Guest Sermon by Bishop Vsevold Lytkin - St. Titus, 2020

26 January 2020

Text: Titus 1:1-9

You know, I remember, one of my older colleagues told me that during his childhood his greatest fear was ordination. At the same time, he really wanted to become a priest.

He grew up in a free country where religion was not prohibited, but, on the contrary, every Sunday the churches were filled with Christian people.  The boy tried to get as close to the altar as possible to observe how the priests are moving in there.  Instinctively, he even tried to repeat their motions, as if brandishing a censer or lifting up a chalice and a paten with holy gifts.

And only one thing bothered him a lot.  The fact was that one day a bishop came to their parish for ordination, and when the priests surrounded the candidate on all sides, the boy asked his father what they are doing there. “They pulled his spine out of him,” his father replied.

After that, for many years the boy stopped wanting to become a priest, and even approached the altar not to observe how the priest was “turning” bread and wine into the body and blood, but to understand how he does that without a spine.

Nevertheless, the desire to become a clergyman did not pass, and once, having already finished seminary, he knelt down with feet bending in holy fear to receive the sacrament of ordination.  His spine remained with him.

Well...  Let’s read now from the beginning of the epistle of Saint Paul to Titus:

To Titus, my true child in a common faith:

Grace and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ our Savior.  This is why I left you in Crete, so that you complete the unfinished, and appoint presbyters in every town as I directed you.

Today the Church celebrates the Festival of Saint Timothy and Saint Titus. As the Holy Scriptures speaks of them, Timothy was a native of the Asia Minor town of Lystra, the son of a Greek man and a Jewish woman. He was a Christian from childhood and became a companion of Saint Paul in his missionary travels, and then became a bishop of the Church in Ephesus.

Titus was a Greek convert to Christianity; he also accompanied Saint Paul on his travels, carried out his instructions; and then Saint Paul consecrated him to be a bishop of Crete.

Paul treated both of them not only as his beloved disciples, but even as his beloved children, calling them “sons” in his epistles:

Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ...

to Timothy, my true child in the faith...  

Paul, the servant of God and the apostle of Jesus Christ... to Titus, my true child in a common faith.

The apostle dedicated the epistles to both of them, which are often called “pastoral” epistles, that means, addressed not to the churches, but personally to the bishops.  In these letters, much is said about the Church hierarchy, about its three steps: bishops, priests and deacons:

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of bishop, he desires a noble task.

This is why I left you in Crete, so that you complete the unfinished, and appoint presbyters in every town. 

Deacons... must be... honest. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.

According to the Church calendar, the Feast of Saint Timothy and Saint Titus immediately follows the Day of conversion of the Apostle Paul, and this is not by accident. This is because the today’s festival is a continuation of the previous one, but not only in the sense of the calendar, that is, not only because Jesus first converted Paul, and then Paul called his faithful helpers Timothy and Titus.

This, of course, is right.  But the Feast of Saint Timothy and Saint Titus is celebrated after the feast of Saint Paul, primarily because exactly in this sequence Christianity increased.

You know, if you ask a common person, an ordinary Christian, about how, in his opinion, Christianity increased, he is unlikely answer about the clergy, in other words, about the priests.

It happens because of the post-Protestant influence on our brains; sometimes it seems to us that the increase of the Church was very “laymen”: somebody went to someplace, said something to someone and called somewhere.

We, too, are often captives of this error.  But now think about this: is Christianity possible without the Church?  Now, people who went to someplace and said something, where did they call those who listened to them? To their home?

They called them to the church.  Because only in the church you can be baptized, only in the church you can hear the word of forgiveness spoken with Divine authority, and only in the church you can taste of the salvific Eucharist.

And without what the Eucharist is impossible? Without what absolution of sins is impossible? Or, better, I will ask in a different way: without whom?  Without whom are the sacraments impossible?  Without priests, of course.

You know, a several years ago in one of our eastern parishes, two parishioners had a great conflict with a priest, and then, they left slamming the door, and organized their own “church.”

Before joining Lutheranism, they were Pentecostals, but I think that they remained Pentecostals: they left us because they never became ours.

They declared themselves as the priests, created an “altar” and began to serve “liturgy.”  And they tried to explain to me their “right” to serve the Eucharist using this “argument”: well, they said, really, if we take bread and wine and pray how we should from all our heart, they will for sure become the Body and Blood of Christ!

