Reformation Day Sermon

I try to avoid long posts on this page, mainly because I am lazy and often don't scroll down to see all of longer posts on other blogs. However, for Reformation Day we make an exception. Due to popular demand (ok, 2 people) I am posting my Reformation Sunday Sermon here on the blog. It is fitting, as it can sort of be seen as an appendix to the "What is a Lutheran?" series of posts (part 1, part 2, and part 3).

For those of you who, like me, don't want to scroll down, you can click straight to my other Reformation Day posts here and here.

Disclaimer: Like all sermons, the text of the manuscript is not necessarily the same as the text preached.

The Pursuit of God

Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.

On this Reformation Sunday, I want to talk with you some about why we are here.

Not the existential question “Why are we here on the face of this earth,” but why are we here at Saint John Lutheran Church.

For many of us in this congregation, we grew up in the Lutheran church. Our parents were Lutheran, and their parents before that. We were born into and raised in the Lutheran church, and we never left.

Others in this congregation married into the Lutheran Church. You grew up in another tradition, maybe Baptist, Episcopal, or Presbyterian, and married someone who was a Lutheran. Rather than worship at two different churches, you joined your spouse at the Lutheran church.

Still others live in the community surrounding this church. You come here to worship because it is the closest church to your house, and you want to be a part of this community.

I am one of those who grew up in the Lutheran church. By that I don’t mean that my parents brought me to the Lutheran church on Sunday morning, I mean that I spent the much of my childhood inside the walls of Lutheran churches – I grew up in the church.

Many of you know my story. My Dad was a Lutheran pastor, as was my grandfather and my great-grandfather. And not just them, my great-uncle and a number of my great-great uncles were also Lutheran pastors. All told, I am the 12th Lutheran pastor in my family.
In fact, I am so Lutheran that my Episcopal friends at the seminary I attended called me “Little Luther,” and once Julia and I started dating, they called her my “Katy.”
It would seem that I had little choice in being a Lutheran.

But in fact, just as you did, I did have a choice, and I continue to choose the Lutheran church; and I hope you will continue to choose the Lutheran church.

I could find the hymns that I love in the Baptist church.
I could find the liturgy that I love in the Roman Catholic or Episcopal Church.
I could find the emphasis on Scripture that I love in any number of non-denominational churches.

Yet, here I am, here we are, in Saint John Lutheran church. Why?

I can’t answer for you, but I know why I – in a world littered with different churches and different denominations – continue to choose the Lutheran tradition. And it starts for me with the story of Martin Luther.

Martin had just finished his undergraduate studies and was preparing for law school. He grew up in the church, raised by faithful parents. He went to religious schools for his entire education.
He was like many of us – a faithfully person living his life as best he could – yet not terribly committed to the church – after all, he was a college student.
It was then that he was caught just outside the forest in a fierce thunderstorm. With the rain pouring down on him, the thunder rolling overhead, and lightning flashing almost non-stop, young Martin saw no sign of shelter. So he called out to God for help, pledging to enter a monastery if God would save him from this storm.

Well, Martin did survive the storm. You can call it fate or chance, but Luther described it as God’s guidance that this young man who had big plans for a successful career as a lawyer wound up in a monastery.
In fact, Luther would say that God pursued him, leading him to a life in the church.

But it did not end there. Luther immersed himself in both the monastic and the scholastic worlds as he taught at the University of Wittenberg. He soaked in the Bible, teaching from the Old and the New Testament and preaching regularly in the Stadtkirche, the city church of Saint Mary’s.

Spending time as a monk in isolation, Brother Martin had a great deal of time to reflect on his life. In doing so, Luther realized how far he fell short of what he should be. He was very aware of his inadequacies and he failings. He was sure that he was unlovable – that even God could not love such a person.

But in his study of Scripture, Luther discovered something else. He discovered a God who loves us so dearly, that we are relentlessly pursued just as Luther was during that storm. He discovered a God who would send the only Son – not for the perfect people, but for the sinners. He discovered, above all else, a God and a Savior that will NEVER abandon us, that will stand by our side no matter how often we fail or how short we fall.

