Category Archives: Theology in Practice
Is the church still asleep in the light? (Oddly Enough, Pope Benedict XVI and Keith Green have the same solution!)
Thoughts that carry this broken pastor to Jesus, and to the cross.
“How long, you sluggard, will you lie there? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to relax, and your poverty will come like a robber, and your need like an armed man.” (Proverbs 6:9–11, NET)
“The world is sleeping in the dark, that the church just can’t fight, because its asleep in the light….”
. Every font is now charged with spiritual fire, and from every chalice we now drink sacramental blood. Adam mutinously ate from a tree and its fruit killed him; we meekly eat from the tree of the cross, and its fruitful flesh restores our life.
Thus, missionary zeal has nothing at all to do with the conquest of a person or people, but rather with enabling all to give their lives the deepest and most joyful meaning possible. The Church but reflects Christ’s light and permits people to experience in the Eucharist God’s presence in Christ’s sacrifice, and thereby the divine invitation to adore and glorify Him, the triune God.
My generation of church leaders heard the words of Keith Green’s song as a prophetic message, judging the church of its day, and their lack of helping people see the incredible intimate relationship we have in Christ. We swore we would never be like that, that our generation would be the one that would see the world change again, that as servant leaders of the church, we would see revival far greater than Azusa Street or Caine Ridge, a reformation and restoration of the church that had only been a dream for Luther and those who followed.
40 years later, our churches are even more empty, and “asleep in the light” is not just a spiritual statement, but often a physical one, as our leaders are no longer in their 50s and 60s, but many of them over 80!
We are asleep here in the USA, and in Europe, and the hope of the church has begun to be found in East Africa, and in the wilds of South and Central America and Southeast Asia and Korea. In those areas, the gospel in thriving, in ours it looks more like the living room during a bowl game, those that remain are snoring.
Our answers aren’t even really answers! They are hypothesis that are being un-retired, programs that mimic those which were once considered effective, or “modified” from those which seem effective now, without any study or long range success. Books written, seminars sponsored (usually led by formerly burned out pastors who weren’t successful) coaches contracted, all to achieve what should naturally be achieved, if we are being restored by the Body and Blood, nailed to the cross, which enters us each and every week!
The answer to spiritual apathy, to spiritual low-blood sugar isn’t monitoring and reading, it is having something to eat!
Pope Benedict XVI understood this in a similar way to Keith Green, as he describes the driving force of missionary zeal to be found in the intimacy of the Eucharist, in the presence of God as Christ has given Himself, (once and for all ) for us. That invitation into adoration that occurs during the Feast is life giving, life restoring, freeing it again from the life draining bondage of sin and a unrighteous world.
That’s why Keith ended his call to missionary action with these words,
Come away, come awayCome away with me, my loveCome away from this messCome away with me, my lovCome away from this messCome away with me, my loveCome away, come away, ohCome away with me, my love
In the sacraments, we find that we do “come away” with Jesus, only to find out that we awaken from our broken slumber, and see that others can be share in this life and glory of Christ as well… and we find ourselves given to this task… and content to see God provide the revival.
Keith Green, No Compromise – 1978
Fagerberg, D. W. (2019). Liturgical Mysticism (p. 38). Emmaus Academic.
De Gaál, E. (2018). O Lord, I Seek Your Countenance: Explorations and Discoveries in Pope Benedict XVI’s Theology (M. Levering, Ed.; p. 53). Emmaus Academic.
The Necessity of Being and Enthralled Disciple…A different type of slavery…
Thoughts which carry this broken pastor to Jesus and the Cross:
“‘Tell Joseph this: Please forgive the sin of your brothers and the wrong they did when they treated you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sin of the servants of the God of your father.” When this message was reported to him, Joseph wept.Then his brothers also came and threw themselves down before him; they said, “Here we are; we are your slaves.”” (Genesis 50:17–18, NET)
“But if the servant should declare, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ then his master must bring him to the judges, and he will bring him to the door or the doorposts, and his master will pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.” (Exodus 21:5–6, NET)
At the outset, to be mystical the liturgy must be enthralling, and this is less comfortable than we think. To enthrall means to make a person a thrall: to put someone into bondage, to reduce someone to the condition of a captive, to enslave, to subjugate and make subservient.
Once, when the brothers asked him whether he was pleased that the learned men, who, by that time, had been received into the Order, were devoting themselves to the study of Sacred Scripture, he replied: “I am indeed pleased, as long as, after the example of Christ, of whom we read that he prayed more than he read, they do not neglect zeal for prayer; and, as long as they study, not to know what they should say, but to practise what they have heard and, once they have put it into practice, propose it to others.
This tipping point in Ignatius’ conversion and the shift in attitude it brings is notable. All the more so in light of his prior manifest determination to conquer his sinfulness by force of his own will. His Autobiography’s terse narrative hides the magnitude of the spiritual and psychological transformation in Ignatius. The transformation is stark. Ignatius moves from managing his spiritual growth with the same swagger that he waged the Pamplona battle, and becomes a man of much greater humility, willing to be led like a boy at the hands of a schoolmaster.
It took me a moment to make Fagerberg’s connected between being enthralled and in thrall, in bondage. As a amateur wordsmith, I was a little annoyed at myself, I should have seen it, but the concept was… well enthralling. It took me captive, and even as I copied these quotes from my devotional reading some 10 hours back, I had to process it this evening.