No, they will not, I answered them, of course.  You can yell as much as you can with a loud voice, and even, like those prophets of Baal, stab yourself with swords and lances until the night time, but the bread will remain ordinary bread and the wine remains ordinary wine.

And the words of forgiveness that you say to your “parishioners” will remain nothing more than a good wish.

The Augsburg Confession says this, “We teach about the church ministry that no one in the Church should publicly teach or preach or conduct the sacraments without being legally ordained” (Art. XIV).

And this means that if a person is not ordained, then all his “sacred actions” will be just a beautiful (if you look positively) performance.  But if you look realistically, this performance is deadly: because in fact, it brings death to its participants: after all, some of them sincerely trust the actors who illegally put on the clothes of priests. Can you imagine what that means?  This means that sins are not forgiven.

It often happens that some people like to steal what they have no right to, but God does not play such games.  He will never contradict Himself.  Because in order to save His people, He created the Church, and granted her a succession of ordinations of priests.

This is why I left you in Crete, so that you complete the unfinished, and appoint presbyters in every town as I directed you.

Yes.  The Epistles of Saint Paul to Timothy and Titus are very, so to speak, hierarchical.  They emphasize the special importance of the clergy in the Church.  “Special” does not mean “privileged.”  You know, sometimes we hear that priests have seized authority in the Church and are doing what they want.  I have heard this -- also from our two former parishioners about whom I just have told you.

Well...  Priests, of course, are different, some of them are intolerant and inattentive. I myself am also one of those.  But we did not seize any authority.  Because apart from the clergy, no one in the Church has ever had any authority.  And this is God who gave us authority - the authority to forgive your sins, to baptize your children, to conduct Holy Communion, the authority to serve you and care for you.

And it was so from the beginning.  In the Old Testament, God chose certain people to stand at the altar and conduct the sacrifices.  The Old Testament hierarchy was genetic: of the twelve tribes of Israel, God chose the descendants of Levi, whom God ordered to serve at the altar.

No one else could stand near the altar, God would not accept the sacrifice from anyone else.  Although already in the Old Testament we repeatedly encounter rebellions against the hierarchy.  One of these rebellions is described in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Numbers. Do you remember that story?

They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, ”You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” 

The idea of ​​the so-called “universal priesthood” is often attributed to us Lutherans, even in some dictionaries and encyclopedias you can read that everyone in our Church may celebrate the liturgy and that a person becomes a pastor as a result of voting.  But it is nowhere in our confessions.  There has never been universal equality in the Church. And those who want to argue with this will have to argue not with humans, but with God - because it was God Who was the author, the Creator of the holy hierarchy.

The New Testament priesthood is different from the Old Testament. Because it is not genetic.  Christ called the twelve apostles and gave them authority to forgive sins and to conduct the sacraments.

And the feast of Saint Timothy and Saint Titus follows immediately the feast of Saint Paul because it was from the Apostle Paul that his disciples Timothy and Titus received ordinations and became priests and later the bishops. This is exactly how the Church extends:

• The Lord gave the authority to forgive sins to His apostles;

• The apostles transferred this authority to the first generation of bishops;

• Bishops transferred this authority to the next generation of bishops,

• and so it has reached our days.

The Church is continuous.  This her continuity is commonly called as “apostolic succession.”  It is about this continuity and this succession that we speak every liturgy when we pronounce the Creed: “I believe ... in ... one holy Christian and apostolic Church.”

And today’s festival is a feast of the apostolic, in other words: a continuous Church. It is very important for us that the Church did not stop, that her tree, even it was divided into several branches (denominations), still grows and stands on the foundation of the apostles.

That is why we can be sure that our sins are forgiven and that the church tradition is not interrupted, because the hierarchy is continuous and modern clergymen have the same authority to forgive sins, which Christ gave to His apostles.

So Saint Paul gave the direction to bishop Titus,

complete the unfinished, and appoint presbyters in every town.  

