Archive for October, 2009

Be a mensch

Posted on October 30th, 2009

I play the piano at our Wednesday evening services. When we have Holy Communion, the piano bench blocks the aisle for communicants returning from the altar. For years, I could never remember to push in the bench after the Hymn of the Day. Kassie tried gentle reminders. I forgot. She tried admonitions. I ignored them. She tried a sticky note. I didn’t see it. She tried several sticky notes. I still didn’t see them. Then, she got serious. I pushed in the bench.

Categories: Humor

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Luther, the Roman Mass, and the Lutheran Liturgy

Posted on October 26th, 2009

Another gem from Sasse, as we reflect this week on the Reformation: Although in his book on the Babylonian captivity of the church and in the Smalcald Articles, [Luther] unmasked and condemned the idolatry which had crept into the Mass, he admitted that the Roman Mass was still a valid Eucharist. And so he did not, like Zwingli and Calvin, introduce a new liturgy. The Lutheran liturgy was merely a Mass without the invocation of the saints and [without] the Roman conception of sacrifice. To Luther it was unthinkable that the unity of the Western church might be forever destroyed. He wanted to recall this church to what he was convinced was the pure teaching of the Gospel and, at the same time, the…

Categories: Theology

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Apple customer service

Posted on October 25th, 2009

I came home today to a disappointment after a wonderful Reformation service and Oktoberfest at Immanuel. Our Divine Service this morning followed Lutheran Service Book’s Divine Service, Setting Five to the letter, the congregation singing all of the chorale ordinaries. I was completely overwhelmed by the incredible grace of the pure doctrine of the Gospel while kneeling before the altar during the singing of “Isaiah, Mighty Seer” and “Lamb of God, Pure and Holy” after the Consecration. After the Divine Service was our congregation’s annual Oktoberfest, rescheduled for today after an earlier rainout. We had a gorgeous autumn day, and the volunteers who organized and worked the event did a phenomenal job. So all I wanted to do was eat some of Kassie’s awesome…

Categories: Theology

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Reformation

Posted on October 25th, 2009

Text: Romans 3:19-28 +++ An adult was also confirmed at this service. The problem with the church today is that Luther’s problem has stopped being our problem. Luther’s problem was the original problem of all true theology: How can mankind be redeemed – rescued from his sins, and the death and hell they have merited? For Luther, the question became a very personal one: “How can I be redeemed?” This question is really a question about God: “How can I find a God of mercy?” Today’s questions about God – if they are about God at all – are throughly self-absorbed: How can I find a God who can give me my best life now? How can I have a life of purpose? How…

Categories: Sermons

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The modern man's conception of God, compared to Luther's

Posted on October 24th, 2009

The God of Kant, Schleiermacher, and Ritschl is no longer a consuming fire. If the modern man believes in God at all, he believes in him as the guarantor of his happiness. And so the thought of the existence of God has become, since the eighteenth century, a comforting thought. For Luther it was a most disturbing one. In bitter moments of grave temptation he often wished that God did not exist. For if God exists, and if he really is God, then man is lost. Created to do God’s will, and incapable of its fulfillment, he is guilty of the judgment [of God]. And how can man hope to stand before the God of heaven and his unerring judgment? –Hermann Sasse, from “Luther…

Categories: Theology

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Looking back: Top posts on Esgetology

Posted on October 23rd, 2009

Since switching to a hosted WordPress blog (I started this blog on Blogger, then went to WordPress.com before Ryan Markel helped me set up this hosted WordPress version), here are the top seven posts viewed on Esgetology: Treasury of Daily Prayer Workshop Poisoned Chalice? The Good Friday Fart Simple Prayers Every Christian Should Know Preaching the Sunday The God who hides Himself in times of trouble: Meditation on Psalm 10 LCMS President Kieschnick responds to ELCA decision affirming homosexual clergy

Categories: Miscellaneous

Versus populum or ad orientam? Sasse on “St. Zwingli” and “liturgical arts and crafts”

Posted on October 22nd, 2009

Fr. Charles McClean gave me a copy of these excerpts from a letter of Hermann Sasse to Peter Brunner. I am not certain if he translated this or not, and will update this post when I find out. The best part is the second paragraph, so stick with it! “What concerns me and to speak frankly has saddened me is your proposal for a new form of the altar and a way of celebrating the Sacrament which would conform to this proposal. What has earlier been proposed in this connection I have taken with as little seriousness as the comical ideas and proposals which were made forty years ago in the Liturgical Movement, when the Benedictines demanded the restoration of the ancient Christian mensa…

Categories: Liturgy, Theology

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St. Luke, Physician of the Soul

Posted on October 18th, 2009

Today, my fellow disciples of Jesus, we remember St. Luke. Luke is called an Evangelist, a writer of one of the four Gospels. Besides writing the Gospel that bears his name, Luke also wrote the Acts of the Apostles. These two books make up more than one-third of the New Testament! He traveled with St. Paul on his second missionary journey, and then again with Paul on the journey to Rome. Luke shows a keen interest in the healing miracles of Jesus, which makes sense given his vocation as a physician. Paul in Colossians refers to Luke as “the beloved physician.” The prayer for today calls Luke a “physician of the soul.” That’s the idea I want to consider today: what does it mean…

Categories: Sermons

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