Palms and Hosannas and the Sign of the Cross. . .

Perhaps you have noticed that many pastors cross themselves as we sing Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.  It is not a novel or modern practice but an ancient one and not simply for the clergy or those presiding.  As we sing (or say) during the Sanctus: Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, we are referencing Jesus.  HE is the One who comes in the Name of the Lord.  When the crowds gathered (as in Matt. 21:9) as Jesus entered into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, their hearts were drawn to  Psalm 118:26.  Their words were a confession of faith.  They were naming the One who alone comes in the name of the Lord.  This is a confession of who Christ is -- the “He” refers to Jesus who has come from the Father in order to do His Father's will.  That is the second part of this.  We are confessing not merely our Lord's arrival (which happened at His conception in the womb of the Virgin) but His coming for the cross where sin and its death would be overcome and the devil defeated once for all.  So the sign of the cross at this point is not simply about who Jesus is but why He has come -- for ME.   "Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini."  

Probably the earliest patristic reference to the sign of the cross is from Tertullian (155-220 AD).  Though he is speaking in the third century, he is addressing what traditional customs have come down to him and his time.  He mentions the sign of the cross in such way that it is routine and known by all and commends the practice as ancient and worthy of our continued use.

And how long shall we draw the saw to and fro through this line, when we have an ancient practice, which by anticipation has made for us the state, i.e., of the question? If no passage of Scripture has prescribed it, assuredly custom, which without doubt flowed from tradition, has confirmed it. For how can anything come into use, if it has not first been handed down? Even in pleading tradition, written authority, you say, must be demanded. Let us inquire, therefore, whether tradition, unless it be written, should not be admitted. Certainly we shall say that it ought not to be admitted, if no cases of other practices which, without any written instrument, we maintain on the ground of tradition alone, and the countenance thereafter of custom, affords us any precedent. To deal with this matter briefly… At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign.

If, for these and other such rules, you insist upon having positive Scripture injunction, you will find none. Tradition will be held forth to you as the originator of them, custom as their strengthener, and faith as their observer. That reason will support tradition, and custom, and faith, you will either yourself perceive, or learn from some one who has. Meanwhile you will believe that there is some reason to which submission is due.

Tertullian, The Chaplet 3-4

I write this only to show that this is both a universal custom and a salutary one, especially for a Church and the people of God entering into the contemplation of the holy mysteries of this week.  Under it all is the assurance that Jesus is whom the Father sent and that He has come for you, for me, and for every sinner.  It is a joyful affirmation that we are under the banner of the love that Holy Week begins to unfold with all of its loveless acts of betrayal, suffering, and death.  As we enter into that season devoted to the cross, we make the sign of the cross to note who fulfills the promise of that cross and to note that we are those for whom He has come.

 

For the sake of the world. . .

I will admit for a long time having shelved the ecumenical task of the churches to a less than urgent status.  After all, when the ELCA Lutherans have so far departed from their confession that they are more at ease with those who share none of it than they are with those who confess it still, you have to wonder if it is worth it all.  For good or for ill, both the ELCA and Missouri seem to be at peace having little or nothing to do with each other.  I get it.  It is easier.  

And there are those who would apply the same strictures to life with in each of those bodies.  There are those who hang on in a liberal body, having refused to follow the lead of the national body and living within the comfort of their own locale (and the hope that the worst will not occur in their own back yard). They are mistaken, of course.  There is little hope for the ELCA to change back into anything that it once was.  But they have found a corner in which to live for a time.  There are those who hang on in a conservative body, distancing themselves from the rest of their church in order to carve out some safe space within a tolerant district or congregation.  They might be less mistaken in their hope since the trajectory overall has been a slower or quicker pace toward liberalization among nearly all church bodies.  Indeed, the LCMS is the one which has formally and, to most observers, successfully turned back the liberal tide.  But this is not the ecumenism of which I speak.

The second thoughts I have are in view of what happens when conservative and orthodox Christians lose their voice in the larger Christian conversation.  Yes, we do have a witness against what those who have thrown Scripture and the catholic doctrinal and liturgical legacy under the bus.  We also have a witness against the world which typically makes little or no distinction between orthodox and heretical Christian views or bodies.  I do think there is value in the ecumenical conversation for several reasons.  One may surprise you.  We know ourselves better when we must define ourselves to others.  Some of the best of Lutheran conversation was when we were serious in our dialogue with serious Roman Catholics and Orthodox and even Protestants.  It broke down not because we lost our voice but it became clear that Lutherans were not headed down the same path and we could not speak as one.  Nonetheless, much of what eventually silenced the conversation between, for example, the ELCA and Missouri was portended already in the ecumenical conversations in which we were engaged.  Having to define yourself to others is not a wasted or bad thing but a fruitful endeavor even for yourself.

In addition, we gain from a critique from others.  Half of all arguments around the world are based on misunderstandings or vagaries that beg for clarity.  We are often clearer in our own minds than we are in conversation with others.  It does not hurt us to have someone ask what this means or what this has to do with that.  They also gain from us.  The honest admission in the early days of the ELCA embrace of sex and gender decisions was telling -- they admitted that they had departed from Lutheran confession and practice and even catholic teaching in choosing to regularize same sex marriage and open the clergy to those who claimed and practiced such once forbidden desires and gender feelings.  That is not a bad thing to have someone point out that you are not doing or believing as you once did.   