And Luther began to tell the world about this God. He began to talk about the God who adopts us as his own beloved sons and daughters in the waters of baptism, and never lets us go. He began to talk about the Christ who relentless pursues the lost sons and daughters of God into the darkest places of the world – not to scold them but to save them. He began to talk about the Spirit that transforms our lives, so that even while we continue to sin we become more and more God-like and Christ-like.

And, for a variety of reasons, what Luther began to say to the world got him into trouble. He was thrown out of the church. The emperor sentenced him to death and put a price on his head. So this young man, now about 35, who once had never thought about a life in the church, who thought he was unworthy of God’s love, went into hiding because of his proclamation of God’s love.

Luther went to a castle called the Wartburg, high on a mountaintop outside of the city of Eisenach. There Luther became depressed. He was sure now that God had abandoned him, that he was right to feel unworthy of God’s love.

But God’s love in Christ Jesus pursued Luther even to that mountaintop. There, once again, Luther encountered the light of Christ, creeping into even the darkest of places in his life. He dove back into the Scriptures, translating the Bible from the Latin into the German. And Luther left that mountaintop fortress even more convinced that God will never abandon those who are adopted as God’s sons and daughters in the waters of baptism.

Why do I continue to choose the Lutheran church?


Because I know that this life is often frightening, chaotic, and sad, and I need a Savior who will stand by my side especially in those dark, tragic times.

Because I know that there are times that I will fail, when sin will overpower me, and I need a Spirit that will strengthen and transform me.

Because I know that I will wander and that I will lose my way, and I need a God who loves me enough to pursue me and find me, who loves me enough to bring me home and never give up on me.

I continue to be a Lutheran because – as it did for Martin Luther – it all began here for me, in the waters of baptism, when Christ wrapped me up in his arms, and God said, “You are my beloved son, and I will pursue you wherever you go, and I will never let you go.”

And that, dear friends, is reason enough and grace enough for me.

For those who are interested, you can read more of my sermons here.

A Reformation Day Round-up

Just to remind us the it is not only Lutherans and other Protestants who pay attention to Reformation Day, you can find a reflections by a Roman Catholic here.

Kletos at the Amor et Labor blog posted these Reformer-O-Lanterns.

The ELCA homepage offers this perspective on the question What is a Lutheran? A few years ago, ELCA presiding bishop Mark Hanson wrote the following letter on Lutheran identity to mark the occassion of Reformation Day.

Reformation Day is a great opportunity to read some of Brother Martin's words, and Project Wittenberg is a great place to do that online. The 95 Theses would be especially appropriate today; Concerning Christian Liberty and the Preface to Romans are also good starting places.

Of course, the town of Wittenberg holds a special place in hearts of many Lutherans. Take a virtual tour of the city here. This includes a tour of the Schlosskirche (Castle Church) where Luther posted his 95 theses here. One of the little known facts about Wittenberg (one of two cities in Germany officially known as Lutherstadt), is that it is home to an ELCA research center creatively called "the ELCA Wittenberg Center."

Reformation Day 2006 also marks the seventh anniversary of the signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification by the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church. You can read more about the JDDJ here and here.

Finally, you can read the text of my Reformation Sunday sermon here.

I am sure that by the time tomorrow rolls around, there will be a whole slew of blogs posting about Reformation Day. But for now, perhaps this is enough to start off your celebrations.

Reformation Day

Reformation Day (Tues, Oct 31st) is fast approching. What a fitting time of the year to reflect on our Lutheran heritage, as we have been doing in the "What is a Lutheran" series of posts.

Like many Lutheran congregations, we celebrated Reformation Sunday yesterday. It was a wonderful service. We had the great joy of joining in the celebration of the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, as we welcomed Corbin William and Brandon Chase into the body of Christ. We also shared Holy Eucharist at both services (we normally only commune at 1 service each Sunday). It was an all-around wonderful worship experience.

