THOSE KIND OF PEOPLE

I can well recall my introduction to the mobile nature of the community in which I live and the congregation where I serve.  I had been here only weeks before a discussion ensued about those who pushed for the building of the fellowship hall and then left (military or industry transfer) -- leaving the bill to be paid by the more permanent folks.  I have had a number of conversations with a few folks who suggested in fairly strong terms that I not spend much time on those people who will not be around here very long (translation military families and middle level managers from industry).  I also recall a pointed query from an angry parishioner who asked me why I was spending so much of my time on "those kind of people" instead of tending to the "regular" members.

Now, to be fair, these were not mean folks.  They had lived in a community whose economy had been dominated by the boom and bust cycle of the military, then, most recently, the Kuwaiti conflict.  At one point in time, the city had been a ghost town as nearly all the resources of the local post were deployed to the desert.  Businesses and churches suffered much during that period (although not in comparison to the suffering of those soldiers and their families).  They knew that because of the nature of this mobile community, it is hard to count on people whose time here may be more closely measured in months than years.  One year may be boom with many Lutherans coming into town and the next year may be bust when they all leave with only a few to replace them.  Anyone who has lived in a military town or where business has a high turnover rate knows this.

The folks here were not intending to be unwelcoming but did not want me to think that because one year was boom, it would be that way the next year.  They were trying to give me some perspective.  And, to be fair, I have learned some perspective.  When I arrived here there were more than 8 Lutheran chaplains on post and there have been 1 or less in the last five years.  I have witnessed years in which 1 of every four people in church on Sunday morning turned over due to military and industry moves.  I have personally invested much in preparing people for lay leadership positions in our congregation only to see them move before they could even begin their elected service to the parish.  Every year our Financial Secretary has trouble knowing what to do with the offering envelope statements for people whose address has been lost and they only moved 6-8 months ago.

In the end we worked to do both -- to function as a congregation without planning on the basis of the boom years and to keep from being handicapped by the bust years of military and industrial moves.  We did this by welcoming all people (the few whose tenure here has been measured in months, the more whose time here may be measured in years, and the few who have made their permanent home here -- at least as permanent as can be when heaven is our home).  We still have our ups and downs but we have stopped addressing them as "those kind of people" and we have accepted them for however long they will be here.  In many cases this means receiving people in the earliest stages of their spiritual development.  We have had a number of adult baptisms and a ton of adult confirmations.  In many cases we have bid them tearful good bye at the very point in which their faith seemed ready to blossom into full bloom.

Now to reward your patience for reading so far...  For a long time I thought of this circumstance as unique to military or industrial communities where mobility was endemic to the nature of that town.  Now, after more than 18 years here, I am finding that this is becoming more and more the rule in urban, suburban, and even some rural areas.  Churches find themselves with revolving doors (and not due to conflict or church shopping but due to the rapid turnover of people due to jobs, family situations, and retirement).  This does not appear to be a declining trend but an increasing phenomenon in American culture and society.

We have people of all age groups coming and going all the time.  This will require from the congregation and the Pastor a different approach.  While I am not happy about it, membership in terms of transfer and acceptance and a name on a list has become less important than the people present on Sunday morning.  Very few of our mobile people (those who may be here 3 years or less) actually transfer their membership.  The majority have a church home of record (ours is that for many folks) but have a worshiping presence and connection to a parish nearer where they live.  Now this does NOT diminish what we do for catechesis but it does mean we are not so quick to put the paperwork into motion when new folks come our way.

It also means that it is hard to know where people are at once they leave our area.  I have sent letters to their new address after they have moved only to find out that they had one or two more addresses in the 3-6 months since they left us.  Email may be more important to locate folks than snail mail addresses.  More often than not military and industrial email addresses remain the same no matter where the person is physically located.  Cell phone numbers remain the same no matter where people actually reside.  Half of our new people have a cell phone number with an area code different than the region in which they live.  Our newest and most mobile folks are searching for a bit of permanence and g-mail, yahoo, or hotmail and the cellular provider offer them the most reasonable options for a permanent address and phone number.

It means that our people come to us from so many backgrounds -- even within Lutheranism -- that it is often hard to know where to start for adult and youth catechesis.  They have often had little solid experience with Sunday school or Bible study and you cannot count on the Scriptures being well known to them.  So this means basics have to be offered for those pursuing youth confirmation and for the adults who come with a ton of church homes in their past.  It also means that the differences so important to long time Lutherans are less well known or appreciated by those new to our parish (LCMS vs ELCA vs WELS).  I am not saying they do not care about the specifics of the faith but the ordinary understanding that we might associated with those initials are often lost on these folks.  I do not believe it builds you up to tear down other Lutherans but it does require us to be honest about the differences since they will be leaving us at some point and searching out another Lutheran church home.

Finally, the matter of worship "style" must be addressed.  Our people are accustomed to a weekly Eucharist, a full sung Divine Service, a well equipped choral and music program, and solid Biblical preaching and teaching (their own words).  They have often struggled to find a Lutheran congregation where the liturgy is traditional, the Eucharist is weekly, and preaching is Biblical (their own words).  Sadly, they often find the liturgy in the ELCA but long for sermons that are textual and Biblical.  They sometimes find the hymnal in use in Missouri but neither a weekly Eucharist nor passion in the pulpit.  They usually find in both Missouri (and the ELCA to a slightly lesser extent) a contemporary service without the use of the hymnal or the liturgy, without a weekly Eucharist, and with preaching that is, well, more relational and motivational than Biblical.

So those people who come and do not stay long, fall in love with the liturgy and expect the weekly Eucharist and anticipate passionate proclamation of the Law and Gospel in the pulpit... but then leave only to have to search for something that comes close.  I should say that we are not unique or uniquely qualified to do what we do -- it is just that so many Lutherans have chosen to do and to be something else.  And this is the painful side of that mobility.  Too often I hear from them that they have not found another "Grace" and they are not referring to me or the building or the pipe organ or the people in the pew -- but to a Lutheran place in which liturgy, Eucharist, Biblical preaching and teaching (with a Law/Gospel emphasis) predominate...  And of all the things about these mobile folks, this is the saddest...

Bad Connatations About Silence

After reading a blog that posted a comment from another, a light bulb went on in me.  Remember the methods used for discipline at home and in school?  Silence!  I can well recall being sent to my room (where there were neither toys nor TV -- certainly not a computer) and having to spend my time in silence atoning for my youthful sins.  I can also recall the times when in the classroom we would have to sit in silence because somebody talked too much or some other egregious error was committed.  How many of us had to put our heads down on our desks at some point and endure the awkward silence that was coupled with the uncertainty about what was going on?  And, if you are really old like me, you practiced huddling under your desk in case of nuclear attack (another ritual of silence).

SHHHHHHHHH!  It is not a nice sound.  You hear parents shushing their children in worship and in other places -- making sounds even louder than their children in order to force quiet upon them.   Shhhhh is the sound of the hunter sneaking up to do harm to his prey.  It is the sound of truth that should not be told.  It is also the sound of people who do not want anything to intrude upon the awkwardness of the moment.

When it comes to church, I think of the cry room in my home congregation.  It was not where you took a crying child but where you took a child to make him cry.  In many cases it was for breaking the rule of silence (except when singing or speaking the parts of the liturgy and hymns).  When I progressed to catechism class, I sat in fearful silence for two hours each Saturday, praying that Pastor Durdell would not call upon me and praying that the memory work I had not practiced nearly enough would come out okay.

Silence is often equated as punishment.  If not punishment, then at least the uncertain and awkward moments in which the right words are unknown.  I think of one of my favorite movies, Moonstruck, and the silence at breakfast when Grandfather breaks down because he so confused or when he looks around and says "Somebody tell a joke" because the awkward silence was more than he could bear.  It was literally pregnant with tension.  So, if not punishment, then it is generally the uncomfortable silence of a difficult situation in which somebody should say something but nobody knows what to say.

So is it no wonder that we have trouble with silence, with the good silence of the liturgy or the silence left for prayer?  When the assisting ministers of my congregation lead the prayers, they stop for silence between the petitions but what seems to them minutes of laborious silence is, in reality, a few seconds.  When we do have silence thrust upon us, we are not sure what to do with it.  Our ears are so full of sounds that we find it almost unbearable when it is too quiet.  The associations of silence in our minds and hearts are punishment or uncomfortable moments, so we want this silence to go away.

As one who struggles to encourage silence in worship, I find it almost a losing battle.  Perhaps the benefit of silence has passed to the few and the many wish nothing to do with it.  In any case, I have not yet given up but sometimes I get close...

