Reformation

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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Reformation

October 25, 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? [...]

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

October 24, 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 [...]

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Reformation sermon

November 17, 2008

  For those of you new to Lutheranism, it is our custom to celebrate Reformation Sunday on the last Sunday in October. Despite the fact that we have a picture of Luther preaching on the cover of the service folder, the Reformation really isn’t about Luther, and the Lutheran Church isn’t about Luther. Luther was [...]

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A Reformation thought from the sainted Dr. Barry

October 31, 2008

With great joy, we Lutherans have never understood ourselves to be a ‘new church,’ but the church of the Apostles, restored, cleansed, and reformed.  Luther realized that the Roman Church had departed from the church catholic. -Rev. A. L. Barry, late president of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod

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Extracting teeth from hymns

October 20, 2008

I love LSB. It’s better than LW in just about every way. And I wouldn’t exchange it for TLH even if I could. But the hymn texts in LSB are in many cases stripped of their vigor from the earlier translations, and I am continually discovering “new” stanzas that were omitted from the modern books. [...]

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Martin Chemnitz

November 9, 2007

Today, one day before the birth of Dr. Luther, we commemorate the birth of the “Second Martin,” Martin Chemnitz. From Synod’s website: Martin Chemnitz (1522–1586) is regarded after Martin Luther as the most important theologian in the history of the Lutheran Church. Chemnitz combined a penetrating intellect and an almost encyclopedic knowledge of Scripture and [...]

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Reformation Sermon

October 29, 2007

Someone once summarized the entire Lutheran Reformation in the sixteenth century as a reformation of the Sacrament of Penance. Today, Reformation Sunday, we should ask ourselves, “Why are we Lutheran?” But along with that question, we should ask another: “Are we Lutheran?” If it is true that the entire Reformation can be seen as really [...]

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