Posts tagged “Missouri Synod”

Sermo Dei: The Annunciation of Our Lord

Posted on April 10th, 2013

Delivered at the LCMS Evening Prayer service at the Lutheran Service Association conference in Washington, D.C., April 10. The theme of the conference was Service Speaks.   Dear Christian friends, your theme for this conference is Service Speaks. It’s a good one – so long as we get the order right. In the beginning, God speaks. He speaks creation into being: “Let there be light”; “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters”; “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together”; and on and on. God speaks. And the entire purpose of His speaking was love. God created the world from nothing in order to bestow His gifts, His love, His life upon the man. The entire world was given…

Categories: Sermons

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McClean on Kieschnick on the Papacy as Antichrist

Posted on April 4th, 2013

My colleague and friend, Charles McClean (who will be installed as Pastor of Our Saviour Church in Baltimore next month) wrote a lengthy reply to a previous post on Esgetology highlighting Gerald Kieschnick’s remarks on the papacy. You can read the original post here.     Once again Dr. Kieschnick demonstrates ignorance of the Lutheran Symbols when he deplores the emphasis on private confession and suggests that the perpetual virginity of the Mother of God is purely Roman Catholic doctrine. Confessional Lutherans differ on the latter but, given the fact that Lutherans from Luther through Pieper to this very day (e.g. John Stephenson, Charles McClean) have accepted the perpetual virginity, it can scarcely be seen as uniquely Roman Catholic teaching. Confessional Lutherans have also differed on the identification…

Categories: Theology

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Ordain a Lady, LSB edition

Posted on January 10th, 2013

If you haven’t yet seen the “Ordain a Lady” video, you should. It contains the typical argument that Baptism is the qualification for ordination.

 

“Hey, I was baptized”, and an interior, subjective call, are the qualifications, according to the video. Couldn’t happen in the LCMS, right?

Well, this post isn’t really about the video. I just thought of the video as I was picking out hymns for the coming celebration of the Baptism of Our Lord (January 13). I came across a hymn new to the LCMS via Lutheran Service Book, #600, Mark How the Lamb of God’s Self-Offering. At first glance it seems good. First stanza checks out, tune is somewhat familiar and sturdy. A pastor in a hurry might not do any additional examination. But then, look at the second half of stanza two: “So we, by water and the Spirit / Baptized into Christ’s ministry, / Are often led to paths of service / Through mazes of adversity.” What does it mean to be “baptized into Christ’s ministry”? I’d like to think it means, “In baptism one receives the benefits of Christ’s work,” but from the context it clearly means the “paths of service” that we follow. And right there, in the LCMS worship book, is the argument for women’s ordination.

Lutheran Service Book has many wonderful elements. But there are some definite land-mines to avoid. One can only hope these are not time-bombs shaping the minds of our current and future pastors.

Categories: Theology

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Sermo Dei: Commemoration of Blessed J.K. Wilhelm Loehe

Posted on January 2nd, 2013

Tonight we remember a man whose impact on American Lutheranism is both profound, and deeply under-appreciated. Johann Konrad Wilhelm Loehe lived in nineteenth-century Germany, serving as pastor in a Bavarian town called Neuendettelsau. Although he never visited the United States, he had a deep impact on the growth of orthodox Lutheranism here by training men who were sent as missionary pastors here (as well as to Brazil and Australia). Some of these pastors became the founding fathers of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. He financed a teachers college in Saginaw, Michigan, as well as a seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which today is called Concordia Theological Seminary, a school I’m proud to call my alma mater. Loehe was also deeply dedicated to works of mercy,…

Categories: Sermons

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Register Now for LCMS Life Conference

Posted on January 2nd, 2013

The LCMS Life Conference is fast approaching. Held in Arlington, VA, participants will attend the March for Life in Washington, DC, hear President Harrison and other noted Lutheran speakers. Holy Communion, Evening Prayer, Matins, and the Itinerarium will be prayed at the conference. Get more details by clicking here – I hope to see you at the conference!

Categories: Politics, Religion

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Idealism, ministry, and baseball

Posted on July 23rd, 2012

All pastors began as idealists. No one goes to seminary to be a role player, a cog in the machine, just as no baseball player while he’s playing high school ball dreams of someday being a minor league batting coach. When a young man goes to seminary, he goes to change the world. He really believes that his ministry is going to make a noticeable difference. He’s not just convinced that he’ll be better than his field work pastor or vicarage supervisor; no, make him District President, Synod President, or seminary professor, and he’d bring about a great reformation. He believes this. When a young man goes to seminary, he goes to change the world. You have to hold on to your ideals. Especially as a…

Categories: Theology

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As available as bottled water

Posted on April 17th, 2012

LCMS President Matthew Harrison in the Lutheran Witness on the Obamacare Mandate and religious freedom: The issue is simple. We are not telling the government not to provide drugs or healthcare for women. We are not pushing for legislation to limit access to anything. Our own health plan does provide medications for specific health needs (which in other cases are used as contraceptives). I would argue that contraceptives (which the LCMS does not reject out of hand) and abortion-causing drugs are as available as bottled water in this culture of death. The “accommodation” offered by the president is a red herring. “Churches and their institutions won’t pay for offensive medications; their insurers will.” Oh? Most Catholic health plans are self-insured, just as the Concordia Health…

Categories: Culture, Politics, Religion

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Grandfathering the First Amendment

Posted on February 16th, 2012

Note: This post was originally published on Ricochet’s member feed. (If you are interested in a free trial of Ricochet, let me know in the comments.) The House Government Reform and Oversight committee held a hearing today on the threat posed to the First Amendment by the latest regulations of Obamacare. Since the president of my church body, Rev’d Matthew Harrison, was testifying, I was particularly eager to attend the hearing. (Mollie Hemingway has written about the proceedings on Ricochet here.) During questioning, Harrison summarized this entire issue in one brilliant line. He first noted that the narrow provisions of Obamacare prevent his church from modifying its existing health insurance plan (which covers pastors, teachers, and other church employees), or face losing the “grandfathered” exemption. Under the…

Categories: Politics, Theology

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