Your Entertainment at Guantanamo...

If the federal government takes the next logical step in light of the NDAA and starts deporting its critics to GTMO without a trial, it won't be fun (I don't like swimming, how do you think I would react to waterboarding...), but there might be a plus side: free in-cage lectures on economics by Lew Rockwell, nostalgic reminiscences on the Constitution by Judge Andrew Napolitano, and entertainment by Tim Hawkins!

I guess it could be worse...

A Busy Week at GO

I would like to encourage FH readers to check out Gottesdienst Online.

This is the online blog of the world's greatest print journal devoted to the liturgy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Gottesdienst - now in its 20th year (the printed edition, that is - the blog is now in its fourth year).

Okay, as a matter of full disclosure, I'm one of the editors of GO and I am also one of the editors of the print journal (the sermons editor).  I'm honored to be able to place my scribblings alongside the likes of the editors, the Revs...

• Burnell Eckardt, Ph.D.
• John Berg
• Peter Berg
• Jason Braaten
• Heath Curtis, M.A.
• Karl Fabrizius, Ph.D.
• David Petersen
• Col. Jonathan Shaw, S.T.M.
• Richard Stuckwisch, Ph.D.

Beginning this past Sunday (March 4) until now, we have seen the following articles posted at GO:

Playing the das-ist-Katholische card  (Jason Braaten)
A Letter from Rev. Gizynsky, a 2012 Sabre Nominee  (Burnell Eckardt)
Thoughts on Lent 3 and the Beelzebul Controversy  (Jason Braaten)
O contempora!  O mores!  (Heath Curtis)
Goldilocks, George Carlin, and the Middle of the Road  (yours truly)
Sermon Writer's Block  (David Petersen)
A Tyranny of Moderation  (David Petersen)
On Being Witting or Unwitting Ritualists  (Jason Braaten)
Chanting, Ceremonies, and Consciences  (Richard Stuckwisch)

There has been not only a flurry of posts, but also of thoughtful comments and lively discussion.  Really good stuff!

Gottesdienst also has a facebook page.

If you believe the worship life of the Church is important, if you believe the Bible is God's Word, if you confess the Book of Concord, if you believe in the means of grace, if you value the ancient liturgy of the Church, if you want to do your part in preserving and promoting the liturgy as we Lutherans have received it as western catholic Christians, if you value the Reformation for its focus on the Gospel and its fidelity to the catholic tradition, if you value Christocentric preaching and exegesis, if you like to learn the history and symbolism related to our rich liturgical tradition, if you would like to support your pastor in teaching the value of the liturgy, please consider subscribing to Gottesdienst.

Regular subscriptions are $15 per year, $25 for two years.  Students can subscribe for $12 per year, $20 for two years.  Better yet, get a very inexpensive bulk subscription and leave copies out for other members of your congregation!  10 copies are $45 per year, $80 for two years.  25 copies are $75 per year, $140 for two years.

You will find sermons, engaging editorials, regular columns related to the liturgy (both theological and practical), the state of our culture, issues facing the church as a whole and American Lutheranism more specifically, historical articles, thoughtful Christocentric reflections on Scripture, and even on occasion humor, poetry, and hymnody.  You will also find news and notices concerning our speaker's bureau, upcoming Gottesdienst conferences, books written and/or published by Gottesdienst editors, the annual Sabre of Boldness ceremony, and the handy annual liturgical calendar for the Sundays in the coming year.

At any rate, GO is completely free, and you are always welcome to drop by, follow our posts on facebook, or add us to your blog reader.

Tea time!

One habit I brought back from Russia was drinking tea.  I drink the stuff every day now.  There are great health benefits as reported here.

I like a lot of different kinds - from the domestic Bigelow blends to various kinds of green teas.  I generally drink tea several times a day.

A big favorite in the Hollywood home is Indian style masala chai.  It is not as full of antioxydants as green tea - but it includes the benefits of ginger (which is good for digestion) and cinnamon.  And it is just plain pleasurable to drink. I learned to make it more than 20 years ago from my friends from India.  These days, Mrs. H. and I enjoy a slightly simplified recipe, which is very quick and easy to make - which we include here at no extra charge...

This makes a large teapot worth (1.25 liters) - five large cups.

You need 2 to 3 rounded tablespoons of Assam black tea.  It really needs to be Assam tea - it is dark and pungent!  You may need to go to an international grocer or Indian store to find it.  But use Assam!  It is the foundation.  How much you use depends on the strength of the particular tea tea that you buy.  It may take a little experimentation to get the right strength.  We prefer a full-bodied cup that can hold its own with a good portion of milk as well as the melange of spices.

Add:

• 1 teaspoon of chopped ginger (it comes from a jar and is wet).
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cardamom.
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.

Pour in the water (boiled and then cooled just a bit - we have an electric kettle that is lightening fast).

Stir.  Let steep at least five minutes.

After pouring into a cup (you might want to use a strainer when you pour), add milk and sweetener to taste.  We use Sweet Leaf stevia - a natural calorie-free sugar product (the bottles are a little expensive, but since you only use a few drops at a time, it lasts a long time!).  It should have a beautiful caramel color, creamy consistency, and a good spicy kick.

Tea is a healthier alternative to soft drinks, and generally, has less caffeine than coffee.

Cheers!

Chick-fil-A!

In honor of our new Chick-fil-A going up in Gretna...



Bonus verse included here.

Check out Tim Hawkins other parodies and comedy routines here.

The Feds: To Serve Man... With Bleach?

Here is the article.

Is this is why we have a federal government?  So bureaucrats can invade a picnic and pour bleach on everyone's food?

If this isn't tyranny, plain and simple, I would like to know why it isn't.  One of the problems with the federal government is that in spite of all the talk of "democracy" and "republic" and "of the people" and "freedom," what we really have is an oligarchical top-down empire held captive to two nearly-identical political "parties."  There is no check and balance from the states and the people as envisioned by the founders.  Neither do each of the branches of the federal government check the other.  They have all gone into cahoots - and this is the result.

Moreover, our "elections" are completely overseen by these two extra-constitutional parties with crazy internal rules designed to allow the parties (The Party?) to keep a stranglehold on the entire process.

And for the most part, in response, the people focus on a media-driven goose-chase of buying into the politics by blaming the other party, name-calling, aping platitudes and talking points offered up again and again as mindless mantras on talk radio and in tabloid TV.  The politicians are all "outraged" and promise "change" - all the while benefiting by keeping the people divided against each other while they literally do things like pour bleach on people's food.  CNN-watchers blame the FOX-watchers; FOX-watchers blame the CNN-watchers.  The "liberals" blame the "conservatives" and the "conservatives" blame the "liberals" - all the while those terms have switched places back and forth, gotten mixed and matched, and have become utterly meaningless labels.

Hooray for our team!

Meanwhile, once entrenched in Washington, Republicans and Democrats continue growing old agencies and creating new ones like mushrooms, generating reams and reams of new laws and regulations, destroying civil rights and national security, and printing dollars until they are nearly worthless.  Both "parties" support both warfare and welfare - while cleverly convincing their own members that it's really the "other" party doing it.

It's Laurel and Hardy.  And it would be funny if they weren't equipped with the power to tax, to regulate, to control, to execute, to torture, etc. and with enough nuclear firepower to turn the planet into a cinder - all with the brainpower and wisdom of two toddlers that have unlocked the liquor cabinet and the gun rack.  A little bleach anyone?

Instead of blaming Bush and Obama, and getting all wrapped up in getting their partisans elected, Democrats and Republicans ought to ditch the party apparatuses and apparatchiks and blame the federal government (comprised almost exclusively of functionaries of both of these parties) and its arrogant, imperial, bureaucratic attitude toward the people they are supposed to serve, not rule.  Whether we are Republican, Democrat, or neither, we would all benefit by going back to the Constitution and restoring the republic.