I want the liturgy, the worship of my congregation to be enthralling, so that our walk with God proceeds from it. I want it to be captivated by it, to be addicted to the presence of God experienced there. To be enslaved to the freedom that comes as we are cleansed of our sin, as burdens are removed, as we begin to understand what it means to be the children of God.
But we are enslaved, addicted, captivated and in thrall in a very blessed way.
Far too often we see being servants of God and of His people as a negative, as something that not only requires being humble, but being humiliated, debased, neglected and even abused. We picture slaved in chains, and being whipped, as Jean Val Jean is in the opening scene of Les Mis, or as the many movies about slavery in the south, or n Africa. The kind of slavery Joseph’s brothers offered themselves and their families to enter, rather than face the wrath of Joseph–the brother they sold into slavery.
“God, I will do anything if you rescue me from…” type of slavery. (the reason btw, many of us (including Luther) entered into studying for the ministry and why we justify the “sacrifices” we make and are expected to make. A sense of slavery and sacrifice based in guilt, shame and a desire to “payback”–as if we could! We see this in Ignatius of Loyola as well, as he would confess and confess and confess, and never find the absolution he needed.
What that results in, concerns a pastor like St. Francis, who saw men enslaving themselves to an academic pursuit of theology. men who studied the word, and neglected prayer (and therefore worship that is the reaction to experiencing the love of God.) This is not the pursuit of Theology, it is the pursuit of religious philosophy. A kind of knowledge that neither enjoys and lives in faith, nor proposes that life to others.
Being enthralled, be in thrall is less like Joseph’s brothers offer and more like the slave whose ear is pierced. Who knows he is loved, who responds to that love with a desire to be in no other place, in no other relationship with His master, This is where worship is spontaneously embraced and savored. The slave’s attitude is not based in fear of wrath, or any kind of fear at all, it is made from a love that is responding to love! Itis what drives the academic to his knees in prayer, what drives the soldier to seek peace, and the pilgrim to find they are, finally at their destination.
This is what changes Luther, apparently changes Ignatius, can change our churches, can change our communities, this revealed love of our Lord, Jesus. This is the connection we find in our gatherings, as we realize the presence of the Lord, as He reveals Himself through the word and the sacrament, a love so powerful, a fellowship so full of joy and peace, so sustaining, so much a breath of heaven, that we continue to seek to serve and to introduce it to others.
Fagerberg, D. W. (2019). Liturgical Mysticism (p. 11). Emmaus Academic.
Pasquale, G., ed. (2011). Day by Day with Saint Francis: 365 Meditations (pp. 336–337). New City Press.
Watson, W. (2012). Sacred Story: An Ignatian Examen for the Third Millennium (p. 25). Sacred Story Press.
God’s Plan! Revealed and Finally Realized! The Plan Executed! (Literally)A sermon on Hebrews 9:24-28
God’s Plan! Revealed and Finally Realized!
The Plan Executed! (Literally)
Hebrews 9:24-28
† Jesus-Son-Savior †
May the grace of God our Father and our Lord Jesus help you understand the depth of their plan to deliver you to the freedom of Heaven!
Intro: Don’t ask if you don’t want to know!
Imagine if you were a leader, and in your possession came all your competition’s papers. Included in that collection were letters from your own people, who were planning to betray you. How would you handle it?
That very thing happened to Julius Caesar, as he defeated general Pompey. Inside the chest full of documents there were letters from some of the closest people to him, who were seeking to overthrow him.
Charles Spurgeon, a British preacher and historian, included this part of the story, “if Caesar had read those letters it is probable that he would have been so angry with many of his friends that he would have put them to death for playing him false. Fearing this, he magnanimously took the box and destroyed it without reading a single line.” [i]
It has been said that what you don’t know can hurt you!
Those were the men who would later, on what became to be known as the Ides of March, stab Julius Caesar was literally stabbed in the back by his friends who had written the letters…
The letters he did not read, identifying his betrayers, the ones who planned his death…
Caeser sacrificed his own life, because he didn’t want to face his betrayers.
Our Lord Jesus was also sacrificed by people he loved… the difference is that He knew it was coming, had known for millennia…
For He not only knew their plan, He was the Father’s plan, the plan for our future and hope!
Law – God knew the content of your life
In our reading from Hebrews this morning, there is a comparison between the Jewish High Priest and Jesus, between the Temple’s holy of Holies and the presence God’s throne in heave.
The Holy of Holies is a picture of the heavenly throne where God the Father dwells. The place where the offering is brought to make payment for our sin, the difference.
The place described as the “place made with human hands,” that is either the Tabernacle or its replacement the temple, was only a temporary fix, the offering having to made, as John writes, “like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal.”
Why did God provide this way of Old Testament sacrifice?
For the same reason He had a plan: Jesus.
Because unlike Julius Caesar, had read the record, and knew every sin, every bit of work we’ve done to rebel from God and every thought where we decided we know more than God.
God’s read the letters of your life, even the darkest ones…
He knows, He knew those sins, even before we committed them.
Gospel – One final death….
Caesar didn’t want to know his enemies and what they were doing. He sacrificed his own life for blissful ignorance.