And on the Feast of Saint Timothy and Saint Titus it is customary to preach about holy ministry. And during the liturgy, we read the prayers about holy ministry, include preface prayer from the order of ordination:

“It is truly good, right and salutary, always and everywhere to thank You, O Lord, Holy Father, Almighty eternal God. By the anointing of the Holy Spirit, You have made Your only begotten Son High Priest of the new and eternal Testament, and by the indescribable authority You have honored the Church with the consecration, granting her the continuous priesthood of Christ. For He not only crowned His people with the dignity of the royal priesthood, but also, by His grace, He chose the people who, through the laying of hands, partake in His priesthood. Therefore with the angels and archangels...” (end of quote).

Complete the unfinished, and appoint presbyters in every town.  

And so it continues to this day. Until now, the bishops complete the unfinished of the apostles when we ordain new priests and deacons in every town around the world.

This is how the ministry of the apostles continues, and this is how the Christian Church grows and increases and the word and sacraments are given to the people.  And so it will be until the end of this world.

Brothers and sisters!  Through the succession of ordinations, God continues to give His priests authority to forgive sins and to conduct the sacraments. To forgive your sins and to conduct the sacraments for you.  So you and your children will be saved.  

(And by the way, nobody pulled out the priests’ spines when the bishops ordain them -- you should trust me!) 

So always rush to the church and receive here the gifts that the Lord offers to you here.

I congratulate you with this festival, dear father Larry and my dear brothers and sisters, with the festival of the Saint bishop Timothy and Saint bishop Titus! Amen!

The Lincoln Blind-Spot

Lincoln Unmasked by Thomas J. DiLorenzo is an excellent analysis

I attended the Acton Institute's annual conference Acton University for the second year in a row.  It was an impressive conference with nearly a thousand attendees from over ninety countries. 

The Acton Institute is a think tank whose mission is "to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles."  Acton promotes free market economics as the proven economic path to human dignity and flourishing, one that offers the best hope for elevating the poor out of poverty.

The speakers at Acton events are impressive.

The opening plenary session for 2019 was a remarkable woman named Mari-Ann Kelam, a freedom-fighter for Estonian independence, as well as an advocate for political prisoners during Soviet rule of Estonia.  Mrs. Kelam went on to serve in the Estonian Parliament, and her husband continues to serve there.

She gave an impassioned speech for human rights - especially over and against Communism.

She was raised and educated in the US, and so she speaks flawless American English.  She attended schools in Ohio, and thus received education in American History.

Several times in her strongly anti-Communist speech, she quoted Abraham Lincoln.  This was ironic for several reasons:

1) Estonia was seeking to secede from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.  Mrs. Kelam and her associates were secessionists.  The UN recognizes the right of "self-determination of peoples" and international law supports secession as an expression of self-determination.  In the case of Estonia in 1990 and 1991, had USSR President Gorbachev likewise lionized US President Abraham Lincoln (as did Karl Marx and Adolph Hitler), he would have sent in tanks and ruthlessly put down the "rebellion."  He could have also followed Lincoln's precedent by suspending habeas corpus, shutting down critical newspapers, arresting opposition legislators, jailing or exiling political prisoners, and turning a blind eye to war crimes carried out against civilians.  Thank God that President Gorbachev was no Lincoln, and Estonia was permitted to leave the Union peacefully.

2) Abraham Lincoln's Republican Party was Communist-friendly, and many of the early Republicans (including those serving in the Union war effort and in the government) were communist refugees from the failed European revolutions of 1848.  This is explored in the book Red Republicans and Lincoln's Marxists: Marxism in the Civil War by Walter Kennedy and Al Benson (2007).

3) Lord John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834-1902), for whom the Acton Institute was named, was a friend of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and a supporter of the secession of the Southern states and their War for Independence, writing in a letter of November 4, 1866:

I saw in State Rights the only availing check upon the absolutism of the sovereign will, and secession filled me with hope, not as the destruction but as the redemption of Democracy. The institutions of your Republic have not exercised on the old world the salutary and liberating influence which ought to have belonged to them, by reason of those defects and abuses of principle which the Confederate Constitution was expressly and wisely calculated to remedy. I believed that the example of that great Reform would have blessed all the races of mankind by establishing true freedom purged of the native dangers and disorders of Republics. Therefore I deemed that you were fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization; and I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo.

Mrs. Kelam is a true heroine of liberty and took a heroic stand for human dignity against the Communist totalitarian menace.  She and her colleagues played a valuable role in the liberation of Estonia from the USSR.  But her education in the United States - which clearly was incomplete with regard to Lincoln, Marx, and Acton - led her into a blind spot.

