When? Do not fear. . .

Sermon for Pentecost 26, Proper 28C, preached on Sunday, November 13, 2016.

The disciples were strolling through Jerusalem like tourists marveling at the temple which was a rather grand building even by today’s standards.  Even more than the building, they were enamored with the life they knew, figuring things would be the same forever.  We are like them.  We marvel at the things mankind has accomplished and presume that life will go on forever.  We treat the earthly things as if they were eternal and the eternal as if they were temporary.  It is the same problem every generation has had.

Jesus insists it will not last.  The end is coming.  But they could not conceive of the end any more than we can imagine it.  So instead of focusing on what Jesus says, we turn our attention to the timetable.  When?  When will all these things happen?  How will we know?  We are the same.  We know death is coming but it is more important to us when we will die.  We know as Christians the world is coming to an end but more important to us is when it will happen.

We have stuff.  That is why when is important.  Our lives are all tied up in our stuff. We want to protect our stuff.  We are worried about our stuff.  We hand onto this life and the things of this life, to all our stuff, as if this were all we expected.  We fear for our things as much as we fear for our lives.  We do not want to let go of our stuff.  Even when we purge our closets, drawers, attics, and basements, we are ready to buy more.  We are purging for more space for more stuff more than we are letting go of our things.  This is how wrapped up we are in our stuff.

We say you cannot take it with you but that does not stop us from trying.  We define a successful life as one without regrets but only a fool lives without regrets. We define a happy life as one rich in experiences and yet those memories provide little consolation when staring into the darkness of a grave.  We define a good life as one filled with the comforts of things, of all the technological toys and wonderful stuff this life can provide to us.  Jesus says it is coming to an end and we are so foolish that all we are concerned about is when it will end.
The world is coming to an end.  This is no doomsday prophetic utterance but the promise given to a dying and decaying world since sin gave way to death and the eternal was overwhelmed by the temporary nature of life.  The big question for us is whether we think this is good news or bad news.
So what do you think?  Is it good news or bad news that the days are coming when stone will not be left upon stone, when all our things will fade away, and when all that we have come to know will pass away?

Faith teaches us to go beyond our fears and to rejoice in the promise of the eternal. Good riddance!  Stuff that cannot be kept will self-destruct and only the eternal will be left.  Faith teaches us to let go of all that is passing.  We can use it for holy and godly purpose, to provide for our families and loved ones, to care for the poor and those in need, and to glorify God but none of what we see around us will last.  All of it will fade into the eternal that St. Paul says is beyond imagination.

Our treasure was never in the here and now.  Our hopes were never in the present lasting forever.  Our dreams were for more than a better version of today.  Our confidence lies not in this world or all its stuff but in what the blood of Christ has washed and cleansed, what the death of Christ has paid in full, and what the resurrection of Christ has prepared for you and me and all who love Him.

You are not like your things.  You are worth more than your stuff.  You are more than the sum of your possessions or all of your accomplishments and memories.  You belong to Christ.  He has purchased and won you.  The world will pass away but YOU will not pass away.  You will pass through death to your own joyful resurrection with Christ and the saints who have gone before.  You are not destined for a moment but for eternity.  Do not live as though your life was anchored in your stuff or in the things of this moment.

Nation will rise against nation and this has been the way of the world since the fall.  Earthquakes and famines and disasters have been the norm since creation was kicked out of the garden to pursue its own self-appointed life.  Armies will rise up and threaten.  People will flee in terror.  Cities will be ruins and even the heavens will be shaken.

But not a hair of your head will perish.  You will gain your lives for all eternity in Christ and in this faith you will endure threat, fear, enemy, persecution, and even death itself.  Do not be captive to your fears.  Witness boldly to what will not pass away, to the Word of the Lord that endures forever.  As the world trembles, speak the Word of Christ that calms the soul and gives peace to the heart.  Christ has come.  There is salvation in His name.  He has shown us the mercy of God. 

Our sins are forgiven.  Our lives belong to Him who gives to us a share in His own eternity.  Heaven has been prepared for us and the glory of the moment will fade from our memory as we meet the glory to come.

Our hope is not in things – the gods of our stuff and our mortal lives must give way to the God who gives eternal life.  Do not be afraid.  Do not fear.  Your stuff has an expiration date but YOU do not.  Instead of being worried about when all of this will happen, rejoice in the God who will keep your life today and for eternity.

Because the things of which Jesus speaks have already happened and continue to happen.  Look around you.  Listen to the news.  Christ has already told us what is to come.  We are not brought low by the realization that today will pass away because we are heirs of eternity.  We sing the praise of an eternal God who has given to us the eternal victory that is ours in Christ and made us mortals eternal by His promise.

Like the saints of old, we are tempted to fear but do not give into it.  Not one hair on your head will perish.  Christ promises it!  Like the saints of old, our hope is not in today lasting longer but in an eternal tomorrow.  We rejoice in the promise that we will be raised from the dust of a dying world to everlasting life and to a future the devil cannot prevent and death cannot steal.

So repent not only of your sins but of your fears.  Repent not only of the wrongs you have done but your doubts.  Repent not only of your love for the things of this world but your failure to take serious the things of God that are yours eternally.  Repent and believe.  And peace will be yours.  Your redemption is near.  The Word is your peace.  The water of your baptism has give you new life.  The food of this table feeds you not simply for this hour or this year or this life but the food of eternity.  In Jesus name.  Amen.

Enforcing Politically Correct Speech in the Church

Enforcing the law to punish those who break the law is so often not enough.  Things change slowly.  Using the law to make changes in society is much faster.  The law does not simply punish then but directs the changes.  Now Massachusetts is thinking that the law may apply to churches.  If churches do things beside worship (as if that ever happened) then perhaps the law just might apply to those  events.  Churches that are open to the public for events not of an obvious religious nature could be subject to the law.  A church that either promotes or even appears to tolerate language critical of transgender people could be accused of creating a “hostile environment” for transgenders and therefore would be guilty of “harassment.” 

The law mostly applies to businesses that serve the general public. However, according to guidance from the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, churches that hold “secular” events like “a spaghetti dinner…open to the general public” are under the statute during such events. The Commission is the state agency tasked with creating policies to enforce the law.