There was a time when federal bureaucrats did not pour bleach on food.  There was a time when Americans could not secretly be executed by the president. There was a time when people had the right to a trial.  There was a time when people were free to eat whatever food they wanted to eat.  The Bill of Rights (that historic relic) actually addresses these things, although every amendment has been whittled away or outright abolished de facto by partisan lackeys in all three branches of the federal government, by both alleged parties, and by their confederates in the state governments who play along to get ahead themselves.  We are no longer a union of fifty states, but rather an empire of two teams (Red Team and Blue Team, the Elephants and the Donkeys) of the same ideological philosophy of government that holds ordinary people in contempt.

And the people have been lulled into playing along, serving as "food" as it were to the monster.  To borrow the punch line of the old Twilight Zone episode: "It's a cookbook!"

One day, maybe the people will say "enough is enough."  This is exactly the kind of thing that happens when power is left unchecked.  A little Clorox on your porterhouse, anyone?  How disgraceful and shameful!  Pouring bleach on food to ruin a peaceful picnic.  "We the people" indeed!

Have you had enough yet?  Or are you waiting for some party hack from the Red/Blue Team to vandalize your dinner table?  Public service indeed!  

Sermon: Wednesday of Reminiscere – 2012

7 March 2012 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA


Text: Mark 8:27-38 (Rom 5:1-11)

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

Saint Peter tends to the extreme. One minute, he’s riding high, as he had just given the right answer to our Lord’s question about who He is: “You are he Christ,” said St. Peter correctly, “the Son of God.”

But then Peter got a little too big for his britches. For when our Lord told him the plan, and did so plainly: “that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again,” well, let’s just say that Peter didn’t really like that idea. Peter “rebuked” Jesus – a term that in Greek is very strong. In other words, Peter scolded Jesus harshly: “I don’t want to hear you say that ever again,” is kind of what he is saying, “Do you hear me, Jesus?” He talks to him the way an angry parent wags his finger at a naughty child.

Peter has forgotten who the Creator is and who the creature is. Peter thinks he is above God to the point where he can call the shots. And this is exactly what the devil did in his pride. This is why Jesus turns around and lets Peter have it full bore with one of the harshest rebukes in the Bible: “Get behind Me, Satan.”

What causes the Lord to use such shocking language is not that Peter committed some great crime against humanity, or hurt a child, or swindled a widow out of her home, or bowed down before a stone idol. No, what prompted this outburst from the Son of God was that Peter was not setting his “mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Now there is a sin that I suppose all of us commit nearly all the time. How can we not? We live in a fallen world that is wrapped up in itself. We live in a me-first culture where we get to make all our own choices, and get to be offended when the world doesn’t behave the way we think it should. And what’s more, we treat God the same way Peter treated Him. We think we know best. We get angry at him when we don’t get our way. We ignore him and continue dropping him lower and lower on our priority list – and then when things are really bad for us, we summon him up like a Genie in a lamp and expect Him to do our bidding.

To that, our Lord scolds us: “Get behind Me, Satan.”

If we really want to know the plan, the Lord has made it plain to us. Indeed, He taught us all about the suffering of the Son of Man, His rejection by The Important People, His passion, His death, and yes, His resurrection.

And we are part of that plan too. We are called to follow Him. And here is what it means (for He says this plainly): “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”

Who actually likes this plan? Take up a cross? Deny ourselves? Our Lord tells us plainly that the plan is that we give up our lives. We too will suffer, be rejected by The Important People, die, and yes, rise again. That is what it means to follow Him. Where Jesus went, we go. Where Jesus goes, we shall go. And when our sinful flesh rises up on its hind legs and wags its fist at Jesus saying: “I don’t like this plan, I have a better one,” the Lord Jesus Himself rebukes us: “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

This, dear friends, is where the first commandment comes into our lives. It almost never involves stone idols. Rather we worship idols of flesh, idols we see in the mirror. We put our hearts where our treasure is, and we treasure ourselves.

Thanks be to God that the Son of God is not as selfish as we are, otherwise we would have no Savior willing to take up His cross and die in our place. And we would have no hope of rising again. Thanks be to God that Jesus casts out Satan from our sinful hearts when we confess our sins, repent, and hear the words of absolution and the proclamation of the gospel! Thanks be to God for Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper!

“For whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani knows exactly how to save his own life. He sits condemned to hang from a Muslim executioner’s rope, which would leave behind a widow and two young orphan sons. His captors tell him that he can save his life by simply renouncing Jesus. But Pastor Nadarkhani knows better. He will not place himself in the role of Satan by setting his mind on the things of man, but rather he has taken up a very heavy cross to follow the Lord. When you see the pastor’s picture, whether in a beautiful field before his capture, or in a filthy, tiny concrete cell – he has just the hint of a smile on his face. For he knows exactly how to save his life. He knows our Lord’s warning: “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul.” He is not ashamed of Jesus, even as Jesus is not ashamed of Pastor Nadarkhani’s good confession. For even if he is hanged, he receives eternal life as a free gift from the One about whom he also confesses, “You are the Christ.”

This is how another man who knew the despair of a death sentence, St. Paul the apostle, can write to us by the Holy Spirit’s inspiration: “Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.”

Again, dear friends, this is the little smile that the saints can show to the world, the devil, and their own sinful flesh even in the face of death. For “we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” And moreover, the apostle proclaims: “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

This is how Pastor Nadarkhani can endure each day in suffering, not cursing his captors, but praising God and praying for his enemies. And when we are tried and tempted, the Lord is allowing us the opportunity to become stronger, to produce endurance, character, and hope – which we have by means of the Lord’s love for us, poured out as the blood of the sacrifice at the cross, poured into our hearts even as His heart poured out water and blood – tokens of baptism and Holy Communion, given to us so that we might have peace with God.

What a wondrous mystery, dear brothers and sisters! And if the Lord were to do things our way, we would be pretty pathetic indeed, lacking the faith to tap into God’s grace that wins eternal life for us. For if we had it our way, we would not even have the strength to endure so much as a pin prick. Thanks be to our crucified Lord that His love for us compelled Him to endure all the suffering He revealed to Peter, and indeed all that did happen to Him for our sakes.

And, dear brothers and sisters, in spite of Peter’s momentary surrender to Satan, in spite of the Lord’s stinging rebuke, in spite of Peter’s later shameful conduct at the Lord’s execution – St. Peter was justified by faith and had peace with God! He did suffer and endure and grew in character and died himself as a man of hope – not in himself, but in the Lord whom he followed by taking up his own cross.

St. Peter knew that “whoever loses his life for [Jesus’s] sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

No-one likes to bear the cross. We all have sinful flesh that resents God’s plan. But, dear friends, we have been justified by faith for peace with God. We can, in Christ, smile like Pastor Nadarkhani, knowing where we find our life – even if we lose our life. For we know that Jesus is the Christ, and that He will come “in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” And “we rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

America Needs Freedom!

You can read more here.

Interestingly, in his brilliant postscript to The Screwtape Letters (1942), an essay called Screwtape Proposes a Toast (1959), C.S. Lewis ascribes this creeping control of government involvement in everyday life to Satan.  Writing in the persona of Screwtape, a demon of some reputation as a tempter of men in hell's bureaucracy, states:

Even in England we were pretty successful.  I heard the other day that in that country a man could not, without a permit, cut down his own tree with his own axe, make it into planks with his own saw, and use the planks to build a tool-shed in his own garden.

Although our own country is deeply in debt - to the point of near-certain runaway (if not hyper) inflation, and although almost without exception, politicians of both parties (more like both wings of the same party)  in Washington (and in the state capitols) are clueless, or worse, there is a wave of libertarianism sweeping among mainly younger people, the ones who are literate, who think, who yearn to be free of the petty and not-so-petty tyranny that is simply the norm today at nearly every level of government.  As we see the failure of Big Government and the increasing ridiculousness of our laws, there is a movement toward embracing freedom and becoming more self-sufficient, rolling back the Nanny State and its "happy face fascism."

A good place to begin is with the U.S. Constitution.  It is not a perfect document, but if it were actually followed, we would be a much more free people today with a healthier relationship between the people and their governments at all levels.

What we have now is not working - at least to people who value freedom the way our ancestors did.

Sermon: Reminiscere – 2012

4 March 2012 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA


Text: Matt 15:21-28

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

It is always amazing to hear and consider the account of the Canaanite woman, and her mini-debate with the Son of God. Everybody likes to cheer for the underdog, which means in this case, I suppose, cheering against Jesus.

