As Seen On TV (Not)

(Children on ladders: a typical shocking Mardi Gras parade sight)

Everything on TV is not real.

I think most people know this, but some people apparently do not.

Now, there is the unreality of animation vs. live actors, the unreality of fiction vs. documentary, and then there's the unreality of the way the media distorts and presents its own version of reality either for the purposes of some agenda, or (more often) in order to sell tennis shoes and soft drinks.

It is the latter part that I want to focus on.

On Ash Wednesday, one of my parishioners came to me irate. He showed me a devotion that someone (a pastor) had written for February 5. This year, February 5 was the day before Ash Wednesday. In many parts of the country, it's called Shrove Tuesday, and there is often the custom of eating pancakes as a last indulgence in a feast before the fasting of Lent. Owing to the French heritage of people in South Louisiana, in my community, Shrove Tuesday is called Mardi Gras - which is French for Fat Tuesday. Mardi Gras is the pinnacle of a mini-season called Carnival (from the Latin: carni vale, or "farewell of meat"). We don't have pancake breakfasts, but rather have parades. In fact, in New Orleans, the parades run throughout the Carnival season - which begins on Epiphany (January 6) and runs until Mardi Gras.

Parades in New Orleans are in some ways similar to other parades - like the Parade of Roses in Pasadena, or the Macy's Parade in New York. However, they are different in a few ways too. For one thing, the float riders often wear masks and throw things to the crowds - candy, stuffed animals, plastic cups, toys of various kinds, and strings of beads. On St. Patrick's Day, the riders toss out cabbages, potatoes, onions, and carrots. On the Feast of St. Patrick, you can actually make soup from parade "throws".

New Orleans Carnival parades are entirely run and funded by private clubs - called "krewes." Many of them have tongue-in-cheek names that sound like secret societies. Families have been involved in the krewes for generations. The last two weeks of Carnival feature parades and balls all over New Orleans and the surrounding communities (there were 59 parades this year!). Typically, schools shut down the entire week of Mardi Gras (though Salem Lutheran School only had Monday through Wednesday off this year). This is a huge time of tourism and goodwill for our community. Hundreds of thousands of guests from all over the world stream into New Orleans and vicinity for the Carnival events.

Mardi Gras is fun, and overwhelmingly family-oriented. It is a Christian festival, as it is tied to the Church calendar, and is a part of the cycle of feast and fast (even the colors of Mardi Gras are the liturgical colors of Epiphany, Lent, and Easter). Families and friends gather to watch the parades, to talk, to sing, to dance, to eat scrumptious foods, to enjoy one another's company, and to just plain have a good time. This seems foreign to a lot of people who live "up north" (of course, to us, "up north" can mean Southern Mississippi...).

Of course, much of the country hears "Mardi Gras" and they think of something entirely different. In the French Quarter, and more specifically on Bourbon Street (where, incidentally, there are no parades), you will indeed find activities that are not "family friendly" - just as you will find pretty much anywhere in the country. And that's the specific place you have to go in order to find the off-color stuff. However, the Mardi Gras parades (only two of which even go through the Quarter at all, and one of them is a parade for dogs), have nothing to do with indecency.

In fact, children are everywhere lining the parade routes - many in homemade boxes mounted to ladders so they can be seen high above the crowds to catch toys, candies, and beads (instructions here). Thousands of children and their families look forward to Carnival every year. Some families even camp out on the "neutral ground" (the median to the rest of the county) overnight in order to get a good spot. Very few children (and very few adults, for that matter) in New Orleans don't participate in the parades - at least to some degree. They are good clean fun, and are part of our unique culture.

However, the pastor who authored the devotion, who obviously has never actually seen a Mardi Gras parade in his life, who has likely never set foot in New Orleans, probably has never eaten crawfish, boudin, or alligator, may think a "po boy" is a young man who lacks money, and who admits that his only understanding of Mardi Gras comes from TV and the Internet - decided to use us as an object lesson about sin. He writes: "Now it's time to get serious about sin. As if."

