Rant, Part I

I despise with great despising the “Call to Worship” found in the “service folder” of many congregations with the name “Lutheran” somewhere in their constitutions. What in all blazes is a “Call to Worship?” How in tarnation did this innovation find a place in our worship and practice? What is it? Where does it come from? What is the purpose? Isn’t that what the bells ringing are supposed to do? Why do people who should know better include them in their “liturgies” they write for “special services”? And why “special services” anyway? So that people will be kept in the dark and not know how to worship God and have their head in handouts every Sunday or Wednesday night? So the pastor will look busy, inventing all kinds of new ways to exclude the eldery, the illiterate and children from participating? Since when are Matins and Vespers not good enough? Even Evening Prayer or Morning Prayer?

Preparing for the Fast

Simon Peter, the professional fisherman knew the lake and the fish. Yet Jesus told him where and when to let down the nets. “Master…at your word…” Peter replied, and did, and was blessed with an abundance, which he left on the shore in order to follow Jesus. In today’s parlance it may be akin to someone finding a winning lottery ticket, only to give it away and join a monastery. But maybe that’s stretching it.Our Lord commands things that sometimes seem strange and foreign to us. He commands that we obey and respect our rulers, no matter how corrupt and immoral they may be. He reveals that it is more virtuous to speak little, rather than be talkative:

Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent. (Proverbs 17:27-28 ESV)

And our Lord commands us to fast. He says, “But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:17-18 ESV). Fasting has always been a basic practice in the life of God’s people. While simplistic statistical analysis of word usage has always bugged me, it may be worth noting that a basic Hebrew term for fasting (sum) is used forty-seven times in the Old Testament, and nhsteuw is used twenty-one times in the New Testament. What may be most interesting is the lack of thorough discussion of it in the mosaic law, yet the practice of fasting appears throughout the Old Testament narrative–even as early as Judges 20, with the civil war led by the tribe of Benjamin.

We are to fast. It is good for us. But how? Here is a link to a convenient table, noting the fasting practice of the Western Church…in other words, this is the fast that Lutherans have followed. Do not blindly follow this practice! This may well reflect the maximum. Begin slowly, and by all means consult your pastor. Fasting is not to be a show of spiritual or physical strength and stamina, nor ought it make you proud of your accomplishment. Your pastor will give good direction in when to start and how often to practice it. If you are young, with child or nursing, ill or elderly, a strict fast may do you harm; talk to your pastor before you start.

But what if you approach your pastor and mention this to him and are rejected? That is a touchy situation. For our Lutheran Confessions say many good things about fasting:

33] Moreover, they teach that every Christian ought to train and subdue himself with bodily restraints, or bodily exercises and labors that neither satiety nor slothfulness tempt him to sin, but not that we may merit grace or make satisfaction for sins by such exercises. 34] And such external discipline ought to be urged at all times, not only on a few and set days. So Christ commands, 35] Luke 21, 34: Take heed lest your hearts 36] be overcharged with surfeiting; also Matt. 17, 21: This kind goeth not out but 37] by prayer and fasting. Paul also says, 1 Cor. 9, 27: I keep under my body and bring it into subjection. 38] Here he clearly shows that he was keeping under his body, not to merit forgiveness of sins by that discipline, but to have his body in subjection and fitted for spiritual things, and for the discharge of duty according 39] to his calling. Therefore, we do not condemn fasting in itself, but the traditions which prescribe certain days and certain meats, with peril of conscience, as though such works were a necessary service. (AC XXVI)

And

Although, therefore, we hold that repentance ought to bring forth good fruits for the sake of God’s glory and command, and good fruits, true fastings, true prayers, true alms, etc., have the commands of God, yet in the Holy Scriptures we nowhere find this, namely, that eternal punishments are not remitted except on account of the punishment of purgatory or canonical satisfactions, i.e., on account of certain works not due, or that the power of the keys has the command to commute their punishments or to remit a portion. These things the adversaries were to prove. [This they will not attempt.] (Ap VI)

And

46] And true prayers, true alms, true fastings, have God’s command; and where they have God’s command, they cannot without sin be omitted. (Ap VI)

And finally, perhaps the most well known passage in the Confessions:

Fasting and bodily preparation is, indeed, a fine outward training; but he is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: Given, and shed for you, for the remission of sins. (SC VI, 10)

But note well: the last passage does not say that fasting is no use, nor does it say that one can omit fasting with no consequence. It does say that fasting alone does not prepare one well for the Eucharist; faith is required. Far too many Lutherans learn this passage in Confirmation and hear it as, “Fasting is no use at all.” On this point, the Confessions speak most pointedly, “…true fastings have God’s command, and where they have God’s command, they cannot without sin be omitted” (see above).