As a sort-of fourth irony is this quote from Mari-Ann Kelam: "Education is the most important thing, and children are not being taught the truth today."  The Lincoln Blind-Spot - of which so many in the United States suffer - is one such area.

A Bishop Then Must Be... Apt to Teach

Bishop Vsevolod Lytkin of the Siberian Evangelical Lutheran Church which is in altar and pulpit fellowship with the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, recently responded to mockery of his episcopal vestments:


"Dear *****, thank you for your remark. I would recommend you to read the Holy Scriptures. You will be surprised to see detailed descriptions of how priests dressed in the Old Testament. This is because God takes the holy ministry very seriously. Everything connected with the liturgy, the altar, the priesthood is very serious for God. It is only modern post-Protestant invented, as one theologian beautifully called it, "plastic Christianity" (such a simplistic religion, devoid of liturgy, priesthood and grace).

And the Church (I'm talking about the historical Church, and not about something that you may call as "Church") always takes seriously the Divine service. Her priests always wore special clothing that distinguished them from others.
You are not against the fact that doctors in hospitals wear special clothes? Or do you laugh at them also? ("Oh, what a ridiculous robe you have, doctor! Oh, what a funny cap you have!")

Or maybe you are laughing at the cops? Or at the judges? Each of them has a uniform corresponding to their profession.

And bishop always has a miter and a crosier (bishop's staff). They are a sign that he has been given authority from God.

And so please treat the bishops with respect, if only because, as the ancients said, where there is no bishop, there is no Сhurch there."

A Tale of Two Crosses

The roadside cross in the first picture is in the United States (Bladensburg, Maryland).  It is a memorial to Americans who died in World War I.  The roadside cross in the second picture is in the Russian Federation (Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovskaya).  It is a memorial to Russian GULAG victims who died in Stalin's purges.

One of these memorials has been declared illegal by the government, and now must be torn down.

If you think that the illegal cross must be the one in Russia, you would be wrong.  The American cross is illegal; the Russian cross is legal.  The iconoclastic federal judges who ruled the nearly century-old memorial unconstitutional were overwhelmingly Obama-appointees.

It looks like we Americans are, in the words of the Beatles' song, "Back in the US, back in the US, back in the USSR."

New SLMS Newsletter!

The October 2017 issue of the newsletter of the Siberian Lutheran Mission Society (edited by yours truly) is up!  Past newsletters (15 years' worth!) can be found here.

To support the work of the SLMS (with 100% offerings doing directly to Siberia), click on the donate button!

Bonus: a short documentary of the Siberian Evangelical Lutheran Church, made in 2007, is available here:


If you would like to see my travel blog from my 2011 tour of many of our Siberian cities and sister churches, you can click here.

Holocaust Deniers

These people are literally Holocaust-deniers. 

They have been taught in schools (paid for by our tax dollars) and in universities (staffed by open Marxists) to deny the historical realities of what happened in the Soviet Union: the repressions (political, religious, ethnic, and artistic), the forced labor and exiles to Siberia, the Gulag death camps, the tortures, the purges, the intentional starvation perpetrated upon Ukraine ("lies made up by the Nazis!"), etc. 

They are in total denial as they display the hammer and sickle and chant mindless slogans. 

This is so common among young people that it isn't just a strange anomaly. This is the public school and university curriculum of a generation finally bearing fruit. Parents willingly sent their children off to these indoctrination centers and looked the other way while their children were taught to despise their own heritage, culture, country, and freedom itself. 

These silly little boys and girls in this and other videos, people whose life experience consists of social media and the classroom, who enjoy the fruits of freedom and capitalism that are the envy of the world, are actually pontificating to a guy who really grew up in the Soviet Union how great it was because, well, "free college" (which, as Vladimir Jaffe explains, wasn't free at all). 

Many of Jaffe's interviewees repeat the same Big Lie that the Socialism worked great in the USSR from 1917 to 1953 (until the end of Stalin's reign), and that the atrocities under Stalin never happened. According to The Narrative, the USSR ultimately failed because of the reforms from the time of Khrushchev and later. 