God wanted to know His enemies, for only then could He execute His Plan. For His Plan, Jesus, was to be the sacrifice offered to save their lives. That is why the title of this message is – The Plan Executed – Literally. He was the Plan and He was executed for us!
Hear it again from John the apostle,
“Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.”
No sacrifice every year, just Jesus, God’s plan—His only plan from before the foundation of the world to save us, the Plan – had to be executed.
That was what the tabernacle and the Temple pointed to, every sacrifice of every type, that there would be a final sacrifice that would take away our sins.
Domino’s Delivers
So complete a sacrifice, that when Jesus returns, there will be no longer be any need to deal with sin, it was finished off, its power to condemn us stripped away,
Salvation is Greek actually means to deliver. It is not only salvation from sin, but salvation to a new state of life! If you have a pizza delivered, or food from Grubhub, it is only part of the process to pick up the food at the restaurant—there has to be a delivery.
We have to realize that people aren’t just delivered from sin—they are delivered into the presence of God, where they are welcome. Now as the Holy Spirit takes us residence in us—as promised in our Baptism.
Eternally as one day we are welcomed into heaven!
And that is all He comes back to do, the judgment is already secure because of His sacrifice for us on the cross. So we have been saved from and we await being saved to…
Because the Plan was executed for us.
And because of that – we dwell in the peace of God which is beyond all understanding and guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus! AMEN!
[i] Spurgeon, C. (2017). 300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon (E. Ritzema & L. Smoyer, Eds.). Lexham Press.
Confessions of a Christian Non-conformist (aka Neuro-divergent)
Photo by Wouter de Jong on Pexels.com
Thoughts which carry this broken pastor to Jesus, and to the cross.
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God moving about in the orchard at the breezy time of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the orchard. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”” (Genesis 3:8–9, NET)
Hurry is an unpleasant thing in itself, but also very unpleasant for whoever is around it. Some people came into my room and rushed in and rushed out and even when they were there they were not there – they were in the moment ahead or the moment behind. Some people who came in just for a moment were all there, completely in that moment.
He did not seek nonconformity as an end in itself in the sense of the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson’s (1803–1882) dictum that “to be a non-conformist means to be great.” The triune God is the only source of true life. It is the dogma of a triune God that grants humankind dignity and is the ultimate standard of a meaningful and fulfilled life. Such a discernment of spirit is based on the figure of Our Savior.
Without this sacrament the Gospel might be understood as one of the many religious messages in the world. Without the proclamation of the Gospel this sacrament might be understood as one of the many religious rites in the world. But the Gospel is more than a religious message and the Sacrament more than a religious ceremony. Both the Gospel and the Sacrament contain one and the same gift, forgiveness of sins—not only a message that there is forgiveness and not only a ceremony which would illustrate that message—but rather the forgiveness itself which no one can give except He who died as the Lamb of God for the sins of the world, who will come again in glory, and who is present in His Gospel and in His Sacrament.
For most of my life, i saw myself as a non-conformist, which I usually express with phrases like, “There are three types of people, those that think inside the box (and often push on opposite sides of said box), those that think outside of the box, and then there are a few like, joyfully oblivious to the existence of the box. (SOme would credit this to Neuro-divergent, or being on the spectrum–but all that came out way after my formative years)
Joyfully oblivious is the key here, every time I find the box, I tend to get disgusted by it, and by the rules that govern it. So I hurry past the box, knowing it isn’t real, and it has no power over me. And in my youth I was proud of such an attitude, and some days, still am. It can be Emerson’s mark of greatness, but it canalso be a place to hide–often from the brokenness of the world I perceive, but never from my brokenness, which is also quite devastating…
That brokenness, unchecked and untreated, leads to Ms. Linbergh’s profound statement of being there. That brokenness has often meant I am in a meeting and I truly am not. Whether that meeting is on a board, or a lecture, or church, or in my private devotions with God. (That God can still use this for good–is truly the greatest mystery and marvel in my life!)
Non-conformity (and may being a conformist without thinking why) can be the ultimate hiding in the garden from God. Especially when we are hiding our own brokenness, our own hurts, our own unforgiveness, and our sin. We think we are safe – going against the flow or going with it.
In the non-conformist’s life, many try to make us conform to standards that don’t make sense to us, and often that we see as useless, because it doesn’t give those who conform to them any peace. Or the standards don’t make sense to us, as the spectrum they are based on is linear in its construction. (Example – those that think a person must be politically left, or right…or we aren’t a good Christian)
But what the non-conformist needs is not to be forced to conform. That would wreck us that would steal the fire within us, that I believe was put there by God to balance out the world. (our “greatness?”) What we desperately need is to be transformed, not to the standards of this world, but to be transformed by the Holy Spirit, who transforms us and all the conformists into the image of Jesus.
In doing so, we realize that our meaning in life is not being apart from the world, but being united to Jesus. to finding our dignity and existence and meaning in our relationship to our loving God.
THe only way for this to happen is through the Spirit’s ministering to us through His gospel and the Sacraments. It can’t be either/or, as Sasse points out. It isn’t even a one-two punch as if the ministry of each is different. They are the same one gift, of mercy, grace, healing, forgiveness, restoration, redemption, assurance, comfort, as Christ is not just heard, but we dwell in His presence, HIs Glory, His peace, His love. Jesus doesn’t demand my presence in the box – He comes to me, and walks with me,
A presence that is so overwhelming we no longer dismiss the existence of the box, or mark and avoid it and its conflicts, but we long to see what God can do with it, knowing what He’s done with us, transforming us into the image of Christ – a little more each day.