As The Stream previously reported, this could lead to pastors in jail. From the Commission’s document: “Violation of the law shall be punished by a fine of not more than twenty-five hundred dollars or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or both…. In addition, the violator shall be liable to the aggrieved person for damages.”
Republican state Rep. Jim Lyons told Conservative Review that the bill “was never about [preventing] discrimination.”

“[I]t has always been about forcing a radical social agenda on the people of Massachusetts. … Our religious freedoms are now being trampled on by the radicals in Massachusetts,” Lyons said. “The bathroom bill is all about changing society,” and it “is eliminating our rights to privacy, our rights to protect our children and our rights to religious liberty.”

Washington Post legal analyst Eugene Volokh said the law could end up with pastors being punished if even members of the congregation didn’t use the government-approved language. A church that appears to tolerate language critical of transgender people can be accused of creating a “hostile environment,” and therefore “harassment.”

Grin and bear it. . .

It seems that no minor issue cannot be turned into a huge crisis and every parent feels compelled to enter into the fray and do the bidding of his or her little boy or girl.  I have watched as parents deal with the catastrophe of an iPad that did not want to connect to the wifi, of hair that did not want to obey the will of the head on which it lived, of the constant need to be entertained, etc...  The once noble art of parenting has become babysitting and the goal of it all is to keep the kid occupied, happy, and content.  When did that become the primary focus of parenting?  What ever happened to grin and bear it? What are we teaching our children by relenting to their every complaint and responding to their every want?  Are we helping them to find their place in the world?  Or are we encouraging them to be weak, fearful, and self-centered adults? 

Over and over again we are confronted with the tyranny of the self-absorbed.  Think of the college student who believes it is assault to face ideas and opinions he does not agree with and finds threatening...  Think of the high schooler who refuses to complete an assignment because he or she does not like the topic or finds it offensive or simply does not want to do it...  Think of the children who carry around their phones and cannot live without them (hence the problem of what to do with them in school, the ever present warning signs at every dental or doctor's office reminding us to turn them off during appointments)...  Think of the dress code and the personal desire for self-expression (or could it be flamboyance) that creates a constant and unresolvable tension...  Think of gender identity which becomes the whim of the day in which the desire of the moment transcends biology, DNA, and reason... Think of the approaching example of Belgium when any child may be allowed to end his or her life when that life becomes unbearable in the view of the child...

I must admit that the ever present cell phone is an invitation to share your displease with anyone who might be listening to voice or text and therefore make what is your problem, their problem. 

But before we go blaming the children, maybe we ought to take another look at the parents who have created such a culture of me under the dictatorship of desire.  When did parenting become the task of resolving every problem your child might face?  When did parenting devolve into the burden of finding happiness for and keeping your children happy?  Is this a burden thrust upon parenting or could it be that parents find it easier to resolve their own unhappiness by making their children happy?  Could it be that parents are giving up parenting in favor of life coaching their children to a future they wanted for themselves but did not get?  Could it be that instead of parenting and its compelling cause to say "no" we as parents prefer to say "yes" lest love be tested by disappointment and grows cold?

I wish I knew the answer.  What I do know is that the parenting that keeps our children children is not the parenting of Scripture.  What I do know is that if earthly moms and dads think it is their duty to make their children happy, those kids will grow up with a perspective on God that will surely lead to an abandonment of the faith.  What I do know is that the home is the best place for children to learn how to deal with the disappointment that life cannot help but deliver later on.  What I do know is that getting past your ego is the first step toward honest maturity and real faith.  What ever happened to telling a child to grin and bear it -- or perhaps, suck it up and deal with it?

The truth is that I find adults becoming more childish and children being kept infantile and adolescent.  We have invented words (think micro-agression) to create a climate in which we think we are owed an atmosphere at home, work, and play that insulates us from anything and everything we do not want to face.  So we live in a world of political correctness which is really nothing more than a version of a temper tantrum disguised behind noble sounding words and concepts that ultimately mean little.

Don't give in, parents!  Love your children enough to make them do what is right when they don't want to, to teach them the value of some suffering in life, to help them come to terms with things they don't like or agree with, and to give up the eternal quest for entertainment.  Love your children enough to insist that they will get over it, they will work through it, and they will be better people for it.  The dictatorship of personal preference and desire offers none of the real happiness and contentment we seek.  Life is messy.  It requires us to face things we don't want or like.  It dumps crap on us all the time.  Calling home is not the solution.  Grin and bear it.  Suffer through it.  Deal with it.  This could be the second best thing we teach our children -- after the Christian faith, of course.

The solemn task of the preacher. . .

It is right and just that at least once each Lent we are reminded that we don’t have to believe that God sent Jesus to suffer and die for us. There is no “happy fault or necessary sin.” Jesus did indeed die a violent death of crucifixion. That was an historical event. But the interpretation of the event is an act of theology and faith. And there are different interpretations in our Christian tradition.  So has the skeptic and critic disguised as a preacher attempted to explain the event of the crucifixion to a church full of people gathered to make the annual journey from Ash Wednesday to Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  It happened in a Roman Catholic parish but it could have been many other churches. 

It helps to remember that our gospels are not exact histories or biographies.  They are faith proclamations.  At least three layers make up the gospels: the words and deeds of Jesus, later remembering and interpreting the life of Jesus (some preached, some written), and still later in new contexts the written gospels.  Again, the same idea.  Preaching that is not preaching.  Words to undermine the Word and tame the wild power of God deposited in means of grace.  The Gospel that is a word but not a fact, an idea but not truth.  Who wants that or need that?  The people in the pew certainly have a right to expect more from their pastors than the above.

Preaching is a sacred task and the relationship of preacher to people is one of solemn trust.  God gives no preacher the right to substitute his erudite opinions learned at the shrines of liberal education for what He has said.  The Church does not confer upon anyone the authority to speak his own doubts or fears as the voice of God.  What the preacher thinks or feels is of little importance to the people of God so it is imperative that those in the pew do not encourage the ramblings of skeptics in the place of real sermons.  It only diminishes the real power of the one voice that speaks and creation comes into being, the Word that the prophets proclaimed throughout the generations until it became flesh of the Virgin by the power of the Spirit, and the means of grace that has the power to release the sinner of his sins, cover up the tattered rags of failed righteousness with pure holiness, and deliver the sinner from the threat of death's verdict to the promise of everlasting life.