And they know this not from visiting Russia or talking to people who survived the Communist Holocaust - but because they want free stuff, and they will believe in whatever fairy tale that promises to give them free stuff. Oh, and chanting. Chanting angry mantras seems to be their preferred method of education. 

And these people have the ear of politicians (of both parties) who act virtually on their orders to mandate cultural-Marxist school curricula, remove inconvenient public historical landmarks and monuments that don't conform to The Narrative, denounce capitalism, raise taxes, and socialize more and more sectors of the economy to give away "free stuff."

These people actually believe that the USSR was wonderful under Stalin, and they would like to recreate that here in America. Please read that again. 

Let that sink in. 

PS: In 2011, I visited several sites in Siberia.  Here is a link to my travel notes on the day I visited Yurga, the site of a death camp that is not a memorial park dedicated to the largely Lutheran population that was interred there, including photos and a brief interview with the Russian bishop who consecrated the park.  There is a Lutheran congregation in Yurga that has survivors of the camp.

While in the city of Yekaterinburg (the site of the brutal murder of the last Russian Tsar, his wife, and children by the Bolshevik Communist revolutionaries), I visited another grim reminder of the Stalin years: a memorial park dedicated to the victims of the purges.  It is a somber place marked by a large memorial cross visible from the highway.  Here are my travel notes with pictures.

While in Yekaterinburg, I met a lady who was exiled to Siberia and whose grandfather, a Lutheran pastor, was shot under the Stalinist reign of terror.  Here are my notes and a photograph - including links to an interview with her.

Announcement!

Salem Lutheran Church (418 4th Street, Gretna, LA  70053) is welcoming some special guests on the weekend of January 28 and 29, 2017.

Bishop Vsevolod Lytkin and his wife Daria will be visiting from Novosibirsk, Siberia - where Bishop Lytkin serves as the bishop of our partner church body, the Siberian Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELC), established after the fall of Communism as a missionary outreach of the Estonian Lutheran Church.  The Bishop will give a presentation at Salem's Schmid Hall on Saturday, January 28 at 6:00 pm.

Before Communism, 10% of the population of the Russian Empire was Lutheran.  The first Lutheran congregation in Russia was founded in Moscow in 1576.  Lutheranism enjoyed a respected status in Russia along with the Russian Orthodox Church.  However, as  result of Communism (especially during Stalin's purges in the 1930s), Lutherans were persecuted and scattered, their pastors executed and churches bulldozed.  Many faithful people were sent to Siberia - some into internal exile, and others into Gulag camps.  Some managed to practice their faith secretly for decades, only being able to worship openly with the establishment of the SELC, the re-establishment of destroyed parishes, and the establishment of new ones.

The Lytkins are a delightful couple with a warm sense of humor who grew up in the USSR and converted to Christianity.  Their stories, and those of their fellow Lutherans in Russia, are compelling and inspiring.

They will be accompanied by the Rev. Daniel Johnson and his wife Amy, who live in Iowa.  Pastor Johnson serves the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod as a missionary liaison to Eurasia.  Bishop Lytkin will also preach at Salem's Sunday (Jan 29) Divine Service at 10:00.

If you want more information about the SELC and its work, the Siberian Lutheran Mission Society is a great resource - especially their newsletter archive dating back to 2003 - fascinating reading!  There is a 22-minute YouTube documentary about the SELC that includes the bishop and features the work of several of the Siberian clergy and their challenges of ministry in this unique setting.

If you'd like more information, please contact the Rev. Larry Beane at: 504-256-3440.  If you plan on attending, we'd appreciate a heads up for planning purposes.  All are welcome!

Acts of the (21st Century Russian Successors of the) Apostles

[Note: I ran across this newsletter from earlier this year (March 9, 2013), Faith and Hope Newsletter #221.  It mainly reports the evangelistic efforts of Fr. Pavel Zayakin, parish priest of St. Luke's Lutheran Church, Abakhan, Khakassia (Siberia, Russia) and the dean of the Eastern Deanery of the Siberian Evangelical Lutheran Church.  Fr. Pavel and his brothers are bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Siberian far east.  His narrative is fascinating and shows just how resilient the Word of God is, and is an inspiration to those of us in the West who are tempted either to take our faith for granted, or despair of the task at hand in ministering to a culture that has become alien to the Christian faith.  If you would like to support Father Pavel's heroic endeavors, please contact the Siberian Lutheran Mission Society - Ed.]