For which I will ever praise and thank Him!
and, I hope you all, conformist and blessed non-conformist, neuro-divergent and neurotypical, will see Him, and see yourself as His! AMEN!
Anne Lindbergh, Celtic Daily Prayer, https://www.northumbriacommunity.org/offices/morning-prayer/
De Gaál, E. (2018). O Lord, I Seek Your Countenance: Explorations and Discoveries in Pope Benedict XVI’s Theology (M. Levering, Ed.; pp. 1–2). Emmaus Academic.
Sasse, H. (2001). This Is My Body: Luther’s Contention for the Real Presence in the Sacrament of the Altar (pp. 1–2). Wipf and Stock Publishers.
God’s Plan! Revealed and Finally Realized! The Wisest Plan, with the greatest result! A Concordia Sermon on Matthew 11:12-19
God’s Plan! Revealed and Finally Realized!
The Wisest Plan, with the greatest result!
Matthew 11:12-19
† In Jesus Name! †
May the grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ convince you that His plan intended to, and always has included you, and those around you!
Trickle up, or Trickle down Ministry
As long as there have been missionaries, as long as churches have been planted, or replanted in a communities, there has been a question that has been discussed and discussed – who do we target our ministry to?
In some countries, the tactic was to focus the reach on those with the most influence, the scholars, the rich, the influential people in the world. That is still a popular way to do it, even in our church. And so money and the “best” pastors are sent into the rich areas to plant new churches, with the intent that they can eventually develop ministries to those less… well… just less.
The other tactic most readily used was to send the missionaries to the inner cities and poorer remote communities, to the people that were presumed to have the greatest need for hope in this life. Money would poor in, to develop education and like skills training.
In both cases, the primary goal is revealing God’s love in Christ to these people. They get the idea heard in Colossians, 15
“… God planned to reconcile in his own person, as it were, everything on earth and everything in Heaven by virtue of the sacrifice of the cross.” Colossians 1 (Phillips NT)
But the strategy of how to reveal this to a new community, or a new nation, or reach out with it often boiled down to this – Who do we start with—the top of society, or the bottom?
Which is God’s plan? What if neither is?
What does today’s gospel reading say about this,
And can we take a passage like today, and draw a firm conclusion from it?
More importantly, can we use that plan here, at Concordia?
For we need to continue to reach out – and not just add one or two people a year… for their sake – we need to reach out to everyone….so they dwell I heaven.
But where do we start this time?
How do we know if they are “ready”
As we look at the gospel reading this morning, we see the people and leaders of Israel that are talking to Jesus aren’t quite ready for the message that God has come to them, to love them. Let’s listen to it again!
16 “To what can I compare this generation? It is like children playing a game in the public square. They complain to their friends, 17 ‘We played wedding songs, and you didn’t dance, so we played funeral songs, and you didn’t mourn.’ 18 For John didn’t spend his time eating and drinking, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ But wisdom is shown to be right by its results.” Matthew 11:16-19 (NLT2)
It sounds a lot like the generations we deal with today!
We try to reach them this way, they don’t respond, we try to reach them with another tactic, and they still don’t respond. Indeed, we get blasted for ministering both ways!
There are going to be people that aren’t ready, that either don’t want to grieve over the depth of their sin, or rejoice over the lifting of the burdens that sinning brings to consume us. They didn’t want to hear John’s message of repentance, or Jesus’ message of what creates a repentant spirit – the message of grace and forgiveness.
These people would be eventually ready to repent, but they would need a few things first.
Wisely Discerning God’s Plan!
If we look at who did respond to Jesus in this passage, it was not one demographic exclusively. Let’s hear it again,
19 The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’
Tax Collectors were among the richest folk in the land, those identified as sinners, were among the poorest, as their families were forced to abandon them to their fate.
What they had in common?
They were the outcasts, those whose lives were undeniably broken. Those who sin could not be denied, for relationships with loved ones and entire communities were sacrificed at the altar of self, to gain the sin that so wanted to entrap them—and it had!
They knew this, they knew the despair, they knew the violence that sin did to establish someone it its grip. They were broken – from Zaccheaus to the women caught in adultery; from the Gadarene Demoniac to the Centurion whose servant was ill. From the lepers to the man let down through the roof that Jesus declared forgiven before he told him to get up, to all the other broken people like Peter and Paul
And you and I!
This is the wisest plan of God, with the greatest plan—to have Jesus Christ, the Son of God, come into the lives of the broken, no matter rich or poor, no matter famous or infamous or abandoned, to heal and restore us. To grieve with us over our broken lives and world, and to rejoice with us as He forgives and heals those we bring to Him.
That was what Marilyn saw so many years ago, that define who we are so well, and why so many people need to know we are here… for we fit God’s plan, as we are the place where broken people find healing and hope in Jesus, while helping others heal.
The wisest of plans with the greatest result. AMEN!