As this was one of the major festivals of the church year, we pulled out the small altar table, and used on the large east-facing altar (or high altar). This was the first time I have celebrated communion facing east, and I enjoyed the experience (it added quite a bit of reverence and emphasized the importance of the day ... but I like our little altar table and wouldn't want to give it up for the usual Sunday morning service).

It was also the first time that, as the presiding pastor, I worked with my wife as the musician for a service (we have worked together before, but always when I was assisting as an intern/lay person). I think we both enjoyed it, and worked well together. I even got her to play "Ein Feste Burg" softly on the piano during the last third of my sermon (which worked very well).

Either today or tomorrow I will pull together some Reformation-themed links for you (including my Reformation Sunday sermon), in the meantime, enjoy browsing the Lutheran goodies at "Old Lutheran."

What is a Lutheran? Part 3

Part 1 of this discussion talked about what it is that makes Lutherans a part of the larger orthodox Christian tradition. Part 2 narrowed the conversation some, talking about the Lutheran understanding of the dogma of justification.

This discussion began when questions were raised about what it means to be a "confessional Lutheran." With Part 3, we come back to the concept of confessional Lutheranism.

At the Imperial Diet of Augsburg, the evangelicals (read: Lutherans) were asked to present a document outlining their belief. This document, known as the "Augsburg Confession," was written by Martin Luther's friend and fellow Wittenberg professor, Philip Melanchthon.

The Augsburg Confession (AC) opens with a discussion of the triune God and the person of Jesus. What is interesting in this is the emphasis on original sin, and the need for God's grace (thus bringing in the Lutheran emphasis on the dogma of justification). The AC goes on to discuss the evangelical understanding of the sacraments and the church, places where the Lutherans felt that they could reach some sort of agreement with the Romans. It finally discusses the areas were some sort of agreement was less likely; namely, the marriage of priests, the sacrificial understanding of the Mass, the rules about types of foods, monastic vows, and the powers of the church.

From early on, the AC has served as a rallying point for Lutherans. As the Lutheran tradition was learning what it meant to be seperate from Rome, the AC served to unite Lutherans of various factions. To subscribe to the AC was to "confess" the Lutheran understanding of the Gospel.

Among contemporary Lutherans worldwide, the AC remains the one unifying factor. Many Lutheran churches only require congregations and pastors to uphold the AC. Thus, while I don't believe it to be the only thing that it means to be a confessional Lutheran, I think it is the fundamental and central thing.

Here I stand as a Lutheran: I am shaped and formed - and I continue to choose to uphold - the Augsburg Confession.


From the Archives:
Part 1
Part 2
The original post/discussion about confessional Lutheranism.

A Re-cap of Evangelical Lutheran Worship

I thought it might be helpful to put all my posts on the new ELCA hymnal, Evangelical Lutheran Worship, together in one place. So here they are, the postings from prairie hill take on ELW.

This post was my initial post on ELW.

This is the letter circulating in opposition to ELW ...

And my response to the letter.

This post on the creeds arose out of the discussion about the translations of the creeds in ELW.

This was my reaction to the preview kits / cds that were mailed out to ELCA congregations and pastors.

***Update***
Finally, this is my reaction to looking at the book itself.

***Update #2***
Here is what it looked like when I compared the hymns of the LBW with those of ELW. These are my observations about that comparison.

Enjoy the trip through the archives! And, just for your amusement, I give you this opportunity to think about the fact that you can now furnish a church sanctuary by E-Bay.

The Challenges of Evangelism

The folks over at the "Ordinary Attempts" blog have posted a story from me about the challenges of everyday evangelism. You can check it out here.

Ordinary Attempts (and the other blogs from the Off-the-Map crew) are all about evangelism as a way of life, rather than a program of the church. They encourage us to think about how the everyday interactions we have with persons are opportunities - often through listening rather than speaking - to share our faith with the world.