Peace to you dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

We wish you God's blessings in this time of Lent and want to share with you a story of Pastor Pavel Zayakin about his recent trip to Eastern Siberia.
 
At first we asked Pastor Pavel Zayakin how he would call his trip, and he responded: "Wild East."  So, this is his story:

I like to travel.  Of course, it is most pleasant when you are the master of your journey, when you direct your way according to your desire sitting in your car with wife and children or, for example, hiking across mountain range.  Then you feel yourself free, you can stop wherever you like it or leave any place that is dangerous or unpleasant.      

But I serve in the Church for 17 years now, and I don't always choose my way as well as means of transportation.  We priests aren't free. I remember how our Bishop told seminarians: If you want to stay free, leave the seminary. And it is true: a priest must forget about himself and what is his own and serve the people of God. This is the mandate we have from Christ.      

In the second part of February I went on my next trip to the eastern parishes of our Church. You know that the territory of our Church is divided into three deaneries, and I am the dean of the eastern one.    

I regularly visit these parishes, and I know all their needs and difficulties. Oftentimes one of the pastors accompanies me also, and this time it was Andrey Ivolga, our pastor from Angarsk.     

The most complicated things in travel across Siberia, of course, would be our huge distances.  Our travel route was from Novosibirsk to Buryatia and then to Chita.  This is the same distance as from Novosibirsk to Moscow, that is, three thousand kilometers (about 1900 miles).  The comfort is non-existent: old 3rd class train cars packed with crowd of people (we, like majority of Russia's population, can not afford traveling in the second class train cars), very heat, stink, draft.     

Next to us in the car there were some Asian people (they comprised about one third of the train passengers).  Two of whom were sick with tuberculosis and coughed all the time, one of them was coughing with blood, spitting out the parts of his lungs along with that.  That is the terminal stage of tuberculosis, it is impossible to cure such person.      

Forgive me for this level of detail reminiscent of horror movie, but tuberculosis is an integral part of life in Siberia [see Newsletter # 162 concerning Tuberculosis in Siberia]. Millions of people are sick with tuberculosis in Siberia.  Even in relatively wealthy Novosibirsk about 1700 die annually according to official statistics.    

In Novosibirsk you can daily meet people sick with tuberculosis -- in subway, in buses, out on the street.  It's just that not everybody yet may discern regular cough and tuberculosis cough.  We clergymen do it by now.    

And in Buryatia sick people are everywhere, and there is no place for you to hide from the bacteria flying in the air.  All hope is for my immune system to be strong enough to cope with infection.     

In general, Buryatia always makes a very strong impression on me.  In our place, Khakassia, people live poorly, but I found out once again how some things may pale in comparison.  In Petropavlovka, a Buryatian town where our parish is located, half of the local population is sick with tuberculosis.  There is terrible poverty there and also degradation (alcoholism,  drug-addiction).     

I saw once again that part of our parishioners got ruined by alcohol and got back to their former pagan life.  It is a great pity that people can not receive constant spiritual care from us.  We don't have a permanent clergyman in Buryatia (we lack clergymen in our Church, and we lack funds for regular trips), and services in some remote locations are held once a month.  It is very sad.    

Then we got back to the train and went from Buryatia to Chita.  It isn't very far: only 16 hours by Trans-Siberian railroad.    

When we came to Chita, we once again faced difficulties: hotels were expensive, and the average local people poor.  Thanks to our Chita parishioners: they found mattresses and pillows for us, and we spent nights while there on the floor and on the chairs in the church facility.        

However, I would like to tell you not only about sad things.  You know, the most moving thing is to serve the liturgy in such places.  People wait for you, they want to hear you, they ask you many questions.  Here every priest always feels how much people need him. You can not experience this feeling anywhere else.  It seems sometimes that in the large cities people attend the services half-heartedly. But here people take in the Word of God with great hunger making you understand what it means to be hungry and thirsty for the Word in the Biblical sense.     

I like to travel.  I like the fresh wind out in the mountains and the fast road twists under the car tires.  I can not understand only one thing: why is it that the smell of the 3rd class train compartments reminds prison smell so much?  And why do the looks of people who I pass by in the eastern towns and villages, remind so much the looks of the convicts?  May be, it is because it is still Soviet Union that is in their eyes, still lack of freedom?  I don't know.    