Freedom, the Liturgy and the Communication of Grace
Thoughts which carry this broken pastor to Jesus, and to the cross
“If you think you are strong, you should be careful not to fall. The only temptation that has come to you is that which everyone has. But you can trust God, who will not permit you to be tempted more than you can stand. But when you are tempted, he will also give you a way to escape so that you will be able to stand it.
So, my dear friends, run away from the worship of idols. I am speaking to you as to reasonable people; judge for yourselves what I say. We give thanks for the cup of blessing, which is a sharing in the blood of Christ. And the bread that we break is a sharing in the body of Christ. Because there is one loaf of bread, we who are many are one body, because we all share that one loaf.” (1 Corinthians 10:12–17, NCV)
31 6. In line with the above, churches will not condemn each other because of a difference in ceremonies, when in Christian liberty one uses fewer or more of them, as long as they are otherwise agreed in doctrine and in all its articles and are also agreed concerning the right use of the holy sacraments, according to the well-known axiom, “Disagreement in fasting should not destroy agreement in faith.”
The questions or criteria for translation may be the following: Do these practices proclaim the gospel, the paschal mystery? Does this liturgical pattern and its practice immerse people into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Luther insists throughout the German Mass that the order of liturgy forms a community through the proclamation of the word. And “word” is here understood to be not only the word preached but also the word distributed, the visible (tangible) word. At the center of worship is word and sacrament.
In his effort to bring back word and sacrament in their evangelical character, Luther does not eliminate ritual, but reforms it. He takes the old, in this case the Mass, and makes it speak the gospel for the present moment
It is God’s will that we, too, should learn to accustom ourselves to these things through temptation and affliction, though these be hard to bear and the heart is prone to become agitated and utter its cry of woe. We can quiet our disturbed hearts, saying: I know what is God’s thought, his counsel and will in Christ, which he will not alter: he has promised me through his Son, and confirmed it through my baptism, that he who hears and sees the Son shall be delivered from sin and death, and live eternally. The heart possessing such knowledge is kindled by the Holy Spirit and armed against the flesh, the world and the devil.
I never put together, though I should have, the context of God providing a way out of temptation and the Lord’s Supper and our communion with the Body and Blood of Jesus. What a comfort it is to the broken, this sharing in the death and resurrection of Jesus! What an incredible cleansing happens, as our sin is nailed ot the cross! Temptation, even at its worse cannot trump the power of Christ’s forgiving us, as He cleanses us with His own blood.
This is why it is essential to realize that the liturgy is more than cloned words, recited in rote. It is why there the Lutheran confessions talk about it in view of what is adiaphora, that which is neither commanded or prohibited, the areas of freedom. THat is not to say all the Service of Word and Sacrament is able to be changed, but neither is it all locked in, without room for ensuring it does hat it is supposed to be doing.
That is why Sander summarizes Luther’s thoughts by asking whether the liturgical pattern and practice immerses people in the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. That is where the comfort, the cleansing, the transformation comes into play, in that intimate relationship which shares in the death and resurrection, that accepts the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf. Restoring the evangelical nature, the presentation of the gospel through sharing in God’s revelation of our relationship with Him and the celebration of it is what makes the Liturgy,
Which is why it is effective as a tool to deal with sin and temptation.
This is the comfort of the Liturgy of the Sacrament, this is how it ministers to those who participate in it, this is why translating it, and making sure it communicates to those participating in it, is so essential. To lose that comfort because of the the pattern or the practice of it is not focused on communicating. It is not just about what the priest/pastor says, it is making sure people hear and understand that. This si why the assurance that there is adiaphora, why there is some freedom – to ensure communication of grace.
“The Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord, X The Ecclesiastical RItes called Adiaphora… ‘” Tappert, T. G., ed. (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (p. 616). Mühlenberg Press.
Luther, M., & Sander, J. (1915). Devotional Readings from Luther’s Works for Every Day of the Year (pp. 368–369). Augustana Book Concern.
Lange, D. G. (1526). The German Mass and Order of the Liturgy. In H. J. Hillerbrand, K. I. Stjerna, T. J. Wengert, & P. W. Robinson (Eds.), Church and Sacraments (Vol. 3, p. 133). Fortress Press.
Is This World Depressing…or what?
Thoughts which carry this broken pastor to Jesus, and to the Cross
“LORD, why are people important to you? Why do you even think about human beings?” (Psalm 144:3, NCV)
“No one should assume lordship or authority over the church, nor burden the church with traditions, nor let anybody’s authority count for more than the Word of God.”
He writes: “A more or less lengthy visit to a Catholic bookstore does not encourage one to pray with the psalmist: ‘You will reveal the path of life to me.’ Not only does one quickly discover there that Jesus did not turn water into wine, but one also gains insight into the art of turning wine into water. This new magic bears the name ‘aggiornamento’.” Under this new aspect the shepherd of the Church is offered the opportunity of giving his teaching ministry a democratic form: of becoming the advocate of the faithful, of the people, against the elitist power of the intellectuals.
We believed such works to be fully satisfactory and, indeed, the only things that were holy; the pursuits of common Christians we considered worldly and dangerous. In contrast to this darkness, consider the priceless and to-be-cherished blessing of knowing with certainty wherein the heart is to take comfort, how to seek help in distress and how to conduct oneself in one’s own station. Truly we should now render to God heartfelt thanks for the great favor and blessing of restored light and understanding in Scripture and the right conception of doctrinal matters.
