Evangelicalism Will Die: Others Receive Inheritance

As referenced last week, a certain essay has hit a nerve among our Evangelical friends.

What is Evangelicalism, you ask? You ask because it's a good question. It's like obscenity: I know it when I see it. Seriously, it is hard to define, but the easiest way to recognize it is by going in your nearest "Christian Bookstore." Make sure it's not Catholic or Orthodox, and take a look around. Browse the gizmos and framed prints, t-shirts and music. Look at the titles of books. Find the most prominently displayed books and read their back covers. Look at the people who are shopping there. Eavesdrop on their conversations.

That is Evangelicalism.

And a lot of different people with different prejudices and backgrounds are worried that it is going away.

Where are the people who used to be Evangelical going to go? The author of that most-talked-about essay, Michael Spencer, writes, "Two of the beneficiaries will be the Roman Catholic and Orthodox communions. Evangelicals have been entering these churches in recent decades and that trend will continue, with more efforts aimed at the "conversion" of Evangelicals to the Catholic and Orthodox traditions."

Why not Lutherans? We've been whining this for years. Why not the Lutherans?

I'll be blunt. It's because the LCMS has been trying for a decade or three to become just like our shallow evangelical friends. The Evangelicals have vast amounts of people and influence and the LCMS is missing it. We've sold our birthright for a pot of porridge and now that's grown cold and solidified. Goldilocks is off to something else.

To keep things simple, what your mother told you is true. "Be yourself. Don't give into what other people want you to be. Don't change who you are to be accepted. Do what is right and don't apologize for it." Our mothers were always right.

Can it be fixed? I'm not so sure. There are plenty of brave souls that are trying. The problem we have now is different parties trying to remake our denomination into their vision, each attempting to convince the people that theirs is the true Lutheranism, or at least the true way to be faithful to God and survive.

When you have competing claims of legitimacy, one will be silenced eventually.

Have mercy on us, dearest Jesus.

What I've Been Doing

Sorry for the silence here. Tuesday I arranged my schedule to take a trip to see my in-laws and Marjorie's uncle, who has suffered a heart attack, but due to his MS is unable to have surgery to repair the blockages. Then a member landed in the ICU with a DNR in place. She defied expectations by re-starting her heart herself at least a dozen times since then. I was torn between staying and going. Then another member--the patriarch of the congregation--was placed on hospice care on Friday. Staying here seemed to be the right choice.

The best part of being a pastor is standing at the bedside of one who is dying. Everything is stripped away and that remains is the Gospel. It is a privilege telling others about the merciful God they are about to meet, who is waiting for them with open arms. Laying on hands, giving absolution, commending them to the care of the holy angels, sharing with them the hope that casts out fear--this is the best part of the job.

I will be doing that more this week. Pray for God's servants Dorothy and Robert.

Doom!!

UPDATE--Link to Alan Keyes video fixed.

At the beginning of the week I wrote something about sensing an increasing amount of doom-saying. It's official.

Christianity is on the wane in America (read here)

Evangelicalism is on the wane. (read here)

Catholicism is being persecuted. (the last post)

People are worried about civil unrest. Alan Keyes actually uses the phrase "civil war." (watch this)

Let's be honest: of course we all would much prefer peaceful days and status quo. And frankly, all this doomsday talk bugs me.

...and in a moment of writer's block, my friends at Creative Minority Report (you are friends, aren't you?), just posted another doom and gloom post....

And in my comment there, I was not joking about speaking German. I'm resisting with all my effort to refrain right now. But I don't think this has much to do with this topic.

It's okay to think in terms of End Times (or, Eschatology, if you want to sound snobby). Christ talked that way. St. Paul talked that way. It is Christian. We confess that the Last Days will come in both Creeds confessed in worship. In fact, we believe we are already here--there are just more of them than it sounded like.

I don't want to be that dramatic, but I truly think that there will be a "Come to Jesus" moment in America when the last things we will worry about is the 3G network coming to Enid. Crass materialism is going to destroy us.

