24 Years Ago Today

Twenty-four years ago today the Church put me "under orders" to serve in the Office of the Holy Ministry of God's Word and Sacraments.

Thank You, Lord, for Your faithfulness to me, a poor, unworthy sinner, in the task of making disciples by baptizing in Your name and teaching everything You give in Your Word (Matthew 28:18-20). Thank You, Lord, for Your faithfulness in making me a steward of Your mysteries (1 Corinthians 4:1-2). Thank You, Lord, for Your promise that "it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends" (2 Corinthians 10:17-18).

In addition to the joy of rehearsing the ordination vow (Lutheran Service Book: Agenda, pp. 165-166), I continue to find great solace in these words from Eugene Peterson, drawing out the meaning of that ordination vow:

The definition that pastors start out with, given to us in our ordination, is that pastoral work is a ministry of word and sacrament.

Word.

But in the wreckage all words sound like “mere words.”

Sacrament.

But in the wreckage what difference can a little water, a piece of bread, a sip of wine make?

Yet century after century Christians continue to take certain persons in their communities, set them apart, and say, “We want you to be responsible for saying and acting among us what we believe about God and kingdom and gospel. We believe that the Holy Spirit is among us and within us. We believe that God’s Spirit continues to hover over the chaos of the world’s evil and our sin, shaping a new creation and new creatures. We believe that God is not a spectator in turn amused and alarmed at the wreckage of world history but a participant in it. We believe that everything, especially everything that looks like wreckage, is material that God is using to make a praising life. We believe all this, but we don’t see it. We see, like Ezekiel, dismembered skeletons whitened under a pitiless Babylonian sun. We see a lot of bones that once were laughing and dancing children, of adults who once made love and plans, of believers who once brought their doubts and sang their praises in church – and sinned. We don’t see the dancers or the lovers or the singers – at best we see only fleeting glimpses of them. What we see are bones. Dry bones. We see sin and judgment on the sin. That is what it looks like. It looked that way to Ezekiel; it looks that way to anyone with eyes to see and a brain to think; and it looks that way to us.

“But we believe something else. We believe in the coming together of these bones into connected, sinewed, muscled human beings who speak and sing and laugh and work and believe and bless their God. We believe that it happened the way Ezekiel preached it and we believe that it still happens. We believe it happened in Israel and that it happens in the church. We believe that we are part of the happening as we sing our praises, listen believingly to God’s word, receive the new life of Christ in the sacraments. We believe that the most significant thing that happens or can happen is that we are no longer dismembered but are remembered into the resurrection body of Christ.

“We need help in keeping our beliefs sharp and accurate and intact. We don’t trust ourselves – our emotions seduce us into infidelities. We know that we are launched on a difficult and dangerous act of faith, and that there are strong influences intent on diluting or destroying it. We want you to help us: be our pastor, a minister of word and sacrament, in the middle of this world’s life. Minister with word and sacrament to us in all the different parts and stages of our lives – in our work and play, with our children and our parents, at birth and death, in our celebrations and sorrows, on those days when morning breaks over us in a wash of sunshine, and those other days that are all drizzle. This isn’t the only task in the life of faith, but it is your task. We will find someone else to do the other important and essential tasks. This is yours: word and sacrament.

“One more thing: we are going to ordain you to this ministry and we want your vow that you will stick to it. This is not a temporary job assignment but a way of life that we need lived out in our community. We know that you are launched on the same difficult belief venture in the same dangerous world as we are. We know that your emotions are as fickle as ours, and that your mind can play the same tricks on you as ours. That is why we are going to ordain you and why we are going to exact a vow from you. We know that there are going to be days and months, maybe even years, when we won’t feel like we are believing anything and won’t want to hear it from you. And we know that there will be days and weeks and maybe even years when you won’t feel like saying it. It doesn’t matter. Do it. You are ordained to this ministry, vowed to it. There may be times when we come to you as a committee or delegation and demand that you tell us something else than what we are telling you now. Promise right now that you won’t give in to what we demand of you. You are not the minister of our changing desires, or our time-conditioned understanding of our needs, or our secularized hopes for something better. With these vows of ordination we are lashing you fast to the mast of word and sacrament so that you will be unable to respond to the siren voices. There are a lot of other things to be done in this wrecked world and we are going to be doing at least some of them, but if we don’t know the basic terms with which we are working, the foundational realities with which we are dealing – God, kingdom, gospel – we are going to end up living futile, fantasy lives. Your task is to keep telling the basic story, representing the presence of the Spirit, insisting on the priority of God, speaking the biblical words of command and promise and invitation.”