But this is not a matter of winning a debate. This is a matter of faith. And while appearing to have been defeated, our Lord Jesus is the winner – and He shares His winnings with those for whom He came to save: like the Canaanite woman and her demon-oppressed daughter.

The Canaanite woman is being tested, sorely tested, tested to the point of desperation. Her daughter is under the control of a devil. And this upset mother, this Canaanite woman, has a couple strikes against her. Of course, being a woman, it is not normal for her to stroll up to the Rabbi and ask for favors. Second, she is a Gentile – a handicap the Lord Himself throws in her face as a test of her faith.

But, dear friends, what is a faith that is never tested? Can a person consider himself courageous if he is never confronted with something frightening? Can a person consider himself skilled if he only knows theories read from a book? Too often, we treat faith as though it were knowledge. And knowing the facts about the faith – such as the Nicene Creed – is important. Believing those facts is important. But faith is not something one holds in one’s head, and not something one treasures only in one’s heart, but rather faith is practiced, is acted out, carried out by hands and feet and mouth and deeds. Faith is the Nicene Creed put into motion in a believer’s life. We say it one day a week, but we live it seven days a week. Faith is the cross under the eyes and ears of one’s friends and foes in day to day life. Faith is what we have when it is all that we have. Faith is what is left after the storm has taken away everything else, when one’s trust in princes and in oneself has been purged away by the flames of trials and temptations. Faith is all that a person has when all other remedies have failed.

Faith takes risks!

The Canaanite woman risks rejection and humiliation in her quest to find Jesus and offer up her prayer to Him for help. She “came out and was crying, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David.” In her faith, she has abandoned her ego, her pride, her self-esteem. She comes before the Lord humbly, without guile, claiming no merit for herself. She bares her soul before the One of has created her, to Him who will make her well, seeking the mercy of the Lord, the Son of David, Him with the power to heal, to save, to draw life out of death, and to remove the harassment of the devil.

The Canaanite woman refuses to quit, to give up, to yield to the natural feelings of anger and resentment in the face of the harsh coldness of the disciples who say: “Send her away, for she is crying after us.” She does not lose her faith even when severely tested by God Himself, as the Lord Jesus seems to be rejecting her with the stunning words: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel” and “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

The Canaanite women understood perfectly well how insulting the term “dog” is. For Jews hold dogs to be unclean animals. The term “dog” – especially when applied to women – is nearly universal among all peoples as a terrible insult.

But the Canaanite woman, like an ace pilot refusing to be shaken off the tail of her opponent in a desperate dogfight, locks in on Jesus, refuses to be deterred, does not let emotion get in the way of her salvation, clings to Christ with all the faith she can muster, and lets fly: “Yes, Lord.” For faith always says “Yes, Lord” – even when we are tried and tempted, disappointed and hurt, harassed and harried, beaten up and beaten down by the world, even when it seems God Himself has forsaken us. “Yes, Lord,” she confesses in faith, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

She does not deny her uncleanness and unworthiness. But what she holds to is the promise of the Lord, His mercy, His providence, His table with which He shares the crumbs of His very self, offered for us men and for our salvation! Faith enables her to confess boldly her worthiness according to the Lord’s promise at the same time that she confesses humbly her unworthiness according to her own sinfulness.

And this paradox is at the heart of faith, where the two arms of the cross intersect at the heart: our unworthiness and Christ’s worthiness, the Law’s demands and the Gospel’s promises, our earned wages of death and the Lord’s gracious gift of life!

And in her humble “Yes, Lord,” she does not win a debate, but wins eternal life. Jesus is not defeated in a battle of wills, but rather defeats the devil by the will of His Father who sent the Son, to give faith and hope and life to all of the dogs who await the life-giving crumbs that fall from the Master’s table!

“O woman,” declares the Lord, “great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” She has passed the test, not by being clever, but by clinging to faith. She has not defeated Jesus in logic, but has yielded to Him in faith. She has won because Jesus has won. The devil’s grip on her family was beaten into submission. “And her daughter was healed instantly.”

Dear brothers and sisters, how often we get discouraged! How often we feel like the Lord has left us to bless others instead of us. And yet, how wrong we are! For the Lord has come to save us, to heal us, to forgive us, and to give us eternal life! And though it is a paradox, our faith means the most when it is tested. Our faith is made the strongest when it is challenged. Our faith is able to make us well precisely when it is all that we have, and it seems so weak.

Let us never grow weary of praying with our Canaanite sister, with one another, and with our brothers and sisters in every time and place: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David.” And let us hear yet again the Lord’s mercy: “Great is your faith. Be it done for you as you desire.” Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon: Wednesday of Invocabit – 2012

29 February 2012 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA


Text: Gen 22:1-18 (Jas 1:12-18, Mark 1:9-15)

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

A woman who claims to be a Lutheran pastor in Sweden wrote the following in a national newspaper:

“There is no fallen creation and therefore the whole doctrine of the atonement is irrational! Throw out all the talk about sin, guilt, shame, blood, slaughtered lambs and other horrors! It has no place in modern times, among enlightened people!”

To put it a different way, her argument runs like this: “There is no fall, and therefore no atonement is needed. Since there is no atonement, blood sacrifice is nothing more than primitive cruelty. In fact, we should not even talk about such things because we are modern, enlightened, ever-so-smart people!”

And what is only hinted at, but not said outright in her statement, is that there is no such thing as sin. For without sin, there is no fall, no atonement, and no cross.

If this is true, dear friends, then the cross did not save us through the sacrifice of our Savior, but merely served to torture to death a man no different than you and me. If this is true, then Jesus died in vain, and that putting away such beliefs in Him as redeemer is what it means to live in “modern times among enlightened people.”

Dear friends, in the “modern times” of the last century alone, such “enlightened people” have tortured and slaughtered other human beings by hundreds of millions. Far from seeing “enlightened people” proving that belief in sin in these “modern times” is “irrational,” we have seen a hundred years of sin and evil of proportions more epic than even in the Bible. World War I brought the entire world into total war. Hitler murdered some eight million plus. Stalin killed somewhere near sixty million of his own people. Cambodia’s Pol Pot killed around two million men, women, and children in his killing fields. And with all of the injustice and terrorism in the present, the current century isn’t looking any more “enlightened” than the last one. And even if we as individuals are not in a position to murder people by the millions, we do not go a moment without sinning in thought, word, and deed.

The only way any person living in “modern times” to consider mankind to be “enlightened” and to consider the doctrine of the fall to be “irrational” a person must be deluded, deceived by the world, the devil, and one’s sinful flesh.

“Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers,” warns St. James. For what was true at the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; at the time of the crucifixion, in the age of the Christian martyrs under the Romans – is still true today. There is sin in the world, sin that must be atoned for, and sin that was and is atoned for, dear friends: atoned by Christ’s bloody death on the cross! He died for Adam and Eve, and He died also for the most so-called “enlightened” of us living in these “modern times.” As James says, “do not be deceived….” For regarding the Father, “there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

Dear friends, man’s sinful heart has not changed. Rather in these “modern times” mankind has used the “enlightenment” of technology to find a way to sin on a grander scale. And as St. James reveals to us, the Lord has not changed either, “no variation or shadow due to change.” Even as the wages of sin is death, it still is. Even as a Lamb had to be sacrificed to atone for sin, He still is that sacrifice. And even as the Lord was merciful, dear brothers and sisters, indeed He ever shall be. None of that has changed. It matters not whether we lived in the days of Abraham or in “modern times.”

The Lord made a promise to Abraham four millennia ago. The Lord kept His promise. Indeed, the Son of Abraham would be sacrificed on a hilltop, as a Lamb “caught in a thicket” of thorns wrapped around His head. The Son of Abraham would indeed tread condemned by decree of God up a hill carrying the wood for the sacrifice. And indeed, the One who loves us, He who would not withhold His Son, His “only-begotten Son,” from us,” would carry out the payment for our sins Himself because He loves us. God did indeed “provide for Himself the Lamb” for the offering.

