We all know what it means. . .

Since some of the districts have met and others are planning meetings for later this year or in 2022, it would be good for us to reflect upon a few things that happen every Convention.  Every church meeting in which resolutions are offered almost requires the adoption of boilerplate motions in which we predictably approve of what we have always approved of.  These God, mother, apple pie resolutions do not spell out anything new but merely affirm that we stand where we have always stood on these issues.  Most of them do not bother to lay out in detail what we are affirming but will inevitably reference the last time we affirmed it -- presuming that this is enough.  These will reference God's Word, the blessing of a weekly Eucharist, the good value of the hymnal and its liturgies, close(d) communion, unity of doctrine, a closer unity of practice generally, etc...  Perhaps only a voice vote will be take to address what we have always addressed and thus save us a bit of time for the more controversial stuff.  But if we are going to reaffirm what we have always believed, taught, confessed, and, supposedly practiced, then perhaps we ought to take time to discuss it first.  Perhaps we are not doing us or anyone any favors by affirming in a general way our generic faith and practice.

Time will inevitably grow short.  The more urgent motions and more controversial ones (that still need addressing) will take priority.  Saying again what we have always said will be rushed in at the end when time is short and none of us has the inclination or the stamina to endure another debate.  Maybe these are the things that ought to take precedence.  If we have spoken once and still have a need to address the sufficiency and infallibility of Scripture, then by all means let us discuss it before making a perfunctory vote on something that we know will pass even though disputes, conflict, and challenge about this issue are not and will not be resolved.  We all know what it means to confess Scripture -- or do we?  Frankly, I would much rather spend time addressing this issue to resolve what is either unclear or confused than giving our precious time away to greetings.

If we continue to affirm the blessing of a weekly Eucharist and there are still many congregations that do not avail themselves of this blessing, then we do not all know what it means and we have resolved nothing by adopting a pro forma resolution without discussion or resolution of what it addresses.  The same is true on the blessing of using the hymnal and its liturgies and hymns or practicing close(d) communion, being united in doctrine, or striving toward a more uniform practice of that faith.  If we pass resolutions affirming these things without discussing them or the reasons why we need to keep affirming them, what progress have we made?  Oh, sure, there are those who insist that we all know what they mean but if we knew, you might think we would also take more seriously what they say and how that impacts us at St Jehoshaphat by the Cornfield or the Lutheran Church of the Comfortable Fellowship in Suburbiaville or OneeightyChurch of the Moment in the City Center.  

We keep on saying what we have always said while people keep saying and doing different things and we all wrap ourselves up in the Luther Seal and confess how truly Lutheran we are.  We don't need to waste our money heading to St. Louis or some other location in order to affirm that we all think we are the most Lutheran of anybody.  Especially when we pass boiler plate resolutions on stuff we say we all understand and believe every convention cycle while the theological distance between us continues to grow!  Either we don't all know what these words and positions mean or else we simply do not agree with them.  In either case, we have a bigger problem than finding time on the costly agenda of a convention for most of the stuff we end up doing.  Maybe instead of addressing many issues shallowly, we would be better served by addressing one main issue in depth every three years.  But what do I know?  

Full of grace, strong in faith. . .

Sermon for the Feast of St. Mary, Mother of Our Lord, preached on Sunday, August 15, 2021.

    Most of the time Lutherans don’t think all that much about Mary.  In fact, some Lutherans don’t think much of Mary at all.  It is as if she is some bit player in a big drama, like the character actor whose face we know but whose name we do not.  It does not help that Mary is largely quiet – except of course for the song that erupts from her lips in her visit to her cousin Elizabeth.  She is overshadowed by sudden appearance of an angel announcing that she has found favor in the sight of God and would become the mother of His Son and about all she can muster is a question “how” and her consent “let it be to me as you have said.”  Her silence, however, betrays her great strength.  At the first miracle in Cana of Galilee when Jesus changes water into wine, Mary is there.  When all the disciples left Jesus alone at the cross, Mary is there.  In the Upper Room awaiting the promised Spirit from on high, Mary is there.

    You do not get a choice as to whether or not to honor her.  God has honored her.  So then, if you are of God, YOU must honor her too.  You do not have the luxury of ignoring her or dismissing her or forgetting her or looking down at her because you think some have looked too highly at her.  The excess of some in devotion to Mary do not justify none.  Listen to the Lord and honor her.  She is the chosen maiden of the Lord to fulfill the promise of Isaiah, “a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son.”  She is the one whom God has declared the virtuous woman of faith and on whom His favor rests.  She is the “full of grace” whom all generations shall call the “Blessed.”  The honor we give her does not elevate her higher than God has – for that cannot be done – but to follow her example of faith, to echo her praise of God’s mercy, and to stick with Jesus when all others may fall away.

    The Angel Gabriel addresses her as “Full of Grace.”  This is not a description of her achievement but the declaration of the Lord.  She is literally full of grace for the Lord is not simply with her in spirit but IN her, in her womb.  The Lord has taken up residence in her, taking flesh and blood from her, so that He might take residence in us by baptism and deliver to us the rich gifts of salvation He won by the suffering of His flesh and the shedding of His blood.  In Blessed Mary is fulfilled the promise once given to Adam and Eve of the Son of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent.  In Blessed Mary is fulfilled the promise given to Abraham and Sarah of one who would deliver to them many descendants.  In Blessed Mary is the promise given to Isaac in the Lamb who would not escape the sacrificial suffering and death of the altar of the cross.

    The twin attributes of God are that He is gracious and merciful.  Blessed Mary knew that grace as the Son growing in her womb, the one to whom John jumped to honor and would baptize into the public ministry of His redemption.  Blessed Mary is full of this grace and is no footnote in history but a central figure in the story of God’s redemption.  But she does not seek any glory except the glory of her Son and His glory is mercy.  That is why she is such a good example.

    We see this mercy in the visit to Elizabeth.  Elizabeth and Zechariah are old and without any prospect of a child and yet Elizabeth has her womb filled with the one whose voice would announce the mercy of God.  So here, in the unlikely womb of an aged woman long past childbearing and in the womb of a Virgin on whom the favor of God rested, the story of God’s mercy is no longer to be about words but about the flesh and blood of His Son who is come into the world to accomplish salvation for a people who can do nothing to help themselves.

    You do not hear the condemnation of the Law every Sunday or confess your sins every Sunday because God is angry but because He is merciful.  We hear the Law and are convicted by it and we admit our complicity and guilt because we know what God’s response to our shame is.  He is merciful.  To know the mercy of God we come admitting we are the guilty sinners who deserve nothing of God’s kindness and all of His wrath.  But God has chosen not to be angry and not to deal with us as we deserve.  He has visited us with His mercy – mercy not in the form of a shrug of His shoulders to wish away our sin and its death but with the sacrifice of His one and only Son into what should have been our death so that He might raise us up to His life.

    This is what drives Blessed Mary – the grace and mercy of God.  Would that it was what drove us as well.  Instead we find ourselves constantly distracted by the joys and sorrows, tests and troubles, peaks and valleys of the world.  When fear threatens, we shrink into despair.  When dreams become disappointments, we hang our heads in sorrow.  When happiness eludes us, we find ourselves angry and bitter.  We are not driven by grace and mercy but by every wind of change and chance that this world and this life bestows.  We give up our place in the Lord’s house to do what we love better and then when life hands us tribulation, we rush back into the sanctuary to accuse God of not doing His job.  We do not willingly bear the cost of discipleship or bear our crosses without complaint.  Blessed Mary has much to teach us here and we have much to learn from her.

    My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath showed strength with his arm; He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed forever.