You Can Only Defeat It When You Believe In It...

I am not in the business of being a movie critic and, truth to be told, I do not see all that many movies (new ones, anyway).  But I did see a trailer for a new movie on exorcism and demon possession (sort of a redone Exorcist) called "The Rite."  Anthony Hopkins is the lead character hunting down demons and casting them out.  He has a new priest who assists him who is not so sure.  This fellow thinks that the demon possessed need a good therapist more than they need a priest.  At the very end of the trailer is this great line:  "You can only defeat it when you believe in it..."  A great line, indeed!

Sin and evil and death are concepts that have become rather, well, nebulous to the modern mind.  We think of sin more in terms of failure to launch (oh, that's was another movie) or rather failure to reach our potential more than dirt that cannot be washed off, illness which will most certainly lead to death, and death that corrupts everything we are, we do, and we hope to be.  In the same way, evil is often seen more in terms of those things that prevent us and others from blossoming out to our full wonderful human potential.  We are less likely to believe that there is evil, that this force of evil works against us to destroy us, and that this evil is personal and has a name.  We think of death as merely the end of life and not some terrible enemy that swoops low to carry off our lives and breath destruction into this flesh and blood that no medicine or treatment may heal.  We are less likely to see that death is the fruit of sin and eternal death the punishment for sin.  Sadly, this is even true among many who think themselves Christian.

We in this modern world would resonate well with the sensibility of the new priest who believes that most folks can be fixed through therapy (psychotherapy or drug therapy) more so than by a priest, a sacrament, and a gospel.  Sidelight -- if you are ever in need of a psychologist or psychiatrist -- good luck.  The mental health system in America is so broken as to be a maze in which darkness seldom gives way to any light.  But if you could find a therapist and a good psychiatrist, you just might be made whole again without any recourse to the primitive and draconian ideas of religion and faith.

You can only defeat it (them) when you believe in it (them).  The truth that comes from a movie trailer.  Within the Church the problem is a crisis of faith -- what we believe and not simply how we worship or how we behave.  In order for us make our way through this, we need to believe and trust.  This means a Scripture which is not only trusted to be true but trusted to do what it promises.  This means a rediscovery of our creedal and confessional heritage and regaining our confidence in the old expressions of this Scriptural truth.  This means a rediscovery of the liturgy -- not as some human plan for us to use to worship God but as the Divinely established arena for His Word and Sacraments so that they may do what God has pledged and promised to do through His means of grace.

When it comes to the world around us, we must believe again that they are in mortal and eternal jeopardy without the Divinely established remedy for sin, death, and evil.  For it is this belief in and awareness of the great fragility of this mortal life and the real danger of everlasting death that will help us realize what we have and what we have been given to speak and to do for the sake of the world.  In the same way we must out grow the doomsday fear that the poor you will always have with you -- for this dulls our sense of urgency and it diminishes any sense that we have something real to offer the poor.  When this happens mercy and service will not be the domain of the dogged do-gooder but the out flowing from our heart what has flowed into them in Christ, the Lord of mercy who came not to be serve but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.

Both within and without Christianity faces the real test of faith -- what do we believe.  And the movie line is worth repeating again, you can only defeat what you believe in...  faith merely adds, you can only defeat it with what you believe in, what has been manifest to us by the Spirit and the revelation of Jesus who leads us to the Father.

When the Gospel is no longer a matter of life and death...

One of the most dangerous things about the character of modern day preaching and teaching is that life and death are no longer the parameters of both our need and God's remedy.  Faith is no longer about life and death issues but about quality of life.  The cross is no longer about life stolen from the hands of death but an abundant life in which success is measured in earthly terms (health, wealth, happiness).  I do not know when things began to shift but it is clear that if you listen to the modern day telegenic preachers (Warren, Osteen, etc.) you do not hear the framework of the malady or the medicine shaped in terms of life and death.

Perhaps it is that we have achieved a level of sophistication and education (at least in our own eyes) that we no longer see death as the result of sin, disease the result of sin, the brokenness of the world the result of sin, etc.  We have, to some measure, made our peace with death.  It is no longer a shadow cast over us -- unless it comes too early and before we have had our chance to live a full and complete life.  Death is just death and life is what  happens between birth and death.  We have come to terms with this is such a terrible way that faith is no longer essential to us but a fringe benefit for those who might find it helpful.

So it stands to reason if we have made our peace with death, that the attention of religion would shift from death to earthly life.  In this way even staid and sturdy old denominations like Rome and Wittenberg have preachers (and prominent ones) whose gospel sounds more like Dr. Phil and Oprah than it does Jesus or Paul.  We have come to see the role and function of the Church to enhance and improve this earthly life -- from the material to the emotional side of it all.  Christ is the healer of relationships more than He is the Giver of life to the dead and dying.  Christ is the guide to success for business and personal life more than He is the Author and Pioneer of the path that leads through death to life.  Christ is the bestower of individual self-esteem and aids for marital and parental success more than He is the Innocent who dies for the guilty in order to declare them just.

On another forum I have listened to the cries of people who wonder how we can get people into the Church (whether for contemporary worship that mirrors earthly expectations or to encounter the mystery of God's presence in the means of grace and the liturgy).  Over and over again people from both perspectives lament that people do not seem to want to go to Church (even those who were raised in the Church).  I maintain that at least part of this is due to the way we have framed the Gospel.  We have given up the ground for which Christ died and surrendered the life or death nature of faith and the Gospel.  The faith and the Church are no longer urgent because they are not about the stark and real divide of death in search of real life.

Jesus has not come to make our lives richer or better.  He came to rescue us from the death of sin that holds us captive.  We are the dead, the walking dead, whose lives are but a shadow of our Creator's intention.  We are the lost groping through death and its darkness in search of light that is always beyond our reach.  And the miracle of the Gospel is that God came as one of us to walk in this dark shadow and even to embrace the dark night of our death and the grave.  The love that would not let us go has triumphed over this darkness to shine with the light of life.  He is risen not for His own glory or vindication but to lead us to the life that death cannot overcome.  This is not a message tailored for the quality of our life but the proclamation of life that is empty and void until the Spirit breathes in us this life and engenders within us the faith to grasp His lifeline and be pulled from the encroaching death of sin to the safety of life.  This is what persuaded Paul to become all things to all people -- not some hints to making things better or some helps for a people who have made their peace with mortal life.

Until we begin to speak again in these terms, the truth is that people will not know their need or the wondrous gift that God has given to us in His Son.  Until we admit that making your peace with death is dancing with the devil who celebrates our demise, the radical nature of Christ's incarnation and His death that gives us life will seem distant, dull, and routine.  Perhaps we have sown the seeds of our own irrelevance by accepting the greatest evil lie of all -- death is just death and life is what you do with the time between its coming and its going...

Salt, Light, and Doers of Good Works....

Sermon preached for Epiphany 5A, on Sunday, February 6, 2011.