But in all these things there is the important thing to remember: it is our duty to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. We are to pray and fight temptation. This is our calling, whether we have one month to live or the world ends this afternoon or next century. We are in a fight, a war, against the spiritual powers in heavenly places, and it is a war fought and won in thoughts, words, and deeds, in the little moments and choices of life.

And remember, "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matthew 10:28)

Welcome, our Conquering Liberal Overlords!

The Connecticut Legislature is debating a bill that would madate Roman Catholic Churches be administered by an elected lay board, upon which the pastor and his bishop would have no vote. Obviously, many Catholics are up-in-arms, as it would redefine Catholicism. An editorial in The Advocate notes,

"Free exercise" of religion includes the way a Church chooses to organize. Strip the bishops and priests of their role in financial matters and their message becomes subject to the approval of those holding the purse.

Historically, "under trustee control, not only was pastoral authority practically eliminated, but the Church's message was utterly dependent upon the congregation's cultural and political condition."

The writer grants that many protestant churches have chosen such an arrangement. Nevertheless, the First Amendment grants churches the right to choose.

There are a multitude of directions this can go. I may pursue some of them in the days to come. Here is one:

Patrick Archbold at Creative Minority Report writes,

Some have written, what is the big deal? It is not likely to pass. It is a big deal, passage or not. This is how fictional rights are created and real rights eliminated. First is always the trial balloon. It is destined for failure, but passage is not the intent. The intent is to bring it into the conversation. The intent is to start a trend in other states with lawmakers proposing similar statutes, all under the guise of protecting regular folks. Then, after you have heard about it several times, it doesn't seem like a big deal anymore. Then maybe, just maybe, it passes somewhere. Then the gates will be opened and religious liberty in this country is over.

It reminds me of the proverb that error first demands toleration, then equality, lastly superiority. The slippery slope. How to boil a frog.

We see the same in every arena: politics, church, home. The trial balloon, the testing of boundaries, followed by further discussion and deliberations, and finally new laws or rights to protect us. The ELCA has been at this approach regarding homosexual unions for a decade or more. It looks like they will finally get their prize in allowing ministers to shack up with whatever they wish, as long as it's not serial or unseemly.

Beware the exploratory committee. Make sure you know what and where they are exploring. And remember, they will be back.

Have You Seen this Painting?

OSLO – A 450-year-old painting by Renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Elder has been stolen from a Lutheran church in the southern Norway town of Larvik, police said Sunday.

Art expert Gunnar Krogh-Hansen estimated "Suffer the Little Children to Come Unto Me" could be worth 15-20 million kroner ($2.1-$2.8 million). It was probably painted around 1540.

The theft was discovered when firefighters responded to an alarm at the church around 1:30 am (0030 GMT) Sunday, and found a broken window and a ladder outside.

Petter Aronsen, a Larvik police official, was quoted by the Norwegian news agency NTB as saying the thief or thieves probably had a car waiting nearby.

"We don't have any suspects and are very interested in talking to anyone who might have seen something," he said. He said the national crime police and the national economic crime unit were being called in, and that a worldwide alert would be issued.

The roughly three-foot- (one-meter-) wide work, painted on a wooden panel, had hung in the church about 330 years.

Cranach lived from 1472 until 1553, and is considered one of Germany's important Renaissance painters.

(Yahoo News)

Book Confessions Meme

Book Confessions

1. To mark your page you: use a bookmark, bend the page corner, leave the book open face down?
Bookmark sometimes, upside down if it won't immediately break the spine. Sometimes I don't mark it all, but just sort of remember.

2. Do you lend your books?
Sometimes.

3. You find an interesting passage: you write in your book or NO WRITING IN BOOKS!
Writing in books? Of course! That's why the margins are, er, used to be so big.

4. Dust jackets - leave it on or take it off.
Dust covers make good bookmarks too, if you take the flap and hold the page with it. But often take it off.

