The Gottesdienst Crowd

ON STEALING: WHY LOCKDOWNS ARE EVIL

by Karl Fabrizius

 

250 This is enough of an explanation of what stealing is. Let the commandment not be understood too narrowly. But let it apply to everything that has to do with our neighbors. Briefly, in summary (as in the former commandments) this is what is forbidden: (a) To do our neighbor any injury or wrong (in any conceivable manner, by impeding, hindering, and withholding his possessions and property), or even to consent or allow such injury. Instead, we should interfere and prevent it. 251 (b) It is commanded that we advance and improve his possessions. When they suffer lack, we should help, share, and lend both to friends and foes [Matthew 5:42]. 252 Whoever now seeks and desires good works will find here more than enough to do that are heartily acceptable and pleasing to God. In addition, they are favored and crowned with excellent blessings. So we are to be richly compensated for all that we do for our neighbor’s good and from friendship. Luther, Large Catechism I:250-252

After my sermon a couple of weeks ago, I was asked why I had referred to the government lockdown of businesses as stealing. To consider that, we must first reflect on the Seventh Commandment. In the Small Catechism, you learned that here God instructs you to protect the possessions and income that He has given to your neighbor. God desires that you be content with what He has given you and not scheme to take your neighbor’s property in a way that may appear right or in any dishonest way. Instead, He commands that you help and be of service to him in keeping it so that you improve and protect them. There are no exceptions to this, even in the case of the government or someone who feels like it is the right thing to do.

What is the connection to the lockdowns? Consider what the lockdowns have done. While large corporations, strip clubs, and casinos were kept open, many restaurants, bars, and small family-owned businesses have been crippled and forced to close. Owners had their businesses taken from them even though there was no proof that they were spreading the disease. They had to lay off employees, denying them wages. It was not the business, but the government that was stealing the wages. This leads to more stealing as taxes are increased on our neighbors. Work is good and holy under this commandment, but more people are once more living off the government instead of working for the good of our neighbors. Meanwhile, the government chooses to print money which leads to inflation and theft from our neighbor as prices escalate. Before COVID we were at record low unemployment, but lockdowns have forced people back under the umbrella of the government, closed legitimate businesses, and punished our neighbors. To quote Luther, the lockdowns have impeded, hindered and withheld our neighbor’s property.

The argument has been made that this will save lives, but the actual evidence is that depriving our neighbor of his business has not in any way slowed the spread or “saved a life.” States where the lockdowns are harshest have not slowed the number of cases. The actual fact is that people’s lives are being shattered, families are being torn apart because of financial tensions, drug and alcohol use has increased, and suicides are rising to all-time highs. Meanwhile, while I give thanks that we have not hindered people from supporting major corporations who employ our neighbors, we cannot condone the stealing from other neighbors. In the church, we must help our neighbor to improve and protect his property and business because it has been given to him by God. Let us speak up for our neighbor and protest the government selectively stealing from him.

Of course, stealing property and livelihoods has been coupled with stealing lives. Who has suffered the most from this? Who has had the most stolen from them?  The elderly, who have had their families stolen from them to “save lives.” Perhaps, the poor around the world who are being neglected while we who have so much are living in fear of a virus that 99+% of us will survive. And what about the children? Young children are not learning anything but fear and trembling as adults cannot smile and laugh with them, hug them, play with them, and when necessary express their disapproval. Children are not benefitting from in-person learning as many schools have closed. We push them into a bubble and forbid their interaction so that suicides increase. Surely, there are countless others who are falling between the cracks. Lord, grant that we repent of this behavior and wisdom finally prevails so that we once again recognize the importance of a free and open society if there is to be good for our neighbor.

Perceive, Know, Fulfill

by Jason Braaten

 

The first Sunday that follows the Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord always causes a slight struggle within me. The struggle is this. What should be observed on that Sunday: The First Sunday after Epiphany or The Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord? I have typically gone with the Baptism of Our Lord. But when I do, I always cringe at not having this collect:

O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of Your people who call upon You and grant that they both perceive and know what things they ought to do and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfill the same; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

This collect, I think, should be our prayer every day . It is always needed, and it seems, is needed all the more these days as we witness the turmoil in our nation and culture.

Actually, it seems that in this prayer we are asking God to rest His hand upon us and our environs so that we actually begin, not just to ask Him to open our eyes, but that we begin asking ourselves along with asking Him: what is it actually that we need to perceive and know and then faithfully fulfill. We are praying that He would enlighten us to our lack of perception and knowledge, to highlight that we are in need, and to give us His grace and power to begin fulfilling those things, perhaps even being filled with those things.

