A Rant Against the Media

The dust up over Mitt Romney's supposed lack of care for the poor is but one more example of the tyranny of the media.  I am frankly sick of the whole dang mess.  Let me say first of all I am no Romney supporter yet what has happened to him is but one more example of how shallow the media presume us to be and how inflated their egos.  To be fair, it was not the most eloquent of statements but it stands up okay.  Romney mentioned simply that the poor have a safety net and, if it needs repair, he will attend to that, but his primary concern was the shrinking middle class for whom there was neither safety net nor financial cushion to fall back on.

As a member of the shrinking middle class (which also makes up almost the entirety of the parish I serve), I can attest to the truthfulness of his statement.  But that is beside the point.  Everyone from Fox to MSNBC has jumped upon this supposed gaff to suggest that Romney has no heart for the poor.  To make matters worse, those would be Presidents who are campaigning against him have said promulgated the same lie and half truth.  Now I heard J.C. Watts chime in about this. We all know that is not what Romney actually said or meant. But apparently those running will do or say anything to get elected and those reporting upon the political process will lie or speak half truths in order to sensationalize the foibles and failings of those running.

I am weary of a media which does not understand religion or the religious at all and which fosters the opinion that we in the electorate are so stupid we cannot sort out with common sense what someone means when they have spoken less than eloquently to get a point across.  And then the media presumes to be that fourth leg on which our whole republic stands (with the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government).  I do not have a clue for whom I will vote when the day comes but I know that I will pay less and less attention to the media in making my determination.

Finally, the media are also at least partially responsible for the dust up over the Komen Foundation and its decision to withdraw and then restore funding to Planned Parenthood.  Everyone knows there were good reasons for withdrawing the funding (Planned Parenthood does not do the cancer screening that Komen seeks but merely refers, it was a small grant anyway and the foundation felt money would be better spent elsewhere, and there was a concern about the Komen Foundation being in the cross hairs of the pro-life debate).  Only a fool would think that they withdrew funding because of principled objections to abortion.  But enter the media and the hype to the point where candidates and politicians and political figures exploited this -- feeding on each other like piranha with blood in the water -- and now everyone has lost.  The Komen Foundation has lost its sparkle as the premier charity for women's cancer causes, the politicos look cheap and shallow, and the media has gorged itself on the buffet of its own self-importance.  And again, the presumption is made that we in the electorate are too stupid to know any better.

I hardly even speak to political things and this is not about a candidate or politics.  It is about the way we are being played by those who would be our elected officials and the media reporting on that process.  Now I might be stupid.  Some folks think so.  But it irritates the dickens out of me when the media presume my stupidity and pander to it.  Like Popeye used to say, I can't take it anymore.  We need to elevate the whole level of social and political discourse.  ASAP!

Prayer requested...

Good Pastor Will Weedon of  Weedon's Blog and the guy who is responsible for me starting this blog is requesting our prayers for him, his family and his beloved St. Paul's congregation as he considers a call from Synod to become Director of Worship and Chaplain of the International Center. No doubt he would be great there but, gosh darn it, it is a shame when such a great parish pastor is no longer in the parish...  So we are left to pray for the will of God because our hearts may be pulled in two different directions.  Deo volente....

Unless I have it wrong, he has been at St. Paul's not quite a year longer than I have been here in Clarksville...

We will pray for you Will and for all those affected by your decision as well as the will of God to be made clear to you....

Roman Catholic Bishops reject the bone thrown to them by the Obama Administration

It was all smokescreen and mirrors.  We all knew it.  Fortunately, the good bishops of the Roman Catholic Church have called it what it is and rejected it....

Read it all here.....

As I have said before, this issue relates the shift from freedom of religion to freedom of worship as the way of looking at the First Amendment...  There will be more to come on this front, to be sure!

How it should be done instead of the typical fumbling of the words...

The Parish Prayer List. . .

Every Sunday I read off the first names of those on our prayer list.  We have people sick and in treatment (translation: hospitalized, awaiting surgery, receiving chemo, etc.).  We have people recovering (translation: on the mend mostly at home).  We have those in sympathy (translation: those who have lost family or friends to death).  We have the long term folks (translation: aged and infirm with chronic ills that will not go away except by death).  We have those in nursing homes (no need for translation).  And sometimes we have people for "other needs" (things that cannot or should not be named).

Some names have been on those lists forever.  Most are on for months.  A few go on and off in a week or two.  We mark the members with bold type face and the rest are friends and family of members.  Some names come on Sunday morning.  Others are phoned in during the week.  Occasionally we have only the first name. The list is not perfectly up to date.  We have prayed for the recovery of those who died two weeks ago and once we prayed for those grieving someone who had not yet died.  Oh, well, like God does not know the score.

There are prayer cards in the Narthex to fill out when you wish to add a name.  We get a few of those.  We also get a ton of hand written notes and not always with the name of the person referring the individual for inclusion on our prayer list. Every now and then we lose track of who this person is and drop the name from the list.  Often it takes just a week or so before we are taken to task and the name is restored to the diptych.

It is just that I wonder if there are not better ways of handling this.  I would welcome hints and helps from those who have a better system of handling the names on a parish prayer list.  Let me know if you have a better or different way of handling this aspect of parish ministry or if you share my lament that this is an area with some difficulties.  I would appreciate your guidance but will accept your commiseration. 

A Public Service Announcement

If you find mistakes, errors, or typos in this publication, please consider that they may be there for a purpose.  The management of this blog tries to publish a little something for everyone and since some people are always looking for mistakes, we try to oblige them.

The Editorial Team of Pastoral Meanderings.

You brought nothing into this world and you can take nothing out... or can you?

A quote attributed to St. Augustine says “The only thing you can take with you to Heaven is music.”  Now, let me first point out that he is not referring to Bruno Mars or Adam Levine or Michael Buble or the Moody Blues here.  He is talking about the music of the faith, that sings the faith, that populates the Divine Service... These are not lost to you because they are as eternal as their subject and because of their object (God) they will endure to His eternal praise and glory.

The music of the faith and for the faith endures because it sings the eternal Word.  Would that we all took this to heart when choosing the music for the liturgy (both the hymns intrinsic to the Divine Service for Lutherans and the attendant music of the choir and organ or other instruments).  Instead, it is our great temptation to choose music on the basis of what we as clergy or musicians like or what the people want.  We justify poor music because we fail to see the eternal character of the Word(s) we sing.

BTW I wonder if the music Augustine has in mind has more in common with chant than it does the polyphonic music we might think of first...

The Demise of the Christian Hospital

America was once filled with hospitals affiliated with churches.  Lutheran hospital, Methodist hospital, Baptist hospital, Catholic hospital, Jewish hospital... I was born in one (yeah, I know you thought I was so old I was born in a sod hut on the prairie).  These were institutions of mercy in which the faith confessed on Sunday morning was practiced on behalf of all people.  Charity was the byword of these institutions.  Healing was not a technological achievement but the merging of medical skill and faith together as if they were both hands of God that acted in different ways toward a common goal.

Most of them are gone.  One such name continues, Lutheran Hospital of Ft. Wayne, but it is no longer a "Lutheran" institution.  Its name goes on but it is owned by one of the profit making health care corporations.  Apparently we would like to believe the church still ran them -- so they keep the name.  Others have shifted to more generic names (Faith seems to be a common name for medical centers and hospitals these days -- less constricted than Lutheran, for example).

All who are left are not really agencies of the church as much as they are auxiliaries with various connections to the churches that once ran them (most rather distant connections or affiliations).  They are heritage institutions which in large measure operate much like the quasi-governmental and for profit institutions around them.

Catholic Healthcare West, one of the nation’s largest hospital systems, announced Monday it is severing its affiliation with the Catholic Church and changing its name to Dignity Health, according to Kaiser Health News.  Catholic hospitals are now caught between the teaching of the church with respect to reproductive technology, contraception, and abortion services AND the dictates of the government (Obamacare).  I expect it will not be long before most of them make the same choice as Catholic Healthcare West.  I could be wrong.  I wish I were wrong.