You can read more about Ordinary Attempts here. You can read about the ideas behind Doable Evangelism and Ordinary Attempts here.

Back from Houston

I was in Houston today at the synod office for a meeting of the synodical Task Force on Immigration. It seems like a good group of people, and the meeting left me with a great deal to ponder between now and our next gathering.

My biggest concern was that the group was going to want to take a stand on the legal/political issues of immigration law and border control, and that that stand would alienate the members of our congregation. I felt as though that would keep us from being able to initiate real dialogue about the need to minister to and with the stranger in our midst.

Thankfully, it seems that that particular concern was unfounded. The focus of our conversation was on how to minister better, how to spread the Gospel better, and how to educate pastors and congregations about what it means to be an immigrant to this country. I think the more we can center this group on the Church's mission and ministry and let the state deal with the legal issues, the more we will be able to accomplish.

Blog Info

Just came back from Houston, and today my blog reached the watermark of having had visitors from 20 countries outside the US. Hello to Pakistan, Argentina, and China!

It is also fun to see what people are searching for when they find this site through the search engines. Recent searches that have brought people to my doorstep have been:

theological explanation of the new apostles creed elw
Augsburg confession October 15
what is a Lutheran
pastor david
pastor david hansen
ELW criticism feminist language
evangelism in rural people
evangelical lutheran worship


Just a nice little diversion to end my day. Happy blogging.

Immigration Task Force

At its last Synod Assembly, the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod adopted a resolution calling for the formation of an "Immigration and Refugee Task Force." This task force, according to the resolution, is charged with (1) educating congregations about the conditions of immigrants, (2) educationing about the various positions taken by lawmakers on immigration, and (3) educating about the needs of immigrants in our communities.

For some reason, the newly ordained pastor at Prairie Hill was asked to take part in this task force. With some reservations, and after considerable time of prayer and asking those I trusted for advice, I decided to go ahead and be a part of this committee.

So, as I prepare for my first meeting with that task force I wonder, should the church take a position on the legal issue of immigration? Is there a way to approach the issue of immigration and immgrants without alienating significant numbers of faithful church members?

It seems to be a quite complicated and sticky issue.

Homepage

If you haven't checked out the online home of Saint John Lutheran Church, Prairie Hill (the congregation where I am pastor), I highly recommend you take a minute to browse the site. It is regularly updated, and has some great content (thanks to our fantastic volunteer webmaster).

Some of the content on the site:
Under the evanglism page, you can read about this weekend's fall festival (which was a great event).

On the WELCA and Men's Ministries pages you can read about the opportunities offered at St. John for fellowship and study.

You can see the weekly worship bulletins here, and the latest announcements here.

The latest update is a new online caledar (click on the "church calendar" button).

Of course, what is a tour of the website without my shameless self-promotion? On the "Pastor's Desk" page, you can find links to selected sermons, newsletter articles, and other fun stuff from yours truly.

What I'm Reading

Feeling a little under the weather today, and I'm ready for the weekend. We're having our Fall Festival this Saturday, which looks like it will make for a fun and relaxing Saturday.

While in one of the chain bookstores in Bryan last week, I happened on a couple of books in the religion section that caught my eye. Right now I am reading Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith. I haven't read enough of it yet to have any real strong opinions of it yet. There has been some that I have disagreed with, and some that I have found very insightful. I am interested to hear from others who have read it (I know it has been in print for a while already). I look forward to sitting and reading some this weekend.

Another link has been added to the sidebar. Discovering Orthodoxy is a blog hosted by a member of the Eastern Orthodox church, and often has some very interesting comments on faith and life.

Another First

This weekend we have two baptisms. Next weekend, we also have two baptisms. It is great for the congregation of Saint John that we are able to take part in welcoming these children into the family of the Body of Christ, and I hope that all of you who will be there for these baptisms will have your faith strengthened by the experience.