Thanks a lot, guy.

He writes: "Today is Fat Tuesday. Maybe I'm just a young curmudgeon, but the celebration leaves me cold. Every year, news broadcasts show the Mardi Gras parties and carnival parades, but they're hardly family fare."

At this point, some of my parishioners are reading this, rolling on the floor and laughing at the silly stereotypical Yankee know-it-all who believes everything he sees on TV. Others are really insulted, not exactly thrilled to be denounced by a bloviating outsider whose ignorance is fueled by the idiot box, yet who has been published in a popular devotional booklet.

I would love this pastor to tell me exactly which parade is "hardly family fare." Which one? Can he even name one of the parades? What qualifies this pastor to make this pronouncement?

I wrote to my brother pastor. I sent him a good natured note, explained to him where he was wrong, and even invited him and his family to come to New Orleans for Mardi Gras in the future so he could experience it for himself.

His response was a big disappointment. It was snotty. He addressed me stiffly as "Pastor Beane" (there's an unwritten rule that the clergy are on a first name basis with each other). He stands by his "research."

Research. Goodness! We actually live here! But he has been doing "research" from two thousand miles away. Right. And what is this research? He cites "news broadcasts" and "various media." Uh-huh. He explains, "research indicates that Mardi Gras/Carnival are 'popular as a way to feast and act wild before the somber days of Lent,' in the words of one website." Yes. "In the words of one website." One website. He really said this! O Lord, have mercy! A website. Various media. Research. Enough expertly-mined data to condemn everyone in my congregation - not to mention in our community. I guess he knows what he's talking about. And thanks to his published writing, a lot of other "experts" on Mardi Gras are sure to crop up like termites on a shotgun (which in this context is a house, not a weapon).

He opines: "The 'farewell to the flesh' is not penitence, but is usually portrayed to the world as an indulgence in lust, drunkenness, and revelry. Personally, I cannot reconcile that to Romans 13:13-14; and perhaps it is only my concience [sic], but I cannot reconcile Carnival's 'farewell to the flesh' with the Lord's means of grace, where the Old Adam is bade farewell and the new creation raised up." Uh, Padre, "farewell to the flesh" ("das Fleisch" auf Deutsch) means we're preparing to say goodbye to eating meat. It's called "fasting."

This from a guy that's been in New Orleans as much as I have been in Indonesia. But he did see it on TV - the same venue where one can learn about Ron Popeel's Pocket Fisherman and catch a special about UFOs. Amazing.

What I'm having a problem reconciling is this pastor's misinformed opinion and devotional pontification that is at odds with the eighth commandment. He owes us an apology for hurting our reputation. I asked for one, but was rebuffed. I'm sorry, but the vast majority who catch beads at parades are simply not involved in: "indulgence in lust, drunkenness, and revelry" (his words) - even if a website and a TV reporter told him so. Huge numbers are children. Most are there with their families. That's just reality.

He then masked his insulting e-mail by peppering it with the usual blah-blah-blah of Lutheran jargon: "weaker brother... Christian freedom... bind their consciences..." This all sounds very pious and Sufficiently Lutheran, but it is a damnable lie just the same. We are not a bunch of drunks and whores. We enjoy food, drink, dancing, friends, family, pageantry, beautiful weather, fellowship with others, and the joyful expression of the Christian concept of feasting and celebrating God's good creation. That is not sinful.

But all of these things are repugnant to a particular strain of Christianity known as Pietism, which equates the Christian faith with a dour and joyless view of the Christian life. Pietism condemns drinking, dancing, card playing, and anything that tastes good as somehow sinful. Pietism was a movement that originated within Lutheranism in the 17th century which (on the good side) sought to repudiate lawlessness and taking the Gospel for granted, but (on the bad side) became Pharisaical, self-righteous, joyless, oppressive, and drab. It downplayed the sacraments by spiritualizing the faith - which leads to a dualistic (and Gnostic) condemnation of the physical world. Pietism brought the world the plain cross and prohibition. Pietists do not approve of Mardi Gras.