That, or something very much like that, is what I understand the church to say to the people whom it ordains to be its pastors. (Eugene Peterson, Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity, pp. 22-25)

Sasse on the Word of God, the Church, & the Sacraments

What is the relationship between the Word of God and the Bible? Between the Word of God and the Church? Hermann Sasse provides some excellent and necessary insight:

For the church of the Reformation, both belong inseparably together: the written and the proclaimed Word, the Bible and the "preaching office or oral Word" [Predigtamt oder mundlich Wort], as Luther said in Schwabach Article VII, the forerunner of Augustana V. This homogeneity explains how the church sank roots among hitherto pagan peoples. If the Word of God were identical with the Bible, it would suffice to send the Bible in their own language to the people concerned. But because the Bible and the Word of God are not identical, there is sent to every people one or more preachers of the Word.

But neither would it suffice were these preachers to come without the Holy Scriptures, bearing the Word of God only in their heads and hearts. The Scriptures and the preaching office, the written and the proclaimed Word, belong together. The content of the Scriptures must be preached, and not only read in private. And the preaching office should expound the Scriptures, as the content of its sermon is bound throughout to the Scriptures. But because every form of the Word of God is truly the Word of God, the church of necessity can never be deprived of one of these two forms....

The Word of God, the written and proclaimed Word, creates and builds the church. There is no other means to build the church of Christ. For the Word of God alone creates faith. Certainly the Sacraments belong to the Word, and it is the experience of church history that wherever the significance of the Sacraments is misunderstood or neglected, the Word will also be despised or falsified. But the Sacraments ever exist only together with the Word, with the Word of the institution and the Word of promise. Thus the Augustana says that through the Word and the Sacraments the Holy Spirit is given, who works faith, "where and when it pleases God" [AC V 2]. This means we cannot prescribe the effectual power of Word and Sacrament. It is God's free grace, should he bring a person to faith through them. But we have the promise that the Word of God "shall not return void" (Isa 55:11). Thus the church will exist everywhere the Gospel is rightly preached, but only there. And it must be the continual prayer of the church that it be and remain the true church of Christ, as we pray in Luther's hymn in the worship service: "Lord, keep us steadfast in your Word." Herein as we pray we also admit that we cannot keep ourselves steadfast in this Word, nor can the church by itself do so. (Hermann Sasse, "The Church and the Word of God," in The Lonely Way: Selected Essays and Letters, Volume I (1927-1939), 156-157.

Honoring St. Patrick

On this day of remembering St. Patrick, many are donning the Irish green, drinking Irish stout beer (or beer colored green with food dye[?]), and dining on corned beef and cabbage. All this even though St. Patrick himself was not Irish, but rather a Roman citizen from Britain.

That's all fine and good in a First Article sort of way. But how about honoring St. Patrick for the truth of the Gospel that he confessed and proclaimed? After all, he was a Christian missionary to the land of the Irish, and he stoutly defended the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.

I can think of no better way of honoring St. Patrick than looking to and even singing the hymn attributed to him--a hymn that boldly confesses the Holy Trinity and our life in Him by virtue of our Baptism.

I bind unto myself today
The strong name of the Trinity
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this day to me forever,
By pow'r of faith, Christ's incarnation,
His Baptism in the Jordan River,
His cross of death for my salvation,
His bursting from the spiced tomb,
His riding up the heav'nly way,
His coming at the day of doom,
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself today
The pow'r of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need,
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, His shield to ward,
The Word of God to give me speech,
His heav'nly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
the hostile foes that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In ev'ry place and in all hours,
Against their fierce hostility,
I bind to me those holy pow'rs.

