Luther on preaching. Written by Martin Brecht, Martin Luther, vol. 3. p. 249.
... No more than one hour!
... speak as a mother speaks to her child while nursing.
... "I speak my Word of God to them".
He wanted his sermons to be understandable by the simple people and the young. He loathed his colleagues who sought to impress the intellectuals. One had to speak to the people as simply as a mother speaks to her child while nursing it.
A preacher must be certain that his task is to proclaim the true doctrine and he
should conclude after no more than an hour-something Bugenhagen, especially, found difficult to do in Wittenberg-and even in his old age Luther was not loquacious in his sermons. In the pulpit one should speak thoughtfully. Preachers whose speech bubbled over as from a full barrel might impress some, but they did not instruct. Luther conceived of the office of a preacher and pastor not as one of power but one of service, through which a congregation meets God and has God's Word brought to it.
In order to remain independent in this task, Luther would take no money for doing so. The congregation as such was responsible for supporting the preacher, however. True preaching always had to deal with faith and works. The sermon texts ensured that there would be different emphases. Luther understood that there had to be a rich variation in one's basic, rhetorical style. In preparing a sermon, he would plan for it to flow in a particular direction, but in the pulpit he might then deviate completely from it. Afterward he would be upset, even if others praised the sermon. Possibly God had led the preacher in a different direction in such a case.
In his preaching Luther does not seem to have tried to address specific listeners, but rather to address the subject: "When I climb into the pulpit I look at no one, but think of them as pure blocks who stand there before me, and I speak my Word of God to them."
This did not mean that his preaching was not addressed to the hearers. When it criticized social classes, economic practices, or sexual activities it immediately provoked a considerable negative reaction. A preacher could not let the desire to please the people divert him from his task, even if he were vilified as a blasphemer for it. He was not speaking as a mere man; God put his own Word in the preacher's mouth.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
God loves you or Christ forgives you
Ed Schroeder, a retired ELCA sem professor, former LCMS Seminex guy, has a weekly column called Thursday Theology. I check in every few months. I often disagree vehemently with what he has posted.
But this last week he posted an article by Timothy Hoyer which is, I think, quite good.
Hoyer says "God loves you" in today's world is no Gospel. It is not Gospel because people do not hear the law with it and thus no sin is exposed or forgiven.
Pretty good stuff. Read it yourself here.
But this last week he posted an article by Timothy Hoyer which is, I think, quite good.
Hoyer says "God loves you" in today's world is no Gospel. It is not Gospel because people do not hear the law with it and thus no sin is exposed or forgiven.
Pretty good stuff. Read it yourself here.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Leithart on 1 Kings
In our Wednesday morning Bible study here at Redeemer, we have been winding our way through the Old Testament. Some years ago (how many I cannot remember) we started at Genesis and we are now at 1 Kings.
I try to buy a commentary for each new book and I stumbled upon
Peter Leithart's book on 1 and 2 Kings.
A wonderful book. Astounding, really. Not a textual commentary but a thematic, theological one. He does a marvelous job. Here is one small section on Solomon and the two prostitutes who are fighting over a child (both had babies and one killed the other's baby and stole the living one.)
Leithart draws in the Passover, the binding of Isaac and the promise of descendants to Abraham, and the Messianic seed protected by mother Israel. Well done. And it is just one little taste.
Further, the story told by the prostitutes has an eerie resemblance to Passove!. The exchange of sons takes place at night, as does Passover (Exod. 12:29), and as at Passover one male child dies while another is delivered. This suggests that the false mother is Egypt, a Pharaoh-like woman who smothers her own children and then seeks to toss Israelite children into the Nile. Endowed with Yahweh's wisdom, the king comes with a sword to kill, as the angel of Yahweh frees the sons of the Israelites, under threat from Pharaoh. Passover is itself a reenactment of the Aqedah, the binding of Isaac (Gen. 22), and 1 Kgs. 3 is redolent with allusions to that story as well.
Both the true mother and the false are willing to "sacrifice" the living son, but the true mother "sacrifices" the son in order to save him while the other sacrifices to destroy. Through his test, Solomon discerns which woman is the true Israelite, the true daughter of Abraham, who, like Abraham, gives up her child in faith to save him. Following Abraham's offer of Isaac, Gen. 22: 17 records Yahweh's first promise to multiply Israel like the sand on the sea. A similar sequence appears in 1 Kgs. 3-4: a prostitute acts like an Abraham by giving up her own son, and in the following chapter we read that Israel became ''as numerous as the sand that is on the seashore" (4:20), the first time that this phrase is applied to Israel as it actuallyexists (rather than as a promise of what it would be) .
Harlots and harlotry are mentioned elsewhere in 1-2 Kings only in connection with the idolatries of Ahab (1 Kgs. 22:38; 2 Kgs. 9:22), and the image of unfaithful Israel as a prostitute is common in prophetic tradition (Hos. 1-3; Jer. 3; Ezek. 16), most spectacularly in Ezekiel's allegory of the twin harlots, Jerusalem and Samaria (Ezek. 23). Two prostitutes represent the two portions of the divided kingdom, struggling over claims to the seed. Harlot Israel, like Egypt , kills its children but there will always remain a bride who will protect the seed.
I try to buy a commentary for each new book and I stumbled upon
Peter Leithart's book on 1 and 2 Kings.
A wonderful book. Astounding, really. Not a textual commentary but a thematic, theological one. He does a marvelous job. Here is one small section on Solomon and the two prostitutes who are fighting over a child (both had babies and one killed the other's baby and stole the living one.)
Leithart draws in the Passover, the binding of Isaac and the promise of descendants to Abraham, and the Messianic seed protected by mother Israel. Well done. And it is just one little taste.
Further, the story told by the prostitutes has an eerie resemblance to Passove!. The exchange of sons takes place at night, as does Passover (Exod. 12:29), and as at Passover one male child dies while another is delivered. This suggests that the false mother is Egypt, a Pharaoh-like woman who smothers her own children and then seeks to toss Israelite children into the Nile. Endowed with Yahweh's wisdom, the king comes with a sword to kill, as the angel of Yahweh frees the sons of the Israelites, under threat from Pharaoh. Passover is itself a reenactment of the Aqedah, the binding of Isaac (Gen. 22), and 1 Kgs. 3 is redolent with allusions to that story as well.
Both the true mother and the false are willing to "sacrifice" the living son, but the true mother "sacrifices" the son in order to save him while the other sacrifices to destroy. Through his test, Solomon discerns which woman is the true Israelite, the true daughter of Abraham, who, like Abraham, gives up her child in faith to save him. Following Abraham's offer of Isaac, Gen. 22: 17 records Yahweh's first promise to multiply Israel like the sand on the sea. A similar sequence appears in 1 Kgs. 3-4: a prostitute acts like an Abraham by giving up her own son, and in the following chapter we read that Israel became ''as numerous as the sand that is on the seashore" (4:20), the first time that this phrase is applied to Israel as it actuallyexists (rather than as a promise of what it would be) .
Harlots and harlotry are mentioned elsewhere in 1-2 Kings only in connection with the idolatries of Ahab (1 Kgs. 22:38; 2 Kgs. 9:22), and the image of unfaithful Israel as a prostitute is common in prophetic tradition (Hos. 1-3; Jer. 3; Ezek. 16), most spectacularly in Ezekiel's allegory of the twin harlots, Jerusalem and Samaria (Ezek. 23). Two prostitutes represent the two portions of the divided kingdom, struggling over claims to the seed. Harlot Israel, like Egypt , kills its children but there will always remain a bride who will protect the seed.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Where there is no Gospel, there is no God.
More from Luther's sermon Advent 1 sermon. Not to the part yet on the place of good works. Man, this sermon is good stuff.
Cyprian said, "Outside the church, there is no salvation."
Luther says, "Where there is no Gospel, there is no God."
Learn then from this Gospel what takes place when God begins to make us godly, and what the first step is in becoming godly. There is no other beginning than that your king comes to you and begins to work in you.
It is done in this way: The Gospel must be the first, this must be preached and heard. In it you hear and learn how all your works count for nothing before God and that everything is sinful that you work and do. Your king must first be in you and rule you. Behold, here is the beginning of your salvation; you relinquish your works and despair of yourself, because you hear and see that all you do is sin and amounts to nothing, as the Gospel tells you, and you receive your king in faith, cling to him, implore his grace and find consolation in his mercy alone.
But when you hear and accept this it is not your power , but God's grace, that renders the Gospel fruitful in you, so that you believe that you and your works are nothing. For you see how few there are who accept it, so that Christ weeps over Jerusalem and, as now the Papists are doing, not only refuse it, but condemn such doctrine, for they will not have all their works to be sin, they desire to lay the first stone and rage and fume against the Gospel.
Again, it is not by virtue of your power or your merit that the Gospel is preached and your king comes. God must send him out of pure grace. Hence, not greater wrath of God exists than where he does not send the Gospel; there is only sin, error and darkness, there man may do what he will. Again, there is no greater grace, than where he sends his Gospel, for there must be grace and mercy in its train, even if not all, perhaps only a few, receive it. Thus the pope's government is the most terrible wrath of God, so that Peter calls them the children of execration, for they teach no Gospel, but mere human doctrine of their own works as we, alas, see in all the chapters, monasteries and schools.
This is what is meant by "Thy king cometh." you do not seek him, but he seeks you. You do not find him, he finds you.
For the preachers come from him,
not from you;
their sermons come from him,
not from you;
your faith comes from him,
not from you;
everything that faith works in you comes
from him,
not from you;
and where he does not come, you remain outside ; and where there is no Gospel there is no God, but only sin and damnation, free will may do, suffer, work and live as it may and can. Therefore you should not ask, where to begin to be godly; there is no beginning, except where the king enters and is proclaimed.
Cyprian said, "Outside the church, there is no salvation."
Luther says, "Where there is no Gospel, there is no God."
Learn then from this Gospel what takes place when God begins to make us godly, and what the first step is in becoming godly. There is no other beginning than that your king comes to you and begins to work in you.
It is done in this way: The Gospel must be the first, this must be preached and heard. In it you hear and learn how all your works count for nothing before God and that everything is sinful that you work and do. Your king must first be in you and rule you. Behold, here is the beginning of your salvation; you relinquish your works and despair of yourself, because you hear and see that all you do is sin and amounts to nothing, as the Gospel tells you, and you receive your king in faith, cling to him, implore his grace and find consolation in his mercy alone.