And, this is another first: my first baptisms as an ordained pastor. During my seminary years, I assisted in a number of baptisms, and I did one emergency baptism in a hospital. But these are my first baptisms as the pastor.

The thought of it is quite humbling. To be able to represent Christ and his Church, sitting in the "front row" for this miracle of redemption. This is but one of the many reasons that I love my job.

Please pray for Soli, Olivia, Brayden, and Corbin - and their families - as we anticipate washing them in the life-giving waters of the sacrament of Holy Baptism.

Studio 60

I'm a television junkie. No, really. I'll describe how horrible a show, or a movie is, and then sit through the whole thing just to see if it gets any better. In the slew of new shows airing on network television, one has caught my eye: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

The show is created by Aaron Sorkin, who also brought us the West Wing. Now, I realize that West Wing was not for everyone ... it tended to be a little preachy, and made no apologies for only taking the politics of affluent liberals seriously. But Studio 60 misses that ... rather than speaking only to one small segment of the population, Studio 60 seems to aim right for the heart of America ... people who are not on the left fringe or the right fringe of American politics, but solidly in the center.

Here's why I think you should watch:
1) The main character (Harriet) is a Christian, but not a caricature. She takes her faith seriously, attends church, and reads the Bible. But she also pokes fun at churches, and distances herself from the extreme religious right.
2) The other main character (Matt) is an atheist. He dumps Harriet because of her faith. It is a wonderful depiction of the extremism of the left in America ... what we could call the arrogence of atheistic fundamentalism.
3) The dialogue is great.
3) It is one of the best treatments of religion and culture in television ... in fact, I am beginning to think that this is the closest that television has come to showing what real Christians are like.


You can catch up on the plot with the series and episode summaries here.

What is a Lutheran? Part 2

Post 1 talked about Lutherans as being Christians who follow the three ecumenical creeds. There is a great deal of content in those creeds, and we could talk about each aspect of them. However, I think that is more in line with the question "What is a Christian?" I would like to draw attention to what I feel are the two fundamental declarations of the creeds.

The primary affirmation of the creeds are the historic dogmas of the Trinity (three persons, one God) and of the person of Christ (divine & human nature, one person who died and rose again). While there is certainly more than this going on in the creeds, this is their primary affirmation. These two dogmas have historically been the bedrock of Christian faith.

For Luther, and for Lutherans, there is a third dogma that is fundamental to the Christian faith: justification. The dogmas of the Trinity and the person of Christ necessarily lead to the dogma of justification, and without the dogma of justification (from a Lutheran perspective) they do not make sense.

We are saved by grace, through faith. Or, to put it another way, we are restored to a right relationship with God only by God's action, freely given to us, on account of faith.

It is repeated again and again in Lutheran history, justification is the doctrine on which the church stands or falls. How we understand the way in which we are restored to a right relationship with God will directly affect who we understand God to be, how we understand the person of Christ, how we view the Gospel, and what we believe to be the mission and purpose of the Church.

Here I stand as a Lutheran: I believe that we are saved wholly by God's grace, through faith. Further, this understanding of justification is the third great dogma of the church.

Congregational Meeting

The congregation of Saint John Lutheran had its semi-annual congregational meeting yesterday. I think we must have finished in record time for a congregational meeting: 20 minutes.

Of note:
The 2007 budget passed without any questions asked.
Memorial funds were designated to purchase a new oven and a couple of items for our worship space.
There was only one objection to the move to Evangelical Lutheran Worship as our primary worship resource.
Volunteers were gathered for our new Stategic Planning Committee.

All in all, it was a good Sunday.

One question: our worship attendence was only 120. Normally, we have been worshipping between 140-150. What does this drop in attendence on the Sunday of the congregational meeting mean? Do people not care about our ministries? Or are they showing their disapproval by their absence? Or do they just try to avoid anything at the church called a "meeting"?