I don’t think I have actually watched a news show or read an actual newspaper, secular or religious in 15 years. I might look at a sports article on line or maybe read or watch something if I am doing research, but the days of sitting down and reading have long drifted away…
While I miss the idea, the content is to depressing, to full of stories of sin, or people fighting to free something from its designation of being sin, as they try to hang on to an appearance of Christianity that doesn’t require faith in the mercy forgiveness or love of God.
Social media is much the same, not an uplifting endeavor, for the most part. However there, I can find people for whom to pray, as they freely confess their anxieties, their bias and their sins. (though they often come across as proud of them!) You can even find a great selection of idols which people have put all their trust in–from investments to political and religious figures to the “book of the month” which promises to restore what has been lost.
I think the psalmist saw a similar thing nearly 3000 years ago as he asked the brutal questions above. God – why the heck do you care about these people who have so wrecked the world, each other and their own lives. (though I should replace people with ‘all of us!’) It’s true in the church as well, and in every denomination. The early Lutherans were prophetic about this – as too many have tried to gain power, influence and authority over the people of God. THen, they would have only perceived this as one group – yet even today these battles go on in eery denomination, and between them, as they try to influence others.
Pope Benedict resonates with this, as he talks of authors who try to take the miracles out of the Bible, as if they want to eliminate the very footprints of Jesus in our lives, by removing them from scripture. What a horror! What an abuse of the responsibility of the pastoral office! Legalists, the kind that St. Paul calls the mutilators in Philippians 3, exist on the other side as well – pushing the rites of men as more critical than the gospel.
Again, the fatalistic is easy to take in this moment!
Luther’s words rise up at the end…the goal of ministry that makes the different. To bring people, these people we would easily give up on the certainty where they can find comfort, help and a attitude in life that allows us to be content where we are. To see people begin to resonate with that grace and mercy delivered through the word of God and His Sacraments, to know the freedom and hope that comes when we realize God is restoring us… that makes all the difference in the world. To see God at work. These things end fatalism, as we realize God loves the world.
And God loves you….
and me.
“The Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord: X Ecclesiastical Rites that are called Adiaphora….” Tappert, T. G., ed. (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (p. 614). Mühlenberg Press.
Ratzinger, J. (1992). Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year (I. Grassl, Ed.; M. F. McCarthy & L. Krauth, Trans.; p. 331). Ignatius Press.
Luther, M., & Sander, J. (1915). Devotional Readings from Luther’s Works for Every Day of the Year (p. 367). Augustana Book Concern.
Who Am I? How Do I Define Myself, Even As I Age…and Change More…
Thoughts which carry me to Jesus, and to the Cross…
“LORD, answer me quickly, because I am getting weak. Don’t turn away from me, or I will be like those who are dead. Tell me in the morning about your love, because I trust you. Show me what I should do, because my prayers go up to you.” (Psalm 143:7–8, NCV)
LORD, I know Thou livest, And dost plead for me; Make me very thankful In my prayer to Thee. Soon I hope in glory At Thy side to stand; Make me fit to meet Thee In that happy land. Amen.
It is what I have repeatedly called “mystical wishful thinking,” made up of useless daydreams and empty ideals: If only I hadn’t married, if only I did not have this job, if only I had better health, or was younger, or had more time! Like everything valuable the solution is costly. It lies in the search for the true center of human life, which can give priority, order, and meaning to everything. We find this center in our relations with God by means of a genuine interior life. By making Christ the center of our lives, we discover the meaning of the mission he has entrusted to us. We have a human ideal that becomes divine. New horizons of hope open up in our life, and we come to the point of sacrificing willingly, not just this or that aspect of our activity, but our whole life, thus giving it, paradoxically, its deepest fulfillment. The problem you pose is not confined to women. At some time or other, many men experience the same sort of thing, with slightly different characteristics. The source of the trouble is usually the same—lack of a high ideal that can only be discovered with God’s light.
I am a pastor, a husband, a father, a musician (if a below average/average one), and several other roles, some are interesting, some are frightening, some are…amazing.
But I am getting to the age where some of these will change–some more dramatically than others. As I approach 60, and have considerable health issues, I note that my fingers don’t scale the keyboard or the strings with the same agility that was once there. It takes longer to recover, longer to process deeper thoughts, longer even to get up from the commode! (Okay – my sense of humor is deteriorating as well!) Doctors tell me scary things about the future, and friends remind me that the past is even further in the mirror than it appears!
It’s not the first time I’ve faced major changes in life. After a cardiac arrest and a double heart valve replacement things and activities which helped define who I am disappeared in life. There have been positive changes as well–entering the ministry, completing my Ph.D. in Liturgical Worship and Pastoral Care, taking on roles in my church brotherhood.
Change is difficult. I didn’t like it then, I am sure I will struggle with it in the years to come. Especially as the weakness the Psalmist mentions approaches. There are moments like he mentions, where without the influence of God in my world, death would seem a likely reality, if not a preferable one. Not that I live with a death wish, and I haven’t bought a motorcycle… but life’s value seems to be limited to far less than it once was.
I go thorough Josemaria’s wishful thinking, if only I didn’t have scoliosis, or congestive heart failure, if only I had more energy, and could process things as I think I once did. I have 10,000 “if only’s”, and 10 times that a desire to find that which is my life, that which helps me live it with the right priorities and an undeniable meaning to life.
