Leo the Great on the mission of the church

Leo says we Christians are Epiphany stars shining in dark world, leading many to Christ.

From an Epiphany sermon, Sermon 33, FOTC, Vol. 93, 142-143

This star's subservient function incites us to imitate its submission, so that we may render service to this grace which invites all to Christ,in as much as we can. Whover lives in the Church with devotion and chastity, who "relishes the things which are above, not the things upon the earth," resembles in a way the celestial light. Preserving the glow of a holy life,that person,just as the star, points out for many the way to the Lord. In this zeal, dearly beloved, you ought all to benefit each other so that, in the kingdom of God to which we come by a correct faith and good works, you may shine as “children of light” through Christ our Lord.

Dude, you are in the Library of Congress!

How the Library of Congress is building the Twitter archive ... Checking in on the Library of Congress' Twitter archive, one year later.

In April 2010, Twitter announced it was donating its entire archive of public tweets to the Library of Congress. Every tweet since Twitter's inception in 2006 would be preserved.

Ascension: He descends to us. We ascend with him.

There are two basic approaches to the Ascension of Jesus and its message to us, his church.

The first is the most common among Lutherans. The Ascension is not Jesus going away from us but it is Jesus, Word made flesh, utilizing fully and completely his divine powers so that He is now with us always. He is especially present where He has promised in His word and sacraments, most especially in the Lord's Supper. He is "able" to be present in his flesh since He has gone to the right hand, that is, his humanity now fully and actively participates in and displays the divine power.

Thus the Ascension is for us his church, a blessing for it means Christ comes to us truly now, in mercy and in power.

Another approach sees Christ's ascension as the elevation of human nature. This is common in the early church fathers. Because the Word, the Son of God, has assumed human nature in the unity of His person and has ascended physically, beyond all powers, to the very right hand of God, human nature itself has been exalted. The Human nature, joined to Christ in an inseparable union, now shares in Christ in all the glory of the Godhead.

Scripture's talk of Christ as the head and we as the body comes in here as well as Christ promise that where he is, we will be also. In one sense, we are already in heaven with Christ. For where the head is there is also the body. In another sense we wait, for Christ is the first fruits and we will follow in our turn. The head has crossed the finish line and we his body are straining forward in that instant to also follow him. We live now in that instant. Christ has crossed over. Our salvation is sure. We are his body.

Both messages are true, of course. They are both proclamations of grace. They are not exclusive. Ascension is a two way street. Christ comes to us and takes us with Him. He descends to us. We ascend with him.

Disasters, sobs, sighs, and our death are a most pleasant and beautiful game of God's goodness

But just as in the discipline of a household the correction of children is by no means pleasing, so the chastening of the Lord seems exceedingly hard and bitter. Yet "blessed is the man," says James, "who endures trial; for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love Him" Therefore let us conclude for certain that disasters, sobs, sighs, and our death are nothing else than a most pleasant and beautiful game of God's goodness.

But how many understand or believe this? If we could persuade ourselves of this, we would be truly happy and completely prepared to endure any evils whatever in a happy frame of mind. But when I reflect that I am a sinner and that I am being punished on account of my faults, I judge far differently. For I do not feel that God is my Father, that He is good and merciful, but that He is the devil himself. Therefore you should know that God is almighty and that for this reason a serious game becomes Him and is worthy of such great majesty. And one must learn, and accustom oneself to, the things in which He delights and His games.

...

Consider that God is playing with you, and that this game is wonderful for you and gives pleasure to God. For if He did not embrace you with His fatherly heart, He would not play with you this way. Therefore this is proof of His ineffable mercy toward you, that you are numbered among those with whom God is pleased, and that He takes delight in you.

Accordingly He gives you His promise, Word, and Sacrament as most certain symbols and testimonies of grace, that He has adopted you as His son, and that He requires nothing else than that you bear His games, which are pleasing to Him and salutary to you.

Luther, Commentary on Genesis, AE Vol. 7, 226.

For Ascension: Elijah on the Fire Cart

Giotto Di Bondone, The Ascension, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua.

Eloquent mourners at the wake for Christian culture

Literature and sociology have long supplied eloquent and knowing professional mourners at the wake for Christian culture.

Philip Rieff, The Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith after Freud, p. 1.

I have not read this book yet but I have that sentence which opens the book several times. It is a great opening sentence. I must read this book.

"Dust Thou art" and "Sit at my Right Hand"

Christ offered the firstfruits of our nature to the Father and the Father admired the
gift, and on account of the worth of the offerer and the blamelessness of that which was offered, he received it with his own hands and placed the gift next to him, and said: “Sit thou on my right hand.”

To which nature did God say: "Sit thou on my right hand”? To that which
heard: "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.”
John Chrysostom, cited in Douglas Farrow, Ascension Theology, 40.