The word “Son” in Hebrew means “male descendant.”
The Son of Abraham who was to die was not Isaac, but a later Son who was to come at the fullness of time two millennia later. That Son of Abraham was also the Son of God, who died as a sacrifice, an atonement, for the sake of all other sons and daughters of Abraham, sinners all of us, we who so smugly claim to be “enlightened” and “better” than our ancestors who understood all too well the wages of sin.

And shame on any so-called church that would claim to ordain those whom God has not called, who teach that which God has not revealed to us! And woe to anyone who would teach that the “holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of [God’s] beloved Son, Jesus Christ” was all in vain, that God did not actually say “you shall die” to Adam and Eve in His warning to them about sin. For in rejecting the atonement, one rejects the cross. In rejecting the cross, one rejects the Crucified One, the Son, the gift of eternal life, and ultimately, such a one rejects and snubs the very love of God. And to reject God in this way is to declare oneself a god, or in this case, a goddess.

The inability of some who claim to be Christians to confess the connection between the redemptive Lamb, the atoning cross, and the transmission of that forgiveness is baptism is stunning – especially among those who recite the Nicene Creed week in and week out. Even Hollywood sees this connection clearly, as evidenced by movies like The Godfather and Gran Torino – in which redemption through the shedding of blood is played out in connection with a church’s baptismal font. Throughout human history we have seen soldiers sacrifice their lives for love of country and hearth and home. We have seen parents sacrifice their lives for their children. Even animals will sacrifice themselves for the sake of their beloved offspring. Love and sacrifice are part and parcel of our existence in this fallen world.

The world may not embrace this truth, but it is truth. And for any so-called Christian to deny this truth is evidence of the very sin that such a person denies among the “enlightened” of the “modern age.” To deny sin is to be deceived.

Again: “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers!” For “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

For the ultimate “good gift” and indeed the pinnacle of the “perfect gift” is the gift of the Son, offered upon the cross, whose blood is given to us freely as atonement and as sacrament, the “only begotten Son” of the Father, the Crucified One to whom the Father says: “You are My beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.”

For indeed, “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord!”

And wherever this Gospel is proclaimed, there will be blood! The cross is proclaimed and borne by those called, truly called, to preach this good news. The Church – she who bears the cross of oppression and persecution – is covered in blood, and more importantly, covered by blood – the blood of the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. And upon our altars one indeed finds no blood of bulls and goats, but rather the blood of the Lamb in the cup, the blood of the one all-availing sacrifice, with the unblemished sacrificial flesh of the Lamb, offered to us as a sacramental gift, in the very words of the Lamb Himself: “for the forgiveness of sins.”

“For the forgiveness of sins,” dear friends!

Let us continue to confess “Through Jesus’ blood and merit, I am at peace with God” even as we partake of His body and blood at the altar until He comes again.

For as we observe and as Scripture testifies, there is a tragically fallen creation. Therefore the whole doctrine of the atonement of Christ Crucified is not only true, but it is the supreme act of love, “irrational” love to fallen man, maybe, but divine perfect love for those being redeemed! Throw out all the talk about what “enlightened people” we are in these “modern times,” and other such horrors! Let us freely acknowledge our “sin, guilt, [and] shame,” and let us take refuge in the “blood” of the Lamb, the Crucified One, the “beloved Son” in whom the Father is pleased.”

For us by wickedness betrayed,
For us, in crown of thorns arrayed,
He bore the shameful cross and death;
For us He gave His dying breath.

O love, how deep, how broad, how high,
Beyond all thought and fantasy,
That God, the Son of God, should take
Our mortal form for mortals’ sake!

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

You know you're getting old when...

... you enjoy the music played at Wallgreen's.

This means that you are officially part of the "drugstore demographic" and management wants you to be in a good mood and eager to buy stuff - specifically things that the pharmacy sells.

Gone are the days when the "drugstore demographic" is listening to Al Jolsen on the Victrola, Tommy Dorsey or the Andrews sisters on 78s, or even Elvis or the Beatles on 45s.  We have even progressed beyond Pink Floyd on LP.  No, sir, we're long past that in the world of the pharmacy.  In fact, 70s and 80s music is increasingly de rigueur on the apothecary airwaves (now piped in via satellite radio).

The playlist for FH's evening excursion tonight was a couple of old, memory evoking faves, reproduced here :

1) Arlo Guthrie's "City of New Orleans" (1972)


and...

2) Van Halen's "Love Walks In" (1986)


Quite different tunes, but I like 'em both.

"City of New Orleans" is one of those American folk tunes that is impossible not to sing or hum when the refrain debuts in your head.  As I made my way to the cash, a middle-aged Gretna police officer was singing along softly.  I walked past him whistling the chorus.  The tune makes me think of our family's trips in recent years between New Orleans and Chicago by the Amtrak line of the same iconic name (and between Chicago and Milwaukee via the Hiawatha): the various sights and sites mentioned in the lyrics, the feeling of being rocked to sleep, the little passing slice of Americana that one inevitably encounters in such an epic rail trip in a cozy sleeper car with wife and young son:

Mothers with their babes asleep,
Are rockin' to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel.

"Love Walks In" is more personal to me - being a tune that reminds me of playing it on cassette (these were crude plastic shells that contained - it's almost embarrassing - a cellophane tape rolled manually around two spools with music encoded - it sounds ridiculous these days - magnetically onto the tape.  I played the album (Van Halen's 5150) cranked up as loud as it would go in the stereo unit mounted in the fairing of my Suzuki GS850L motorcycle - which I rode everywhere from work, to church, to picnics and parks with friends, to solitary camping trips in the mountains - at the ripe old age of 22, five years before meeting my future wife.

Contact is all that it takes
To change your life, to lose your place in time

Such glorious memories - thanks to Wallgreen's and their blasted marketing strategy to lull me into being a good consumer according to my own mortality!

However, I can be encouraged that I was not there to buy pain killers or stool softeners or supplements for the prostate or denture cream.  I am not quite surfing that demographic wave, at least not yet.  Instead, (and this may be one of those sentences never before written or spoken in the English language) I was buying a gallon of milk, a cat bed, and a package of Fig Newtons.

Yes, I was Jonesing for Fig Newtons.

Does that mean something?  Am I just this side of having to stock up on Doan's Pills, hot water bottles, enemas, and Grecian Formula?  How far does one have to connect the dots to get from Arlo Guthrie, Sammy Hagar, and Fig Newtons before this becomes a "Remember, O man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return" thing?  Then again, I have just been reminiscing about the cassette tape and the days before cellphones, PCs, downloadable music, and my motorcycle that was made 30 years ago (which would today qualify for antique plates).

Well, I guess I'll know for sure that it's all downhill when Wallgreen's starts playing 1990s grunge.  And I can only hope and pray not be fated to picking out a new walker while Britney Spears sings "Oops, I Did it Again" - a fate worse than death.

Meanwhile, for the time being, I'll gladly take Guthrie and Hagar, Amtrak and Suzuki and Nabisco and reflect between Fig Newtons:

Another world, some other time
You lay your sanity on the line
Familiar faces, familiar sights
Reach back, remember with all your might


Good night, America, how are you?
Say, don't you know me I'm your native son,
I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans,
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.

Singing a Song vs. Living a Song

Popular songwriter Jim Steinman has written a large corpus of distinctive works performed by many singers from the 1970s to the present, most notably Meat Loaf (Marvin Aday). His music is just plain fun. Much of it is tongue-in-cheek with witty and even poetic turns of phrase and a big theatric and/or operatic sound to back up the main vocal lines.  His music often avoids falling off the cliff of pretension with some good old-fashioned self-parody and humor.  At the same time, there is much upon which to cogitate.

The Steinman tune "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" was a top-40 hit in 1981.  In fact, on the radio in the office of the Superintendent of Akron's pubic schools when my dad drove me over to his office to pick up my high school diploma (I attended Summer school and racked up enough credits to graduate a year early).

The 1981 arrangement and performance that was on the radio (especially Cleveland's legendary WMMS) that summer is reproduced in the first YouTube below (it was released as part of a Jim Steinman solo project, but he was not the vocalist).  It has the characteristic Steinman flair - playful lyrics, operatic chorus, and epic instrumental sound.  The singer is good - especially considering how the song took off on the radio.  But he is only singing the song, not living it.