I bind unto myself the name,
The strong name of the Trinity
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three,
Of whom all nature has creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit Word,
Praise to the Lord of my salvation;
Salvation is of Christ the Lord!
(Lutheran Service Book, 604)

Prayer of the Day: 
Almighty God, You chose Your servant Patrick to be a missionary to the Irish people who were wandering in darkness and error. You bound unto them the trinitarian name through Baptism and faith that they might dwell in the light of Christ. Bind unto us this same strong name of the Trinity as we remember our Baptism and walk in His light, that we may come to dwell at last in the eternal light of the presence of Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (Treasury of Daily Prayer, p. 1285)

Sasse: The Church is Not Built by Us

Another great quote from Hermann Sasse, in his 1933 essay, "The Lutheran Confessions and the Volk":

But if one proceeds from God and not from man, not from human religion, nor even from the Christian religion, but from the Gospel, as do the Reformation confessions, it is possible to understand the church. If one has understood what faith in the Evangelical sense is, worked by the Holy Spirit himself, and never "by my own reason or strength" [SC, Creed, 6]; that the Holy Spirit creates faith in the Word of God; and that this is quite different from all human religions within the bounds of pure and practical reason, then it is possible to understand the church as the Reformation understood it. This church is not built by us. It is created by God himself. And this is so as surely as God is God, as surely as Jesus Christ is the Lord, as surely as God's Word is the Word of the Creator and Consummator, the Judge and Redeemer, the greatest power on earth.

The concept of the church of Luther and Lutheranism originates from faith in this Word. In this definition of the church, man, as individual or as Volk, can never have a founding or co-founding role. He is passive. One does not decide to join the church; he is rather called to the church. We do not build the church ("Arise! Let us build Zion!"); we are only the stones used to build it, or at most the tools used to build it. (Hermann Sasse, "The Lutheran Confessions and the Volk," in The Lonely Way: Selected Essays and Letters, Volume 1 (1927-1939), p. 130.)

Sasse on What Constitutes the Church

A fabulous quote from Hermann Sasse on what constitutes the Church:

The essence of the church is defined in purely theological terms by our confessions, and never anthropologically or sociologically. The church proceeds from God and not from men. Distinct from all other confessions, Lutheranism knows of only two notae ecclesiae ["marks of the church"]: the Word of God and the Sacrament. Where the Gospel is clearly and purely preached and the Sacraments are administered according to the institution of Christ, there is the church, there the church will be. The church is not constituted by any human qualities (not our faith or the holiness of our lives) nor by any sociological state of affairs (a particluar form of structuring the relationship of congregation and office of the ministry). The church is constituted only by the real presence of Jesus Christ the Lord, who in his Gospel and in the Sacraments is really and personally present. And through these he builds his congregation on earth. Everything else--our faith, our love, the external appearance of the congregation, its worship, its caring associations [Bruderschaft], its configuration as a legal organization--is a consequence of this church-constituting presence of Christ. (Hermann Sasse, "The Lutheran Confessions and the Volk," in The Lonely Way: Selected Essays and Letters, Volume I (1927-1939), 128-129.)

Faithful Pastors

A little gem from C. F. W. Walther, on faithful pastors:

Faithful pastors must not only avoid being lukewarm or cold. They also must be warm. Their hearts must burn with love for their Savior, Jesus, and for the congregation that their Savior has entrusted to their care, so that they may be able to say with St. Paul and all the apostles: "For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you."....

Every sincere preacher and minister of Jesus Christ should demonstrate much enthusiasm and earnest determination, even if the congregation responds with disdain, hatred, and enmity. A sincere pastor will suffer such experiences rather than gain anyone for himself by downplaying the truth, hiding it, or dulling its sharp points."

C. F. W. Walther, Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible, 342

Homily for Sexagesima

Today's homily for Sexagesima ("About 60 days before Easter") draws our attention to our Lord's "Sufficient Grace." The Gospel reading, Luke 8:4-15, gives us Jesus' parable of the Sower sowing the seed of His Word. In the Epistle reading, 2 Corinthians 11:19-12:9, St. Paul boasts of His weaknesses, being told by the Lord Himself that His grace is sufficient. Put the two readings together, and we have a great way to prepare for Lent. Hearing the Word of our Lord's "Sufficient Grace" is what we need the most, because, after all, our gracious God plants His Seed on the Cross for us and for our salvation.

