All you need is love

“For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another” (1st John 3:11)

“All you need is love” (The Beatles)

Earlier this week I was pondering what to preach about. I was pouring over 1st John looking for some profound theological insight to share with you all. I think I got a little frustrated because all this John guy keeps talking about is love. Just love. Can’t we get beyond that and talk about something deeper – something more profound and existential! John, the apostle-pastor and evangelist simply cannot stop talking about love! He keeps returning to it as if that’s all that mattered.

When I told Pastor Johnson I was thinking about preaching about love, he immediately launched into singing the chorus of “All you need is love” by the Beatles. In case you were wondering, this is a pretty accurate look into the divinely inspired and very serious task of sermon writing in the St. Paul’s office.

But don’t we know enough about love? Don’t we hear about it enough from our favorite songs and on television or movies? Don’t we talk about it enough? Don’t we say it enough, “I love you.” And haven’t we heard it before? For all the talk about love we ought to be experts at it by now! Love, however, does not naturally rule our hearts and minds. It is grossly easy to harden our hearts toward those who have slighted us in some petty insignificant way. How easy it is for us to withhold our love from other, carefully rationing it out for others, in a way that is convenient for ourselves – in a way that gives us maximum benefit with the least amount of effort.

After all, we need more than love, don’t we! That cannot be it. We need personal safety and security. We need to plan for the future. We need nice stuff. We need our pursuit of happiness. And somewhere in this race, love is pushed to the side.

Yet, when all our nice things are no longer well…nice. And when we lose that which we built up, what remains? What is the one thing that does not lose its sweetness for us. The one promise that has any meaning. What is the one comfort that does not pass away? It is love, Oh love how deep, how great, and how wide.

The message of Saint John seems to sound a lot like that of the Beatles, “Love is all you need. John writes to his hearers, “For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” This is the Genesis message. This is the Gospel stripped down to its essence – love itself – Jesus himself.

One significant mistake we often make is thinking that God’s love is like our love. It is true that Jesus is a man, fully man, with a body likes ours. He is given to human needs with truly human affections. Sometimes in our attempt to understand the birth of Jesus, and His entrance in our world we mistakenly make him too much like us. For God made us from the beginning in his image and every since we have been trying to return the favor! That is to make him after our likeness!

God’s love is not in our image of love. No, he loves differently, without expectations or demands. He does not carefully select whom to love based upon their worthiness or certain attractive attributes. He does not love us based upon our usefulness in His kingdom.

Unlike us, he is incapable of ever saying to us, “I do not love you anymore” or “I do not love you like I used to.” His declaration of love for us is not merely an emotion or human feeling. It is not a sentiment or a nostalgic thought. It is a movement – a procession from heaven above to earth he comes. Love is a historical fact and has a face and name – Jesus.

Love is God in action. Leading the wise men, crying from the manger. Love caused the incarnation and Christmas and brought him to us. He comes into our lives and softens our hearts. He moves us outside of our own self-obsessions and into the lives of others. He unites us in his love. And in the words of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, “love is all you need.” And it is ours “given for you” says our Lord.

Our Lord has no second thoughts about loving us. And though he loves his creation with the deepest emotions, tears, and joy, his love does not end there. He loves through his action and work in which he covers all our sins in the light of his cross.

We receive this love in faith because it is all we need. It is our priceless treasure, our safety and security. It is our joy and our pursuit of happiness. For love never leaves us because God himself is love. And we are the beloved ones for whom he came.

The Gospel in one word is love, and it is yours, and all you really need. Amen.

Thanksgiving celebration - Pops, myself, Gramps, and Uncle Charlie

Bonhoeffer on Confession and Community

"In confession the break-through to community takes place.  Sin demands to have a man by himself.  It withdraws him from the community.  The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes in it, the more disastrous is his isolation.  Sin wants to remain unknown.  It shuns the light.  In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person.  This can happen even in the midst of a pious community…

The expressed, acknowledged sin has lost all its power…It can no longer tear the fellowship asunder.  Now the fellowship bears the sin of the brother.  He is no longer alone with his evil for he has cast off his sin in confession and handed it over to God…Now he stands in the fellowship of sinners who live by the grace of God in the cross of Jesus Christ" - from Bonhoeffer's "Life Together"

To Be Born Again

"Nicodemus said to Him, 'How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?' Jesus answered, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God."

Saint Cyril declares that baptism “was at once your grace and your mother.”  The baptismal font is your tomb and womb.  For Saint Cyril of Jerusalem his catechumens have become sons and daughters of one Mother, which is the church.  Regarding this baptism he writes in his protocatechesis, “It is the ransom for captives; the remission of offences; the death of sin; the regeneration of the soul; the garment of light; holy indissoluble seal; the chariot to heave; the luxury of Paradise; the gift of adoption.”  In the font – In the waters of Holy Baptism is the participation in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.  This is not a figurative participation – it is not metaphoric of an alternative event – rather it is the true cataclysmic, cosmic reality of the blessed exchange with the Lamb of God – the Christ – Jesus.  Jesus overcame the enemy, by becoming a servant unto death – washing, healing, teaching, and dying.  And what a blessed death, which became the very slaying of death itself.  Death was swallowed whole – death was consumed buried in the body of Christ.  Death buried, and banished by a God-man.  And what a blessed death it is for it is your own.  Saint Paul writes: 

Know ye not that all we who are baptized in Christ Jesus are baptized in His death?  Therefore we are buried together with Him by baptism into death: that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, we also may walk in newness of life.  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.” (Rom. 6:3-5). 

Where is this death?  Where is this newness of life?  Is it in the meditations of nature?  Lofty thoughts about a God of power and might?  Is it in our strivings to be better, more virtuous people, more productive and well known members in our communities?  Does it come from the barrage of self-help books that promise you a more successful career, improved happiness, and higher esteem?  Dear Christians, there is no life here – only crafty deceptions.  There are no restored souls from lofty thoughts, increased happiness, or self help books.  Death, salvation, and life come through the baptismal font.  A cold block of cement or thousands of shabby wooden rotting fonts in rural parishes across the world deliver thousands of saints every year.  They approach the altar or are carried there as infants for a blessed burial, a blessed death, and a most glorious resurrection to walk forever in the newness of life – the very body of Christ.

You descend into water as broken vessels, and are made dead.  This font becomes your tomb, your shroud of death.  You are dipped three times, for a three day burial in the bosom of the earth - which you share with Jesus your Christ.  Your former man was laid in a coffin, descended through the waters, and flooded to a certain death in the Red Sea – by blood of the Lord.  Pastors pronounce death with water and the invocation of the Divine Name.  This is a necessary and blessed death for the curse of sin is death.  Yet like Christ we are not left for dead but are resuscitated when the breath of life is breathed into our nostrils by the Holy Spirit.  Here, we sinners, with our diseased and broken bodies and souls are put to death and are resurrected.  Pastors, simple men of all types, vested with the authority of Christ perform these Holy Mysteries not with any power of their own but with the power of God who declares you holy sons and daughters.  In this font you are buried and dead.  Yet you are never left for dead but just as surely resurrected as Christ.  From the tomb of the font a perfect shroud of righteousness is wrapped around you.  God does not see your sin.  He does not see an ungrateful heart.  He does not see your failures as a father, a mother, a son, or daughter.  He does not see that bitter and dark secret that you have tried oh so hard to forget.  He does not see a desecrated body that has been defiled by the monstrous devils and tempters of this world.  He sees you as a holy saint.  He sees not a blemish on your body or an impure thought in your heart.  He sees not your life story with all your troubles and tears but sees your life story in His Son only.  He sees a righteous one.  He sees you – who sings his praises, and hallows His Holy Name.  He sees you wonderfully and perfectly made because He sees Christ in you and for you.                    

The Roman Missal for the consecration of the font refers to the Holy Spirit “who is to make fruitful with the mingling of His mystical power this water prepared for the rebirth of men, that a heavenly race conceived in holiness may come forth from the immaculate womb of the divine font.”  Understanding our spiritual life in light of our human birth is essential to any understanding of the Gospel.  In this font the Romanists and Saint Cyril suggest a very helpful symbol that we might better understand the totality of all that takes place in baptism.  As Saint John writes in his Gospel, “But as many as received Him, He gave them power, to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in His name.  Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn. 1:12-13).  Christ Jesus was both true God and true man.  Not just spirit but blood and flesh.  It is flesh that was tempted – flesh of a man – who like us was tempted by Satan – who hungered, thirsted, cried, and laughed.  Our human birth came from the waters of a mother who bored us in pain.  And in sin we are conceived - and in sin we enter into a fallen and shattered world.  As Nicodemus did learn, we cannot enter a second time into our Mother’s womb to be born again.  Our births from our dear Mother’s was a one time event.  And yet the birth from our mother’s womb was not the final declaration of all matters on life.  For God ultimately had plans for us – that we might be born again of water and the Holy Ghost.  God willed that we be born of the womb of Holy Mother Church.  A virginal and holy birth, born of God, born from above, born as redeemed saints.  Here you are adopted by a jealous and loving Father who wants you so dearly that His own son is sent to shed blood.  Rivers of water and blood flow forth from a pierced side, giving a new birth to us blind beggars.  In a most treasured hymn, God’s Own Child, I Glady Say it we sing:  Satan, hear this proclamation: I am baptized into Christ!  Drop your ugly accusation; I am not so soon enticed.  Now that to the font I’ve traveled, All your might has come unraveled, And, against your tyranny, God, my Lord, unites with me!