Finally, the world will hear only one side of the Christian story without the voices of those who confess along with the saints who have gone before.  It is worth remembering that people are not living comfortably outside the Church because they do not know what Christianity is but because they they think they already know, have decided that what they already know is either not worth it or does not apply, and have rejected Christian truth.  While this is their perception, it is not the reality.  They have a stereotyped version of Christianity which has been corrupted by those who have disdained the Scriptures and the witness of the saints.  How will they know this unless we are still at the table protesting those who give Christianity a false identity?  The ecumenical conversation is one that happens outside the echo chamber of Christian bodies or the world apart from this witness and it is worth our time and effort to continue to engage and to speak for Christ and in His name to those not yet of His kingdom.  We can and we really do accomplish this by the effective work of the ecumenical conversation.

So long ago I barely remember, I was the single LCMS observer at the table when Episcopalians and LCA Lutherans were talking together.  This happened along the Hudson River when I was so green it was embarrassing.  One of the things I discovered is that the Lutherans had a doctrinally sound understanding of the Real Presence but our practice sucked.  When it came to planning the first inter-communion between those in dialogue, the Lutheran participants said their people would not commune unless individual cups were used and the Episcopalians said their people would not commune unless the chalice was used.  All of a sudden my Lutheran smugness at having a solid confessional identity was shaken by the reality that sometimes people without the words are doing a better job of living them out than we were.  By the way, one of the sticking points was not simply how people would commune but how you would deal with the reliquae from so many little bitty cups.  Sadly, some Lutherans revealed how shallow their orthodoxy by admitting that they did not even think about what was done with what remains of the Sacrament.  Ouch.  That was an ecumenical conversation in which I learned as much about Lutherans as I did about Episcopalians!

Got a couple of hours?

Now that I am retired, I have had a spare few hours to listen to a long and very interesting interview with Jeff Schwarz and Pastor Todd Wilken on the history and identity of Issues, Etc.  You will encounter the foolish, the stupid, the inept, the dark history behind the rebirth of this daily podcast promoting the faith.  Neither Schwarz or Wilken can claim credit for it all and they readily admit that where things ended up and where they began was a miracle of God.  Now, to be fair, both Schwarz and Wilken are too modest and they took what were terrible circumstances thrust upon them and made gold out of their situation.  You can here the whole story here. 

I want to focus on another aspect of their success.  This is not about their guests or them but about the way they have put the faith on the map and, in particular, the LCMS.  They have contributed to a brand new thing and that is people who are seeking a faith and a church and who pay attention to what they hear on programs like Issues, Etc.  I experienced this in spades.  We had people who came out of an evangelical or non-denominational or fundamentalist background and ended up hearing about Lutheranism for the first time through people like Jeff Schwarz, Todd Wilken, Rod Rosenbladt, Don Matzat, and many others.  The digital air waves have become a profound vehicle for the message of Christ crucified for sinners.  And it works.

Over the years I cannot tell you how many emails, phone calls, and personal conversations have begun with the words "I heard you on Issues, Etc..."  Many of those people were looking for a church home and some of those people ended up moving to Clarksville, Tennessee, and becoming members of Grace Lutheran Church.  To her credit, my wife, Amy, was the social media content creator for our congregation for more than 9 years and she did a tremendous job in creating a noble and faithful digital face for the congregation and for me (and my blog).  Together, they helped to give our congregation and me a presence that rippled across the miles and brought people into Lutheranism and into this church.  Living in a world where some jobs allow you to work from just about anyplace with a sturdy internet connection has created a phenomenon in which those same people look for a place to live by first looking for a place to worship.

Schwarz and Wilken built upon what Matzat had begun but they excelled at a couple of things so needed in our day.  First of all, they were apologetically Lutheran.  Second, they were apologists for the faith (not in the sense of I am sorry but in the sense of defense of the faith).  Third, they provided the listener with solid content from knowledgeable sources (even non-Lutheran ones) which equipped them to know better and live out more fully what it means to be a Christian.  Finally, never far from the words spoken is the cause of Christ and Him crucified and risen.  God bless them.  Now some 17 years after the show was foolishly cancelled by then then leadership of the LCMS, Issues, Etc. has positioned itself so very well to do what Walter A. Maier did in his day -- use the technology and platforms to tell the story of Christ and defend the faith.  In one sense, what some thought was a small thing to cancel the program in 2008 has contributed to its growth, success, and influence over the years.  It is certainly a decision which has had profound consequences for the LCMS and its leadership and direction over the years.

Grace has been a longtime financial supporter of Issues, Etc., has had members traverse the miles to their "Making the Case Conferences," and has testimonies from those who came to Lutheranism and to our fellowship of faith by listening to the program on the airwaves and as a podcast.  Both Jeff and Todd have been more than gracious in bringing me on their program from time to time and I count it as a great privilege to be among the many giant names which have graced the platform over the years.  It is time to formally say a word of thanks to both Jeff Schwarz and Pastor Todd Wilken for their faithful and successful work over these years.  Their success has contributed to our own local success over four hours away as the people who listened to them first ending up sitting in the pews and listening to me.

Thank you, Jeff and Todd! 