    The song of Blessed Mary that rises from her lips is the melody of faith.  Pregnant and unmarried, she has a story no one would believe then or now. Her heart will break in the heartache of watching Her Son’s death as a criminal on a cross.  But she refuses to be consumed by it all and instead turns her attention to God’s undeserved kindness and generosity in sparing her the just punishments of her sin and delivering her from hell’s torture and raising her to know face to face the unimaginable joys of heaven.  And in this, she is our teacher and instructor in what it means to believe, to trust, and rejoice in God our Savior.  Let us learn from her how to believe, how to sing, how to pray, how to serve.

    Friends, we are wimps.  We are sure that no age has faced such threats and no people have known such trouble as we have known.  C. S. Lewis was asked once how one can live in an atomic age with its threat of destruction.  His words bear repeating:  “In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”

In other words, let us not exaggerate the novelty of our situation.  This is the echo of Blessed Mary’s faith.  Do not fixate on what is wrong.  Trust in the grace of God that has declared you forgiven and the mercy of God which has delivered you from death and hell and marked you for eternity in heaven.  That is Blessed Mary’s legacy to us.  Will we follow?  Amen

We will never win. . .

Before you read any further, let me finish the sentence begun in that title.  We will never win the publicity game.  It is not that we will never win, but orthodox Christianity will never win a contest for popularity or for being winsome and welcome in the eyes of the world.  We simply cannot.  We are like a fish swimming against the current of culture and society.  But we are also so foolish as to think that we just might win at the world's game and so we keep playing it. . . over. . . and over. . . and over again. 

 

The churches in this world that the world likes are the churches who go along and get along.  They do not resist the direction of the culture but adopt it.  The world wants to change the definition of marriage.  Sure, why not?  The world wants to adapt the Gospel to include the salvation of the planet by a green agenda.  Sure, why not?  The world wants to rewrite history to exclude the parts of it we don't want to admit.  Sure, why not?  The world wants to separate sex from marriage and children from marriage and children from sex.  Sure, why not?  The world wants all people to determine their own truths (except, of course, the cardinal truths of the woke movement).  Sure, why not?  The world wants to remember only racism and forget everything else.  Sure, why not?  The world wants to kills babies, the aged, and those who do not judge their life worth living.  Sure, why not?  And the list goes on.  

 

Where churches are willing to abdicate the truth of God that endure forever for the truths of the moment that change and die, those churches are lauded by the world as good churches and good for the world.

The churches in this world that the world dislikes are those churches who listen instead to the Word of God, who refuse to surrender the Gospel for the cause du jour, and whose goal and purpose is the redemption of the sinner through the blood of Christ.  Orthodox Christianity cannot change marriage because it is God's order and gift in creation.  We cannot make man the enemy of the creation when God has made man His steward and manager of all that is.  We cannot change history at whim but must admit and confess the worst of our sinful natures as well as laud those places where good has come from our words and deeds.  We cannot give up one man and one woman in lifelong fidelity, to which God gives the fruit of children to fill the earth, and the sacred character and duties of the family within the context of the faith as well as the home.  We cannot admit that gender is our construct or that sexual desire defines us or that we can create our own faith from the spare parts of other religions.  We cannot ignore racism but neither can we admit that the sinful hearts with all their prejudice can be eradicated from the earth if we just try harder.  We cannot give up the sacredness of life from its natural beginning to its natural end or allow the woman or the individual to decide to end a life at will.  We cannot do these things because to do them would be to surrender our very souls to the devil and deny orthodox Christianity to its core.

 

So the world will always love the gospel lite churches who pick and choose from Scripture and ignore the faithful tradition of the saints.  The world will always win the publicity battle and we will always lose -- orthodox Christianity always sounds narrow minded, judgmental, and negative to the world.  Only the Holy Spirit can change that and the Holy Spirit does work this change through the preaching of the Word and one person at a time.  We were never created by God to win popularity contests or to look good in the world.  We must always wear the blood of Christ -- not only for our own redemption but in witness to the world around us.  We must always preach the blood of Christ -- not only to remind us of the grace in which we stand but that the world might be saved.  And the blood of Christ is always offensive to the world.

 

I watch as Rome puts one priest who loves to talk dialog and conversation with those who live outside Christianity on a pedestal and puts another priest who preaches the incompatibility of the world's values and desires with that of orthodox Christianity on trial.  It happens everywhere.  Hierarchies love those who do not make waves and are worried about those who do.  Even in Lutheranism we struggle to know what to do with those who sound so strident and unbending for the cause of Christ in a world of compromise, tolerance, and acceptance.  But this kind of compromise is killing the faith and corrupting the faithful.  None of us have a right to be mean or nasty or rude but neither can we surrender the Christian faith to a world which cares nothing of God and His salvation.  

 

Perhaps this is a time of sifting within the household of the faith.  If it is, we do not need to fear.  It is not the popularity game that needs winning but the fight to be faithful in the face of temptation, trial, and trouble.  It is not the world that we need to impress but the Gospel we need to preach so that the world may be brought to repentance and faith.  It is not the world who will judge us but Christ and He has promised that those who endure to the end shall be saved.  So let us not lose heart or become overwhelmed with winning the polls or popularity contests of this world.  Let us give our whole attention to proclaiming Christ and the gospel of His death and resurrection as faithfully and powerfully as we can -- right where God has placed us.

 

661 The Son of God Goes Forth to War

 

1 The Son of God goes forth to war
    A kingly crown to gain.
His blood-red banner streams afar;
    Who follows in His train?
Who best can drink His cup of woe,
    Triumphant over pain,
Who patient bears his cross below—
    He follows in His train.

 

2 The martyr first, whose eagle eye
    Could pierce beyond the grave,
Who saw his master in the sky
    And called on Him to save.
Like Him, with pardon on His tongue
    In midst of mortal pain,
He prayed for those who did the wrong—
    Who follows in his train?

 

3 A glorious band, the chosen few,
    On whom the Spirit came,
Twelve valiant saints—their hope they knew
    And mocked the cross and flame.
They met the tyrant’s brandished steel,
    The lion’s gory mane;
They bowed their necks their death to feel—
    Who follows in their train?

 

4 A noble army, men and boys,

          The matron and the maid,
Around the Savior’s throne rejoice,
    In robes of light arrayed.
They climbed the steep ascent of heav’n
    Through peril, toil, and pain.
O God, to us may grace be giv’n
    To follow in their train!

 

Text: Public domain

Without Equal. . .

Luther said a whole lot more about the Blessed Virgin Mary than we typically do today as Lutherans.  It is a sad reflection not only of our fears but also of what we have lost in our appreciation for her role in God's plan of salvation and her example of faith and humility.  We are bereft of good examples in the faith today and too many of us have no role models from Scripture or the history of the Church to help us contrast good piety and faith from the world's heroes of media, fame, money, and sports.

Read Luther's commentary on the Magnificat.  That ought to open a few eyes.  Luther addresses how we should and should not honor this “Most Blessed Virgin Mother” from the vantage point of her own words.  There is no need to add to the honor God gives to us but neither dare we depreciate “her unique place in the whole of mankind, among which she has no equal” as the Theotokos, the Mother of God. The Lutheran Confessions (Article XXI of the Augsburg Confession and Apology) give a threefold outline for how Christians may appropriately honor Blessed Mary and all other saints.