The simple baptismal font does not look like it contains the complete mysteries of the Gospel of our Lord.  Yet our Lord comes through means that give us great comfort.  In the font, with the eyes of faith, there is a tomb and a blessed womb.  There is death and burial.  There is resurrection and life.  There is water and blood.  There is the body of Christ who stands with you in the Holy waters of your baptism.  He gives all things to you.  And God the Father sees you as His most prized possession.  He delights in you at this simple font.  He sustains you and provides for you until the final day when you will inherit heaven to dine and sing with your Lord.  And in your baptism angels rejoice with all the company of heaven.  Amen. 

The Ol' Gang

Raise Your Heads, Your Christ Draws Near!

“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

[Listen to audio of this sermon HERE.]

We have no lack of signs to see that the ending is near. We have plenty of signs. The world has been falling apart for a very long time.  Since our first parents Adam and Eve sinned in that cool Eden morning, distress and confusion has been pouring over the land.    

     

Contrary to the opinion of evolutionists, the human race is not improving itself, moving progressively toward some utopian world.  We are not evolving into more peaceful, civil people.  In fact no century at been more barbaric and horrifying than the last one.  In the 20^th century, the modern, evolved and enlightened man put his neighbor to death in numbers that exceed all prior centuries put together.  Entire nations have been destroyed and routed from their homes.  Mothers and fathers have fainted in fear of what is coming. 

          

Last week with the OWLS group of St. Paul’s I was able to visit the new Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education center.  This museum holds hundreds of artifacts from the Nazi regime and concentration camps that were scattered throughout Europe.  There are documents and pictures that tell the story of the holocaust.  At the museum they have real German rail car – an actual train car used for deporting Jews, Christians, the disabled and political enemies off to the work camps and killing chambers. 

More than 50 people were jammed in those dark train cars.  Two buckets for waste and bathroom needs.  As I stepped into the dark train car at the museum I could almost hear the roaring train and screeching of the metal on the tracks. It is impossible to see this car and not sense the terror and despair felt by the millions of men, women and children who were placed into these dark and inhuman transports during the Holocaust.     

                   

The Lord’s Coming – the advent of our Lord has always been surrounded by violence.  When King Herod heard of the coming of the Christ he killed all the male children of Bethlehem.  There were screams and fainting that surrounded the birth of Jesus.  When the Apostles were sent out to proclaim the Gospel - to baptize, preach, and teach they were systematically hunted down, crucified, and put to death.

We do not simply need reform, as a human community.  We need redemption.  We need a savior.  We need mercy.  We need to be saved from the ongoing holocaust of human cruelty, hatred, and violence.  For the stirring troubles that erupt across the globe and our own city, we need much more than reform and transformation.  

  

We have murder in schools, gang violence, corporate greed and political corruption.  We have economic depression, rising deficits, and nuclear proliferation in dangerous parts of the world. Political action will not save us.  Healthcare will not save us.  Not pacifism.  Neither will continued war save us.  We need a cosmic rescue mission.  We need an apocalyptic rebirth.  We need a calling forth of the new. 

"And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

Jesus has come and Jesus is coming.  Take heart dear Christians, the long nightmare will soon be ending.  The warring between nations and the roaring of the sea and the waves will be quieted by the advent of a child.  This child Jesus will be born.  Resting in the womb of Mary He is the ruler of the sun, the moon, and the stars.  He governs the waves and the seas. He is God of God and light of light, having and sharing all the glory of the Father.  

The fainting and foreboding.  The anxiety and fear that the world feels soon will be met by angels announcing the birth of Jesus – the Coming of the Son of Man.  The children of the church will sing Hark the Herald Angels sing. Members of our congregation will go out into our surrounding community, they will knock on doors of God’s children and sing praises to Christ the King and His glorious coming.And the angels will say “Fear not…raise your heads…your Savior draws near.”  

Though the coming of Jesus is both terrible and marvelous, He has spoken to you so that it may be a lovely coming for you.  It is to you that the Lord speaks, “straighten up and raise you heads.”  Our Lord calls us not to be weighed down by the weight and burden of our sin.  Lift your heads, raise your eyes and feel no shame.  That nervousness that often casts our heads downward, and redirects our eyes has been met by the eyes and voice of our Good Shepherd!  Your sins are forgiven, go in peace!  Awake from the long nightmare.  Raise your head, dearest son and daughter.                

He has baptized you and raised your body to stand in His light.  Your body, however weak or strong it may be has been fashioned to be among all those standing at His coming, to be brought to that heavenly home.  He has formed your body into a sign and living witness of the resurrection.  In our Gospel reading it is as if God says, “I am coming to the world to rescue you.  From heaven above to earth I come to break in.  To break in a save those who sit in darkness” 

Jesus came for those who looked up for mercy in those torturous German train cars.  He came for those first born of Bethlehem that were slaughtered by King Herod.  He came for every holocaust and genocide and unspeakable terror.  For he paid for the sins of the German army.  Paid for the guilt of a world which apathetically looked away.  He paid for the sins of King Herod.  And he has come to bear every sin that plagues us and weighs us down. 

Jesus is our Sun and our moon, our heavens and bright star of light.  He purifies us and raises us up to stand before him.  He dresses us up in dazzling white and anoints our forehead with baptismal waters.  We stand with the whole Christian church on earth.               

"But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."

Dearest Christian, this is good news.  You are the holy ones standing in the light of his birth and resurrection.  The Lord has found you standing and confessing.  He has found you praying and singing.  He has found you awake and alive in the peace that He Himself has given you. 

He sees you baptized and marked in His saving blood.  You eat and drink at the Lord’s Supper here at this altar.  Nothing pleases our God more than receiving this food and drink here today.  At our Lord’s coming he has found you here – where he has placed you.  Even though the earth may shake and wars rage through the nations, our homes, or conscience, the Word of Jesus is the final one.  You are innocent and have been made to stand before him in perfect righteousness – perfect freedom.  He delights in you in every way.  As we await the Lord’s Coming and look toward the birth of Jesus you may know that your name has already been written in the book of life and painted in the halls of heaven.

We have all the signs we need to see and know that Jesus has come and will bring us into all the light of his glory.  You lack nothing in your preparation.  He has given everything you need and has set you free.  He has stood you to be numbered among all the saints. As Paul Gerhardt ended his hymn that we sang this morning Jesus is “a light of consolations and blessed hope to those.  Who love the Lord’s appearing.  O Glorious Sun, now come, Send forth Your beams so cheering, And guide us safely home.” Amen.         

Rev. Steven Cholak on Preaching

The Reverend Steven Cholak, my dear brother and friend, in this short piece writes directly about the preaching task - that of Christ and him crucified.  He writes about the difference between preaching merely about Christ and actually handing him over freely to the sinner who seeks the forgiveness of sins.  I have received his permission to post this short piece he wrote in April of 2008.  Thank you Reverend Cholak!  

"God Speak" by Rev. Steven Cholak

I expect to be soaking in the blood of Jesus when the preacher says, “Amen.” That bright red river of life from the cross of Calvary makes the robes of God’s people white like snow. The professors at Concordia Theological Seminary would say that a sermon should be a good exposition of Law and Gospel in a liturgical context. There should be Law that cuts you down and Gospel that picks you up. BUT the Gospel should always predominate. In other words, when the preacher opens his mouth – Jesus picks you up.

The preacher must give you Jesus. He shouldn’t just tell you about Jesus. He shouldn’t just mention the cross. Preachers should never tell you about telling the story. Preachers are called to preach the Christ. They are called out of darkness to proclaim light and life into this dark and dead world. Preachers do that by preaching Jesus to your person.

Pastors bring the forgiveness of sins from the cross and wrap you with it, like a warm blanket on a cold, winter’s night. They take his blood and wash you with it. Like a mother after you’ve played in the mud, a pastor scrubs you clean (even behind the ears) with Christ’s blood. They do it because only that blood can take away your sins. They are faithful to this call because God resurrects the sinner from his watery grave and gives him new life.

How does God do it? He does it by opening the mouths of preachers, and then soaking you in his Son’s blood. He does it by opening your mouth and pouring that blood down your throat. He does it through weak and sinful men. He does it through your pastor. Expect to be soaking in Christ’s blood when the pastor says, “Amen.” Expect to be alive because Christ has wrapped you with his love and breathed new life into your ears. Not only should you expect it, you should demand it. It is your heritage. It is God’s good gift. AND…it’s yours.

Pastor Gutz along with the nice folks from Immanuel Lutheran Church in Salisbury, MO

(picture taken at DOXOLOGY - Saint Benedict Center in Schuyler NE)

O Lord, How Shall I Meet You

"And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves...stay awake at all times, praying that you have the strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."