Medicine is BIG business today -- too big to be operated as a ministry.  You have the health insurance industry designed to pay as little as possible for health care and Obamacare determined to tell the institutions what they must and can (and cannot) do.  You have legalities ranging from HIPPA issues to staffing issues to what you charge and who you charge for this and that...  It is just one more area in which the mercy works that were once the showcase of the Christian church are now performed largely by others who have no real interest in the faith...

I wish I had an answer.... I do not.  But I do have regret and sadness that we have witnessed the demise of the Christian hospital in my lifetime.  Some of the greats are gone and others are going.  A few remain and more with a nebulous tie to the churches that once established them.  We have a memory.  I wish we had more...

You knew it would come to this...

So said the comment on the email sent to me with this story...

Pennsylvania University Sells Morning After Pill In Vending Machine

Talk about a sign of the times. Shippensburg University, in Pennsylvania is now dispensing the morning after pill from a vending machine. The school official says it is for "privacy" and that they dispense between 350 - 400 doses a year.

From another news station:

Vending machines at one Pennsylvania University doesn't just dispense soda and snacks -- it sells the morning-after pill.

At Shippensburg University, getting access to Plan B, the emergency contraception pill is as easy as getting a soda. Students can now buy the pill at a vending machine on campus.

"We had some conversations with them and did a survey of the student body and we got an 85 percent response rate that the students supported Plan B in the House Center," said Dr. Roger Serr, Vice president of Student Affairs at Shippensburg.

The university does not profit from the sales. It pays $25 for one dose and that's exactly what the student has to pay.

What is wrong with doing this? Well, consider this - sperm can reach a women's egg within 30 minutes. This means the drug does not work as a contraceptive, but as an abortion drug. It kills a life after conception takes place in the vast majority of cases.

That women will get to wear the mitre is in little doubt.

The word from jolly old England....

(Reuters) - The Church of England moved closer to the consecration of women bishops Wednesday when it voted against giving strengthened legal protection to traditionalists who favour an all-male clergy, a decision that could lead more to switch to Rome.

The vote was the last chance for the church's parliament, or synod, to influence the draft legislation in its long legislative process before it heads to the House of Bishops for consideration in May.  The draft will return to synod in July for a final vote - 20 years after it voted in favour of women priests.

That women will get to wear the mitre is in little doubt. What the synod had to consider was how much extra provision traditionalist Anglo-Catholics and conservative evangelicals would get and how much more authority liberals should cede.

The consecration of women, along with homosexual bishops and same-sex marriages, is among the most divisive issues facing the 77 million members of the Anglican Church round the world.  Other Anglican provinces already have women bishops, including the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Traditionalists and evangelicals, who say they represent 1,000 of the 13,000 parishes in England and Wales, wanted to strengthen the legal position of male bishops ministering in dioceses where parishes objected to women bishops.

They backed a motion which in effect resurrected a proposal put forward by the two most senior Church of England clerics, the archbishops of Canterbury and York, in July 2010, but which was rejected by the synod at the time. It would have provided for a so-called nominated bishop, working alongside the female bishop under a system of a co-ordinated, or shared, jurisdiction, drawing his authority from the church rather than diocesan bishop. Traditionalists argue that as Jesus Christ's apostles were all men, there is nothing in the Bible or church history to support women bishops.  Had the synod voted for their proposal, it could have held up the legislative process by a year. As it is, traditionalists have asked the House of Bishops to "provide properly for those unable in conscience to accept the oversight of women bishops."  Liberals argued they had made enough concessions already, and any further compromise would create "second-tier" women bishops.

Postscript for the Obama assault on religious conviction and health care....

“The Crisis of the Church is Above All a Crisis of the Liturgy”

I have read that statement by countless Roman Catholic commentators.  I do not dispute it.  Rome is not without its problems and they seem to begin and become most problematic with what happens on Sunday morning.  But this is not about Rome.  Lutherans are also not without their problems and they seem to begin and become most problematic for us with what happens on Sunday morning.  This includes, as Pres. Harrison seems always to say, a "crisis in preaching" (since preaching takes place within the liturgy).

Just as the problems in Rome will not be solved by a return to the Tridentine Mass as the normal Sunday liturgy for the people, the problems in Lutheranism are not going to be solved by changing a page number.  But that does not mean that they are not liturgical.

For many congregations, especially larger congregations, worship has become one of the many programs of the Church.  What happens on Sunday morning is approached the same way you decide how to tackle the problem of visitor follow up or VBS timing or staffing the day care.  What works?  What do the people want?  What is the goal you are seeking?  So for many congregations worship is a confusing array of menu options designed to mirror the choices in the marketplace and the Pastors and worship leaders survey the lastest and greatest in order to stay on top of the rapidly changing landscape of what is in and what is out.  The values that once accompanied Lutheran identity on Sunday morning have taken second place to what works and what will achieve the desired result.

This is a liturgical problem.  Since the liturgy is Word and Sacrament, the liturgical problem here is that we have lost confidence in the means of grace.  We think nothing of shoving aside not simply a form but the Word and Table of the Lord in order to focus upon the person, upon their felt needs, and upon ways to answer those needs.  If you need to, you can ditch the altar to stick a bed on stage in order to talk about the real and legitimate problems of husband and wife.  The once central focus of forgiveness, life and salvation and the twin poles of Law and Gospel have given way to Scripture as a book to help us have that better life now.

Preaching the Word of the Cross has not disappeared but it suffers from the limited amount of time left to the preacher and the need to expand the focus to include other things.  Nobody is saying that Lutheran preachers are not preaching Christ crucified but it is clear that the Word of the Cross is not predominant either for justification or sanctification.  I believe that the preaching crisis is a liturgical crisis.  Preaching should not and cannot be separated from the context of the Word and the Table of the Lord (liturgy).  Preaching that does not flow from the liturgy and lead us back into the liturgy is preaching that either treats the liturgy as unimportant window dressing or the sermon as the real reason for worship.  Lutherans have insisted that good preaching is liturgical preaching (by the way, there is a decent book by that name, recently revised by CPH and you would do well to read it).

When we treat the outreach of the congregation as distinct from what happens on Sunday morning, then we also have problems.  I do NOT mean to say that the worship service is itself outreach.  It is not.  That is another liturgical problem in the Church -- we use Sunday morning as evangelism.  No, what I am saying is that the purpose of outreach is not to bring people to Jesus in the abstract but to proclaim the Christ who is still present among us and doing what He has promised through the means of grace.  The goal of outreach is to incorporate people into the baptized community on Sunday morning that they may continue to be fed and nourished by Christ and His gifts in the Word and Sacraments.  We are not interested in numbers but in people and not in counting decisions for Jesus but numbering those who hear the Word among the assembly of God's people around the Word, Font, and Table of the Lord.

This is why I believe that the crisis of the Church is above all a crisis of the liturgy.  But don't get me wrong.  It is not simply about which page number we shall use.  And that leads up to the final element of the liturgical crisis we face -- catechesis.  Real catechesis does not merely teach information as if Jesus were in the abstract but conveys the Christ of the Scriptures, of the baptismal water, and of the Holy Supper.  Real catechesis is drawn from the liturgical life of God's people and draws them back into that liturgical life.  Our people need to know what is happening on Sunday morning and how to talk about this to those outside the kingdom.  Without this tie between catechesis, witness, and worship, we lose sight of what we say in the canon:  "As often as we eat of this bread and drink of this cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until He comes."

Censorship over military chaplains...

Unless I have the details of the story wrong, the Roman Catholic Archbishop who oversees their chaplains had to remove a sentence or two from remarks directed to Roman Catholics at Mass on military posts and had to adapt other points at the request of the military.  All Roman Catholic Bishops directed that this pastoral letter be read at Mass -- including military chaplains -- but the military determined that parts of the letter had to be changed for those who attended Mass on a military post. You can fill in the details but this is the basic story.  It represents the first time that I know of where the government of the USA in any form has censored what took place at a worship service. 