We were also treated to these fitting words from Martin Franzmann:

The sower sows; his reckless love
     Scatters abroad the goodly seed,
Intent alone that all may have
     The wholesome loaves that all men need.

Though some be snatched and some be scorched
     And some be choked and matted flat,
The sower sows; his heart cries out,
     "Oh, what of that, and what of that?"

Of all his scattered plenteousness
     One-fourth waves ripe on hill and flat,
And bears a harvest hundredfold:
     "Ah, what of that, Lord what of that!" (Lutheran Service Book 586:3-5)

Click here to download the audio file and listen to "Sufficient Grace."

Homily for Septuagesima

“The period of Pre-Lent is, so to say, the narthex in which we Christians pause for three Sundays before we begin our spiritual pilgrimage to Calvary in the great 40 days of Lent. It comprises the Sundays Septuagesima (70), Sexagesima (60), and Quinquagesima (50). These number-names do not designate exact periods of time until Easter but are rather to be considered only as general markers like the milestones of antiquity on the roads that led to Rome, in this case marking the general number of days we are from the Easter goal toward which we are traveling. From Septuagesima until the Saturday evening after Easter—on which the Easter octave in its strictest sense ends—there are 70 days.” (Ralph Gehrke, Planning the Service, 42)

For those who follow the Lutheran Service Book One-Year Lectionary, today begins the season of Pre-Lent--otherwise known as the "Gesimas." It also provides a great opportunity for a homiletical mini-series as we prepare for the great 40-day season of Lent. For this "narthex" to the season of Lent, one could easily and reasonably preach on "Grace Alone" (Septuagesima), "Word Alone" (Sexagesima), and "Faith Alone" (Quinquagesima)--and I have done just that in past years.

This year, however, we'll focus on the grace of God for all three Sundays of Pre-Lent. Today gave the opportunity to focus on our Lord's "Generous Grace." (Next week, we'll focus on "Sufficient Grace," and the following week, we'll focus on our Lord's "Sacrificial Grace.") The Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard most certainly shows our Lord's "Generous Grace" as He gives the "day's wage" of eternal life to all, regardless of when we enter His vineyard--the Christian Church--in order to labor. However, as we hear in this parable, our Lord operates His vineyard completely by His "Generous Grace," not by our works to negotiate a "fair wage."

To listen to "Generous Grace," click here and download the audio file.

Immanuel--at the Altar

Immanuel—at the Altar

It is Christmas. Have you found the way to Bethlehem? It is important to make straight the pathway of the Lord into your hearts. That duty is now done. Now take your pilgrim-staff and your gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. You will not have to stop off at Jerusalem to inquire the way. The Altar is your Star. There you find Bethlehem.

Bethlehem means “house of bread.” Indeed, “bread of life,” “staff of life.” You will come, then, as the shepherds came. You will kneel as they did in adoration. And if your vision of faith is clear enough, you will see at the Altar not merely bread and wine, but the Christ-Child, the Word made flesh. After Christmas? You will do the same as did the Wise Men. They went home by another way, not by way of Jerusalem. You will go another way, the way of new life. And with the shepherds you will make known abroad all that you have seen and realized. The confession—“Who for us men and for our salvation came down from Heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made man,” will be more than a vague truth, more than an historical event. Christmas will be an experience. You will truly understand the truth of the angelic words: “They shall call His Name Immanuel, which is being interpreted, God with us,” aye, Immanuel—at the Altar.

--Berthold Von Schenk (1895-1974) The Presence. p. ?? (Quoted in For All the Saints, III:135-136.)

The Lord's "Festive Board"

"Here Jesus is present for us bodily, as He is in the Liturgy of the Word, but now He is present in, with, and under bread and wine. To come to the altar and receive these gifts is to enter the Holy of Holies. Here at the altar we come to the new Jerusalem, to the mountain of His holiness: 'On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined' (Isaiah 25:6). Here we feast with Christ and all the saints at a banquet He has prepared for us."

Arthur A. Just, Heaven on Earth, 210-11

Luther's Illustration for the Wheat and the Tares

In preparing for this evening's Divine Service and preaching on the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds (Tares) in Matthew 13:24-30, I came across this gem of an illustration from Martin Luther. He uses the illustration of the human body to explain the meaning of Jesus' parable.