The season of advent is about waiting.  Something which is not our most highly prized virtue.  Waiting is a fine art that our impatient age has all but forgotten.  We want things now.  And the means to have them now.  And we want things on our time table – our schedule.  In the words of one popular preacher, we want “Our best life now.”  Or as the popular phrase goes “live in the now.”   

Yet, the Lord God, the ruler of the roaring sea and waves, though He can create instantaneously, He desires time.  Time and waiting is good.  Our Lord uses the waiting of time to create and recreate.  On the fourth day of creation God set the sun, moon, and stars in place.  They mark the time of the day and the seasons.  The fallen and brittle leaves on the ground skip in the cold breeze waiting to be ground into the hard earth.  Each sunset and cold, dark winter night is a sign of a looming end – a reminder of death – for from dust we come and to dust we return.  And every sunrise reminds us of a calling to new life, as we see the glistening lighted beams of the resurrection.                   

The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul and poor in spirit. Celebrating advent is for those who mourn and thirst for righteousness.  It is for those who are imperfect and confess, I a poor sinner.  It is for children who long for the togetherness of family and the comfort that it brings.  It is for those who long for what is good and true and wholesome.  It is for those who long for home.  

The greatest and most delicate joys on earth involve waiting.  We wait for an end to war and the distress among the nations.  We wait for fruit to ripen on our kitchen countertops.  We wait to hear the singing voices of the children at St. Paul’s.

Who has not felt the emotional anticipation of waiting to be loved by another, or kissed by another?  This waiting and anticipation grows and blossoms and from it sprouts immeasurable joys.  The bonds of love are solidified and spoken to each other always in anticipations of hearing the other, “do you love me?”  We wait for great things. 

Who has not waited to be healed from an illness?  Who has looked upon their own body - your own bones and joints - with its weaknesses and chronic pains and hoped for release?  Who here agonizes over the death of a loved one?  Who here wakes up in the night with a sense of dark emptiness or confusion?

         

We wait for great things.  We wait for receiving that which has been lost to us.  And we wait for the one who promises to give to us.  Christians live in a ‘now but not yet’ reality.  We live in confidence concerning that which we receive: Holy Baptism, forgiveness, and eternal love between God our Father and His whole creation.  Our “not yet” is the longing that comes in between.    

Our “not yet” is the waiting.  Our “not yet” is the tears and searching.  Our not yet is homelessness and hunger.  The “not yet” is violence and neglect.  It is terrorism, economic depression, disease and loneliness.  It is a multitude of questions that we cannot find ready answers for. It is the roaring of the sea and the waves which crash over the Christian church.  The roaring of gossip and confusion that often wreaks havoc upon all believers…It is the fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world….For our Lord says that the powers of heaven will be shaken.   

                

As we minister to one another in Christian love, we ought know that we cannot ultimately fix a dying and aging world.  As we attend to the “not yet” of creation and minister to the muffled cries of the needy we meet with the living God himself in Jesus Christ.  Jesus comes in a familiar face.  He comes as neighbor and as brother.  In the advent of Christ – in His coming – he ties us together as brothers and sisters – this is the advent message.     

Soon we will hear the angels sing.  Now, that is, but not yet - Soon.  All that has been fallen will be lifted up.  And all that has been lost will be restored to you in full.  The crashing waves and roaring of the sea will be stilled by a child.  

                        

When the Son of Man comes in a cloud with power and great glory to judge the nations, how shall we meet him?  Our Lord tells us in His Gospel today, “stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man." 

Today we stand in hope and expectation of Advent - that God has come and is coming as He has promised.  We are called to stay awake and be ready.  We are made ready only by Christ’s coming to us.  And by awakening to His coming we may rest secure.  Glory to God in the Highest and Peace to His people on earth.      

 

Let us learn how to wait together!  O glorious Sun, now come, Send forth Your beams so cheering.  Come quickly Lord Jesus.  In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

I have written about Advent and Christmas Hymns HERE.

Pops, Uncle Charlie, and myself

The Good Shepherd Institute Conference on J.S. Bach

Last Monday I attended the Good Shepherd Institute’s conference on “Bach in Today’s Parish” at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, IN.  Among the addresses I heard, the one by Dr. Uwe Simeon-Netto stood out as a brilliant and touching account of a life narrated by the Art of Fugue, sacred cantatas and Passion works by Johann Sebastian.  Dr. Uwe Simeon-Netto recounts a childhood memory of Bach between the air raids in wartime Germany:

“From that very moment I heard the Art of Fugue at home, the opening bars of its Contrapunctus One returned to my inner ear virtually every day – while being bombed, while fleeing from Soviet-occupied Leipzig after the War, while sitting exams at school, while feeling lovesick of covering the Vietnam War as a reporter, while suffering from a writer’s block.  O, I sang hymns in my head too, and I still do, none more often than ‘Abide with me.’  But most of all I am fixated by these fugues!  They order my mind and my soul.  In my prayers fugues join the hymns my grandmother sang into my ears during the air raids.  And this has been going on for nearly seventy years now.”

The presentation also highlights Bach as world evangelist, particularly in the East.  Netto tells story of musicologist Keisuke Maruyama who became a Christian by the studying the weekday lectionary readings as they followed Bach’s cantatas.  Maruyama, simply by being acquainted with Bach and the historic lectionary readings said to friend, “It is not enough to read the Christian texts.  I want to be a Christian myself.  Please baptize me!”

You can read the presented paper here, “The Global Importance of Bach Today.”  It is an incredibly insightful look at Bach’s musical confession of Christ crucified, and its impact across the world.  During the presentation itself I remember Dr. Netto going off his script some as relates to the sale of the Lutheran Radio station KFUO in Saint Louis, said something to the effect of “For me, I cannot separate music and my faith!”

Well, neither can I.  As we approach the Advent season of our Lord and reach the end of the church year, I am eagerly awaiting the final Gospel reading of the year, Matthew 25:1-13 (historic one year series) on The Parable of the Ten Virgins.  Sebastian wrote a sacred cantata “Wachet auf ruft uns die stimme” for this eschatological text to be heard, sung, and confessed on the “Ultimate Sunday.”  I have written a detailed analysis on this sacred cantata HERE. 

J.G. Hamann on Divine Service

"The mystery of Christian godliness does not consist of services, sacrifices and vows, which God demands on us, but of promises, fulfillments and sacrifices  which God has made for our benefit.  Again, the mystery of Christian godliness doe snot consist of the finest and greatest commandment that God has imposed, but of the supremem good that he has given us.  Once again, the mystery of Christian godliness does not consist of laws and moral teachings which merely had to do with human dispositions and actions, but of the enactment of divine decrees by means of divine acts, works and measures for the salvation of the whole world."

Johann Georg Hamann, "Golgotha und Scheblimini," in J.G. Hamann 1730-1788: A Study in Christian Existence by Ronald Gregor Smith (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960), pp. 229-230.

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.

G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936), Orthodoxy

Some Thoughts on MTV

Some viewing of MTV is helpful to keep a pulse on culture and the bizarre influences that undergird it.  MTV, however, no longer show music videos or performances, but mostly ‘reality shows’ and sophomoric documentary pieces.  Every show seems to either be about a junkie, a pornography actor, or some other sad situation.  Last week I caught part of a program called “I’m in a polyandrous relationship.”  This chronicles the lives of young people (early 20’s) being sexual with two or three or four other people.  The three people tracked in the program happened to be in homosexual polyandrous arrangements. 

I recently got in a discussion with a friend who is very much in favor of homosexual marriage.  I usually try to listen to the reasoning and justification, usually dealing with “civil rights,” “tolerance,” “discrimination,” and all the other key words.  These are the reasons why homosexual unions are to be legal and celebrated.  Because there are now also certain movements toward polygamous unions, both homosexual and heterosexual, I am curious as whether full legal “civil rights,” “tolerance,” and “understanding” should not be applied to them as well.  If marriage is not grounded in creation, given for a man and woman in holy union, why not extend civil rights to the broader communities of different lifestyles.  The same way that one may articulate and justify homosexual marriage, may as well apply to polygamy or other lifestyle arrangements.  If 3 or 4 people are committed to each other and love each other, who are we to deny them of their “rights” and be so intolerant.  Who says marriage is for a man and woman only?  And furthermore, why does it only have to be two people.  Why not three, or four, or more?  If you ask a proponent of homosexual marriage about polygamous marriage they will be unable to articulate a reason why polygmysts should not be able to enter into marriage.  For the same way to articulate homosexual marriage can easily be opted for polygamy or who knows what else.

It seems that if John Stuart Mill’ harm principle is thoroughly individualized and taken to its ultimate end - that people are sovereign and free to do what they please so long as harm is minimized, and that society must follow.  Mill writes, “That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinion of others, to do so would be wise, or even right... The only part of the conduct of anyone, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.”[1]   

I don’t think Mill ever intended for the harm principle to be so thoroughly individualized and privatized from the rest of community.  Mill, and particularly Locke, as invested in liberal freedom as they were, were still committed to classical republicanism as the vehicle for civil rights.  If we take the principle of utilitarianism, that is “greatest good” for the greatest amount of people, and consider the historical definition of marriage, even the great liberal thinkers would likely NOT be a part of the current sexual revolution (gay marriage, transgender, body mutilation, etc). 