But when you hear and accept this it is not your power , but God's grace, that renders the Gospel fruitful in you, so that you believe that you and your works are nothing. For you see how few there are who accept it, so that Christ weeps over Jerusalem and, as now the Papists are doing, not only refuse it, but condemn such doctrine, for they will not have all their works to be sin, they desire to lay the first stone and rage and fume against the Gospel.
Again, it is not by virtue of your power or your merit that the Gospel is preached and your king comes. God must send him out of pure grace. Hence, not greater wrath of God exists than where he does not send the Gospel; there is only sin, error and darkness, there man may do what he will. Again, there is no greater grace, than where he sends his Gospel, for there must be grace and mercy in its train, even if not all, perhaps only a few, receive it. Thus the pope's government is the most terrible wrath of God, so that Peter calls them the children of execration, for they teach no Gospel, but mere human doctrine of their own works as we, alas, see in all the chapters, monasteries and schools.
This is what is meant by "Thy king cometh." you do not seek him, but he seeks you. You do not find him, he finds you.
For the preachers come from him,
not from you;
their sermons come from him,
not from you;
your faith comes from him,
not from you;
everything that faith works in you comes
from him,
not from you;
and where he does not come, you remain outside ; and where there is no Gospel there is no God, but only sin and damnation, free will may do, suffer, work and live as it may and can. Therefore you should not ask, where to begin to be godly; there is no beginning, except where the king enters and is proclaimed.
Beware, beware of this poison!
Luther slams on trusting in good works. From an Advent sermon on the Palm Sunday text from Matthew. 1521. From the church postils. He goes on to explain how and where good works do fit in. I'll try to post that later.
He "cometh.-" Without doubt you do not come to him and bring him to you; he is too high and too far from you. With all your effort, work and labor you cannot come to him, lest you boast as though you had received him by your own merit and worthiness.
No, dear friend, all merit and worthiness is out of the question, and there is nothing but demerit and unworthiness on your side, nothing but grace and mercy on his. The poor and the rich here come together ...
By this are condemned all those infamous doctrines of free will, which come from the pope, universities and monasteries. For all their teaching consists in that we are to begin and lay the first stone. We should by the power of free will first seek God, come to him, run after him and acquire his grace.
Beware, beware of this poison! It is nothing but the doctrine of devils, by which all the world is betrayed. Before you can cry to God and seek him God must come to you and must have found you ... God must lay the first stone and begin with you, if you are to seek him and pray to him. He is present when you begin to seek. If he were not you could not accomplish anything but mere sin, and the greater the sin, the greater and holier the work you will attempt, and you will become a hardened hypocrite.
You ask, how shall we begin to be godly and what shall we do that God may begin his work in us?
Answer: Do you not understand, it is not for you to work or to begin to be godly, as little as it is to further and complete it. Everything that you begin is in and remains sin, though it shines ever so brightly; you cannot do anything but sin, do what you will; Hence, the teaching of all the schools and monasteries is misleading, when they teach man to begin to pray and do good works, to found something, to give, to sing, to become spiritual and thereby to seek God's grace.
You say, however: Then I must sin from necessity, if by my free will I work and live without God and I could not avoid sin, no matter what I would do ?
Answer: Truly, it is so, that you must remain in sin, do what you will, and that everything is sin you do alone out of your own free will. For if out of your own free will you might avoid sin and do that which pleases God, what need would you have of Christ? He would be a fool to shed his blood for your sin, if you yourself were so free and able to do anything that is not sin ...
He "cometh.-" Without doubt you do not come to him and bring him to you; he is too high and too far from you. With all your effort, work and labor you cannot come to him, lest you boast as though you had received him by your own merit and worthiness.
No, dear friend, all merit and worthiness is out of the question, and there is nothing but demerit and unworthiness on your side, nothing but grace and mercy on his. The poor and the rich here come together ...
By this are condemned all those infamous doctrines of free will, which come from the pope, universities and monasteries. For all their teaching consists in that we are to begin and lay the first stone. We should by the power of free will first seek God, come to him, run after him and acquire his grace.
Beware, beware of this poison! It is nothing but the doctrine of devils, by which all the world is betrayed. Before you can cry to God and seek him God must come to you and must have found you ... God must lay the first stone and begin with you, if you are to seek him and pray to him. He is present when you begin to seek. If he were not you could not accomplish anything but mere sin, and the greater the sin, the greater and holier the work you will attempt, and you will become a hardened hypocrite.
You ask, how shall we begin to be godly and what shall we do that God may begin his work in us?
Answer: Do you not understand, it is not for you to work or to begin to be godly, as little as it is to further and complete it. Everything that you begin is in and remains sin, though it shines ever so brightly; you cannot do anything but sin, do what you will; Hence, the teaching of all the schools and monasteries is misleading, when they teach man to begin to pray and do good works, to found something, to give, to sing, to become spiritual and thereby to seek God's grace.
You say, however: Then I must sin from necessity, if by my free will I work and live without God and I could not avoid sin, no matter what I would do ?
Answer: Truly, it is so, that you must remain in sin, do what you will, and that everything is sin you do alone out of your own free will. For if out of your own free will you might avoid sin and do that which pleases God, what need would you have of Christ? He would be a fool to shed his blood for your sin, if you yourself were so free and able to do anything that is not sin ...
Advent and Palm Sunday; Text and Context
I am so glad that the new LSB lectionary has restored the Palm Sunday readings for the first Sunday in Advent. I can’t figure out if this was the reading in antiquity but I know Luther preached on this text for Advent and it fits so well.
Putting the Palm Sunday reading in Advent creates what I call echoes or connections between a text, the listeners and the context in which it is read. These “echoes” create depth and meaning for the listeners., the liturgy and the church is so good at doing this. The church and the liturgy over centuries has placed texts where they can resonate, where, no matter how many times you hear or sing them they are fresh and add meaning.
Think of the Sanctus which brings together the heavenly vision in Isaiah and the Palm Sunday acclamations and then places them where? Right before our reception of the Lord’s Supper! Heavenly divine presence come to earth, the coming King, our coming to receive him all mix together.
Something similar happens at Advent with Palm Sunday. Think of all the associations that come together when we read of Christ on the donkey but hear it on Advent 1.
Christ the crucified, the King, the hidden one, the one coming in glory, the one coming in preaching and sacrament, the one coming to Jerusalem (which is his mother, our mother the heavenly city, the church, the place of God’s presence, the place of sacrifice). Mix in Zechariah 9 and the multititude of Advent and Palm Sunday hymns that can go either way … and what a feast we have !
One of the great drawbacks of made up liturgies and sermons series is that no one can be as clever or as profound as the liturgy or the church. Made up liturgies and sermon series may choose a great theme but are invariably one dimensional and usually overwhelmingly pedantic and didactic and fail not so much from heresy as from shallowness.
Putting the Palm Sunday reading in Advent creates what I call echoes or connections between a text, the listeners and the context in which it is read. These “echoes” create depth and meaning for the listeners., the liturgy and the church is so good at doing this. The church and the liturgy over centuries has placed texts where they can resonate, where, no matter how many times you hear or sing them they are fresh and add meaning.
Think of the Sanctus which brings together the heavenly vision in Isaiah and the Palm Sunday acclamations and then places them where? Right before our reception of the Lord’s Supper! Heavenly divine presence come to earth, the coming King, our coming to receive him all mix together.
Something similar happens at Advent with Palm Sunday. Think of all the associations that come together when we read of Christ on the donkey but hear it on Advent 1.
Christ the crucified, the King, the hidden one, the one coming in glory, the one coming in preaching and sacrament, the one coming to Jerusalem (which is his mother, our mother the heavenly city, the church, the place of God’s presence, the place of sacrifice). Mix in Zechariah 9 and the multititude of Advent and Palm Sunday hymns that can go either way … and what a feast we have !
One of the great drawbacks of made up liturgies and sermons series is that no one can be as clever or as profound as the liturgy or the church. Made up liturgies and sermon series may choose a great theme but are invariably one dimensional and usually overwhelmingly pedantic and didactic and fail not so much from heresy as from shallowness.
The best cover band in the world ...
... is Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. I stumbled across them in cyberspace and they are good.
Great punkish covers of songs like Blowin in the Wind, Stairway to Heaven, Runaway (Del Shannon), Delta Dawn, Eleanor Rigby, Come, Sail Away (Styx!), Stand by Your Man.
Great fun. Just songs and messing around. A sense of humor is essential in rock and roll. There is nothing worse than self righteous, self important rock and roll. That ruined REM. And almost killed U2.
Of course, the tendency in bands such as these is to be a novelty act. But I'll take a novelty act over progressive, art rock any day.
Great punkish covers of songs like Blowin in the Wind, Stairway to Heaven, Runaway (Del Shannon), Delta Dawn, Eleanor Rigby, Come, Sail Away (Styx!), Stand by Your Man.
Great fun. Just songs and messing around. A sense of humor is essential in rock and roll. There is nothing worse than self righteous, self important rock and roll. That ruined REM. And almost killed U2.
Of course, the tendency in bands such as these is to be a novelty act. But I'll take a novelty act over progressive, art rock any day.
Orwell's rules
Jeremy over at Eating Words has posted Orwell's well known rules for writing . I think they are helpful. Of course rules is a bit strong. Suggestions. Something to keep in mind. I think they are good, all in all.
1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything barbarous.
Endlessly Rocking takes large aim at Orwell and the rules and thinks they are ... "BS".
Which is a nice, short, English phrase!
1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything barbarous.
Endlessly Rocking takes large aim at Orwell and the rules and thinks they are ... "BS".
Which is a nice, short, English phrase!
Monday, November 27, 2006
Gestapo whores and Martian reptiles ...
... is what, among other things, an 85 year old, quilt making, female, religious sect leader called Orange County, CA officials who arrested her and other grannies. On health code violations.
Only in America, only in America. The group is called Piecemakers. They have a history of police run-ins.
Here is the LA times story.
Here is their web site beliefs page. Kinda paranoid-Christianity.
Only in America, only in America. The group is called Piecemakers. They have a history of police run-ins.
Here is the LA times story.
Here is their web site beliefs page. Kinda paranoid-Christianity.
Warshawsky muffler man and Episcopalian babies
Well I am back. If anyone missed me. Spent Thanksgiving weeek in Rockford Illinois home of my in laws (great people) and the Warshawsky muffler man! Anyone know of what I speak?
I missed this wild quote from thr new Episcopalian lady bishop :
How many members of the Episcopal Church are there in this country?
About 2.2 million. It used to be larger percentagewise, but Episcopalians tend to be better-educated and tend to reproduce at lower rates than some other denominations. Roman Catholics and Mormons both have theological reasons for producing lots of children.