    We have heard these words of Jesus over and over again and yet, they tend more to be admired than believed, honored but not taken all that seriously in our daily lives.  Perhaps because we tend to see these words as proscriptive  – this is what you must become.  But these are not words of law demanding something from us.  They are Gospel words, of God’s gracious declaration.  The prodding of our Savior is not to make ourselves salt, light or doers of good works but the LET Him work in us, among us, and through us.
    We do not make ourselves the salt of the earth.  God does.  We do not make ourselves the light of the world.  God’s light shines through us.  We do not force ourselves to do good works but God works in us and through the good that is His grace, His will, and His purpose.  The keys to this passage are found in the verbs.  You ARE... not you will be or you could be or you should be... and LET your light shine... so that your good works may be seen...
    You are salt.  This is the judgment of grace.  God does not survey our character and find this in us.  Christ dwells within us by baptism and faith.  We are His and He lives in us and works through us.  God does not declare us salt because of our wisdom, strength, or stature.  Even through we are weak and foolish and lowly, we are the salt of the earth – God declares is!
    What goes with this declaration is the call to faithfulness.   Do not lost this grace.  How do you stay salty?  By being close to Christ, close to His Word and Sacraments.  You abide in Christ and He will abide in you and He will work through you to flavor the world with this grace and to preserve the world from destruction and condemnation with the power of this grace.  If we stay close to the source, we will always be the salt God has declared us to be.
    Our Lord does not command us to be light.  He declares us His light.  This light was placed in you in baptism and you wear it by faith.  You are light because Christ who is the Light of the World dwells in you.  You do not make yourself to be light by exemplary moral behavior or keen Biblical insight.  God has declared you to be light in Christ.  Don’t get in the way of Christ’s light.  You cannot make yourself His light but you can distract from this light and hide its brightness.  When the focus is on you instead of upon Christ, you diminish the brightness of His light.
    You are salt and you are light in Christ, because of Christ, so remain close to Christ so that you may remain salty and His light will shine through you.  That is the call of Christ.  Abide in Him and He will abide in you.  This is not merely for your own benefit but so that Your heavenly Father may see your good works and those good works may glorify Him.  The reflection of our light flows not back to us so that we might be in its limelight but rather to the Lord.  The light comes from Him and it shines back to Him through us.
    Your good works are not the fruit of your own work, but Christ living and working in and through you.  The good works that we are called to do are not works that show forth our own righteousness but reflections of the righteousness of Christ that clothed us in our baptism.  His perfect holiness has become our clothing in baptism and the good works that we are His holiness and righteousness spilling out and showing forth in us.  This is no demand of the law to be holy but the God who has made us holy in Christ now calling us to let His holiness and righteousness shine through us.
    St. Paul echoes Jesus call when he says: “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.”  This is who we are and this is what we do – we are God’s new people in Christ and Christ works in and thru us. The good works we do are not ours to boast about but Christ working in us and through us.  St. Paul put this in focus when he said, It is not me but Christ in me.  I died.  I have been crucified with Christ so that it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I live is Christ’s life and the works I do are Christ’s works.... or Christ has died for nothing at all.
    One of the most recent and best selling “Christian” books is called “A purpose driven life.”   That book became popular because we all want to do something, to accomplish something, and to be something.  We think this is the reason God has redeemed us – so that WE might accomplish something.  If you read that book you will find a lot of Bible passages but Christ is not the center of that book, you and I are the center.  From this book you would learn all about how to live a full life for yourself and find purpose for yourself but you will find nothing about how Christ is to live in you.  Therefore it misses the mark.  The truth of the Scripture is that Christ is our life.   You are not your own.  You were bought with a price.  Christ is in you.
    This text is no pep talk to get people to stop doing bad things and to start doing good things.  These words of Jesus are a call to let His light shine in you and through you, to remain close to Jesus where His Word and Sacraments are so that He may live in you and work through you.  These words of Jesus are a stark reminder that apart from Him we can do nothing.  But Christ can do all things and if we are to accomplish anything it will be because Christ works in us and through us.  You are salt, you are light, and you are doers of good works – you didn’t make yourself these things.  God has declared you such and given you His promise that He will work in and through you.  So let Him...  Let Him do what He will do; stick close to the Word and Sacraments so that His abiding presence rests in you and His works can be through you.

From George Wiegel at First Things comes a summary of the Global Mission Report.  It is certainly interesting reading.  As he suggests, the reports of Christian demise have been greatly exaggerated.  Nevertheless, there are shocking numbers to report on the numbers of Christian martyrs.  The report defines “martyrs” as “believers in Christ who have lost their lives, prematurely, in situations of witness, as a result of human hostility.” The report estimates that there were, on average, 270 new Christian martyrs every 24 hours over the past decade, such that “the number of martyrs [in the period 2000-2010] was approximately 1 million.” Compare this to an estimated 34,000 Christian martyrs in 1900.

To those who might think that we are gaining, and we are, let us never forget that there are those who pay the ultimate cost for their faith and their numbers are also growing and growing significantly.  My friend Tampani Simojoki has posted on his blog this report of martyrdom of Christians in Somalia.   All of this is sobering and yet I continue to be strengthened in my relatively carefree life by the knowledge that the faithful stand in Christ where such a stance is not without its persecution, suffering and death.  We just heard in the Beatitudes where our Lord speaks with love declaring blessed those who suffer and are persecuted for His name's sake.

This first hand report from Somalia ends with this somber and tearful paragraph: To write this story was too difficult for me. It was too much for me to see and hear what these children went through. However, there are other children who went through the same ordeal, and who still suffer begging for food in the streets of Mogadishu and other towns with no glimmer of hope in sight. May God help them too.

We have all heard of the suffering of Christians in the Middle East, of the Copts, for example, in Egypt, perhaps even more vulnerable due to the instability there.  We have heard of the plight of Christians devastated from all sides during the Iraqi war.  I could go on.  I wish I did not have to.  There are no shortage of place where death is too often the cost of faithfulness.  Perhaps those of us who live in the security of a nation where Christianity may not be as popular as once thought but still perfectly legal and safe, well, we should give pause and not grow weary in pleading their case and praying for them.  Let us not forget to pray for them... and for all those now suffering for the sake of Christ... 

What I Learned About Worship at Seminary

Sadly, I learned little about worship while at Seminary.  This was not so much do to the teachers as to the trifling place worship had in the curriculum.  One course in worship was all that was required -- and that was expected to teach liturgical theology, "how to" training, the church year, the occasional services, the daily offices, hymnody, chant and the music of the liturgy, how to plan worship, etc...  The material was pretty basic and little was new to me since I had come to Seminary with a rich experience and fine teachers (Dr. Edward F. Peters, Dr. H. Andrew Harnack, Lee Stocker, David Fienen, Dr. Herb Nuechterlein, Joel Kuznik, Dr. Roddy Braun, Dr. Walter Wente, Pr. Herb Lindemann, Pr. Charles Evanson, etc...).  So I cannot blame Prof. Dan Reuning for any lacking there.  It was clearly a curriculum issue -- too little time for too much material.  The best you could learn to do in those days was simply to know when to stand, sit, or kneel, when to face the altar, and when to face the congregation -- all, of course, to the basic rubrics of The Lutheran Hymnal.

In terms of the practice of the worship life at the Seminary, I also learned little.  The Springfield guys were black gown types - most of them - and it was a culture shock to end up in Kramer Chapel.  The side by side worship life of the first year where Senior College and Seminary co-existed showed that the worship life at CSC was decidedly more liturgical and more, well, "high church" than CTS.  But the good thing is that things change.  And they have changed for the better.

I am constantly impressed by the chapel services at Concordia Theological Seminary.  First of all, I would point to the student led daily offices (Matins, Vespers, and Compline).  They are simple, well led, and faithful.  It would have been great to have had such wonderful offices to nurture a liturgical prayer life when I was at Seminary.  Then the daily campus chapels are very well done and the preaching quite good.  I have only been to a couple of the once weekly Campus Eucharists, but, again, they are very well done.  The special services (choral Vespers or Evening Prayer) are especially wonderful with the rich vocal tradition of the Kantorei and Chapel Choirs.  Musically, I cannot say enough about the leadership of Kantor Richard Resch and the blessing of Kevin Hildebrand who is not only Associate Kantor but also works as composer in residence.  Finally, it does not hurt to have as Dean of Chapel the man who spearheaded the work of the Lutheran Service Book, Dr. Paul Grime.

So, if anything was not directly addressed in the classroom, the seminarists have a wonderful example of a rich and well rounded liturgical life in the Chapel, something that enfolds them into the life of the Church as well as nurturing their own spiritual lives as men preparing to be Pastors and women preparing to be Deaconesses.

Most of what I learned about worship came from individual conversation and from my personal association with good teachers and Pastors who were ever so kind to me in guiding this aspect of my education.  Now the whole Seminary life revolves around the Chapel and it provides a wonderful supplement to the classroom.  The faculty has also benefited from any number of individuals who have written on the liturgy while not always teaching in that area (I can think of my old classmate and friend Dr. Art Just as one of many).

Though I do not know St. Louis nearly as well as the Fort Wayne Seminary, I have the highest respect for Henry Gerike and his musical leadership of the campus worship life there.  There have been a few glitches as far as chapels go but if the worship life at Concordia Seminary (what we used to call "801") is anything like the wonderful service of installation for President Matthew Harrison, they too have much to assist the liturgical formation of the Pastoral mind and character and nurture the individual spiritual lives of the seminarists there.

Thoughts as I Work on Lenten Preparations

I am midway through the writing of the Lenten sermons for our midweek services.  I am struck by the wonderful character of the Lenten season and its magnetic power to pull us into the way of the cross.  It is such a good idea that if had not been invented so early on in the life of the church, it would have been invented later.  As St. Paul reminds us the foolishness and folly of the cross, this strange wisdom of God, is not some ancillary part of our spiritual lives but the core and center of the Christian kerygma and our individual and communal identity as the people of God.