Most all thriving civilizations naturally are governed by the impulse of utilitarianism, long before the Scottish philosopher John Stuart Mill – they didn’t need him to figure this out.  A society that desires to survive, feed their families, and ward of both external and internal threats, knows that individual liberty and survival depends upon the survival of the greater community – that cooperation, good government, and utilitarianism has its place – thus guiding and supporting individual freedom and liberty.  Animal planet on tv is pretty good presentation on all this.

What’s interesting to me however, is this: why have virtually all religions across the globe and all civilizations in one way or another strongly discouraged homosexuality?  Is Islam, Judaism, and Christianity all religions of unenlightened, ignorant, and bigoted people?  Why has marriage always been between a man and woman?  Do the conclusions of the 60’s sexual revolution serve the “greatest good…for the greatest number of people?”      

Sex of course, when exploited apart from marriage (writing on marriage here) holds neither promise nor utilitity for society, family, or self.  Every European country presently has a birthrate well below replacement level.  Generally civilizations very rarely die from war or invasion, but most always from self-suicide in a Freudian death wish - decline of civilization is always self-chosen.  Likewise, the degenerate underbelly of culture in the United States is not so much interested in a culture of health, self-sacrifice, and life.  Abortion en mass, hatred of life, decline of marriage, and birth rate all testify to this.  The increasing welfare state, and the  matriarchal role of the federal government, coupled with deviant sexually will invariably lead to a European-style cultural decline and suffocation.  Hopefully the place of family and sexuality within the order of blessed marriage will continue to the curb the adverse effects of big government and cultural decline.                   

I have written about the Ethics of Marriage and Sexuality Here.

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[1] John Stuart Mill (1859).  On Liberty. Oxford University. pp. 21-22.

Bonhoeffer on Praying the Psalms

"The psalms that will not cross our lips as prayers, those that make us falter and offend us, make us suspect that here someone else is praying, no we- that the one who is here affirming his innocence, who is calling for God's judgment, who has come to such infinite depths of suffering, is none other that Jesus Christ himself.  It is he who is praying here, and not only here, but in the whole Psalter.  The New Testament and the church have always recognized and testified to this truth.  The human Jesus Christ to whom no affliction, no illness, no suffering is unknown, and who yet was the wholly innocent and righteous one, is praying in the Psalter through the mouth of the congregation.  The Psalter is the prayer book of Jesus Christ in the truest sense of the word.  He prayed the Psalter, and now it has become his prayer for all time...Jesus Christ prays the Psalter in his congregation.  His congregation prays too, and even the individual prays.  But they pray only insofar as Christ prays within them; they pray here not in their own name, but in the name of Jesus Christ..."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in "The Day Together"

Pastor Anderson of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church and School of Chicago, pictured with Lutheran comfort dog 'Tilly.'

The Righteousness of God

"But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed" (Romans 3:21a).

Over 500 years ago a young man was on horseback on the German country side.  It was dark and raining heavily, as the horse panted – heavily sloshing through the muddy path.  The young man was seeking to reach his university after a trip home to see his parents. 

This night the darkness loomed and a thunderstorm broke out and the horse began to gallop and splash through the slippery mud.  All of a sudden there was a loud crash and a lightning bolt struck near this traveler, throwing him off of his horse.

 He was so frightened and terrified of the righteous judgment of God who loomed darkly in the night, he cried out, "Help! Saint Anne, I will become a monk!"  He left law school, where he was studying to become a lawyer.  He sold his books, and entered a closed Augustinian monastery in Erfurt, Germany on July 7th 1505. 

This newly robed young monk dedicated himself to monastic life, devoting himself to fasting, long hours in prayer, and frequent confession.  He would later remark, "If anyone could have gained heaven as a monk, then I would indeed have been among them." 

He described this period of his life as one of deep spiritual despair. He said, "I lost touch with Christ the Savior and Comforter, and made of him the jailor and hangman of my poor soul."  He feared the righteous judge.

This man is Martin Luther, the future reformer of the church.  For brother Martin, it was the righteousness of God that completely terrified him to no end.  It is precisely God’s righteousness and holiness that made him so so frightening.  It was for this reason that the young Luther joined the Augustinian order, and entered the monastery. 

He prayed without ceasing with the monks, diligently attended to his duties.  He scrubbed the floors and put all his energy and will into every task, whether great or small.  It was the young Luther’s great hope to seek holiness and righteousness – to dedicate himself to God.  To stand before God as a good monk.  To be holy and righteous in the sight of God through his personal discipline and sheer will.

Yet, the harder he worked and strived for righteousness the worse things became for him.  He felt the burning gaze and hammer of God as the righteous judge, breathing down his back, demanding perfect obedience from him. 

The more Luther sought to attain the righteousness of God – the more he sought to fulfill the law – the condemnation of the righteous judge became louder and louder. By seeking the law he ran headfirst into Satan himself, who accused him day and night, throwing his sins and failures into his face. 

Our Scripture reading for today says, “Because the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.”  That is, the more we know of God’s revelation of the law the more we realize that we are sinners.  When we speak about God’s law, we are not simply talking about the 10 Commandments. 

We experience the law every day when we are pressed in and squeezed by the pressures and powers of this world, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  We are constricted, assaulted, and overwhelmed by the attacks of the law. 

The law says this, “You are a poor mother, and you are a wretched father.  Just look at you.  Look how you have misled your children.  Look at the mess you have made.  And you call yourselves Christians!” 

Or the law may say to the young, “You are a hypocrite, you have strayed from the church.  You have not lived up to the expectations of your parents or God’s expectations!  You have fallen short.  You are a disgrace and unworthy of anything!”  This voice will always tell you that you are insufficient and that grace does not really apply to you.

This is the same voice that terrified the young monk, Martin Luther.  It is the voice that causes endless anxiety, for we experience God as an angry and righteous judge – not as a merciful Father – not as “Our Father.”  We live life and experience it as if we had no loving Father at all.  And when we do consider God’s presence, we see him with all his holiness and all his righteousness.  Then we see ourselves, our sinning selves, and feel that God is forever disappointed in us.

The breakthrough of the Reformation and the brilliance of Martin Luther is that the radical nature of the Gospel was rediscovered; in its truth and purity.  Luther found that God was not angry with him, but rather that He was angry at God! For he discovered in our reading today, that God’s righteousness is made manifest in Jesus Christ alone, as a pure gift, apart from the works and condemnation of the law. 

Hear this Word of comfort.  Peace be to you from Jesus Christ our Lord.  Be comforted and let go of the frivolous anxieties of this earthly life.  Be still and let our Lord remove from you all guilt and shame.  You do not have to “get right with God.”  Rather, “God has gotten it right for you” by becoming the guilty one, bearing your shame to His death.  The righteousness of God through faith means that God gives you righteousness, gives you himself, and gives you the faith to believe. 

Yes, in faith you may claim the righteousness of God as if it were your own.  This is the the breakthrough of Martin Luther and the Reformation - which directs us away from ourselves and toward Jesus Christ, whom releases us from the tyranny and power of the demanding law.   

Dearest Christians, be comforted.  God declares you righteous and blessed as His children.  Cast off your worries and fears.  Be still from the anxieties about what is and what is to come.  Be still and do not worry about all the expectations and demands heaped up upon you.  And do not listen to that angry judge anymore, who accuses you.   Jesus the Son of God, has revealed the Father’s tender and merciful heart.  He has no judgment left for you.  He’s judged, the deed I done.  One little Word can fell him.  Jesus Christ it is.

Rejoicing today on Reformation Weekend does not hearken us back to Martin Luther in 1517 posting the 95 theses to those wooden castle church doors in Wittenberg, Germany.  Reformation Sunday is not about potlucks, green bean casserole, or nostalgic thoughts about the Lutheran church in a prior era.  It is not German heritage day. 

Dr. Luther and the Reformers did not point to themselves but to Christ Jesus alone.  Jesus in preaching - Jesus in the Lord’s Supper - Jesus in the forgiveness of sins, Jesus baptizing his Christian church, and Jesus resurrected our bodies to live in perfect love and harmony. 

And today, Jesus the Son of the living God speaks to us and declares us righteous in His sight.  He speaks the final judgment day today – on this morning.  Forgiveness and eternal life. 

Listen to Him. For this is the God that Luther desired to finally cling to, as does the whole Christian church. The righteousness of faith – the righteousness of God - is received as a precious gift.  Not by your faith, but by the faith given to you, marked on your forehead, and planted in your ears.  It is eaten and drunk at this altar, along with the whole Christian church on earth, and also in the heavenly places. 

The righteousness of God is draped over you, as a Father clothes his child in a warm blanket.  Every sin has been passed over and removed as far as the east is from the west.  He who has ears let him hear.  Open your hand and your mouths and receive Jesus.  He has declared you righteous and holy.  In Jesus+ Name.  Amen.

