament of the Altar. There we touch Him and He touches us, in the visible and concrete forms of bread and wine, with the spiritual reality that transcends even death, rich with gifts and the Giver of grace sufficient for all our needs. This Sunday think of that journey to the altar rail as your "high flight" to touch the face of God, where He has come down to us. It is a powerful moment of grace.

Be Angry But Sin Not

The words just stuck out of the Epistle lesson Sunday [Eph. 4:26]. It started me thinking. The news was full of angry people at congressional town hall meetings about health care reform. Turn on the TV and you can hear angry commentators who scream at us about the terrible things and terrible people afflicting our American government and culture. The blog of a friend complained that "conservatives" sound like a bunch of "angry, negative, obnoxious bunch of nitpicking fault-finders." I look out at the congregation and see empty spaces where someone has gotten angry with me or with another staff person or with the congregation as a whole and shown their anger by their absence.

Anger is all around us and deep inside of us. Some of us are rightfully angry -- a just anger over injustice or offense or error. Some of us are just angry because that is who we are -- we have forgotten other responses to things and use our anger as a shield against everything and everyone. Some of us are sinfully angry -- we like to upset people and have grown accustomed to leaving a wake of wounded feelings, bruised egos, and confounded conflicts. Some of us are fearful of anger -- falsely believing that every kind of anger is sin and so we bury honest anger under a sea of enforced calm.

I recall a great presentation by an actor friend who did a one man show on Jesus. The parish I served was not so positive about his portrayal. He did not limit this Jesus to the kind and comforting words we all love. He showed the sometimes angry Jesus (cursing a fig tree, clearing a temple, etc.). One man insisted that we never bring this guy back. What he was really saying is that he did not like to think of an angry Jesus. Most preachers try to avoid the angry Jesus from the pulpit -- preferring to focus on the compassionate and gentle words of the Savior.

St. Paul says, "Be angry but sin not..." The reverse of Paul's word suggest that it is possible to be angry and not to let this anger overwhelm your mind, control your tongue, and lead you into sin. Think about that.

Anger usually leads to sin but there is a way to channel our anger for positive action. Think of the child who falls off the bike over and over again until he or she gets angry, gets on that bike, and begins to ride like the wind. Or of the man or woman who sees poverty or injustice and whose anger becomes the determination to make a difference.

Be angry but sin not... That is a prayer worthy of us Christians who stand for truth in a world of relativism, who speak for morality in a world of "do what feels good," who worship with God at the center in a world of "me firsts." We cannot afford simply to be angry at what we see around us for surely such anger is fueled by inaction to become bitterness and sin. We need to focus our anger to be a positive force.

I include my own mea culpa to letting anger be my last word instead of the beginning of an opportunity to make a difference. Imagine if we Christians channelled the energy of our anger toward engaging what is wrong around us and in us. Imagine if we Christians used our anger as a springboard to speak and act for the Truth and the Gospel. Imagine if we Christians kept our anger from turning to sin so that the Spirit might turn it to powerful witness, benevolent love for neighbor, the mutual consolation of the brethren (and sistern) through forgiveness, and the lens through which we raise up an answer to wrongs by the right of the Good News of Jesus Christ...

Speaking personally, this is one area I need to work at and one opportunity that lies right beside me... how to be angry and sin not... how to turn anger into a positive force for THE good of the Gospel... It is worthy of some prayer...

Luther and Lutheranism

One of the things I soon discovered after moving to the South, to a community with barely one Lutheran congregation, is a dismal lack of history when it comes to fundamentalist and evangelical Christians. The other thing I learned is a fundamental misunderstanding of Lutherans. [I do not mean to suggest that things are that much better in other parts of the country.]

From my friends in the fundamentalist and evangelical churches, I discovered that Luther is for them more of a freedom fighter than reformer. A reformer is more concerned with what is retained than what is discarded. These folks are more concerned with what is discarded from the catholic tradition (the Mass, creeds, sacraments, etc.) than what is retained. So there is an inherent suspicion of Lutherans and what they see, anyway, as a disconnect between the Luther they think they know and the Lutherans whom they see in Church on Sunday morning.