What is a Lutheran? Part 1

In some other posts, there has been some discussion about what makes one a Lutheran. PS brought to my attention that Lutheran churches and pastors do not always do the best job about educating people about what it means to be a Lutheran. Thus, I am starting a series of posts on What is a Lutheran.

The first thing that it means to be a Lutheran is to be an orthodox, catholic Christian. That is to say, to be a Lutheran is to be a part of that broad stream of Christianity that adheres to the three great ecumenical (universal) creeds: the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian.

Very often, we Lutherans spend so much time talking about what makes us distinctive, that we neglect talking about what united us with the Body of Christ around the globe and throughout time. Lutheranism is not an island. We are a part of something much larger -- and ultimately more important -- than just us by ourselves.

I have found that when people talk about the contents of the Book of Concord (the Lutheran Confessions, more on that later), they often pass right over the creeds. The creeds are too often left off of the list of the contents of the Confessions, and passed over in discussions of the Confessions.

Here I stand as a Lutheran: I believe in the Creeds.

The text of the three ecumenical creeds can be found here.

About Saint John Lutheran

When I started this blog, I wrote a short description about Prairie Hill, Texas. In the same post, I promised to write a little bit about Saint John Lutheran. Here it is.

Saint John Evangelical Lutheran Church, Prairie Hill, is a congregation of the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. We are located six miles north of Brenham, Texas, in Washington County.

The congregation of Saint John was founded in 1877 by Pastor C.C. Rudi. The original building stood where our current building is, but burnt down in 1912 (the story is that a kitchen fire at the parsonage got out of control). Out of the fire, the original altar and bell were preserved. I am the 12th pastor (not counting interims) to serve the congregation of Saint John since its founding.

Currently we have two Sunday morning worship services, and have an Average Sunday Attendence of around 150. Our membership is just over 450. In the context of the ELCA, we are a middle sized congregation. We are neither a smaller congregation (less than 100 ASA) or a larger congregation (over 250 ASA).

Saint John faces many of the same challenges as other mid-sized rural congregations. Often our volunteers are overworked, and there are questions about what the future holds for rural areas.
We face many of the same economic issues as other rural areas - rising costs, decreasing values. Further, like many rural areas, we have seen many of our young people drawn away by life in the city.

But we are also blessed with many gifts. We are a thriving congregation, filled with a sense of mission and a passion for ministry. We often gather together not only for worship, but for fellowship and learning. We continue to seek ways to minister not only to those already in this congregation, but to those in the wider community. We are blessed with able, excited volunteers.

At the present, we are discerning together what the future might hold for our ministries and mission. We are seeking, through prayer and conversation, to discover what new adventures God is preparing to lead us on.

Learn more about Saint John Lutheran Church on our website.

Noticing Your Pastor

Proclaiming Softly posted the following note about how to appreciate your pastor. Apparently, October is Pastor Appreciation Month and I didn't know it (read more here). I think it is easy for lay people to think that clergy are entirely self-sufficient, in need of none of the things that "normal" people expect out of life. PS's post (and the parsonage.org site) are wonderful reminders of the real needs of pastors.

Proclaiming Softly: Pastor's Appreciation Month

Evangelical Lutheran Worship -- Again

The preview kits for the ELCA's new worship book and hymnal, Evangelical Lutheran Worship, were mailed to pastors of the ELCA late last week. It includes 2 CDs with the new liturgical music, and a 15 min. DVD introducing the material. I have been listening to the CDs almost non-stop. Here are my initial thoughts:

1) Add this litugical music to the material that will be carried over from LBW and WOV and there is no way that any congregation will learn it all anytime soon. There are certainly more options than we will use here at Saint John.

2) Overall, the music is remarkably well written. It is singable and beautiful.

3) The traditional music is very traditional -- there are a couple new very beautiful chant settings for the liturgical music. The contemporary music (at least as they recorded it) it not as contemporary as I expected. But I like it. It is upbeat, while still holding to the traditional pattern for our liturgical music. I especially like the Kyrie and Gloria for Setting 8.