Survey says: A top Lutheran blog. . .

Perhaps the blogs are going away or are less popular than before but, no matter the reason, I received an email saying that my own little enterprise got a little recognition -- something for which I am most grateful to those who read it now and then or even more regularly.

I do not know all that much about Feedspot but do subscribe to some of their offerings.

You can find out more about it all here.  Again, I am not promoting it but simply putting the info out there.  For Individuals, it does enable you to subscribe to your favorite Blogs in one place on FeedSpot Reader.
 

Two Giants. . .

Within days of each other, two Lutheran giants passed away.  I should feel the deeper affinity to Marty E. Marty.  After all he was born not many miles from where I was born and we both hail from the great state of Nebraska.  His dad was the pastor there and he grew up in a parsonage on the precious soil of the Cornhusker State.  The other was born in St. Louis and grew up at Concordia Seminary where his dad was none other than Walter A. Maier the radio preacher.  One biography said that Marty left never to return.  Paul Maier never left. At least on the surface, my life and Martin E. Marty have more in common than me and Paul L. Maier.  Dig deeper and you will find a study in contrasts and the reason why I have respect for Marty but love for Paul.

Martin E. Marty was the author of some 60 books and a world acclaimed authority on Christian history.  He was affable and well spoken.  He enjoyed the respect of his peers and those interested in Christian history all across the world.  I met him a couple of times and was in awe of him.  Paul L. Maier was also the author of many books and endless articles and also had a distinguished career as an educator and historian.  I knew Paul well, hosted him four or five times as a speaker and preacher in my parish, and broke bread with him at least as often.  I was not in awe of him but I adored him.  Let me tell you the difference.

Everyone knew where Martin Marty stood on the messiness of the 1960s-1980s in the Missouri Synod.  He left.  He found a home eventually within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  Though he was not mean about it, he did not have much respect for the Missouri Synod.  Paul Maier did not get mixed up in the wars of Missouri as a general but you knew where he stood.  He contended for the Word of God.  He was an historian but he was also an apologist (in the classical sense of that term).  He defended the faith and the historicity of the Scriptures and the truthfulness of its claims.  He was elected Vice-President and served the LCMS in this way over many years.  Both were highly acclaimed within their university settings (Marty at the the University of Chicago Divinity School and Maier at Western Michigan University).  Marty adept at navigating the relationship between culture and religion (even working with Norman Lear) and Maier adept at making the case for the faith in words every person could understand and yet without making simplistic.

On one occasion, my middle child accompanied us for supper.  My son thought it would be boring.  He loved and hung on every word Paul said.  Paul talked about his yellow Pontiac Solstice (or was it the Saturn version?).  He talked about a 50 foot drag line crane he bought and used to dig holes in his property, along with driving his bulldozer, tractor, and such.  He had the ability to transcend a difference in age and experience and yet hidden in his words and witness lived large the image of Christ.  I cannot help but remember this aspect of the man who was not simply a commentator but a defender of the one and forever truth of Christ crucified and risen.  He often said the best thing that could happen for Christianity is people digging up Palestine to build new buildings for everything they unearthed gave testimony to the truth and truthfulness of the Scriptures.  Martin Mary could tell us about movements and connections and the development of church bodies and Christian influence but Paul Maier could tell us that we need not be embarrassed about the faith we confess because it's facts have every foundation in archeology and history.  I will continue to read and reread the works of Martin Marty but I will long for the conversations with Paul with my son who learned something of the faith while imagining Paul operating the drag line crane making his backyard look like the craters on the moon.

Living in An "R" Rated World. . .

I am not quite a prude but I am very uncomfortable with and concerned for the shape of life in an "R" rated world.  The sad reality is that teens, even Christian teens, routinely view "R" rated movies, listen to "R" rated lyrics in popular music, watch what might be considered "R" rated TV shows, play "R" rated video games, and look at "R" rated videos and conversations on such platforms as TikTok.  Our kids are inundated by course, vulgar language -- and not simply sex related stuff but violent and abusive words related to their relationships with others and especially with the opposite sex.  For the life of me I cannot understand why we are not more concerned about this.

We live in a world and at a time when it seems that children have adult sized choices and decisions thrust upon them, robbing them of their childhood and forcing them to deal with things they are not emotionally or experientially equipped to deal with. It ought to be to our sadness and regret that our children live in an "R" rated world and have had to suffer through words which describe and images that depict some of our worst and most depraved desires.  Yet this is the world we have given them and this is the obstacle course they must make their way through to a whole and responsible adulthood.  Yes, we do have the power to give them a safer world and environment in which to grow up into adulthood but at some point and for some reason we as a culture decided the hardest edges of life and the most realistic depictions of our chosen reality were the things our children should know from childhood on.

Our world is not safe.  It is not safe for them to use the tools of the internet or even the toys we give them for play.  We get all excited when some lead paint shows up in a toy from China or a car seat needs to be recalled but we cannot seem to muster the same sort of indignation over the explicit sex acts and violence which is routinely fed to them in those unsupervised screens.  We think we are paying attention to the best interests of our children when we violate their bodies because of a momentary whim for a boy to be a girl or a girl a boy but we cannot find it within ourselves to allow them any freedom to be children.  Maybe the birth rate ought to be going down if this is all we can manage as a culture and society to protect our children and insulate them from the worst around them.