My first church had a great, simple slogan, “teaching Christ-centered living!” That is what the people wanted form their pastor, and we struggled wiht it together. My present church another awesome one, as we strive to be a place where “people find healing and hope in Jesus, while helping others heal!” That is where we find the fulfillment of our community, in those two simple statements. It is also, with a little diversity, where we individually find our meaning, our priorities (I don’t like finding order that much!) and our lives.
In this intimate relationship with Jesus, which leads to an intimate relationship with God our Father, as the Holy Spirit brings us to life from the spiritual death we know all to well without Him. This is the work of God in our lives as individuals, and as a community of faith. It is the work we share with Him in that community, even as we look forward to the answer to Loehe’s prayer — as we come to the fulfillment of our hope to stand at God’s side, for Jesus has died, and risen, to make us fit to meet Him there.
To realize that prayer was one Loehe advocated teaching, not to the infirm, but to children is mind-blowing – for they would live their lives praying it, knowing that soon (by God’s standards!) we would be home with Him. That is the answer, that is what needs to be reinforced, as Jesus reminds us of His presence and love every morning…
This is what defines me, far more than my name, my ancestory, my political beliefs, my myriad of roles in life. It should define you as well, and if you can’t see it yet, let’s talk…. for He loves you–and you need to know that!
Lœhe, W. (1914). Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians (H. A. Weller, Trans.; p. 604). Wartburg Publishing House.
Escrivá, Josemaría. Conversations with Saint Josemaria Escriva . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The Greatest lesson I know – from the Ezekiel and Daniel (and John)
Photo by Wouter de Jong on Pexels.com
Thoughts which carry this broken pastor to Jesus, and to the Cross:
“The wise men answered the king, saying, “No one on earth can do what the king asks! No great and powerful king has ever asked the fortune-tellers, magicians, or wise men to do this; the king is asking something that is too hard. Only the gods could tell the king this, but the gods do not live among people.”” (Daniel 2:10–11, NCV)
“The man asked me, “Human, do you see this?” Then the man led me back to the bank of the river. As I went back, I saw many trees on both sides of the river. The man said to me, “This water will flow toward the eastern areas and go down into the Jordan Valley. When it enters the Dead Sea, it will become fresh. Everywhere the river goes, there will be many fish. Wherever this water goes the Dead Sea will become fresh, and so where the river goes there will be many living things. Fishermen will stand by the Dead Sea. From En Gedi all the way to En Eglaim there will be places to spread fishing nets. There will be many kinds of fish in the Dead Sea, as many as in the Mediterranean Sea. But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. All kinds of fruit trees will grow on both banks of the river, and their leaves will not dry and die. The trees will have fruit every month, because the water for them comes from the Temple. The fruit from the trees will be used for food, and their leaves for medicine.”” (Ezekiel 47:6–12, NCV)
“Then King Nebuchadnezzar was so surprised that he jumped to his feet. He asked the men who advised him, “Didn’t we tie up only three men and throw them into the fire?” They answered, “Yes, O king.” The king said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire. They are not tied up, and they are not burned. The fourth man looks like a son of the gods.”” (Daniel 3:24–25, NCV)
“He who gives life was shown to us. We saw him and can give proof about it. And now we announce to you that he has life that continues forever. He was with God the Father and was shown to us. We announce to you what we have seen and heard, because we want you also to have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with God the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to you so we may be full of joy.” (1 John 1:2–4, NCV)
As I caught up on my devotional reading this morning, I noticed an incredible summary of the gospel, spread across three books of scripture, and two of them—Old Testament prophetic books. It continually amazes me to see God’s plan revealed, not just in the 4 gospels, but it described with such passion in the Old Testament.
I could have described it with just the two readings from Daniel, but the Ezekiel parable adds so much to it! I could have just done it from John’s epistle, but there is something to say about Daniel setting up this incredible picture of the powerful, intimate relationship we have with Jesus and the Father, which the spirit nurtures!
So let’s start with the first Daniel reading…
The back story is that the King has threatened his wise men with their death, if they cannot do the impossible—a task that requires in it a supernatural quality that they say they do not have. Their entire defense is that God (or in their case gods) would never live with people. They say this knowing their lives are on the line. What despair they must have felt, what emptiness, what a traumatic sinking feeling to know you are about to die—and there is nothing you can do
Which leads us to Ezekiel, and this wonderful parable of the water of life, flowing from the sacrifice in the Temple, turns the deadest water in the world into living, refreshing water! That Sea is so polluted from salt and other mineral that no amoeba, never mind plants or fish, can survive in it. It is literally dead, and it is deadly to any who end up in it, or hope to find life around it. Yet this water of life changes it, purifies it, makes it capable of life, of sustaining the life and it will thrive. When Jesus talks of being the living water to the women at the well, who knew the scriptures, this may have been a thought in the back of her mind—for what kind of water brings this life….only that which flows from the Holy of Holies – the place of forgiveness and mercy!
But if this water is a picture of Jesus, it also describes the relationship He has with us, as the water that flows into our death, into our broken-nonfunctioning life—into that place where the wise men were in despair, where we are riddled with guilt and shame and anxiety. But as He comes into our life, as He purifies and heals it, he shares in it as close as a molecule of water is to the other molecules of water. The intimacy is that you cannot tell the difference where one starts and the other begins—which is how the purity is created as it is shared, as all impure is removed.