I too believe there is a disconnect -- out of our fear of being labeled Catholic and perception of the anti-catholic sentiment of the US (especially in the South), we Lutherans are not as catholic in practice and identity as our Confessions are. The fundamentalist and evangelical Christians would say just the opposite -- what goes on in Lutheran churches on Sunday morning is way too catholic.

It is a misreading of history. Luther did not believe in the separation of church and state... did not believe in everyone's right of private Biblical interpretation... did not believe in democratic government for either church or state... did not abolish the sacraments or change the basic understanding of them as the means of grace... did not do away with private confession... did not give the Bible to everyone to read as they pleased...

Luther was himself a very catholic evangelical and that is exactly the description of the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church -- they are catholic and evangelical in the best sense of those terms. We are in this respect not Protestant at all, perhaps best a via media -- a path between -- the Roman Church and what began as Protestantism (but has certainly moved well beyond its 16th century forms).

And there is the next point. Lutherans are identified more by Luther and everything he said or wrote (and he said and wrote some outlandish things) and less by their Confessions. This is just plain wrong. The only writings of Luther that we are bound to are the Small and Large Catechisms and the Smalcald Articles. The rest of our Confessions were written by others, primarily Philip Melancthon.

Our Lutheran identity is almost cultish to those confused by our name. We are called Lutheran but we are not a cult of Luther, slavish followers of Luther, nor do we hold Luther to be the saint of saints (the Virgin Mary holds that place according to our Confessions). We honor Luther as a doctor of the Church, defender of the faith, and renewer of the Church. We value his contributions to the teaching of the faith (many volumes of noble and great works) but what governs our faith and identity are not the words of Luther but the words of the Confessions (sometimes called Symbols) of the Lutheran Church as contained in the Book of Concord (1580).

Sadly, even Lutherans are confused by all of this. Which points us perhaps to where we need to begin... re-educating ourselves so that we might re-educate those around us... as to who we are, what we believe, teach, and confess, and Luther's place in all of this... You may be hearing some more about this...

The Church of Her Confession and the Church of Her Practice

On another forum, I posted this comment in response to those Lutherans (especially ELCA) who are thinking of crossing the Tiber or Bosporus (heading to Rome or to Constantinople)... I thought they may be appropriate here as well.

We all are in the search for a perfect church -- for one without faults or failings. So we look over the fence all the time to see if the grass is greener. I am not so sure you will find it greener anywhere else but it is often different grass. So I believe that the church as earthly institution will always be a compromise. It is a matter of what you compromise.

In my heart I desire a church with real teaching bishops, where the faith is not defined by majority vote, where the sacramental life is the central focus, where the liturgical life is western... I love orthodoxy... I find the western rite orthodox sort of like decaf coffee, beer without the alcohol, and steak without the marbled fat -- what's the point???... I am less in love with Rome... but perhaps that is because what I see in Rome I see in Lutheranism -- the shadow of what might be and the reality of what is... For all the great talk of Rome, I look down the block where the mass is a strum strum sing a diddy and get 1000 people communed in 45 minutes...

I am not willing to exchange one dream for another... so I guess I am here as a Lutheran for the long haul since my spirituality is clearly rooted in the west, in the great hymns of the faith, in Bach and the great Lutheran composers, and fully and finally in the western rite... and nothing among the choices offers anything without other kinds of compromise... I do not say this out of regret -- it is not as if the Lutheranism of the confessions, of the faithful proclamation of the Gospel, of the great hymnwriters of old and now, of the mass, and of of the theological tradition is second best... it is as good as it gets... it is just that no matter where you look, the good of the confession lies in the shadow of the expediency of practices and identities which fail to live up to these words...