Whoever wants to be a Christian will have to put up with his worst enemies calling themselves Christians and with finding false teachers and false Christians in the midst of orthodox teachers and Christians.

The same is true of the human body; it is never totally pure and without blemish. It is not in the nature of our body to be flesh, blood, and bone in all purity. The body harbors certain impurities which it does not retain but expels. The mouth contains saliva; the stomach is full of waste matter; eyes, ears, nose have their discharges, and so on. But it is not at all proper to look at a little child and say, This is not a human being, but a snot-nose. Were a child's mother to hear this, she would retaliate, You scoundrel, what kind of a fool are you? Can't you see beyond the snotty mess? Can't you see the child has a sound body, a fine neck, beautiful eyes, and all the members of a natural sound human being?

So, just as it is true that the human body cannot be totally free of impurities, so also with Christendom, which is a spiritual body, it can never be without corruption and impurity on earth. Were we to eliminate matter, sweat, saliva, and impurities from our natural body, it would become weak. Better for the body to get rid of such impurities itself in normal cleansing manner than for its flesh and blood to become totally corrupt by retaining it. If the Christian church here on earth, therefore, were to be completely pure and without tares, without fanatics, sectarians, and non-Christians, that would not be a good omen. In fact it would be a sure indication that it is not a true spiritual body, that is, not the true church, just as the body cannot be a true natural body if it is without corruption; that the church is mere filth, just as the body putrefies when it no longer expels waste.

Martin Luther, House Postils, (Baker, 1996) 1:268, emphasis added; re: Parable of Wheat & Weeds, Matt. 13:24-30

Transformed by the Holy Spirit

It can easily be shown from examples both in the Old Testament and the New that the Spirit changes those in whom he comes to dwell; he so transforms them that they begin to live a completely new kind of life. Saul was told by the prophet Samuel: "The Spirit of the Lord will take possession of you, and you shall be changed into another person." Saint Paul writes: "As we behold the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces, that glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit, transforms us all into his own likeness, from one degree of glory to another."

Does this not show that the Spirit changes those in whom he comes to dwell and alters the whole pattern of their lives? With the Spirit within them it is quite natural for people who had been absorbed by the things of this world to become entirely other-worldly in outlook, and for cowards to become people of great courage. There can be no doubt that this is what happened to the disciples. The strength they received from the Spirit enabled them to hold firmly to the love of Christ, facing the violence of their persecutors unafraid. Very true, then, was our Savior's saying that it was to their advantage for him to return to heaven: his return was the time appointed for the descent of the Holy Spirit.

Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, Commentary on John [cited in J. Robert Wright, Readings for the Daily Office from the Early Church, 228-29]

Homily for Seventh Sunday of Easter

For Sunday's homily on the Seventh Sunday of Easter (Exaudi), I focused on Jesus' words to His disciples in John 15:26-16:4 (specifically, 15:26-27) that they would also - in addition to the Holy Spirit - bear witness to Him. With the theme and title, "Yes, You Will Bear Witness," I chose to use and expand on a favorite quote from Dr. Robert Kolb about how we Christians can never lay aside our call to witness; we can only practice it better or worse. Here's the full quote from Dr. Kolb:

"Believers are also called to give witness to their faith and the hope which lies within them. As a matter of fact, we cannot do otherwise. Our peace is reflected in our actions and raises questions from those who do not have it. when it is not reflected in our actions, we still are giving witness. Those who know we are Christians form impressions of Christ from our lives, whether good or bad. Those who do not know we are Christian still see some glimpse of what gives us our ultimate sense of identity, security, and meaning, and whether it is working or not. Our call to witness is one which we can never lay aside or avoid. We can only practice it better or worse." (Dr. Robert Kolb, Teaching God’s Children His Teaching, 8-10)

To listen to "Yes, You Will Bear Witness," click on this link and download the audio file.

Easter Homily - St. John Chrysostom

St. John Chrysostom lived and preached in the 4th century. He is considered one of the greatest preachers in the history of the Christian Church. His Easter Homily is well known and has been used for many centuries to proclaim the great Good News of our Lord’s Resurrection from the grave.

Is there anyone who is a devout lover of God?
Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival!
Is there anyone who is a grateful servant?
Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!