Read one version of the story here.

A statement issued this afternoon from Archbishop Broglio's office acknowledged the interference this way:

Archbishop Broglio and the Archdiocese stand firm in the belief, based on legal precedent, that such a directive from the Army constituted a violation of his Constitutionally-protected right of free speech and the free exercise of religion, as well as those same rights of all military chaplains and their congregants.

Following a discussion between Archbishop Broglio and the Secretary of the Army, The Honorable John McHugh, it was agreed that it was a mistake to stop the reading of the Archbishop's letter. Additionally, the line: "We cannot-we will not-comply with this unjust law" was removed by Archbishop Broglio at the suggestion of Secretary McHugh over the concern that it could potentially be misunderstood as a call to civil disobedience.

I am not sure what is more shocking -- that the government tried to censor this letter or that they assumed the people hearing it were so stupid that they would rise up in civil disobedience and break down the military chain of command.  Clearly, either case represents a scandal.  It will be interesting to find out how this story plays out in the liberal media.

Best quote of the day...

The church’s present obsession with success guarantees its eventual irrelevance.  Said, not by me who wishes I would have said it, but by Christopher P. Momany, part-time professor and the chaplain at the United Methodist-related Adrian College in Michigan.  You can read it here.

There are a host of similar pithy sayings -- my own personal favorite "the Church that marries the spirit of this age will be a widow in the next generation" (by Dean William Inge).  Some of them are cliches and some are worthless truths but these are important truths that seem to be missed by so many in the leadership of the many churches today.

Motivated by fear (mostly the fear of smaller denominational size) and shaped by a severe lack of confidence in the means of grace (God working through His Word and Sacraments as He has promised), these do-gooders think they are helping the churches grow, reclaim their cache, clean house, and get "up to the task" facing us in the present and future.  Instead, most of them (including the LCMS versions of church growth and TCN and a host of other programs of renewal) are doing us the greatest of disservice.  By obsessing over the present and over the marks of success instead of faithfulness, they rob the Church of its permanence, its power, and its place (as given by God).  Instead, the churches become merely social institutions of like-minded people without any real or eternal significance.  Would that those who lead our LCMS Districts would wake up to the truth of this little truism and abandon their obsession with numbers, earthly measures of success, and programs to grow the Church without relying upon the means of grace.

But don't hold your breath....  I believe the time will come when these will be exposed for the emptiness and dangerous consequences but that time is not yet...  As an example, our former Synod President, Kieschnick, has sent out a missive on being warm and welcoming on Sunday morning.  Not to argue his point and suggest that we should be cold and aloof to new faces, the problem with his perspective is that he thinks that the church lives or dies by the welcome folks receive and not by the Word and Sacraments.  We are undone more by the well-meaning than by those who intend harm.  The church’s present obsession with success guarantees its eventual irrelevance.

HT to Paul Gregory Alms 

When the journey is more important than the destination...

It would seem that our culture of seekers and spiritual people who avoid religion have chosen to focus upon the journey instead of the destination.  It is an easy mistake.  I have done it many times myself.  It is like going into a store to buy one important thing and to leave much later with a bag full of less important things -- minus the one thing you came to purchase.

George Weigel over at First Things wrote a column about the analogy often made between the Magi and modern day spiritual seekers.  He insists that if we characterize the Magi as seekers, we have missed the point.  They were not "seekers" but "finders."  They did not leave for the sake of the journey but for the sake of the destination before the Christ child.  They did not seek what was out there but followed the guiding and leading light of God to the place where He disclosed Himself in the flesh and blood of His one and only Son.  Weigel is right.  Our great temptation to focus upon the journey is more a reflection of our own self-absorption than true Biblical religion.  I might only add that it is also symptomatic of our preoccupation with the present moment and the ease at which we forego eternity -- from situation ethics which sees everything from the narrowest of perspectives to the feelings which dominate our definitions of truth.

But the other side is equally as dangerous -- focusing only on the destination and ignoring the journey.  When our kids were small and we were half a nation away from family, we would load them into the car at the end of the day and drive through the night to arrive sometime in mid-morning at our destination -- home.  Our kids did not always cooperate and sleep through it all.  They took particular delight in waking up about 2 am and so we got into a habit of stopping at a truck stop in Erie, PA, to fuel up and to eat a hamburger in the early morning hours.  The place had a gazillion hats on the wall -- hats with the names of every business, sports team, and some less than pithy sayings as well.  My kids reminded me that this trip was not just about the destination (as I had presumed) but there had to be room for the journey.  They made it so.

Lutherans in particular seem prone to a destination focus.  We talk with ease about justification and our salvation.  We speak with relish about the death that gives us life and the righteousness given to us in our baptism.  But we are often at a loss to know what to do with this new life we have been given and how to bear our righteousness before the world until the day comes when we dwell in heaven forevermore.  Sanctification is not just a weak preaching point but a weak teaching moment as well.  As much as we like to rail against the seekers and their journey focus, we must also be careful not to over react and forego the journey for a destination focus.

This life is not some disposable moment that is but a distraction from the eternal which God has prepared for us.  This life and our journey of faith is itself the opportunity to show forth the fruits of His everlasting kingdom now by walking justly and showing mercy (to quote an old, reliable prophet).  Sin stole the destination and now God has given us our salvation in Christ.  But not only this.  He has also given us back today and the opportunity to live out our mortal lives within His grace, favor, and leading.

To follow up on Weigel's imagery, the Magi returned but by another route -- as different people because of the encounter with the God who is incarnate in Christ Jesus.  They did not merely carry a story back with them but the fruits of Christ's gift and grace for their daily lives.  It is this that we need to preach and teach as well as the heavenly destination.

Once early on in my ministry a fellow shook my hand on Easter Sunday and told me, "Life's a bitch and then you die..."  I had no retort.  He surprised me so.  Well, yes, life can be a bitch but it is also the domain in which God has placed us.  We are in it but not of it, reborn in baptism to carry in us the death of Christ AND His resurrection.  So there is more to it that what this life is not.  It is also about what this life is.  Christ is not just with me but in me.  The Spirit is at work in me that I might work out my salvation with fear and trembling, yes, but also righteousness, peace, and joy.  It would seem to me that this balance is the hallmark of faithfulness -- not one focus but two.  We focus on the destination that makes possible the journey.  Seekers want only the trip.  We may be tempted to want only the destination.  We cannot afford to short change ourselves; God has given us both.

Words from Pres. Harrison of the LCMS and the HHS Mandates

He does us proud!  Read for yourself

February 3, 2012

A Statement on Recent HHS Decision and Religious Freedom

We are deeply distressed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) recent decision to require nearly all private health plans, including those offered by religious employers, to cover contraceptives. This will include controversial birth-control products such as “Ella” and the “morning after” pill, even though the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns that such drugs can cause the death of a baby developing in the womb. The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) objects to the use of drugs and procedures that are used to take the lives of unborn children, who are persons in the sight of God from the time of conception, and we are opposed to the HHS’ decision mandating the coverage of such contraceptives.

This HHS action relates to a provision in the “health care reform” legislation (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) signed into law in 2010. The church’s benefits partner, Concordia Plan Services, which provides health care coverage to nearly 48,000 people, has been actively monitoring this legislation and, as a result, Concordia Health Plan (CHP)—the LCMS church workers’ health plan—has been maintained as a “grandfathered” plan. As such, employers and workers participating in CHP would not be subjected to the mandate. However, many religious organizations do not have grandfathered plans and cannot avail themselves of the extremely narrow religious-employer exemption, which only is applicable to religious employers that primarily serve and employ members of that faith.
 