Much as I delight in the approach of Lent and in the renewal of my own spiritual life as I prepare to lead God's people in this place in that journey to the cross, I am simply in awe of the profoundness of this truth and its tie to us through the sacramental life of the Church.  This is the key and crux of my own personal faith and identity and it is the source and summit of the faith and identity of God's people.  That said, it is increasingly true that the proclamation of the cross is absent from the preaching and teaching of Christian churches and therefore further and further distant from the heart and lives of Christian people.

It is not simply Lent which focuses our hearts and lives upon the cross.  It is our entrance into the Church and our own death and resurrection in baptism.  It is the core and content of the Scriptures (read and proclaimed).  It is the power of the absolution which bears to the individual the cross given for the life of the world.  It is the heart and core of the Eucharistic food and our response of praise and thanksgiving.

Yet, in too many mainline churches, too many non-denominational churches, and even too many liturgical and sacramental churches, the cross is but a footnote in the life and proclamation of the church and a distant and even maudlin word offense to our sensibility and self-esteem.  It is as if we have looked at the wisdom of God hidden in the cross and found it wanting and have willingly surrendered it to the wisdom of the world.  The church has become a self-help center in which the latest in pop psychology has replaced the Word of the Cross and the goal of personal fulfillment has replaced redemption in Christ.  We think that we are doing this in order to pack a people into churches so that we do not end up being lost and forgotten on the roadside of American life, looked at and found wanting by those who love today more than eternity.  In the end we are giving up the very thing that makes us distinctive and exchanging the power of God for the popularity of man.

In one sense it should be Lent all the time -- just as it should be Easter every Sunday.  We can never out grow this transforming and life-changing Word.  It is here that the Church knows who she is and her people know who they are:  we preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  Some would suggest that this leads to a one sermon message in which only a few phrases are changed.  That is the nature of the preaching task -- to preach this one Word of the Cross in fresh and current ways to every age and generation that rises up as well as to every other age and generation of people already there.  To itching ears wishing to hear something else and to closed ears that refuse to hear, we speak the same Word of the Cross but not the same way.  The cross is not some Lenten message for a season but the Word we preach in season and out.

I had a wise and faithful Pastor once share with me that near the end of his manuscript carried into the pulpit he would draw a cross.  As he got near the end of the sermon, he looked down to see that reminder.  If he had not preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified, no matter how great the sermon, it had failed in its most important task.  In the spirit of this man and his simple cross, I have entered the pulpit to speak to God's people not human wisdom in eloquent words but the Word of the Cross in all its truth, clarity, and faithfulness.

Who we were. . .

Much of the discussion about Lutheranism is a discussion about who we are or what we have become.  There is no shortage of critics, each with his or her own vantage point, who can quickly pull up a litany of the sins, errors, and weaknesses of the present day incarnation of Lutheran identity and confession.  The internet is full of them.  There are blogs upon blogs and forums upon forums with commentators, debaters, and pundits -- each having something to say about what many consider to be the general sad state of Lutheranism today.  Lord knows, I am one of them.  But perhaps a better question might be, who were we?

Pastor Wiliam Weedon and Dr. Joseph Herl have added much to this discussion.  I would highly recommend Herl's popular incantation of his doctoral thesis "Worship Wars" (published by Oxford).  I would also point out a couple of posts of Weedon's blog (by that name) on a church order and agenda from Magdeburg dated 1613 (a century after the start of the Reformation).  Both have identified the myths that accompany most popular Lutheran history that suggests that the Reformation gave birth to a distinctly Protestant tradition with its center in the Word alone.  Both have pointed out the richness and catholicity of the liturgical life of early Lutheranism.  And the sad consequence is that much of this ended up being lost -- in part due to political consequences of Lutheran wars against opponents, in part due to the advent of pietism and its shift of the focus away from the means of grace, and in part due to Lutheran angst over its own identity.

Both can point out that Lutheran vitality and identity was thoroughly sacramental, lived out in a rich and church centered liturgical life of Divine Service and daily office, and apologetically catholic in form and practice.  Who we were is clear from the Reformation church orders of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  Who we were is clear from the great Lutheran thinkers that followed the first generation (folks like Martin Chemnitz, among others).  Who we were is clear from the great body of hymnody that proceeds from the first centuries of Lutheranism.  It seems so easy to lose and so difficult to recover.  But that is the way of all things -- easy to lose and hell to recover.

Truly Lutheran history has been a constant struggle to recover what was lost and to rediscover who we are by restoring who we were both in confession and practice.  In every age this path of rediscovery has been marred by distractions, competing ideologies, and cultural and intellectual movements of all kinds.  What has also been our bane is the comfort level we have had with who we have become.

For Missouri this means that we too often identity Lutheran history with our own institutional history.  We have been more comfortable viewing primary sources through the lens of secondary eyes like Pieper and Koehler.  We listen more to Walther than to Chemnitz or Gerhard.  We identity the golden age of liturgy as the Hymnal 1941.  I am not suggesting that we abandon our own institutional history but that we widen it by approaching the primary sources in their own words and works.

For the ELCA this means that they have been too comfortable forgetting the theological giants that were their past -- Reu, Krauth, and Schmid to name but a few.  Added to this is a general rejection of the fathers of Lutheran orthodoxy and a preoccupation with theology that starts anew or that begins with the cues borrowed from mainline American authors.  So, for example, they can be comfortable in new things and live without the regret of how their new positions (fellowship, sexuality, etc.) disconnect from the past.

Our institutionalization has been our Achilles heel and it continues to afflict Lutheranism in America -- left and right.  We have thinkers and historians to raise our vision and we have the resources readily available (thank you, CPH and the digital age) to become reacquainted with who we were.  Now all that remains is a willingness to let who we are be shaped by who we were -- in confession and practice.

Snow and More Coming in a Town Ill Equipped for Snow

We got 3-4 inches of snow and it froze into ice and we are bracing for more in the next couple of days.  For those in the North, you are laughing but for those of us in the South it is a big pain with little pain reliever in sight.  The internet is so slow I am not sure if I can post... So, you might have to wait for my meandering thoughts today...

A Brief Overview of Anointing and Prayer

Prodded by recent visitors from the north country (Cheryl Magness) I thought it might be a good thing to acquiesce to her request and explain a bit about how we do anointing and prayer.  Maybe first I should do a bit of history (not in depth but just to frame things up a bit).

Oil (olive oil) either alone or scented has been used for thousands of years and was well known to Biblical culture as well as to most nations of the Mediterranean and Middle East.  Oil is mentioned many times in the Old Testament.  We have oil on the lamp stand of the temple, oil exchanged as tribute by kings, and offered in the temple as sacrifice.  Perfumed oil is also mentioned for use by the high priest for ritual anointing with implications for consecration.  There is also the oil used to anoint the king and therefore set him apart for his office.  Finally, we are reminded that Messiah(Christ) means anointed one and this reveals the messianic and christological implications of oil.  In practical matter, oil was a staple of the household.  It was used in cooking, cleaning, grooming, and had medicinal usage (similar to the way we might use vaseline or triple antibiotic vaseline).  From all of this we see that oil has connotations of holiness, strength, vitality, life, healing, and prosperity (born of God's blessing and provision).

From the New Testament we recall how the woman anointed Jesus with the perfumed oil (expensive and precious) and the several mentions of anointing indicate a continuation of the Old Testament images and usages of oil.  From Mark 6:13 we see oil particularly used in conjunction with Jesus' sending out of His disciples to preach and heal in His name.  While we do not find reference to Jesus' use of oil in this way, this reference shows a clear connection between oil and the healing that comes from Christ.    The other major text is James 5:14 in which the command is given to call for the presbyters (Pastors) of the Church, pray over the sick, anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith will save the sick man.  Here the connection between illness and sin is further deepened by the inclusion of "if he has commented sins, he will be forgiven..."

First John 1:20 offers us the intriguing implication that chrism or anointing was used in conjunction with baptism.  Although many commentators speak of this in merely symbolic terms, anointing has always been associated with the baptismal liturgy and its association with this verse is credible.  "The chrism/anointing which you received from Him abides in you.... as His chrism/anointing imparts you knowledge of all things..." Second Corinthians 1:21 also connects these dots.  Here St. Paul speaks of God who establishes us in Christ (baptism) and has anointed (chrismated) us and put His seal upon us and given us His Spirit.