What God seeks is a preacher without guile who will speak the Word and preach it home without letting his own uncertainties or unique perspectives getting in the way of what God has said and done and the fruits of that redeeming work.  What people seek is exactly the same thing -- one who will speak in fashion and out the changeless Word of God that alone saves.  The preacher is tempted by his sincerity, his desire to make things happen, his need to be loved and respected, and his desire to impress the hearers with his own learning and intellect.  The people are tempted by their own sincerity, their desire to hear something that will make what they want to happen in their lives, their own desires to be loved and respected, and their contention that their intellect, learning, and perspective is no less legitimate than the preachers.  If the Spirit is working in him and the preacher is faithful, he will control all of these temptations and preach to the Word.  If the Spirit does as He has promised, He will prepare the ear to hear and the heart to believe that Word.  And that, my friends, is enough.

Uncommon Grace. . . worth the watching

Flannery O'Connor remains one of my favorite writers.  Though she penned only 2 novels and 32 short stories, her literary output was of sterling quality.  Though she was certain no one had any interest in her life -- “Lives spent between the house and the chicken yard do not make exciting copy”-- her life story remains an urgent pursuit among many.  You can watch what just might be the most thorough review of her life (she died in 1964) in the documentary Uncommon Grace:  The Life of Flannery O'Connor (available on DVD here).



She lived with great limitations -- growing up in the backwoods of Georgia with a chicken who walked backwards, suffering grave physical ailments that caused her much pain, and living a brief life -- she was more than profound in the way she wove faith into her work.  It was, perhaps, therapeutic.  She dealt with all the troubles and trials of her life by being a daily communicant at mass and manifesting a humble attitude before the Lord: “The mind serves best when it’s anchored in the Word of God,” she wrote among the many signal quotations in her collection of letters -- words that sound just like the Lord (The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom) but translated through her own particular lens.   “Don’t let me ever think, dear God, that I was anything but the instrument of Your story,” she wrote in her diary (discovered well after she died).  Would that every Christian viewed the story of his or her own life in the same way!

She is not for those searching for a sanitized life.  Her stories are filled with violence.  According to O’Connor: “My subject in fiction is the action of grace in territory largely held by the devil.”  Yet in the midst of it all you find the lost at the moment when redemption offers itself -- the moment when you are thrown up against the questions at the core of life -- who you are, where you are, why you are.  Her witness deposits good and ill, virtue and vice, suffering and peace within the hands of God who alone makes sense of it all.


I listen to her own reading of A Good Man Is Hard to Find every now and then just to rekindle my own fascination with her voice, her talent, her literary skill, and her faith. 

Mark Wahlberg on priesthood and priestly vocations. . .

Mark Wahlberg, the star of such Hollywood blockbusters as “The Perfect Storm”, “The Departed”, “Transformers”, “Planet of the Apes”, and others, posted a video through the Diocese of Providence’s Facebook page, talking about the Catholic Priesthood and encouraging vocations.

The video was all over Facebook and the social media.  I do not need to repost it here but I think it is a powerful statement coming from a popular Hollywood personality that stands in stark contrast to the religious skepticism generally seen in Tinseltown.  Wahlberg is no stranger to public support for the Christian faith and his Roman Catholic heritage.  He has been a vocal and steadfast voice in support of pastoral work, faithfulness to the mass, and Catholic family values.  Though he does not speak for or to Lutherans, his witness is not without its implications for us as well.  Lutherans, especially of the LCMS variety, are facing an uncertain future in terms of vocations to the pastoral ministry.  We are at one and the same time facing a decade that will certainly see the highest numbers of retirements from a boom generation of pastors that will leave our churches scrambling and declining seminary enrollments that already are not keeping pace with the need for pastors.

If you love your church, pray for these pastoral vocations, support the seminaries with your generous financial giving, and encourage the brightest and best of our young men to consider the pastoral calling.  I grew up on the heels of a generation in which men of the cloth were portrayed in the media as heroic figures and individuals who could have done anything and yet chose to be pastors.  Since then the media has done its darnedest to portray clergy as weak, vacillating, spineless, immoral, bigoted, and greedy fools.  Bing Crosby (Going My Way) and Karl Malden (On the Waterfront) and Tom Tryon (The Cardinal) have all given way to The Rev. Mr. Bean or The Vicar of Dibley or the Impastor.  Folks, if you want pastors for your children or grandchildren, you need to esteem the pastoral office as a noble calling and encourage young men to consider such a vocation and then make it possible financially for them to pay for the training and finish the course to serve the Lord in His Church.

So now what. . .

What should we do now that Trump has won?  We should do the same thing we should have done if Clinton had won.  Let us pray for those elected.

Lord, keep this nation under Your care. Bless those now elected and all the leaders of our land that we may be a people at peace among ourselves and a blessing to the other nations of the earth. Grant that we may choose trustworthy leaders, contribute to wise decisions for the general welfare, and serve You faithfully in our generation; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.

O merciful Father in heaven, because You hold in Your hand all the might of man and because You have ordained, for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of of those who do well, all the powers that exist in all the nations of the world, we humbly pray You graciously to regard Your servants, Barack our President; Donald our President elect, the Congress of the United States and those newly elected therein; our Governor; and all those who make, administer, and judge our laws;  that all who receive the sword as Your ministers may bear it according to Your Word;. through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.


Almighty God, grant integrity and well-being to all who are in authority in our nation and in this community, especially Donald Trump, our President elect and Michael Pence, our Vice-President elect. Grant them grace and wisdom to rule according to Your good pleasure, to the maintenance of justice and to the hindrance and punishment of wickedness, that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.

Almighty God, You have given us this good land as our heritage. Grant that we remember Your generosity and constantly do Your will. Bless our land with honest industry, truthful education, and an honorable way of life. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion, from pride and arrogance, and from every evil course of action. Grant that we, who came from many nations with many different languages, may become a united people. Support us in defending our liberties, and give those to whom we have entrusted the authority of government the spirit of wisdom, that there may be justice and peace in our land. When times are prosperous, may our hearts be thankful, and in troubled times do not let our trust in You fail; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.

In case you need help remembering what and how to pray. . .

Vocation and Work. . .

George Will reviewed Men Without Work: America's Invisible Crisis.  Let me quote Will here:

The “quiet catastrophe” is particularly dismaying because it is so quiet, without social turmoil or even debate. It is this: After 88 consecutive months of the economic expansion that began in June 2009, a smaller percentage of American males in the prime working years (ages 25 to 54) are working than were working near the end of the Great Depression in 1940, when the unemployment rate was above 14 percent. If the labor-force participation rate were as high today as it was as recently as 2000, nearly 10 million more Americans would have jobs.