So what might those things be? What are the things that we ought to perceive and to know, and upon receiving that perception and knowledge to fulfill them by God’s grace and power? This is the fundamental question, isn’t it? To what shall we be committed toward those ends?

First, I think that we should perceive and know that we are in a war. I’m not talking specifically about the events leading up to and following the events of November 3rd (though I do think these events are revelatory in shaping what’s going on). I’m talking about the fact that we must remember we are the church militant, the fighting church. Our enemies are not of the flesh, as St. Paul says:

12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. – Ephesians 6:12

and again,

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. – 2 Corinthians 10:3–6

So we are in a war. But we are not waging a war of flesh and blood. But let’s not spiritualize this too much. We are still waging a war in the flesh. We are embodied souls, enfleshed spirits. We are living and breathing, flesh and blood creatures. And while it’s true that the way in which we wage this warfare is not according to the flesh, we are still waging it in the flesh. We still do, act, speak, argue. We do that to topple every stronghold of the enemy, to destroy every argument and highfalutin opinion that is raised against the knowledge of God. And we do that by taking every thought – ours and theirs – captive to the obedience of Christ.

And this raises the second point: How do we do that? How do we bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ? This includes two types of thoughts: our thoughts and others’ thoughts. So the first stronghold to topple is the stronghold of our own hearts and minds. And, having done that, then the second stronghold to topple is the hearts and minds of others. Jesus tells us to be careful about doing eye surgery on others when our own sight is obstructed:

3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. – Matthew 7:3–5

We must begin with ourselves. We must first get our own house in order. Otherwise, we are just raising Cain. This is done by the sweat of your brow. It is done by diligent study of the Scriptures, by reading and wrestling with our doctrine in the Confessions, engaging Luther, Chemnitz, Gerhard, and Walther. It’s done by reading good books in general. But I also think it must be done by manual labor. We must work with our hands, create things, fix things, work with material things and not live in our heads. We cannot be perennial walking and talking examples of the Dunning Kruger effect. There is no better way to realize your own failings and blindspots than working with your hands, building and fixing things. And doing that you begin to learn what actually works, what actually can be done, etc.

Weekly attendance at the Divine Service is paramount too. This is the place where we not only receive all the blessings of what Christ won for us by His Cross and Passion, but it is a place where we learn humility by being humble. There we confess our sins. There we submit to the teaching of another: God’s teaching through another man. But it’s there where we also learn to listen and to speak, how to listen and how to speak. By listening to the Word read out loud and preached, we’re being taught to perceive and know what we are to do, and then give grace and power to fulfill the same. We’re given a voice to speak the excellencies of His who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Those excellencies are not simply that God loves us and forgives us in Christ. Those excellencies are that we are actually, in flesh and blood, a new creation (weak though we may be, but new nonetheless). And that light enlightens us not just to the fact that we belong to God and are forgiven our debts, but a light that enlightens a path to live and walk in that our sin-darkened eyes, minds, and hearts would otherwise miss.

That means a brutal honesty about our sin. Consider, I mean it, consider your life in light of the Ten Commandments.

Have you been disobedient, unfaithful, or lazy? Have you been hot-tempered, rude, or quarrelsome? Have you hurt someone by your words or deeds? Have you stolen, been negligent, wasted anything, or done any harm? – Small Catechism on Confession

Really consider it. Are you lazy? Are you negligent? Are you wasteful? Do an accounting of your day. Really, do it. Cast those deeds against God’s Word and see if it’s shattered or crushed.

We have all been put in specific places by God, that is, we all have a calling from God in family, church, and society (and by society, I am not referring to global or national politics. I mean local, where you actually live, your community, your neighbors, those with whom you share a fence and property line, those you shop for groceries, etc). We must focus on these local things: the local church, the immediate family, the local society/community. It’s here where you stand your ground, so to speak. It’s here where you are on guard duty (Ephesians 6:10–20). For it is there, where you have been given an opportunity take down the strongholds of others who also walk in the flesh. It’s there where you have been put, commanded, exhorted to do this.

What do you do for them? You draw near to them; you be a neighbor to them (Luke 10:25–37). Or as the author of the Book of Hebrews puts it:

2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. – Hebrews 13:2

Here you do human things. You converse over the fence. You have them over for supper. You pray with them when they tell you something is not going well. You give gifts, you share the bounty of the garden or the hunt. You tell them the truth when the truth needs to be said. You are always ready to give a defense for what you believe with a spirit of gentleness. You do human things for and with those for whom Christ died.

We are in a war. We are walking in the flesh. But we do not wage the war according to the flesh. The weapons we employ are mighty. They are the weapons our Lord employed in His every interaction while in the flesh – teaching, arguing, serving, praying, healing/caring, hospitality, forgiving, and dying. He knew what must be done. He told us what must be done. And He did it. May we always, following His example, by God’s grace and power perceive and know what we ought to do and by that same grace and power fulfill the same.