5. Hard cover, paperback, skip it and get the audio book?
Hard covers are nice, but so durn expensive.

6. Do you shelve your books by subject, author, or size and color of the book spines?
Subject or genre first, size and color within the first.

7. Buy it or borrow it from the library later?
I prefer to buy, but that was before I had four kids.

8. Do you put your name on your books - scribble your name in the cover, fancy bookplate, or stamp?
Write my name on the inside cover or title page, the date--and for church books the liturgical date.

9. Most of the books you own are rare and out of print books or recent publications?
See the comment about four kids above.

10. Page edges - deckled or straight?
Straight, unless it's literary fiction, and then I kind of like deckled. Shrug.

11. How many books do you read at one time?
One book at a time, two at the most.

12. Be honest, ever tear a page from a book?
What??? Not on purpose!!

The Devil's Billable Hours

"In Lent, the Devil works overtime."

Non-liturgical people would want to say, "No, no! The devil always works overtime!" He does work to destroy our faith and souls. He constantly seeks chinks in our armor where his fiery darts may land. He constantly probes for weaknesses, old standards and new ones alike.

But Lent is different. At least for those who keep it.

And that is the key. When you make commitments to pray, fast, and give more, the devil delights in attack. For fasting, prayer and giving alms are acts of charity, they are deeds pleasing to God. They are deeds of your sanctification--and this the devil cannot abide. If you want more "proof" just reread Matthew 4. Christ in the desert, and we following Him. The devil will be there as well.

He is not without a sense of irony, either. I've seen this when I prepare a sermon which addresses a specific sin like impatience. I prepare it on Tuesday or Wednesday, and by Friday realize that I have been snapping at everyone and everything that dares intrude upon me. Our enemy loves the irony, if we can say that he loves anything.

His hours have increased and there is no end to his toil. He will fight against the chains in aeternum. When we come to ourselves and make the trip home to beg our Father's mercy, the devil walks along, and every moment is the Crossroads, every day the trial.

"Wachet auf," ruft uns die Stimme
Der Wächter sehr hoch auf der Zinne,
"Wach auf du Stadt Jerusalem!
Mitternacht heißt diese Stunde!"
Sie rufen uns mit hellem Munde:
"Wo seid ihr klugen Jungfrauen?
Wohlauf, der Bräutigam kommt,
Steht auf, die Lampen nehmt!
Halleluja!
Macht euch bereit zur Hochzeitsfreud;
Ihr müsset ihm entgegengehen!"

'Wake up!' calls us the Voice
The Watchers high upon the battlements,
Awake, you City Jerusalem!
It is the Midnight Hour!
They call with clarion voice
Where are you, virgins wise?
Make haste--the Bridegroom comes,
Stand up, take the lamps!
Alleluia!
Get yourselves straight to the Wedding Feast;
You must enter in with him!

--translation mine

Bullet Points Are All I Have Right Now

I haven't really decided to abstain from blogging during Lent; it only appears that way due to overall busyness, distraction, writer's block and the other usual suspects.

Some tidbits:

The LCMS has dropped opposition in the "Issues Etc." trademark issue. It was the right thing to do, since they had allowed the trademark to expire.

The Oklahoma District of the LCMS will most likely have an entirely new Board of Directors and District staff after our Convention in April. Most of this is due to retirements and incumbents declining nominations.

The Twilight Saga has gotten better over time--I'm reading the final book now and it is a page-turner, though a little too predictable at times. I can see the author's conservative morality poking through on occasion (she's Mormon), but in no way could this be construed as a "Christian-esque" vampire novel.

Lost seems to get better every season, with every episode. That, and Scrubs are the only two shows I watch, though everybody seems to be recommending Battlestar Galactica these days. I may have to rent the first season and see what I'm missing.

The fast is difficult. I've slipped more than I care to admit. Slipping is not defeat, however. When you slip up in your fast it is the best reminder possible of our need for repentance and God's strength. Without Him we can do nothing, not even control ourselves just a little.

Thank you for sticking with me here. I'll try to post more regularly.