The work rate for adult men has plunged 13 percentage points in a half-century. This “work deficit” of “Great Depression-scale underutilization” of male potential workers is the subject of Nicholas Eberstadt’s new monograph “Men Without Work: America’s Invisible Crisis,” which explores the economic and moral causes and consequences of this:

Since 1948, the proportion of men 20 and older without paid work has more than doubled, to almost 32 percent. This “eerie and radical transformation” — men creating an “alternative lifestyle to the age-old male quest for a paying job” — is largely voluntary. Men who have chosen to not seek work are two-and-a-half times more numerous than men who government statistics count as unemployed because they are seeking jobs.

These folks are not counted in unemployment statistics because they are voluntarily unemployed and not even looking for work. The numbers of men between 25 to 54 who are “economically inactive” is unprecedented.  It is unrelated to education, the ups and downs of a business cycle, or even the availability of jobs.  The surprise is that these men do not feel the usual male impulse to work (providing and protecting).  These men are not stay at home husbands or dads but have chosen to live off of others -- using government benefits, family members, and girl friends to provide for them.  Some have suggested that the men that do not work are not to be the marrying kind.  On the other hand, women, both married and single, are working in vast numbers.

Compare this.  In 1965, even high school dropouts were more likely to be in the workforce than are the 25-to-54 males today. Eberstadt notes, “the collapse of work for modern America’s men happened despite considerable upgrades in educational attainment.”  This shift in men 25-54 coincides with a general retreat from marriage (“the proportion of never-married men was over three times higher in 2015 than 1965”) and points to a deeper problem.  These men are living in a prolonged adolescence in which they choose to be voluntarily idle, spending their time watching TV and movies 5.5 hours daily, two hours more than men who are counted as unemployed because they are seeking work, and playing video games.

So a third of American men aren’t working, including the unemployed and those who have exited the workforce because they have given up finding a job.  However, there are two-and-half times more men who are not seeking employment and who are happy being idle.

What does this do to the concept of vocation, to the ordinary roles of husband and wife, to the place of family, to traditional duties assigned to males, and to the future of all of these?  I wish I had a clue.  What do you think?

The beginning of the 500th Anniversary Year. . .

A first service for the Reformation Anniversary was held Nov. 6, 2016, at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, jointly through the Missouri, Southern Illinois, and Central Illinois Districts. People from all three districts came together at 4 p.m. to sing Vespers in the Chapel of Sts. Timothy and Titus. The nave was packed. The music was absolutely astounding. A mass choir under direction of Dr. Mark Bender; a brass choir; Jim Marriott on the organ bench; and the wind symphony from Lutheran High South. The three District Presidents read the readings; Dean Burreson served as liturgist; President Harrison preached. But that's not quite at it. He let Dr. Luther preach (from sayings in which Luther found consolation, which, I couldn't help but note, included passages also from Sirach and Maccabees) and framed the whole with the story about the sword thrust aimed at Luther's neck in the Cranach Altarpiece: "Even in death, the beast rages on." Armed with the consolations of the Word, President Harrison urged us not to be afraid, but to rage on! To speak the Gospel of free forgiveness to our neighbors, in our homes, and wherever we go. The worst that can happen is we are killed, and not even that can take the life that's ours in Jesus. Rage on! John Klinger played music on the Carillon, including "Thy Strong Word."

You can download a PDF of the Vespers at this link: 

http://www.csl.edu/live/2016RefEventWorship_v11.pdf

Since whoever is disabling the embed, click here to watch the service. . . 

6 Million Languages and Gibberish. . .

Hans Fiene strikes again!

Hungry. . .

Sermon for All Saints (Observed) preached on Sunday, November 6, 2016.

I don’t know about you but I am always hungry.  Most of us are.  We bare finish one meal or snack before we are prowling for more.  That’s why the Halloween candy is already gone.  We want new and different, familiar and comfortable.  It’s the same for things other than food.  At Christmas,  surveying the mess of ribbon and wrapping, we wonder, “what else is there?”  We finish one thrill seeking adventure and wonder, “when will then next one come?”  More fun, more food, more time, more money – boy, are we hungry!

God made us hungry.  God made us to be satisfied with the things of God.  But it did not last.  Though God made all things good, we despaired of His goodness and went our own way. Sin entered the world and death through sin but we are still hungry. The problem is we satisfy our hunger in things other than God, things other than holiness, things other than righteousness.

God made us hungry but sin turned that hunger away from God and kept us from being satisfied.  We thought the longing inside could be fulfilled if we just found enough pleasure, enough food, enough drink, enough work, enough leisure, enough hobbies, enough sex, enough life. . .  You name it and people have tried it to answer to the hunger within.  But instead of feeling satisfied, we have been left more hungry.  Instead of finding contentment, we are unsatisfied.  That is sin’s curse in life – to want what does not satisfy and to be left only more hungry in exchange.

It gets worse.  For in that hunger for the good things of life and for life itself, death has passed to all people – young and old.  We are the walking dead – dead in trespasses and sin in life and dead eternally unless God does something to save us.  So God sent forth the Law to hold our hunger in check lest our sin consume us and He sent forth the prophets with the promise of a Savior who would direct our hunger where we would find peace, contentment, and satisfaction.

Christ felt this hunger as He became one with us -- the hunger for easy joy, a quick fix, a downhill path to achieving all our hopes and dreams.  From His temptation to the final prayers in Gethsemane, He was tested.  But He directed it back to God where this hunger and longing could be filled.  Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. To bestow mercy, God had to draw near to us and in Christ we were drawn near to Him.  He eased our fears and taught us where the longing within might be fulfilled.  This is His gift as surely as the mercy that forgives our sins and the grace that teaches our hearts to believe.  This is the Spirit’s work – to lead the hungry to Him who is the Bread of Life forevermore.

Awakening faith within us, we learned to trust God’s Word and promise.  We learned by the power of the Spirit that God’s words were not empty nor were His promises just words.  God was in Christ teaching us that He is trustworthy and true, the only One who can satisfy our hunger and give to our longing rest.

This is the power of grace that forgives our sins and gives us the new birth of our lost lives in baptism.  But there is more.  Jesus has taught us to learn to love righteousness and to seek to be holy as He is holy.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied. 