For centuries, Lutherans have joyfully delivered Christ’s mercy to others and embraced His call to care for the needy within our communities and around the world. In a nation that has allowed more than 54 million legal abortions since 1973, we must consider the marginalization of unborn babies and object to this mandate.
 
In addition, I encourage the members of the LCMS to join with me in supporting efforts to preserve our essential right to exercise our religious beliefs. This action by HHS will have the effect of forcing many religious organizations to choose between following the letter of the law and operating within the framework of their religious tenets. We add our voice to the long list of those championing for the continued ability to act according to the dictates of their faith, and provide compassionate care and clear Christian witness to society’s most vulnerable, without being discriminated against by government.
 
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, a church body of sinners redeemed by the blood of Jesus, has affected the lives of millions of people with care, aid, housing, health care, spiritual care and much more. We have been a force for good in this nation, promoting education (the nation’s largest Protestant school system), marriage and giving people the tools and assistance to be good citizens. We live and breathe Romans 13:3–7. The governing authorities are “God’s servant for good.” We pray constantly for our President and those in authority. We have sent our sons and daughters to fight for this country. We have provided military chaplains, elected officials, officers, including some who have held the highest military offices and other appointed positions in this country. Our people have and are serving as congressmen and women and senators.
 
Increasingly we are suffering overzealous government intrusions into what is the realm of traditional and biblical Christian conscience. We believe this is a violation of our First Amendment rights. We will stand, to the best of our ability, with all religious and other concerned citizens, against this erosion of our civil liberty. Come what may, we shall do everything we can, by God’s grace, to “obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
 
The Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison
President
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Castro back into the good graces of the church?

The story has it that Fidel Castro has found Jesus and wishes to return to the communion of the Roman Catholic Church in which he was raised.

Fidel Castro will be received back into the communion of the Roman Catholic Church during Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the island in March, the Italian press is reporting. If true, this is a remarkable story — and one that has yet to catch the attention of editors this side of the Atlantic.


On 1 Feb 2012, La Republicca — [Italy’s second largest circulation daily newspaper, La Republicca follows a center-left political line and is strongly anti-clerical; not anti-Catholic per se but a critic of the institutional church] — reported that as death approaches, the octogenarian communist has turned to God for solace.

The end of the paragraph seems to put it well.  As death approaches..... [turn] to God for solace...  Death performs us a salutary service when it cuts through accomplishments and legacies, philosophies and ideologies, and forces us to see the very fragile nature of our mortal lives.  Castro is larger than life in so many ways (though perhaps only because Americans and events in history have magnified him) but he is also no larger than any one of us when facing age and the prospect of a death soon to come.

I am certainly not the one to judge him and determine his eternal dwelling place (and both Castro and I should be thankful of this). But whatever the events of Cuba's history or his role on the international stage, Castro has become now what many, if not most, will become -- an old man [person] staring into the lonely face of death.  Where can we go for comfort except to the Lord of life?  This writer is certainly no fan of Castro and is thankful I am not put in the place of deciding Castor's place before the altar, but I cannot help but smile at the prospect of such a man looking at death and clinging to the hope of the Gospel for life.  Would that we all would have such a perspective on our mortality that we, too, were driven into the arms of Him who alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life...

Here is more from Dr. Tighe:

My Tech Advisor.... borrowed from the President's Office at the LCMS Int'l Center

When she's good, she's soooo good.... but when she's bad you can hardly tell it....

Come, Lord Jesus!

Sermon for Epiphany 5B preached on Sunday, February 5, 2012.

    Once while speaking with a member over the phone, I heard of the troubles they were facing and the sickness running through the family so I asked if they would like me to stop by and visit them.  "Lord, no!" came the reply.  I fully understood.  There was sickness in the house.  Their lives were in disarray.  There were dishes in the sink.  The floors could stand to be cleaned.  It was not a good time to visit.  They would schedule a visit when their lives were in better shape.  We've all been there.  We have all cringed when the door bell rang and we were surrounded by our messes, weaknesses, and failures.
    But Jesus is drawn to our needs and our messes like a magnet.  Jesus will not be put off by the disarray in our lives.  Simon Peter confesses to Jesus that his family is in disarray.  Mom is down for the count.  Jesus says He will stop by for a visit. We can all imagine how Simon Peter felt.  Thanks, but no thanks; not now Jesus.  Didn't you hear?  Mom is sick.  But Jesus comes to the sick bed, with all it coughing, fever and pain.  This is why Jesus has come.  For needs like this.
    Jesus comes to us not when we are well prepared for Him but in the moments of our greatest need, when our lives are in disarray.  That is what we heard in the Gospel lesson for today.  Jesus comes to those who are sick – sick with sin and waiting for death.  Jesus comes to us not when we are at our best but when we are at our worst.  He comes because we need Him.  He comes not because we are cleaned up and ready but because our great need cries to Him and compels Him to come with His mercy to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves!
    When our homes and families and lives are in greatest disarray, Jesus comes.  He is come into the world not to set the Good Housekeeping seal of approval upon us and our lives but to rescue and redeem us, to reach into the abyss of our sickness, sin and death. We can protest that we are not ready and we can try to hide behind modesty and humility, but Jesus insists upon coming to us, to be there for us, to address us with His healing and forgiving grace.  It seems like the timing is all wrong but it is all right for the Kingdom of God!
    Despite what we have become accustomed to praying (Come, Lord Jesus....) Jesus is not come to be our guest but to serve us with His grace.  He is come not to be served by us but to serve us and to give His life as a ransom for our sins.  He is here not to pronounce us fit but to heal the wounds of sin, its mark of death, and its sea of conflict, disappointment, and despair.
    He took Peter's mother-in-law by the hand and lifted her up.  In case you did not notice, Jesus violated the rules of propriety for His day.  He transcended the protocol of modesty in order that the kingdom of God might come to this woman and address her with healing grace.
    When she is healed, what is her response?  Peter's mother-in-law gets out of bed and rushes to the kitchen to put the kettle on and serve Jesus and all those who had come to visit her in her need.  She could not abide to be served once the kingdom of God had come near with its healing and grace.  She was compelled to respond to Jesus’s healing grace by serving Him and His disciples in love and thanksgiving.  The very nature of the kingdom is that it frees us to serve others as God has served us in Christ as St. Paul admonishes us in the Epistle for today.
    It was not that this was woman's work or her place to serve but Jesus had freed her to serve by serving her with the kingdom and its richest treasures of grace and mercy and power.  That is what Jesus does.  He frees us from that which keeps us from fulfilling our calling and taking up our place as servants of God in Christ.  We do for others what God has done for us in Christ – speaking His Word of hope, loving in Christ without condition or demand, and showing forth the character of His mercy in our actions.
    It is not a good time.  I cannot tell you how many times I have heard those words.  It is never a good time.  Sundays are always bad.  We are never caught up.  We are never thoroughly well.  We are always marked by trouble.  We are always in some kind of jam, in some kind of need, in some trouble.  Hunting is always best on Sunday mornings and the golf balls go further on Sunday morning than on any other day of the week.
    We are never at our best.  We ache, we have pains, we are stressed out, we have sins that need to be fixed, and we live in death's long, dark shadow.  But there is never a good time to shine and impress Jesus.  Jesus has not come to honor our goodness.  Jesus has come not to be served but to serve.  He serves us right here and right now as His royal guests  – with the grace of His Word, the life-giving water of baptism, the hopeful voice of the absolution, and the food of a heavenly table set in the presence of our enemies.
    He has come for us and for moments exactly like these.  His healing grace not only binds up our wounds but sets us free to serve others as He has served us.  We discover that the joy of life lies not in being served but in serving as Christ has served us.  We have a place and a purpose in His kingdom.  The sickness of sin and its death would keep us from that place and purpose.  But Jesus has come to set us free that we might love and serve others in His name, taking up the mantle of the kingdom in our daily lives.
    We are never ready but Jesus is always ready.  We are never prepared but Jesus is always prepared.  We never have all our messes cleaned up but Jesus has come to cleanse those messes.  Come, Lord Jesus.  Amen!