We are reminded that the Blessed Virgin Mother lays no claim to honor except the honor God has given to her as His handmaiden and servant.  God chose her because she was a woman of faith and that faith is evident in her consent to His will.  Her blessedness flows not from her personal holiness but from God's abundant grace and because God placed on her the honor of being mother to His Son. As Luther puts it:  “She does not say men shall speak all manner of good of her, praise her virtues, exalt her virginity or her humility, or sing of what she has done. But for this one thing alone, that God regarded her, will men call her blessed. [She] lays claim to nothing and counts only Him as great.”  He is not afraid to admit the ancient title accorded her of “Queen of Heaven” and calls it a “true enough name,” while cautioning us not to magnify her place beyond what God has and she has sung.  Like the Spirit, she points us not to herself but to Christ.

In the early Church, there was no excessive devotion to the Virgin Mary like that of later times. There was, instead, the rightful honor bestowed upon Mary’s role in the salvation narrative and the symbol of her as the “new Eve,” whose faithful obedience to the angel’s message was a counterpoint to Eve’s disobedience.  Interest in Mary grew as conflict over Jesus was encountered.  The Church had to confront heretical views of Jesus, specifically of His two natures, and so with the 3rd Ecumenical Council, at Ephesus in 431, the place and role Mary was very much on the agenda. Was she just the mother of the human Jesus, or the very Mother of God (Theotokos, God-bearer), like any human mother or unique among women? The Church came down solidly on the latter interpretation.  To call Mary the Mother of God was not only thoroughly biblical but critical to the faithful confession of Christ. 

Devotional piety to the Virgin Mary grew faster than the theology but by the Middle Ages the teaching began to catch up with that piety.  Blessed Mary was often contrasted with a more somber image of Christ, the stern and foreboding Judge and thus she became a refuge for the fearful and a means of convincing the unwilling Son of God to be more merciful and compassionate.  After the Council of Trent the rosary added “pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death,” as Roman Catholics pray to this day.   Eventually such titles as Co-Redemptrix, her immaculate conception without sin, and her bodily assumption (August 15) to avoid mortal decay developed.

Our focus lies with Blessed Mary's own words in the Magnificat, her example of faith and obedience, and her pondering of the great mystery of the child in her womb who was Son of God and Savior of the world (including herself!).  Among the last things Scripture records of her are her words in John 2:5 ("Do whatever He tells you") and the example of our Lord's devotion in commending her to the care of St. John from the very cross (John 19:216-27).  It would be foolish to ignore the devotion of Jesus in the last moments of His life and now ignore her whom God chose to be the Mother of His Son.  It would actually be worse than foolish.  It is an affront to God Himself.  We confess that Mary is the first true Christian who heard the Gospel and believed it from the Angel of the Lord, that she is our model of faith and obedience still, and that she has the highest place of honor apart from Christ Himself.  We call her blessed because God did.  He hailed her as one full of grace and as the angel promised, "The Lord is with you."

So, on this day when we remember, give thanks for, and seek to emulate the faith of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it might be good to ponder a question.  Can we afford to be less Lutheran than Luther in the honor we accord her?  Or, by our refusal to admit such honor as God has bestowed, are we in danger of also dishonoring Christ as well?  For the Lutheran way is to look at both Mary and Christ together and not to separate them.  In this, we are exactly following the example of our Lord and His Word.  In iconography,  the Blessed Virgin is pictured this way -- almost always with her Son!

The location of infallibility. . .

If I had a dollar for every Roman Catholic author who attempted to undo sola scriptura or the inerrancy of Scripture, I would have more than enough money to retire and do this blog full-time.  But the money is not forth coming so I will have to wade into the debate.

It is certainly true that sola Scriptura is not directly or explicitly referenced in Scripture itself but is the conclusion of many passage speaking together.  It is, however, not obscure or rare.  The term refers to what has become known as the formal principle of the Lutheran Church. In the Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Rule and Norm 3 we read: “We pledge ourselves to the prophetic and apostolic writings of the Old and New Testaments as the pure and clear fountain of Israel, which is the only true norm according to which all teachers and. teachings are to be judged and evaluated.”  The Latin phrase sola scriptura, literally “Bible alone,” began as a Reformation slogan but it was soon co-opted by others and it is important that it summarizes something a bit more complex than its English translation. 

I cannot speak to what others mean when they say sola scriptura but I learned very quickly on that the detractors are not listening as carefully to Lutherans as they are listening to those others who use the same term but do not mean the same thing.  Lutherans do simply say the phrase and then walk away.  In fact, all the Reformation solas were in response to something and they were a short hand phrase for the entire issue of the Reformers (including sola, gratia and sola fide).

Lutherans claimed in the Augsburg Confession and continued this claim throughout the rest of their Confessions that they are evangelical catholics (indeed, they insist that they have not departed from catholic doctrine and practice and challenge their detractors to show where they have).  In claiming this evangelical catholicity, the Lutherans stood upon the shoulders of the Church that went before the Reformation -- confessing the Trinitarian and Christological formulae of the orthodox Christian faith from 4th and 5th centuries right down to the present day.  They did not invent the justification which became the core and center of Reformation preaching but learned that sinners are justified (declared right) with the Creator God by grace alone (sola gratia) from the Scriptures and the faithful teachers of the early Church.  These fathers used the very same language of the Reformers in proclaiming this gracious gift of salvation, known and grasped through faith alone (sola fide).  The Confessions themselves are replete with references from the early Church fathers in this.

Scripture is not naked nor does Scripture exist within a vacuum.  Scripture is the norming norm for the Church in all matters of faith, doctrine and practice. Scripture is not the only authority but it is that authority that norms or establishes the boundaries for every other authority.  We hold to the three catholic creeds (Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian) and esteem them with great and profound authority.  While they are not found in Scripture, Scripture has informed theses creeds and the creeds do not supplant the Scriptures or exist on their own but within the context of what God has spoken and the biblical authors have passed on to us.

Sola scriptura is not the Bible alone but the confession that everything else is subject to Scripture and not the other way around.  Scripture judges and the other way around.  Of course, the Scriptures do not live in a vacuum or in isolation.  Sola scriptura is not an enemy of the catholic and apostolic tradition but is its source and what bounds or norms that faithful tradition.  Tradition cannot contradict Scripture and be authentic or true.

It might be simplistic but it is still true enough that Rome places the Church above the Scripture and Lutherans place the Scriptures above the Church.  Rome claims that the Church is older than Scripture, at least the New Testament) and that the Church decided what was Scripture.  While it is certainly true that the clearest delineation of the canon of Scripture is late -- fourth century, the earliest delineation of the canon is at least a couple of hundred years earlier (the Muratorian Canon). The Church did not give us the Scriptures but the witness of the Church recognized those Scriptures and what was not Scripture.  Yet that does not place the Church above the Word of God.

This is not some Lutheran innovation.  Listen to what the fathers of the Church said long before Luther:

St. Athanasius (c.296-373):

The holy and inspired Scriptures are fully sufficient for the proclamation of the truth.  

(Against the Heathen, I:3, quoted in Carl A. Volz, Faith and Practice in the Early Church [Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1983], p. 147.)  

St. Cyril of Jerusalem (c.310-386):

For concerning the divine and holy mysteries of the Faith, not even a casual statement must be delivered without the Holy Scriptures; nor must we be drawn aside by mere plausibility and artifices of speech. Even to me, who tell you these things, give not absolute credence, unless you receive the proof of the things which I announce from the Divine Scriptures. For this salvation which we believe depends not on ingenious reasoning, but on demonstration of the Holy Scriptures.  

(Catechetical Lectures, IV:17, in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers [Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1983 reprint], Second Series, Volume VII, p. 23.)  

St. Gregory of Nyssa (330-395):

...we are not entitled to such license, namely, of affirming whatever we please. For we make Sacred Scripture the rule and the norm of every doctrine. Upon that we are obliged to fix our eyes, and we approve only whatever can be brought into harmony with the intent of these writings.  