The intimacy that the wise men said couldn’t exist, proves to be the standard of life! The attempts of man to extinguish that life in others, simply results in the king’s testimony that no other God can, or does, save His people like this—by become not just like them, but by making them one with Him. No other God in any other religion wants this close a relationship with the broken people He loves, that He created to love.
Which brings us to John’s epistle – and this incredible, intimate picture gets reinforced as we find out that we are joined, made one, for that is what koinonia/communion/fellowship means with Jesus and the Father! This is that very same picture of the water cleansing and bring life to where there was no life. A life that nourishes and strengthens all the life on the shoreline. For it transforms it.
This is who we are in Christ Jesus, this is what repentance means – this changing of our soul, heart and mind, from broken and dead, without God and alone, to healed, and restored, and united to God through the blood of Christ.
SO maybe there was a reason to miss devotions on Monday, and put all these readings, each re-enforcing the idea, together. This is what the Old Testament Prophecies are supposed to do, to point to this relationship between God and His people, a relationship we can point to with hope.
This is what we need – this water of life, this Son of God, who dances with us, even amidst the hottest, fieriest trauma.
Gor we have been made one with Him, as His blood covers our sin, and brings life to us.
AMEN!
The Difference Between Spiritual “Disciplines” and Devotions
Thoughts which carry this broken pastor to Jesus, and to the cross
“But now in these last days God has spoken to us through his Son. God has chosen his Son to own all things, and through him he made the world. The Son reflects the glory of God and shows exactly what God is like. He holds everything together with his powerful word. When the Son made people clean from their sins, he sat down at the right side of God, the Great One in heaven.” (Hebrews 1:2–3, NCV)
The summer bee flits from flower to flower, not at haphazard, but designedly; not merely to recreate itself amid the garden’s pleasant diaper, but to seek honey, and carry it to its hive, to the symmetric comb where it stores its winter food. Even so the devout soul in meditation. It goes from mystery to mystery, not merely as dipping into the beauty of those wondrous matters, but deliberately seeking fresh motives for love and devout affections; and having found these, it feeds upon and imbibes them, and, storing them up within, condenses them into resolutions suitable to the time of temptation. Thus the Heavenly Bride of the Canticles hovers like a bee round the cheek, the lips, the locks of her Beloved, drawing thence innumerable delights, until, kindled with sacred joy, she talks with Him, questions, hearkens, sighs, longs, marvels, while He fills her with content, opens her heart, and fills it with boundless light and sweetness, yet so secretly, that that may be said of this devout communing of the soul with God which we read of Moses: “Moses went up unto God, and God called to him out of the mountain, and they spake one with another.”
For the Word must first have been heard, and must have entered the human heart, showing the mercy of God in such a way as to create faith. Then they clung to these tidings, trusted them, went thither, and hoped to receive of him what they had heard. In this way faith grows out of the Word of God. We must, therefore, earnestly search the gospel in order thus to lay the first stone. The Word first informs us of the mercy and goodness of God; faith then lays hold on the Word with firm confidence, and we obey it. We now become conscious of it in our hearts and are satisfied. For as soon as we believe we are already justified and are with Christ in his inheritance.
Back in the 80s and 90s a term was re-introduced to the church which caught on and became a overnight focus for some ministries. The term was “Spiritual Disciplines”, and it basically was a form of spiritual calisthenics – do these things, preferably in these orders and you well end up a leaner, stronger spiritual warrior who can overcome evil, evangelize the world and live a blessed life.
Prayer, devotional Bible study reading and meditation, frequent reception of the sacraments are awesome experiences, but they are not spiritual exercises, anymore that talking to a spouse or a dear friend is.
The moment we legislate the effort, the moment we turn it into a system to produce some kind of growth, we turn a blessing into a law, and rob it of the very thing that makes it special – the love that motivates and empowers it.
I don’t think that was the intent of people like Richard Foster, Dallas Willard and others had in mind as their objective. They didn’t want to force these practices on people as a cookie cutter – at least as I read their works.
These things are devotional – they come out of a heart seeking to understand the devotion God has for them – to explore the height, depth, breadth and width of God’s love for us, to experience it, much as De Sales’ bumblebee does, much as Solomon’s lovely bride did. To seek that communion, not for the sake of the the outcome and effect, but for the moment of joyous communion.
This is the point Luther talks about – where the experience of fellowship is found and experienced, not just with the mind, but with the heart. and a peace-filled satisfaction is the side of effect of knowing we are in Christ Jesus. Having a time of devotion – exploring God’s love, mercy and faithfulness becomes a time of delight, a time we wouldn’t trade for all the power and riches in the world. It’s our time to explore the glory of love beyond our imagination, beyond any explanation…
This is the foretaste of heaven we need – as the Spirit heals us, and carries us to heaven.
AMEN
Francis de Sales. 1888. Of the Love of God. Translated by H. L. Sidney Lear. London: Rivingtons.
Luther, Martin, and John Sander. 1915. Devotional Readings from Luther’s Works for Every Day of the Year. Rock Island, IL: Augustana Book Concern.