For the growth of this in the early Church, consult Origen and St. John Chrysostom.  Cyril of Jerusalem also is a source here.  By the third century nearly every baptismal rite included anointing (chrism).  Hippolytus records the blessing of oil for use in baptismal chrism and for exorcism.  While it is true that this became two separate rites in the West (baptism and chrism or confirmation) the East has always retained their connection together.  Jump a millenia or so and you find that oil is retained in Luther's baptismal rite as well (though it dropped out of usage among many Lutherans so much so that it was reintroduced in the twentieth century by the liturgical movement).

Finally, I could write many paragraphs on the subtle and profound connection inherent in the word "to save" in Greek -- a word which can also be translated "to heal."   In this way we circle back to the connection of our maladies with the common history of sin and the fall and of our common remedy in the Savior who is come to restore the fallen, forgive the sinners, and bestow everlasting life upon a people marked for death.

I could go on but let me cut to the chase.  This anointing of the sick is sacramental but not a sacrament.  Let me explain that.  It has a sacramental character to it but it does not contain the promise of grace and does not have the explicit command of Christ that Lutherans normally use to define a Sacrament.  This is not an anointing in the way the word is used by the evangelicals or pentecostals (a charismatic phenomenon) nor do we as Lutherans have "healers" who perform physical healings.  We do believe that God physically heals and we also believe that this healing is but a glimpse of the perfect healing of the new flesh after the resurrection that imparts to us life without death or disease.  We have long called the Eucharist the medicine of immortality, along with the early Church.  So, while we anoint, we do not give this anointing the status of a sacrament nor does it carry with it the implicit promise of physical healing or removal of the affliction (mental, emotional, spiritual or physical) and that our prayer for such healing is also answered when the grace sufficient for our endurance is given us by God.

So on the fifth Sunday of the month, we offer folks the opportunity, immediately following the distribution of the Eucharist, to come forward to the rail, to commend their need and burden to the Lord, with the assurance that His grace is sufficient for their need and He will grant them healing or endurance to bear up under their affliction or pain.  In this way, we acknowledge that our gracious God is not oblivious to our need or condition and that, as Scripture promises, that we can confidently cast our cares on Him for He cares for us.  So our people come with chronic physical conditions, ongoing afflictions of body or spirit, pain, emotional and spiritual conditions, and such.  I meet them at the rail, anoint them with oil as James tells us, whisper into their ears the Word of the Lord that is His means of grace to us, and pray with them that God will grant them perfect healing, endurance under their affliction, and sufficient grace for their need, according to His good and gracious will.  In this way I use this as a means of providing pastoral care within the very context of the Sacrament that is our medicine of immortality and encourage them to remain close to the means of grace where this grace is accessible to us and where the promise and pledge of this grace is imparted to us as Christ has instituted.

In practical manner it takes but a few minutes out of the service, it shows forth to the folks who sit with them in the pew that these folks have wounds and needs which they are commending to the Lord in prayer and for which we are called to support them in encouragement and prayer, and, it does so within the context of the Sacrament in which the perfect healing of God's richest grace is imparted to us in the bread which is Christ's body and the cup of His blood.

The Fullest Use of Our Resources

Often the problem with "traditional" worship is not that what is done is bad but that it fails to exploit the full measure of the resources provided by the hymnary, lectionary, and liturgy of the Church.  Those who yearn for creativity are, in some respects, right in their condemnation of of "traditional" worship as being boring or routine.  But the fault lies not with the hymnal or liturgy.  The fault usually lies with the people planning and conducting the Divine Service.  In our busy lives it is easy to fall back upon the book and use it because it is there.  In this respect many congregations using the hymnal are not technically "liturgical."  I write this not to condemn but to encourage a more full use of the inherent resources of the hymnal, liturgy, and pericopes.

I forget where I read it that if you are using these resources fully, only something between 12-15% of the time on Sunday morning carries over from week to week.  Block out the sermon, the readings, the collect, the hymns, and the liturgical options within the Divine Service and you see how the figure is achieved.  When we use all of these resources to their fullest measure, then it is true.  When we fail to use these resources fully, this figure may still be true but you would hardly recognize it while sitting in the pew.

Lets begin with the lectionary.  Lutheran Service Builder allows you to print out all the pericopes on one sheet (Introit, Collect, Psalm, Lessons, Gradual, Verse).  It is great to have these texts together and to spend time looking at them more fully before sermon and liturgical choices are made.  You can do the same thing without Lutheran Service Builder but it takes just a bit more work.  The point is that by immersing yourself in these texts you are better equipped not only to preach them but to use them in the Divine Service.

From the lectionary I always go to the hymnal.  LSB has a marvelous hymn selection guide and you can use Lutheran Service Builder to locate hymns through its digital concordance to the hymnal but nothing replaces you own familiarity with the texts.  I believe that praying the texts of hymns is important devotionally for you and is the greatest tool and gift when planning for the Divine Service.  If you know the pericopes and you know where your sermon is going, then the next step for connecting the dots is to know the hymnal well enough that hymn choices are already flowing through your mind as you make it through the pericopes and sermon preparation.

I might say something here about tracking your use of hymns.  It is easy for the congregation to be reduced to using only 25% of the hymns in the book.  You want to use a combination of many familiar with one or maybe two new or less familiar tunes.  Given the desire to satisfy people and working within the limitations, it is not uncommon for parishes to know only a small percentage of the hymns in the book -- I knew one parish where only about 12 tunes from LW were used!  This is a problem that needs to be addressed.  If you do not know these tunes, set up a plan and program to learn them -- week by week.  Use soloists to sing them as preservice music, as the offering is gathered, or during the distribution.  The choir can do the same thing.  Warm up the folks before the liturgy begins and use these less familiar hymns to stretch their voices.  The only way a new hymn becomes a favorite is through frequent use.  Once you introduce a new hymn, use it again through the coming month so that its text and tune are embedded into the memory of the people.

Finally, the liturgy is addressed.  What season are we in?  What options are inherent to the season (omission of the Gloria in Excelsis and Alleluia during Lent, for example)?  What additional choices are there to be made (offertory, how to use the Psalmody, post-communion canticle, etc.)?  As you flesh out the choices for the Divine Service you also begin to see how the hymn possibilities may fit (entrance hymn, hymn of the day, distribution hymn, sending hymn, etc.).

The goal is to have it all fit together as a seamless garment in which nothing seems out of place or out of character.  In this way the fullest resources of the hymnal, lectionary, and church year flow together toward a common goal and purpose in the Divine Service.  I do this several times a year for 1/3-1/2 of the Sundays of the year so that I am always ahead.  It works for me.  Saturday night is the one thing that hardly ever works.  If you cannot plan months in advance (for the sake of your parish musician), at least plan one month ahead.

The hymnal is a tool.  If it is unfamiliar to you as the Pastor or parish musician, it will most certainly be unfamiliar to your people and an uncomfortable resource.  If you know it and use it as one who knows it inside and out, then it will encourage the people in the pew to use the full resources of the book in their family and individual devotional lives as well as Sunday morning.  Just do it...

Struggling to Understand Religious Dimensions of Conflict

The day of religious wars is over -- at least it is in America.  We no longer battle in the same way others in the world battle.  In fact, we find it very hard to understand religious wars at all.  Whether Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Iraq, Iran, or Egypt, we don't get it anymore.  We can understand demonstrations for freedom and democracy b  ut the dark underbelly of some of those fights is that religion is a key player in the whole thing.  It is hard to understand why anyone in Northern Ireland cares whether the Protestants or the Roman Catholics are in charge -- as long as the garbage is picked up, the schools teach children well, the roads are built and repaired, and the economy is growing.  We cannot understand why the people of Iraq care about Shiite, Sunni, Kurd, or Christian religious affiliation as long as the government functions effectively and efficiently.  Now as we watch the events unfolding in Egypt we are faced with the fact that there are religious undertones to this movement for freedom that confound us -- why the violence against the Copts?  what is the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood?  what does it matter as long as the economic situation improves, freedom and democracy flourish, and individual rights are protected.

We might have forgotten our own distant history -- the Thirty Years War, for example.  We might have forgotten the more recent history of America where certain states had established religion and some religions were outlawed at least into the early 19th century.  Or, it may be because we do not take our faith all that seriously.  I fear that this is one of the reasons why we fail to understand the religious dimensions of conflict between peoples and nations.

Once in a Bible study I said lightheartedly that I wished everyone would be Lutheran.  "Why" came the nearly universal response.  One person even said he did not get why we had evangelism or outreach.  If people want to be Lutheran, they know where we are and if they don't, well, no big deal.  In another context I once said that unless you believe that Lutheranism represents the most faithful, Scriptural, and fullest expression of Christianity, you should be shopping for another church home that is the most faithful, Scriptural and fullest expression of Christian faith.  Again, many of the people did not understand what I was saying.  Others understood but were embarrassed to chime in because it sounded so arrogant and rigid.