I am a Lutheran... I am not always sure which body this Lutheran fits best in... but I am a Lutheran... and to work for a Lutheranism which lives up to its confessional identity and catholic liturgical life is the noble call of those who dream the dream and who want to make it or any church more than a dream...

I believe that the compromise I make in the Lutheran Church is not a doctrinal compromise -- that is a Church whose confession of faith is in error -- but a compromise in practice. We do not live up to all that we are. This is a compromise I am willing to live with because it does not involve denial of the Christian truth. It is an acceptable compromise only because the Lutherans (including me) do not live up to what they confess. I am okay with this because we are always working on living up to what we confess -- as individuals and as a Church. I believe that if the confession is faithful, then we have the tools to make the practice faithful. That is why I am a Lutheran. If the confession is in error, then we have no tools to correct the practice and every aberration stands without challenge. I am a Lutheran because we have a faithful confession, because that is the doctrinal standard of every Lutheran congregation, and therefore the anchor which holds us. We may drift in practice but our confession is secure. And it is a whole lot easier to pull a ship back to her moorings on a secure anchor than to retrieve a ship loose on a sea of change with no anchor whatsoever. Soli Deo Gloria!

Becoming Visible

In Church on Sunday morning the Pastor is supposed to be somewhat invisible so that the office shows. In the world the Christian is just the opposite -- he or she needs to become visible as a bearer of the kingdom through word and action. This is our baptismal vocation. We are to be Christ to the world and in order for that to happen we need to stand out from the world. But how do we do that?

It seems we have some choices. Some Christians stand out for themselves and their accomplishments. What they display as light to the world is their own personal righteousness. They draw attention to me - granted that they say it is the new me in Christ - but it often revolves around behavioral changes. Look at me -- I don't sin like I used to... as much as you do... maybe not at all... I worship and pray and serve and tithe... This is the Pharisaic option which Jesus cautions about when He tells us not to display our piety before people in order to impress them. In a previous age, these folks might have made a better impression upon the world but today it only intensifies the suspicion and the efforts of the world to pop their perfect balloons.

Some Christians stand as the conscience of the world. These people are often the naysayers who continue to complain about the world, who lament the terrible state of things, who are quick to point out problems, failures, and sin...but not so quick to speak hope in the Gospel. To the world these people are narrow minded, judgmental, and unloving and the world has no trouble dismissing them and their witness.

Some Christians blend in to the world. Their worship looks like the world, their gospel sounds like the world, and the church has the ambiance of the mall. These Joel Osteen types do a great job packing them in but what do they offer? In many cases it is a pop psychology style of Christianity which turns the purpose of the faith and the wisdom of the Word into five easy ways to be happier, to get ahead, to find health, to be at peace, to make your marriage better, to raise better children... It is full of the immanent but empty of the eternal. Jesus is not so much a Savior as He is Helper and the Church is like a self-help group where we all come to terms with our darknesses and focus on our lights.

Some Christians hide from the world. I fear that some of the home schooling movement and some of those attracted to Christian schools are looking for a way to hide from or to hide their children from the world. They want only to be distant lights to the world and do not engage the world or culture in any significant way. Their lives and their worlds often revolve only around their church, their church friends, and their church activities. They have little impact upon the world.

Some Christians are not fighters but lovers. They have turned the gospel into acceptance of every cause, justice replaces justification, and doing good means fighting oppression and intolerance in all its forms. They have embraced every ism along the way and are on the cutting edge of the move to embrace and incorporate everything from green earth causes to gay/lesbian/bi/transgendered issues as THE work of the kingdom. The impact they make is unrelated to what we read about in the Gospels.