Politics flow downstream from culture. And the culture along with its politics seems more than ever to stand squarely against the church. St. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, "³ For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. ⁴ For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. ⁵ We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ . . . ." What are the weapons of the church's warfare against the strongholds of this world's culture? What should Christians stock up on, so to speak, so that they are ready to engage in the war that we are undoubtedly in? 

Larry Beane (pastor of Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA, and Departmental Editor of Gottesdienst: the Journal of Lutheran Liturgy) walks us through the anti-Christian sentiments of our culture and its strongholds, so that we may be to identify them and then topple them by taking every thought captive to the obedience to Christ. 

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Waiting until things get back to normal . . .

by Jason Braaten

 

There is a sense among the clergy ranks that we need to wait to begin doing things until the pandemic is over, until things get back to normal. On top of this is the fear that what we do during the current pandemic climate will be poorly received by the world because we’re in a pandemic. Besides the fact that the world is going to be the world and will always find an excuse to hate what the church does, I think this type of thinking is leading us to be comfortable with the status quo.

So here’s the thing: If the pandemic is real, then we have every reason to be bold in our preaching of the gospel, setting forth biblical truths against this world’s culture of death and defeat, and showing hospitality as our Lord sets forth in the holy Scripture. If the pandemic, however, is not real, if it is overblown and not as bad as the media and our governing authorities make out to be, then we have no excuse for not being bold in our preaching of the gospel, setting forth biblical truths against this world’s culture of death and defeat, and showing hospitality as our Lord sets forth in the holy Scripture. Either the pandemic is real, or it is not real. Therefore, we should be bold in our preaching of the gospel, setting forth biblical truths against this world’s culture of death and defeat, and showing hospitality as our Lord sets forth in the holy Scripture.

Let me explain:

If the pandemic is real. If it’s as bad as the media and our governing authorities make it out to be, then there is no greater time that the world needs to hear the message of the gospel, there is no greater circumstance where we need to be bold in our proclamation of the truths of Scripture of finding ways to combat the onslaught of this world’s present darkness with the gospel of light. If it’s what everyone is saying it is, there is no greater time and every reason to find ways to connect with people, face to face, by any means possible. If it’s as bad as they say it is, we can’t wait for it to be over. We have to let our life and conversation reflect the truth of the resurrection of Jesus.

If, however, the pandemic isn’t real. If it’s not as bad as the media and the governing authorities say it is. If it is being overblown and hyped, then we have no excuse for not doing all of the above, for not letting our life and conversation reflect the resurrection of Jesus.

This same argument should be used from the perspective of our members. If the pandemic is real, there is no greater time to make use of the Lord’s gifts in Word and Sacrament and gathering together with the saints. If the pandemic is not real, there is no excuse for us not to do so. Either it’s real or it’s not real. Therefore, we should make use of the Lord’s gifts in Word and Sacrament and gathering together with the saints.

The church lives in the world. But it doesn’t get its directions and orders from the world. We are in a battle, but we don’t wage war according to the flesh, with the weapons of the flesh. Our weapons are, on the contrary, mighty. They are not of this flesh and of this world. They are mighty because they belong to the Lord, where we bring every thought and action into submission of Christ. We can’t hide while the battle rages. We must engage in the battle for the right side because there really is no middle ground. We don’t let our theology excuse us from action, but our theology is the reason we do act. We aren’t lazy for the Lord and the things of God but zealous.

Let us resolve this year to act and to work because we have every reason to do it and no excuse not to.

Expertise, Vocation, and Gordon's Rule

by Larry Beane

 

A pastor that I like and respect made the following observation on social media:

I know it's been said before, but I honestly had NO idea so many pastors were in reality experts on political science, medical science, disease control, economic theories, and the like.

Clearly I went to a different seminary where they only taught us about Jesus.

I'm cool with that, though, I guess. I mean, since talking about Jesus is my job, I don't mind just knowing about Him.

Obviously, he’s being a little cheeky and addressing an issue of someone going “out of his lane” and speaking to something that, in the opinion of this pastor, he is not qualified to address. I get that. But I think he is taking things too far. And my disagreement with him should not be seen in any way as disrespect. But I do disagree.

His comment made me think about the cultural tendency to dismiss what pastors might say with a flippant wave of the hand and a facile roll of the eye, because, they’re, well, pastors. Aside from the “religion thing,” what could a pastor possibly say that could have any value? I’m reading the great satirical wartime military novel, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. The attitude of all of the characters toward the squadron’s chaplain is illustrative. He is seen as having no value in the “real world” whatsoever. And he has come to agree with them.