Jim Steinman's 1981 version...


In 1993, Meat Loaf took the wheel of the vocals as the same tune was re-released as part of his Steinman-authored Bat Out of Hell II project.  Listening to this version is like the former with the intensity cranked up a few notches - if not exponentially - and then ripping the knob off and throwing it away.  I think it's obvious why the decades-long collaboration between lyricist and vocalist has survived and prospered.

The contrast between the two is stunning.  It is as though Meat Loaf said: "Now I will show you how a Steinman song is sung.  Step back, sit down, and get out of the way."  Or as Mrs. H. said, the former is singing the song, whereas Meat Loaf is living the song.  And a piece of music - whether a pop tune or an opera - with lyrics like: "You've been through the fires of hell / And I know you've got the ashes to prove it" ought to be sung with conviction - as one who has been there, done that, and has survived to tell the tale.

Postscript: I blogged about Meat Loaf nearly four years ago here.

Meat Loaf's 1993 version...

New Orleans: Reality vs. Perception

I was watching an episode of a BBC program in which British comedian and actor Stephen Fry (who played Jeeves opposite Hugh Laurie's Wooster in the TV adaptation of (the uproariously funny and brilliant) Jeeves and Wooster) visits all fifty states of the American union.  In this episode, Fry travels up the Mississippi River from New Orleans to Minnesota.

I was interested in how he would find Louisiana - especially New Orleans.  Of course, there is only so much one can see in a short time, and even less that will survive the cutting room floor.  Basically, Fry visited Bourbon Street on Mardi Gras, interviewed an alleged voodoo priestess (a white Jewish lady from New England, actually), and toured the Angola prison.

That was it.

His conclusions were as fake as the New Orleans accents in the movie The Big Easy.  Laughably so!  Of course, the whole Mardi Gras on Bourbon Street thing is a gross distortion of what Carnival is really like.  It's like summarizing American cuisine by showing a kid eating chicken nuggets at McDonald's.  Yes, you will find Americans doing so, but it's a rather narrow stereotype of a much bigger totality.  And in fairness, Bourbon Street is a tourist area that caters to tourists and is filled with tourists.  It's a little like visiting Chinatown and concluding that the average American speaks fluent Mandarin.  Great story, shame about the facts.

But it makes for sensationalistic TV I suppose.

The really laughable part was the time wasted on the whole "voodoo priestess" thing.  I mean, really!  Fry went so far as to conclude that voodoo is the spiritual bedrock of New Orleans.  Can he actually believe this?  Of course, there were (and perhaps still are) real practitioners of voodoo.  But what you find in the French Quarter are souvenir shops and (once again) tourist traps.  Moreover, the overwhelming spirituality of New Orleanians - even if only in a cultural or nominal way - is Roman Catholicism - so much so that the poster advertising the most recent LCMS Youth Gathering featured the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Louis (the spiritual hub of New Orleans) as part of its logo.  But to watch this show, one would think that Christianity runs a distant second to voodoo, that your average Louisianian carries his car keys on a real shrunken head, and sticking pins in effigies of rival football coaches (well, the last one might be true... just kidding).  Actually, the real spirituality of New Orleans is indeed football - the Saints, LSU, Tulane, and your various and sundry Alabama fans.  It is impossible to walk around New Orleans for any length of time without seeing a Saints jersey or a billboard with Drew Brees's picture on it.  A close second in the hearts of the local culture involves the lifestyle that focuses on music and restaurants (both with an authentic regional uniqueness) - quite independent of both Mardi Gras and Bourbon Street.  But Fry chose to focus on something as arcane as voodoo.  And of course, Angola Prison.

Boy, they saw him coming!

Obviously, the screenwriters had in mind a very shallow stereotypical and preconceived picture of Louisiana, and seized on it: Bourbon Street Mardi Gras, voodoo, and a prison.  There was an obligatory tour of the post-Katrina Ninth Ward - but of course, the impression was given that only black neighborhoods suffered under Hurricane Katrina (because of the implied conclusion that the population of Louisiana is racist - yet more sensationalism that can be disproved by even a cursory real visit).

In contrast to the hackneyed Fry job, here is a story from our local paper that you might not hear about in the rest of the country and world - a piece that captures the big-heartedness and sense of community that maybe isn't quite as compelling as voodoo.  But it does involve Mardi Gras, though if you're looking for vomit-stained college girls from the midwest exposing themselves, or chickens being sacrificed, or lurid scenes of prisoners being marched around by rifle-toting guards - you will be disappointed.  It does, however, demonstrate what the vast majority of real New Orleanians think of drunken knuckleheads at the local parades and how children (especially the handicapped) fit into our complex and cosmopolitan culture.

I think the headline in the print edition sums it up: That's How We Roll.

It's too bad that Stephen Fry didn't dig a little deeper.  For the real Louisiana is way more interesting, intricate, incongruous, and intimate than his producers' limp and lazy attempt to create a lurid, and yet ultimately, plastic (and boring!) image that is more imagination than reality.

Sermon: Invocabit – 2012

26 February 2012 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA


Text: Matt 4:1-11 (Gen 3:1-21, Heb 4:14-16)

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, when the author of Hebrews implores us to draw near to the throne of grace “with confidence,” he means boldly, openly, and plainly. He means that we can walk to the King’s throne as if we are the crown prince, without hesitation and without worry that we don’t belong there. He doesn’t mean that we should be flippant or take this great privilege for granted. But He does mean that we should not be cowardly when we poor, miserable, and yet forgiven, sinners draw near to God.

What a great contrast to what we deserve as Moses has laid before us in the third chapter of Genesis! Adam and Eve were anything but bold and confident, frank and open, when they broke the Lord’s law, when they sinned against the Lord’s commandment, and when they betrayed the Lord’s trust.

In fact, in their shame, they “hid themselves from the presence of the Lord.” They knew what they had done and they understood the justice they deserved. When God sought them, they were the very opposite of bold and confident, frank and open.

And when the Lord confronted them, bidding them to confess, they were anything but bold and confident, frank and open in their confession. Instead, Adam blamed Eve. Eve blamed the Serpent. And indeed, it was the Serpent who sowed the seeds of doubt: “Did God actually say…?”

But, dear friends, this seed of doubt was not to be the last seed to be sewn. In fact, the Lord Himself promised to the devil: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring” – literally: “her Seed.” “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

And so the great conflict – in fact the Greatest Conflict in History – began with a human act of sin, and with the promise of a human act of redemption! For it was to be not a seed of doubt planted by the devil, but the Seed of Faith planted by the Father – that would secure eternity and bring forth victory – even in the shadow of that most dark and horrid of days.

For our Lord Jesus is the Seed of the woman, the Offspring not only of Eve, but also the Son of the virgin Mary, conceived without the seed of a man. He is the Warrior who has come to avenge mankind from the lies of the father of lies and his loathsome “did God actually say…?” seed of doubt. And Jesus, our Seed-Warrior is also our King-Priest. He is the Son of David, the One whose reign never ends, the One through whom we, the fallen seeds of Adam and Eve, conceived in sin and disobedience and death – can approach the divine throne of grace with confidence: bold and confident, frank and open. And what’s more, He is our Priest, the one who offers Himself as the Lamb: the sacrifice and priestly work of His own nail-scarred hands, even as the malicious and mendacious devil bruised His heel at the cross.

This Priest atones for us with blood, His own blood, His own perfect blood, He who “has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God,” our very own “great High Priest” whose death gives us life, whose blood gives us confidence to “draw near” to the God whom we have offended with our sins, whose Word sustains us in ways that bread alone cannot. For as Jesus – the Seed of the woman, the High Priest, the Lamb of God pure and holy, the Redeemer, the Savior, the Word Made Flesh, the Crucified One – teaches us anew this holy day: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Dear friends, our Lamb dies so that we might live! Our Priest offers sacrifice so that we might draw near to the throne of grace”! Our promised Seed crushes the head of the lying serpent, and the Word made flesh sends forth His Word to us in order that we might wield it as a double-edged sword to beat back the temptations and assaults of the devil, crushing his head under our feet.