Hillary Clinton was vilified for saying it takes a village to raise a child.  She may have been wrong about everything else but she was not wrong about that.  It does take a village and we have been doing a rather poor job as a village taking care of our children.  When they act out or display adult size temperaments for sex or violence, we are shocked and appalled.  Where did they learn this?  I can tell you.  Look in the mirror. They learned it from self-indulgent adults who have lost their common sense and forsaken the sense of duty and responsibility our children deserve in order to hand them a weapon which they do not know how to use.  How could they not hurt themselves or others!  

There was a time when my kids were small and I turned the channel or took the page out of their hand because it was not appropriate to their age or maturity.  We need to take more care as adults to protect those most vulnerable more than indulge them with adult sized freedom and choices that will hurt them for the whole of their lives.  Before we expect our children to grown up and act their age, we adults need to do exactly that.

The stones cry out. . .

One of the saddest fruits of the modern desire to reinvent the architecture of the Church has been how modern buildings struggle to speak with any clear voice of who the Church is and what the Church does.   In the place of the old, we do not have the new but instead a cacophony of incoherent voices shouting to be heard instead of speaking of what God has said.  There was a time when even the stones cried out of Christ and Him crucified, when the clear message was the body and blood of our Lord, incarnate in the Virgin's womb, living holy for the unholy, dying for the terrible cost of sin, living so that sin would never gain the last word in death, and giving the fruits of His redeeming work without cost to those who deserved nothing of His mercy.

Clearly certain forms were clearer in this than others, so much more clear than the confusion of circular shapes that test the boundaries of usefulness for the Church they are supposed to hold.  The cruciform shape of the building made it clear that we preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  Easter does not leave behind the cross but frames its meaning and power.  And in that cruciform shape there is the altar.  The altar is Christ on that cross shaped foundation.  From that altar the blood and water flow in the Eucharistic and baptismal means of grace.  The Gospel is words but not only words.  The pulpit is the mouth that speaks but not in place of the body and blood and water.  No, it is with these that together Christ is made known, known, and made known more.

It occurs to me (though undoubtedly I have borrowed this from someone along the way) that the only ones who really see this are the members of the altar guild.  They have the best job in the Church or at least the best vantage point of it all.  They are like the men who brought the body to the tomb and the women who came to complete the burial.  They are near while the rest are far removed from the center of it all.  The altar is marked on the top with five crosses to mark the five wounds of Jesus.  The altar cloth is like the burial linen, the shroud if you will, that wraps the body and touches its flesh.  On this altar cloth are transferred the burial marks, the five wounds.  They absorb the blood that flows from the body not as a back up in case of accident but because that is the reason for their existence, why they were made.  With the altar cloth is the corporal on which the sacred vessels sit and the purficator which cleanses the chalice as the blood is distributed.  These are like the face cloth of Jesus which He folded up and placed on the side of where His body lay.  And the paraments are like the outer garments, the seamless robe too precious to tear which adorns Him who is alone worthy of wearing it.  The sacred vessels are lifted up not in offering of sacrifice to the Father but so that the Father might countenance their filling -- the blood that flows into the cup turning sacrifice into sacrament.

Everything in the building and at the altar speaks.  It speaks of body and blood.  From the pulpit body and blood.  The stones do cry out and with them the ministers who carry these gifts in their hands and lend to Christ their voices and every aspect of the chancel and nave.  The stained glass are visual words of God's work of our salvation in His Son.  The organ is the massed choir of voices of God's people who have been set free to sing the unending song of what God has done.  It is and, according to Revelation, will always be about the body and blood, the Lamb who sits upon His throne and the saints gathered around Him.  But of all people, the altar guild folk get it best.  They who handle the things of God along with the ministers of Christ see what too often the people in the pews do not see.  Christ is here.  He is literally here.  The same body in Mary's belly comes to yours that the Lord of life might be incarnate in you too.  The same body hung upon the cross that you might bear yours in Him as He bore for you.  The same body laid in the tomb but the tomb could not hold Him.  As He was stripped and laid bare, the Church will soon strip the chancel and lay it bare -- so bare that it cannot be anymore missed or ignored.  Christ crucified for me.

The palms wave with joy for the day -- not because they know not what awaits the Lord of glory as He comes but precisely because they do.  He is come for this.  My hour is now.  My glory is here.  And the busy altar guild leads us through the unfolding of the days from palms to lilies, from death to life, not as a play but as the true and real divine drama is done before us in remembrance of the once for all and forever is told.  Curiously enough, the body and blood of Christ are never spoken of as signs or symbols ever.  One of the reasons why John 6 cannot be symbolic.  Real food, real drink, real flesh, and real blood.  No, Jesus does not and no Scriptures speaks of His body and blood as symbol of another else or sign of something not there.  Sure, other things may symbolize that which is the most real of all reality but not the other way around.  And the altar guild knows it all, sees it all, hears it all, and works that we all might know and see and hear it so that we might give witness to it in word and deed.  Thanks be to God for the altar guild.  Join up.  It is the closest seat to the mystery of the ages which unfolds before us every week.

A liturgical confession and life. . .

