Lent

Cheerful He to suffering goes?

March 1, 2010

The following is an article I wrote for our parish’s newsletter, Tidings, published in March 2010. A favorite Lenten hymn of many is “My Song Is Love Unknown.” It’s one of my wife’s favorites, too, and I remember fondly one year while we lived in Illinois Kassie suggesting we work at memorizing it during Lent. [...]

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The value of verse

February 25, 2010

I was reading about Samuel Crossman, the author of the text to the popular Lenten hymn “My Song Is Love Unknown,” and I came across this gem about the value of poetry and hymnody as conveyors of the Faith: A verse may find him whom a sermon flies. -Lutheran Worship: Hymnal Companion, p99

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Holy Thursday

April 9, 2009

The words of the great Swedish bishop Bo Giertz damn us all: “There are no worthy guests at the Lord’s table. None has deserved to come.” Those words damn us all – yet they are also filled with grace. For tonight we are invited guests to the Lord’s table, despite our unworthiness. This is not [...]

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Adoro Te Devote

April 9, 2009

My annual Holy Thursday post: For me, it isn’t Holy Thursday unless we sing Aquinas’s “Adoro, Te Devote” in the translation by Gerard Manley Hopkins: Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore, Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more, See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart Lost, all lost [...]

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Holy Tuesday

April 7, 2009

Sermon for Holy Tuesday Vespers–The Passion of St. Mark The death of a man is not unique. All men die. And the death of a man on a cross is hardly unique. Thousands of men died this way. What makes the death of Jesus unique is that in His death, sin is being put to [...]

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Palm Sunday

April 5, 2009

Dearly beloved, this week is our holiest of weeks. Holy Week comes at the end of a season of self-denial, a season of repentance, a season of renewal in prayer. Perhaps it’s been such a season for you. But for at least some of you, it hasn’t. Lent has been a disappointment and a frustration, [...]

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Lent 5 midweek sermon: Romans 7.1–8.1

April 1, 2009

This sermon concludes our Lenten midweek services, wherein we read and meditated upon Romans 4:1–8:1. When President Bush landed on USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003 to announce the end of major combat operations in Iraq, there was a banner displaying the words “Mission Accomplished.” That phrase would later come to haunt Bush’s presidency, [...]

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Judica – John 8.42-59

March 29, 2009

  Strong words from Jesus today; He calls His hearers children of the devil. That’s a pretty good way to not grow your church. At least, not growth in numbers. But if the church is going to grow, if you and I are going to grow spiritually as this season of Lent enters the last [...]

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Annunciation diversions

March 25, 2009

The great Rose Vestment Controversy of Laetare 2009 has generated enough heat to make Al Gore even more nervous than he already was. You can read about it (in somewhat chronological order) from Sandra Ostapowich (and again), Pr. George Borghardt (and again), Pr. William Weedon, Pr. David Petersen, and Pr. Richard Heinz. Related, Pastor Weedon [...]

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Real priests wear rose

March 22, 2009

I lost 5 followers on Twitter today with the remark, “Real priests wear rose.” So in the comments, please suggest short items equally scandalous by which I can weed out the rest of the chaff among my followers on Twitter. Rose (NOT pink!) is the liturgical color for Gaudete (the third Sunday in Advent) and [...]

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