We need more boys choirs in our churches! This hymn excellent!

Celebration of Reformation Hymn "Dear Christians.." (part I)

       1.  Dear Christians, one and all, rejoice,

           With exultation springing,

           And, with united heart and voice,

           And holy rapture singing,

           Proclaim the wonders God hath done,

           How His right arm the victory won;

           Right dearly it hath cost him.

There is no better way to greet each other than to address one another as “Dear Christian.”  Before I am Michael or “vicar” I am first a Christian.  It is the name that precedes any other name, “But You are He who took Me out of the womb” (Ps. 22:9).  For we bear the name of Christ and in faith are called to be “little Christs” to one another.  To greet one another with the name of Christ is to acknowledge that we exist, move, and have our being in one body.  Christians in the community of church may as well say “bone of my bone” and “flesh of my flesh” for we have our origin in the person and work of Jesus who weds himself to the church. 

The first stanza of this hymn works as a doxological opening to the larger narrative of the hymn.  This follows the common structure of the book of Psalms by opening with a celebration and remembrance of God’s work.  The pleas, petitions, and laments flow forth from the invocation of God’s action in man – the sacrifice and the victory won.  The “cost” and victory of God’s right arm is the Christ event. 

       2.  Fast bound in Satan's chains I lay.

           Death brooded darkly o'er me.

           Sin was my torment night and day.

           In sin my mother bore me.

           Yea, deep and deeper still I fell.

           Life had become a living hell,

           So firmly sin possessed me.

The second stanza plunges headfirst into story of captivity from birth.  This narrative stands in opposition to the broadly held assumption of the Enlightenment led by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whom asserted that man is indeed free from birth so long as he is born in a “state of nature.”  The idea of the noble savage is that man is pure and good in nature, and that the blame for brokenness and war rests only in the dysfunction of society, arising from the less enlightened.  Rousseau, himself a Calvinist, repudiated the idea of original sin, writing in his famous novel Emile, "there is no original perversity in the human heart." 

Luther however, in this hymn of liberation begins from the starting point of bondage, rather than freedom.  After Luther’s doxological praise in the first stanza, he brings the hymn into a confession of the ravages of sin, death, and the devil.  There is no greater image for sin and hell than that of “being curved in on one’s self (incurvatus est).”  This torment, this “deep falling,” and “living hell,” are consequences of the inner dialogue of the law, being about by all sides.  It is the great paradox that the more one tries to become holy apart from God’s gift, the greater one falls into captivity.  The desire to ascend to the holy heights of Zion, when sought apart from God’s complete giving, hurls one into despair and hell.  This was the desire of the fallen angels, Lucifer, the devil himself.  It was the desire of Adam and Eve in the garden.  It is the desire of every human heart and the religious ego to carve out holiness and divinity for himself, to be something more than a child of God – something more than creature – something more than the crown of creation, which of course if absurd.             

       3.  My own good works availed me naught,

           No merit they attaining.

           Free will against God's judgment fought,

           Dead to all good remaining.

           My fears increased till sheer despair

           Left naught but death to be my share.

           The pains of hell I suffered.

One’s “own good works” and free will work in contradiction to the God, whom as Oswald Bayer observes is “categorically the one who gives.”  The good works and free will that proceed as a self-willed anthropocentric salvific activity are themselves damning and oppose the giving God who desires to be the one whom works and wills, “For I will surely save you” (Jer. 39:18).  Nevertheless, human free will, is not only neutral or opposed to God’s lavish giving but fights actively against it.  Certainly we see this most lucidly in the life of the early Luther, whose anfechtung increased in direct relation to his desire to turn God’s wrath away and merit one iota of divine favor and approval. 

This falling, fear, and pains of hell sung and confessed here is not outside of God's work or mercy but is a necessary and proper work that He carries out.  It is in mercy that He hinders and frustrates our heavenly ascent that he may descend in heavenly Word and Supper to raise us to life.  The only true comfort to the terrified conscience is found here, when the human heart as “actor” and “doer” is put to rest that God may work in us, “all you who are weary and heavy and burdened and I will give you rest.”  Our Lord is speaking about the burden of the law, the demonic judgment and oppression of human work and expectation that seeks to procure a peace for itself.  The greatest tragedies, events of human cruelty and holocausts proceed from the desire for a manufactured utopian peace – zealous endevour to bring heaven to earth apart from Christ’s incarnation.  The common phrase, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” is therefore biblically and experientially rich and true. 


I have written about The Distinctive Nature of Lutheran Hymnody Here. 

Reformation Day is Coming

(Doors at Castle Church at Wittenberg where 95 Theses were posted by the blessed Dr. Luther)

When Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the doors at the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, he likely did know that storm that would be released upon the rest of the country and the whole world.  A simple monk refuted the use of indulgences and confessed that Christians are saved and brought into the Gospel through the merits of Jesus Christ alone; apart from works, apart from money in the coffers, apart from the Pope in Rome, and apart from human traditions. 

Luther confessed amidst the threat of death and torture that we are justified freely – that is declared righteous by God in heaven through the mediation and work of Jesus.  We confess that the fullness of God became man to suffer for our sins, to be tortured and die by Roman torture.  He suffers hell for us, drinking the bitter cup of God’s wrath in the wine at the cross.  He rises on the third day and ascends to heaven that he may be with his church in the His continuing ministry.  He gives His gifts to us freely without our work.  That is it. Plain and simple. 

A few years after Luther posted his 95, the reformation claimed it first martyrs, Johann Esch and Henrich Voes.  The two monks were burned at the stake in Brussels for confessing the salvation by grace through faith alone.  They refused to recant the simple and pure Gospel given to them.  Luther wrote a 12 stanza ballad to commemorate the young men, with the title “A New Song Shall Now Be Begun (1523).”  Here is the first stanza:

“A new song now shall be begun,

Lord, help us raise the banner

Of praise for all that God has done,

For which we give Him honor.

At Brussels in the Netherlands

God proved himself most truthful

And poured his gifts from open hands

On two lads, martyrs youthful

Through who He showed His power.”

It is ever so alluring to sit back and insist that the Reformation has been wildly successful and that all is well.  We think of the Lutheran reformation as an old medieval battle, and now that it has taken place we ought to move on to other things.  The empire no longer outright kills those outside of the Roman church, but the devil continues in his assault against the pure and simple truth of the gospel.  He just will not let it be.  The fight continues.

God’s very essence is one of giving.  The Trinitarian relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost exists and works as one that gives, providing with all we need to support this body and life, defending from all danger, guarding and protecting from all evil.  He does all this only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy.

 

All false teaching and heresy proceeds from a depreciated confession of God’s work and an inflated opinion on man’s work.  Calvinists combat synergism by stressing “monergism,” which is quite deficient given the limited atonement.  Lutheran laymen and philosopher, Johann Georg Hamann (1730-1788) preferred working with the theme “divine condescension” contra Immanuel Kant’s autonomy.   

Looking forward to Reformation celebrations…             

The Truth Shall Make You Free

"If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32). 

The starting point of human freedom is to confess that we are in bondage and cannot deliver ourselves.  We do not come to church because we ‘have it all together.’  We come to church because things have ‘fallen apart’ and we are incapable of repairing all that which is fallen and not quite right.  We are a community that laments.  Laments our bondage, and laments our brokenness.  A community that laments wars, and rumors of wars.

We are a community threatened by falsehoods and half truths.  We are a people surrounded by false religions, man-made philosophies, and false messiahs, all delivering their own version of good news - their own gospel. 

In Exodus we read that “The children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.  And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob” (Ex. 2:23-24).

We also sigh and groan in our captivity.   

The bondage of moral relativism says, “Well, truth is subjective! What may be your truth is not my truth…Jesus may work for you but crystals and Buddhist meditation works for me!”       

Therefore truth, for the modern age, is not an objective reality, but rather formed by a single person’s personal taste and desires.  The modern age, opens up the possibility and facilitates the ultimate quest to form our own personal religion, to support our lifestyle, and perceived wants and desires.   

The bondage of the sexual revolution says, “If it feels good, do it.  I need to do what makes me happy.”  We live in a time when marriages are dissolved simply because one party “is no longer happy…and does not feel fulfilled.”  After all, it is “my life” and “my body.”  I can do whatever I like.  These are the lies that threaten to consume us all. 

The greatest truth claim is that we are all autonomous.  That is that we are “a law unto ourselves…a truth unto ourselves.”  That we can determine our own rules, our own truth, and our own religion.  These truths are lies and are destructive of faith. 

But what is truth?  Is it an idea?  A feeling or state of mind?  Is truth a philosophy?  Is the truth a set of teachings?  Is truth mere knowledge?  Is it only that which can be proved scientifically verified, through a careful empirical process? Are there many truths…which are all equally true?