The Augustana confesses about the Church that she is and what the Church is in liturgical terms.  As Lutherans, this point is sometimes lost to us.  The Church as “the assembly of saints in which the Gospel is taught purely and the Sacraments are administered rightly” (AC VII).  Unless you think of this in theoretical terms, this is concrete and liturgical language.  The Church is what she does and where she does it.  This should not come as a surprise.  This is the catholic way of speaking and this catholic doctrine and practice is the claim of the same Confession.

Sometimes Lutherans get so caught up in the invisible character of the Church's fullness that it is easy to presume that the Church is not local, a specific assembly in which the Word speaks, sins are forgiven, sinners washed clean, and the hungry fed upon the Bread of Life.  As Norman Nagel often said, a God who is everywhere is nowhere when you need Him.  This is reflective of the incarnational theology of St. John.  Jesus is the God who is precisely that -- somewhere.  He is here.  In the flesh of His mother as like any child and yet without sin.  In the bread of His flesh and yet gloriously so.  In the bread that is the Word that proceeds from the mouth of God and yet not simply words.  

It is a wonderful thing to have a written confession -- Lutherans are blessed to have such in the Concordia.  But the Confession does not live in some theoretical or artificial idea.  The Confessions live in the assembly of the saints and they live where and through the Word of the Gospel purely proclaimed and the Sacraments rightly administered according to our Lord's bidding.  In some respects, we have lost this dynamic and think of the Confessions as a book of words to which one subscribes.  Confessional subscription, while affirmed in words, is something lived out as the people of God gather around the Word of God and the Table of God.  You cannot build a wall between what is believed and how it is lived out, between what we say and what we do.  Sadly, that is exactly what some have tried to do and in so doing have rendered academic and weak what is practical and strong.

Doctrinal integrity means nothing if those who kneel at the rail have different confessions and those with one confession have no unity unless they kneel together.  There is no church fellowship that does not meet also at the rail and there is no rail that welcomes those who have no fellowship.  The independent congregation without a formal fellowship of confession and liturgical life is an oddity that cannot live long and begs to the rescued.  The congregation in which the fellowship is so wide that it does not expect or manifest a unity of confession is also odd and empty, begging to be fulfilled with the riches of a confession that is lived out in liturgical life.  

In the same way, though this liturgical life does not demand an exact uniformity of rite or ritual, it certainly desires such -- as close as can be.  Just as this liturgical life does not demand appointments or architecture, it certainly does not disdain the riches of more over less.  What must not be demanded is nonetheless the desire -- oneness of confession and Table, of liturgy and church usages, of beauty and ceremony.  Such unity and uniformity is not some theoretical ideal but that to which we work not because we must but because we desire it.  There is something lost when we become so comfortable with a diversity of beliefs and practices that we find unity an alien thing instead of a familiar.  Maybe it is true that the Church will never realize this goal on earth but that should not prevent us from striving for just that -- a unity not of less but of more, not of minimums but of fullness.  If this is not that to which we are committed, for which we work, and the desire of our hearts, we are not worthy of being called the Church.

Finally, the standard we apply is not personal nor individual but catholic and of the whole.  For this reason, we value tradition over novelty, what has been received over what has been invented, what marks us in continuity with those who have gone before over that which marks us as new and different.  In the end this is the arena in which the old adage lives, lex orandi, lex credendi.  And this ancient principle is reflected in our Confessions even as it is reflective of who we are as a church and what are the marks of this church.  Our unity and life is liturgical just as our confession is.  It is worth remembering in an age in which diversity seems to value the freedom to be different over the freedom to look like our fathers in the faith.

 

Asking Jesus into our heart. . .

I read intently a defense of the idea that we ask Jesus into our hearts.  As you may know, Lutherans are not big on this language.  Sure, we know that Scripture references the heart as the seat of the will and faith reposes in the heart.  The problem is that there is nothing in Scripture about asking Jesus into anyone's heart nor is there anything that would give support to the idea that we make a decision for the Lord.  The Scriptures record abundant calls to repent and believe but also with the clarification that no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.  In other words, conversion is not a matter of our will and decision but of God's work in us by the Spirit working through His Word.  Period. The danger of making Jesus captive to an emotive feeling or choice made in a moment is that faith becomes a feeling and a choice which can be unfelt and unwilled as quickly and even more easily than any decision for the Lord.

The danger is also that we remove faith from the concrete of the means of grace and the work of the Spirit from those means of grace so that even God becomes an idea to inhabit the imagination rather than the God who fills the present so that He might fill eternity with us.  The more we distance God from the means of grace the more we distance Him from anything we would call real and unchangeable.  God is not an idea.  He is a personal being who is known to us in a personal way through the concrete of the Word and Sacraments.  Faith is not an idea or even an idea of this God.  Faith is the trust in the God who has revealed Himself to us and made Himself known to us precisely because without His aid and Spirit, we would be left to a mere idea of Him and not the reality of Him and what He has accomplished for us.