Interestingly, in the “real world,” many of the greatest minds in the history of science have been clergy, who have also historically been great writers, poets, philosophers, artists, and professors.

Just in my own circle of friends in the world of the clergy, I know pastors who are indeed medical doctors, lawyers, military personnel (including a rear admiral, a colonel, a JAG, and a Navy captain - the latter of which happens to be a retired fighter pilot). I know pastors who are musicians and composers: classical, choral, rock and roll, and even one who plays the banjo (you might know him too). I know pastors who are experts at woodworking, cars, motorcycles, firearms, hunting, farming, leadership and management, literature, film, body-building, health and fitness, baseball, martial arts, comedy, bicycling, running, and a few aficionados and connoisseurs of wine, scotch, and cigars. A good number of pastors are teachers and professors in many and various subjects from grade school to grad school. Many are fluent in several ancient and modern languages. Increasingly, pastors are bi-vocational, and having multiple areas of skill is a matter of survival.

In my own life, I’ve worked retail, loaded trucks in a warehouse, been a corrections officer, had a career as an IT consultant, and recently, was a pretty darn good Uber driver and New Orleans tour guide (if I do say so myself). I’m also a fire service and Civil Air Patrol chaplain. I have been a HAM radio operator for 45 years now (though I don’t purport to be knowledgeable on the state of the art of radio as it exists today - but back in the day as a pre-teen, I could keep up with the grizzled WW2 veterans when it came to sending and receiving Morse Code at 50+ words per minute). I was a Latin teacher based almost entirely on self-study. I currently also teach high school, and my coursework includes economics, political science, American history, and literature. So I consider myself a ongoing student of all of these topics as well. I take my study in economics and political theory very seriously, and do a lot of reading in those areas. Whatever I want to learn, I always try to be the dumbest guy in the room - and for some of us (as in myself) this is not a difficult thing. I find that to be a great way to learn a topic well and quickly. It would be strange indeed if I knew nothing about my subject areas in my concurrent vocation as teacher.

It goes without saying that I have picked up a few skills along the path of life - in spite of my highest academic degree being a BA in History (the MDiv is not an academic degree). And it also stands to reason that most things I’m terrible at (like everyone else). We’re all good at different things. But I suspect most of us pastors do have skills and knowledge that have nothing to do with theology. We should not see ourselves and other pastors (and laymen of both sexes) like the hapless Chaplain Captain Tappman in Catch-22.

Most pastors also have other vocations that include being husbands and fathers. And though society treats these holy vocations as if they were a joke, these are among the most important callings of all - and being adept in these familial roles in no way takes away from a man’s role as pastor. In fact, they are an addition rather than a subtraction.

And for a pastor who is an American citizen and who votes, he should know a thing or two about American history, political theory, the Constitution, and political science in general. He really also ought to know something about economics, since politics often touches upon it. As far as medicine and disease control go, if one has certain equipment, one ought to read up on how to use and maintain it. And this goes for the human body as well. Every owner and operator of a physique would do well to study, research, and have a sense of keeping the apparatus going. This is not to say that every body-owner should charge money to treat other people, but by the same token, knowing a thing or two about diseases and treatments should not be seen as stepping out of one’s vocation unless one has a medical doctorate.

And everything that I have just said about pastors can, and does, apply to the laity as well.

For example, I have nurses in my congregation who are a great resource for medical advice (I had a medical doctor in the parish, but he is now with the Lord). I also have parishioners whom I ask for advice who have no medical training, but who have expertise and experience in natural medicine and supplementation. The last medical doctor I went to admitted quite frankly that a lot of medical doctors are quacks. He is himself a dissident on the government line on masks and Covid. So whether one has a degree or not, caveat emptor (buyer beware) still applies. Professionals can, and do, disagree with each other. It would be scary if they didn’t.

I have a friend who is a literature professor who has published many outstanding books on military history - with no formal training or certification in that field. I know many people who have never set foot in a university, but who are among the smartest, wisest, and most skilled and erudite people that I know. One would be crazy not to seek out their counsel. I have a parishioner who is an associate concertmaster philharmonic violinist who works as an auto mechanic, is a devoted husband and father, and who is one of my top go-to resources when it comes to cocktail mixology.

That is the glorious reality of the doctrine of vocation.

I live in South Louisiana, and most people would not believe how many completely untrained, unlettered chefs there are from every walk of life in these environs, whose cuisine is, as they say, “to die for.” And in this part of the country, men often “wear the apron” in the family, as the kitchen may well be as much his domain as is the garage. Indeed, grease may be used to fry a turkey or lube a motorcycle chain. And the guy doing both might well be a state Supreme Court justice or a shelf-stocker at Walmart. Nobody bats an eye.