I offer an alternative. Christians are to shine not with their own righteousness but with the righteousness of Christ. They point not to themselves but to the Lord. They raise up not themselves but the Christ in me. They faithfully proclaim the story of the cross and empty tomb. The confront sin and speak the Law to it but they love the sinner with the same passion that Christ has loved them. They see the poor as the opportunity to serve the Lord by loving them and their needs as their own -- as God did for them in sending His Son. They forgive not because the people deserve to be forgiven but purely as an act of grace -- they way God has forgiven them. They feed the hungry, fight on behalf of the unborn, give care to the weak and elderly -- not to do good but because of Christ and to show forth Christ's love to the world (Him who ate and drank with sinners and who embraced those whose illnesses and handicaps had labeled them unclean and unapproachable).

These Christians meet Christ where Christ has promised to be -- in the living Voice of His Word, in the living Water of Baptism, and in the living Bread and Cup of the Sacrament of the Altar. They delight in the mystery of His grace and of His presence -- not as something to unpack and understand but to trust and experience in the liturgy that has marked the march of God's people into His presence for nearly 2,000 years. Their story is Jesus' story -- not because it is like Jesus' story but because Jesus' story has become their own by baptism and faith.

The world does not know what to do with such Christians. It is strangely drawn to them, but does not understand them. It wants to dismiss them but it fears such a powerful spirituality is so great that they cannot afford to ignore it. It is other worldly and yet these Christians live in the world, delighting in the joys it can offer but not overwhelmed by them. It is the Light of Christ that shines through His people... and this light... this love... this faith... this hope makes a huge difference for the sake of the kingdom... thought its progress and its success are not measured on graphs or statistics... rather by the promise that His Word which He sends forth in His people shall return to Him empty handed but accomplish every purpose for which He sends it... Soli Deo Gloria

Becoming Invisible

Remember Wonder Woman and her invisible plane? Or Harry Potter and his invisibility cloak? There are many of us who have wished to be invisible at one time or another (or at least the proverbial fly on the wall). But, Wonder Woman and Harry Potter are the stuff of dreams and books and it might seem so are the prospects of becoming invisible...

But, in many respects, that is exactly what the Pastor is called to be in the liturgy -- invisible. In contrast to the world where personality, feelings, tastes, style, and identity are center stage, the Pastor's personality, feelings, tastes, style, and individual identity should be hidden behind his vestments, behind the liturgy, and, most of all, behind the Word.

The Roman Catholic liturgical scholar Robert Hovda wrote a book on presiding which he entitled "Strong, Loving, and Wise," and another, Aidan Kavanagh, wrote "Elements of Rite." Lutheran Arthur Just wrote a very fine article on "Confident Presiding" for the 2008 Good Shepherd Institute. Both describe how it is possible for Pastors to melt into the background so that the focus is not on them as persons but on their role as presiders, on the liturgy they lead, and, most of all, on the Word they proclaim and the Sacrament they administer. I would urge you to check out what they have written. It is good stuff.

Without summarizing their words, let me apply it personally. The last thing people need to see and hear on Sunday mornings is Larry Peters. Okay, maybe not the last thing but I am pretty low on the list. It is not that I am evil personified, it is that I am not the center of the focus -- in this respect Pastors are the means to the means of grace. And the focus needs to be on the Means of Grace -- not on the means to the means.

If I preside well, I help people to focus beyond me to the Word I proclaim, to the content of the voice that speaks to them forgiveness, that joins their voices in the collect, that invites their praise in the ordinary (the unchangeable parts of the mass or Eucharistic liturgy), that applies the Gospel to their lives, that beckons them to confess the creed, that offers them the food which is Christ's body and blood, and that bids them them go into the world in Jesus' name.

If I preside poorly, I get in the way of this and people see Larry Peters at the prie dieu (kneeler) or at the pulpit, or at the altar. It is nice enough that Larry Peters forgives you but you gather in God's House to know that God has had mercy upon you and has forgiven you all your sins and now does so by using the voice of Larry Peters to deliver this heavenly gift. It is nice enough that Larry Peters has thoughts and opinions but you listen to the voice coming to you from the pulpit because it speaks Jesus Christ both in the Law that convicts our hearts and prepares us and in the Gospel that comforts those wounded and guilty hearts with forgiveness, hope, and life. It is nice enough to be entertained by Larry Peters (who, I confess, likes to be liked) but there is no redemption in entertainment -- only distraction -- so you have come not for a good show but to meet Jesus Christ where He has promised to be... where 2-3 are gathered in His Name -- and this means gathered around His Word and His Sacraments.