However, there is nothing wrong with taking pleasure in God's physical creation. The Christian life is meant to be joyful and celebratory - especially in the times of year that are festival in nature.

Of course, we alternate between festival and penitential seasons. And in the French Quarter at midnight on Mardi Gras, sirens blow, the police clear the streets, and the festival comes to an abrupt end out of respect for the Christian tradition of Ash Wednesday. The next morning, you'll see New Orleanians far and wide covered with the ashen crosses on their foreheads - something you probably won't see on Entertainment Tonight.

The fasting of Lent stands in abject contrast to the feasting of Carnival. The somber gray of Ash Wednesday is the other side of the coin to the garish colors of Fat Tuesday. Feast and Fast. Celebration and sackcloth. To everything there is a season...

The world doesn't get it. Apparently some Christians (and even pastors) don't get it either. Apparently some folks can't discern that reality is a whole lot bigger than what's on TV.

If you want to learn about the Christian faith, TBN is not representative - even though it speaks with the authority of "as seen on TV." Benny Hinn does not epitomize Christian preachers. And a few coeds and tourists pulling up their shirts don't define the Christian time of year known as Carnival. If someone wants to learn about New Orleans and our customs, there are plenty of us you can ask. Those Girls Gone Wild videos were never intended to be an objective and all-inclusive look at one of the greatest cities in North America any more than the Sopranos is a genuine snapshot into what being an Italian-American is. Just because something is on TV...

Hopefully, this pastor will repent of his prejudice, bias, and trashing of our reputation as a form of "devotion." Lent is a good time for repentance. And so is any time. But then when Easter comes, we will once more feast and celebrate, and will not be ashamed for doing so.

In honor of our Blessed Lord's resurrection, we will recite the ancient liturgical verse anew: "Laissez les bons temps rouler!" even as we look forward to bons temps without end.

Typical Mardi Gras paraders, obviously an "indulgence in lust, drunkenness, and revelry"

Sermon: Ash Wednesday

6 February 2008 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA
Text: Matt 6:1-6, 16-21 (Joel 2:12-19, 2 Pet 1:2-11)

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

If you want a snapshot of yourself, consider what it is you treasure. We live in a culture of cars, houses, jewelry, electronic gadgetry, sexuality, worship of the body, a cult of youth, and competition for attention. Are these things more important to you than giving alms, fasting and praying?

And which of these things will last to eternity? Those Hannah Montana MP3s? Those Pearl Jam CDs? Those Beatles 8-Tracks? Those Fats Domino 45s?

Will your beautiful house do you any good after you die? Will it even be standing after a category 5 storm? How about your car? Will it be such a status symbol five years from now? Will you always be the top dog at work or the popular kid in school? And do any of these things mean a thing to God?

What impresses God? Do you think God cares about your stock portfolio, your youthful looks, your smarts, your popularity, how many toys you have, or who you know?

For that matter, is God impressed by how much you give alms, how often you fast, or by how fervently you pray? Is God impressed because you have come to church today and gotten an ash cross on your face?

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Our Lord doesn’t command us to give alms, to fast, and to pray. Doing these things will not save us, impress God, or make us Christians. Our Lord Jesus simply assumes we do these things: “When you do a charitable deed…. When you fast…. When you pray…” This is simply what Christians do. These acts flow from the Christian life. Since Jesus has died for you, and since you are not commanded to do these things, that’s exactly why Christians do them.

Christians don’t give alms to get a pat on the back – giving to charity for the sake of good P.R. or in order to get thanks and praise from other people. Christians don’t fast to get attention – the way some people use their aches and pains as a bid for sympathy, or the way others will recount all the drugs they are on as a boast of their trendy neediness. Christians don’t pray to be glorified by men or to get attention – like the religious showboating that happens in the French Quarter on Fat Tuesday, or by politicians who suddenly get religion on Super Tuesday.