Another architectural gem faces extinction...

Although its doors are still open, Christ Church in Canaan may be in the final months of its existence. The venerable Episcopal church has served the community since 1844 but its congregation has dwindled and it with it, its resources.

If, indeed, the church closes, the effect will ripple through the community. Its faithful congregants will be most directly affected, deprived of the spiritual comfort of a beautiful sanctuary where some of them were baptized and married. A classic stone church, based on the design of Richard Upjohn, the American architect who pioneered the restoration of Gothic architecture for American churches, its construction materials were dug out of Canaan’s rocky hills and it has been a defining presence in the center of Canaan for 168 years. Without its congregation it will become a hollow presence, another rent in the fabric of the town.

Beyond their liturgical functions, churches are cornerstones of their communities. They provide social outlets, spiritual succor and tangible assistance to the needy. Their loss diminishes the sense of unity in towns, even for those who are not physically members of a given church.

It seems unlikely that at the 11th hour Christ Church will find a solution to its problem. It has been years since it has been able to afford a full-time minister and, without a consistent leader, it is hard for any organization to thrive. Its endowments are depleted and its buildings in need of work. Only a few people sit in its pews each Sunday and the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut can offer little support—it says its coffers have been emptied by similar declines in other Episcopal churches throughout the state.

Members are praying for “a bunch of angels” that may be able to revitalize the church. It is a worthy goal and one that, perhaps, should not fall solely on the few remaining parishioners to attain. Perhaps an ecumenical effort is needed to preserve an institution that ultimately benefits all.

As someone who spent nearly 13 years just across the Hudson from some of these small towns in Connecticut and Massachusetts and their wonderful character I lament the wonderful buildings that once represented vital communities of faith and now face a regrettable demise... It is no different from the great sadness I feel when I drive home to Nebraska and find the wonderful white clapboard churches of the prairie facing the same fate.

Who is the Pharisee here?

Over the course of many discussions with folks about contemporary Christian worship and music, the charge is often leveled against the liturgical types that they are the modern day Pharisees -- concerned with forms instead of the heart and its sincere faith or preoccupied with legalistic attitudes about worship instead of the "Spirit and Truth" characterization of Jesus...

Let me begin by saying there is a bit of truth in this.  There are liturgical types who do mirror the old Pharisaic attitudes and perspective.  There are Lutheran liturgical types that are caught up in a frenzy for a medieval mass with all that glitters.  But they are few and they give the rest of us a bad name.  We are not liturgical Nazis.  We are not concerned about such things as hand or foot placement.  We have bigger fish to fry.  Our concern is for the means of grace and where it is that we gather our confidence and standing before God.  We battle not for damask and diptychs but for the Word and Sacraments that when God's people come on Sunday morning they may know for sure where Christ and His gifts are to be found.

In fact, it appears to me that those who insist upon doing as they please on Sunday morning are more Pharisaic.  They certainly do not honor the liturgical rubrics as having much value or any force but they have high regard for another law.  They have turned their freedom into a new law.  Forgetting Paul's salutary admonition that not everything possible is beneficial, they jealously guard their "right" to do as they please -- to do what works.  Hiding behind the false cover of adiaphora (which they do not understand except as unimportant), they hold us captive to a different law.  In bondage to numbers and statistics, they slovenly borrow and steal whatever they think will work to puff up the balance sheet and prove that they are successful.  In this way they are as bound to the outward appearance of the law and righteousness as the Pharisee.

On the other hand, I would characterize most Lutheran liturgical types as the Publican in all of this.  Their concern is not how it all looks but will it forgive sins?  Will it convey Christ?  Will it call forth, gather as one, nurture in hope, and sustain the faith of God's people?  Our bondage to the means of grace is not a choice but our captivity to the Word and promise of our Lord who has bound Himself to the Word and Sacraments.  So for us the liturgical or worship wars have nothing to do with taste or effectiveness (in human judgement) or even faithfulness in the abstract.  Our stance is really about the primacy of the means of grace, which are the heart and core of the liturgy and the framework for the faithful Lutheran liturgical practice.  Apart from the means of grace, we have little reason to gather and even less confidence that our gathering is legitimate or has any power to address what ails us.

No, there may be liturgical types who fit in with the Pharisees but it is more likely that the other side has tied itself to appearances, to earthly measures of success, and to illusive standards (like feelings) instead of faithfulness to the means of grace.  What is at stake here in this grand discussion is nothing less than the Gospel itself.  Until we recognize this, worship will continue to be a battle ground and there will be blood on the pews (or theater seating with cup holders).

Making Peace with the Crucifix...

The story, carried by Our Sunday Visitor, is familiar to me because it is written about a hospital 45 minutes away, where I have many times walked the halls and seen the crucifixes in every room.  Significant also is the fact that in this Baptist mecca of Nashville, St. Thomas, the Roman Catholic hospital, has taken over the Baptist Hospital so that the name remains but it is a wholly owned agency of the St. Thomas Health Organization.  But, I digress...

It is the story of a Baptist who comes to terms with the crucifix all the while recovering from debilitating injuries.  It is not a doctrinal piece but the story of an event, a hospitalization, a perception of the crucifix, and the way that perception changed as the healing process continued....  Read it if only for way it aptly describes the struggle to be a confessional Lutheran in the evangelical capital of the nation....

Lost in Transition. . .

An important 2011 book merits some attention if you have a concern for the state of youth and young adulthood.  It is called Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood (Oxford University Press) by University of Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith and his research team (Kari Christofferson, Hilary Davidson, and Patricia Herzog). Their extensive interviews and surveys give us not only a picture of the thinking of 18-30 somethings, they also give us some conclusions based on their samples.

Lost in Transition sets the stage by identifying six “macrosocial changes,” building over the past several decades, that Smith and colleagues believe have combined to dramatically alter the experience of life between 18 and 30.

The big six changes, in Lost in Transition’s view, are: (1) the extension of formal schooling into the 20s and the consequent postponement of entry into careers; (2) the delay of marriage; (3) a changing national and global economy that has replaced the prospect of stable careers with frequent job changes, a need for ongoing training, and a heightened sense of insecurity, all contributing to a general disposition in young adults to maximize options and postpone commitments; (4) the willingness and ability of many parents to support their children well into their 20s and even 30s, thus enabling them to take a long time to settle down into full adulthood; (5) readily available birth-control technologies that have severed the link between sex and procreation and fostered uncommitted sexual relationships; and (6) postmodernism, a philosophy that has promoted subjectivism (there is no objective truth) and moral relativism (what’s moral depends on your point of view), both of which now thoroughly permeate the educational ethos, mass media, and youth and adult culture.

As a result of these six converging cultural changes, Smith says, the transition to adulthood today is significantly more protracted, complex, self-absorbed, anxiety-burdened, and dangerous.  It is not all bad.  On the positive side, teen pregnancies and abortions have declined in recent decades, the percentage of youth starting and finishing college has increased, and youth as a whole are less prejudiced against people of other races and ethnicities than earlier generations. 

Individualistic in their moral reasoning, focused on material comfort, frequent abusers of alcohol and drugs, disposed to temporary sexual relationships, and civically disengaged—that, without the nuances, is the picture of most (not all) emerging American adults that Smith gives us.  

I am not generally a "sky is falling" sort of person but I think the book chronicles the very stuff that most of us have already presumed and surmised from anecdotal evidence and personal observation.  The point is that the change is not without its consequences -- especially bad change.  The consequence for the Church mean that our youth have less in common with their for bearers than we thought and that what religious and moral foundation we provide for them may give them what few ties they do have to generations past.  This is important for so many reasons -- and not just for the future of the faith -- but for the very health and life of those young people.  The bad news in this study chronicles the descent into bad behaviors that can steal away their very lives from those captive to the culture and to the often poor parenting choices we have made for them.  I am not about to blame the young people for all of this -- the bulk of the responsibility goes to people of my generation, to economic and social changes they inherited as well as participated in, and a scientific viewpoint which detaches truth and morality from choices and feelings.