For the Serpent continues in his lie: “Did God actually say…?” to this very day.

Did God actually say that we are sinners? Yes indeed. “Let us hold fast our confession.” Did God actually say that the Lord Jesus is our High Priest through whom we can “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace”? Yes indeed, “Let us hold fast our confession.” Did God actually say that “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”? Yes, indeed. “Let us hold fast our confession.”

And we hold fast our confession as our Lord held fast His confession, even during His own temptation. For our High Priest is indeed able to “sympathize with our weaknesses” as He is truly “One who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

And what a blessing that we do not simply have a Priest who preaches at us and tells us what to do, but one who leads the way, marching into battle ahead of us, slaying the enemy with the sword that is His very Word!

What a blessing that we have a Savior who has the power and the authority to command: “Be gone, Satan!” as well as passing that authority on to His ministers who speak in His name: “It is written!”

And thanks be to God that by Christ’s power, through Christ’s authority, by means of Christ’s Word, and in Christ’s name, “the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to Him.”

Though we are sinners and deserve death, we are given life in the Word. Though in our shame, we have no right to approach the throne, we are given confidence by means of the Word. And though in our separation from God, we have no power to fight against the old evil foe, we are empowered to make use of the Word by the Word of God in the flesh, the promised Seed, our High Priest!

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Hollywood (again) in Gretna

Above is the video of this report from FOX-8 News (New Orleans).

On the heels of Will Ferrell's "Dog Fight," another crew was filming in Gretna yesterday for another movie ("The Hot Flashes") a block away in our local coffee shop and neighborhood eatery, Common Grounds.  CG is getting to be as well known as a movie set as it is for its shrimp po-boy and Fazzi's barbecue chicken.

I guess the days are coming to an end when you can google "Hollywood" and "Gretna" and my blog would pop up at the top of the list!

Sermon: Ash Wednesday – 2012

22 February 2012 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA


Text: Matt 6:1-6, 16-21

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

“Remember, O man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

It’s easy to forget this universal truth, even as we universally try to forget it. We don’t like to confront our own mortality. We change the subject. We speak in euphemisms to avoid the obvious. And we take all sorts of pills and powders and potions to cover up the evidence that we are dust, and to dust we shall return. We buy Oil of Olay and Grecian Formula to create the illusion of youthful appearance. Bawdy pharmaceutical commercials try to lure an aging population to behave like hormonal teenagers.

“Remember, O man…”

Remember, O man, that man was created in the image and likeness of God, man and woman, perfect in every way, without cells that would age and without the curse of disease and decay. Remember, O man, how you sinned, man and woman, surrendering the perfection given to us as a gift. Remember, O man, that “the wages of sin is death,” and that “we all like sheep have gone astray.”

“Remember, O man,” that no amount of cosmetics or chemicals can take away sin, the very thing that has brought death into our world and into our own lives.

We need to remember because we try so hard to forget. We make ourselves busy with all sorts of distractions so as not to remember that we are dust, that we are sinners, and that we will indeed return to dust. We work and make money, which we spend on toys and games and distractions so that we won’t remember. We invest years of our lives in sports and television and hobbies so that we won’t remember. We find all sorts of excuses to avoid studying God’s Word and hearing the Word preached so that we can’t be reminded. We drown our mortality in entertainment and distractions, all so that we won’t remember. But it doesn’t work.

“Remember, O man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

This is why Jesus is constantly reminding us of realities that cut through the clutter and get right to the point. Jesus says: “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people to be seen by them,” as if it matters what others think of us. For “remember, O man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Our heavenly reward from our heavenly Father is far more important than the temporary praise of fallen men in this fallen life.

“Remember, O man…”

Our Lord reminds us: “When you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do.” For, as our Lord reminds us, such people “have received their reward” already in this short life. But remember, says our Lord, “your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

“Remember, O man…”

“And when you pray,” our Lord reminds us, “you must not be like the hypocrites” who put on a good show, eager to be seen by others. But again, “remember, O man” that “your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

“Remember, O man…”

“And when you fast,” says our Lord, “do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others.” For, as our Lord reminds us, such people “have received their reward.” “But when you fast” (“when” you fast, as our Lord reminds us), “anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others.” And our Lord reminds us again, “your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Some may feel that we should not “disfigure our faces” with an ashen cross, but rather should “anoint your head and wash your face.” But, dear friends, the cross of ashes is not a sign of your fasting, it is a sign of your mortality. It is not a boast about how good we are, but just the opposite. It is a stark reminder to us and to all men who are likewise marked for death – whether with or without a cross – that we are indeed dust, and to dust we shall return.

“Remember, O man…”

If this reality drives you to fast as a sign of repentance, than your fasting should be in secret. There is no need to proclaim to the world what we are giving up for Lent or to make a show of it.

“Remember, O man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

And most of all, dear friends, please pay heed to our Lord’s last reminder. We may choose not to confront our mortality by avoiding God’s Word and by refusing to strive against our mortal sinful nature in a struggle to lead a godly life. Instead, we may turn to the world’s allurements of bread and circuses, of sports and sexuality, of hobbies and music and entertainments. None of these are bad in and of themselves. In fact, in their right context, they are gifts of God. But how many people use these things as an idol, as a substitute for the Word of God? How many would not think of missing a parade but will gladly miss Divine Service? How many would not think of missing even a few minutes of the game, but think nothing of missing Bible class? How many will think nothing of spending money on restaurants while shorting the collection plate as the church struggles to pay bills?

“Remember, O man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Remember what our Lord reminds us again: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

“Remember, O man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

On that day when we return to dust, how important will that jersey be? That prized throw? That antique car? That smartphone? That laptop or iPad? On that day when we return to dust, who will remember who the MVP in the last Super Bowl was? Who had the biggest house in the neighborhood? Who could afford the plastic surgery? Whose kids went to the best colleges? On that day when we return to dust, where will our treasure be?

“Remember, O man…”

We need to remember that we are dust, and to dust we shall return. We need to remember that God loved us even in our sinfulness and in our mortality to the point where He sent His only-begotten Son into our flesh, to likewise partake of death – even the death of the cross. “Remember, O man,” that God the Son became a man, so that He might remember you before His Father in heaven!

“Remember, O man…”

Remember that Christ died on the cross for you, that he did not bear ashes symbolic of death on His forehead as a sign, but rather He bore our cross unto the death that He did not deserve, so that He could mark us with the sign of the cross at Holy Baptism. Remember that this baptism is not simply water that washes away ashes and dust from the body, but rather washes away sin and death, drowns the Old Adam destined for dust and ashes, and marks us with His cross so that even though we will die, yet we shall live!

“Remember, O man!

Dear brother and sisters, by the Lord’s grace and in His love, let us use our remaining time before we return to ashes wisely, putting God’s Word first, allowing Jesus to remind us that though we shall die, we shall conquer death because He has conquered death! Let use this time of Lent as an opportunity to repent of our foolishness and our forgetfulness of what is truly important. Let us turn from death and toward life! Let us store up our treasures in heaven, and remember that all things in this fallen world are only so much dust and ashes, but that in Christ, we have “treasure in heaven,” the treasure of forgiveness, salvation, and a life that will have no end.

“Remember, O man!”

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon: Quinquagesima – 2012

19 February 2012 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA

Text: Luke 18:31-43 (Isa 35:3-7, 1 Cor 13:1-13)

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

“Lord, have mercy upon us! Christ, have mercy upon us! Lord, have mercy upon us!” Amen.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our Lord Jesus has great encouragement in store for us today, and it is wrapped in an irony that should make us stop and ponder its meaning: the blind who see, and those with sight who lack vision.

No less than “the twelve,” – the followers of Jesus, the holy apostles themselves – were subject to fits of blindness, such as when our Lord told them something incredibly important: “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.”

This sounds like something they would do well to pay close attention to, and if they aren’t understanding it, maybe they should ask Jesus some questions.

Our Lord continues, speaking about Himself: “For He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise.”

Our blessed Lord has just revealed to the Twelve the eternal mystery of the atoning passion, death, and resurrection of God in the flesh. This does sound kind of important, no?

“But they” – the followers of Jesus – “understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.”