Are there any weary with fasting?
Let them now receive their wages!
If any have toiled from the first hour,
let them receive their due reward;
If any have come after the third hour,
let him with gratitude join in the Feast!
And he that arrived after the sixth hour,
let him not doubt; for he too shall sustain no loss.
And if any delayed until the ninth hour,
let him not hesitate; but let him come too.
And he who arrived only at the eleventh hour,
let him not be afraid by reason of his delay.

For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first.
He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour,
as well as to him that toiled from the first.
To this one He gives, and upon another He bestows.
He accepts the works as He greets the endeavor.
The deed He honors and the intention He commends.

Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord!
First and last alike receive your reward;
rich and poor, rejoice together!
Sober and slothful, celebrate the day!

You that have kept the fast, and you that have not,
rejoice today for the Table is richly laden!
Feast royally on it, the calf is a fatted one.
Let no one go away hungry. Partake, all, of the cup of faith.
Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!

Let no one grieve at his poverty,
for the universal kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again;
for forgiveness has risen from the grave.
Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free.
He has destroyed it by enduring it.

He destroyed Hades when He descended into it.
He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh.
Isaiah foretold this when he said,
"You, O Hell, have been troubled by encountering Him below."

Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with.
It was in an uproar because it is mocked.
It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed.
It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated.
It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.
Hell took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.
O death, where is thy sting?
O Hades, where is thy victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!
Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead,
is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!

Holy Thursday's Joy!

The happy commemoration of today's feast with its immense concourse of people invites us to prolong fervently our praises of the Most Holy Body of Christ. What could be sweeter, what more pleasing to the heart of the faithful than to exalt the abyss of his divine charity, and to glorify the overflowing torrent of his love! At the table of the new grace the hand of the priest distributes ceaselessly his Flesh as food and his precious Blood as drink, to those who are his children and heirs of the kingdom promised by God to those who love him.

O endless Emanation of the goodness of God and of his immense love for us, admirable and worthy of all praise! In this sacrament, where all former sacrifices are done away with, he remains with us to the end of the world; he feeds the children of adoption with the bread of angels and inebriates them with filial love.

(Thomas Aquinas, Lectionary and Martyrology, ed. Encalcat 1956, 288; as cited in J. Robert Wright, Readings for the Daily Office from the Early Church, 171.)

The Cross

Here's gem from St. John Chrysostom as we enter Holy Week and ponder the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and what it means for all of us:

The cross used to denote punishment but it has now become a focus of glory. It was formerly a symbol of condemnation but it is now seen as a principle of salvation. For it has now become the source of innumerable blessings: it has delivered us from error, enlightened our darkness, and reconciled us to God; we had become God's enemies and were foreigners afar off, and it has given us his friendship and brought us close to him. For us it has become the destruction of enmity, the token of peace, the treasury of a thousand blessings.

Thanks to the cross we are no longer wandering in the wilderness, because we know the right road; we are no longer outside the royal palace, because we have found the way in; we are not afraid of the devil's fiery darts, because we have discovered the fountain. Thanks to the cross we are no longer in a state of widowhood, for we are reunited to the Bridegroom; we are not afraid of the wolf, because we have the good shepherd: "I am the good shepherd," he said. Thanks to the cross we dread no usurper, since we are sitting beside the King.

That is why we keep festival as we celebrate the memory of the cross. St. Paul himself invites us to this festival in honor of the cross: "Let us celebrate the feast not with the old leaven, that of corruption and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." And he tells us why, saying, "Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed."

Now do you see why he appoints a festival in honor of the cross? It is because Christ was immolated on the cross. And where he was sacrificed, there is found abolition of sins and reconciliation with the Lord; and there, too, festivity and happiness are found: "Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed."

Where was he sacrificed? On a gibbet. The altar of this sacrifice is a new one because the sacrifice himself is new and extraordinary. For he is at one and the same time both victim and priest; victim according to the flesh and priest according to the spirit.

This sacrifice was offered outside the camp to teach us that it is a universal sacrifice, for the offering was made for the whole world; and to teach us that it effected a general purification and not just that of the Jews. God commanded the Jews to leave the rest of the world and to offer their prayers and sacrifices in one particular place; because all the rest of the world was soiled by the smoke and smell of all the impurities of pagan sacrifices. But for us, since Christ has now come and purified the whole world, every place has become an oratory.