The point I am making is that too often the problem we have with getting our church mobilized for the work that God has given His church to do, the problem we have with people who are so very casual about worship attendance or bringing their children to Sunday school or children's activities that come before catechism class, or the problem we have getting people to share the hope that is within them, is that we are not convinced of the need.  We have taken the faith and the church with a grain of salt -- it is important but not important enough to fight over.  Therein lies the crux of the problem.

We will fight over political party or ideology, we will battle over sports teams and sports heros, we will dispute music and movies, but we are not excited enough about religion to break a sweat.  Now to be sure, I am not suggesting that we should lay siege to our religious enemies in America but I do think it behooves us to feel enough passion about what we believe, teach, and confess to be at least as interested in promoting and debating this as we are candidates for office, political parties and ideologies, sports loyalties, and entertainment preferences.

Let me use an analogy.  I have had couples come in for pre-marital counseling and they told me they have never had a fight, disagreement, or argument.  At that moment I am wondering if they have ever had a conversation, either.  It is impossible to live together as husband and wife and not disagree, even disagree heatedly.  In fact, one year I had two couples in counseling together and one fought all the time and the other never disagreed.  Interestingly, the couple that agreed separated and divorced within three months.  The couple that argued are still together (still arguing but forgiving).  Perhaps this is the problem.  We have come to some understanding of civil discourse that suggests that tolerance and acceptance are more Christian than standing up for the faith.  I find it hard to reconcile such with the words of Jesus.  Perhaps you can enlighten me.

I can understand the worship wars.  I can understand the battles over sexuality. Among other issues.  I do not understand the idea that we can disagree about the most fundamental of things and shrug our shoulders as we sit together in the same pews.  I am not saying we need armed conflict but either truth is truth (no matter what your perspective) or nothing is true.  I am not saying that worship wars or sexuality battles should be bloody but I do believe that if we care about either side of these we need to openly and passionately debate them and I do not get those who say that fundamental theological disagreement should be papered over or overlooked.  When we no longer care enough to stand up for what Scripture teaches or our Confessions state, we no longer hold to a truth worth holding at all.

I hope that we as Lutheran Christians are passionate about our faith and confession -- not to argue for the sake of arguing but passionate enough to care about what we believe, teach, and confess and about what others do not yet know or have not yet come to believe.  Faith is passionate -- in preaching, teaching, doing, and sharing.  I well recall once laughing with my brother who said the people in our home parish would be the first to rise on judgment day since the Bible said the dead in Christ shall be the first to rise and we could not imagine any folks more dead in Christ.  But even then, the lukewarm are reserved for a worse fate.  Perhaps we have forgotten that....   So... have at me...

Oh, Those Darn Lutheran Hymns (or Dirges)

I have been following several discussions and several blogs on the subject of Lutheran hymnody.  There are several issues being addressed.  One is the idea that in order to help new people develop a taste for Lutheran theology we have to give them Lutheran hymns (and liturgy) in little dribs and drabs.  Another idea is that Lutheran hymns are by nature somber and rather funeral like and we have to import so-called gospel hymns to spice up the mix and make things more happy.  Another idea is that hymns don't matter -- that as long as the meat it there in the Law and Gospel of the sermon (and maybe the liturgy), you can use whatever hymns you want -- they are nothing more the condiments to the main course.  Finally there is the idea the hymns are both expressions and confessions of our faith and witness we sing to those around us and to the world and that they need to express our theology and speak the Word faithfully just like the sermon.  I will let you guess where I fall.  And I have written about this before...

For now I continue to be mystified by those who insist that Lutheran hymnody is dirge-like, somber, and a downer.  I have perused the Lutheran Service Book many times and I can find very few hymns that sound like this in text or in tune.  There is such a rich tapestry of text and tune available in LSB that even if you might think one a bit somber, you have a myriad of other choices which are not -- in the same section or with the same thematic content.  It all makes me wonder of these critics have spent any time reading and singing these hymns or just react on the basic of them being "Lutheran."

I spent the other day at the bedside of a dying man and use the Commendation of the Dying.  In it I used a stanza from a hymn that many Lutherans never attempt --  "Lord, Thee I Love."  It is a two pager so some groan when they see that the hymn spills over on to another page.  Its melody is used only for this text and so some groan when they sing any hymn specific tune (except all those Christmas carols and gospel songs, of course).  And it addresses head on the reality of death but it does so from the vantage point of the great hope and confidence we have in Christ.  So in one of my last conversations with this man he prayed with me the wonderful words of Martin Schalling:

Lord, let at last Thine angels come,
To Abr’am’s bosom bear me home,
That I may die unfearing;
And in its narrow chamber keep
My body safe in peaceful sleep
Until Thy reappearing.
And then from death awaken me,
That these mine eyes with joy may see,
O Son of God, Thy glorious face,
My Savior and my fount of grace.
Lord Jesus Christ,
My prayer attend, my prayer attend,
And I will praise Thee without end!

This is depressing?  I am sorry.  I do not get it.  He had tears of joy in his eyes.  This was not a hymn he was accustomed to singing.  But it drew together his hope and confidence when the last hours of life are there.  None of us are isolated from this reality.  All of us have known the reality of death for our loved ones or even faced our own mortality.  So I continue to be mystified by the idea that ignoring harsh realities is a better track than to confront them with the power of Christ and His resurrection.

I could fill this blog with hymn after hymn, new ones and old ones, short ones and long ones, on all themes and subjects.  There is a real and vital expression of our hope and confidence resident in these hymns.  Sure, they do not focus solely or even primarily upon the response of the Christian as do most of the generic hymns of protestantism, the gospel hymns and songs of America, and the praise choruses of contemporary Christian music.  But they do not dance around the subjects of sin, suffering, and death.  They do not deposit our hope in some nebulous feeling or idea (I know He lives because He lives in me).  They are oriented toward the means of grace where we have Christ's promise and the pledge of His presence and gifts and grace.  Is this not what we want to be sung?  Is this not the song that should accompany the liturgy and carry out the door in the hearts, minds, and voices of God's people?  Is this not the soundtrack that accompanies our faith and confession in such a way that they speak the same message and sound the same truth?

So I do not get it.... Lutheran hymns are not some terrible burden upon our people or something for which we should be ashamed or embarrassed.  Lutheran hymns are part of the faithful deposit, the good tradition passed on to us by our faithful fathers and mothers from generations past.  Lutheran hymns should be celebrated and joyfully sung -- not because they are Lutheran but because of the faith and hope they express.  They remind us that Christ's story IS our story -- the only story that offers redemption to counter the death and destruction that is our story because of sin.

Another day I will talk about how we play those melodies and how we sing them... perhaps this might be part of the problem.  But for today I will let this stand.  Lutheran hymns are a gift to the church at large and they continue to speak to the world what we believe, teach, and confess.  And some of them have proven to be the most popular hymns in Christianity -- i. e. "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God."  So you will get no humility from me when it comes to the great treasures of the faith we call "Lutheran" hymns.

Presented to the Lord

Sermon for the Presentation of our Lord and the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Presentation of Our Lord and the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary is both a Christological feast and a Marian one.  It represents the end of the Scriptural narrative of Christ’s birth and we skip to age twelve and then to the waters of the Jordan and His baptism by John.  If is often called Candlemas from the blessing of candles (both for the Church’s use and the devotions of the home) throughout the coming year.

Saint Luke alone tells about this but then he is the only one who fills in the details of Jesus’ birth.   Luke 2:22-40 tells us what, how, and why of this day. According to St. Luke, Mary and Joseph took the Baby to the Temple in Jerusalem forty days after his birth to consecrate Jesus to God and to complete the ritual purification of Mary, both because of the command of God’s Law (Exodus 13:1-2, 11-16; Leviticus 12).

Mary and Joseph keep the law.  Mary comes after forty days of solitude with the child Jesus to make her first appearance in public.   For forty days she has kept solitude with Jesus.  While this is the command of God, surely we can the beneficial consequences of her concern only for her child.  Childbirth was fraught with danger then (even as it is now, though we have forgotten so).  So she bonds with Jesus as mother to her child even as she recovers her own strength.  And through it all she ponders all this in her heart, as Scripture reminds us.  When it is time, the first place she goes is the Temple, to offer the sacrifice of her cleansing and to give thanks for His providential care during the rigors and dangers of child birth.