In other words, my goal on Sunday morning is to become as invisible as I can be so that Jesus Christ is clearly visible. I tell acolytes, assisting ministers, lectors, ushers, etc... that if you do your jobs well, no one will notice you... it is generally only when we screw up that we are noticed. That is true for Pastors as well. The vestments move the eye from the person to the Office of Pastor, the liturgy becomes the clothing that moves us all from attention on each other or our selves to Him who gives us grace and life. That is the way it should be. You who sit in the pews on Sunday morning know if that is the way it is. I pray you to help me become invisible that Christ may be clearly seen.

On the other hand, our goal in the world is not to be invisible but to be clearly seen... but that is for another post

The Love that Calls Us Friends

To a four year old, every one he or she meets is a friend. Somehow that changed as children grew up. For a while friend was a word used very carefully. Then Facebook and MySpace changed all of that and now people have hundreds of "friends" through these social networking sights. In some ways it appears to retreat to the way things were for the four year old -- except that the four year old meant people he had met, played with, etc. Now some count as "Facebook Friends" people whom they have never met and probably never will.

I once wrote a hymn on Jesus' calling us friends. It has not proven to be one of my popular hymns (perhaps due to the tune, Resignation, which has not been a greatly used tune among Lutherans). It was based upon John 15:12-14.

The Love which calls us friends has come
To lead the strangers home;
The Love which comes from God alone,
Our Lord, to us, has shown.
Love lives in us; live in this Love
His one command keep true;
The friendship Christ brought from above
Live out in all you do.

He speaks of love and love He gives
In more than words supplies;
Death overwhelms and sin forgives -
restoring broken lives.
This is His joy - to call us friends -
For friendship crucified.
Our joy in contemplation spends
Of friendship Love supplied.

I fear that our watered down version of friendship makes it harder for us to understand what it means that Jesus calls us friends. His friendship is no distant relationship but an immediate presence. He calls us friends not because we share some interest or affinity but because He loves us -- and for this friendship He is willing to suffer and willing to die.

Friendship is a hard relationship. Friends are not for fair weather only but for the rockiest seas of life's changes and chances. Perhaps you have heard the radio ad about mental illness. In it a girl announces to her "friend" that she was diagnosed as bipolar. The "friend" responds that she will feel better if they do a little shopping. In the second situation, her friend responds, "I am there for you, girl." It always gives me pause -- friendship implies a relationship of giving and often our friendships are not ready for such demands. But Jesus' friendship is fully aware of and fully prepared to meet all the demands of loving us.

The Love that calls us friends has come... What a wonderful gift and blessing... Not that we call Him "friend" but that He IS our friend. Proven by the scars of His hands, feet, and side, He loves us with the love that empties so that we might be full. So it is our joy to spend our lives in contemplation of the friendship Love (Jesus) supplied...

The Sermon from August 2 -- Text John 6:22-35

Some have asked for copies of Sunday's sermons... I am making them available here for ease of distribution, for the soldiers and support personnel serving so far from home, and in the hopes that they may be a blessing and encouragement to others beyond our parish...

"I don't know what I want, but it is not this..." We say that about the food put in front of us, about leisure activities that we thought we enjoyed, about the jobs we thought were dream jobs, and even about such things as marriages that turn out to be more work than we bargained for. But how do you pursue what you want if you do not know what you want? It is an endless journey of disappointment.

Too often we act as if God's will and purpose for our lives were the same kind of endless quest for what we want. As if God harbored some deep, dark secret about His will for us – and that our spiritual lives were in reality a spiritual quest to uncover the secret, the pursuit of hidden knowledge that will make everything clear. "Lord, what should I do?" But God has not hidden His will and purpose from us – just the opposite – He has made Himself clear and plain in Jesus Christ.