The Lutheran doctrine of vocation is not a slavish reliance on technocracy and experts with a piece of paper from an academic institution or the state.

In fact, it was our tradition that forged ahead with opening the Bible to ordinary people so that they could read Scripture for themselves, so as not to rely solely upon theological experts - who were often hoodwinking them. And a person may well have a vocation for something not based on a degree or certification, not based on a government license or trade union card - but simply based on self-interest and self-study. Thanks to the Internet, it has never been easier to become an expert on just about any topic without paying a dime of tuition. This is not to say that everybody is an expert. Far from it. But neither should we assume that someone isn’t an expert without letters behind his name, nor uncritically accept the word of those who do.

We should use discernment.

A friend of mine named Gordon is an attorney. We have attended the same economics seminar and book club for many years. When I first met Gordon, it seemed like he knew everything about everything. At first, I suspected that he was a common blowhard, along the lines of the court-holder from the classic Robert Ringer book Winning Through Intimidation. But, my goodness! Was my suspicion ever wrong! I learned quickly that Gordon really does know everything about everything, like the proverbial Jeeves from the P.G. Wodehouse books. No matter what topic pops up: Japanese culture, the Cuban revolution, economics, philosophy, jurisprudence, American history, warfare, - pretty much everything - he can hold his own with the experts, but in no way comes off as arrogant. Gordon told us his secret. From the time he was quite young, he made a commitment to himself to read for two hours a day. The topic doesn’t matter. Just read.

And so, whether Gordon has a degree in this or that really doesn’t matter. He is a cornucopia of knowledge. Indeed, in this day and age, it is easier to become a renaissance man than it was during the Renaissance.

Pastors, I would encourage you to adopt Gordon’s Rule. And that goes for laymen of both sexes as well.

The Sacrament of the Star

by Jonathan Shaw

 

        Today the Christian Church celebrates the riches of God’s glorious grace manifested for us sinners in the Epiphany of our Lord.  Wise men from the East led by a star and the Word fall down before the Christ Child to worship Him, offering gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

        To manifest means to show or reveal.  Whereas Christmas demonstrates the lowliness of our Savior born in the humblest of circumstances, Epiphany shows the glory possessed by the Son of God from all eternity breaking into our lowly world as Light shining in the darkness.  The season of Epiphany bears witness to Jesus as the true God and Savior through star, Word, and wise men; worship, promise, and baptism; miracles, signs, and visions . . . leading us to awe, joy, and comfort.

        The star documented in the Epiphany account of St. Matthew 2:1-12 bears special consideration as it is usually misunderstood.  “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?  For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him’” (St Matt 2:1-2).  These wise men, literally Magoi, were probably from Babylon.  In the Book of Daniel, the Magoi are often called Chaldees or the wise men of Babylon (Dan 2:48).  Remember that God had made Daniel chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon, when the tribes of Judah were taken into exile around 586 BC.  Through Daniel, the wise men would have been instructed in the Holy Book of Israel, the Torah.  Although they didn’t have all of the Scripture, they had its critical core, promising that God would send a Savior, the eternal King, through Israel.  In particular, they had the Numbers 24:17 star prophecy: “I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; a Star shall come forth from Jacob, and a Scepter [of a King] shall rise out of Israel, and batter the brow of Moab, and destroy all the sons of Sheth.”  The wise men awaited a star that was coming to mark the birth of this King from God, who would establish a spiritual kingdom and destroy sin and death (Moab and Sheth).  This truth, revealed by the Word of God, would have been passed down from one generation of wise men to the next, each looking to the heavens for the fulfillment.

        Finally, a spectacular star arose in the East, apparently at the time of Jesus’ conception by the power of the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary.  Many scientists have undertaken to figure out the nature of this phenomenon.  Using Kepler’s laws of planetary motion and computer analysis, some scientists calculate that at the time of Jesus’ conception, and again at His birth, there was a unique conjunction of the planet Jupiter (the so-called King of Planets) with Venus (the so-called Mother Planet), which would have appeared to the naked eye as a single, brightest-ever star (http://www.bethlehemstar.net).  The how is open to discussion, but the fact that God caused the miraculous light in the heavens is not.  The wise men trusted God’s Word, they saw the star, and they understood it correctly as the fulfillment of the Word of God, the sign of the long-awaited Savior, the King of the Jews.

        It is important to note that unlike certain carols suggest, the star disappeared.  It was the star which they had seen in the East, at its rising (St. Matt 2:9).  The wise men were required to walk not by sight following a star, but by faith following the Word of God.  A 1,500 year old promise, delivered to fellow wise men some 600 years past, would have certainly required significant financing for the journey and likely drawn ridicule from colleagues and neighbors.  But the wise men drew strength from the sacrament of the star and walked in faith according to the promise of the Word.