I have not read the book yet but it seems an important work that does more than wave the red flag.  I know that David Brooks in the NYTimes has made this a subject of a couple of columns and I expect we will be hearing more...   What do you think?

What can be done with them?

There is a story so typical of the problem in the Episcopal Church today -- a large stone church building, a congregation that left, and an institution seeking space for parking lots and potential new buildings.  So we will see fine, well built, and good liturgical spaces discarded -- too expensive to own or maintain or convert.  One such story is of the Church of the Transfiguration in Cleveland and the voracious appetite of the Cleveland Clinic seeking parking and space for expansion.

What makes this sad is that new church structures are generally built of less quality materials.  So we will be saying good bye to many of them over time.  It seems hardly to be worthy so much the fight being put up by the Episcopal Church to keep them since many of them are being kept only to be sold and torn down.  The congregation that left had been using the structure until the court told them to leave.

It is not that I think so much of buildings (apart from their use) but I look around at the cheap and flimsy structures which congregations can afford to build today and then think of those once grand structures that are being discarded and torn down.  It makes me wish there were some way to move them so that we could use them again.  The Episcopal Church is not the only one with properties they do not need. 

Another new denomination...

“This ‘new Reformed body’ is intended to foster a new way of being the church, just as traditional, mainline denominations rose to serve in their day,” wrote leaders of the new Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians. According to RNS, Conservative Presbyterians launched a new denomination on Thursday (Jan. 19), saying that the Presbyterian Church (USA) is too consumed by internal conflicts and bureaucracy to nurture healthy congregations.

The PCUSA has been bleeding members for a long time (a half million over the last decade) and there are other conservative Presbyterian denominations (Presbyterian Church in America, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, the Reformed Presbyterian Church, the Bible Presbyterian Church, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP Synod), the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America, the Westminster Presbyterian Church in the United States (WPCUS), and the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States (RPCUS)New Covenant Presbyterian Church).  Apparently none of those were suitable for the folks leaving.

I am not sure that there is much to be gained for Presbyterianism to have so many so diverse a store of choices for those who like the brand.  I am not so sure that Lutheranism gains much from a mind numbing plethora of acronyms in a sea of Lutheran choices, either.  It seems to me that we delight in building up and then tearing down old structures, those we deemed to have outlived their usefulness or become flawed to the point we can no longer be satisfied in them.  I fully understand that there are hills on which the stand must be made against encroaching liberalism that seeks to steal the fact from the truth.  I fully appreciate that there must be boundaries for a diversity that has the potential to rob any confessional identity from a group.  I just wonder if it is not a symptom of our times that we find it harder and harder to agree on our confessions or on what they say and how they should be practiced.  If that is the case, we have much more to lose than a headquarters and a letterhead.  I would not be inclined to suggest that the Lutheran cause (or any, really) would gain from innumerable elfin denominations formed by people who have narrowed the cause of unity so that the fewest number can fit.  They are more than small.  They are mischievous.  I am not advocating broad church but instead suggesting that renewing the old structure is a better bet than creating a new one to replicate what was lost.

In the case of Missouri, I would ask those inclined to leave for an existing microsynod or to create their own church body to give it some time.  We have a young and energetic President, we have strong seminaries, we have a renewed sense of the "church" as it functions in mission and ministry... but change, real change, will not happen overnight.  It is not about simply clamping down but about renewing our unity and coming to more unanimity of mind and heart as we live out what it means to be confessional Lutherans within this church body.

People of the Promise -- KEPT!

Sermon preached for the Presentation of Our Lord and the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary on February 2, 2012.

We find ourselves struggling with several different timetables in the church year.  On the one hand, the Sundays are governed by the lectionary and so on the Sunday after Christmas we heard in the Gospel the account of the presentation of Jesus in the Temple and the purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The lectionary does not take much note of the orderly passage of time.  But the festival calendar does.  So now we heard again of that fateful visit to the Temple and of Simeon and Anna but today it falls in the timely way, 40 days after the birth of Christ, just as it did when Mary, Joseph, and Jesus made their way to the Temple.

Don’t ask me to explain the difference.  It just is.  But it does offer us a marvelous opportunity to hear again the setting in which Jesus was presented in fulfillment of the Law, the first born male dedicated to the Lord.  This practice, going back to Hannah and the presentation of Samuel, takes on greater significance because here we see how Jesus takes our place under the Law – just as He did at His circumcision.

In addition, it allows us to focus again on one of those texts that we sing with great regularity in the Divine Service as our post-communion canticle, in Compline as the closing song of the office, and in Vespers or Evening Prayer as one of the evening canticles.

Lord, now You let Your servant go in peace;
Your word has been fulfilled.
My own eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared in the sight of ev'ry people:
a light to reveal You to the nations
and the glory of Your people Israel.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.  Amen.

With these words Simeon was not giving up nor was he expressing his resignation to some forlorn fate or awful destiny.  Simeon was embracing the promise of God and acknowledging that this promise was a game changer.  His life of expectation was fulfilled.  Tomorrow was here for Simeon.  There was no more living in the promise.  The promise of God was now kept.  Whatever future he had, this future was defined and transformed by the promise God had kept and the Son He had raised up to be Simeon’s Savior, Redeemer, and Lord.  His old future was gone and the only one left was the one that Jesus ushered in.

That sad truth is that most of us do not feel that way.  We include Christ into our sense of who we are and where we are headed but we do not make our future contingent upon our Lord and the life that His life has prepared for us.  A while ago the prayer of Jabez was all the rage.  “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.”  Christians of all stripes embraced it as a prayer based upon God’s promises.  Funny how easy it is to grasp hold on the idea that God wants to enlarge my land, keep me safe from harm, and free from pain and how hard it is to trust in the promise fulfilled in Christ!  We foolishly discard the promise kept to seek after new promises we think better than the one which is Christ incarnate.  For this we need to repent.

Simeon and Anna were there as representatives of Israel’s past.  They were the faithful remnant.  They did not forget the promise.  They held it up in faith.  They came to the Temple every day to remember and to wait for God to deliver on His promise of a Savior and Redeemer.  And when Jesus entered, they were at once shifted from the Israel of the past to the new Israel of the future.  They were no longer among the faithful remnant of the old covenant.  They were, by faith, members and heralds of that new covenant unfolding right there in front of them in the flesh and blood of the Son of God carried by Mary.

We are not people of the promise but people of the promise KEPT.  We live not in hope of an unknown future to be revealed but as people who know the revelation made known in Jesus Christ.  To be sure, we still see through the glass darkly but the future that is to come is already ours by baptism and faith.  We have great expectations because we are witnesses of the great revelation of God in Christ.  We have heard the living voice of Jesus call to us in the Gospel and forgive our sins in the absolution.  We have felt the touch of Jesus in the cleansing water that has made us clean, clothed us in righteousness and imparted to us the life that death cannot steal.  We have tasted passover’s fulfillment in the bread that is Christ’s body and the wine that is His blood.  We live not for what we wait to be made known; we live because of what already has been revealed and made known in Christ.  Christ is our future.  Christ is our present.  This is what the Nunc Dimittis sings.  All we are and all we hope to be are now revealed to us in Christ.  We shall follow where He leads, we shall walk in His light, we have died with Him to rise with Him for all eternity.

For this reason, we join in Simeon’s words.  The Word is fulfilled.  Our very eyes have seen Jesus.  His light has shone on us.  His glory has been made known to us.  Our future lies in Him.  We can go in peace.  From this house; from this life; to our heavenly future. Amen

At Sundance, Bishop Robinson is a hit.... not so much with me

A documentary film chronicling the life of gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson appears to have become a hit at the Sundance Film Festival.