Like the people of old we hear Jesus say, "Don't work for the things that do not last but work for that which endures to eternal life." And like the people of old we ask, "But how do we do that?" We have mortgages, bills, jobs, household duties, and earthly responsibilities – how do we pursue the works of God in the face of so many earthly things to do?" And Jesus tells us. It is not a deep dark secret but plain and clear. "This is the work of God..." He says.

What should we do? Believe in Him whom the Father has sent. In other words, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ whom the Father sent to us as Savior and Redeemer. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the work of God that we are to do. But again, this is not left to our own devices to figure out how to believe. God has given to us His Spirit to teach our fearful hearts the language of trust, to break down the hard shell of doubt and suspicion which sin has built up, and to lead us to faith. We believe that we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or come to Him but the Holy Spirit has called, gathered, and enlightened us... sound familiar?

What should we do in order to do the works of God? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But how? Have we all not been disappointed by those whom we have trusted – from family to friends to politicians? Trust is hard. Give us a sign – something solid to hold on to so that faith is not reduced to a feeling. Our fathers walked in the wilderness not knowing where they were going but they had manna as a sign God was with them and leading them. Where is our sign? We want a sign, a little something to reduce the risk and give us something to grasp hold of in this journey of uncertainty by a people so apt to fear and lose our way.

And He gives us a sign. THE sign. The sign is not some miracle moment but the flesh and blood of Him who has come down from heaven. Jesus Christ is our sign. His incarnation through the Virgin Mary, His flesh and blood identity with us in our world of sin and death, His willingness to suffer in our place, His sacrificial death that we may not die, and His rising to life that we might live. He is our sign. Jesus is the bread of God come down from heaven, whose flesh gives life to the world.

God is done with little signs. In many and various ways He spoke to His people of old but now He has spoken through His Son. He is the sign, the one and only sign, by which God reveals Himself and through whom He gives forgiveness, life and salvation. Jesus is that bread of promise which comes down from heaven that we might feed on Him by faith and live forever more. As Christians we need to stop asking for these little signs and start looking to Jesus as THE sign the Father has given to us. Jesus is our sign. He is the bread of life come down from heaven. Whoever who eats of Him will hunger no more and whoever believes in Him shall never thirst.

How do we respond to the sign that He has given, to the call of faith, and to the Spirit who enables such faith in our fearful, fragile hearts. The response of faith is clear. "Sir, give us this bread always!" Philip said to Jesus, "Sir, show us the Father." What did Jesus say? "He who has seen Me has seen the Father." Jesus is the all that God has to give to us.

Faith teaches us to desire the gifts of God and faith leads us to the place where the gifts are given – THE gift of Jesus. Faith leads us to Jesus. But where is He? When I ask the 20 three year olds in preschool chapel where God is, they instinctively point to the sky. It is too bad that we have taught our children and ourselves to think of God who is way up there. Such a God is inaccessible to us. We should stop pointing to heaven and start pointing to the water of baptism. There is Jesus in the water that gives us life. We should stop pointing to heaven and start pointing to the Word. There is Jesus in the living voice that is Scripture, the Word that does what it says and gives what it promises – forgiveness, life and salvation. We should stop pointing to heaven and start pointing to the altar. There is Jesus in bread and wine, His body broken and His blood out poured for us, that we might eat heaven's bread and drink salvation's cup and life forever.

Where is this Jesus who lives for us the holy life we cannot live... who dies for us the atoning death we cannot die... who rises for us with the life that overcomes the grave forever? There He is in the Table where Christ is, the gift of God for the life of the world. There He is in the living voice of His Word. There He is in the living water of baptism. Faith's answer to the Word, to the Water, and to the Table? "Sir give us this bread always."