        They set off for Jerusalem, the Jewish capital.  It would be logical for the Jewish King to be born in the capital, a gleaming city with solid fortifications, a rich temple and worship center, and an educated people.

        The problem was that the wise men did not have the full Word of God, only the Torah.  They did not have the prophets, to include the prophecy of Micah 5:2: “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a Ruler who will shepherd My people Israel.”  Herod provided this Word, by way of the chief priests and scribes, and off went the wise men immediately, continuing their journey, now on their way to Bethlehem.

        So it was that “when they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was.  When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.  And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him.  And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh” (St Matt 2:7-11).  Note well: Only after they had left Herod and the power center which was Jerusalem, only then did the star reappear which they had previously seen in the East.  Then they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.  It led them to the Christ Child, their newborn Savior and King!

        St. Matthew’s account brings the sacrament of the star together with faith in the promise to reveal Christ, our great Savior and King, as Light shining in the darkness.  The wise men did not listen to cultural voices of doubt, ridicule, or so-called common sense.  They were not dissuaded by the fact that Jesus was not to be found among the rich, the educated, or even the religious elite of Jerusalem.  They turned a blind eye to fact that they had to enter the small, back-water town of Bethlehem and come into the presence of a peasant woman and her poor Son.  Against all power, against all perceptions, against all personal prejudices, they held onto and believed the simple Word of God, testified to by the sacrament of the star, and were received into the presence of Christ.  They fell down and worshiped Him.

        This is what wise men still do.  By Sacrament and faith they are received into the presence of eternal, enfleshed Christ.  There they worship, there they offer back to Go

Who are the men behind the liturgical renewals within our Synod? Who are the men at the tip of the spear when it came to talking about the importance of retaining the historic liturgy, rites, and ceremonies of the Western Church? The next installment of the liturgical biographies we're going to cover is Paul H.D. Lang. Mark Braden (pastor of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Detroit, MI, and Departmental Editor of Gottesdienst: The Journal of Lutheran Liturgy) walks us through his early ministry, highlights some of his writings, and then dives into two of his most notable works: What An Altar Guild Should Know and Ceremony and Celebration. This is part two of a two-part series. 

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• You can subscribe to the Journal here: https://www.gottesdienst.org/subscribe/
• You can read the Gottesblog here: https://www.gottesdienst.org/gottesblog/
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A Postmodern Society That Won't Consider Evidence

by Burnell Eckardt

 

There is in my view a strong connection between the philosophical characteristics of what is called postmodernism and the rather mind-boggling things that have been foisted upon our society in the past several months.

Maybe it began when Jean-François Lyotard brought the term “postmodern” into the philosophical lexicon when he published La Condition Postmoderne in 1979, but then again maybe it was when Ludwig Wittgenstein delved into language games and other nonsense back in 1953. Lyotard saw philosophy as seeking to legitimize new narratives for science in the form of “the dialectics of Spirit, the hermeneutics of meaning, the emancipation of the rational or working subject, or the creation of wealth” (Lyotard 1984 [1979], xxiii), whatever that means. But maybe such language games are really the product of Wittgenstein. Honestly I don’t have the patience to delve much into it (if you really want to, have at it). Playing with language wearies me, probably because pastors must deal with truth and objective reality.

In short, when I think of postmodernism, I think of the scuttling of objective truth, and that is something our society has become very good at. So, for instance, we have people thinking they can be whatever gender they choose, without regard for the physical plumbing they were born with. Or people who prefer to ignore that fact that, biologically, babies are really people, both inside and outside of the womb. And that willful ignorance was writ large already in 1973, as we all know.

What was once a new thought, not to say ridiculous, is now a somewhat old adage: What’s true for you is true for you and what’s true for me is true for me. That is, simply put, postmodernism in a word.

So I can’t help thinking that the societal and political climate of 2020 is an outgrowth of this madness, and it has produced more madness. The media are culpable, routinely providing unsustainable opinion as newscasting.

So for instance, what we could easily see and recognize as riots and violence last summer they didn’t see, or didn’t choose to see. They called it peaceful, or largely peaceful. And we saw the obvious mayhem everywhere and we said, What? How in the world? What are you smoking? But they didn’t care, because of the permission postmodern had given them to do so.

And they think the idea of defunding the police might even have merit. Why? Because, well, why not? It’s all relative; it’s all what we want to call our truth.

And so on.