Jesus, speaking to His followers says, “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”  Jesus is talking about himself.  He is the truth - the truth and Word of God made flesh.  Truth is not an abstract principle.  Nor is it an idea or philosophy.  Truth is this and this only:

The fullness of God became man and was born to the Virgin Mary.  God invaded our world to speak mercy and to deliver us from our bondage.  This Jesus, the alpha and omega, the beginning and end, speaks our bodies into existence.  Who preserves us in body and soul to life everlasting.  There is no higher expression of truth that this: “I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” 

Jesus is the truth, and therefore, the truth is a person – a man.  The only truth that truly matters.  For he holds the heavens and the earth together by His very breath.  He is the architect and artist of creation.  All truth consists in and of him.  He is the sum and substance of truth. 

To deny the truth of Jesus is to deny ourselves and to deny the existence of the whole created world.  And we can only understand the modern world when we are sanctified in His truth, enlightened with his gifts, and called by the power of the Gospel. 

He is the truth that breaks free from the tomb and destroys all the power of the great, ancient liar, the old deceiver, and the father of lies.   This truth sets us free.  Frees us from the old lies.  Frees us from willful disobedience.  Frees us from all the deceptions, lies, and promiscuity of the modern age.

Though there may be bondage to sin, God has broken in with his truth and ravaged the powers of sin, death, and the devil.  Though they may afflict us and give us the voice and sigh of lament, they have lost their power.     

He frees us by the power of forgiveness and new life to live in holy obedience.  To live and walk in His truth.  The truth that sets us free is Jesus on the altar.  Jesus in the font.  And Jesus in the pulpit.  We hear the truth in our ears and chew on it with our teeth.  We taste truth in the sweetness of the wine and drink a promise that fulfills itself today.  You are free.

This is the promise that is more real and true than anything else.  It is the truth that dries every tear and heals every broken heart.  To have truth is to hear Jesus and to receive His gifts.  This is it.  This is the foolishness of the Gospel and confuses the world.  It is the truth of Christ and the church throughout all ages.  It is the truth of the Lutheran reformation.  And it is the truth that is confessed as Saint Paul’s in Melrose Park.  We celebrate it today, in the years to come, and will do the same gathered around Christ’s table in heaven.  In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Enjoyed a craw fish boil a couple weeks ago with some fine friends

"The 'I am thine and thou art mine, and the foe shall not part us' must be the basic tone of every evangelical sermon.  Every sermon, if not totally, at least in one place, should contain the total, authentic, and deeply experienced salvation in Christ...the whole soul should be filled with one subject" (The Theology of Facts Versus the Theology of Rhetoric by August Friedrich Christian Vilmar, p. 119).

Pastor Cornwell and I visited nearby grave site of Alphonse Capone

Wilhelm Loehe on Liturgical Freedom

"We must beware of misusing our liturgical freedom to produce new liturgies.  One should rather use the old forms and learn to understand and have a feeling for them before one feels oneself competent to create something new and better.  He who has not tested the old cannot create something new.  It is a shame when everybody presumes to form his own opinions about hymns and liturgy without having thoroughly looked into the matter.  Let a man first learn in silence and not act as if it were a matter of course that he understands everything!  Once a man has learned from the old he can profitably use the developments of recent times (in language and methods of speech) for the benefit of the liturgy" (3 Books on Church 178).

I recently visited Buddy Guys Blues Bar in Chicago.  I took this picture during the drum solo.  Great blues and lots of pool tables.  I liked it and will hopefully go again!

Homily on Mark 10:2-16

""But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Mk. 10:6-9)

In the name of Jesus.  Amen.  When the Pharisees come to Jesus with their vicious and lying lips to trick him, our Lord does not indulge them.  In our own similar debates with God he is infinitely merciful.  He speaks His Gospel, “From the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female…the two shall become one flesh; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.’  

The Pharisees as spiritual deaf, dumb, and blind corpses in an old demonic debate – seek to separate God’s gift from its giver.  To pervert that gift, to hoard it and make the gift into their own fallen image: a scene of adultery, fornication, lies, and excuses.  

God is a man who does not divorce His bride.  Though he becomes flesh and blood like us…tempted and afflicted like us – suffers like us – he does not once entertain the idea of divorce or separating from us.  He is incapable of it.  In this way He is not like us.  He is bound up in His promise…I do…unto death…

In the sleep of crucifixion death, God forms His bride from the new Adam who never took his eyes off of his beloved.  And from his pierced side He spills out the heavenly flood of water and the drink of immortal life in his blood.  He covers the lying and deceitful lips of the Pharisees.  He covers our shame from the sins of our youth.  He quiets our troubled hearts and reclaims them by showing the loving heart of the Father, who sends the son, “Go bright Jewel of My crown…from sin and sorrow set them free”  

   

He cannot take his eyes off of you.  He says “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh!”  Now His love is not like ours.  He does not choose you as His beloved because of your faith or religious convictions.  He does not find those whom are pleasing to him.  He creates them.  He forms His beloved church – covers your imperfections with his holy perfection.  

He does not call it quits when the times get tough – in the bitter agony of death. He rebukes the devil, for a divorce certificate, “Father deliver us from evil…your will be done..forgive them Father”  Our Lord’s will is to suffer for your sins and shame…He marries His bride at the moment of the cross in which mercy flows through all eternity.  What God has joined together let not man separate. 

In this Holy Supper, Jesus Christ speaks the Last Day today, and in His body joyfully presides at the wedding banquet - distributing and lavishing His gifts on us saying “Take eat…take drink…all this is for you…for the forgiveness of sins…let nothing separate us.”      

As Ezekiel recounts the Lord's love toward Israel...we see the new promise in Christ opened up to us...              

  

And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' I said to you in your blood, 'Live!'  I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare. When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine. (Ez 16:6-8)

In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

Wilhelm Loehe on Doctrine in the Life of the Church

Concerning the Lutheran Confessions in the life of the Church, Wilhelm Loehe (1808-1872) writes:




Perhaps one could also say that the reformation of doctrine has taken place; but the church still does not rejoice in the riches of her pure doctrine as she should, and does not sense the significance which this gives her.  She still feels as if she were only tolerated, as if she lived by the grace of men.  She does not know that she has a letter of emancipation from God to live openly and freely by His grace and her faith and to make the whole world happy through her riches.  She does not recognize that, after she became the pure church, she became preeminently heir of all divine promises.  She still think of herself too much as mere dogma, too little as a person; she is too little conscious of herself, her grace, her worth, her powers.  In ecclesiastical consciousness, life, and work she is a long way from being again what the pure church of the first centuries was!  Here a reformation if still needed! (Carl S. Meyer, Moving Frontiers: Readings in the History of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, 70).   

Follow me to Jerusalem

Mark 10:17-22
“And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and  knelt before him and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him,"Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.  You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.'" And he said to him, "Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth." And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions” (Mark 10:17-22)


We know these commandments.  We have heard them many times.  You know the commandments.  Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do no bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.  It sounds easy.  It sounds like a manageable set of instructions.  We’ve heard them in catechism class.  And we do ok.  We are decent enough people. 


We’re probably doing fine.  We’re not murderers or adulterers.  We’re not thieves who steal.  We are not frauds.  And we treat our parents all right.  Good enough anyways.  We are church go-ers – the moral majority – we have it together.  We are good people.   


The rich young man says “but teacher all these commandments I have kept from my youth.”  He has done well enough.  This rich young man is good person.  He is a moral person.  He has a good reputation.  He’s well respected and professional.  He’s kind to his parents.  Doesn’t murder.  Doesn’t steal.  He probably supports or votes for the right political party.  He has everything right.      


The rich young man is looking for self-affirmation.  He is looking for a self help and positive thinking.  Likewise, we want to worship in a way that makes us feel like we are doing ok.  We want to worship so that we may be self-affirmed and self-justified.  We want approval from God about our lifestyle, and spiritual progress.  Like the rich man I may want God to say, “Yes Vicar Larson, you have done well enough, job well done, you’re a good fellow…”


Even if I somehow deceive myself to think this.  I am lying to myself.  We know the commandments.  Do not murder is the first one mentioned here by our Lord.  Goodness gracious, how often have we neglected those calling out in the darkness, all around us, even family even friends?  Failed to support them in every physical need?  Neglected praying for them, asking that God deliver them from whatever ails them?  How many times have we turned from the oppressed and the needy?  How many times have our hearts been hardened toward a fellow Christian, or any person for that matter?  How many times have we murdered in our hearts?  If we could see the carnage it would shock us.  Bodies strewn about as far as the eye can see.  
  
How many times have we closed our eyes or ears to silent pleas for mercy all around us?  Small, barely audible calls for help we have failed to hear or anticipate.  And failed to meet them in their deep and desperate need.  How many times have we crucified a neighbor, by violently lacerating them with our tongues, hurting their reputation, refusing to the put the best construction on things?  As Pastor Johnson preached a few weeks ago, our tongues start blazing fires of destruction and slaughter.    

Yet the law condemns. It does not comfort, or confirm any semblance of peace. These commandments break us.  And this is only one of the commands.  And we know from the Word of our Lord that if we break one we have violated and rebelled against them all.  They dash us to pieces.  They are not encouraging or inspiring, or helpful suggestions to live a better life.  They do not help the rich young man.    