The journey of faith is not the discovery of the hidden but learning to see what is obvious – but obvious only by faith. Jesus... He is God's sign to us. The Savior long promised whose grace cannot disappoint us. Jesus... who reveals Himself in the living water of baptism, to speaks the living voice of the Gospel, and who feeds us the living food of Holy Communion. Repentance is ultimately an act of remembering – recalling what you know but you have been distracted from or turned away from. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ whom the Father has sent... in the concrete sign of Him who wore our flesh and blood even to suffering and death, in the means of grace where He gives to us what His death won and what His life has accomplished... in the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. So today we add our voices to those of old. Lord, give us this bread always...

Only So Far

Those who look at a creedal Church like Lutheranism are often quick to point out that creeds are just words and not deeds -- in fact one church made a slogan out of that critique. But it appears that creeds do have a salutary effect upon churches often hell bent upon destroying the fabric of Christianity.

A little background...Back in February, Father Kevin Thew Forrester was elected as the new bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan. So — why did the Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester not get the required consents from Episcopal bishops and diocesan standing committees to become bishop of the Diocese of Northern Michigan? This from a church which approved of the election of a non-celibate gay priest as Bishop of New Hampshire (Gene Robinson) and that refused the request of the worldwide Anglican communion to refrain from additional elections of gay and lesbians as bishops of the Episcopal Church in the USA.

Well it seems that the nasty old business of the creed got in the way. Forrester altered the denomination’s baptismal covenant to make it more closely reflect his own personal theological views. He likewise rewrote the church’s Easter Vigil and reworked the Apostles’ Creed. Critics said the changes removed or obscured key Christian teachings about the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross, the problem of sin, the will of God and the identity of Jesus as the eternally divine and only-begotten Son of God. Forrester it seems has conflated his Buddhist spirituality and Christian faith into an identity no longer at home with the Apostles' Creed.

In other words, a church body known for its willingness to tolerate just about anything can go only so far before a creed stood as a roadblock to the approval of a bishop and the change of the Christian faith. This is a remarkable feat for a church that has not rejected the election of a bishop for more than 70 years, which has allowed for wide latitude of beliefs and practices and lifestyles. A little bitty paragraph dating back some 1,930 years or so has gotten in the way.

So when you confess that creed on Sunday morning, say it with a little punch. Those are not just words. They are the battle lines for the faith. We confess them to draw boundary lines around what must be believed, taught, and confessed. We confess them as summary proclamation of the entire Word to the world. And, it seems, we confess them to say to those who would change just about everything to keep the church relevant in the 21st century. Only so far... and no more. Soli Deo Gloria...

Live to Eat or Eat to Live

Yesterday in Bible study I digressed about a nicely boned leg of lamb, with several dozen garlic cloves inserted into the flesh, with some rosemary, nicely bathed in extra virgin olive oil and placed into a 500 degree oven to sear the meat before reducing the heat and roasting until a nice medium, with nice pink showing... uh.... oh, yea.... the blog... ummmmm... what was I saying?

I love food... good food... I love to cook (hate to bake but love to cook)... I love to stand at the grill and heft a piece of USDA prime onto the white grates... Though I work and my work consumes the largest portion of my day... though I have jobs at home that consume a large portion of the leftovers of that day... I sometimes day dream about a perfect standing rib roast... or a fresh ham roast with the fat back richly seasoned... I watch the food channel religiously...

I do not but I could... live to eat... Judging from the popularity of the food channel, there are many like me -- who don't but who could... live to eat. We have a fast food life for a gourmet mind and heart... We may not actually do it... but we well understand why anyone would... live to eat...

Jesus offers the chance to eat to live... "The bread that I give is my flesh for the life of the world," He says... "I am the bread of life... he who comes to Me will not hunger... he who believes in Me shall not thirst..." "My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink..." All from John 6.

Sunday after this holy celebration of the Holy Sacrament of His Body and Blood, a person in the congregation came to me with tears in the corners of their eyes... "How could someone stay away from the Body and Blood of Jesus?" How indeed.