What is the purpose of fasting? To subdue the body. To refrain from this one thing, the easiest thing to refrain from, in order to begin to learn how to refrain from the more difficult things. For the man consumed by anger cannot easily say, “I will be less angry from now on,” nor can the man consumed by lust say, “I will check my eyes and mind and will begin to lust less and less.” These, and many others sins are stubborn and difficult. While gluttony has its own peculiar power, it is more easily tamed than the others. When your stomach growls and you feel a craving for meat, your spirit may flee to God and remember, “I hunger because I fast; I fast because I sin; Lord have mercy on me!”

Welcoming the World with Open Arms

Fr. Stephen Freeman writes this concerning the Church transforming (I’d say “sanctifying”) the world. Just substitute “Lutheran” for “Orthodox” and, say, “Sacrament” or “Lutheran Vestments” for “Icon” and see what you get:

My oldest daughter spent a year in Siberia. There she faithfully attended the Orthodox Church. She had a friend who was Orthodox who invited her to go to Church one Sunday. The Church, however, was not Orthodox, but a recent American plant, using the “mega church” model. Being in Russia, and being culturally sensitive, this new Church met in a movie theater, but had large icons around the room. Russians expect them.

My daughter said to her friend, “But you are Orthodox? Why do you want to go to a protestant Church?”

“What’s the difference,” her friend replied. “They both have icons, only the American Church has rock and roll!” This, again, is not the transfiguration of the world, but the morphing of the Church into a rock concert.

http://fatherstephen.wordpress.com/2006/12/28/…

Love...True Love...

“For he who loveth rejoices not so much in commanding, as in being commanded, although to command is sweet: but love changes the nature of things and present herself with all blessings in her hands, gentler than any mother, weathier than any queen, and makes difficulties light and easy, causing our virtues to be facile, but vice very bitter to us.” (St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians, Homily XXXII.12, NPNF, vol. 12)

Or as William Goldman described it:

Grandpa: [voiceover] Nothing gave Buttercup as much pleasure as ordering Westley around.
Buttercup: Farm boy, polish my horse’s saddle. I want to see my face shining in it by morning.
Westley: As you wish.
Grandpa: [voiceover] “As you wish” was all he ever said to her.
Buttercup: Farm boy, fill these with water - please.
Westley: As you wish.
Grandpa: [voiceover] That day, she was amazed to discover that when he was saying “As you wish”, what he meant was, “I love you.” And even more amazing was the day she realized she truly loved him back. (from The Princess Bride)

Lasting Forever versus Living Forever

Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.

Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.

This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.

Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.

But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. (Psalm 49:11-15 KJV)

Last night my wife and I were found ourselves playing the game, “What if we won the Powerball?” This is a rare game in our house; I can count on one hand the number of times we;ve played it. Excessive riches are not high priorities for us, hence my job. Normaleweise, we are simply happy to be able to pay our bills. But we played the game last night, and the easiest decision was how much we needed. We decided anything over $2-3 million (invested to give yearly income) would be given away.
Then today I read Psalm 49 as part of my morning devotions. Why are so many consummed with riches, with gain, with a legacy? Why climb the corporate ladder? Why the competition to outdo the neighbors? Often we justify ourselves by saying, “God has given me such-and-such talents, so I had better make use of them.” That is a faithful approach by itself, but when it covers the sins of greed and pride it falls flat.

The Psalmist reveals the “hidden thought of the heart.” Death. That is what the rich fear. “Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever.” It sounds quite foolish. Of course the greedy know that they will die. Of course they know that no amount of cash reserves will allow them to avoid the Grim Reaper. That’s just plain common sense. It’s insanity to think otherwise.