The tablets of Moses will not save us.  They expose us and shame us.  They strip us naked before God.  They expose the Rich Young Man.  They expose his obsession with his personal possessions and his misplaced trust in his own self-righteousness.  He is left naked with his sin.     

Even in our self-righteousness when we cover ourselves up with the fig leaves, Jesus does not scoff at us or become frustrated.  He is deeply moved in his very body to call us to repentance and to spill out mercy.  

In our text for today, after the rich young man insists on his obedience to the Ten Commandments, we read that “Jesus looked at him, and loved him.”  The Greek word in the text for love is “agape.”  This word would does not suggest the mere feeling of love but an action – an event – an exchange of love completely consuming – a love withholding nothing – a love that is poured out – for all – especially for this young rich man.   


Jesus looking at His Church desiring her says, “leave these things that you cling to and cling to me alone.  I am the Good Shepherd.”  Jesus has one message for the self-righteous young rich man.  Leave your idols and FOLLOW ME.  Often times in the church this passage has been used to support a radical sort of discipleship.  A sort of false discipleship that suggests we go on some sort of super religious quest, in turn leaving our vocations, our callings, and abandoning our station in life to run after some spiritual quest or cause.  However, Jesus asks none of this.


He calls us to be near, saying “follow me.” In Mark’s Gospel Jesus is constantly moving, casting out demons, healing diseases, teaching among the people, praying and singing psalms.  But he is moving.  Constantly moving. And he is asking all of creation to follow him.  Jesus is moving in one direction to fulfill the scriptures.  He is moving toward Jerusalem.    

And by the sending of the Holy Spirit he takes us along for the journey.  He carries us to the waters of heaven in the arms of family or friends.  We are dipped in the promise of holy baptism. "Follow me," he says.  Go to where I am going.  I am going to make all things new. Our Lord invites us into a precious death.  He desires that we follow him.  That is, be present at the places where he promises to be.  Through the new life of baptism, through the hearing of His Word, through the singing of His hymns, and the feasting on the Supper of immortal life. 


The old world of disobedience is drowned to death.  The self-righteous old adam and old eve is put to death.  The self-righteous rich man in all of us is put to death and is buried in the crucifixion of Jesus.  This Jesus who became a curse for us, though it was He who was the only obedient one.  And he loved His heavenly father and loved his creation with a perfect love.  He was the obedient one unto death.



And in His gift to us we receive all that is his.  His holiness and righteousness is given to us as a gift.  So that when we are resurrected and are dressed and clothed in His holy gospel, God our Father says to you, “You are my dear son…You are my dear daughter with whom I am well pleased.”  

He does not see our self-righteousness, or arrogance, or adultery and sexual sin.  He does not see our drunkenness.  He does not hear the lies we told, nor does he hear our slandering lips laying waste to our neighbor.  He does not see our worst sins the plague off day and night.  Even those horrible ones that we think have cast him off forever.  He cannot leave you.  He has bound himself to you, as we heard in last weeks sermon.  For he says “at last bone of by bone and flesh of my flesh!”  

He sees that Jesus has made a follower of you.  Not by what you have done, but because who you are.  You are a follower because you have been shepherded by the Good Teacher, who fulfilled the commandments which we did not.

You have followed because Jesus has looked at you and loved you.  A perfect disciple before God in heaven because each and every sin is blotted out by the blood of his son.  And he sees Jesus in you and for you…and sees your good deeds and holy obedience for which you will be greatly rewarded in this life and in the life to come.  In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

Hilarious

Sermon for St. Michael's and All Angels

29 September 2009 – Holy Mass 7pm – Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church

Fr. Gary W. Schultz

Only do not Thou forsake me, for if I am left to myself, I will surely bring it all to destruction.

In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
See that you do not despise one of these little ones.  For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.
      We confess in the Nicene Creed that we believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible.  In the Church, we recognize many days throughout the year for the work of the saints.  Not all saints are human.  We are surrounded by a great invisible host of Our Lord’s creation in the order of angels, His holy messengers.  This day is set aside in the church to commemorate the work of angels and especially of St. Michael the Archangel.
      There are lots of false teachings concerning angels.  Some are so obsessed with angels that they make them into something that they’re not.  You don’t become an angel in heaven, nor are our loved ones departed in the Faith floating around as angels.  Angels are not bare-bottomed babies or feminine fairies.  Angels are described as mighty warriors who serve Our Lord and protect and defend His church.
      There is also the tendency to dismiss the work of angels altogether, to think that educated and sophisticated people in the twenty-first century are above such silly myths.
      Angels, however, are throughout the Scriptures and are present throughout the events of Christ’s life.  It was the Angel Gabriel who brought the message of the Holy Ghost to the Blessed Virgin Mary that conceived Our Lord in her womb.  The host of angels sang praises at Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem: Glory be to God on high, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.  Angels attended Our Lord after His temptation in the wilderness.  At the resurrection, angels were present at the tomb.
      Today’s Gospel tells us of our need for the ministry of angels.  Jesus said, Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”  Angels defend God’s “little ones,” His Christians, like you.
      The Christian Faith is a child-like trust in Jesus and His work.  It is not naive or uninformed.  But it is a Faith that believes because Jesus says so.  It is faith that forgets human reason, our desire for control and power, and forgets about how things “seem” in the world.
      See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.  We are the little ones, who are protected by Our Lord’s angels.
      The Christian life is not easy.  The devil, the world, and our own flesh promise to make it difficult.  Life for a Christian in this world is a battlefield.  Satan and his demons work with all their might to attack Christians, to drive them away from the Faith.  It always is his aim and pride, Thy Christian people to divide.  Satan prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking whom He may devour.  He seeks to destroy your Faith, the Holy Christian Church, and this parish.
      The reality of the battle is taught by Luther.  In the catechism, the core of the Christian Faith, he teaches that we are to pray each morning and each evening: Let Thy holy angels be with me, that the wicked foe may have no power over me.  Or as the Church prays at bedtime prayer: Visit, we beseech Thee, O Lord, this habitation, and drive far from it all snares of the enemy.  Let Thy holy angels dwell herein to preserve it in peace and let Thy blessing be always upon us.
      But watchful is the angel band / That follows Christ on every hand / To guard His people where they go / And break the council of the foe. (TLH 254:7)
      What are the weapons in this battle? Satan and his demons fight with words – lies, half-truths, and deception.  They speak words of accusation: “How could you be forgiven after what you’ve done?  Do you think God could forgive you?”  Or words of temptation: “Did God really say, You may not eat from any tree in the garden.  You will not surely die.  Doesn’t God want you to be happy?  Why don’t you just do whatever would give you pleasure, and get whatever your flesh desires, and put yourself ahead for once.”
      What do the angels fight with?  As we sang in the Introit: Bless the Lord, ye His angels, that excel in strength: that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His Word.  They fight with the Word of truth – not just any true statements, but with Jesus Himself – the Word of God in the flesh, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  They fight with the Word of God, who created them.  The Word knit together in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Word who was tempted by Satan for us, the Word who touched death to defeat it, the Word who went to the cross for the payment for sin, the Word who rose from the tomb to crush the ancient serpent’s head.
      They fight with the Word, who comes to us this day in His Holy Body and Blood.  We join in this saving meal with the angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven, singingHoly, Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth, that is, Lord God of angel armies!


      Dear Christian, God hath given His angels charge over thee: to keep thee in all thy ways 
      For this, now and in days to be, / Our praise shall rise, O Lord, to Thee, / Whom all the angel hosts adore, / With grateful songs forevermore. (TLH 254:8)


In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

is Christianity a Western Religion?

Bonhoeffer on Suffering

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in "The Cost of Discipleship..."

“The cross…is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ…The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die…It is the same death every time – death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man…Only the man who is dead to his own will can follow Christ. In fact, every command of Jesus is a call to die, with all our affections and lusts. But we do not want to die, and therefore Jesus Christ and…the baptism in the name of Christ means both death and life…Baptism sets the Christian in the middle of the daily arena against sin and the devil…The wounds and scars he receives in the fray are living tokens of this participation in the cross of his Lord…While it is true that only the sufferings of Christ are a means of atonement, yet since has suffered for and borne the sins of the whole world and shares with his disciples the fruits of his passion, the Christian also has to bear the sins of others…but he would certainly break down under this burden, but for the support of him who bore the sins of all. The passion of Christ strengthens him to overcome the sins of others buy forgiving them. He becomes the bearer of other men’s burdens – “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2). As Christ bears our burdens, so ought we to bear the burdens of our fellow-men. The law of Christ…is the bearing of the cross. My brother’s burden which I must bear is not only his outward lot, his natural characteristics and gifts, but quite literally his sin. And the only way to bear that sin is by forgiving it in the power of the cross of Christ in which I now share…Forgiveness is the Christlike suffering which it is the Christian’s duty to bear.”