And so also—here’s where I may be venturing in, I know, where angels fear to tread—there is this election business. I simply can’t help wondering, and being stunned, really, by the mountains of evidence of fraud which I have heard and seen for myself, hundreds of sworn affidavits, numbers that don’t add up, etc. It’s right there for anyone to see. But there are so many who refuse to look. The only response I ever hear from the other side is that it’s been looked at and set aside by the courts, by legislatures, by politicians, by a great host of people. But will someone, any one of these people look at the evidence themselves? and respond to that? or are thousands making this all up? was there really some miracle by which somehow a few key regions in the country suddenly came up with just enough votes to push Biden alone, without any coattails, over the top? They won’t explain this, or even acknowledge the possibility of there being evidence to the contrary. And I wonder, why not? Whether a person is Republican or Democrat, whether he voted for Trump or Biden, or didn’t vote at all, it shouldn’t matter, because there’s something there that needs investigation, right? But no. Heavens, not even the Wall Street Journal wants to look. I note that at least The Federalist has been looking deeply into all this, beginning with this eye-opener right after the election (go ahead, read it if you don’t believe me), and the refusal of people to look at the evidence, for anyone who wants to see. Recently they wrote on it again. Why don’t people look?

Yes, why not? Well, maybe, I can’t help wondering, it’s postmodernism, or at least, in the case of people who should know better, the deleterious effects of its influence on unsuspecting minds.

The consequences are not merely political, either. For how can we preach the Gospel to a people who don’t want to acknowledge the existence of evidence, or proof, or truth? We find ourselves, like Jeremiah, needing to warn people about the prophets who prophesy lies. Yes, there are liars, and they lie. And there are, sadly, people who just believe the lies. We cannot settle for the true-for-you kind of mushy thinking, because there are lies, and there is truth. And ultimately, it is true-objectively true— that Jesus is the incarnate God, that he came down from heaven, that he gave his life into death, and that he rose from the dead, and that hundreds of people saw this and bore witness to it. And there is, objectively, sin and righteousness, right and wrong, and finally, heaven and hell.

And there is still one thing that the postmodernist cannot deny, though he will try. There is death. Play with words all you want, but you cannot play with the graveyard, though you can whistle in it. So you can call funerals “celebrations of life,” and you can speak in platitudes of death as a beautiful passing, a circle of life. But you can’t get around it. Who knows, maybe that’s even at least partly why the fear of COVID is so irrationally gripping for so many people, to the extent that they are willing to give up freedom and everything else just to ensure somehow that they don’t die. But people die every day, some days more than others, as it has been since the beginning of the world, and when you must look at the numbers it can be frightening. We are going to die. And there is really only one vaccination against that, and only the Church has it.

I don’t really think that what I am posting here is political commentary. It’s about what kind of madness the Church is faced with. Because people who are not interested in evidence won’t be too interested in even beginning to consider the words that God has to say to them either, the words they really need to hear, alas. Because they have come to the point that they’re really not too interested in anyone else’s words at all. And so the world slouches toward Gomorrah.

Let there be light: a meditation on the incarnation

by Burnell Eckardt

 

It came to mind during the past year that while Genesis 3:15 is often referred to as the protoevangelium, or first Gospel, with its announcement to the serpent that the Seed of the woman would crush his head, there is actually an earlier protoevangelium of sorts. Arguably the first Gospel is found already in the first thing God ever said, namely, “Let there be light.” I preached this on Christmas Day this season:

              In the beginning was the Word. And this Word was with God, and this Word was God, for God is one. And that which came forth from him in the beginning was God, was Let there be light. And therefore there was light. For the world had been shrouded in darkness, thick darkness, oppressive darkness, as the Spirit of God brooded over the deep. But here was a prophetic word, a word that dispersed the darkness and the gloom, a word that would henceforth and forever be bound to the Spirit of God that hovered over the waters. For from then on, the Spirit and the Word would never be found separate but always together.  For the Spirit that hovered required an accompanying Word of God, even as it is today. Never can the Spirit of God be found where the is no Word, no Gospel. And so the Word sounded forth in the beginning: Let there be light, and there was light. Behold, there was light. And the light shined in the darkness, and brought order to a world that had been formless and void. The Word thus separated the waters that were above from the waters that were beneath by a firmament called Heaven. And the Word brought forth dry land out of the waters, and the Word assigned the light to substances, to bodies, to heavenly bodies: the sun and the moon and the stars. And the Word filled the waters and the heavens with life: birds and fish of all kind, living, and breathing, and reproducing (for the Word is never void or dead, but full of life). And the Word then filled the earth with life, with beasts and all manner of creeping animals. And then, the Word took of the earth and fashioned a man, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. And behold, this man, unlike any of the other living things, was made in the image and likeness of God. Here was God’s crowned creation, the reason he made all other things, to culminate and finish in man. This was all the work of the Word, which was with God and which was God, the Word bound to the Spirit of God and making all things, the Word, I say, creating at last man in his own image.