But I know one thing: there is one real freedom in these places that smell of prison, it is the Church of Christ, which carries light and forgiveness to people.   

Please, pray for the clergymen and parishioners and of the Eastern deanery of Siberian Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Train

Third Class

Pastor Zayakin in the Train

Road in Buryatian Desert

Pastor Zayakin Teaches People

Holy Communion

Pastor Andrei Ivolga and Parishioners in Buryatia

Soup

In the Bus in Buryatia, Pastor Zayakin Sends Short Messages to His Wife

Pastor Zayakin Sleeps in the Church in Chita

Shoe Repair Shop Fixes Bible!

There is a local shoe repair business in Gretna that Mrs. H. and I have been frequenting for many years: Moran's, located at 301 Westbank Expressway.

It is a husband and wife business run by C.J. and Mary Moran.  They always give prompt, courteous and professional service.  They have facilitated the near-miraculous reincarnation of my loafers many times beyond their normal lifespan with sole and heel replacements - as well as repairs to the stitching.  They have also provided Mrs. H. with countless heel tips for her boots and shoes. 

I want to give C.J. and Mary a public pat on the back for going "above and beyond."  I have a pocket-sized leather-bound ESV Bible that I bought while I was still a seminarian.  It has given me years of excellent service.  There is, however, a weak link: the leather strap that holds the bible closed.  It had frayed to the point of wearing out.

The bible really needs a way to hold it closed.  I could not find a good solution.  I certainly did not want to discard the Bible.  I'm always loathe to do so as this is God's Word.  Moreover, I like it.  It is "comfortable."  It is also well-made.  Aside from the Achilles Heel of the strap, it could last for decades more.  It has already been with me my entire ministry, from my vicarage in South Carolina, to teaching and pastoral work in New Orleans, and on planes, trains, and automobiles across North America for private meditation and public lecture.  It even went with me to Russia two years ago - from Moscow to the mountainous Republic of Khakassia in Siberia just north of Mongolia.  In fact, my colleague, the Rev. Dan Johnson, made use of it in the pulpit of St. James Lutheran Church in Novokuznetsk where he preached a sermon.  This proclamation of the Word of God and the open carrying of an English Bible by an American clergyman would have been unthinkable only twenty years ago.  My little globetrotting ESV has quite a story, and it is clearly not finished yet!

Looking for a solution, I took the Bible to Moran's.  Mary looked it over, and said that she could replace the leather strap and have it for me within a week.  It would cost me the princely ransom of $8.95 plus tax.  I was thrilled!

She actually called me back about an hour later to let me know the job was done.  I picked it up right away, and it looks great!  She has breathed new life into this little Bible.  I wonder how many other shoe repair businesses would have just automatically said "no."  Mary Moran didn't!  She thought outside the box and found a way to meet her customer's needs.  That, to me, is the greatest argument for a free market: everybody wins and the standard of living improves for all involved.  And it also gives us the opportunity to serve our neighbor and glorify God by our life and work.

So way to go C.J. and Mary!  You will certainly see us the next time our loafers and heels need to be born again.  If you live in the area and are looking for prompt and quality shoe repair service, I heartily recommend Moran's!

Meteorite Lands Near Chelyabinsk

Here is the account of today's extraordinary meteorite strike in Chelyabinsk, Russia.

The meteorite was the size of a bus, and it landed in ice near the city.  It nearly missed landing in Lake Cherbakul.  This happened in broad daylight, and the meteorite left a contrail as it broke apart, leaving debris and at the end of its journey, a crater.

The velocity of the rock (estimated at 20,000 mph) created a sonic boom that blasted out windows.  This is what caused most of the injuries, now estimated over 1,200.

Russia Today also has reports here, here, here, and here.

I have friends and colleagues in Chelyabinsk.  I sent a facebook to Father Vladislav Ivanov, the pastor of Holy Spirit Lutheran Church, as well as to Bishop Vsevolod Lytkin (the Siberian Evangelical Lutheran Church's bishop) and Deacon Victor Shtraube.  I heard back from Father Vlad:

"Father Larry, all is well. No one is hurt. Many broken windows. We saw everything. Drinking coffee in the kitchen, flash, and big explosions. Mobile communication was bad. How will the news, I'll write. Thank you for your prayers."