(On the Soul and the Resurrection, quoted in Jaroslav Pelikan, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971], p. 50.)  

and

“Let the inspired Scriptures then be our umpire, and the vote of truth will be given to those whose dogmas are found to agree with the Divine words.

(On the Holy Trinity, NPNF, p. 327)

St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430):  

Let them show their church if they can, not by the speeches and mumblings of the Africans, not by the councils of their bishops, not by the writings of any of their champions, not by fraudulent signs and wonders, because we have been prepared and made cautious also against these things by the Word of the Lord; but [let them show their church] by a command of the Law, by the predictions of the prophets, by songs from the Psalms, by the words of the Shepherd Himself, by the preaching and labors of the evangelists; that is, by all the canonical authorities of the sacred books.  

(On the Unity of the Church, 16, quoted in Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, Part I [Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1971], p. 159.)  

St. Augustine of Hippo:  

What more can I teach you, than what we read in the Apostle? For Holy Scripture sets a rule to our teaching, that we dare not “be wise more than it behooves to be wise,” but be wise, as he says, “unto soberness, according as unto each God has allotted the measure of faith.”  

(On the Good of Widowhood, 2, in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Volume III, p. 442. The quotation is from Romans 12:3.)  

St. John Chrysostom (c.347-407):  

Let us not therefore carry about the notions of the many, but examine into the facts. For how is it not absurd that in respect to money, indeed, we do not trust to others, but refer to [our own] calculation; but in calculating upon [theological] facts we are lightly drawn aside by the notions of others; and that too, though we possess an exact balance, and square and rule for all things, the declaration of the divine laws? Wherefore I exhort and entreat you all, disregard what this man and that man thinks about these things, and inquire from the Scriptures all these things; and having learned what are the true riches, let us pursue after them that we may obtain also the eternal good things...  

(Homily 13 on 2 Corinthians, in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Volume XII, p. 346.)  

and

Regarding the things I say, I should supply even the proofs, so I will not seem to rely on my own opinions, but rather, prove them with Scripture, so that the matter will remain certain and steadfast. 

(Homily 8 On Repentance and the Church, p. 118, vol. 96 TFOTC) 

St. Basil the Great (c.329-379):  

They are charging me with innovation, and base their charge on my confession of three hypostases [persons], and blame me for asserting one Goodness, one Power, one Godhead. In this they are not wide of the truth, for I do so assert. Their complaint is that their custom does not accept this, and that Scripture does not agree. What is my reply? I do not consider it fair that the custom which obtains among them should be regarded as a law and rule of orthodoxy. If custom is to be taken in proof of what is right, then it is certainly competent for me to put forward on my side the custom which obtains here. If they reject this, we are clearly not bound to follow them. Therefore let God-inspired Scripture decide between us; and on whichever side be found doctrines in harmony with the Word of God, in favor of that side will be cast the vote of truth.  

(Letter 189 [to Eustathius the physician], 3, in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Volume VIII, p. 229.)  

and 

What is the mark of a faithful soul? To be in these dispositions of full acceptance on the authority of the words of Scripture, not venturing to reject anything nor making additions. For, if ‘all that is not of faith is sin’ as the Apostle says, and ‘faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God,’ everything outside Holy Scripture, not being of faith, is sin.

(The Morals, p. 204, vol IX TFOTC)

St. John of Damascus (c.675-c.749):  

It is impossible either to say or fully to understand anything about God beyond what has been divinely proclaimed to us, whether told or revealed, by the sacred declarations of the Old and New Testaments.  

(On the Orthodox Faith, Book I, Ch. 2, in The Fathers of the Church, Vol. 37.)

However, what we confess for Scripture, Rome confesses of the Church and, specifically, of the Pope.  Lutherans have nothing but the highest reverence for and appreciation for the Church, the Body of Christ, seen locally where the Word of God is rightly proclaimed and the Sacraments of Christ are rightly administers. 

The issue both of Scripture and the papacy and the Church is one of authority.  Sola Scriptura means that Scripture is the sole infallible rule of faith and practice, the ultimate and final authority on matters of faith, but not the only one.  On a practical level, Lutherans reveal this understanding of sola scriptura by their Confessions (including the three creeds) which stand with Scripture but not above it.

The Reformers not only affirmed the importance of the early creeds but also the ecumenical councils,  the writings of church fathers, and the clergy but as secondary authorities -- secondary authorities that testified to the right interpretation of Scripture and its endurance in the face of false interpretations and interpreters but still subject to Scripture’s own norming authority.  So Lutherans could appreciate and confess as opinion the ever-virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary but would not require it since Scripture did not teach it as a doctrine.   

Inherent in sola scriptura is itself the affirmation that the Word of God is not simply a word or fact or description of an historical event but the living voice of God, through which the Holy Spirit is at work. The Scriptures are not a book of legal code or a record of events but the living voice of God in which we meet the Word of God made flesh for us and our salvation.  Scripture is efficacious -- it actually does what it says and delivers what it promises.  Only an authority with this power can be sola and this is also part of the Lutheran confession.

And, for some, God. . .

I read some strange statistics that suggested 43% of Millenials do not believe in God but 57% of them also identity as Christians.  Wow.  Try to unpack that!  But maybe the Millenials are not so far off from the direction of most generations.  The movement, according to those who watch such things, is decidedly toward the nones -- those who really have no religion.  It appears that this is less about being antagonistic toward religion or God (atheism) than it is ambivalence.  These folks are just not sure that God is an essential or even beneficial component to their lives.  Furthermore, they appear ready to admit that this ambivalence is not born of conviction as much as it is a reflection of uncertainty.

Perhaps we are just a little behind where Europe has already gone.  Europeans love their heritage but don't pay much attention to it in their daily lives -- at least when it comes to the faith.  Few of them bother with going to church.  The morality they once inherited from the generations who went before is also eroding.  The Christian churches are cultural treasures quite apart from their history or their symbolism.  Consider the state of things in the wake of the fire at Notre Dame.

State churches have a unique status as some kind of state agencies serving the whole populace while at the same time presuming to be real churches -- with faith, piety, and vocation.  I am not sure that there is much balance there.  Most of them lean pretty solidly toward to the bureaucracy and civic function of their purpose while the confession and life of the church is preserved in form if not in content.  At least that is what you might think.  Here the model is the Church of England.

The Church of England has a vast network of parish churches, grand cathedrals, and a place within the venerable heritage of schools.  So when the CofE decides to issue guidelines for worship in the schools they sponsor or provide religious service to, it is worth some notice.  It turns out that they have issued a document that seems to fit exactly the ambivalence that fits the Millenials.  The statement, “Inclusive, Invitational, Inspiring: A Statement of Entitlement and Expectation,” attempts to provide guidance toward those schools and, in doing so, may well reflect its own understanding of what happens in parishes as well as school chapels.

The phrase that jumps out is “Worship is collective in that it involves meeting, exploring, questioning, and responding to others and, for some, to God.”  Yup.  You got it.  Worship may include God -- but it need not.  The CofE is trying to be multicultural, to be sensitive to the different faiths of the different folk in their chapels, and of the freedom of those students to check out of what they do not like or what might make them uncomfortable.  It is worship without any strings attached, a buffet style chapel in which you can eat or not and how much or how little you want.  God may be there for those who wish Him and the god who is there depends upon the person sitting in the pew.  In this respect, this seems to fit exactly the uncertainty and lack of concern felt by the Millenials mentioned above.