We do not become saints because we love righteousness; we love righteousness because God has made us His saints in baptism.  He has directed us where the longing ends and the hunger is filled.  We live new lives of  righteousness, peace, and joy. 

On this day when we remember the saints, we know what it means to be a saint, a sinner whom God has redeemed in Christ and taught to love righteousness and to trust in God for all things.  Washed in the blood of the Lamb, we cannot find peace or comfort in the world.  We belong to the Lord.  He is our peace.

Our hunger is not merely for what God gives – forgiveness, life, and salvation, but for the life of holiness and righteousness that is the fruit of this baptismal new life.  We do nothing to contribute to our salvation but we live differently as the saved who belong to the Lord by baptism and faith.  We seek to be holy as He is holy, we love righteousness, and we strive to become the new people He has declared us to be.

The saints old and storied or the new saints confirmed last week and baptized two weeks before them are together washed in the blood of the Lamb, feed upon the flesh of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and directed by the voice of the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. 

Blessed are the hungry for God and for His righteousness.  Theirs is the Kingdom, theirs is the comfort to end all sorrows, theirs is the earth in life and heaven in death, they are called the sons and daughters of God, and they shall survive persecution, all sorts and kinds of lies told about them, and evils done to them.  They rejoice and are glad.  Their focus is on Christ their righteousness and their goal is to be righteous in Him, to live holy, pure, and good lives, filled with the good works that glorify God.

The saints of God do not stop being hungry.  They hunger for the things that satisfy, the things that belong to their new life as the baptized, for God and His Kingdom.  Sometimes we think that this is all there is – sinning, regretting that sin, and going to church to be forgiven.  There is much more.  We do not simply live with regrets; we seek to be holy and we strive to be the people God has declared us to be.

Today we recall the saints of God – saints big and small who share one characteristic – by the power of the Spirit their hearts hunger for God, their minds for His Word, and their lives for His work.  It is not that they stopped being hungry.  They learned to hunger for the things of God.  This is where they worked out their salvation with fear and trembling.  This is how we do the same.  Christianity does not put the period after forgiveness.  The forgiven seek and strive to be holy as He is holy. 

The hunger for the things of this life will never be satisfied.  Only the hunger and thirst for the things of God, for His kingdom and His righteousness finds its answer, its contentment, and its satisfaction.  You will always be hungry and never be filled until your hunger is satisfied here, in this Word and this altar, where you are filled with Christ.    

Saints are not better people than we are.  Saints are those in whom the Spirit has planted faith and directed their hunger to Christ.  There in forgiveness we are released from our past and their in righteousness we embrace the shape of our new life.  We amend our sinful lives and seek to be holy, righteous, and good people.  Though we Lutherans are more comfortable on the turn of justification, the justified live new lives in which the goal and purpose of our lives is righteousness and the good works that testify to our faith and glorify God.

Hunger is not the problem.  Where that hunger leads us is the problem.  Having been baptized into Christ, let us walk in Christ, seeking the Kingdom of God and the things of the Kingdom with our whole heart, voice, and strength.  And God promises, dear friends, then and only then will our hunger be satisfied, our thirst quenched, our longing met, our lives find peace and contentment.

Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, seek after these things. . . for this is the Spirit’s work, this is God’s doing, this is what it means to walk in Christ, and this will not disappoint you.  Amen.

The loss of the Church to the heirs of the Reformation. . .

One of the great losses of the post-Reformation was the loss of the relevance and importance of the church.  As time went on, faith revolved around the individual to the point where the church was optional, hardly essential, and almost an impediment to the real religion of a relationship with Jesus.  It is this that Michael Glodo hit upon in a brief article.

With which of the following statements are you in greater agreement?

1. “Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God.”
2. “Away from [the church] one cannot hope for any forgiveness of sins or any salvation.”

For the average evangelical Christian the first statement may lack some balance, but the second sounds downright Romish. If this describes your reaction, then your ecclesiology is closer to the author of the first, Lenny Bruce, than to the author of the second, John Calvin (Institutes 4.1.1). Bruce, satirist of organized religion and nemesis to hypocrisy, a comedian notorious for his vulgarity and impiety, nevertheless expressed a common contemporary assessment of organized religion, while Calvin’s statement seemed to betray his role as one of the primary catalysts of the Protestant Reformation.

The truth is the church is on the defensive and the Reformation has almost become an anti-institutional movement against the church in the minds of so many folks today.  While most would not go so far as to claim the church as an enemy of the faith and would suggest that the church does aid the faith of those in the pew, most would insist that forgiveness of sins and salvation do not require the church. We have see parachurch and home church movements subtly and not so subtly affirm the idea that the church is mostly dead, filled with conflict over issues of money and turf, and a stumbling block to those outside the church. Evangelistic and teaching "ministries" have lived in competition with the church and endorsed by churches to the point where it is oft assumed that these non-church agencies do a better job than the church itself. The classic Reformation doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone has become the antithesis of church membership. At the end of the day, few would suggest that the church is intrinsic to the Gospel.  But this is not at all the perspective of a Martin Luther or even a John Calvin.

The Gospel, in the understanding of many, lives outside the church.  It is a good news that bestows its gifts to those who hear and accept it.  Typically this means “receiving Jesus in his heart” or “accepting Christ as his personal savior.”  It is not essentially tied to baptism or to the Kingdom of God but to a personal relationship with God that may include church but certainly does not require church.  Repentance is seen usually as an individual work, a prelude to the reward for such repentance in the forgiveness of sins and bestowal of eternal life.  Even these have become secondary to the desire of God to help the saved achieve his or her goals for her life and to know a fully, richer, more abundant life now.

The sad truth is that many of those who claim to be heirs of the Reformation have great disdain for the church and are not afraid to say it to the world.  The modern evangelical church and even many mainline Protestant churches market themselves as an ecclesial version of the Uncola; they are not your grandfather's church, they are “unchurches^” or new churches unlike any church the seeker has known before. Billboards claim this outside perspective and insist that “Jesus hated church, too.”  So they refuse to be churches but insist upon being fellowships.  Architecturally they choose to build like the mall and to decorate the interiors with the cultural icons of coffeehouse and hip gathering space instead of altar, pulpit, font, or crucifix.  A biblical view of the Church and its primacy within the Christian life with God is completely foreign to these non-churches.

