Lord’s Supper

Good news from Jesus First

July 10, 2010

According to the LCMS political group “Jesus First,” more congregations are practicing closed communion in the LCMS. An email from a lay-delegate who just arrived in Houston for the Synodical Convention contains this nugget written by a Pastor Greg Smith in a publication distributed by Jesus First: I am also concerned over the growing practice [...]

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Piepkorn on the sanctorum communionem

May 20, 2010

When I read Sasse on the sanctorum communionem as a reference to the Sacrament of the Altar, I was convinced. I was troubled, however, by the seeming discrepancy with Luther’s Large Catechism. My colleague, Rev. Charles McClean, showed me this passage after I mentioned to him my concern. “If a later symbol misunderstands an earlier [...]

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Ring them bells

December 31, 2009

[youtube]KObI70kf8hA[/youtube] We are ever fighting hyper-American pietists and iconoclasts who would rob us of our Christian freedom. Lately, this has manifested itself in a certain spirit who accused good Pastor William Weedon of papism for ringing bells during the consecration (a practice that Immanuel also embraces). (Pastor Beane’s defense of Pastor Weedon is worth reading.) [...]

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Schmücke Dich, o liebe Seele (or, The enduring legacy of Lutheran Book of Worship)

December 17, 2009

Rev. Charles McClean recently pointed out to me that the version of Soul, Adorn Yourself with Gladness which appears in Lutheran Service Book (#636) has some disconcerting anomalies. LSB’s stanzas 5 and 6 are simply two different translations of Johann Franck’s original stanza 7 – the first is from the paraphrase in Lutheran Book of [...]

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Luther on the meaning of the Elevation

November 30, 2009

Fourth, the seal or token is the sacrament, the bread and wine, under which are his true body and blood. For everything that is in this sacrament must be living. Therefore Christ did not put it in dead writing and seals, but in living words and signs which we use from day to day. And [...]

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"The Pelican Song"

November 7, 2009

As a favor to a parishioner, we are singing Aquinas’ great Eucharist hymn, Adoro Te Devote, tomorrow at Divine Service. It actually fits nicely with the Gospel appointed for the day (Trinity 22), the Parable of the Unforgiving Slave (Matthew 18:21-35), especially in this line: “Blood whereof a single drop has power to win All [...]

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Luther, the Roman Mass, and the Lutheran Liturgy

October 26, 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 [...]

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Versus populum or ad orientam? Sasse on "St. Zwingli" and "liturgical arts-and-crafts"

October 22, 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 [...]

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St. Luke, Physician of the Soul

October 18, 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. [...]

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Luther on the Benefits of Worthy Communion

October 17, 2009

In the summer of 1997 I took a course with Dr. John Stephenson on Luther and the Lord’s Supper. It was a wonderful class and, in retrospect, was highly influential in my view of the Supper. I was reminded of this when I overheard my friend David Petersen and another pastor talking about whether there [...]

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