But when you know that the grave is coming, that the years pass by faster and faster, that the days of generating wealth are (relatively) few, that you only have a limited supply of time, talent and capital, it makes these days precious. Death is coming when it all ends. The other shoe: better be as comfortable as possible until the little box receives me. If there is nothing after this, then it appears wise to accumulate now for yourself and later for your children. Perhaps it will last forever, our heart murmurs. Perhaps I might last forever….
Death is the problem. However, Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned–” (NIV). This seems to say that sin is the root issue, and death follows sin. Protestants often take it this way. But the King James preserves a slightly different wording. It says, “Romans 5:12 and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” This participial phrase retains some wiggle room. In fact, the KJV’s “for that” translates the Greek eh ho, which can mean “on account, because” or “as a result.” In fact, the Patristic understanding was the latter. In fact, we are dying, and this leads to sin. We are dying, and so we wish to accumulate riches, as if to avoid what will come, as the Pslamist testifies.

“But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me.” This is the antidote. This is the faith. Sin confines and enslaves, but the Great Enemy, the Last Enemy is Death. “For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:25-26 KJV).
The soul cries out for life, and thanks be to God, we have the life of our Redeemer, who has destroyed the power of death, who has broken the doors of Hades and frees the prisoners from the dungeon.

The life to come is the antidote for overcoming the passions of greed and pride, of power and lust for flesh or cash. We are pilgrims here (1 Pet. 2:11; Heb. 11:13 ) and our eyes are not set on an earthly inheritance, on the mansions that may await the rich here, but on the prize of eternal life, gained for us by the suffering and death of the Second Adam, Christ our Lord.

Thus our Lord’s saying about the rich man. When one becomes entangled in the affairs of this life, our eyes are taken off the “author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2), our pilgrimage ends prematurely and our faith is wrecked.

Lord, give us our daily bread and lead us to use our income wisely!

New Year's ToDos

I’ve been reading From Where I Sit– Michael Hyatt’s blog. He is the President and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, and an interesting figure: from his blog you might imagine that he is more business minded than spiritually minded. After all, he’s been posting numerous articles on setting goals and organizing your priorities and disciplines (his former blog was called Working Smart). However, he’s also an ordained Deacon in the Antiochian Orthodox Church, according to his bio. The juxtaposition of these two is interesting.

Lutheran Pastors sometimes have a phobia of Covey, Agendas, DayPlanners, Palm Pilots and all things that smack of business organization. While at the seminary, students who were assigned to take the Personal Growth Class in Organization gnashed their teeth, jumped through the hoop, and perhaps later, quietly admitted that there were some good ideas there.

Some of the disdain for planning, personal goals, 7 habits and the like stems from the fact that these tools are children of the business and world and almost every pastor made the decision to flee corporate life or never enter it in the first place. Add to this the fact that the CEO model of Evangelical pastoral practice is often at odds with Lutheran pastoral practice and theology. Business tools and business-speak are not welcome among us.

Furthermore, some Lutherans make a theological argument against planning personal and business goals. It goes like this: God is the author and perfecter of our faith. We can do nothing to contribute to our justification, and neither does our personal sanctification have anything to do with our being remitted our sins. Justification is divine monergism–God’s Work Alone.

But what ends up happening is that this divine monergism becomes imported not only into matters of sanctification, which is false and wrong, but also into church life…and all of life. How can you set goals to increase church size, we say, for it is God who creates and sustains faith? How can you set goals for the future at all, for God’s will for our future is hidden, and all the blessings ultimately derive from His gracious right hand?

Needless to say, this is not good theology. It leads to an aversion of sanctification, as McCain has noted numerous times on his blog. It’s more of a parody of Lutheran theology than anything.

It also makes many of us disorganized, inefficient and lazy, present company included.

Mr. Hyatt becomes all the more interesting then. A successful man, at the top of the business world, extolling the value, and power of setting personal and business goals, and the ordered and disciplined life, while at the same time serving as clergy in a very spiritual, even mystical Church. In fact, Orthodox Christians often joke about the inefficiency, illogical practice and life in their Church.