In olden days this was commonly done among Christians, called the churching of women.  I am sad that we have let this fall on the wayside.  I well recall when the local Episcopal priest came to my wife’s bedside and prayed the prayers for the churching of women for her.

And then Jesus was presented to the Lord, consecrated as God’s own child.  He is already the Lord’s Son in the veil of human flesh and blood but again Jesus fulfills the Law and keeps its requirements.  He is offered formally and in Him all of us are offered to the Lord, consecrated and set apart as the children of God, that you and I might so be presented to the Father in Him.

Now these things were no private acts.  This was not some secret prayer but the public affirmation that God’s law is good and wise.  And there in the midst of it all they meet Simeon and Anna.   It must have been disconcerting for Mary to have this strange, craggily old man come up and scoop up Jesus right from her arms and then sing out a prayer to God.  We have come to call this prayer the Nunc Dimittis.  In it a faithful old man acknowledged that God had kept His Word, shone His light upon the Gentiles and showed His glorify to His people.  Israel has its consolation and the world its Savior – all hidden in the form of a child.

Simeon too had words about the future that lay before this child who was at once like all and unlike any child, the One who will be set for the rising and falling of many.  But Mary, whose soul would also be pierced, was also included in this prophecy to be fulfilled when Jesus was mounted on the cross.

Treasure this in your heart because it is one of very few passages of Scripture that tell us anything of Jesus before He is 30 years old and stands in the Jordan River to take on the mantle of the world’s redeemer.  Yet even in what seems to be private moments with the Holy Family, Jesus divine and saving purpose cannot be hidden.  His grace speaks whether we want to hear it or not... and it speaks now, in the day of salvation, but one day the door of grace shall be sealed and those outside its domain will find only judgment.  So we rejoice with Simeon and with Anna.  God is good.

And think of how our Lord presents us before the Father as He once was – Look, Lord, here is one of Yours.  It is as if Jesus still scoops us up in His arms every time we pass the entry into God’s House and shows us to the Father, “This is one of Yours, Lord.”
In the response of faith, what can we say to what God has said and done for us in Christ?  Nothing but echo Simeon’s own words. Lord, I am ready, my life is fulfilled because Your Word and promise has been kept.  I have seen my salvation...  Can you see why it was that Luther took this ancient canticle so often sung in the evening offices of the Church’s daily prayer and connected it to the Lord’s Supper.  There we see what Simeon once saw – there we see our salvation.  There we see Jesus.

Today we pray with thanksgiving for the faithfulness of Joseph and Mary, of Simeon and Anna, of Jesus (the Lord’s Christ), and we ask God to guide us and keep us that we may be faithful.  Today we are grateful that Jesus was presented to the Father according to the Law so that we might be presented to the Father in Christ as the fruits of His redeeming work, the children of His grace and light.

Today we acknowledge that in the midst of all that God has done through His Son, all we can is respond with Simeon of old.

    Lord, now you let your servant go in peace;
    Your word has been fulfilled.
    My eyes have seen the salvation
    You have prepared in the sight of every people,
    A light to reveal you to the nations
    and the glory of your people, Israel. Amen.

Foolishness and Folly. . .

 Sermon for Epiphany 4A, preached on Sunday, January 30, 2011.

 

    It has often been said that it is better to keep your mouth shut and only be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.  If Pastors paid attention to such wisdom, there would be no sermons.  I well recall the Bible study in which I spoke about what Scripture said, only to have someone stand up and say "That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard."  But that is precisely the point.  According to the world, our reason, and the way we sense things, the things of God are stupid or foolish or unbelievable.  The is the direct fruit of sin.  Without the Spirit and faith, God's Word and God's ways are a jumble to our ears.  Only God can repair the damage so that we can hear and believe Him and His eternal and abiding truth.
    In the Epistle for today St. Paul speaks of the foolishness and folly of the Cross.  The Word of God and the teachings of the faith violate our reason and understanding.  There is no way around this.  That sin has created such damage to us and to our creation that it has brought us mortal death and eternal damnation is unbelievable to our reason and worldly sensibility.  A character flaw is something correctable.  We can fix it.  The idea that what sin has done to us and to all creation is so grave and deep that we cannot repair ourselves or repair the world from sin's effect, is shocking to us.
    In the same way, the idea that all that is wrong with us proceeds from sin and its destructive effects is illogical.  Diseases have causes. We have  antidotes to poison, immunizations for some terrible scourges of the past, and medicines to overcome illness.  Our reason has told us it is matter of research and we will find the cure to all that ails us -- even death itself will be postponed indefinitely or overcome entirely when we finally discover all the cures and the secrets of our DNA.  It shocks us that we can't fix what's wrong.
    Our mind and hearts find it the greatest foolishness that we don’t get to define what is true and what is not.  Why, we decide what is true all the time – from the political truths we choose at the ballot box to the brands we find reliable in the marketplace to the sports figures and teams we follow in the arena, we are always deciding which one is the right one for me.  That God has defined His truth, and it is a take it or leave is truth, is shocking to us and an affront to our reason and dignity.  Yet without the Spirit, that is exactly how we see it.
    The truth of God and His Word is not appealing to our reason and the work of the Spirit is to transcend reason and understanding with trust.  When St. Paul first wrote these words it was the same as it is today.  God’s Word and God’s ways are unintelligible apart from the Spirit.  We and our world have not changed. We still seek a God who is logical, reasonable, understandable.  The God who we meet in Scripture is foolishness to us unless He shows Himself to us and gives us His Spirit to know Him where He has chosen to make himself known.
    God's wisdom neither requires nor expects our understanding or our acceptance.  God's wisdom and truth require faith, worked by the Holy Spirit, within the framework of our hearts hardened to the things of God.  This faith does not unpack God's truth to fit our reason but trusts in what we do not understand and what our reason cannot accept.  In worship we come to meet Jesus where He has hidden Himself, in the means of grace and trust what He gives us there.  This is why Jesus says that unless we become like a little child, we cannot enter the kingdom of God.  Adults seek to understand.  Children trust.
    We have just come through Christmas in which the foolishness and folly of God is met in the manger.  How can the God who made all things become a human child, wearing mortal flesh, becoming one of us in order to save us?  This Gospel is just not reasonable; we do not understand it.  We trust it.
    We just heard John tell us that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  In a few weeks we will begin to walk with Him that journey to the cross through Lent to see what it means for Jesus to be that Lamb of God.  That sin must be paid for in blood and that Jesus has the only blood that can atone for the sin of the whole world is a folly whose truth is lost to us except and until the  Holy Spirit opens our hearts to trust in that blood shed for us and for our salvation.  Talk of blood bought redemption is abhorrent to the modern mind.  Only the Spirit can bridge the gap between modern sensibility and God’s truth and He does so with faith.
    We assume that the greatest power of all is to bring harm.  We understand this even if we find it distasteful.  After all for how many years did we not live in the awkward peace of two nations whose nuclear might was kept at bay only through our fear of mutually assured destruction?  So we expect God’s greatest power to be destructive.  But instead we find the triumph of His mercy over His wrath, of grace over condemnation.  Only faith can bridge this gap and only the Spirit can lead us to trust such foolishness or folly.
    You want to know why it is so hard to make Christians out of people?  We tend to think you make Christians by making the things of God palatable, reasonable, acceptable to our mind and hearts.  But God, His Word and His ways will always be folly and foolishness until and unless the Holy Spirit transcends this gap with the bridge that is faith born of the Spirit.
    Everything in the Gospel goes against every ounce of human reason.  It is a confusing joke to us until and unless the Spirit enables us to believe and trust in God's Word and ways. God does not make Christians by making His Word and ways palatable or acceptable to us; He does so by granting us the Holy Spirit so that we may overcome the limitations of our reason and understanding and simply believe and trust.
    So it should not surprise us when the things of God seem foolish to us or someone judges the Gospel as stupid.  The fatal flaw here is not that we could have explained it better, though surely we could have.  The fatal flaw is that sin has rendered the human mind and heart impenetrable by the things of God unless and until the Spirit breaks through and our fearful, stubborn hearts learn to trust in what we cannot explain or understand in human terms.  We meet God not in a reasoned consensus but in the mystery of His truth that does what it promises and accomplishes what is claims.  The only currency that works in the transaction we call faith is trust given by the Spirit.
    Here in God's House we come to meet the mystery of who God is, to behold Him where He has placed Himself, to receive what His Word and Sacraments promise.  And what we need to know Him here, He grants us by His Spirit.... the faith and trust which see Him where He has hidden and revealed Himself, granting us what we dare not ask or even hope for except in Christ.  This is the great Epiphany – God is come not so that I might understand Him but so that I might trust in Him.  Once we get this with the Spirit’s help, the mystery is not some puzzle to be assembled but the gift of grace to arouse us to joy and thanksgiving.  Amen.