Christians should be giving alms, fasting, and praying for the same reason that fish swim, birds fly, and flowers open. That’s just what they do. And their treasure ought not to be with the passing things of this world – be they wealth, health, or status.

So what should we do? The prophet Joel has told us already – if we are willing to listen: “Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness.”

Our kind and merciful God created all things and declared them “good.” Even the dust of the earth was good – and God made us from this good earth. We had it all. The treasures of the world were eternal treasures. In Paradise, we had eternal wealth and health. We had no aches and pains, no desire for attention, nor death itself. We wanted for nothing. We didn’t obsess about youth, or sexuality, or holding on to riches. We did not compete for the attention of God and men. But after we sinned, all of these things became counterfeit treasures “where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.” In our sinfulness, we desire and run after the rotting and temporary even as we turn our noses up at the glorious and the everlasting.

After choosing death over life, Adam was told “Remember, O man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Reversing the elevation of the good dust to a greater man, we now see creation’s opposite – the greater man has fallen back to dust – even a dust that has been defiled by sin. Adam (which means “man”) decays into adamah (which means “dust”). And dust blows away and is forgotten.

Our houses, cars, TVs, music collections, libraries, coin collections, bank accounts, stock portfolios, and toys of every sort will end up as dust. Even the people we love, even our pets, even our churches, our Bibles, memories of the saints, and even the holy fonts, altars, and pulpits will one day be dust. The heavens and earth will be reduced to rubble.

“You are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

This one sentence makes every other pursuit in this world seem frivolous. Promotions, raises, praise of men, money in the bank, status symbols, toys, and every sort of temporary carnal pleasure don’t seem all that important when you realize that your days are numbered, that you are basically a death row inmate, and not one of these earthly treasures will last forever. In fact, when the pursuit of worldly treasure takes you away from your heavenly treasure, from a life of charity, of self-control, and of prayer and meditation – these things are even worse than worthless. When your job keeps you from the Lord’s Supper, when your hobbies separate you from God’s Word, when your children’s education is more important than praying with them – you are putting your treasure “where moth and rust destroy.”

But the Word of God, which does endure forever, offers us a better way. God’s Word places before us eternal treasure that will not be reduced to ashes and dust, will not be destroyed by moth and rust, and can never be stolen by any enemy – human or supernatural.

In our epistle, St. Peter promises: “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Dear brothers and sisters, dear men and women of dust, listen to St. Peter! Heed the Word of the Lord! You will return to dust, but you will be restored to eternity – to be a “partaker of the divine nature” – made incorruptible and never again to fall to ashes. Where your treasure is, there is where your heart is also. At this font, at this altar, and from this pulpit you are given treasures beyond all treasures, treasures that will never rot, fall out of fashion, be stolen, or return to dust. For the Word of the Lord endures forever.

The Lord Himself pleads with us: “Blow the trumpet in Zion. Consecrate a fast. Call a sacred assembly. Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and the nursing babes, let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, and the bride from her dressing room. Let the priests who minister to the Lord weep between the porch and the altar, let them say ‘Spare Your people, O Lord.”

In this repentance, in this baptismal grace, in this putting away of foolish things, in this turning from sin, “the Lord will answer and say to His people, ‘Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil, and you will be satisfied by them; I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.”

In the life of repentance, the dust of death and the ashes of sin yield to eternal grain, wine, and oil, material riches that last forever and will truly satisfy us. We will no longer fret about being accepted and popular, for the Lord Himself will honor us before all nations. And as St. Peter proclaims: “for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Having been given the kingdom, we can cease our hording and remain confident that the Lord will provide for us materially, freeing us to share by giving alms. Having been given abundance in food, we can cease our gorging and remain confident that the Lord will provide our daily bread, freeing us to fast and exercise self-discipline for the sake of feeding others. And having the Lord Jesus Himself interceding for us by prayer, we can cease focusing on ourselves and remain confident that the Lord Himself gives us all that we need in this life, freeing us to pray for the needs of others.