They are blind to the very clear preaching of Jesus. They don’t want to hear it. Maybe they are paying attention to other things. Maybe they are focusing on what they want to be true rather than what is true. Maybe they have forgotten that they are the sheep and that our Lord is the Shepherd, and they would do well to pay attention, even when (and maybe especially when) it seems hard. At any rate, they don’t see it.

But, dear friends, contrast this with what comes next.

A blind man, not a disciple of Jesus, but a shameful beggar, cries out: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Without even being able to see, this blind man (who is an embarrassment to the community) has the vision of Jesus as the “Son of David,” as the Messiah, as the living Vessel of the living God’s life-giving mercy.

And his vision of Jesus bears fruit, as Jesus restores the man’s sight, proclaiming: “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” And, as St. Luke reports, “immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.”

This is so typical of God’s kingdom (which is anything but typical). The blind man sees. The one who cries out for mercy receives it. But at the same time, the ones who don’t like what Jesus has to say manage not to understand the simple message of the Gospel.

This blindness of the disciples concerning the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus would hang over them up to the first Easter itself. For even though Jesus told them over and over what was to happen, they were blinded by their own conceit and sense of self-destiny to see what was coming. Peter told Jesus this was just not going to happen. James and John wanted to sit at Jesus’s right and left. They were blinded by ambition and their own wants.

It was not until the risen Christ appeared to the apostles that they were to finally see, really see, what Jesus revealed to them on the way to Jerusalem. And it would not be until the Holy Spirit’s descent at Pentecost that the apostles would go forth from Jerusalem not only “seeing,” not only understanding, but also proclaiming, preaching, opening the eyes of those in Jerusalem and all over the world who were trapped by the darkness of idolatry and the blindness of sin.

Dear friends, our Lord invites us to take to heart the prayer of the blind beggar s we join him in our liturgy: “Lord, have mercy upon us!” We too are blind beggars crying out for mercy: “Christ, have mercy upon us!” We blind beggars given sight, by God’s grace through Christ, are also invited to give praise to God with our prayer of hope: “Lord have mercy upon us!”

We are invited to leave our own self-inflicted blindness, to stop being beguiled by the world’s trinkets and distractions, to truly listen to Jesus and really understand His Word, to pay attention to the proclamation of the preachers of every time and place who have come to announce the grace of God as the Lord’s mercy that is indeed upon us.

We are approaching a time of year to have our blindness lifted, a season of study and understanding, of crying out for mercy, of fasting, of praying, of almsgiving, of confession, of repentance, of seeing, truly seeing our desperate need for a Savior. We are coming into a season where we will have the opportunity to be immersed in the Lord’s mercy by increased study of His Word and by a more frequent participation in His Sacraments.

The theme of Lent has always been: “Lord, have mercy on me!” And what is “mercy” but love in action, love our Lord has for us in redeeming and healing us, and love that impels us to glorify God in our own acts of mercy in love for our fellow sinners?

St. Paul teaches us anew about this love, this perfect love, this Christian love showered upon us recklessly by our merciful Lord like throws from a parade float, love that we in turn share liberally with our fellow blind beggars who likewise lack vision apart from Christ.

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”

If we have all of the doctrines of the Bible and of the Small and Large Catechisms of Martin Luther and of the entire Book of Concord and of the Constitution and Bylaws of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, but lack love, we are nothing.

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”

This love is what our Lord brings to the blind man. Love is what impels our Lord to “endure all things” – even a cross, even to be “mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon.” Love is what motivates our Lord to show mercy upon us by enduring flogging, crucifixion, and being laid in a tomb. And it is love that raised our Lord Jesus from the grave. And the Lord loves us even when we do not understand these things, being blinded by our own sinfulness and selfishness. For he has come to show mercy to the blind, to save sinners, to bring life to the dead and pardon to the lost.

Let us open our eyes! Let us see the vision of the Lord Jesus in His passion, death, and resurrection, in His Word and Sacraments, in the fellowship of His saints – which is to say, dear brothers and sisters, in His mercy and in His love!

Our Lord has come to give us vision, not only to see our own sinfulness “in a mirror dimly,” but to see our merciful Lord as He is “face to face.” For in His passion, death, and resurrection, we have redemption, forgiveness, and eternal life. We have victory over sin, death, and the devil. And we are indeed given the gifts of “faith, hope, and love.”

As the Lord’s servant, I proclaim anew to you what our Lord Jesus and the apostles have proclaimed to the world, what God has revealed through the preaching of the prophet Isaiah, words Isaiah likewise preached to a people who have been beaten down by their oppressors and by a world that does not care to understand the Word of the Word made flesh, a Word of encouragement and hope, a Word of mercy and perfect love:

“Be strong; fear not! Behold your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened.”

“Recover your sight,” dear brothers and sisters, “your faith has made you well.”

“Lord, have mercy upon us! Christ, have mercy upon us! Lord, have mercy upon us!” Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Russian Lutherans Make New Orleans Newspaper

The January 31, 2012 visit of an LCMS pastor from Iowa (Rev. Dan Johnson) and four fellow Lutherans from Siberia (including Bishop Vsevolod Lytkin, Rev. Dmetri Dotsenko, and Miss Natasha Sheludiakova) to Salem Lutheran Church in Gretna, Louisiana was written up in the Times-Picayune's February 16 edition, which you can view here.  The print edition included the above photo.

The delegation also toured downtown Gretna and took in some jazz in the French Quarter.  You can see pictures here (via Flickr) and here (via facebook).

Breathtaking pictures of Novosibirsk, Siberia

Check out these remarkable wide views of the landscape of Siberia's capital and Russia's third-largest city and one of its scientific and engineering centers of higher learning.  Novosibirsk is also the headquarters of Confessional Lutheranism in Russia, the home to both the cathedral church (St. Andrew) and the seminary (Lutheran Theological Seminary) of the Siberian Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Miter Tip: Bishop Vsevolod Lytkin.

This is pure Soviet-style government...

Above: a cautionary tale from 1947

And it isn't in Russia.

Is this what the founding fathers had in mind when they declared independence from a government in which they complained of putting in place "a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance"?

By what right does any bureaucrat (who is getting his marching orders from Washington under the auspices of the USDA) have to come into a local school and interfere with what a parent feeds her own four-year old child?  Has a crime mentioned in the Constitution been committed here?  Has any crime at all been committed here?  At what point do we come together as a people and tell the federal government (and its surrogates in the state governments) "enough is enough!"?  I have not read the state constitution of North Carolina, but I suspect there is nothing in that document in which the people delegate to the state power to determine what parents feed their young children.  And if there is, shame on them!

And what a coincidence that these same "standards" in North Carolina are imposed by state bureaucrats in the other states.  What a coincidence, huh?

This is pure Soviet-style micromanagement of individual families and Kremlin-like domination over the states.  This is worship of the State.  This is not just Big Government.  Rather, we live in the days of the Government-god.  And the irony is that Americans call their national holiday "Independence Day" and spend fiat currency that says "In God We Trust."  You don't get much more Orwellian than that.

We are a people more dependent than our 18th century ancestors ever were!

In this North Carolina case, the dirty-work is being carried out by a state (as in one of the fifties) bureaucrat - but we all know the dirty little secret that our states today are mere puppets of Washington.  The federal government takes money from the people, and then doles it back to the people based on their state governments' compliance with (i.e. subordination to) Washington's dictates.  Isn't this yet more irony when you consider whom the City of Washington was named after?  The states have been reduced to being bossy big sister au paire surrogates of a super-Nanny State.  And there is a revolving door between the political offices in the state capitols and in Washington (which should really be renamed "Lincoln") - as the most efficient parasites who operate under the Democrat and Republican banners at the state level are tapped for bigger and better careers in looting at the federal level.

Once again, this is top-down tyranny - as all tyranny really has to be.

The USDA should be abolished.  The US Department of Health and Human Services should be abolished. All unconsitutional activity of the federal government needs to be brought to a screeching halt. And the people of North Carolina (whose ancestors accounted for a fourth of all of the quarter million Confederate deaths in the War Between the States) should stand on their hind legs and reclaim their rights as free people.  If you can't even send your four-year old to school with a non-government-approved sandwich, you are slaves.