Even among Lutherans there has been push back against the idea that the Great Commission was about establishing congregations instead of merely preaching hope and presenting Jesus so that the people may decide to have a personal relationship with him.  Luther would not know of such antagonism to the church, of a piety rooted other than the Word and Sacrament, of a life not established and nurtured in the means of grace, of a community of faith and not simply isolated saints, of a visible place where the whole is present though not fully visible around the Word and Table of the Lord, of a ministry set apart and ordained to represent Christ to this church so that the baptized may represent Christ to the world, and of a catechesis of catechism and Word (not in opposition to each other).

Part of what the Reformation must recover anew is the centrality of the church to the life of the Christian.  For unless we renew this teaching, we have little really to offer a world in darkness and to speak to sinners under sentence of death for their sins other than a fragile and lonely faith that leaves nearly everything up to them, to be defined by their needs and to be experienced by their feelings.  This is not what Luther fought for.  This is no faithful fruit of the Reformation at all. 

The Clinton Emails and the Roman Catholic Church. . .

I have to admit that I have not read all of them, not even part of them, but only a very few of those notorious emails.  The stories of how the Clinton campaign attempted to front "Catholic" organizations and endow them with cash and put them in front of the media is not news.  Such strange groups have existed for a long time and seldom reflect the folks in the pew anymore than they influence the people in the sedelia (or sedan chair).  It was positively humorous that John Podesta and other Clintonistas thought they could spin Pope Francis with money from George Soros!  The audacity of it all.  But underneath it all, I am somewhat encouraged.

The attention the Clinton emails have given to the Roman Catholic Church and Roman Catholic voters only signals that these things still matter.  At a time when we presume that denominational loyalty, doctrinal integrity, and uniformity of practice have all rendered the churches rather benign, the emails suggest otherwise.  Faith is still a force in politics.  That is a good thing.

When you encounter Roman Catholics in name only who presume to tell the world that the things of faith are not such a big deal and that doctrine can be changed as quickly as politicians change their positions, it is good to know that there are still those who believe the faithful as the faithful are a force to be reckoned with in politics and in society.  You may be disgusted by all of this -- and there is plenty to be disgusted by --  but I found it oddly encouraging.  They had not written off the Roman Catholic vote but were seeking to use the "Catholic brand" itself to shape the faithful to vote more friendly to the Clinton cause.

My surprise in all of this is that I did not think they would waste their time on something that they believed would not matter in the long run and that they have done so tells me faith and the faithful still do matter as a force within society and at the ballot box.  You should be surprised and encouraged by this.  YOU, the faithful, are a force to be reckoned with.  Do not discount your witness or the impact of the faith and the faithful upon the world around you.  It is not neat and clean but messy.  It is not predictable and controllable.  It is not satisfying and rewarding.  But living in and not of the world rarely is.  You do make a difference.  By the witness of your words, by the pattern of your life, by your faithful Sunday attendance, by the causes you support, by the values you express, by the votes you cast.  You make a difference.  If you didn't, those whose business it is to gather the votes would have ignored you a long time ago.

Christians are not some uniform, homogenous voting block, but we do matter.  Especially in the area of life issues we matter.  We vote our faith (either in favor of those who mirror those positions of faith and/or against those who conflict with them).   God bless you.  The emails confirm a positive answer to something we have fretted about for a long time -- do we matter as orthodox and faithful Christian people casting a vote.   The days of a silent majority or a moral majority may be long gone, but it is not too late to make a difference at the ballot box.

The creeds as guardians of orthodoxy. . .

Evangelicals by church and those self-described as evangelicals represent a significant slice of American Christianity.  It has often been presumed that despite the breadth of what passes for worship on Sunday morning, these folks were more or less united in what they actually believed.  Ligonier Ministries commissioned a study by Lifeway to discover if this was true.  Unlike a previous study which relied on the individual's own definition of what was evangelical, this one defined it by certain core beliefs.  These evangelicals strongly agreed that:

• 1) The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe; 
• 2) It is very important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior; 
• 3) Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin; and 
• 4) Only those who trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation.

There might be some relief that these evangelicals also affirmed with great confidence the perfection of God (97 percent), his authorship of Scripture (94 percent), the accuracy of Scripture in all that it teaches (95 percent), the literal resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (98 percent), and that God exists as a Trinity (97 percent), among other doctrines.  The problem lies in unpacking some of these broader statements.  For example, nearly 3/4 of those evangelicals believe that Jesus is a created being -- the first and best of all God's creatures.  More than a majority describe the Holy Spirit as a force and not a full person of the Holy Trinity.

Mind you, these evangelicals typically have little knowledge or familiarity with the catholic creeds of Christendom.  Though some liturgical denominations are typically included in the definition of evangelical (the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is while the ELCA generally is lumped in with mainline Protestants), the bigger question in all of this is to what extent does the ordinary use of the creeds in worship prevent such heresies and guard the orthodox doctrine of the Holy Trinity.  To what extent does the regular use of the creeds in worship and their prominent role in catechesis pass on the orthodox and catholic understanding of the Trinity and prevent the distortions or heresies that too often hide under the claim to believe in the Trinity?  That is the big question.

Without any serious evidence to support my hypothesis, I am convinced that the use of the creeds in worship and teaching makes a great deal of difference in shaping the beliefs of those in liturgical churches that are lumped together under the category of evangelical.  That said, however, there are many more issues to face as the results of the study unfold.  Not in the least of them is the eroding confidence in the social teaching of the Scripture with regards to marriage, sexuality, and the sacred character of life.  And, if that is not enough to shake you up a bit, what about the fact that it seems nearly a majority believe that their works have something to do with securing their salvation and earning a place in heaven.  All of which points to the fact that catechesis and teaching is never something we finish but always something we must begin anew -- even with those who have already been catechized and taught the faith!  In addition I would suggest that what happens in worship bears a strong resemblance to what people believe.  But that is not new -- lex orandi, lex credendi.  The relevance of that phrase will outlive us all!

Outing the liturgical abusers. . .

Roman Catholic author William Bornhoft admits to cringing at the liturgical novelties seen too often at Mass but this 24-year-old Minnesotan fears where that temptation can lead.  In an essay he lamented the practice of "outing" these abuses in what has been termed “liturgy shaming”  the offenders in social media.  You can read his column at the Catholic website Aleteia decide whether or not he has made his case.  As one who sometimes outs the offenders on this blog, I am conflicted over this.