Something to consider when looking for a church

I am sometimes asked questions concerning how one finds a ‘good’ church.  I will of course do some quick research and point them to the closest confessional Lutheran parish near them in which the Gospel is purely taught and the Sacraments correctly administered.  Furthermore, I would hope to find the availability of private confession and absolution which lies at the very heart and center of pastoral care.  Among the Lutherans, “The Mass is held among us and celebrated with the highest reverence (AC XXIV).” 

One thought I often hear is “I want a church where I feel comfortable,” or more specifically “I want a church that fits my lifestyle.”  I suppose I can agree that it is right and good to have a comfortable church, especially for family, children and so forth.  A church family ought to be friendly, hospitable, and loving.  However, I do wonder how this squares away theologically if we make “comfort” a fixed and primary principle when it comes to prayerfully finding a church and desiring membership.   

Being in a Christian community however, is not so much “comfortable” in the sense that we desire.  It is not “self-affirming.”  True preaching of the Gospel does not build up my “self-esteem.”  The preaching of God’s law doesn’t not support my “lifestyle” in any way whatsoever.  I am not “accepted” the “way I am.” 

True preaching breaks us.  It exposes and shames us.  It is devastating.  Self-righteousness, self-esteem, my lifestyle, and the flesh are crushed.  The Christian life is not especially comfortable.         

In Peter’s first sermon when he preaches Christ crucified we find that those listening, “were cut to the heart.”  Then those hearing desperately cried out to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself" (Acts 2:37-39).


The act of preaching and hearing of the Gospel involves a crucifixion of Christ.  Those hearing are “cut to the heart.”  Preaching lacerates the human heart which is a factory of idols.  It exposes shameful sins, and vice, and brings them to the light of Christ’s cross.  This is not comfortable.  In holy baptism the old adam, the old sinful being, who desires self righteous comfort and inner security “should be daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” 


That we are to be drowned and killed is not a metaphor for some new-age spiritual quest.  Saint Paul writes, “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:4).


We ought to desperately approach a faithful church community that confesses the work of Christ and disperses his Holy gifts in Holy Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, Preaching, along with God’s Word of Absolution – that is Jesus.  The flesh wants none of these things however.  The old man does not want to be crucified.  He does not want to be exposed.  He does not want to be shamed.  He does not want to risk “being cut to the heart.”  He was to be “accepted as he is” and this old man goes to great lengths to find or develop a church community that reflects his own image rather than God’s. 


One of my favorite theologians of the church Hans Iwand (1899-1960) provides an excellent commentary on Luther’s theology on faith as relates to the first commandment.  Iwand’s very insightful reflection here may be a helpful consideration when considering where to worship and receive the gifts of Christ.   


“True faith has to do with being confronted with Another who makes us relinquish our own calculations and thoughts, wishes and hopes, and who breaks into our lives as a foreign reality, insisting that we recognize him as such.  God judges over the world and over all people and faith means to make this judgment one’s own.  But the judgment of God over people and their, their will, and their inner life is diametrically opposed to what people want to believe about themselves.  Thus whenever God’s Word meets us, it meets us as the enemy.  For, wherever God’s Word is portrayed so as to be in accord with people’s hopes and desires and wherever it is accepted as a truth that corresponds with their preconceptions, then we know right away that is not God’s Word we are dealing with.

The adjusting of the Word to man and to his preferences Luther sees as an immediate and general sign of heresy.  To the degree that men align God’s will with their own and his revelation with their own wishes and desires, they cancel out the concrete reality of God and make him into their own likeness or what they’d like him to be.  Luther calls this the annihilation Dei, or the annihilation of God.”[1]    

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[1] Hans J. Iwand, . The Righteousness of Faith According to Luther. Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2008, p. 22.
(I took the picture at the top somewhere near Armitage and Hoyne in Chicago - I cannot remember the name of the church)

J.S. Bach's Coffee Cantata

Thou naughty child, thou wanton hussy,

Ah, when will I achieve my way?

For me, off coffee lay!

Dear Father, do not be so strict!

For if I may not thrice each day

My little cup of coffee drink,

I'll turn indeed to my distress

Into a dried-up goat for roasting.

Ah! How sweet the coffee's taste is,

Sweeter than a thousand kisses,

Milder than sweet muscatel.

Coffee, coffee, I must have it, 

And if someone wants to treat me, 

Ah, my cup with coffee fill!

Get plenty to eat and drink

Table Talk recorded by John Schlaginhaufen.  Spring, 1532.

Those who are assailed by doubts should be given plenty to eat and drink.  Early this morning the devil was disputing with me concerning Zwingli, and I discovered that a person who is well-fed is better fitted for disputation with the devil than a person who is fasting.  Think, for example, of the bishop who, when his sister came to him troubled with such great thoughts that she could not free herself from them, have her plenty to eat and drink.  Three days later he asked her how she felt.


'Very well,' she replied.
'What has happened to the thoughts that before troubled you?'
'I have quite forgotten them,' she answered.


Accordingly you should eat and drink and enjoy yourself.  Those who are afflicted with spiritual temptations should be given plenty to eat and drink, but whoremongers and those assailed by lust should fast.

(From Luther: Letters of Spiritual Counsel.  Translated and edited by Theodore G. Tappert)
(painting from Pieter Bruegel the Elder, a detail of 'Peasant Wedding' 1568)

I have been enjoying Bach’s Brandenburg concertos this week. J.S. Bach presented them in 1721 while “Kapellmeister,” the music director in the small town of Coethen. I have the recording from the English Chamber Orchestra - Benjamin Britten. I think I have neglected Bach's "secular works," - though I am sure he saw all his music as reflecting the glory of God and Christ's incarnation - so am looking forward to exploring more.

The Loving Practice of Closed Communion

The confessional Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, as well as the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian communities all practice the historic practice of “closed communion.” This means that Pastors in the church are to catechize and shepherd Christians to the altar by lovingly examining and hearing the confessions of members who desire the precious gift of the Lord’s Supper. The Lutheran church believes, teaches, and confesses that the Lord’s Supper is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in the bread and wine given for us to eat and drink.

“Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to the disciples and said: ‘Take, eat, this is My body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way also He took the cup after supper, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying: ‘Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

Everything about the early church we know is that “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). We must know that eating and drinking of the body and blood of Christ is not “metaphorical” of some alternative activity. Jesus is the sacrifice to be eaten and drank. He says, “This IS my body…This IS my blood…eat…drink…for you.”

“Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drink without the recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself” (1 Corinthians 11:26-29).

The admonition from the apostolic teaching is that we drink “worthily” when we confess what this precious gift truly is along with our desire to receive it for the forgiveness of sins. It is the loving pastoral practice of the church to examine or ascertain that a Christian desires this promise, along with the bodily eating and drinking of the sacrament. If we approach the altar and reject the Lord’s real physical presence , “without recognizing the body of the Lord” we eat and drink judgment against ourselves. That is the sacrament can be harmful to our faith if we partake of it in unbelief. This is why pastors, for love of the people, so desperately desire their people to know what a holy and precious gift this is.

The practice of “closed communion” does not mean that the orthodox church is sectarian or exclusionary. The loving practice of closed communion is precisely because we believe in fellowship – that we gather around the risen Lord Christ and receive His gifts. We all have a common confess, we confess the same faith, the same baptism – we believe in the one holy Christian and apostolic church. If we admit everybody and anyone who randomly walks into church to the Lord’s Supper, we are neither treasuring the precious sacrament, nor are we loving those people receiving the sacrament.

If a Muslim, Buddhist, or atheist walks in off the street and we immediately bring them to the altar we are breaking the fellowship of that particular congregation and the larger Christian community. Those who gather around this Holy Supper find their unity and fellowship precisely because they confess the same Lord who lavishes upon us forgiveness, peace, and the resurrection of the dead. The Lord’s Supper is for baptized Christians who desire the bodily eating and drinking of heavenly food and drink, along with the heavenly promise that comes along with it. For in the Lord’s Supper we ENTER HEAVEN ITSELF through Jesus our high priest (Hebrews 10:20-22).

As Martin Luther keenly observed, “the altar rail is the pulpit of the laity,” meaning, that this is where the Christian community preaches to one another – confessing to God and before the whole world the faith in which we shall live and die and live again. Kneeling at the altar in anticipation of the heavenly feast is where we confess and preach that which we will be doing in eternity. If we take this precious gift seriously and truly believe what our Lord says about it, it would be foolish to treat it just as if we were getting together to have a little “spiritual love fest” – a “feel-good” spiritual snack.

As Dr. Edward Veith writes, “Not only is Christ present at the altar, He gives Himself to us. As we eat the bread, we are receiving, in an intimate and personal way, His body that was broken on the cross. When we sip the wine, we are receiving His blood that sealed the covenant, assuring the forgiveness of sin. We are literally united with Christ – Christ crucified, resurrected, ascended – bridging the gap between here and Golgotha, now and eternity.”[1]

It comes as a necessity that the church must identify heresy and false teaching regarding the sacrament, that we may truly have “fellowship.” and "unity." The church cannot be ecumenical if she does not reject, correct, and rebuke false confessions of the faith out of love for the purity of the Gospel.

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[1] Veith, Edward, Spirituality of the Cross, 51.