Of all the things that are dangerous to Christianity, one of them is surely the idea that we turn God on and off like a feeling, that we decide for Him or against Him at will and whim, and that He lives in us as an idea in our imagination.  No God like this has any power to save us eternally nor has He the power to change us in the present moment.  Such a God does not need to be worshiped, is hardly with the time to pray, and will countenance our surrender to whatever desire we have -- including the one to disown Him when He no longer is needed or fulfills any purpose in our eyes.  This God is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not the God of the prophets, and not the God who was made flesh in Jesus Christ.  While I can only hope that evangelicals will tire of this view of God, I can warn the Lutherans who want to be like the evangelicals that this is not the God of our confession, not the God of our liturgy, and not the God of our prayers.

Reasonable and calm but still wrong. . .

Occasionally someone will ask me if the progressives and liberals are raging lunatics.  Sometimes it may seem so but the reality is just the opposite.  Most of them are cordial and reasoned (though some of the fringe are, well, lunatics).  Take the Lutheran Church in Australia and New Zealand and their decision to skip the rules, skip history, skip Lutheran doctrine 101, and skip the fragile unity of their own church body in order to pursue the ordination of women (something they have been trying to do for years but failed according to the rules even though a majority were for it).

If you listen to  Pastor Paul Smith, Bishop, Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand, answering the usual questions, you do not hear the voice of someone who seems strange or odd or scary.  He is perfectly calm in his explanation of what was being done, why it was being done, and how the church was going to live and thrive because of what was done.  It is the kind of calm that suggests that there is no reasonable person who could possibly disagree with him on this matter and no one of good heart and sound mind who would object.  Anyway, according to Smith, we are all going to get along and this is all going to be wonderful -- diversity is the byword of a vibrant and alive Christianity, you know.

You can listen to the series of videos here.  They are generally short, a couple of minutes, and nicely done.  The problem is not that he is not nice or that the decisions made are not reasonable in the light of social understanding in the 21st century.  No, the problem is that this is wrong.  It does not accord with Scripture.  It does not accord with the Lutheran Confessions.  It does not accord with history.  It does not accord with catholic doctrine or practice.  More than making things better, it has already spun off one more Lutheran group of those who object to this departure from all things Biblical and catholic.

If it is a choice between nice and reasonable and in accord with the thinking of most folks (especially those outside the Church) and Christ and His Word that does not change and endures forever, which side should a Lutheran be on?  I do not doubt that those in favor of this radical departure from the Scriptures and our Lutheran heritage of faith and practice are nice people and reasonable and probably fun to be with over a glass of Lutheran beverage.  But the sad reality is that this group has chosen to be on the wrong side if God's Word, Lutheran doctrine, and Lutheran practice.  

My point is simply this. If you wish a reasoned Christianity which might be inspired by Scripture but which actually accords with social and cultural thought across religious and secular realms, this is your path.  Diversity over truth, flexibility over orthodoxy, mind over Scripture, and a smile to fix every problem.  We can all get along and look good in the eyes of a culture which does not care a whit what Jesus says, what the Church has said and done, and how it will affect the unity of a particular communion. Pastor Smith is nice.  Those who disagree with him are not so nice.  Well, then, perhaps God is not so nice either -- at least as we would reason it all in the same brains that exchanged a perfect Eden for an earthly fight for daily life until death wins.  Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  By the way, you might just want to pray for the LCANZ and also for those good folk who have decided it is better to be on the side of Jesus than the world --  Lutheran Mission Austraila.  They, by their own words, committed to continuing 'to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints' (Jude 3).

 

The liturgical is not gone but fulfilled. . .

In a very insightful essay over at First Things, Peter Leithart has written eloquently about how the Epistle to the Hebrews is misinterpreted by most of Protestantism and even some Lutherans and Roman Catholics.  I would urge a wider reading of his words.  His point is that the contrast in Hebrews is not between the temporal or earthly and the eternal and heavenly but about that which symbolized and prefigured what Christ has fulfilled and is present now.  It is a good read.

These words should remind us that our institutional forms and ritual habits are neither holdovers from the ceremonial order of the old covenant nor are they empty gestures no longer needed or godly in the new covenant.  Indeed, they have been fulfilled.  What were once merely forms and habits are now filled with Christ.  This is a vibrant liturgy not because the people are with it or into it or it has all the bells and whistles but because Christ is there, the One who fulfilled all that went before and who gives to the present the taste of the eternal which is coming.  Listen to his words:

Once upon a time, Israel offered sacrificial worship at a sanctuary through the ministrations of priests, but Jesus opened the door to a post-religious world sans sacrifice, sans sanctuary, sans priest, sans everything. That’s a misreading. Augustine captures the actual thrust of the letter when he characterizes the transition as one from shadow to reality, symbol to truth. Christian liturgical practice is still sacrificial and priestly, but through Jesus we have access to the real, original, heavenly things. What Israel did in twilight, the church does in the full light of day. The new doesn’t inaugurate an a-liturgical form of life and worship, but radically rearranges liturgy itself.

That is the point we so often either take for granted and thus relegate to the realm of the theoretical or we miss entirely.  Through Christ we do have access to the eternal and that access does not come to us by escaping or eschewing the earthly forms of the means of grace but directly through them.  It is as if we have become the woman caught in her sin who distracts the conversation to the idea of which mountain.  Jesus does not denigrate the mountains that where they worshiped but insisted that it was not a choice between those hills in the past but the revelation of what was here now in Christ -- the heavenly brought to earth to bring us to our home on high and fulfill all the promises of yesterday.