Episcopalians aren’t interested in replenishing their ranks by having children?
No. It’s probably the opposite. We encourage people to pay attention to the stewardship of the earth and not use more than their portion.
Geez, it is hard to comment on this. Really a hatred for life. Sometimes I think the cultural divide is not so great and then I read this and think what do I and this person really have in common .... not much.
You can read more here.
I missed this wild quote from thr new Episcopalian lady bishop :
How many members of the Episcopal Church are there in this country?
About 2.2 million. It used to be larger percentagewise, but Episcopalians tend to be better-educated and tend to reproduce at lower rates than some other denominations. Roman Catholics and Mormons both have theological reasons for producing lots of children.
Episcopalians aren’t interested in replenishing their ranks by having children?
No. It’s probably the opposite. We encourage people to pay attention to the stewardship of the earth and not use more than their portion.
Geez, it is hard to comment on this. Really a hatred for life. Sometimes I think the cultural divide is not so great and then I read this and think what do I and this person really have in common .... not much.
You can read more here.
Friday, November 17, 2006
Ohio St. vs. Michigan
Hype has a hit a new level when NPR's All Things Considered LEADS OFF their broadcast with OSU against Michigan.
NPR !?!?!?!
I guess the world will stop tomorrow around 3:30. I have no dog in the fight but my sister and her family live blocks from OSU and her husband is a rabid Buckeye fan. He once gave us a beer bottle opener that, every time you use it, plays this :
Fight the team across the field,
Show them Ohio's here
Set the earth reverberating with a mighty cheer
Rah! Rah! Rah!
Hit them hard and see how they fall;
Never let that team get the ball,
Hail! Hail! The gang's all here,
So let's win that old conference now
NPR !?!?!?!
I guess the world will stop tomorrow around 3:30. I have no dog in the fight but my sister and her family live blocks from OSU and her husband is a rabid Buckeye fan. He once gave us a beer bottle opener that, every time you use it, plays this :
Fight the team across the field,
Show them Ohio's here
Set the earth reverberating with a mighty cheer
Rah! Rah! Rah!
Hit them hard and see how they fall;
Never let that team get the ball,
Hail! Hail! The gang's all here,
So let's win that old conference now
A civil thanksgiving
I likely will not be blogging again until after Thanksgiivng.
So enjoy this most American of holy days. I wish you a most civil day of civil religion.
And hey, I am not against it. We need civil religion : rituals and quasi-sacraments to cement us together as a people, as a nation. Once it was universal conscription and a fervent patriotism that bound us. Now it is turkey and football.
Overindulgence and escapist television are not the best choices we could have made but but they'll do. I like watching the Lions lose every year and napping.
So enjoy this most American of holy days. I wish you a most civil day of civil religion.
And hey, I am not against it. We need civil religion : rituals and quasi-sacraments to cement us together as a people, as a nation. Once it was universal conscription and a fervent patriotism that bound us. Now it is turkey and football.
Overindulgence and escapist television are not the best choices we could have made but but they'll do. I like watching the Lions lose every year and napping.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
How Lutherans can use the Hail Mary ...
.... according to Dr. Luther.
Summary : Not as petition but as praise of God and of His Christ. Not eliminating Mary or praise of her but centering it in Christ.
From Luther's personal prayer book, LW, AE, 43, 39-40.
The Hail Mary
Take note of this: no one should put his trust or confidence in the Mother of God or in her merits, for such trust is worthy of God alone and is the lofty service due only to him. Rather praise and thank God through Mary and the grace given her. Laud and love her simply as the one who, without merit, obtained such blessings from God, sheerly out of his mercy, as she herself testifies in the Magnificat [Luke 1:46-55].
It is very much the same when I am moved by a view of the heavens, the sun, and all creation to exalt him who created everything, bringing an this into my prayer and praise, saying: O God, Author of such a beautiful and perfect creation, grant to me. ... Similarly, our prayer should include the Mother of God as we say: O God, what a noble person you have created in her! May she be blessed! And so on. And you who honored her so highly, grant also to me. ...
Let not our hearts cleave to her, but through her penetrate to Christ and to God himself. Thus what the Hail Mary says is that all glory should be given to God, using these words: "Hail, Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee [Luke 1:28] ; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus Christ. Amen."
You see that these words are not concerned with prayer but purely with giving praise and honor. Similarly there is no petition in the first words of the Lord's Prayer but rather praise and glorification that God is our Father and that he is in heaven. Therefore we should make the Hail Mary neither a prayer nor an invocation because it is improper to interpret the words beyond what they
mean in themselves and beyond the meaning given them by the Holy Spirit.
But there are two things we can do. First, we can use the Hail Mary as a meditation in which we recite what grace God has given her. Second, we should add a wish that everyone may know and respect her [ as one blessed by God] .
In the first place, she is full of grace, proclaimed to be entirely without sin-something exceedingly great. For God's grace fills her with everything good and makes her devoid of all evil.
In the second place, God is with her, meaning that all she did or left undone is divine and the action of God in her. Moreover, God guarded and protected her from all that might be hurtful to her.
In the third place, she is blessed above all other women, not only because she gave birth without labor, pain, and injury to herself, not as Eve and all other women, but because by the Holy Spirit and without sin, she became fertile, conceived, and gave birth in a way granted to no other woman.
In the fourth place, her giving birth is blessed in that it was spared the curse upon all children of Eve who are conceived in sin [Ps. 51:5] and born to deserve death and damnation. Only the fruit of her body is blessed, and through this birth we are all blessed.
Furthermore, a prayer or wish is to be added-our prayer for all who speak evil against this Fruit and the Mother. But who is it that speaks evil of this Fruit and the Mother? Any who persecute and speak evil against his work, the gospel, and the Christian faith, as Jews and papists are now doing.
The conclusion of this is that in the present no one speaks evil of this Mother and her Fruit as much as those who bless her with many rosaries and constantly mouth the Hail Mary. These, more than any others, speak evil against Christ's word and faith in the worst way.
Therefore, notice that this Mother and her Fruit are blessed in a twofold way-bodily and spiritually. Bodily with lips and the words of the Hail Mary; such persons blaspheme and speak evil of her most dangerously. And spiritually [one blesses her] in one's heart by praise and benediction for her child, Christ-for all his words, deeds-, and sufferings. And no one does this except he who has the true Christian faith because without such faith no heart is good but is by nature stuffed full of evil speech and blasphemy against God and all his saints.
Summary : Not as petition but as praise of God and of His Christ. Not eliminating Mary or praise of her but centering it in Christ.
From Luther's personal prayer book, LW, AE, 43, 39-40.
The Hail Mary
Take note of this: no one should put his trust or confidence in the Mother of God or in her merits, for such trust is worthy of God alone and is the lofty service due only to him. Rather praise and thank God through Mary and the grace given her. Laud and love her simply as the one who, without merit, obtained such blessings from God, sheerly out of his mercy, as she herself testifies in the Magnificat [Luke 1:46-55].
It is very much the same when I am moved by a view of the heavens, the sun, and all creation to exalt him who created everything, bringing an this into my prayer and praise, saying: O God, Author of such a beautiful and perfect creation, grant to me. ... Similarly, our prayer should include the Mother of God as we say: O God, what a noble person you have created in her! May she be blessed! And so on. And you who honored her so highly, grant also to me. ...
Let not our hearts cleave to her, but through her penetrate to Christ and to God himself. Thus what the Hail Mary says is that all glory should be given to God, using these words: "Hail, Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee [Luke 1:28] ; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus Christ. Amen."
You see that these words are not concerned with prayer but purely with giving praise and honor. Similarly there is no petition in the first words of the Lord's Prayer but rather praise and glorification that God is our Father and that he is in heaven. Therefore we should make the Hail Mary neither a prayer nor an invocation because it is improper to interpret the words beyond what they
mean in themselves and beyond the meaning given them by the Holy Spirit.
But there are two things we can do. First, we can use the Hail Mary as a meditation in which we recite what grace God has given her. Second, we should add a wish that everyone may know and respect her [ as one blessed by God] .
In the first place, she is full of grace, proclaimed to be entirely without sin-something exceedingly great. For God's grace fills her with everything good and makes her devoid of all evil.
In the second place, God is with her, meaning that all she did or left undone is divine and the action of God in her. Moreover, God guarded and protected her from all that might be hurtful to her.
In the third place, she is blessed above all other women, not only because she gave birth without labor, pain, and injury to herself, not as Eve and all other women, but because by the Holy Spirit and without sin, she became fertile, conceived, and gave birth in a way granted to no other woman.
In the fourth place, her giving birth is blessed in that it was spared the curse upon all children of Eve who are conceived in sin [Ps. 51:5] and born to deserve death and damnation. Only the fruit of her body is blessed, and through this birth we are all blessed.
Furthermore, a prayer or wish is to be added-our prayer for all who speak evil against this Fruit and the Mother. But who is it that speaks evil of this Fruit and the Mother? Any who persecute and speak evil against his work, the gospel, and the Christian faith, as Jews and papists are now doing.
The conclusion of this is that in the present no one speaks evil of this Mother and her Fruit as much as those who bless her with many rosaries and constantly mouth the Hail Mary. These, more than any others, speak evil against Christ's word and faith in the worst way.
Therefore, notice that this Mother and her Fruit are blessed in a twofold way-bodily and spiritually. Bodily with lips and the words of the Hail Mary; such persons blaspheme and speak evil of her most dangerously. And spiritually [one blesses her] in one's heart by praise and benediction for her child, Christ-for all his words, deeds-, and sufferings. And no one does this except he who has the true Christian faith because without such faith no heart is good but is by nature stuffed full of evil speech and blasphemy against God and all his saints.
On visiting the sick
Olavus Petri:
When this Christian instruction, Confession and Absolution, Communion, and (if desired) unction, has been given, the priest is to exhort the sick person to commit himself into God's hands. ..and to trust that God is kind and merciful and not doubt his grace and mercy. ..Also the priest is to exhort those who care for the sick person to remind and comfort the sick, at all times and at the end, that Christ, the Son of the living God, is his protector and defender against all evil, that he will save him. ..and that he should not doubt that Jesus Christ is his savior and redeemer. Then the priest may offer this consolation before leaving the sick person. ..
Dear brother (sister), do not worry now about anything, but hold fast to Christ. Think on his comforting Word and hold on to it with a strong faith. Though you have been a sinner, yet Christ has taken you to himself and said (as Matthew writes in the ninth chapter): "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Christ is the true physician who can offer a remedy for all sinners, for he also says (in the eleventh chapter): "Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
Now a person comes to Christ only through a steadfast faith. That is, we believe that God is kind and merciful to us, desires good for us, and has forgiven us all our sins; that Christ has made atonement for all our sins; and that we are God's children, whether we are living or dead. Christ himself says so (as John writes in the sixth chapter): "Whoever comes to me will not hunger and whoever believes in me will never thirst."