The Gospel need not be a part of this worship and it may be that it is exactly the Gospel which confuses or confounds worship and the folks sitting in the pews.  Jesus need not be present and, frankly, it would be better if Jesus were absent -- unless, of course, Jesus is simply window dressing and does not intrude upon our self-esteem with words about sin or our sophistication to presume that if such sin existed, a blood sacrifice might be required to atone for them, or that death needed a risen Savior to overcome.  And there you have it.  Jesus is an embarrassment and perhaps an impediment to real worship.

The new barbarism. . .

The future of Christianity in America is not bright.  It is not that the faith will die or that our civilization is in immanent danger of collapse.  God will tend to the faith.  Our society may fall in upon itself at some point.  But the day is coming when there will be few signs of the institutional church the way there are even now -- in the days of transition.  What we once thought essential will prove to be worthless and what we deem ordinary will become extraordinary as the world becomes a more difficult and dangerous place for the people of God.  Perhaps COVID was a testing ground for our faithfulness and some practice for the more challenging days ahead.

We live in a new rude and barbarous age of intolerance, of the sanctioned murder of the children in the womb, of disdain for the inherent institutions of marriage and family, of the devaluing of labor and the overvaluing of government assistance, of control of what is taught in schools, published in the media, and allowed as our history.  We are not improving but in decline.  We have caved into the mob rule of those who have effectively used media to foster a point of view, a political ideology, and an immoral morality.

Our colleges and universities will either die or become secular institutions who love to point us to their legacy or history for fund raising but unwilling to embrace it for anything else.  The Title IX programs of government guaranteed student loans and rules regarding everything from sports to scholarships will force our colleges and universities to bow down or die.  Everyone knows this even though we are not talking about it.

Parochial schools are also in danger just as homeschooling.  The forces of political correctness and the engineers of our new society of sexual identity and gender choice will not abide places where the company line is challenged.  Neither will those who rewrite our history in view of modern day values or who have adopted critical race theory allow places where a competing narrative is kept alive.  It will begin with the government takeover of preschool education but it will not end there.

The places where the Gospel and the Biblical story are allowed will narrow just as freedom of religion becomes more and more freedom of private worship.  Christians will find themselves gathered behind locked doors -- not because they are afraid of the world outside but because the world outside is afraid of and will not tolerate them.  The public square, once filled with religious speech, will become a secular arena of ideas that fit the model in vogue of culture, society, education, morals, etc...

Pastors will find that the benefits we have come to count on may be few and far between.  Our venerable system of providing health insurance for a price and retirement security will be pressed by the aging of our church workers and the diminishing pool of younger and cheaper people in the mix.  Concordia Plans and LCEF and LCFU and the like will become more and more like Thrivent -- we will serve whoever has the money to purchase our products.  They may do this in part because they want to protect us old fogies who get a pension and our young families who need health care but it will not take long before the mission grows and the church becomes a bit player in their operating vision.

It may come the day when the population turns against such things as tax exemptions that make it possible for churches to have big facilities.  In evaluating the good that churches do against the harm they do to the progressive view of lie, I can see the day when tax exemption will eventually apply only to the actual place where worship takes place or when it will disappear entirely.  Then we will have to figure out how to live without our mighty structures or how to pay for the actual cost of them.  Some sorting will inevitably happen.

This may seem like a pessimistic view of things.  It is in some ways but not in others.  For too long we have lived in the shadow of the grand lie that we are able to redeem society and rescue culture.  It was never our mission and it was never the mandate God gave to His Church.  Maybe Rod Dreher and those who speak about a Benedict Option are doing us a favor.  We have to look in the mirror.  The Church is not colleges or universities or social service systems operating with government money.  The Church is not day care centers or parochial schools that offer everything in the public school and a pinch of religion.  The Church was and is always first and foremost a worshiping community.  We confessed a couple of months ago that the catholic faith is that we worship the Trinity.  The faith never was and should never be simply a private belief system or an assent to religious propositions.  We are first and foremost a community gathered around the Word and Table of the Lord.  If the new barbarism around us reminds us of this truth, then thanks be to God because I fear we have forgotten this basic truth.

The Church does not survive by popes or councils or synods or districts or dioceses.  She exists as a people called from darkness into Christ's light by the powerful Word through which the Spirit works.  She exists as a people set apart by baptism and given new and everlasting life that both secures an eternal future while detaching us from the need to define us by the moment.  She exists by the absolution that invades the guilty heart and mind with the gift of forgiveness and the mercy that ever reclaims us from the grasp of temptation, trial, trouble, and terror and from the grip of evil and doubt.  She exists as a community in which the truest word of all is the Word God spoke to us and we speak back to Him and in witness to our families and those around us.  She exists as a people kneeling before the altar where God delivers up His own to us and the fruits of His one, all-sufficient sacrifice as well as the sacrifice itself become our food and drink, the medicine of immortality and the foretaste of the eternal feast to come.

It will be great if we grow out from this in honorable learning communities in which the best of our past is preserved.  In these academies the goal is not simply learning but learning that equips us to live as the people God has called and made us to be in baptism.  It is not an education with a religious twist but a religious education that embraces every aspect of life and learning.  It will be great if we can find ways to care for those within the household of God and so manifest to them and to the world around us that love is not a word.  Love is sacrifice and service.  What we saw in Jesus and still see in Him we show to those around us, beginning from the household of faith.  Though we may be rescuing parts of the civilization currently being threatened, that rescue is not our goal but the redemption of the lost and the captive.  But our goal is not to replicate a religious structure that was conceived of and built in a previous time.  Our goal is and ought always to be is faithfulness -- faithfulness in time of prosperity, in time of adversity, in time of relative calm, in time of strife, in time of persecution, in time of influence.  God will not judge us for the buildings we have lost or our failure to revitalize civilization but He will judge whether or not we have been faithful in worship, in teaching the faith, in living out the faith, and in passing on the faith.  If we succeed here, the rest will come if God wills it or not -- but we will endure.

Ruinied by the screen. . .

I can remember before we had a TV and the first TV we had.  It was a wonderful event.  At the time, the local (75 miles away) stations were not even broadcasting 24 hours.  There was no remote control but when you get only a couple of channels why do you need a remote?  Even though the parents controlled the screen, there was always something to watch and mostly we watched together as a family.  It also conveyed some of the most profound moments of our nation's life into our home (from rocket launches to presidents assassinated, etc...).  But for most of my childhood, the TV screen was blank.  The TV was not on.  We spent time outside, we read books, we rode bikes, and we played games.  

I know that is old fashioned and seems precious in a world where everything is on the screen.  Now, my TV gets 200 channels and the remote is worn from my constant channel surfing.  Now, my life is spent partially in front of a computer screen.  Now my pocket has a screen that can do more than the computers that put us on the moon.  We all have our own screens and none of us watch together -- except when we pass the screen along for somebody to watch what we found humorous, sentimental, or shocking.  The screen is never blank and I am never too far from the ever-present screen and its internet connection.  Our lives are spent more indoors than out and time spent on the screen is mostly solitary, inside, and for entertainment.

What are the fruits of this change?  A number of fruits, poisoned fruits, are the result of our addiction to the screen.  We are consumed by the pursuit of things not boring.  We are consumed by the visual and pay less and less attention to the verbal or written word.  We are consumed by entertainment and judge everything by its entertainment value (from preaching to education and more).  We have been ruined by the screen.  The last things on earth we want to do is to turn off the screen and try and figure out what to do.  We play games, watch movies, have friendships, court, and see the doctor on the screen.  We want to go to church on the screen.  Why not?  

Screens do hot aid education or preaching or worship.  They do us many favors but they come at a cost.
  We do not recall much of what we see and hear on our screens.  Strangely enough, we remember more of boring lectures than interesting video.  Even stranger, we remember more of what bores us than what entertains us.  That alone is enough for me as a pastor to question the value screens in worship, religious education, and fellowship.  The point of these is not to know where to find this stuff but to recall it and connect the dots in our minds and hearts so that it all works together in life.