So for the first time in years, thanks to Michael Hyatt, I’ve set goals for this New Year–not resolutions, per se, but personal and professional goals I will accomplish with the help of God. It seems a little “corporate” and “name-it, claim-it” to my inner Lutheran brain, but I’m doing it anyway.

Days Grown Cold and Humility

From Benedicta Ward’s collection of sayings of the Desert Fathers:

The holy Fathers were making predictions about the last generation. They said, ‘What have we ourselves done?’ One of them, the great Abba Ischyrion replied, ‘We ourselves have fulfilled the commandments of God.’ The others replied, ‘And for those who come after us, what will they do?’ He said, ‘They will struggle to achieve half our works.’ They said, ‘And to those who come after them, what will happen?’ He said, ‘The men of that generation will not accomplish any works at all and temptation will come upon them; and those who will be approved in that day will be greater than either us or our fathers.’

(The Desert Christian: Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection. Translated and with forward by Benedicta Ward, S.L.G. New York:Macmillan Publishing Co. First American Edition 1980)

We see in this saying two things at work. First, that these days and our love is growing cold. Or as a seminary professor once said, “People are just getting worse all the time!” Second we can see humility at work. Given that these desert monks enjoyed more sanctification than we–and it is hard to deny it–they still did not praise themselves for keeping so many commandments, but those who struggle to do less.

Lutherans express these thoughts slightly differently, usually in terms of vocation. Who does the greater work, the Pastor visiting the sick, studying the Word, calling sinners to repentance, or the mother who stuggles to be patient with her children? Neither on the face of it. God does not measure results or weigh merits or give points. He has created us all differently, at different times, with different strengths and suffering from different weaknesses. He grants and looks for faith–faithful work in our vocations. The mother who prays hourly for her children may be more faithful than the pastor who relies on his training and intelligence.

God have mercy on us and give us faith!

Are We Saved Right Now?

Your Evangelical friends like to ask the question: “Are you saved?” Notice the passive perfect tense, indicating that an agent took action for you in the past which continues today. The question assumes that salvation is accomplished already for you, presumably through Jesus Christ.

Would Lutherans ask the same question? Is salvation something that has already been accomplished and given to us through faith? Is there any future aspect to salvation? In other words, when we talk about our salvation by grace, through faith should we use past tenses? Is it right to speak of our salvation in future tenses? Is it right to speak of salvation as a conditional–as something which might happen?

I think most LCMS-trained pastors would answer the last question with a resounding “no!” That’s what I was taught at Concordia Seminary. So why do we pray something else?

Stir up, we implore you, your power, O Lord, and come that by your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and be saved by your might deliverance… (Advent 1, LW p. 10)

Grant, almighty God, that the birth of your only-begotten Son in human flesh may set us free, who through sin are held in bondage… (Nativity 3, LW p. 17)

O God, in the glorious transfiguration of your only-begotten Son you once confirmed the mysteries of the faith by the testimony of the ancient fathers, and in the voice that came from the bright cloud you wondrously foreshadowed our adoption by grace. Therefore mercifully make us coheirs with our King of his glory, and bring us to the fullness of our inheritance in heaven… (Transfiguration, LW p. 31)

Almighty God, whose Son Jesus Christ chose to suffer pain before going up to joy, and crucifixion before entering into glory, mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find this path to be the way of life and peace…(Monday in Holy Week, LW, p. 41)

There are many more collects which pray this way: that God would do such-and-such, so that we may be saved, cleansed, forgiven. It raises the question: hasn’t such already happened? Have we not already been saved, found the truth, forgiven and so forth?

I raise this issue to point out that there is a discrepancy between our lex orandi and lex credendi–our faith prayed and faith believed. If we truly believe that Jesus accomplished our salvation on the cross and that the promise of heaven is ours today, if we have been completely and totally justified by grace through faith, then why do we pray for salvation, enlightenment and so forth in the present or future subjunctive? Should these collects not be changed to thanksgivings for salvation, “the way of life and peace,” being made “coheirs with our King” because they have already been granted us? I think that would be more consistent with our LCMS theology.

What do you think? Should these have been changed?
Do you think it is right to change the historic collects (beyond updating archaic language) in order to fit our theology?