And so it was that in the fullness of time, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The Word, now at last fashioned as the very image and likeness of God, the Word, who in the image of God was first foreseen in Adam, the Word, who from the beginning had intended this, that he should become one with his creation, the Word which first shined in the darkness, the Word, which was Let there be light, and there was light.

And nothing could dissuade the Word from his aim, nothing could render it ruined. For the Word was God, and with God nothing shall be impossible. So nothing could stand in his way: not a disobedient man and his wife, not a ruined Garden, not a world then filled with a history of darkness and ruin and horror and terrors and wickedness and murder and death.  Nothing could stand in his way. For the word was, Let there be Light, and there was light, and the light shines. The darkness and the void of the world at the first could not stop this, nor can any darkness today stop it: no sin, no terrors in the way, no orders that all the world should be taxed, no cold Bethlehem night without lodging, no murderous Herod, no cruelty, no corruption, no thievery, no brutality, no disasters, no sickness, no pandemics, no mortality, no death, no grave. Nothing could stop this from happening, for the Word was Let there be light, and there was light. Behold, there was light, because the Word was, Let there be light! And so it was that the light of the world became flesh: the Word himself became flesh. He came down from heaven, to rescue a world enshrouded in darkness and misery and sin and death. He came down to us, as it is written, Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness.

Or did you think righteousness was unattainable? Did you think Adam’s fault was too great to be undone? Did you think sin and guilt were too great? Did you think mankind must at last be excluded? For all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way. So did you think it too much to be atoned? Did you think the darkness was too deep, too great, too overwhelming? For, alas, how overwhelming it sometimes seems to be, and how bitterly we sometimes come to lamentation and grief and sorrow! Did you think your tears must forever flow? Did you think there is gloom and despair and terrors that await us in the end? Did you think the darkness was too deep, too great, too overwhelming? Did you think it too much for the righteousness of God to undo? Did you think he had somehow lied when he said, Let there be light? But God cannot lie, for he is the Truth. And thus when he said, Let there be light, there was light! For God alone is true, and every man a liar. And the righteousness of God has come to earth, when the Word became flesh. And in beholding his glory, that is, in believing that he is  the Christ, the Son of God, you shall have life through his name; for his righteousness shall fill you and drive away all unrighteousness and sin and darkness.

Fall on your knees, O man! Turn from the darkness. Turn to the Light which lighteth every man. Turn to it, for it is Christ your Lord. See, look, behold his glory, for the Word became flesh: your flesh. Lying in a manger now to look upon. What did Mary see? What did the shepherds see? The ox and ass, the angels? What did they see? They saw their Maker, their God: they saw the Word that was God become flesh. And so has he adorned humanity with his deity, for he bound himself to it this happy Christmas day! O turn to the Light, for this is your Maker and your Savior.

This is where you were destined to be: bound to your Maker for all time and eternity. God was bound to man that man might be bound to God, and so be saved from all manner of darkness and death. The sin of the world is taken away because there is no sin in God, and thus when the Word became flesh and took upon himself all of our fallenness, and swallowed our sins, and so died, still even then, nothing could stop him. He had to rise from the dead, for he is the Word, and the word was Let there be light, and the light shines in the darkness.  For in him is no darkness at all.

And thus do the departed saints now dwell in perpetual light, and thus shall we be destined also to dwell  there, and thus shall he return in glory and wrap the world in his marvelous light, and thus shall all good dash all wickedness to the ground, and thus shall even death be swallowed up in victory, because the Word was God, and the Word was, Let there be light, and there was light. Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation, sing all ye citizens of heaven above. Glory to God in the highest. O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord, the Word made flesh, the Light of the world.

Who are the men behind the liturgical renewals within our Synod? Who are the men at the tip of the spear when it came to talking about the importance of retaining the historic liturgy, rites, and ceremonies of the Western Church? The next installment of the liturgical biographies we're going to cover is Paul H.D. Lang. Mark Braden (pastor of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Detroit, MI, and Departmental Editor of Gottesdienst: The Journal of Lutheran Liturgy) walks us through his early ministry, highlights some of his writings, and then dives into two of his most notable works: What An Altar Guild Should Know and Ceremony and Celebration. This is part one of a two-part series. 

Become a Patron!

• You can subscribe to the Journal here: https://www.gottesdienst.org/subscribe/
• You can read the Gottesblog here: https://www.gottesdienst.org/gottesblog/
• You can support Gottesdienst here: https://www.gottesdienst.org/make-a-donation/

Please like, share, and review this podcast. It only takes a few minutes for you, but it means a lot to us.