That, dear brothers and sisters, is eternal treasure: where moth and rust and thieves have no power to destroy. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Amen.

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

Bons temps!

Today is Mardi Gras and our 14th wedding anniversary. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, and my 44th birthday (which in good Lutheran fashion will be "transferred" likely to next Sunday, which is not actually part of Lent). Yesterday was Lundi Gras, and we've been living it up in preparation for the beginning of six weeks of the penitential season of Lent.

The weather the past two days has been beautiful - about 80 degrees in the day, and still balmy at night.

Lundi Gras

On Lundi Gras, the Hollywoods headed to the Algiers Point ferry station and rode the Thomas Jefferson across Old Man River en route to the Audubon Aquarium. The ferry was packed with pedestrians - locals and tourists alike. On the shore, we saw four pelicans, one up high and three arrayed below - matching the four on our state flag flapping on the front of the ferry. They seemed to be joining in the Carnival frolic.

On the other side of the river, the crowds were huge, music filled the air, and the smells - oh my goodness - scrumptious food was everywhere! We passed a nice time at the aquarium looking at sharks and stingrays - to the great pleasure of Lion Boy - many of whose best friends live there in the tanks.

We then headed for a stroll through the French Quarter. Everyone should do this at least once - especially during Carnival. People of every age, shape, and size wandered around smiling, with no place in particular to go. Many wore garish costumes, some had wigs, others were dressed "to the nines." Some carried plastic "hand grenade" pitchers and oversized margarita glasses. There were people in masks, wearing huge feathers, most covered in beads, all grinning - except for those who were too inebriated to curl up the edges of the mouth.

People drifted in and out of the hustling, bustling bars, antique shops, souvenir stores, art galleries, etc. We wandered by the Napoleon House cafe - said to have been bought for the exiled emperor to live in. He never made it.

We wandered over to Bourbon Street. The crowds were more intense both in number and in, er, intensity. Bead throwers taunted and teased the crowds from their balconies wrought with ironwork. Leo, Grace, and I were showered with beads - which calls for alertness lest one get clobbered.

We met some people who were covered with large boas. Not the feathers, but the snakes. Lion Boy fearlessly petted the reptiles, and even waved and said "bye bye" as we moved on. His friends in the animal world are not limited to the aquatic variety.

In spite of the seedy reputation of Bourbon Street, we saw very little by way of "indecent exposure." Most of it was in the form of photographs on the front of the strip joints. Frankly, I've seen more skin at La Leche League meetings. But in fairness, we were there during the day, and not on Mardi Gras itself. I am quite certain that things are a little different in a nocturnal setting.

After having our fill of Rue Bourbon, we strolled alongside the St. Louis Cathedral down Pirate's Alley - a historic brick road where buccaneers and swindlers made shady deals in ages past. We walked by the house in which William Faulkner wrote his first novel. We emerged in front of the cathedral to the usual crowd of artists and palm readers. At some point, Lion Boy's head began to wobble, as he heroically tried to remain awake.

We continued our promenade away from the Quarter, heading over to the River Walk, where we were looking to have coffee and beignets, and to visit a shop to buy Mrs. Hollywood her anniversary gift.

At this point, I have to sing the praises of a man named Sidney Torres. I have never met him, but he has become a folk hero in New Orleans. His waste removal company has made the Quarter sparkle. No more putrid vomit smell, no more flies, no more empty bottles lining the streets. Everywhere you look, you see SDT men with the latest equipment scouring the place. The Quarter isn't just clean, it is immaculate - even at the peak of Mardi Gras! Torres is the man!