And a good number of Americans think the federal objective of the War for Southern Independence was the abolition of slavery!  Another irony.

I wonder what it will take before Americans (whose modern notion of "freedom" seems to be some kind of abstract bumper-sticker slogan or "Go USA" type cheerleading) start telling their governments to mind their own business.  That is what real freedom is.  If you cannot even make a decision regarding family meal planning without bureaucratic oversight (even being compelled to purchase a state-approved meal), you are not free, Comrade.

HT: Mike Adams and Karen De Coster, the latter of whom sums it all up quite well:

The child was forced to eat processed chicken nuggets - after all, they meet the federal dietary guidelines! - in place of the lunch her mother chose for her. And the parents can be charged for the federalist foods provided to their children without their permission. Does this quote from the article bring you to the realization that you are sending your children to a centrally-planned, totalitarian gulag?

“With a turkey sandwich, that covers your protein, your grain, and if it had cheese on it, that’s the dairy,” said Jani Kozlowski, the fiscal and statutory policy manager for the division. “It sounds like the lunch itself would’ve met all of the standard.” The lunch has to include a fruit or vegetable, but not both, she said.

This is the consequence of a government's fascist "war" on obesity and its fraudulent health & wellness paradigm.

Of course, as government takes over more and more, this kind of thing seems more and more "normal."  And when members of the political parties will typically excuse such actions as "for the health of our children" if these policies are being carried out under their own political party.  Even when they don't approve of such tactics, they won't cede the power because they think they will use such power properly when they are elected.

But then again, that is exactly how Soviet systems work: it is a bureaucratic and autocratic denial of liberty (often replacing parental authority with state authority) carried out in what appears to be a democratic process by a single party that claims it is acting "for the good of the people."

All that's missing is the hammer and sickle.

Should Counterfeiters Go to Prison?

The above is a recent speech before the European Parliament.  And Mr. Bloom is right!

Central banking (including our Federal Reserve System) is nothing other than theft by stealth under the color of legitimacy.  We are being looted by our own banking system.  Finally, people are waking up to this.  This should be seen as a moral issue (rather than being treated as arcane politics or as simple disagreements about economic policy).  If the local grocer were constantly changing the value of his scales (defining a pound as a little bit less and less each day), or if the gas stations were to jimmy up their pumps so that each successive gallon is smaller than the last gallon, we would be calling for trials!

The dollar is likewise a standard symbol of measurement.

This is why when private citizens print valueless paper and pass it off as dollars, they are convicted of counterfeiting.  It is a serious crime that undermines the entire economy.  In fact, the reason your quarters and dimes have serrated edges is because in the days when these coins actually contained silver, and the edges guarded against crooks shaving some of the silver off of the coins.  The joke is on us - there is today no reason for edging on any of our coins (with the exception of the nickel, which ironically is smooth-edged, as it is still made of real metal - at least for the time being).  The reason is because every bit of precious, or even industrial metals, has been removed (again, with the exception of the nickel. for the time being).  It's almost wrong to call them coins when they are really tokens.

So, counterfeiting is a crime, but when government (at the behest of bankers) manipulates the currency (by means of removing the metal from the coins and printing banknotes backed by nothing out of thin air - thus devaluing the dollar to their own advantage), we're all supposed to treat this as moral and legitimate.  Why?  Because the government says so.

Even the Scriptures condemn such playing around with standards of weights and measures.

Of course, a lot of people turn to Romans 13 to argue that government can do just about anything, because by definition, if they are doing it, it must be legal.  Some will distort Luther's doctrine of vocation to attempt to bully people into submission and subjugation to the state, even when the state is committing immoral acts.  Indeed, as the analogy goes, a surgeon takes off peoples' clothes and cuts them with a knife - and within his vocation, this is legal.  If someone off the street, not a doctor, were to do the same thing, it would be a crime.  Some use this analogy to make the case that if a private citizen were to print banknotes on his printer, it would be counterfeiting.  But if this private citizen were part of a super-secret elite group of bankers in bed with government - than somehow the very same act of counterfeiting is ipso facto legal.

This is a gross abuse of Luther's doctrine of vocation.

Government does not have carte blanche.  Theft is theft, and when government does it, it only compounds the sin by adding corruption to stealing.  We should hold those in government - especially judges and politicians - to extremely high standards of morality, as they essentially can, by force, take from us that which is ours - our property and even our lives.  Agents of the government have the power to put innocent people in prison or even to death.  We no longer have the right to trial or the guarantees of the fourth amendment in some cases.  A corrupt government is almost impossible to fight - especially a government that increasingly encroaches on the rights and the constitutional protection of its citizens.

And the sad part is that schools do not teach about money, banking, and the federal reserve.  Nor do colleges and universities typically even broach the subject.  Very few theologians would even see this deliberate theft as a sin.  Many, in fact, will congratulate themselves on voting for candidates who give fiery speeches about Christian morality all the while approving (or even abetting) the manipulation of the currency to the detriment of honest people who work for a living.

Also sad is how partisan people are.  No, Republicans, you can't blame Obama for this.  No Democrats, you can't blame Bush.  This is a bi-partisan syndicate that is 99 years old.  Almost no-one in the federal government will say anything bad about it or even approach it as a matter of moral principal.  But that is starting to change, both in Europe and in the U.S.  China (which is the number two holder of U.S. debt, right behind the Federal Reserve) is buying massive quantities of gold.  Gold-backed currency cannot be manipulated by bankers anywhere near the ability to do the same with a central bank with government-run printing presses.  Could it be that the Chinese Central Bank knows something our own bankers and bureaucrats don't?  Namely: ponzi schemes eventually run out.

Mr. Bloom's speech above shows that this is becoming a front-burner issue around the world, as every currency on the planet is today managed by central banks and manipulated by cartels of bankers, politicians, and bureaucrats.  Some countries (like China) may well see the writing on the wall as they try to find an exit strategy out of holding U.S. dollars (the post-WW2 world reserve currency) in savings, and instead seeking something of real value (such as gold) to store value and issue notes against.

The current system - even when it isn't ending up in riots and civil strife as in Greece - creates bubbles and booms and busts, transfers wealth from the poor to the rich, bankrolls federal boondoggles and military quagmires (in which central bankers, politicians, and their children do not shed blood), discourage thrift and savings and encourage borrowing and debt.

It also makes us (Americans) dependent on other nations to bankroll the whole ponzi scheme - and if and when they decide to get out, we will be left holding the bag.

Should someone in Weimar Germany have gone to jail when an entire nation was impoverished through outright theft of the value of the Deutschmarks in people's pockets?  This is money that people earned at a specific rate and then were forced to spend at another rate (think: some people were in a position to do just the opposite, namely bankers and those who can spend the cheap printed money before it devalues with the passage of time).  This is money under which contracts were signed at one value, and which devalued exponentially in the middle of the contract.

The same thing (hyperinflation) happened recently in Argentina and Zimbabwe.

Should those who benefit from this go to prison (like Bernie Madoff, who did not have government "cover" for his crimes)?

Actually, the founding fathers of the United States (who warned repeatedly against central banks and "paper" money) did not think such people should be incarcerated.  They had another penalty in mind.

Will there come a day when currencies are again honest and constant in value?  I'm afraid things will get a lot worse before they get better.  But on the other hand, thanks to the lessening of government control of information thanks to the Internet, this issue is now on the table.  And it is an issue that is being looked at from across the political spectrum: from conservative investment firms, mainstream conservative thinkers, and even youthful Occupy Wall Street folks on the left.

Ending the Fed is something people from all across the political spectrum ought to be able to agree on.  There are few teachings more universal than the Seventh Commandment.  The Fed has been allowing institutional theft from the people of this country for a century.  It's nice to see this being recognized in the European Parliament as well.

Thank you once again, Mr. Bloom!

Consider an investment: not of money, but of time.  The following 42 minute documentary (or read the transcript here) explains the whole thing - including why this is relevant.  The film's style is dated (it was produced in 1996) - which is actually good.  You can see how things have gone since that time.  A lot has happened in the world's economy - especially since 2008.