Nothing can harm the person who has faith in Christ -not sin, death or the devil he (she) can never be lost. If he (she) holds to God's grace and mercy through Jesus Christ, he (she) will be saved.
adapted and condensed --- Olavus Petri, the reformer of the Church of Sweden, was an ordained priest and pastor of St. Nicholas Church in Stockholm. In 1529 he prepared a Handbook in Swedish of orders for Baptism, marriage, churching of women, visitation of the sick, blessing and burial of the dead, and visitation of condemned prisoners, much of which was translated from the medieval Latin manuals. This" consolation" concludes his order for visiting the sick.
From Lutheran Forum, Christmas 1998.
When this Christian instruction, Confession and Absolution, Communion, and (if desired) unction, has been given, the priest is to exhort the sick person to commit himself into God's hands. ..and to trust that God is kind and merciful and not doubt his grace and mercy. ..Also the priest is to exhort those who care for the sick person to remind and comfort the sick, at all times and at the end, that Christ, the Son of the living God, is his protector and defender against all evil, that he will save him. ..and that he should not doubt that Jesus Christ is his savior and redeemer. Then the priest may offer this consolation before leaving the sick person. ..
Dear brother (sister), do not worry now about anything, but hold fast to Christ. Think on his comforting Word and hold on to it with a strong faith. Though you have been a sinner, yet Christ has taken you to himself and said (as Matthew writes in the ninth chapter): "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Christ is the true physician who can offer a remedy for all sinners, for he also says (in the eleventh chapter): "Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
Now a person comes to Christ only through a steadfast faith. That is, we believe that God is kind and merciful to us, desires good for us, and has forgiven us all our sins; that Christ has made atonement for all our sins; and that we are God's children, whether we are living or dead. Christ himself says so (as John writes in the sixth chapter): "Whoever comes to me will not hunger and whoever believes in me will never thirst."
Nothing can harm the person who has faith in Christ -not sin, death or the devil he (she) can never be lost. If he (she) holds to God's grace and mercy through Jesus Christ, he (she) will be saved.
adapted and condensed --- Olavus Petri, the reformer of the Church of Sweden, was an ordained priest and pastor of St. Nicholas Church in Stockholm. In 1529 he prepared a Handbook in Swedish of orders for Baptism, marriage, churching of women, visitation of the sick, blessing and burial of the dead, and visitation of condemned prisoners, much of which was translated from the medieval Latin manuals. This" consolation" concludes his order for visiting the sick.
From Lutheran Forum, Christmas 1998.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
The moist womb of the water
Ephrem the Syrian :
The river in which Christ was baptized
conceived Him again symbolically;
the moist womb of the water conceived Him in purity,
bore Him in chastity,
made Him go up in glory.
In the pure womb of the river
you should recognize Mary , the daughter of man, who conceived, having known no man,
who gave birth, without intercourse,
who brought up, through a gift,
the Lord of that gift.
As the Daystar in the river, the Bright one in the tomb,
He shone forth on the mountain top
and gave brightness too in the womb;
He dazzled as He went up from the river, gave illumination at His ascent.
The brightness which Moses put on
was wrapped on him from without,
whereas the river in which Christ was baptized was clothed in light from within;
so too did Mary's body, in which He resided, gleam from within.
From Kilian McDonnell, The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan, Liturgical Press, 1996.
McDonnell comments:
In one stanza Ephrem starts with the baptism of Jesus, which he then links with the tomb, Tabor (or ascension), womb, again baptism, and finally ascension, therefore the mysteries of his baptism, death, transfiguration (or ascension), incarnation, and ascension. He associates baptism with the chief mysteries of Christ's life .
The river in which Christ was baptized
conceived Him again symbolically;
the moist womb of the water conceived Him in purity,
bore Him in chastity,
made Him go up in glory.
In the pure womb of the river
you should recognize Mary , the daughter of man, who conceived, having known no man,
who gave birth, without intercourse,
who brought up, through a gift,
the Lord of that gift.
As the Daystar in the river, the Bright one in the tomb,
He shone forth on the mountain top
and gave brightness too in the womb;
He dazzled as He went up from the river, gave illumination at His ascent.
The brightness which Moses put on
was wrapped on him from without,
whereas the river in which Christ was baptized was clothed in light from within;
so too did Mary's body, in which He resided, gleam from within.
From Kilian McDonnell, The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan, Liturgical Press, 1996.
McDonnell comments:
In one stanza Ephrem starts with the baptism of Jesus, which he then links with the tomb, Tabor (or ascension), womb, again baptism, and finally ascension, therefore the mysteries of his baptism, death, transfiguration (or ascension), incarnation, and ascension. He associates baptism with the chief mysteries of Christ's life .
What is a rosary?
Proof of my ignorance:
I am ashamed to admit it but I have never known exactly what a rosary is. So much for my incipient papism.
I mean, I knew it involved beads and prayers especially the "hail mary" but as to actually praying a rosary ... didn't know how. So to enlighten you and me here is Wikipedia on the rosary.
Yes, yes, you're welcome.
The Rosary (from Latin rosarium, "Rose Garden"), is an important and traditional devotion of the Roman Catholic Church consisting of a set of prayer beads and a system of set prayers. The Rosary combines prayer and meditation centered around sequences of reciting the Lord's Prayer followed by ten recitations of the "Hail Mary" prayer; one such sequence is known as a decade. A complete Rosary involves the completion of twenty decades, as well as other prefatory and final prayers.
The Rosary is usually prayed in four parts, one part each day, with the "Mysteries" (which are meditated or contemplated on during the prayers) being rotated daily.
What distinguishes the Rosary from other forms of repetitive prayer is that, along with the verbal prayers, it includes a series of meditations. Each decade of the Rosary is said while meditating on one of the "Mysteries" of redemption. These mysteries originated in the 15th century, and while there has been some disagreement on them (the final mystery is sometimes the Last Judgment) the earliest sets bear a remarkable resemblance to those still used.
Many similar prayer practices exist in Catholicism and elsewhere, each with its own set of prescribed prayers and its own form of bead counters. These other devotions and their associated beads are usually referred to as "chaplets."
The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary has the liturgical rank of universal memorial. It is associated with Our Lady of Victory and is celebrated on October 7th on the Catholic liturgical calendar in commemoration of the "Victory of Our Lady" at the Battle of Lepanto.
The rosary is also sometimes used by some adherents of other Christian denominations, particularly in the Anglican Communion, the Old Catholic Church, and the Lutheran Church. Baptists, Methodists, Fundamentalist Protestants, and all other groups sometimes condemn it as idolatry.[1]
I am ashamed to admit it but I have never known exactly what a rosary is. So much for my incipient papism.
I mean, I knew it involved beads and prayers especially the "hail mary" but as to actually praying a rosary ... didn't know how. So to enlighten you and me here is Wikipedia on the rosary.
Yes, yes, you're welcome.
The Rosary (from Latin rosarium, "Rose Garden"), is an important and traditional devotion of the Roman Catholic Church consisting of a set of prayer beads and a system of set prayers. The Rosary combines prayer and meditation centered around sequences of reciting the Lord's Prayer followed by ten recitations of the "Hail Mary" prayer; one such sequence is known as a decade. A complete Rosary involves the completion of twenty decades, as well as other prefatory and final prayers.
The Rosary is usually prayed in four parts, one part each day, with the "Mysteries" (which are meditated or contemplated on during the prayers) being rotated daily.
What distinguishes the Rosary from other forms of repetitive prayer is that, along with the verbal prayers, it includes a series of meditations. Each decade of the Rosary is said while meditating on one of the "Mysteries" of redemption. These mysteries originated in the 15th century, and while there has been some disagreement on them (the final mystery is sometimes the Last Judgment) the earliest sets bear a remarkable resemblance to those still used.
Many similar prayer practices exist in Catholicism and elsewhere, each with its own set of prescribed prayers and its own form of bead counters. These other devotions and their associated beads are usually referred to as "chaplets."
The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary has the liturgical rank of universal memorial. It is associated with Our Lady of Victory and is celebrated on October 7th on the Catholic liturgical calendar in commemoration of the "Victory of Our Lady" at the Battle of Lepanto.
The rosary is also sometimes used by some adherents of other Christian denominations, particularly in the Anglican Communion, the Old Catholic Church, and the Lutheran Church. Baptists, Methodists, Fundamentalist Protestants, and all other groups sometimes condemn it as idolatry.[1]
Great Liturgy, Really Bad Theology
TitusoneNine links an article in the Chicago tribune about high church Episcopalians in NJ. The inclusive legacy of Bishop John Spong.
Gives new meaning to the words "smells and bells".
Gives new meaning to the words "smells and bells".
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Beauty Nuns
The newest issue of the New Yorker has a great article on plastic surgery. It is a book review of Beauty Junkies which profiles the industry.
What is fascinating is the religious overtone evident in the book and certainly in the review. However thoroughly physical and materialistic our culture becomes it cannot help but make up religions. Rabid plastic surgery reveals a religion, a devotion, to one's own flesh: a most telling sacramental expression of our having replaced God with self.
The last few paragraphs are worth quoting in full:
Kuczynski’s chosen metaphor for the culture of cosmetic surgery—and her own engagement with it—is that of addiction; but at one point she refers to the “cult” of the beauty junkie, and the allusion is a telling one. After her liposuction, Ku--czynski writes, she was “overwhelmed by a deep sense of shame. I couldn’t believe how much I had willingly hurt myself.” But when she then underwent an eye-lift, she writes, “I realized what a miracle had taken place. It felt like I had cheated on something but wouldn’t ever get in trouble.”
This is the language of religious experience, with its wretchedness and its sublimity and its consciousness of transgression, and Kuczynski’s devotees of cosmetic surgery observe their beauty regimens—the twice-weekly hair appointments, the weekly scorched-earth depilations, the bimonthly teeth whitening, the thrice-yearly cosmetic-surgery consultations, and the annual surgical procedures—with the self-scourging rigor of a medieval ascetic.
“On the Upper East Side of New York City, the body and the face are considered to be something like a garden. . . . They are to be tended and cleaned, cared for every day in the hope that the buds will remain dewy,” Kuczynski writes, employing the same metaphor used by St. Teresa of Ávila, the sixteenth-century mystic and monastic reformer, whose autobiography called upon the beginner in prayer to think of himself “as of one setting out to make a garden in which the Lord is to take His delight.”