Take a test.  Whose names do you remember?  The faces and names of people who you see on a screen or the people with whom you interact in-person.  Read a sermon on paper (or from a boring screen of simply words) and watch one on video and which sermon do you recall?  We have invested too much in the poor returns that screens have -- from the public school to the church!  We have been ruined by the screens.  And so what do we turn to in our ruined state -- the screens!  The screens cannot fix the church or public education or our loneliness.  So abandon the screens for what they cannot do and do that in person and use the screens only for what they can do effectively.

A few thoughts about evangelization. . .

In the Church we are tempted to navel gaze in the same way -- to be preoccupied with what it takes to bring one convert through the door and then what it takes to keep that convert and on and on and on.   While most of it is worthless, it sometimes tells us something we did not know and we ought to know.  Like, for example, that the LCMS has one convert for every 44 members and that the majority of LCMS folk came as adult converts.  Surprised?  I get it.  We beat ourselves over the head at how bad we are at reaching out to new folks and then we find out we are not quite as bad as we thought.  The reality of this hits home when you find out LCMS folk have fewer children than most and tend to the gray side of the age spectrum.  The Mormons take only 40 members per convert but the Southern Baptists take 47.

It might surprise you further to note that Roman Catholicism has lost more members due to conversion to another religious tradition than any other church body. So some 13% of all U.S. adults are former Roman Catholics – people raised as Roman catholic but now claim either no religion or another church besides Roman (Protestant, mostly).  Only 2% of U.S. adults are converts to Catholicism – people raised in another faith.  So, get this, that means there are 6-7 folks who left Rome for every one who heads to Rome (at least in the US).

So what do we need to do to make sure our children and converts stay?  Well, we need to remember that most formation in the faith happens in the home, not in the congregation.  Simply practicing your own faith in the home is one of the most important things you can do.  Strong examples are key.  Find a church home and stay there (do not shop around) and frequent worship and Bible study.  In other words, it is not rocket science.  Practice the faith at home and at work.  Practice being in worship every week.  Practice opening the Scriptures and reading and studying them.  Take it seriously.  The more we do this in our families, the more our families will stay with the faith and in the Church.  The more we do this among our converts, the more those who come to the faith will remain there and in the Church.  Lets not make it harder than it needs to be.  At the same time, if we make becoming a member and staying a member too easy, then it obviously does not mean all that it is cracked up to be.

The problem?  Well, let me put it this way.  In a Bible class a long while ago I said that if the people did not believe that Lutheranism was the faith that reflected the Scriptures, why were they here?  In the course of that conversation, many folks said they were Lutheran because they were raised that way and they could not imagine what might cause someone not raised as a Lutheran to become one.  I was in shock.  In other words, religious affiliation was an accident of birth and not a matter of conviction.  Perhaps that might explain why our people do not share their faith and why their practice of the faith is without the kind of urgency and priority that impacts those watching them.

I am a Lutheran by conviction.  I expect that the folks in my parish are there for the same reason.  As a pastor, I presume this but that presumption does not keep me from talking about it over and over and over again.  The result of this is a relatively high number of converts from other faiths or none.   And we do it with a sung liturgy, full ceremonial, and a catholic expression of our Lutheranism.  Most of the folks are brought in by the folks in the pews or by the reputation of our parish.  Not many of them have ever experienced the Divine Service.  The seriousness with which we take the faith and teach the faith and preach it makes a difference.

Arise and eat for the journey is great. . .

Sermon for the 11th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 14B, preached on Sunday, August 8, 2021.

    We have a strange story in the Old Testament reading.  King Ahab comes whining to his wife Jezebel about how Elijah had killed all the prophets with the sword.  Ahab was afraid but Jezebel was not.  She sent word to Elijah threatening him with exactly what he had done to the prophets within 24 hours.  It was Elijah’s turn to be afraid.  He ran for his life to Beersheba and further, sitting down under a broome tree sure that he was as good as dead.  When he awoke, there was bread and drink.  He ate and lay down again.  Waking a second time, the Lord presented him with food and drink and called on him:  Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.  That food lasted him forty days and forty nights until he got to Horeb, the mount of God.

    Jesus fulfills this story and enriches its meaning.  We are the fearful and weary who just want to run away.  But Christ is our strength.  I am the bread of life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall not thirst.  The enemies of Jesus, our enemies, insisted either Jesus was a fool or did not know what He was talking about.  But Jesus would not be distracted.  He insists even more urgently.  I am the bread of life.  Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and died b ut I am the bread that comes down from heaven and whoever eats of this bread will live forever.  The bread that I give for the life of the world is My flesh. 

    My friends, the journey of faith IS great.  It is too great to be sustained on your own or even with the old covenant of the Law and commands.  The manna in the wilderness was great but the manna had to come every day because the hunger came every day and, in the end, both gave into death.  Jesus has come to fulfill this promise and to give radical new meaning to the phrase bread of life.  He has come to feed you that which alone can satisfy the hunger and quench the thirst.  He has come to give you Himself, surrendered to the suffering of the cross and raised in glory and now present here in this Holy Communion.

    We are a fearful people.  We give into the panic of our fears.  We run from our enemies but we do not know where to go.  We think we can hide from all that would threaten us.  But sin is still there and death is still there.  There is only one place to run where sin is forgiven and where death is overcome.  We run to Jesus and we meet this Jesus where He has promised to be.  In His Word He offers Himself as food for the mind and living water to refresh the body. 
In His Holy Sacrament He offers Himself to us as heavenly food, the bread of heaven come down from above and the drink that enlivens what was death in trespasses and sin.  And all He asks of us is that we believe in Him, rejoice in what He has done, and receive what He offers with joy and thanksgiving.  The journey of our lives is great but we walk that path in the strength of the Lord, with the bread of life in us and the Gospel as the voice of life to be our guide.

    You cannot go it alone.  There is not enough food to satisfy or drink to refresh for the long and arduous journey of faith.  We are threatened by too many enemies and we face too many temptations.  On our own we would run but in Christ we are given the strength in which to stand.  God comes to us in our fear and bestows courage in our hearts.  God comes to us in our loneliness and surrounds us with 

His favor and the angels who do His bidding.  God comes to us in our despair and plants hope in us.  God comes to us in our hunger and feeds us the only bread that satisfies and gives us to drink the fruit of the vine in His Kingdom without end.  We would stand apart but He bids us come.  We would watch and He bids us eat.  We would hide but He sends us forth in His strength and with His peace in our hearts.

    God knows the weakness of our frame, the hunger that burns within, the terror that fills our souls, and the worries that steal away our peace.  God knows we have enemies and God knows where we are weak.  He refuses to leave us alone to be swallowed up by those fears and left as the victims of temptation on the side of the road.  No, God will not abandon us – not even to ourselves!  And come to us He does.  His Word addresses us with the life-giving voice of the Gospel.  His baptismal water bestow upon us the new life that death cannot overcome.  His own flesh and blood are here, hidden in bread and wine, to feed us until we are full of Christ, full of grace, and full of the presence of God.

    Come and eat.  The journey of faith is long.  It is no sprint to the finish but the long haul and the long distance that we must battle.  It is not a battle against other competitors but against ourselves, our weariness of mind and body, of heart and soul, that would give up or go our own way.  God is determined not to allow us this freedom to fail.  He restores us week after week through the absolution that forgives our sins.  He refreshes our weary bodies and souls with the bread of heaven that comes down from above.  He gives us not the food of others but His flesh for the life of the world and His blood that cleanses us from all our sins. 
And all He asks of us is to believe Him and to believe in Him.  

