Today saw the culmination of several efforts which have occupied my time lately. Hana, a woman from Ethiopia and the mother of two students at our parish school, was confirmed and received her first Communion today.

Also, Robert Kieselowsky was installed as vicar at Immanuel at today’s Divine Service. It is a convertible vicarage, meaning that he will, Deo volente, stay at Immanuel after his ordination as an associate pastor and headmaster of our growing school. This has been a long road, with quite a few challenges, so it is a great relief to finally get to this point. I’m amazed at how richly the LORD has blessed Immanuel!

On Sunday, February 7, Scripture Study and Sunday School are cancelled at Immanuel. Divine Service will be held at 10 a.m.

Volunteers are invited to come early on Sunday morning and help clear snow. Please bring a shovel if possible. Don’t worry about usual church attire – be warm and comfortable.

Friday, January 22 is the March for Life, an annual peaceful demonstration in our nation’s capital asking for the right to life for every human person to be protected. Lutherans will gather under the Lutherans for Life banner at 12pm at 7th & Independence.  Besides the participation from locals, Lutherans from around the country usually join us. We know of a bus from Indiana and another from Michigan who will be with us, and we just heard today of a school group from Louisiana who also will be in attendance. You are cordially invited to begin the day with worship; Divine Service will be held at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Alexandria (1801 Russell Road, 22301) at 9 a.m. The previously-announced preacher, Rev. Matthew Harrison of LCMS World Relief/Human Care, is unable to come due to the disaster in Haiti. In his place, Professor John Pless, a member of Synod’s Sanctity of Human Life Commission, will preach. Immanuel will offer a brunch after the service. For more information, please contact Immanuel at 703-549-0155, or email church@immanuelalexandria.org.

These are the public services we will hold at Immanuel, January through June, 2010. Immanuel follows the Lutheran Lectionary (aka, traditional, one-year).

I am rejoicing at the news that Rev. Charles McClean, a member of Immanuel, has been reinstated to the clergy roster of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Congratulations, Fr. McClean!

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 potato soup (I think it surpassed my grandmother’s, and that’s about the highest compliment I can think of), crack open the stout my mother sent illegally through the postal service for my birthday, and watch the Vikings @ Steelers, which I had recorded. But no. The Apple Time Capsule, which is both my backup drive (using Time Machine) and the hub of our wireless network, was not working. Kaput. Fine. Not powering up at all.

And here’s the good part. Even though it’s out of warranty, it’s covered by the AppleCare Protection Plan I purchased for my laptop. So I called Apple support, and as in the other time I’ve had to call them, I spoke with someone who speaks English clearly, with an American accent. I’d be astonished if the person I spoke to was not in the continental United States. And he was friendly! I didn’t wait on hold – at all. I told him what was happening, and he took me through a few troubleshooting steps. When they didn’t correct the problem – the Time Capsule is dead – he transferred me to a rep who would send me a new unit. Covered. Meaning, I pay nothing more.

That is not the kind of experience I am used to. At all. With anyone. I’d already become an Apple fanboy. But this just plain makes me happy. They took a bad situation – I was ticked that my wireless was down, and the unit I bought had failed after ~18 months – and made it a good situation. I’m getting a new unit, in the mail, this week. No hassle. Thanks, Apple.  You just made a relatively new customer very, very loyal.

At Immanuel, I inherited a practice of a permanent order of men who assist the pastor in the reading of Holy Scripture and distribution of the Sacrament in the Divine Service. They also assist in other ways, such as crucifer for processions and helpers at Holy Baptism. I love and trust these men; they are sacrificial and encouraging, dedicated to their service.

I am generally troubled by the liturgical practice in American Lutheranism, where laypeople routinely read the Scriptures and distribute the Sacrament. Since the deacons at Immanuel are not ordained, I cannot reconcile my own practice with AC XIV. However, I’ve come to view our Deacons (as incarnated at Immanuel) as a kind of middle thing: they are laymen (not ordained) and yet they regularly, and by church approval, carry out limited functions of the pastoral office. I suppose this is what our tradition would call an “auxiliary office.” It might be better if synodically we had a uniform practice, even an ordained diaconate, instead of simply pretending that AC XIV doesn’t say what it plainly says.

This morning we will add two more deacons to our number, and having lost the ordo I used the last time we added deacons, I have compiled this, drawing from several rites found in the Lutheran Service Book Agenda. Since I cannot ordain them, I call it a consecration.

Consecration of Deacons

Dear brothers in Christ, you have been chosen to serve our Lord as Deacons. Hear what Holy Scripture says concerning this Office:

Deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless. Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. (1 Tim. 3.8-13)

And hear what Holy Scripture has to say about service in the Church:

By the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. (Rom. 12.3-8)

Finally, hear what the chief Symbol of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church, the Augsburg Confession, says regarding worship:

Our churches are falsely accused of abolishing the Mass. The Mass is held among us and celebrated with the highest reverence. Nearly all the usual ceremonies are also preserved, except that the parts sung in Latin are interspersed here and there with German hymns. These have been added to teach the people. for ceremonies are needed for this reason alone, that the uneducated be taught what they need to know about Christ…. No one is admitted to the Sacrament without first being examined. The people are also advised about the dignity and use of the Sacrament, about how it brings great consolation to anxious consciences, so that they too may learn to believe God and to expect and ask from Him all that is good. This worship pleases God. (AC XXIV)

Name(s), in the presence of God and of this congregation, I now ask you:

Do you believe and confess the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired Word of God and the only infallible rule of faith and practice? [Then answer:] Yes, I believe.

Do you promise that you will perform the duties of this office faithfully, regarding the Scriptures which you read to the Church as the oracles of God, showing reverence for the Body and Blood of Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar, and serving the people of God with love and humility? [Then answer:] Yes, I promise, with the help of God.

Finally, will you adorn this Office with a holy life, support the Office of the Holy Ministry in this congregation, and submit yourself to the liturgical practice of Immanuel Evangelical-Lutheran Church? [Then answer:] Yes, I will, with the help of God.

The candidate(s) kneel.

Name, I consecrate and install you as Deacon at Immanuel in the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Let us pray:

God of all grace and mercy, bless Name(s) in their service as Deacons, that they may be faithful in serving at Your altar. Grant that through their service Your Church may be built up in faith to the honor of Your most holy name; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Go in the name of the Lord. Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. The almighty and most merciful God, the Father, the +Son, and the Holy Spirit, bless and preserve you.