The women Kuczynski interviews for whom cosmetic surgery is both a passion and a pastime are beauty nuns, dedicated to the discipline of personal physical reformation.
Unlike St. Teresa, of course, Kuczynski’s beauty nuns are interested in the garden of themselves for its own glory, not for the glory of God.
... The new idea offered by the contemporary culture of cosmetic surgery is that it is the vessel itself that we must value, rather than the soul or spirit that it contains.
Like certain strains of Christian mysticism, cosmetic surgery is founded on a notion of human perfectibility, although the means of achieving perfection, and the rewards thereof, are the opposite of those in a Christian theology. If for St. Teresa perfection required transcending the allures of the material and the sensual, adherents of the cult of plastic surgery undergo surgical mortification of the flesh in order to embrace the sensual life more fully.
Ultimately, Kuczynski argues, what the beauty junkie is pursuing, and what our culture values most, is not simply aesthetic improvement but the preservation of apparent youthfulness at any cost. One of her interviewees is a Bel Air matron who—having already had liposuction, a tummy tuck, a brow-lift, two face-lifts, two eye-lifts, and two successive sets of breast implants—has recently undergone labiaplasty, an operation to rejuvenate the vagina.
A culture that insists on the appearance of nubile availability among women old enough to be grandmothers may be as tyrannical as one that requires the syphilitic to wander noseless forever, reviled by all. Kuczynski’s book vividly documents such a culture; it also conforms in every measure to that culture’s catechism.
What is fascinating is the religious overtone evident in the book and certainly in the review. However thoroughly physical and materialistic our culture becomes it cannot help but make up religions. Rabid plastic surgery reveals a religion, a devotion, to one's own flesh: a most telling sacramental expression of our having replaced God with self.
The last few paragraphs are worth quoting in full:
Kuczynski’s chosen metaphor for the culture of cosmetic surgery—and her own engagement with it—is that of addiction; but at one point she refers to the “cult” of the beauty junkie, and the allusion is a telling one. After her liposuction, Ku--czynski writes, she was “overwhelmed by a deep sense of shame. I couldn’t believe how much I had willingly hurt myself.” But when she then underwent an eye-lift, she writes, “I realized what a miracle had taken place. It felt like I had cheated on something but wouldn’t ever get in trouble.”
This is the language of religious experience, with its wretchedness and its sublimity and its consciousness of transgression, and Kuczynski’s devotees of cosmetic surgery observe their beauty regimens—the twice-weekly hair appointments, the weekly scorched-earth depilations, the bimonthly teeth whitening, the thrice-yearly cosmetic-surgery consultations, and the annual surgical procedures—with the self-scourging rigor of a medieval ascetic.
“On the Upper East Side of New York City, the body and the face are considered to be something like a garden. . . . They are to be tended and cleaned, cared for every day in the hope that the buds will remain dewy,” Kuczynski writes, employing the same metaphor used by St. Teresa of Ávila, the sixteenth-century mystic and monastic reformer, whose autobiography called upon the beginner in prayer to think of himself “as of one setting out to make a garden in which the Lord is to take His delight.”
The women Kuczynski interviews for whom cosmetic surgery is both a passion and a pastime are beauty nuns, dedicated to the discipline of personal physical reformation.
Unlike St. Teresa, of course, Kuczynski’s beauty nuns are interested in the garden of themselves for its own glory, not for the glory of God.
... The new idea offered by the contemporary culture of cosmetic surgery is that it is the vessel itself that we must value, rather than the soul or spirit that it contains.
Like certain strains of Christian mysticism, cosmetic surgery is founded on a notion of human perfectibility, although the means of achieving perfection, and the rewards thereof, are the opposite of those in a Christian theology. If for St. Teresa perfection required transcending the allures of the material and the sensual, adherents of the cult of plastic surgery undergo surgical mortification of the flesh in order to embrace the sensual life more fully.
Ultimately, Kuczynski argues, what the beauty junkie is pursuing, and what our culture values most, is not simply aesthetic improvement but the preservation of apparent youthfulness at any cost. One of her interviewees is a Bel Air matron who—having already had liposuction, a tummy tuck, a brow-lift, two face-lifts, two eye-lifts, and two successive sets of breast implants—has recently undergone labiaplasty, an operation to rejuvenate the vagina.
A culture that insists on the appearance of nubile availability among women old enough to be grandmothers may be as tyrannical as one that requires the syphilitic to wander noseless forever, reviled by all. Kuczynski’s book vividly documents such a culture; it also conforms in every measure to that culture’s catechism.
Ted Haggard stuff
Ted Haggard stuff: Robert Miller discusses the difference between hypocrisy and weakness. He contends Haggard is not a hypocrite but a weak sinner.
Frederica Mathewes Green sees the scandal in terms of the passions, sinful impulses, which attack and overwhelm us. She also writes these very nice (yes, EO, I know) paragraphs :
The Greek word represented by this kind of “passion” is pathos. It means “suffering.” It is because we are helpless in our suffering that Christ came. He took on vulnerable human form and went into the realm of death and defeated the Evil One. Now we are invited to gradually return to health by fully assimilating the truth that sets us free—by assimilating the presence and life of Christ himself. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me,” St. Paul said. This life fills and changes us like fire fills a piece of coal.
In the Eastern Christian understanding, sins are not “bad deeds” that must be made up in order to satisfy justice. They are instead like bad fruit, which indicates a sickness inside the tree (the analogy Jesus uses in Matthew 7:7–8). Sin is infection, not infraction. And God not only forgives freely but also sent his Son to rescue us when we were helpless.
Mollie at Get Religion summarizes.
Frederica Mathewes Green sees the scandal in terms of the passions, sinful impulses, which attack and overwhelm us. She also writes these very nice (yes, EO, I know) paragraphs :
The Greek word represented by this kind of “passion” is pathos. It means “suffering.” It is because we are helpless in our suffering that Christ came. He took on vulnerable human form and went into the realm of death and defeated the Evil One. Now we are invited to gradually return to health by fully assimilating the truth that sets us free—by assimilating the presence and life of Christ himself. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me,” St. Paul said. This life fills and changes us like fire fills a piece of coal.
In the Eastern Christian understanding, sins are not “bad deeds” that must be made up in order to satisfy justice. They are instead like bad fruit, which indicates a sickness inside the tree (the analogy Jesus uses in Matthew 7:7–8). Sin is infection, not infraction. And God not only forgives freely but also sent his Son to rescue us when we were helpless.
Mollie at Get Religion summarizes.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Hope ... defying present frustration
Not a bad thought:
John Howard Yoder defines eschatology as “…a hope that, defying present frustration, defines a present position in terms of the yet unseen goal that gives it meaning.”
From Praxis.
John Howard Yoder defines eschatology as “…a hope that, defying present frustration, defines a present position in terms of the yet unseen goal that gives it meaning.”
From Praxis.
Creation knit together in friendship
For Thou verily, O Lord, art the pure and eternal fount of goodness, Who didst justly turn away from us, and in loving kindness didst have mercy upon us.
Thou didst hate, and wert reconciled;
Thou didst curse, and didst bless;
Thou didst banish us from Paradise, and didst recall us;
Thou didst strip off the fig-tree leaves, an unseemly covering, and put upon us a costly garment;
Thou didst open the prison, and didst release the condemned;
Thou didst sprinkle us with clean water, and cleanse us from our filthiness.
No longer shall Adam be confounded when called by Thee, nor hide himself, convicted by his conscience, cowering in the thicket of Paradise. Nor shall the flaming sword encircle Paradise around, and make the entrance inaccessible to those that draw near; but all is turned to joy for us that were the heirs of sin:
Paradise, yea, heaven itself may be trodden by man: and the creation, in the world and above the world, that once was at variance with itself, is knit together in friendship: and we men are made to join in the angels' song, offering the worship of their praise to God. For all these things then let us sing to God that hymn of joy, which lips touched by the Spirit long ago sang loudly:
"Let my soul be joyful in the Lord: for He hath clothed me with a garment of salvation, and hath put upon me a robe of gladness: as on a bridegroom He hath set a mitre upon me, and as a bride hath He adorned me with fair array." And verily the Adorner of the bride is Christ, Who is, and was, and shall be, blessed now and for evermore. Amen.
Gregory of Nyssa, On the Baptism of Christ
Thou didst hate, and wert reconciled;
Thou didst curse, and didst bless;
Thou didst banish us from Paradise, and didst recall us;
Thou didst strip off the fig-tree leaves, an unseemly covering, and put upon us a costly garment;
Thou didst open the prison, and didst release the condemned;
Thou didst sprinkle us with clean water, and cleanse us from our filthiness.
No longer shall Adam be confounded when called by Thee, nor hide himself, convicted by his conscience, cowering in the thicket of Paradise. Nor shall the flaming sword encircle Paradise around, and make the entrance inaccessible to those that draw near; but all is turned to joy for us that were the heirs of sin:
Paradise, yea, heaven itself may be trodden by man: and the creation, in the world and above the world, that once was at variance with itself, is knit together in friendship: and we men are made to join in the angels' song, offering the worship of their praise to God. For all these things then let us sing to God that hymn of joy, which lips touched by the Spirit long ago sang loudly:
"Let my soul be joyful in the Lord: for He hath clothed me with a garment of salvation, and hath put upon me a robe of gladness: as on a bridegroom He hath set a mitre upon me, and as a bride hath He adorned me with fair array." And verily the Adorner of the bride is Christ, Who is, and was, and shall be, blessed now and for evermore. Amen.
Gregory of Nyssa, On the Baptism of Christ
Saturday, November 11, 2006
We dont want no Kumbayah...
The song everyone loves to hate.
A Chicago Trib columnist and a Dallas Morning News blogger
both weigh in on the song and its origins and heyday in the sixties and its demise as a punching bag for all that is wrong with trying to be soulful, hip and contemporary when you are none of those things.
Here is a hilarious video of a Bazooka commercial. We don't want no Kumbayah...
A Chicago Trib columnist and a Dallas Morning News blogger
both weigh in on the song and its origins and heyday in the sixties and its demise as a punching bag for all that is wrong with trying to be soulful, hip and contemporary when you are none of those things.
Here is a hilarious video of a Bazooka commercial. We don't want no Kumbayah...