4) It is remarkably adaptable. I could see this music being performed with a variety of instruments, and in a variety of manners. The contemporary could easily be adapted to fit many situations and worship styles. I think there is even a real ability to mix and match pieces fromt the different settings.

Overall, I really like it. I've listened to it almost non-stop for 4 days because I wanted to be familiar with it, but also because I have really enjoyed it.

I placed my order for my personal copies during the sales for the third printing. The third printing has now also sold out, and Augsburg is taking orders for a fourth printing of ELW, which will not be available until February.

Links for Monday Morning

There is so much out there being written on at any given moment on the web. This is a little tour of some of the conversations that I find interesting.

Over at ChurchRater there is a conversation going on about the different expressions of the church. Which is more important: the individual Christian, the local community, or the supporting institution? Join the conversation here.

David at Here I Stand - while recognizing the benefits of the new worship resources - recommends that congregations make decisions about changing worship slowly and deliberately. His post is here. (You can see my initial thoughts about Evangelical Lutheran Worship here).

Pastor Clint at LutheranConfessions is writing about reviving the idea of pastoral care as the "cure of souls" here. He also has an excellent post about how we as Western Christians mis-understand about the use of icons here. An interesting topic, that I may follow up on at some point if I have time.

It's not a blog, but an interesting notice for anyone in this area: The St Olaf College Orchestra will be be performing at St. Martin's Epicopal Church in Houston on Thursday, October 19. If you have the chance to make it to Houston for this, you should not miss it. Admission is $20, but well worth the price. For those of you who live further north, the night before they will be in Dallas at Zion Lutheran Church (LCMS).

From another perspective, Mike at Extreme Fundamental Makeover (a Baptist), posts on the obsession we in the church have about numbers here. Worth a read.

That's all for today. Happy Columbus day, and enjoy your surfing.

On Authority

Bruce at "It seems to me ..." wrote an excellent post on Authority that I commend to you:
It Seems to Me...: faith and authority

I haven't had time to poke around the rest of the blog, but if it is as good as this post, then it is worth reading.

A Saint's Birthday

I just realized that today is the 75th birthday of Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa.

Bishop Tutu's book, No Future Without Forgiveness, is one of my favorite books on my shelf. I find it to be humbling and inspiring. Moreover (unlike so many other books on ethics) it is approachable and readable by anyone, whether you have a high school diploma or a master's degree.

The short story (with my apologies for all that I am leaving out). When the African National Congress came into power after the fall of apartheid government, they were faced with a choice. They could, in the style of the Nuremburg Trials after WWII, seek vengeance against those who had oppressed and persecuted them. Or, in the style of what had happened in many South American countries, they could grant amnesty to everyone who had wronged them, asking for a sort of "national amnesia."

Neither option was acceptable to the newly elected President Mandela, or his closest personal advisor, Bishop Tutu. What they opted for was a third option, a middle way. Forgiveness cannot happen if the wrong is not admitted. Vengeance would only further divide the country. No one would willingly admit their wrongdoing if they knew that they would face capital punishment for their sins.

And so the Truth and Reconciliation Committee was formed. At the TRC, white Afrikaaners came forward to admit what they had done. Mothers discovered how their children had died. The world saw the true horror of apartheid. Fathers could bury children who otherwise would have been considered "missing." In exchange for full disclosure, those who committed wrong were given amnesty. The TRC, and Bishop Tutu's leadership of it, is a shining beacon of the power and the cost of forgiveness.

It was my great pleasure, when I was serving on the Board of the ELCA's Lutheran Youth Organization, to see Bishop Tutu speak in Saint Louis in 2000. No one who has met the man could deny the life and vibrancy in his eyes, and the kindness of his heart.

Happy Birthday, Brother Desmond! May God continue to bless you and your ministry.

Side Bar Updates

The links and list of blogs in the side bar have been updated.

New links have been added to an online Bible Browser of the New Revised Standard Version, the ELCA's page about the new Hymnal - Evangelical Lutheran Worship, and to the text of the Augsburg Confession.