The film [Love Free or Die] follows Robinson as the church grapples with how to handle lesbian and gay issues. Robinson’s election brought to a head divisions between liberal and conservative Episcopalians, and between the U.S. church and more conservative members of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Filmmakers followed Robinson to England in 2008, where he was excluded from the Anglicans’ Lambeth Conference of bishops. And they followed him to the Episcopal Church’s 2009 General Convention, where leaders voted to allow blessings of same-sex marriages, civil unions or domestic partnerships (where legal) and allow gay men and women to become bishops.

Along the way, they interviewed Robinson, his family and other church leaders, many of whom supported his quest for equality and some of whom did not.

Robinson sees himself as part of a new generation of church leaders who want to be open and honest about whom they are. He wants to show that people need not choose between their faith and their sexuality.

“The church asks its clergy to climb into the pulpit every week and call people to a life of integrity, but for countless generations it’s asked its gay and lesbian clergy to live a life without integrity while calling on other people to do it, and that just seems crazy to me,” Robinson said. “I think people are drawn to a religion that supports integrity and honesty and openness.”

You can read it all for yourself here.   He is described as historic and heroic by the filmmakers and some of those who saw it.  Like McGreevey, the New Jersey Governor who came out some years ago, the media likes to portray these struggles in a certain light -- one in which being true to your perceived sexuality is higher than any other value.

I wish Robinson no harm.  He may be an historic figure but he is not heroic in my book.  He has chosen self over so many others and made his own personal glory more of an issue that the now fractured and bleeding structure of the Episcopal Church.  There is nothing heroic about those who choose self over calling or over the Church to which they were called.  I am sure it is an interesting story but it saddens me to no end that this film would glorify a man so self-involved.  There is little about his story that I would call noble.  His story is a testament to what an honorable man would not do.

What I wish I had written...

I have only a passing familiarity with the facts and have not had the time to bone up on the full story of the Planned Parenthood organization's loss of a grant from the Susan G Komen Foundation.  I only wish I had written as clearly as Mollie Z. has already written on GetReligion.  So rather than duplicate her words, I will simply encourage you to read her account of the action, the news media hype, and the obvious bias for Planned Parenthood which is the shadow story behind this one.

Read the incredible Mollie Z. here....

Or you can read more by Mollie here.....

An Embarrassment from Nebraska

Coming from Nebraska, I rejoice in things red, in corn, in beef cattle fed corn and grilled rare on a hot fire, in small towns, in volunteer fire departments, in community Memorial Day observances, and in Lutheran churches that dot the landscape (especially rural).  A friend who lives in Omaha sent me this link to a piece in which a Lutheran Pastor (LCMC) laments Luther's obsession with the "communion elements" and the rest of Lutheranism's skew of the Sacrament of the Altar.  Ouch.  He embarrasses himself and Lutheranism by his words.  It just goes to show ya how screwed up we can be when personal foibles trump honest Biblical theology and familiarity with our own Confessions.  I might excuse it from one who has not been a Pastor charged with faithful preaching and teaching of what it is that we believe, confess, and teach.  But I cannot excuse this fellow.

As someone who has spent all 47 years of my life in Lutheran churches, I am very familiar with Martin Luther's complex teaching regarding the Lord's Supper. I have seen plenty of people over the years struggle to grasp his puzzling perspective that Christ's literal body and blood are located "in, with and under" the bread and wine. Luther's highly nuanced description of communion 500 years ago was a curious twist on the Roman Catholic position.

This controversial dissection of the elements seems to distort the true meaning of the meal our Lord instituted. It is an unfortunate distraction which takes attention away from the cross where Christ died for sinners. The real purpose of communion as stated in Scripture is to "proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." (1 Cor. 11:26) Amidst the many chains which fell off Martin Luther when he placed his faith in Christ alone, he couldn't seem to shake loose of his Catholic obsession with the communion elements. You won't find this obsession in the teaching of our Lord or His apostles.

Even though the Lutheran church does not teach that believers chew Christ's flesh or swallow His blood at the Lord's Supper, there nevertheless tends to be an enormous emphasis upon "the real presence" of Christ in the bread and wine. In response to Luther's perplexing opinion on this matter, I have often asked people: "What about the real presence of Christ in the heart of every believer 24 hours a day?"

A preoccupation with "Christ's body and blood" being located in the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper misses the point of the meal. 


Well, you read it all for yourself.... worse than his own mistakes is the witness he gives to Lutheran doctrine...   You can also check out what Gene Veith has to say about it.... he must have gotten the same email...

Saving lives... and Postponing Death...

A line from an old movie stuck with me.  "Nothing saves anyone's life sir. It just postpones their death."  My wife the nurse said this should be printed on the walls of hospitals.  I wonder if she is not on to something.  She deals with death (even tragic death) on a daily basis.  Yet she also faces the folks who will stop at nothing to keep a body alive another minute or another day.  She has seen folks rejoice when every medical tool is used to "save" a life only to see them reel in shock at the realization that while the body still functions, the "life" itself is gone.  Honestly, I have the greatest respect for those who labor in situations like this and pray for them, for her, all the time.

Don't get me wrong.  I do not mean in any way to disparage those who protect us and care for us -- the medical community, rescue personnel, police, and even the men and women of our armed forces.  They are gifts of God worthy of our respect and appreciation.

We are transfixed with the technological prowess of our medical community.  We spare no cost nor effort to save lives and I suppose this is all well and good up to a point.  But we deceive ourselves if we think that the next medical breakthrough will bring us closer to the manifest destiny of immortality.  It will not.  It is beyond us.  We are given by God such skill and ability that we can rescue life for the moment but death can only be put off and not avoided.

We have also distorted religion by assigning to it the responsibility of saving our lives.  Even Christians fall into the trap of thinking of salvation in Christ as saving our lives.  As the Gospel reminds us, it is only by losing this life that we can save it for eternity.  The very nature of baptism is that we are drowned and killed in its water so that the new and everlasting life that is ours in Christ may arise for today and for all eternity.  The life reborn is not our old life minus the problems or weaknesses but the new life of the Christ who lives in me and me in Him.  We are not who we were; we have been made brand new.

Half the churches and preachers today seem to think that the rescue of this present life is God's highest concern.  They know how deeply and terribly we fear age and its fragility, death and its end, life and its lack of happiness or pleasure.  So they have heard our fears and offer the promise of a new and better life now.  This is not what we need and, I am convinced, it is not what we want either.  Just as the family is not relieved that the physical body continues to live but the life of the loved one gone, neither are we are fully satisfied for a better life now.  We want our lives saved for eternity.

The great tragedy is that we would rather live in the lie that the moment packed full of life and pleasure is worth any effort to obtain it and any financial cost.  From the funeral directors hawking their "celebrations of life" instead of funerals to the wasted fortunes and hopes of those who want, who expect, medicine to make perfect what is in decay, we settle for lie after lie.

Jesus offers so much more than saved lives.  He offers new life.  Life that death cannot overcome.  He took on our death in order that we might live in His life.  Why would settle for postponing death when we could have so much more?  Why would we settle for a half-baked gospel that makes this passing moment seem better while maksing our mortality?  We need a Savior who is strong enough to bear our death just as we need one is strong enough to bear our sins. 

A week or so ago we sang "Jesus Has Come and Brings Pleasure Eternal."  It is a marvelous hymn that speaks to us honestly but not morbidly of the life lost that will not be regained and of the new life that is beyond imagination (as Paul puts it). 

Jesus has come and brings pleasure eternal,
    Alpha, Omega, Beginning and End;
Godhead, humanity, union supernal,
    O great Redeemer, You come as our friend!
Heaven and earth, now proclaim this great wonder:
    Jesus has come and brings pleasure eternal!