Anyway, we strolled over to the River Walk, enjoyed some seafood gumbo, crab etoufee, and a daiquiri (made with 190 proof grain alcohol and served in a styrofoam go cup with a straw so you can walk - hopefully - around the mall) before having dessert at the Cafe du Monde. We then went to a little boutique to buy Mrs. Hollywood's gift - a pair of elegant "wraps" to wear when the weather gets a little chilly. It does happen here - even though Spring has really begun by this time of year (the lone flower on our Japanese magnolia in the front yard is proof). At this point, it was beginning to get dark, and the fireworks were about to begin. We walked along the boardwalk just as the pyrotechnics began from a barge in the river.

At first, Leo protested that they were scary. He was converted in about three minutes, though, as celestial blasts of purple, green, and gold shimmered in the clear sky over the river amid the booms that echoed off of the downtown skyscrapers.

We saw a U.S. Coast Guard ship flying the Mardi Gras flag - the purple, green, and gold banner with a crown in the middle. I imagine this violates some kind of federal or maritime law, but this is Mardi Gras, cher!

By this time the crowds were pressing in every direction amid music and celebration. The stage at the Spanish Plaza was filled with Mardi Gras pageantry. Rex, the robed, sceptered, and masked King of Carnival greeted the King of the Krewe of Zulu (if you're not familiar with New Orleans, this has nothing to do with bad science fiction). We then wandered back over to the ferry terminal.

Getting his second wind, Lion Boy wanted to go to "the bookstore" (Barnes & Noble's). That we did, and closed the evening with a couple of chais and a hot chocolate as Lion Boy looked at books about sharks and played with Thomas the Tank Engine.

Upon retiring, we asked Leo if he had a good time. "Yeah" was his reply before drifting off.


Mardi Gras

Today is Fat Tuesday, and we celebrated in style close to home. This morning, we picked up some sandwiches (including a roast beef po boy that melted in the mouth) from Common Grounds. We headed over to the church to get a front row seat for the West Bank's Grella parade.

One of my students was kind enough to leave his lunch kit in lost and found for me to borrow to keep a couple of Heinekins cold. I'm glad to see that his Latin book was not in lost and found. And I did make sure I didn't leave anything beer-related in his lunch kit. Had I forgotten and left a can inside, there would be a sixth grader with some explaining to do.

The parade was lavish! We received more beads than ever. Lion Boy scored a spear (a real treasure), a large sword, and a turtle (the latter from Salem teacher and Sassy Kat high-stepper Miss Kitty). He also played with lots of kids in the Salem parking lot.

A parishioner shared mimosas with us. Other parishioners shared drinks with Lion Boy. I saw several Salem students who were playing and enjoying the beautiful weather.

After closing out the festivities, we commenced to celebrate our anniversary - provided by that noted caterer - Winn Dixie. We feasted on an eclectic celebratory meal of cocktail shrimp, buffalo wings, boiled peanuts, and egg rolls.

Lion Boy crashed, as we heard the party continue through our open windows (even well after dark, it's still in the seventies). A block and a half away, the partying, music, and les bons temps continue.

It will all come to an abrupt end at midnight - as even the hardy partiers of New Orleans remember that we are dust, and to dust we shall return.

Genuine Lutheranism on YouTube...

Thanks to the Rev. William Weedon for finding this.

Note that this YouTube video was produced independent of any official church channels - which explains its lack of corporate buzzwords, gimmicks, and fads that the video presents as being contrary to genuine Lutheranism. Sadly, you will find a lot of nonsense in Lutheran churches. But if you're willing to look, you will also find the kind of faithful, reverent, and uplifting Evangelical Catholicism, biblically and historically grounded in the Gospel and the Sacraments, as shown in this video.

I don't belong to the Wittenberg Trail web-ring (nor do I know much about them), but I want to give them a thumbs up on their fine work here!