25,000 free books
Bunches of free digital books are listed here. Naturally not alot of current bestsellers but interesting titles anyway.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Wal Mart experiences conversion
Christmas returns to Wal Mart. They will use the word "Christmas" again after being beat up last year over the meager "happy holidays". Dollars forced them back to the manger, apparently. Sales were down.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
The Grinch who stole Advent
The Grinch who Stole advent is a nice little article on ALPB online about when to put up the Christmas trees in the parish. Ah, very familiar to me. Probably to alot of us.
Decent article (here is just a bit)
Maybe I should blame all of this on the liturgical color revisions spearheaded by the Anglo-Catholics and taken from their Sarum Rite, for when they popularized changing the color of Advent from violet to blue, they allowed a shift from the more traditional medieval (and hence Lutheran) emphasis upon contrition for sins to the more ancient and patristic emphasis upon the expectation of Jesus’ coming.
The stated reason for the revision of color in the Advent season, of course, was to underscore the sense of hopefulness and anticipation with which the Prophets of Israel awaited the first Advent and so too should we eagerly await the return of Our Lord promised at His Ascension and confessed in the creeds. This is not a bad thing of course and no doubt Lutherans of all people should welcome such a dual sense of hopefulness and anticipation.
But that shift away from contrition to expectation, when combined with the festivity of the marketplace in the late fall months and the rampant commercialism of the season, leads good parishioners to misidentify Advent with the celebration of Jesus’ birth and not the patient, reflective wait for the coming Messiah of Israel. The hopeful tone of Advent melds together with the exclamatory tone of Christmas, ringing no different to the ear and seeming no less congruent than O Come, O Come, Emmanuel and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing do on a Christmas CD found in the bargain bin at Wal-Mart.
Decent article (here is just a bit)
Maybe I should blame all of this on the liturgical color revisions spearheaded by the Anglo-Catholics and taken from their Sarum Rite, for when they popularized changing the color of Advent from violet to blue, they allowed a shift from the more traditional medieval (and hence Lutheran) emphasis upon contrition for sins to the more ancient and patristic emphasis upon the expectation of Jesus’ coming.
The stated reason for the revision of color in the Advent season, of course, was to underscore the sense of hopefulness and anticipation with which the Prophets of Israel awaited the first Advent and so too should we eagerly await the return of Our Lord promised at His Ascension and confessed in the creeds. This is not a bad thing of course and no doubt Lutherans of all people should welcome such a dual sense of hopefulness and anticipation.
But that shift away from contrition to expectation, when combined with the festivity of the marketplace in the late fall months and the rampant commercialism of the season, leads good parishioners to misidentify Advent with the celebration of Jesus’ birth and not the patient, reflective wait for the coming Messiah of Israel. The hopeful tone of Advent melds together with the exclamatory tone of Christmas, ringing no different to the ear and seeming no less congruent than O Come, O Come, Emmanuel and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing do on a Christmas CD found in the bargain bin at Wal-Mart.
Touchstone nugget
Got the new November Touchstone today. Excellent stuff.
Here is just a bit from an article by D. G. Hart on Evanglecialism. As always you should subscribe here.
The reason for such rootlessness is Evangelicalism's suspicion of the forms that define ecclesiastical bodies, such as creeds, liturgy, and ordination. George Whitefield spoke volumes when, in 1739, while preaching in different pulpits and to mixed audiences, he said, "It was best to preach the new birth, and the power of godliness, and not to insist so much on the form: for people would never be brought to one mind as to that; nor did Jesus Christ ever intend it."
As the latest historical scholarship has shown, this indifference to form was essential to the Evangelical movement. It stemmed from a conviction that mediation of any kind, whether Catholic or Protestant, posed a barrier to direct communion between God and the individual Christian. Ecclesial forms, the logic went, could be faked; they could result in nominal Christianity or dead orthodoxy.
Evangelicalism, accordingly, sought authentic or genuine faith, unencumbered by rites, dogma, and clergy. As such, born-again Protestantism is a new and highly modern form of Christianity, one that regards dependence on churchly mediation, whether through catechesis or creedal subscription, sacraments or ministerial blessings, pastors or priests, or councils of bishops or presbyteries, as in tension with rather than constituting a personal relationship with Christ.
Here is just a bit from an article by D. G. Hart on Evanglecialism. As always you should subscribe here.
The reason for such rootlessness is Evangelicalism's suspicion of the forms that define ecclesiastical bodies, such as creeds, liturgy, and ordination. George Whitefield spoke volumes when, in 1739, while preaching in different pulpits and to mixed audiences, he said, "It was best to preach the new birth, and the power of godliness, and not to insist so much on the form: for people would never be brought to one mind as to that; nor did Jesus Christ ever intend it."
As the latest historical scholarship has shown, this indifference to form was essential to the Evangelical movement. It stemmed from a conviction that mediation of any kind, whether Catholic or Protestant, posed a barrier to direct communion between God and the individual Christian. Ecclesial forms, the logic went, could be faked; they could result in nominal Christianity or dead orthodoxy.
Evangelicalism, accordingly, sought authentic or genuine faith, unencumbered by rites, dogma, and clergy. As such, born-again Protestantism is a new and highly modern form of Christianity, one that regards dependence on churchly mediation, whether through catechesis or creedal subscription, sacraments or ministerial blessings, pastors or priests, or councils of bishops or presbyteries, as in tension with rather than constituting a personal relationship with Christ.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
The God Delusion?
I have been hearing about this book by Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion. He is, I gather, a virulent and crusading atheist.
Anyone read the book? I do not know if I can bring myself to read it. My blood pressure, you know.
The Generous Orthodoxy Think tank has a short note on some reviews of the book.
From the London times:
Card-carrying rationalists like Dawkins, who is the nearest thing to a professional atheist we have had since Bertrand Russell, are in one sense the least well-equipped to understand what they castigate, since they don’t believe there is anything there to be understood, or at least anything worth understanding. This is why they invariably come up with vulgar caricatures of religious faith that would make a first-year theology student wince. The more they detest religion, the more ill-informed their criticisms of it tend to be. If they were asked to pass judgment on phenomenology or the geopolitics of South Asia, they would no doubt bone up on the question as assiduously as they could. When it comes to theology, however, any shoddy old travesty will pass muster. These days, theology is the queen of the sciences in a rather less august sense of the word than in its medieval heyday.
Anyone read the book? I do not know if I can bring myself to read it. My blood pressure, you know.
The Generous Orthodoxy Think tank has a short note on some reviews of the book.
From the London times:
Card-carrying rationalists like Dawkins, who is the nearest thing to a professional atheist we have had since Bertrand Russell, are in one sense the least well-equipped to understand what they castigate, since they don’t believe there is anything there to be understood, or at least anything worth understanding. This is why they invariably come up with vulgar caricatures of religious faith that would make a first-year theology student wince. The more they detest religion, the more ill-informed their criticisms of it tend to be. If they were asked to pass judgment on phenomenology or the geopolitics of South Asia, they would no doubt bone up on the question as assiduously as they could. When it comes to theology, however, any shoddy old travesty will pass muster. These days, theology is the queen of the sciences in a rather less august sense of the word than in its medieval heyday.
Devilish Worship
It is not easy to surprise or shock me when it comes to worship deviations but this is something else. Mere Comments reports on a RC priest in California (where else?) who has a Halloween Mass tradition which includes devils giving out communion, the cantor as a witch and the priest saying, “As goblins and ghouls, we raise one voice: Our Father…” as he is dressed as Barney and as the musicians played theme from the Adams Family.
There is also a video.
The grass is not always greener, apparently.
There is also a video.
The grass is not always greener, apparently.
Walther on homiletics
A quote from the a founder of the LCMS, CFW Walther,:
“A preacher must be able to preach a sermon on faith without ever using the term faith. It is not important that he shout the word faith into the ears of his audience, but it is necessary for him to frame his address so as to arouse in every poor sinner the desire to lay the burden of his sins at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ…You must instruct him to do nothing but listen to the Word of God, and God will give him faith.”
HT: Jesus Christ For Us)
Good advice. Sermons on sin need not mention the word sin necessarily, nor "forgiveness". Simply saying the right words is not automatically Gospel. It is a fine balance speaking the correct pattern we have inherited and also communicating that pattern to be understood. The way we speak is important but preaching is not regurgitation. Time and place and people change; so does the sermon. The truth does not.
“A preacher must be able to preach a sermon on faith without ever using the term faith. It is not important that he shout the word faith into the ears of his audience, but it is necessary for him to frame his address so as to arouse in every poor sinner the desire to lay the burden of his sins at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ…You must instruct him to do nothing but listen to the Word of God, and God will give him faith.”
HT: Jesus Christ For Us)
Good advice. Sermons on sin need not mention the word sin necessarily, nor "forgiveness". Simply saying the right words is not automatically Gospel. It is a fine balance speaking the correct pattern we have inherited and also communicating that pattern to be understood. The way we speak is important but preaching is not regurgitation. Time and place and people change; so does the sermon. The truth does not.
They Have Seen the Light, and It Is Green
The NY Times has a cynical look at the new movie on the Nativity. Not surprising. But it is not a stretch to think that Hollywood thinks more of dollars than piety either.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
What does it matter that we are Lutheran?
The District President of the Southern Illinois District of the LCMS wrote a pretty nice article for Reformation. HT Uneasy Priest.
What does it matter that we are Lutheran? “I don’t want Lutheran theology, I want Biblical theology!” said the lady in my Bible Class. There began an extended discussion, to be sure. “For me, Biblical theology and Lutheran theology are one and the same,” I responded. I am a passionate Lutheran not because the Lutheran Church is the biggest (we’re far from it) or the most perfect (we’re full of sinners – forgiven, yes, but sinners still) or even the fastest growing (in some parts of Africa we are), but I am a passionate Lutheran simply because I believe Lutheran theology brings the greatest comfort to the penitent sinner. Every point of the doctrine shows the work of Christ for us to bring life and salvation to all. If you know you are a sinner, then this doctrine is for you.
The Reformation is all about the Church being re-centered in this Gospel. To be Lutheran is to be all about the forgiveness of sins in Christ. There are four common watchwords of this Lutheran Reformation – Sola Scriptura, sola gratia, solus Christus, and sola fide.
Scripture alone (sola Scriptura) – Lutheran theology IS Biblical theology and Biblical theology is Lutheran theology. Scripture alone is the source and norm of our teaching. But of course, doesn’t every church claim to be based on Scripture? Yes, and that’s why we always need to examine everything in the light of Scripture. And yes, we also identify ourselves by our confessions because we have found them to be faithful to Scripture and because they faithfully help us keep the Gospel at the center. And again, that’s why we also confess three more “solas.”