(St. John Chrysostom, Homily 1 on the Cross and the Thief 1: PG 49, 399-401; as cited in J. Robert Wright, Readings for the Daily Office from the Early Church, 163-164)

Homily for Sexagesima

Sunday's homily, based on Luke 8:4-15, focused on Jesus' own interpretation of the Parable of the Sower, specifically the "interpretive key" that "The seed is the Word of God" (Luke 8:11). What happens when we take that "Word of God" in light of John 1:14 - "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us"? The Father plants His Seed - His only-begotten, beloved Son - in the field of the world, and His saving words and works are heard and received in different ways (the four soils). Thus, Sunday's homily was titled "The Divine Seed." Click here to download the audio file and listen.

Johann Gerhard gave a marvelous way of introducing this take on "The Divine Seed":

In His Creation, God the Lord not only made the earth fruitful with various and multitudinous seeds, but He also sowed a noble Seed into the heart of the first two people--it was, of course, the image of God. From this Seed within their hearts there was supposed to sprout up and grow forth the noble fruits of divine knowledge, as well as perfect love for, and heartfelt praise to, God. Indeed, the fruit of eternal life was to grow forth from this Seed in their heart. (Postilla, 199)

Homily for Last Sunday of the Church Year

November brought a reprieve from the pulpit on Sunday mornings, though only to concentrate on preaching several funerals as well as the normal Wednesday routine of Morning Prayer (school chapel) and evening Divine Service.

However, on 21 November it was great to get back in the pulpit for the Last Sunday of the Church Year (a.k.a. Trinity 27) and preach on the Gospel from Matthew 25:1-13. It's amazing how many different angles a preacher can take on a single text over the years. This time it was a joy to focus on the theme, "Don't Miss Out!"

Just click on this link to download the audio file and then listen to the homily.

Robert Farrar Capon's treatment of the parable of the wise and foolish virgins was certainly compelling throughout. But this quote, which also concluded the homily, was hard to ignore:

“’Watch therefore,’ Jesus says at the end of the parable, ‘for you know neither the day nor the hour.’ When all is said and done—when we have scared ourselves silly with the now-or-never urgency of faith and the once-and-always finality of judgment—we need to take a deep breath and let it out with a laugh. Because what we are watching for is a party. And that party is not just down the street making up its mind when to come to us. It is already hiding in our basement, banging on our steam pipes, and laughing its way up our cellar stairs. The unknown day and hour of its finally bursting into the kitchen and roistering its way through the whole house is not dreadful; it is all part of the divine lark of grace. God is not our mother-in-law, coming to see whether her wedding-present china has been chipped. He is a funny Old Uncle with a salami under one arm and a bottle of wine under the other. We do indeed need to watch for him; but only because it would be such a pity to miss all the fun.” (Robert Farrar Capon, Parables of Judgment, 166)

Circle of Spiritual Care for Pastors

Here's a great quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer on the circle of things that make up spiritual care for pastors:

The life of the pastor completes itself in reading, meditation, prayer, and struggle. The means is the word of Scripture with which everything begins and to which everything returns. We read Scripture in order that our hearts may be moved. It will lead us into prayer for the church, for brothers and sisters in the faith, for our work, and for our own soul. Prayer leads us into the world in which we must keep the faith. Where Scripture, prayer, and keeping the faith exist, temptation will always find its way in. Temptation is the sign that our hearing, prayer, and faith have touched down in reality. There is no escape from temptation except by giving ourselves to renewed reading and meditation. So the circle is complete. We will not often be permitted to see the fruits of our labors; but through the joy of community with brothers and sisters who offer us spiritual care, we become certain of the proclamation and the ministry.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Spiritual Care (Fortress Press, 1985), p. 69.

You Cannot Multiply Wealth by Dividing It

Here's a quote given the comments of my previous post on Socialism. After reading and pondering it just a bit, I think it's worth more than just comment status and so I'm putting "up front" in its own post. Thanks to DRG for posting it.

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom.  What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.  When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation.  You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

The late Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931 - 2005