The truth is that I agree we should not delight in the practice of showing what is the worst among us on Sunday morning.  My blog does not serve the primary interest of such liturgical abuses but does, occasionally, point them out because they are egregious and the people of God need to be warned that such novelties are not simply trivial but profoundly betray the solemn action of God in delivering to us His Son in the voice of the Word and the communion of His flesh and blood for the forgiveness of our sins.

As an attempt to explain those who "out" such liturgical abusers, I would point to the fact that most of these folks are powerless to do much to hinder such strange, novel, and trite abuses of the liturgy.  Those who tattle on the abuses are often those who have already brought their complaints to those who plan and lead worship in their parishes and have found a deaf ear.  They have complained and found their complaints ignored and dismissed.  In their complaints and because they have found no other way to effect any serious review of these practices or means to end them, they have resorted to outing them.  Perhaps this is done with too much delight.  Perhaps we who watch them have snickered too much in watching the abuse.  But most of them have sought not to harm the churches but to awaken the baptized to the way in which worship itself and God's gracious activity in worship is being betrayed and hindered by our cutsie quest for personal expression and popularity.

I know that I have complained about goofy practices and running monologues in place of the words of the Divine Service and jokes within the liturgy.  And in most cases the people to whom I complained insist that I am taking it all too seriously.  But that is the point.  They are not taking seriously at all what happens in worship and the sacred work that God is doing in coming to us in Word and Sacrament to bestow upon us the fruits of Christ's redeeming work.  The problem lies not with taking the Divine Service too seriously but in not taking it seriously at all.  This is not simply something we do.  It is God's service to us.  He stands in our presence.  Heaven has been placed in earthly time and space.  Christ is here and gives Himself to us in the means of grace.  We are in the presence of the Most High God whose delight it is to save and redeem us from our sins.  The Holy Spirit is at work equipping us with repentance and faith so that we might respond to God's gracious activity with the good works of Him who called us from darkness into His marvelous Light.

Those who offend liturgical propriety suggest that the complainers are thin-skinned, quick tempered, and too full of themselves.  Perhaps we are guilty of all of these.  But there is no one more thin skinned than the pastor who sees his liturgical leadership as a spotlight on his personality, no one more quick tempered than the one who is told he is making about himself what ought to be about Christ, and no one more full of himself than the pastor who turns the liturgy into a comedy routine, who delights in shocking with vulgar speech in the sermon, and who competes with Christ for the central focus of the worship service.

No, it is not a good thing when we delight in outing offenders who make the liturgy trite or trivial, who exhibit great bad taste, and who act as if nothing important is really happening within the Divine Service. . . but it is an even worse thing when such things go on unchallenged.

Faith and works. . .

"I'm not Catholic. I'm a Methodist," Hillary Clinton said at the Al Smith Dinner. "But one of the things that we share is the belief that in order to achieve salvation we need both faith and good works."

It was a statement that slipped past most of us.  Faith is an achievement.  It is something you achieve.  Faith and good works are the prime ingredients to this achievement,  Now supposedly Rome and Methodism do not strictly teach that salvation is a personal achievement born of faith and good works.  Jesus' death fits in there somewhere.  But my point is how easily a statement like this passes by without notice because it reflects the conventional wisdom if not Biblical wisdom.   I fear that most Lutherans would be hard pressed to say why such a statement might be wrong (at least on face value).  Barna and others are always telling us how our catechesis has not sunk in and our people are Pelagians or semi-Pelagians.

Lutherans are often accused of diminishing the value of good works -- as if they just might be harmful to the faith!  Luther is clear.  Faith does not live in a void.  Faith shows itself in good works.  These good works are not needed by God but they are needed by your neighbor.  Read Luther's sermons.  He spends a great deal of time commending good works to the people who claim to believe the faith of the creed.  Faith without works is dead.  It does not matter if Luther had some questions about James, this is the Word of the Lord.  Luther is captive to that word.  Lutherans are captive to that word.  If James's words do not convince us, Paul's will.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.  (Eph. 2:10)

No one but a fool would challenge this and yet the problem is not whether good works are needed but what those good works do.  Clinton has it wrong.  Good works do not add to faith as ingredients necessary to achieve salvation.  But good works do show forth the faith that we claim lives in our hearts.  Perhaps you think it is a little thing, semantics, but it is not lost on pastors who must sit with families in their grief and hear them being consoled with the encouragement that their loved ones "lived a good life."  In the shadow of the 499th anniversary of the Reformation, living a good life is hardly consolation in death and will not commend us to eternal life.  Those who would be saved believe the catholic faith -- the Holy Trinity and the incarnation, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God.  Only in this context do works mean anything at all.

So, pardon me, Mrs. Clinton, and all who would not quibble with her statement, salvation is not achieved by us nor do our faith or works contribute to that salvation.  We are saved by grace alone and not works lest any of us presume to boast here or before the Lord.  This grace is apprehended by faith alone and it is manifest when we learn to ascribe salvation to Christ alone.  

For what it is worth, I have no confidence that Donald Trump would say it right, either.

Stunning video. . .

Over two years ago, the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church of St Elias the Prophet in Brampton, Ontario, was completely destroyed by fire. The parish community has been working ever since to put together a plan for funding and building a new church.  The first video shows consecrations service.  Click here for a Facebook video of the the main dome being craned into place and is followed by the the bells of celebration.  October 2, the head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, will consecrate the finished church.  The second video shows the completed exterior from a variety of views. The result is really quite stunning.  They have constructed a wonderful facility which is fully consistent with their history and identity and yet a modern building.  It can be done.  It is not cheap or easy but the result makes all the effort worthwhile.  I think you will agree that the end result is magnificent!

Canned music. . . we have gotten used to it. . .

While conversing with parishioners of a congregation without an organist or other parish musician, I was struck by several things.  The first was that the folks were relatively oblivious to the role of music in worship -- except to sound out a melody.  It was not merely that they did not have any sort of parish musician but that they were not necessarily looking for one, either.  They were content with music that was "canned" and saw it not as a make shift or make do circumstance but an objective choice.