It is clear that most of what passes for worship is an almost gleeful abandonment of anything that would resemble the past in favor of an individualist and emotional piety in which worship is almost irrelevant and the earthly replaced entirely.  This surely ends up being either an other worldly spirituality in which nothing of today has meaning or it ends up with a present day spirituality in which today is the only things that has meaning.  God must be shedding tears.  He has fulfilled all that was promised and filled the present with Christ so that we may glimpse the future and be kept unto the consummation of all things and here we are clapping our hands, stomping our feet, and propelling ourselves into an emotional high or arguing ourselves into heaven as if all the work of Christ depended upon a yea or a nay from us.  Lutherans have, as I have often said, the fullness of it all in the efficacious Word AND Sacraments, catholic doctrine, liturgy, and practice, and the vibrant fruit of God's work in the present through the doctrine of vocation.  What a shame we do not value and live out what we have.  In this, we are not unlike that woman arguing with Jesus at the well while He is giving us what is beyond our wildest hopes and dreams in the mystery of His grace that saves us now for eternity. 

Sounds reasonable to me. . .

Though not all freely admit it, liberal or progressive Christianity does not start with the Biblical text.  In fact, theology for this group begins with how it sounds.  If it sounds reasonable and accords with their worldview and fits with what is acceptable at this time, it simply must be true.  True no matter what God's Word actually says.  Indeed, the Word of God is like raw earth to be mined for the gems that are valued today rather than approached as the truth forever.  In this respect, like the person in search of a final pure product, you have to work through a lot of ore or raw material first.  Scripture is, for the liberal and progressive, the raw ore that is not in and of itself valuable but what it may be processed into does have value.

In this respect, liberal or progressive theology is myopic.  It sees only what it wants to see and it can only see through the lens of what sounds reasonable and right now.  It does not intend to be the way, the truth, and the life forever but what is good now and what works now.  Indeed, this is the greatest failing of liberal and progressive Christianity.  It is tied to the moment and not to the past or the future.  It is wedded to the worldview now and cannot escape this temporal prison.  On the other hand, catholic Christianity is by nature conservative.  It does value what was received from the past and it is concerned about what is passed on to the future and the criterion for this is always outside the self of reason and understanding but in the Word and works of God.

It is unreasonable to think of sin as arbitrary wrongs that are not adjusted or minimized by circumstances or the changing mood or judgments of the times.  It is unreasonable to think of sin as sin without mitigating circumstances to make some of those sins less egregious than the same sin in other contexts.  It is unreasonable to think that anyone might have to deny themselves and their desires and become new and different people in the process.  It is unreasonable to think that worship should reflect the values of God and not appeal to the sense of the times or the desires of those in the pews.  It is unreasonable to think that all life has the same intrinsic value and no life should be ended for the sake of the person or another.  It is unreasonable to meet God in the splash of water, the voice of His Word, the taste of bread and wine.  In all of these, it is completely unreasonable except for the fact that God has reasoned it all this way in His heart and out of love for us.  If we are to endure, we need an anchor more secure than what seems reasonable or right in the moment.  We need nothing less than the Word of God that endures forever and for a Church built upon this solid foundation.  We do not need to make the Church relevant for the promise of life to a people marked with death has its own relevance in every age and generation.

Why would we dwell upon what we think God would want when we have the record of His voice still speaking through His Word?  Why would we make the test of truth reason or popularity or acceptance by the judgment of the present moment?  There is so much more and it beckons us to get past what seems reasonable or comfortable to meet God where He has planted His promise in time to bring us to eternity.  Why would we dwell upon what works for us now if it has no power to work for us the blessing of everlasting life?  Indeed.  A good thing to hear on a day dedicated to deception.

Still time to sign up. . .

I have been asked to teach a continuing ed course in August in two locations.  The information is listed below.  Take a gander and if you are interested, sign up and join us.  It is not only for pastors but also for lay folks as well.

August 4–6, 2025 in Auburn, MI &

August, 12-14 in Cupertino, CA 

The Rev. Larry A. Peters is a native of Nebraska and graduated from St. John’s College, Winfield, Kansas, Concordia Senior College, Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne (1980). He vicared on Long Island and served his first call in Cairo, New York, before moving to Clarksville, Tennessee, where he has served Grace Lutheran Church as senior pastor for thirty-two years. He is now pastor emeritas of Grace. In 2017 Concordia Theological Seminary recognized him as alumnus of the year. He has served as a circuit visitor in the Atlantic and Mid-South districts, is currently chairman of the Synod’s Commission on Constitutional Matters, sits on the Synod’s Commission on Handbook, and is also secretary of the Mid-South district. He has also served on the planning committees for the Synod’s Institute for Liturgy, Preaching, and Church Music for the last ten years. Pastor Peters has published many periodical articles and served as a contributor to a number of CPH volumes. He is the author of the popular blog, Pastoral Meanderings. Pastor Peters has been married to his wife, Amy, for more than forty-six years, and they have three adult children and two grandchildren. He is currently trying to figure out what retirement means.  