Bishop Vsevolod also replied:

"Dear father, everything is OK with our Church people... as with most of people in Cheliabinsk. There about thousand persons are injured but not hard. Mostly people are hurt by pieces of glass windows. By the big grace the meteorite fallen down near the chemical plant, but not into. If it fallen into... then it could be big ecological catastrophe. But the meteorite just broke the fences and walls of this chemical plant. And fallen down into a lake." 

'via Blog this'

Secession, Freedom, and the "Impossible"

[The heroic dissident Vladimir Bukovsky wrote about the changing attitudes by 1970 in the USSR, approximately 20 years before the collapse of the Union, from page 353 of  To Build a Castle: My Life as a Dissenter, Viking Press, New York, 1979. - Ed.]

"There had been quite an upsurge in national movements during my absence [incarceration].  They were extremely varied and even had different external aims.  The Meskhetians and Crimean Tartars, for instance, who in Stalin's time had been forcibly deported from their homelands to Central Asia, were trying to obtain the right to return home.  The Jews wanted the right to go to Israel, the Volga and Baltic Germans to Germany.  The Ukrainians, the Caucasians, and the Baltic peoples wanted secession, national independence, and the right to a national culture.  Five years before, the mere mention of national independence or the right to secession would have been sufficient to guarantee you fifteen years for 'high treason.'  And leaving for abroad was still regarded as treason.  But citizens who had resolved to submit to their conscience instead of their Party card were beginning to force their own reality upon the state.

"This wasn't a political struggle, there were no heroics.  It was like a 'club of the sane' in a lunatic asylum.  All that was left to us was to be normal people....

"Here there was no right, left, and middle of the road.  Everyone had been made equal by the Soviet concentration camps.  Just as before, there were no leaders and led, no pushers and pushed, no rules and regulations - only it was easier, much easier.  There were more people, there was more publicity, and the people came from higher up the social scale: professors, academicians, writers - not to be compared with us striplings of the early 1960s.  Rights were now claimed on the spur of the moment, and yesterday's 'impossible' was a commonplace today."

Merry Christmas from Novosibirsk!

Christmas Eve at St. Andrew's Parish, the cathedral church of the SELC in Novosibirsk, Siberia

[Note: Just passing along Professor Ludwig's greetings - Ed.]

Christmas Greetings from Siberia 2012

Christ is born! May His light be your joy and salvation.

Peace in Him,
Rev. Alan Ludwig
LCMS Missionary to Siberia

Merry Christmas from the Siberian Evangelical Lutheran Church

[Note: this is a missive from the SELC's "Faith and Hope" newsletter series, which includes Bishop Vsevolod Lytkin's Christmas Address - Ed.]

Peace to you dear Brothers and Sisters,

       

May we bring to your attention the words of greetings from the Christmas Address of our Bishop Vsevolod Lytkin that will be read in the parishes of SELC during the Christmas liturgy.

  

Brothers and Sisters:

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Today the most important words for our faith were spoken in the church. And it seems that there is certain incompleteness in them as they appear in our [Russian]translation. 

Christ, the Son of God, eternal Word of the Father, came down to earth, was born among us, dwelt with us, but what came after that? What a joy that the Word has never stopped dwelling. We could have translated it in this way: “The Word ... has begun to dwell” or “The Word has made dwelling with us.” The Lord has come to earth not to leave us afterwards.

And so it becomes perfectly clear why we need Church so much. For if the Word became flesh and began to dwell among us, then the main question we should come up with is the following: where shall we find this Word?

  

Where are we to find Christ? The answer is simple: there where He awaits us at every liturgy, where the Eucharist is celebrated at the altar, the major sacrament of God's presence on earth.

It is impossible to be saved without Christ. It is impossible to find Christ bypassing the Church. We come here as the Christmas shepherds to the Bethlehem manger, and here we find Christ. He is so close to us in the Eucharist that it’s impossible to be any closer. We partake of Him, and His life becomes our life.

My beloved parishioners, I wish you a merry Christmas and happy New Year. Let this new year bring you happiness and may your dreams come true. And the most important thing is that you would strive to that place where Christ is and be with Him always. 

We wish you all God’s blessings during this holy time of Christmas!
   
“Faith and Hope”

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