    Christianity has been distorted by the cloud of individualism which sees the journey of faith as a solitary race with Jesus.  Christianity has been corrupted by those who pit the faith of the heart against the food of heaven.  Christianity has been hijacked by those who say worship can be virtual, that feelings are the best measure of truth, and that Jesus is more concerned about your happiness than your holiness.  Don’t listen to them.  Do not give into a Christianity which offers every thing in the moment but nothing for eternity, a cheap faith which asks nothing of you but promises everything you wish and hope for, or a shallow Gospel which ignores sin to address contentment and does not dare utter the call to repent.

    The Holy Spirit builds faith in us through the means of grace.  The Holy Spirit works to sustain and grow this faith in us through the Word and the Sacraments.  The Holy Spirit connects us to the living fellowship of the baptized whose lips confess Jesus as Lord in the Church.  The journey is long and we are bounced around by fear and haunted by temptation.  But Christ is with us.  He is the Bread of Life come down from heaven.  He speaks with the living voice of His Word that endures forever.  He feeds us with His flesh for the life of the world.  He gives us to drink His blood that cleanses us from all our sin.  You are not alone.  You are not on your own.  Jesus is not your personal Savior but the Redeemer of all who are being saved.  He has not come to establish a relationship with you but to take you into Himself and this is exactly what He does in baptism, in the Word through which faith comes by hearing, and in the Eucharistic table. 

    Yes, my friends, the journey is great and you have enemies and on your own you are weak.  But Christ is with you.  His power is greater than all our enemies.  And in Him we are rested and refreshed.  So come and eat of His bread, His flesh for the life of the world, and you will live forever.  This is not some pious sentiment but the Word of the Lord that endures forever.  Amen.    We have a strange story in the Old Testament reading.  King Ahab comes whining to his wife Jezebel about how Elijah had killed all the prophets with the sword.  Ahab was afraid but Jezebel was not.  She sent word to Elijah threatening him with exactly what he had done to the prophets within 24 hours.  It was Elijah’s turn to be afraid.  He ran for his life to Beersheba and further, sitting down under a broome tree sure that he was as good as dead.  When he awoke, there was bread and drink.  He ate and lay down again.  Waking a second time, the Lord presented him with food and drink and called on him:  Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.  That food lasted him forty days and forty nights until he got to Horeb, the mount of God.

    Jesus fulfills this story and enriches its meaning.  We are the fearful and weary who just want to run away.  But Christ is our strength.  I am the bread of life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall not thirst.  The enemies of Jesus, our enemies, insisted either Jesus was a fool or did not know what He was talking about.  But Jesus would not be distracted.  He insists even more urgently.  I am the bread of life.  Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and died b ut I am the bread that comes down from heaven and whoever eats of this bread will live forever.  The bread that I give for the life of the world is My flesh. 

    My friends, the journey of faith IS great.  It is too great to be sustained on your own or even with the old covenant of the Law and commands.  The manna in the wilderness was great but the manna had to come every day because the hunger came every day and, in the end, both gave into death.  Jesus has come to fulfill this promise and to give radical new meaning to the phrase bread of life.  He has come to feed you that which alone can satisfy the hunger and quench the thirst.  He has come to give you Himself, surrendered to the suffering of the cross and raised in glory and now present here in this Holy Communion.

    We are a fearful people.  We give into the panic of our fears.  We run from our enemies but we do not know where to go.  We think we can hide from all that would threaten us.  But sin is still there and death is still there.  There is only one place to run where sin is forgiven and where death is overcome.  We run to Jesus and we meet this Jesus where He has promised to be.  In His Word He offers Himself as food for the mind and living water to refresh the body. 
In His Holy Sacrament He offers Himself to us as heavenly food, the bread of heaven come down from above and the drink that enlivens what was death in trespasses and sin.  And all He asks of us is that we believe in Him, rejoice in what He has done, and receive what He offers with joy and thanksgiving.  The journey of our lives is great but we walk that path in the strength of the Lord, with the bread of life in us and the Gospel as the voice of life to be our guide.

    You cannot go it alone.  There is not enough food to satisfy or drink to refresh for the long and arduous journey of faith.  We are threatened by too many enemies and we face too many temptations.  On our own we would run but in Christ we are given the strength in which to stand.  God comes to us in our fear and bestows courage in our hearts.  God comes to us in our loneliness and surrounds us with His favor and the angels who do His bidding.  God comes to us in our despair and plants hope in us.  God comes to us in our hunger and feeds us the only bread that satisfies and gives us to drink the fruit of the vine in His Kingdom without end.  We would stand apart but He bids us come.  We would watch and He bids us eat.  We would hide but He sends us forth in His strength and with His peace in our hearts.

    God knows the weakness of our frame, the hunger that burns within, the terror that fills our souls, and the worries that steal away our peace.  God knows we have enemies and God knows where we are weak.  He refuses to leave us alone to be swallowed up by those fears and left as the victims of temptation on the side of the road.  No, God will not abandon us – not even to ourselves!  And come to us He does.  His Word addresses us with the life-giving voice of the Gospel.  His baptismal water bestow upon us the new life that death cannot overcome.  His own flesh and blood are here, hidden in bread and wine, to feed us until we are full of Christ, full of grace, and full of the presence of God.

    Come and eat.  The journey of faith is long.  It is no sprint to the finish but the long haul and the long distance that we must battle.  It is not a battle against other competitors but against ourselves, our weariness of mind and body, of heart and soul, that would give up or go our own way.  God is determined not to allow us this freedom to fail.  He restores us week after week through the absolution that forgives our sins.  He refreshes our weary bodies and souls with the bread of heaven that comes down from above.  He gives us not the food of others but His flesh for the life of the world and His blood that cleanses us from all our sins. 
And all He asks of us is to believe Him and to believe in Him.  

    Christianity has been distorted by the cloud of individualism which sees the journey of faith as a solitary race with Jesus.  Christianity has been corrupted by those who pit the faith of the heart against the food of heaven.  Christianity has been hijacked by those who say worship can be virtual, that feelings are the best measure of truth, and that Jesus is more concerned about your happiness than your holiness.  Don’t listen to them.  Do not give into a Christianity which offers every thing in the moment but nothing for eternity, a cheap faith which asks nothing of you but promises everything you wish and hope for, or a shallow Gospel which ignores sin to address contentment and does not dare utter the call to repent.

    The Holy Spirit builds faith in us through the means of grace.  The Holy Spirit works to sustain and grow this faith in us through the Word and the Sacraments.  The Holy Spirit connects us to the living fellowship of the baptized whose lips confess Jesus as Lord in the Church.  The journey is long and we are bounced around by fear and haunted by temptation.  But Christ is with us.  He is the Bread of Life come down from heaven.  He speaks with the living voice of His Word that endures forever.  He feeds us with His flesh for the life of the world.  He gives us to drink His blood that cleanses us from all our sin.  You are not alone.  You are not on your own.  Jesus is not your personal Savior but the Redeemer of all who are being saved.  He has not come to establish a relationship with you but to take you into Himself and this is exactly what He does in baptism, in the Word through which faith comes by hearing, and in the Eucharistic table. 

    Yes, my friends, the journey is great and you have enemies and on your own you are weak.  But Christ is with you.  His power is greater than all our enemies.  And in Him we are rested and refreshed.  So come and eat of His bread, His flesh for the life of the world, and you will live forever.  This is not some pious sentiment but the Word of the Lord that endures forever.  Amen.

How hard can it be?