This parish had long used the CD versions of hymns and liturgy provided by our church body for those who find themselves without a suitable organist or parish musician.  They were by and large content with someone pressing a button to fire up the music to support chant, song, and hymn.  They did not miss the presence of a live person on the organ or piano bench.  In fact, they found this choice salutary and effective for them.  They did not have a choir or instrumentalists but were wholly satisfied with these CDs.

Second was that this was not only a choice but a reflection of their values -- especially when it comes to money.  They were happy to spend money that might have supported a parish musician on other things they valued more than a live person to lead their Sunday morning liturgy and hymns.  They found a person costly, not always reliable, and too much trouble.  The CDs were, in comparison, easy, cheap, and reliable (unless technology or electricity failed them).

They were shocked and surprised when I mentioned that a parish musician was one of our highest priorities -- both in staffing and in financial values.  We paid the price not as a cost but as a reflection of our desire to have the best "live music" we could have on Sunday morning.  Although they equated this choice with size (we are three times larger than this parish), it was not at all related to size in our minds.  When we were much smaller, we spent even more effort to find a parish musician.  Although we have come to enjoy the blessed musical gifts of a cantor for many years now, it was not always so.  We advertised and searched for someone when none was readily or easily available to us.

In addition, they were not sure that this congregation was paying any price by not have a parish musician or choir or music program of any kind.  They figured that if the new people visiting them wanted that kind of thing, they would go somewhere else and it was a consequence of their decision they were willing to live with. 

Finally, I was struck at how much their choice stood out against the backdrop of music that typically plays a very large role in church today -- even contemporary services using music that mirrors the sound of pop songs their folks listen to on the radio.  What these folks were saying is, in effect, that music played little or no role at all in their Sunday morning services -- except the obvious role of providing a melody to support their singing.  As is no surprise, they were not what I would call a "singing" congregation.  Even if they were, the abundance of carpet, low ceilings, and sound absorbent materials was working against a good atmosphere to support congregational singing.

In the end I was sad that this congregation was content with something designed as a last resort.  They had a university in town and student musicians should have been available to them.  They were not too small to employ a parish music nor did they lack a recent vintage electronic organ and a fair upright piano.  They would have focused their energy and some of their financial resources into the pursuit of a parish musician.  They choose not to do this.  I wonder how many other smaller parishes have given up and decided that hitting play is an equal value to having a parish musician lead them.  More than I want to know, I guess.

Is it no wonder that interest in and appreciation of the liturgical services of the church has waned when we no longer value the musical component of the whole experience?  Is it no wonder that we find ourselves left with only a canned music option when we are unwilling to give music or a musician budget priority?  Is it no wonder worship music that sounds like Christian muzak has become popular since we cannot count on strong liturgical leadership from the organ bench?  Let me be blunt.  How much of the shortage of organists is due to our own neglect of the music of the liturgy, budget priority to honor the place of music Luther once affirmed without question, and of the cause of congregational singing?  Maybe some of us had better get even more accustomed to canned music on Sunday morning if we remain uncommitted to the value of a good parish musician and the role of music as handmaiden to theology. 

Better late than never. . .

The twin poles of life in the Kingdom. . .

The work of grace can appear both quick and slow.  Grace in the work of justification is instantaneous.  The expression of God's kindness forgiving our sins for the sake of Christ and declaring us righteous in Him happens in a moment.  Surely the thief on the cross found such instantaneous grace in the sudden declaration and promise of Christ.  Although few of us have such a dramatic and profound encounter with the grace of God that forgives and at once justifies us, that does not mean that this is any less a sudden and quick work of God in our own lives.

At the same time, grace is also slow.  Its work within us that proceeds from our justification is slow and perhaps frustratingly so.  Each day God is at work bring forth in us the fruit of His gracious work through repentance and forgiveness.  In this way we “work out our salvation from day to day in fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12).  That sanctifying work of grace has a decidedly slow character.  Even though we look for signs of improvement, for marks of holiness and righteousness, faith does not see them clearly.  What we see clearly and know confidently are the holiness and righteousness of Christ that have become our baptismal clothing.  Though this may be frustrating to us, it is not a bad thing that this growth in righteousness is mostly hidden from us.  Surely we would begin to trust in this over Christ's atoning work if we could point out the marks of our holiness achieved.

The tree is slow growing and its fruit bearing takes time -- time that cannot be short circuited.  There is no quick and easy path but only the slow and deliberate path of God's grace at work in us to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit in our daily lives and manifest the good works of Him who has called us from darkness into His marvelous light.  Not a few have lamented that this process seems so slow and plodding.  We surely do live in an impatient culture in which quickness is always deemed to be good.  We eat fast food, we pay for a fast internet connection, and we shop online with 2 day shipping.  We set ourselves up for things to happen on our schedule but the sanctifying work of God does not punch a time clock nor is it governed by our own will and desire.  Just the opposite, it is the work of the Spirit to transform our wills and desires.

For this reason patience is also a mark of the Kingdom -- not simply patience that awaits God's own kairos or proper time but patience that trusts in what our eyes do not see and we cannot control with our own wills and powers.  I must admit that this is something which has become even more apparent to me in my 62nd year but not necessarily something easier for me to accept.  Patience remains the salutary virtue of the Spirit that accompanies our confident trust that the Lord will, indeed, bring to fruition all that He has begun in us in our baptism.

All our lives are slow and our desire for something quicker.  It takes a long time for a baby to become a child who walks, talks, and goes to the restroom without help.  It take even longer for a child to grow up into young adulthood.  All the while the child is usually wishing he or she was older -- the pace of maturity is most often too slow for us.  There is a time, however, when we bemoan just how quickly life has come and gone.  In those moments perhaps we regret that what appears to be slow is really very fast -- a brief life here our portion and lot.  And in those moments patience again is what we need and we pray to know (usually with some urgency attached).

As much as I rejoice in God's quick work of justifying me the sinner by His grace and distributing to me what my Lord has won in agony, suffering, and death, I am growing more and more content with the slowness of grace that works to bring forth in me the good fruits of this redeeming work.  While some would turn faith into a decision, a sinner's prayer, and a life now dedicated to all things new, I see it quite differently.  I spend my whole life literally trying to become the person God has brought forth from the living water and the individual God has declared me to be.  It is great foolishness to think the life of the sinner before the grace of God a simple or easy thing.  It is certainly not.  Jesus takes great pains to prepare us for the difficult path of salvation and reminds us over and over against that the path of salvation is endurance, patience, and faith.  Nothing less will do.