Grace alone (sola gratia) – We are saved and find favor with God by grace alone, for the sake of Christ Jesus, crucified and raised from the dead. In saying this, we also recognize our deepest need. Human nature is not just a little corrupt or a little impaired. The Scripture says we were dead in our trespasses and sins. “You He made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once walked… but God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).” (Ephesians 2:1-2, 4-5). That’s why salvation can only be by grace, never our deserving. God is not fair, but He is gracious, full of undeserved love for us in Christ.
Christ alone (solus Christus) – God’s grace comes to us only in Christ, for the sake of Christ’s death and resurrection. Go read Ephesians 1:1-14. Every verse has the phrase, “in Christ,” or “in Him,” or “in the beloved,” or “in whom,” referring to Christ. Only Christ Jesus has crossed the great divide called death and returned. Only Christ can give true life. “This is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life” (1 John 5:11-12).
Faith alone (sola fide) – Can you buy a gift someone else gives you? No, if YOU pay the price, it’s no longer a gift but a purchase. In the same way, the new life we have in Christ, the forgiveness of sins and every gift of God’s grace, are simply that, gifts to be received. Christ paid the price for us with His own blood shed for us, His own body broken for us. The gifts of God are gifts we receive by faith – believe it and you have it! Otherwise, they are no more grace, but wages earned. “That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace…” (Romans 4:16a).
Why is all of this so important? It’s the Gospel! This is precisely why the German version of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession contains this powerful comment in Article IV, on Justification:
“[The doctrine of Justification] is especially useful for the clear, correct understanding of the entire Holy Scriptures, and alone shows the way to the unspeakable treasure and right knowledge of Christ, and alone opens the door to the entire Bible. It brings necessary and most abundant consolation to devout consciences. . . . the adversaries do not understand what the forgiveness of sins or faith or grace or righteousness is. Therefore, they sadly corrupt this topic, hide Christ’s glory and benefits, and rob devout consciences of the consolation offered in Christ.” (Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article IV, par. 2. Translated in Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2006), p. 82-83.)
So – a blessed Reformation observance to all and Happy 523rd Birthday for Martin Luther (November 10th). God be with you all!
What does it matter that we are Lutheran? “I don’t want Lutheran theology, I want Biblical theology!” said the lady in my Bible Class. There began an extended discussion, to be sure. “For me, Biblical theology and Lutheran theology are one and the same,” I responded. I am a passionate Lutheran not because the Lutheran Church is the biggest (we’re far from it) or the most perfect (we’re full of sinners – forgiven, yes, but sinners still) or even the fastest growing (in some parts of Africa we are), but I am a passionate Lutheran simply because I believe Lutheran theology brings the greatest comfort to the penitent sinner. Every point of the doctrine shows the work of Christ for us to bring life and salvation to all. If you know you are a sinner, then this doctrine is for you.
The Reformation is all about the Church being re-centered in this Gospel. To be Lutheran is to be all about the forgiveness of sins in Christ. There are four common watchwords of this Lutheran Reformation – Sola Scriptura, sola gratia, solus Christus, and sola fide.
Scripture alone (sola Scriptura) – Lutheran theology IS Biblical theology and Biblical theology is Lutheran theology. Scripture alone is the source and norm of our teaching. But of course, doesn’t every church claim to be based on Scripture? Yes, and that’s why we always need to examine everything in the light of Scripture. And yes, we also identify ourselves by our confessions because we have found them to be faithful to Scripture and because they faithfully help us keep the Gospel at the center. And again, that’s why we also confess three more “solas.”
Grace alone (sola gratia) – We are saved and find favor with God by grace alone, for the sake of Christ Jesus, crucified and raised from the dead. In saying this, we also recognize our deepest need. Human nature is not just a little corrupt or a little impaired. The Scripture says we were dead in our trespasses and sins. “You He made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once walked… but God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).” (Ephesians 2:1-2, 4-5). That’s why salvation can only be by grace, never our deserving. God is not fair, but He is gracious, full of undeserved love for us in Christ.
Christ alone (solus Christus) – God’s grace comes to us only in Christ, for the sake of Christ’s death and resurrection. Go read Ephesians 1:1-14. Every verse has the phrase, “in Christ,” or “in Him,” or “in the beloved,” or “in whom,” referring to Christ. Only Christ Jesus has crossed the great divide called death and returned. Only Christ can give true life. “This is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life” (1 John 5:11-12).
Faith alone (sola fide) – Can you buy a gift someone else gives you? No, if YOU pay the price, it’s no longer a gift but a purchase. In the same way, the new life we have in Christ, the forgiveness of sins and every gift of God’s grace, are simply that, gifts to be received. Christ paid the price for us with His own blood shed for us, His own body broken for us. The gifts of God are gifts we receive by faith – believe it and you have it! Otherwise, they are no more grace, but wages earned. “That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace…” (Romans 4:16a).
Why is all of this so important? It’s the Gospel! This is precisely why the German version of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession contains this powerful comment in Article IV, on Justification:
“[The doctrine of Justification] is especially useful for the clear, correct understanding of the entire Holy Scriptures, and alone shows the way to the unspeakable treasure and right knowledge of Christ, and alone opens the door to the entire Bible. It brings necessary and most abundant consolation to devout consciences. . . . the adversaries do not understand what the forgiveness of sins or faith or grace or righteousness is. Therefore, they sadly corrupt this topic, hide Christ’s glory and benefits, and rob devout consciences of the consolation offered in Christ.” (Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article IV, par. 2. Translated in Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2006), p. 82-83.)
So – a blessed Reformation observance to all and Happy 523rd Birthday for Martin Luther (November 10th). God be with you all!
Happiness is ...
Happiness. I struggle to account for happiness, plain old happiness, in sermons and catechesis. There are many things to teach and preach, doctrine and Scripture and history.
But mostly we ( my people in the pew, me) are happy and contented by simple ordinary things, a glass of wine, working in the yard, a computer game, a smile on the face of our children. Distressed and harassed and worried and sick and in pain, yes, but lots of times just happy.
This happiness is not particularly "spiritual" or "religious" (as we often think of it) or related to some deep theological concept, it is just there. First article stuff : clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and land, wife and children, fields, animals ... these things make up the bulk of our lives. One of the largest tasks of our lives is to see them in light of the Gospel. That such things are gifts, that we do not deserve them but they come out of pure, fatherly and divine goodness.
To say grace over the mac and cheese and mean it. To rejoice in Sunday night football and to see it as a piece of the divine goodness which created died on the cross and baptized us.
But mostly we ( my people in the pew, me) are happy and contented by simple ordinary things, a glass of wine, working in the yard, a computer game, a smile on the face of our children. Distressed and harassed and worried and sick and in pain, yes, but lots of times just happy.
This happiness is not particularly "spiritual" or "religious" (as we often think of it) or related to some deep theological concept, it is just there. First article stuff : clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and land, wife and children, fields, animals ... these things make up the bulk of our lives. One of the largest tasks of our lives is to see them in light of the Gospel. That such things are gifts, that we do not deserve them but they come out of pure, fatherly and divine goodness.
To say grace over the mac and cheese and mean it. To rejoice in Sunday night football and to see it as a piece of the divine goodness which created died on the cross and baptized us.
Faith and the hiddenness of things
To speak of sola fide is to speak the theology of the cross. Of the hiddenness of things.
Faith. We cannot grasp or know or feel in ourselves but are called to rely on the Word. The chills I feel when I sing "For all the Saints" may or may not be "from God" How can I know?. It is no different that saying our Fathers on your knees up the steps of St. Peters. It has no word from God. No promise that He is there.
It is a characteristic of living in this world as a Christian that the things of God are hidden :
the divinity in the humanity
the victory under the crucifixion
body under the bread
my own righteousness under the sins and weakness
the one holy church by heresies distressed
a new birth or any change at all deep in the dark water of baptism
Hidden. Period. All account of the promise. Christ called his followers to see him as he said he was as his works demonstrated. "You cannot see my divinty but believe."
This is the wilderness. We do not eat milk and honey but manna. The Lord is in the pillar of cloud and fire but all we see is cloud and fire not God himself. God promsies he is here. We hear words of forgivensss but may still feel crappy and dirty. No matter. The Word is true.
Faith. We cannot grasp or know or feel in ourselves but are called to rely on the Word. The chills I feel when I sing "For all the Saints" may or may not be "from God" How can I know?. It is no different that saying our Fathers on your knees up the steps of St. Peters. It has no word from God. No promise that He is there.
It is a characteristic of living in this world as a Christian that the things of God are hidden :
the divinity in the humanity
the victory under the crucifixion
body under the bread
my own righteousness under the sins and weakness
the one holy church by heresies distressed
a new birth or any change at all deep in the dark water of baptism
Hidden. Period. All account of the promise. Christ called his followers to see him as he said he was as his works demonstrated. "You cannot see my divinty but believe."
This is the wilderness. We do not eat milk and honey but manna. The Lord is in the pillar of cloud and fire but all we see is cloud and fire not God himself. God promsies he is here. We hear words of forgivensss but may still feel crappy and dirty. No matter. The Word is true.
Monday, November 06, 2006
Letters coming from heaven
Chrysostom speaks wisely here in his third homily on 2 Thessalonians.
How hard it is to listen to the preacher and hear God, how difficult to put an ear and eye to a human being but take to the heart the divine Word!
They think when they enter in here, that they enter into our presence, they think that what they hear they hear from us. They do not lay to heart, they do not consider, that they are entering into the presence of God, that it is He who addresses them. For when the Reader standing up says, "Thus saith the Lord," and the Deacon stands and imposes silence on all, he does not say this as doing honor to the Reader, but to Him who speaks to all through him.
If they knew that it was God who through His prophet speaks these things, they would cast away all their pride. For if when rulers are addressing them, they do not allow their minds to wander, much less would they, when God is speaking. We are ministers, beloved. We speak not our own things, but the things of God, letters coming from heaven are every day read.
How hard it is to listen to the preacher and hear God, how difficult to put an ear and eye to a human being but take to the heart the divine Word!
They think when they enter in here, that they enter into our presence, they think that what they hear they hear from us. They do not lay to heart, they do not consider, that they are entering into the presence of God, that it is He who addresses them. For when the Reader standing up says, "Thus saith the Lord," and the Deacon stands and imposes silence on all, he does not say this as doing honor to the Reader, but to Him who speaks to all through him.
If they knew that it was God who through His prophet speaks these things, they would cast away all their pride. For if when rulers are addressing them, they do not allow their minds to wander, much less would they, when God is speaking. We are ministers, beloved. We speak not our own things, but the things of God, letters coming from heaven are every day read.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Bippy, mondegreen and headcase
The New York Times Magazine has an article on the new Oxford English Dictionary. Actually sounds like fun working on this stuff. Of course, I am complete word geek. Hopeless.