At All Times and in All Places: All God's People Pray 

More words about prayer can be found in the Scriptures than about most other topics, and yet God’s people struggle with what it means to pray. This course will examine the practice of prayer among God’s Old Testament people, through the time of Christ, through the history of Christianity, and down to the present day. What is prayer? What does it mean to pray? How do we pray? How did the people of God order their prayer lives before us? What is the difference between and what is the connection with the individhttps://witness.lcms.org/the-magazine/ual prayer lives of God’s people and the common prayers of God’s people together? What does God’s Word teach us about prayer? This course will help participants learn and appreciate the lessons of the past on the practice and discipline of prayer both as individuals and as a people gathered together for worship and prayer. All of us are both amateurs and professionals when it comes to praying, and this course is both for those who lead and teach God’s people to pray and for the people of God in their discipline of prayer throughout the circumstances and places of life.  

Locations:    Grace Lutheran Church 303 Ruth St. Auburn, MI 48611 To download the registration form, click here.  

Lutheran Church of Our Savior 5825 Bollinger Rd. Cupertino, CA 95014  To download the registration form, click here.

Coordinators:  Michigan:  Rev. Aaron T. Schian Email: aaronschian@yahoo.com Phone: (607) 972-5792  & California:  Rev. John Bestul Phone: 408.252.0345 Email: pastorjbestul@lcos.org 

Schedule Class begins the first day at 12:00 p.m. and concludes at 12:00 p.m. the final day.
 

 

I renounce Him. . .

This comparison below of Luther's revisions of the Rite of Holy Baptism give shape to the move to declutter the rite from its Latin original.  It was not quite that anything before was terrible except it was so busy as to overshadow the central work of God in Word and water.  What was salutary in Luther's day may not be the situation we face today.  I suspect that few Lutherans today would feel at home with Luther's 1523 version.  It is not because there were too many ceremonies.  It is entirely because there is too much emphasis on the devil and on the break between the child now born again of water and the Word and the demons and their evil.  We just don't talk like that today.

The sad truth is that we save people for something and not from something.  The devil and evil have become antiquated concepts of an ignorant age in which things could not be explained.  It is a convenient lie that the devil surely loves.  He is not evil anymore than any one of us is evil.  We are all merely misunderstood.  Alas, understanding have become the new gospel -- not the one in which our Lord became incarnate for our salvation and lived a holy life to be credited to us as a righteousness we did not earn and die to end the tyranny of sin and rise to end the tyranny of death.  No indeed.  This new gospel is one of tolerance, respect for differences, truth that is a personal possession and defined individually, and life which is fulfilled in happiness.  How easy it is to make diversity, equity, and inclusion into the will of God for us as well as our will for ourselves!  That is certainly not the world of Luther but neither is it our world.  No, the devil is real and evil is real.

Sometimes people have said to me that they have never seen an exorcism.  Really?  We have an exorcism every time there is a baptism.  We add back in what rites have removed over time to remember the reality of evil and to make sure that people understand this is about transferring one from a kingdom of death to a kingdom of life in Christ by means of the water and Word.  Furthermore, we make sure everyone in the congregation says with the baptized and the family of the baptized and the sponsors, I renounce and I believe.  There is something going on here more powerful than a pat on the head by God and cutesy behavior at the font.  We do not talk about evil and the evil one to frighten people.  The devil and his minions do a good enough job of that.  But we do acknowledge that baptism is not about our decision anymore than it is a sentimental practice that shows we love babies.  Indeed, we admit that the devil is a roaring lion seeking our destruction and that the Christian life is a dance against the death of Him who would deprive God of one more for whom Christ died and rose.  

“I adjure thee, thou unclean spirit, by the name of the + Father and of the + Son and of the + Holy Ghost that thou come out and depart from this servant of God, (Name)."   Off hand I do not quite recall what other baptismal rites of other churches say but this has always been a powerful statement I have always included.  It is not for flash or style but for substance.  The devil is warned to keep his paws off of the one who belongs to God even as the child of God is warned that the devil does not play fair or nice so keep your distance.  We need that.  We need that now more than ever.  While the world and its evil seems more obvious to some of us than ever before, it is dismissed within and without the churches by a world which does not count these things as evil or the evil one as any real threat anymore.  

Luther’s 1523 Rite	Luther’s 1526 Rite	Lutheran Service Book, p. 268
Excorcism with Exsufflation	Exsufflation	Invocation & Admonition from Holy Scripture
Sign of the Cross	Sign of the Cross	Name & Sign of the Cross
Two Prayers	One Prayer
Giving of Salt
Flood Prayer	Flood Prayer	Flood Prayer
Exorcism	Exorcism (shortened)
		Enrolling of Sponsors
Prayer
Mark 10:13-16	Mark 10:13-16	Mark 10:13-16
Lord’s Prayer w/ Laying on of Hands	Lord’s Prayer w/ Laying on of Hands	Lord’s Prayer w/ Laying on of Hands
Ephphatha
Blessing & Entrance into the Church	Blessing & Entrance into the Church	Blessing & Entrance into the Church
Renunciation of the Devil	Renunciation of the Devil	Renunciation of the Devil
Profession of Faith	Profession of Faith	Profession of Faith
Anointing on Chest & Back
Declaration of Intent	Declaration of Intent	Declaration of Intent
Baptism	Baptism	Baptism
Anointing on Head & Peace		Blessing
White Garment	White Garment	White Garment
Baptismal Candle		Baptismal Candle
		Welcome
		Prayer & Peace