When Parents Need to Chill...

I have both read about and witnessed countless instances in which doting parents shut down a child's activity because they fear it might be dangerous.  As one of the parents of our three children, I have been the emergency rooms of number of cities in several states.  Stitches and crutches have not been unknown in our home.  Our kids have been injured playing baseball, driving ATVs, roughhousing at home and church, and just walking down an icy sidewalk -- sometimes with our permission and knowledge of their activities and sometimes without.

There are many stories about how the first child is coddled and cared for so that nary a whimper is allowed to pass from the lips before mom or dad is there to comfort or console and about how this moves to almost callous indifference by the time it is the third or fourth or fifth child.  Perhaps the fact folks are having fewer children means that all the over-attention usually worn out on the first born does not have a chance to diminish into reasoned but not overly cautious care.

It is not the worst thing on earth is that our child might be slightly wounded by any of his or her activities, ingest anything but organic and free range food, or have to suffer through something they did not like.  In this spirit, parents have become adversaries of their children's teachers and often view the school as their enemy as well as their child's.  In the same way, parents have been over sensitive to and defense about any slight or injustice their children might have to endure (and quickly amplify their children's disputes into their own battles).  Now, don't get me wrong -- I am neither condoning bullying nor suggesting that bullies be ignored.  I am speaking here more of the ordinary stuff that kids get into.

My own parents were not so doting.  They told me up front that my teacher was always right and if I screwed up at school I would have worse to face when I got home.  This was not meanness on their part but a solid understanding of authority -- for them the teacher in my classroom was an extension of their own authority to hold accountable and discipline.  Granted the times were different in the 1950s but some of the difference is one of our own creation.  It is common today for parents to take personally anything that happens to their children and to live their own lives, hopes, and aspirations through their children -- at least in a way that I did not see or experience when I was a child growing up (so very long ago).

We take our kids to the doctor at the drop of a hat, we fight the teacher when our kids do not get the grade we think they deserve, and we treat the friends of our children as possible competitors and potential enemies. Yet when it comes to their souls, we allow any and every excuse to justify not taking them to the worship services of God's house, not being in Sunday school, and not doing their catechism homework.  We would not dare inflict our religious values on our children but want them to have the freedom to explore belief or unbelief on their own terms and yet if our children get into a tussle on the school grounds, we are ready to take somebody to court to defend our kids against their enemies.  Well, St. Paul tells us the sin and death and the real enemies and that we live in a world where evil and wickedness are all around us.

Personally, I think parents need to chill.  Except for the really serious infractions, I think the rule should be "what happens on the playground stays on the playground."  Don't make your kid's battles your battles or try to fight every one of their enemies for them.  Chill out a bit.  Give up some of that over protective fervor and direct some of your energy to your children's spiritual welfare and eternal life.  Be there to console and guide but do not give them the idea that you can fix every bad thing that will happen to them.  You can't.  You can train them up in the way they should go, but the shepherd over their lives is Jesus.  He knows the rough and tumble world in which we live and His grace is sufficient even in the midst of our worst trials and suffering.

Instead of worrying about the terrible things you child's teacher may be doing to your kid, why not worry more about the influence of the TV upon their lives or supervising their time on the internet or getting to know their real friends or overseeing and limiting their exposure to the web friends of the social media networks.  It amazes me how often the same parents who treat the teacher as the enemy and find every reason to skip church or Sunday school or insist upon taking on their child's battles as their own wars, allow their kids to dress in ways inappropriate to their age, act rude and crude, disrespect the people in authority over them (including in Church), have free and unobstructed access to the latest technological toys, and way too much privacy.  If you don't believe me, watch an episode of Toddlers and Tiaras.  Is this really where we want to go with our kids?

Five Minutes With Nothing to Do But Think

This is the first year with all the Sunday’s after Epiphany since 2000, and it will be the last time it happens until 2038.  So, this is the last time I will preach on the Wheat and Tares until I am old enough for Medicare.  I guess it better be a pretty good sermon. So said the Forest Boar...

Now that set me a thinkin.... I know, I know, it can be scary when I get to thinkin...   Here is a graph of the dates of Easter until 2100.  In that year I would turn 146 so I am not going to worry much about that.  There are only 11 Easters April 20 or later.  Only two are as late as or later than this year (2038, 2095).  Hmmm.

Easter in the West is the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or after March 21.

Easter: April    24,  2011     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 9
Easter: April      8,  2012     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 22
Easter: March  31,  2013     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 13
Easter: April    20,  2014     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 5
Easter: April      5,  2015     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 18
Easter: March  27,  2016     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 10
Easter: April    16,  2017     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 1
Easter: April      1,  2018     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 14
Easter: April    21,  2019     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 6

Easter: April    12,  2020     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 26
Easter: April      4,  2021     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 17
Easter: April    17,  2022     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 2
Easter: April      9,  2023     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 22
Easter: March  31,  2024     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 14
Easter: April    20,  2025     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 5
Easter: April      5,  2026     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 18
Easter: March  28,  2027     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 10
Easter: April    16,  2028     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 29
Easter: April      1,  2029     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 14

Easter: April    21,  2030     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 6
Easter: April    13,  2031     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 26
Easter: March  28,  2032     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 11
Easter: April    17,  2033     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 2
Easter: April      9,  2034     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 22
Easter: March  25,  2035     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 7
Easter: April    13,  2036     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 27
Easter: April      5,  2037     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 18
Easter: April    25,  2038     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 10
Easter: April    10,  2039     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 23

Easter: April      1,  2040     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 15
Easter: April    21,  2041     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 6
Easter: April      6,  2042     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 19
Easter: March  29,  2043     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 11
Easter: April    17,  2044     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 2
Easter: April      9,  2045     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 22
Easter: March  25,  2046     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 7
Easter: April    14,  2047     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 27
Easter: April      5,  2048     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 19
Easter: April    18,  2049     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 3

Easter: April    10,  2050     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 23
Easter: April      2,  2051     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 15
Easter: April    21,  2052     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 6
Easter: April      6,  2053     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 19
Easter: March  29,  2054     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 11
Easter: April    18,  2055     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 3
Easter: April      2,  2056     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 16
Easter: April    22,  2057     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 7
Easter: April    14,  2058     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 27
Easter: March  30,  2059     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 12

Easter: April    18,  2060     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 3
Easter: April    10,  2061     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 23
Easter: March  26,  2062     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 8
Easter: April    15,  2063     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 28
Easter: April      6,  2064     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 20
Easter: March  29,  2065     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 11
Easter: April    11,  2066     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 24
Easter: April      3,  2067     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 16
Easter: April    22,  2068     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 7
Easter: April    14,  2069     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 27

Easter: March  30,  2070     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 12
Easter: April    19,  2071     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 4
Easter: April    10,  2072     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 24
Easter: March  26,  2073     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 8
Easter: April    15,  2074     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 28
Easter: April      7,  2075     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 20
Easter: April    19,  2076     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 4
Easter: April    11,  2077     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 24
Easter: April      3,  2078     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 16
Easter: April    23,  2079     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 8

Easter: April      7,  2080     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 21
Easter: March  30,  2081     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 12
Easter: April    19,  2082     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 4
Easter: April      4,  2083     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 17
Easter: March  26,  2084     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 9
Easter: April    15,  2085     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 28
Easter: March  31,  2086     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 13
Easter: April    20,  2087     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 5
Easter: April    11,  2088     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 25
Easter: April      3,  2089     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 16

Easter: April    16,  2090     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 1
Easter: April      8,  2091     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 21
Easter: March  30,  2092     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 13
Easter: April    12,  2093     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 25
Easter: April      4,  2094     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 17
Easter: April    24,  2095     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 9
Easter: April    15,  2096     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 29
Easter: March  31,  2097     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 13
Easter: April    20,  2098     Ash Wednesday:  Mar. 5
Easter: April    12,  2099     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 25

Easter: March  28,  2100     Ash Wednesday:  Feb. 11

Assuming Christ does not return and spoil all the results of my postulating, there will be a lot of texts that will be heard only sparingly over the course of the next 89 years.  I am not so worried because I figure once I hit the year 2054 I will be recycling the old manuscripts -- that is if I can still speak, read, or breathe....  Lord, give me something to do because the past five minutes of thinkin time have just about worn me out...