It is this Body and Blood that is our food -- spiritual food by faith and physical food in the Sacrament of the Altar... Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ is in and of itself a spiritual feeding upon Him but that is not enough. Jesus gives us the place where His body and blood are hidden in bread and wine in order that we might eat.. eat with faith... eat and live.

Quiet

There is a shortage of quiet. We live in a world filled with noise and we have grown so accustomed to the sound of it that we cannot quick stomach the absence of it. I include myself in this. I do not know why our every moment needs to be filled with conversations, the TV, the radio, the MP3 player, the computer, etc. But it is.

Restaurants have become noisy places -- so loud that it is hard to carry on a conversation in some of them. When I sit at the symphony I hear people whispering during the music -- adding their noise to concert. We have cell phones going off in church, texting in church, and it seems even there we cannot quiet our desire to whisper or not so quietly converse.

We complain about it but walk into most homes -- in the background is music playing and the TV on -- even though no one is listening or watching. We have come to fill the emptiness of our lives with noise. But it does not work.

Christ is what we need to fill the silence in our hearts. Christ is what makes the quiet of the moment full.

In Church on Sunday morning, try sitting in silence for 30 seconds and see how long it is. For some of us it is unbearably long. Yet we need more silence in worship -- more quiet time without the organ, choir, hymns, voices, etc... just the quiet so that we may empty our hearts and focus on Christ who alone can fill the silence with just what we need.

That is why on most Sundays you find me here in the office at 4:50 am -- yes, I wrote that time correctly. I am here because it is quiet -- and in the silence I am finally able to put together my heart and mind upon the lessons so that I can hear the sound of the Lord speaking. This is not sermon prep time but quiet time. Time to spend in the silence that few will breech. Quiet that is filled with Christ only.

I urge you to find a moment of quiet time... quiet to the ear and quiet for the mind and members of your body so that you can enjoy the silence that only Christ can fill. I am not alone with my thoughts but alone with my Lord as I come to the office early (before the phone, before the revolving door of people...). Try it. Find some time to cultivate silence so that you may hear Jesus Christ.

What to Pray

A significant majority of all Americans admit to praying. Nearly all Christians admit to praying. But what kind of prayers?

Certainly God welcomes all prayers -- indeed the main reason we pray is because He bids us pray with the promise and He hears us and He will answer us. But could I be allowed to say that I think God welcomes come prayers more than others?

Most of our prayers are prayers for something. We pray for healing for the sick, for wisdom for those who govern, for resolution to financial needs, for peace in turmoil, for confidence in uncertainty, for forgiveness of sins, for new hearts instead of the old ones so prone to failure and weakness. . . and the list goes on.

We pray for our selves, family members and friends, for situations and places, for people who are strangers to us -- from across the world and in our community.

We expect answers and we hope the answers are the ones we want (sometimes we put our expectations in these prayers, sometimes we just expect God to know what we want as outcomes to our prayers).

We are told over and over again prayer changes things... less often we are told prayer changes us (but then we are generally more concerned about changing things than we are changing us).

But surely the prayer that pleases God most is when we pray what Jesus prayed: Not my will but Thy will be done. This is not so much a prayer for something as it is a willingness to place our wills, our hopes, our dreams, our fears, our failures, our past, our present, and our future in the hands of the Lord -- trusting that His will is good, gracious, wholesome, and profitable for us and our salvation (even though it may not change things or give us the outcome we want).

This is not a simple formula that we attach to the end of our prayers so that God knows we will, if we have to, accept what is not our first choice among His answers. No, this is the ultimate prayer of faith -- the prayer that acknowledges that God is God and we are not, that allows God to be God, and allows Him not out of resignation or regret but out of affirmation and confidence.

Maybe we would change... maybe things would change... if we spent more time praying "Thy will be done" and less time praying for specific answers and outcomes from the Lord.

This is what I struggle with when I pray...