Check out some of the words discussed in the article:
treeware (a word that entered the O.E.D. in September as “computing slang, freq. humorous”).
bahookie (a body part)
beer pong (a drinking game)
bippy (as in, you bet your — )
roach motel (added March 2005: “Something from which it may be difficult or impossible to be extricated”).
bada-bing: American slang “suggesting something happening suddenly, emphatically, or easily and predictably.” “The Sopranos” gets no credit. The historical citations begin with a 1965 audio recording of a comedy routine by Pat Cooper and continue with newspaper clippings, a television news transcript and a line of dialogue from the first “Godfather” movie: “You’ve gotta get up close like this and bada-bing! you blow their brains all over your nice Ivy League suit.”
headcase ... When Paton started in new words, she found herself struggling with headcase. She had current citations, but she says she felt sure it must be older, and books were of little use. She wandered around the office muttering headcase, headcase, headcase. Suddenly one of her colleagues started singing: “My name is Bill, and I’m a headcase/They practice making up on my face.” She perked up.
“What date would that be?” she asked. “I don’t know, it’s a Who song,” he said, “1966 probably, something like that.” So “I’m a Boy,” by P. Townshend, became the O.E.D.’s earliest citation for headcase.
twiffler ... is a plate intermediate in size between a dinner plate and a bread plate. “I love it because it fills a gap,” Gilliver says. “I also love it because of its etymology. It comes from Dutch, like a lot of ceramics vocabulary. Twijfelaar means something intermediate in size, and it comes from twijfelen, which means to be unsure. It’s a plate that can’t make up its mind!”
mondegreen ... is a misheard lyric, as in, “Lead on, O kinky turtle.” It is named after Lady Mondegreen. There was no Lady Mondegreen. The lines of a ballad, “They hae slain the Earl of Murray,/And laid him on the green” are misheard as “They have slain the Earl of Murray and Lady Mondegreen.”
Pixie dust ... is “an imaginary magical substance used by pixies.”
Air kiss ... is defined with careful anatomical instructions plus a note: “sometimes with the connotation that such a gesture implies insincerity or affectation.”
Builder’s bum ... is reportedly Brit. and colloq., “with allusion to the perceived propensity of builders to expose inadvertently this part of the body.”
Check out some of the words discussed in the article:
treeware (a word that entered the O.E.D. in September as “computing slang, freq. humorous”).
bahookie (a body part)
beer pong (a drinking game)
bippy (as in, you bet your — )
roach motel (added March 2005: “Something from which it may be difficult or impossible to be extricated”).
bada-bing: American slang “suggesting something happening suddenly, emphatically, or easily and predictably.” “The Sopranos” gets no credit. The historical citations begin with a 1965 audio recording of a comedy routine by Pat Cooper and continue with newspaper clippings, a television news transcript and a line of dialogue from the first “Godfather” movie: “You’ve gotta get up close like this and bada-bing! you blow their brains all over your nice Ivy League suit.”
headcase ... When Paton started in new words, she found herself struggling with headcase. She had current citations, but she says she felt sure it must be older, and books were of little use. She wandered around the office muttering headcase, headcase, headcase. Suddenly one of her colleagues started singing: “My name is Bill, and I’m a headcase/They practice making up on my face.” She perked up.
“What date would that be?” she asked. “I don’t know, it’s a Who song,” he said, “1966 probably, something like that.” So “I’m a Boy,” by P. Townshend, became the O.E.D.’s earliest citation for headcase.
twiffler ... is a plate intermediate in size between a dinner plate and a bread plate. “I love it because it fills a gap,” Gilliver says. “I also love it because of its etymology. It comes from Dutch, like a lot of ceramics vocabulary. Twijfelaar means something intermediate in size, and it comes from twijfelen, which means to be unsure. It’s a plate that can’t make up its mind!”
mondegreen ... is a misheard lyric, as in, “Lead on, O kinky turtle.” It is named after Lady Mondegreen. There was no Lady Mondegreen. The lines of a ballad, “They hae slain the Earl of Murray,/And laid him on the green” are misheard as “They have slain the Earl of Murray and Lady Mondegreen.”
Pixie dust ... is “an imaginary magical substance used by pixies.”
Air kiss ... is defined with careful anatomical instructions plus a note: “sometimes with the connotation that such a gesture implies insincerity or affectation.”
Builder’s bum ... is reportedly Brit. and colloq., “with allusion to the perceived propensity of builders to expose inadvertently this part of the body.”
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Blessed Virgin in the Fathers of the First Six Centuries
This looks like a promising digital edition (in progress) of "The Blessed Virgin in the Fathers of the First Six Centuries" by Thomas Livius. Written from a RC perspective but full of nice selections from the Fathers. It is in a very ackward format( you have to click to turn each short page) but worth a look.
HT Fathers of the Church.
HT Fathers of the Church.
Schori on Jesus
I am not much on bashing other Christian church bodies here (Lutherans and the LCMS have plenty of our own) but this post caught my eye.
The woman bishop of the Episcopalian church is pretty open to accepting all faiths as valid. Not surprising, I guess, but it is pretty far off the charts as far as Christian belef when measured against what the church has held throughout her history, not to mention the Bible.
One quote:
It says that Hindus and people of other faith traditions approach God through their.. own cultural contexts; they relate to God, they experience God in human relationships, as well as ones that transcend human relationships; and Christians would say those are our experiences of Jesus; of God through the experience of Jesus.
It illustrates the need for constant viligance in our own teaching. It is strange world we live in and we msut always be careful that the strangeness is held at bay while we engage that world with the saving truth.
The woman bishop of the Episcopalian church is pretty open to accepting all faiths as valid. Not surprising, I guess, but it is pretty far off the charts as far as Christian belef when measured against what the church has held throughout her history, not to mention the Bible.
One quote:
It says that Hindus and people of other faith traditions approach God through their.. own cultural contexts; they relate to God, they experience God in human relationships, as well as ones that transcend human relationships; and Christians would say those are our experiences of Jesus; of God through the experience of Jesus.
It illustrates the need for constant viligance in our own teaching. It is strange world we live in and we msut always be careful that the strangeness is held at bay while we engage that world with the saving truth.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
EBay relics
Apparently, one can buy relics on EBay. How do I know? Because there is a Catholic group organizing a boycott of Ebay over the issue. The group is called "The International Crusade for Holy Relics".
Here is the website. You can host a veneration or chat with "relic man".
What is weird about this is not so much the relics thing which has a long and ,yes, abused history in the church but the mathcing of current technology and language with such an ancient practice. Relic man?
Here is the website. You can host a veneration or chat with "relic man".
What is weird about this is not so much the relics thing which has a long and ,yes, abused history in the church but the mathcing of current technology and language with such an ancient practice. Relic man?
Great must be the value of our souls
Johann Gerhard:
"I do not greatly wonder, in view of all this, that the very hairs of our heads are all numbered (Matt. x. 30); that our names are written in heaven (Luke x. 20); that we are graven upon the Lord’s hands (Is. xlix. 16); that we are carried in His bosom (Is. xlvi. 3), since we are fed with Christ’s precious body and blood. Inexpressibly great must be the value of our souls, since they are fed with the precious ransom of their redemption. Great indeed is the honor put upon our bodies, inasmuch as they are the dwelling-places of our souls redeemed and fed by the body of Christ, and are the temples of the Holy Ghost and the abodes of the adorable Trinity."
Sacred Meditations, The Rev. C. W. Heisler, A. M. ed.(Malone, TX: Repristination Press, 2000) pp. 99.
HT: Cruce Tectum
"I do not greatly wonder, in view of all this, that the very hairs of our heads are all numbered (Matt. x. 30); that our names are written in heaven (Luke x. 20); that we are graven upon the Lord’s hands (Is. xlix. 16); that we are carried in His bosom (Is. xlvi. 3), since we are fed with Christ’s precious body and blood. Inexpressibly great must be the value of our souls, since they are fed with the precious ransom of their redemption. Great indeed is the honor put upon our bodies, inasmuch as they are the dwelling-places of our souls redeemed and fed by the body of Christ, and are the temples of the Holy Ghost and the abodes of the adorable Trinity."
Sacred Meditations, The Rev. C. W. Heisler, A. M. ed.(Malone, TX: Repristination Press, 2000) pp. 99.
HT: Cruce Tectum
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
While I sat still ...
I don't know if the blogger Swiftly and with Style is Lutheran or Reformed or what. But he posted a nice little quote from Luther.
I have read it before but I missed Reformation Day so here it is:
Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we prohibit and abolish women? The sun, moon and the stars have been worshipped; shall we pluck them from the sky? See how much He has done thru me even though I just prayed and preached, the Word did it all. If I wanted to, I could have started a conflagration at Worms. But while I sat still and drank beer with Philip in Hahnsdorf, God dealt the papacy a mighty blow.
I have read it before but I missed Reformation Day so here it is:
Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we prohibit and abolish women? The sun, moon and the stars have been worshipped; shall we pluck them from the sky? See how much He has done thru me even though I just prayed and preached, the Word did it all. If I wanted to, I could have started a conflagration at Worms. But while I sat still and drank beer with Philip in Hahnsdorf, God dealt the papacy a mighty blow.
Bye, Bye, Cross
The cross has been banished from the chapel of William and Mary chapel. They need a less "faith-specific space" according to the President.
Shame. What we do physically in our worship with our buildings, with our hands and bodies is in direct correlation to our faith. In large matters such as crosses and "smaller" ones such as personal reverence or paying attention in prayer.
From the specific ( crosses, kneeling, bowing, vestments, stained glass) to the generic can lead to a generic faith in a generic "god", a god who does not occupy real space, absent from life itself, save in our imagination. There is no life apart from physicality, from creation, from stuff. There is no God for us either.
James Kushiner comments on this same article here. One sentence:
"When the symbol of the Cross is gone, that for which it stands will fade from the memory and imagination."
Shame. What we do physically in our worship with our buildings, with our hands and bodies is in direct correlation to our faith. In large matters such as crosses and "smaller" ones such as personal reverence or paying attention in prayer.
From the specific ( crosses, kneeling, bowing, vestments, stained glass) to the generic can lead to a generic faith in a generic "god", a god who does not occupy real space, absent from life itself, save in our imagination. There is no life apart from physicality, from creation, from stuff. There is no God for us either.
James Kushiner comments on this same article here. One sentence:
"When the symbol of the Cross is gone, that for which it stands will fade from the memory and imagination."
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