Jesus has come! Now see bonds rent asunder!
    Fetters of death now dissolve, disappear.
See Him burst through with a voice as of thunder!
    He sets us free from our guilt and our fear,
Lifts us from shame to the place of His honor.
    Jesus has come! Hear the roll of God’s thunder!

Jesus has come as the mighty Redeemer.
    See now the threatening strong one disarmed!
Jesus breaks down all the walls of death’s fortress,
    Brings forth the pris’ners triumphant, unharmed.
Satan, you wicked one, own now your master!
    Jesus has come! He, the mighty Redeemer!

Jesus has come as the King of all glory!
    Heaven and earth, O declare His great pow’r,
Capturing hearts with the heavenly story;
    Welcome Him now in this fast-fleeting hour!
Ponder His love! Take the crown He has for you!
    Jesus has come! He, the King of all glory!

Perhaps one less Modalist.... or maybe not...

T. D. Jakes, author of one of the most intriguingly titled religious books every written (the Lady, Her Lover, and Her Lord), has decided to give the Trinity another look see and has back away from his formerly modalistic stance on the oneness of God.  That said, Jakes considers both view fully Christian.  Hmmmm.  What does that mean?  This "pastor" once heralded by TIME magazine as perhaps the next Billy Graham, may be working the angles to stay in the good graces of Trinity confessing folks who carry and sell his books.... or, he may actually have undergone a conversion of sorts.  Who knows?

If you have a penchant for the odd and an affection for The Potter's House and this dynamic individual, this may interest you.  I will supply the link to help you satisfy your thirst for knowledge in this but must confess that I have little affection for the "bishop" except some wicked curiosity.  I do wish I had written a religious book with that title.  But no cryin over spilt milk....

I am glad for the pressure of the Obama administration...

The news is a buzz with the pressure that the Obama administration is placing upon agencies and health care ministries of the Church (though not directly upon churches) to restrict their freedom with respect to abortion, contraception services, and reproductive technology.  The work is being done largely through the health care provisions of Obama care.

New U.S. Department of Health and Human Services policy requires all employers, including religious ones, to pay for FDA-approved contraceptives, such as the birth control pill and Plan B, through health insurance plans. Churches are exempt but hospitals and schools with religious affiliations must comply. The new policy goes into effect August 1, 2012, but religious groups who oppose contraception have been given a yearlong extension to enforce the policy.


President Barack Obama and his senior aides were more than a little concerned before he announced his controversial decision requiring Catholic hospitals and universities to provide contraception in employee health plans.

Obama — in recognition of the issue’s sensitivity to the church — picked up the phone to personally break the news to two influential Catholic leaders: New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan and Sister Carol Keehan, head of the largest Catholic health association in the country and a pivotal supporter of Obama’s Affordable Care Act.The president’s tone was polite but not contrite.

Now to be sure, I do not wish any harm to the Catholic Health Care system (or what might be left of the Lutheran one) but I am very glad that this tension has come to light.  It has always been there but has remained largely hidden until the Obama administration, to its credit, has pushed the whole thing into the center stage.  There is no deference being given to religious organizations or the doctrinal stances of those groups and their sponsoring agencies in the churches.  This is a good thing in that we are now seeing exactly the direction of the future unless this becomes a national debate and a national challenge is raised to this restricted definition of religious freedom and its exemption from liberal public policy.

This is NOT about Obama.  This is about the great debate over life issues from contraception to abortion to reproductive technology that was not even envisioned a generation or so ago.  We need this public debate.  It is not about fine print but about the growing trajectory between public policy in health care that is favored by a very significant minority and the current political part in the White House and the religious freedom which protects religious organizations from regulation that contradicts the stance of the faith.

It is my great frustration that change too often comes in through a back door and the great debate and conversation that these issues deserve does not take place.  So I welcome the conflict and the public debate in the hope and prayer that we will find consensus that protects the religious freedom from the intrusion of the government and liberal agenda.  All I can say is "wake up, folks" because the conflict is not made up and the tension is not imagined.  It is real.  The threat is real.  The very existence of social services and health care provided by church affiliated agencies is under attack.

HT to the Deacon's Bench

More on Vandy and its effort to restrict freedom...

I posted on this before.  It has gotten worse.  Now Vanderbilt University (once religiously connected) is requiring all student organizations (even religious ones) to conform to its non-discrimination policy.  In effect, Vandy is saying that non-discrimination trumps religious freedom of expression.  Isn't that the position of the Obama administration as well???

You can read it all here. . .

Killing more than my religion....

You watch it and tell me you do not agree.  What has happened to the manner of speaking has implications far beyond from the way what we say actually sounds....

Well... the good news is. . .

Among other things that the Episcopal Church Council (national) heard were these statistics:

Change in church school enrollment: -33%
Change in number of marriages performed: -41%
Change in number of burials/funerals: -21%
Change in the number of child baptisms: -36%
Change in the number of adult baptisms: -40%
Change in the number of confirmations: -32%

I guess you can take comfort in the fact that less people are either dying or being buried from TEC.  Apart from that the picture is pretty sad.  If you read this blog you know that I do not believe statistics should be the measure of our faithfulness or success but in this case I will grant that the numbers point to something being wrong -- terribly wrong -- in the good ship US Anglican.  The problem cannot be completely identified with the stance on GLBT issues, either.  Instead it represents the sad conclusion the the Episcopal Church has little left but the Prayer Book -- which people are glad to use but, it seems, do not take seriously for its content or confession.

In every case, form without substance and substance that eschews form are both destined for trouble.  We seek not one or the other but substance of confession that is reflected in liturgy and practice consistent with that confession.  Lutherans would do well to take note.  There is little here to be glib about.  Much of Lutheranism is headed down the same precipice.  God, save us from ourselves!!

If you want to read all the news, click here and open the zip file for the full story.

What not to do with cremated remains. . .

A recent USA Today article offers another choice for what to do with those pesky remains of cremated loved ones...

Officers Thad Holmes and Clem Parnell have launched Holy Smoke LLC, a company that will, for a price, load cremated human ash into shotgun shells, and rifle and pistol cartridges.   It’s the perfect life celebration for someone who loves the outdoors or shooting sports, Parnell says….

“This isn’t a joke. It’s a job that we take very seriously,” he said. “This is a reverent business. We take the utmost care in what we do and show the greatest respect for the remains.” It has established myholysmoke.com to promote the service and traffic on it has been growing, Holmes says.

For $850, one pound of ash will be loaded into 250 shotgun shells. The ash is mixed in the cups that hold the shot, not the powder.The same amount of ash will fill the bullets of 100 standard caliber center-fire rifle rounds or 250 pistol rounds…

“Some people have been concerned that a small amount of ash will remain in the animal that is shot with the ammunition, Holmes said. “But it’s just carbon, and a small amount at that. You don’t have anything to worry about.” The animal should be killed quickly by the shot, to prevent any possibility of spreading the ashes in the animal’s blood, he says. The area around where the animal was struck should not be consumed….

I am not sure what to say... so many punch lines come to mind... so many sighs about the sadness of it all... but surely we could see it coming.  As cremation becomes more and more prevalent, the issue of what to do with the remains grows ever larger.  You can laugh but the whole thing makes me want to cry...  

It brought tears to my eyes....

In 1986 the classic movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off a cult film was made and its wisdom is the gift that keeps on giving.  And if you are thinking "what movie" then you got to stop what you are doing, get a life, and watch that sucker right NOW.  Cough a bit, leave work, get it from Netflix or Red Box or stop by Wal-Mart (its always in stock) and go for it!!!  BTW, check out the lyrics to Danke Shoen and Twist and Shout from Wiki before you watch it - trust me, you'll know why later!!

I regularly quote the wisdom from this movie (great theological truths like "never believe in an ism").  Honestly!  Ask my Bible class.  They know classic greatness (or at least learned it from me...).

So my heart was warmed and my eyes welled up in tears when Scott Diekmann put me on to this commercial.  Watch it but only if you have seen the movie first.