My blog list has a few new additions as well. "Lutheran Confessions" and "Here I Stand" are both blogs hosted by Lutherans. "Doable Evangelism" and "Ordinary Attempts" are blogs about how we, as people of faith, can better share the Gospel with the world.

In other news, during the quiet stillness of the night, my counter rolled over the 1,000 hit mark. In just over three weeks that this blog has been up and running, it has had 1,029 hits and 438 unique visitors. Thanks for your interest in the site, and for your comments that have made for such great discussion!

Pilgrimage

A group from Saint John Lutheran has just returned from a trip to see the Great Passion Play in Arkansas. From all accounts, it was a meaningful experience for everyone involved, and we are blessed to have been able to put together a trip like this. Thank you to our Evangelism Committee who made it all happen.

(Information and pictures of the trip can be seen here. One of those unusual connections: E. Fay Jones, the architect who designed the chapel in Eureka Springs, also designed the chapel for the School of Theology in Sewanee where I went to seminary. You can certainly see the similarities between the two buildings).

I had an opportunity to do something similar a few years ago, when I travelled to Germany to see the Oberammergau Passion Play in 2000.

Both of these events are part of a long tradition of presenting the events of our Lord's death and resurrection in a way that allows the faithful experience the drama of our salvation. The roots of the passion plays go back to at least the Middle Ages.

Christians were encourage to visit the Holy Land, especially the sites of Jesus' trial, death, and resurrection. Many came and traced the steps of Jesus' last days. However, many were unable to make the trip -- either because the cost was prohibitive, or they were unable to travel safely because of the wars in the Holy Land (some things never change).

In this way, the Stations of the Cross tradition began. The stations of the cross allow the faithful to walk the Via Dolorosa (the Way of Sorrows, the path Jesus took toward Golgotha) without going to Jerusalem. To this day, many Christians throughout the world continue to pray the Stations of the Cross, especially on Fridays in Lent.

Out of the Stations also arose the Passion Plays. One can see the Passion Plays as an extended version of the Stations. Of course, very few people could read at that time, and the plays were a way to present the people with the story of Christ's passion (from the latin passio and the greek pascho, both of which mean suffering).

Over the years, the Passion Plays themselves became the objects of pilgrimage. People would travel from all over to see the best dramatic representations of Christ's death and resurrection.

Now for the question: Persons in the Roman Catholic and Baptist Churches seem most likely to put on modern Passion Plays (The Eureka Springs and Oberammergau plays being great examples of this). Given our theological emphasis on Christ and him crucified, it would seem that Lutherans would have a special motivation to take part in presentations of the Passion. Where is the disconnect? Why have we abandoned this ancient and meaningful way to proclaim the message that we feel is at the heart of the Gospel?

The Lutheran Confessions

As we were having the discussion about what it means to be a "Confessional Lutheran," someone brought to my attention that not everyone may know what is meant when someone references the Lutheran Confessions. Let me offer to you this little note of explanation.

The Book of Concord was assembled in 1580, and is a sort of anthology of those writings that define what it means to be a Lutheran. The contents of the Book of Concord are as follows:

1) 1580 Preface to the Book of Concord
2) The Ecumenical Creeds (Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian)
3) The Augsburg Confession of 1530 (written primarily by Philip Melanchthon, was presented to the Emperor to explain what the Lutheran church believed)
4) The Apology (Defense) of the Augsburg Confession (Melanchthon)
5) The Smalkald Articles (written by Martin Luther)
6) Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope (Melanchthon)
7) Small Catechism (Luther)
8) Large Catechism (Luther)
9) Formula of Concord (written around 1580 to bring settle various doctrinal disagreements between different groups of Lutherans)

For some Lutheran churches in the world, only the Augsburg Confession is authoritative. For others, the entirety of the Book of Concord is authoritative. This is what is meant when people talk about the Lutheran Confessions.