How would the congregation flourish and the Synod prosper?  I wish I had a dollar for every program either officially sanctioned or from one of our parachurch organizations that promised to make this happen.  If I had a dollar for every piece of mail across my desk or every email I received from those same groups I would be rich as David and Solomon.  What a shame that for all their hope and hype, they offered things usually in conflict with God's Word or in competition with the means of grace.  No church will grow following such a plan.  

The Rev. Berthold von Schenk came up with a Blueprint for a Catholic Parish and a Kingdom Plan to aid the growth of the Church.  Though he had a lot of things to say, I like the paragraph I lifted from him.  It is eloquent in its simplicity and no one can argue with its theology (though I am sure that will not keep some from challenging its wisdom).

God would bless the congregation if the members worshiped faithfully by listening to the Word and receiving the Sacrament every Sunday. He would bless the congregation if the members adopted tithing as a way of life and brought their offering. God would bless the congregation if they prayed daily for the parish and members, and if the members of the congregation evangelized, God would also bless them.

Once, while new to the parish I have served now for some 29 years, I was asked if I had a plan for the revitalization of the congregation.  I said that it would be our common goal to have every member in worship on Sunday morning and in Bible study either on Sunday or at another time.  There was silence.   Then a laugh.  Then a question, That's it????  Yes, that is it.  But that is enough.  Sort of a boiled down plan of von Schenk -- with me conveniently avoiding the tithing issue (I will plead cowardice since it was early in my time here).

It is simple.  So simple that it seems foolish but it is the plan of God and the means by which we can be assured of His blessing.  Go to Church every Sunday.  Listen to His Word preached and taught.  Take it to heart.  Prepare yourself with confession and absolution and then receive with humble faith the very body and blood of Jesus in the Holy Sacrament.  Respond with songs of praise, prayers of intercession and thanksgiving, and, yes, tithes and offerings.  Tell others the Gospel you have heard and live so that they might ask of the hope within you.

The financial crisis among many congregations is not a lack of resources but a lack of giving.  Even faithful Christians seem content to throw God bits and pieces of their income and even then fear there might not be enough for themselves.  Thirty households tithing could support a typical pastor and parish (without a mortgage) and perhaps more.  Fifty households tithing could support a typical congregation and its programs -- even a modest mortgage.  You do the math.  We are not without because God has not blessed us but because we are not convinced that we can afford to tithe and give even more.  But the reality is that we can do no less.  We cannot afford to do less.

The lack of lay leadership in some congregations is because we have decided the things of God are a burden and nobody in their right mind would want to take on such a burden.  It might be a burden but it is also duty and delight.  Typically electing someone to an office in one of our congregations means telling them to do all the work themselves.  We isolate our leaders and then cry because they are few or do not get things done.  It is no wonder.  Whatever happened to the attitude of Solomon and God's people who found it a privilege beyond expectation to give to and work for the things of God?  We have plenty of time for the things we think important -- could it be that we suffer for help because we are not convinced that the things of God are important?

Pastors and people keep looking for magical short cuts.  There are none.  Oh, yes, location helps and excellence in preaching, presiding, and playing the music.  But the heart and core of the Church's life and growth are the Word and the Sacraments.  From them we learn, under the Spirit's guidance, how to live in response to that gift and in the power of that grace.  Not so hard until you try to do it.  But it is the path to a vital and vigorous congregation, district, and Synod.  First Peter reminds us that we are set apart by God to be His living stones, chosen and precious in His sight, to be built up into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, and to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  Spiritual here does not mean instead of the sacrifices of time, talent, and treasure but in addition to -- lips of praise and lives of holy obedience.

The cross as political accident. . ..

A couple of weeks ago we hosted The Rev. Roger James of the International Lutheran Council.  In a discussion of the state of world Lutheranism, it was clear that for some, perhaps many, Lutherans, the Gospel is not Jesus Christ and Him crucified and risen, not about the forgiveness of sins made possible by the shedding of His blood, and not about the redemption of our lost lives of sin.  In fact, the sad reality is that many Lutherans go to church on Sunday morning and hear a gospel of love without condemnation for sin (except politically targeted sins like intolerance and bigotry and racism).  As much as this is true among the most progressive and liberal Lutherans, it is not only true among them.  It is a typical perspective of progressive and liberal Christians of all denominational stripes.

I was struck to read of the departure of Cathedral Dean Drew Pearson of the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama.  The story I expected was one of personality conflicts and clashes but as it turned out it became more a story about what the Gospel was and was not.  Pearson said his meetings with diocesan leaders were generally cordial but involved the most basic theological questions over the identity of Jesus and the meaning of the crucifixion.

“I got really tired about arguing over who Jesus is, and arguing over what the Bible is and what its role is in the life of the church,” he said. “Those things are very important and ought to be discussed. But those conversations were taken to a level that it’s shameful that a denomination would have to have those conversations. You see that in the emphasis laid in the Episcopal Church on Jesus as a way of love, that Christianity is about emulating Jesus, and loving one another in the way that Jesus loves us. That is part of Christianity, but that’s a deficient view of the Christian faith, and a deficient view of who Jesus is and what he came to do. A Jesus who is just the way of love is a Jesus who can’t save. It certainly may help make our life a little bit better and our neighborhoods a little bit stronger, but when it comes to salvation, he came to die, and die for a very specific purpose. I would often engage in conversations with leaders of the diocese and at given points it was clearly said that Jesus’ death on the cross was just a political accident and that his death would have been just as effective as if he had died of pneumonia, that if the cross is anything, it’s just an event, it’s reduced to an example of ‘see how he loves us,’ rather than the cross being the moment where God is reconciling the world to himself because Jesus’ death is an atonement for our sins. He is a substitution on our behalf. I was always very careful in these conversations. The last thing I would ever do is to un-Christian somebody. But after years and years of these conversations, it became clear that many of us were using the same words but operating under completely different definitions. We were having disagreements sinover what Jesus did for us, what is the nature of sin, core issues that kept us apart.”

My friends, so many presume that the doctrinal divide among Christians is simply one of taste, of musical style, of nuanced theological emphasis but it is really about the very Gospel itself.   For St. Paul, there is only one Gospel -- the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified and risen -- and only one truth that gives life and hope -- the truth of Jesus, the Son of God in human flesh, who  lived in obedience that we might be declared righteous and died for sin that we might be justified.  When you go to a church on Sunday morning, unless you hear this Gospel of Christ crucified and risen for the forgiveness of your sins, you have not heard the Gospel.  If we are embarrassed by the cross and what happened there for us and for our salvation, we have no gospel, no hope, no salvation, and death and the devil have won.

This is not some foolish contest over who is right and who is wrong or some vain attempt to preserve the past in an age of change.  This is about the Gospel.  There is no hope without the fruits of Christ's redeeming death preached and taught.  Indeed, in the Holy Supper of our Lord we boldly proclaim that as often as we eat of this bread and drink of this cup we proclaim the Lord's death until He comes, repeating Scripture and its insistence that love has a shape in the cross and accomplishes a purpose in paying for sin not with silver or gold but with the holy and precious blood of Christ.

What is playing out across Christianity throughout the West is a vain attempt to change the Gospel and transform the faith but what no one is admitting is that in so doing the faith is robbed of its power and prevented from bestowing what it promises.  So do not fall into the trap of picking a church that fits your or appeals to your tastes and make sure that where you are you will hear every Sunday nothing less than this eternal Gospel for it is the one and only hope of salvation.   It is both shocking and embarrassing that there are churches who have chosen to preach another gospel instead of this eternal Gospel.  For in so doing, they have surrendered their right to be called Christian and emptied themselves of any means of offering hope to the guilty conscience, life to those in the shadow of death, and peace to those who hearts are troubled.