Sermon: Quinquagesima

3 February 2008 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA
Text: Luke 18: 31-43 (1 Samuel 16:1-13, 1 Cor 13:1-13)

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

Our Gospel puts together two different readings that seem to have nothing to do with one another. First, Jesus speaks bluntly with the twelve, telling them what is going to happen: they are going to Jerusalem, Jesus will be arrested and handed over to the Romans, He will be abused and tortured, He will be executed – and He will rise from the dead. “But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them.” It’s as though they were blinded to the plain truth given them from the very mouth of Jesus. They just didn’t get it.

Immediately thereafter, Jesus and His followers encounter a blind beggar who cries out “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” He continues to repeat this prayer – just as we do in our liturgy: “Lord, have mercy upon us!” This is what peasants would cry out when the king went by in a parade, bearing gifts. The king would throw coins or goodies toward his subjects in response. This blind beggar, unlike the twelve, gets it. He understands that Jesus is the King who stands in the train of King David. This king tosses more than coins and baubles – but rather He dispenses life and healing.

Jesus responds to the man’s request for gifts, this blind man’s cry of “Throw me something mister!” by stopping and speaking to Him. He asks, “What do you want?” The man, though blind, is not blinded to the reality that this King can work miracles. He asks: “Lord, that I may receive my sight.” Our Lord uses His words to heal him: “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.”

Whereas the twelve were blinded to our Lord’s plain words, their faith being small – blinded by what they saw with their eyes, hidden by their own expectations and desires, this blind beggar saw by faith that this King could recreate His broken body and make him whole. This man came in hope and faith. He expected to receive gifts from the King, mercy and loving-kindness, and He believed that the King could, and would, deliver.

In our Old Testament reading, Samuel was seeking the royal ancestor of Jesus, the replacement for King Saul. The Lord chose the smallest, youngest, and least likely-looking king to rule Israel. Samuel was commanded to anoint this unlikely David as king. In the Greek language, Samuel was commanded to “Christ” him with oil. For God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the one who establishes the Kingdom. It is a Kingdom that defies our expectations and refuses to conform to what our fallen sinful eyes expect, and even demand, to see.

Apart from the eyes of faith, Samuel could not have envisioned David to have been the great king of Israel. Apart from the eyes of faith, the twelve could not understand that the Kingdom of God would be ushered in by the Lord’s cross and passion, by His death and resurrection. Apart from the eyes of faith, the blind beggar would have been unable to see that this unlikely descendant of the unlikely king David would be able to do the work that only God Himself could do.

For from this faith is born hope. And as Paul tells us in our epistle, “we see in a mirror, dimly.” We look in the mirror and see a poor, miserable sinner.

But with the eyes of faith, we the sinful, we who have confronted our sins, we who have been turned into beggars by the law, we the baptized, we the forgiven, we who cry out in faith and hope “Lord, have mercy” – we who confess our sins and know to where we must go to receive restoration and healing – we pray to him in hope and by faith. This is the same faith that made the blind beggar well.

But St. Paul tells us that there is even something greater and more powerful than this hope that leads us to Jesus, and this faith that believes in Jesus – and that is love. For the beggar reached out in faith and hope, and His King reached back to Him in love – the same love that causes God the Father in mercy to send His Son. And in love and mercy, the Son dies for his beloved creation, freely giving them eyes of faith, restoration, reason to hope and something in which to have faith. The Holy Spirit too rests upon the Anointed One, the Christ, and upon those who have been given His name in holy baptism.

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Lord, have mercy, have love for us, throw us your gifts, restore our sight, increase our faith, give us hope, forgive us our sins, grant us everlasting life!

For look at what our Lord promises and gives, by His Word, to the blind beggar who prays with us the Kyrie, the blind man who begs for mercy over and over. Jesus says: “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.” And look what happens! “Immediately, he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.”

The blind beggar has become a disciple, a man whose sight has been restored, whose flesh has been cured, who retains his faith in the one who showed him mercy and showered him with His gifts. He follows Jesus, and he glorifies God.

The people around, whose eyes have seen this great wonder, are strengthened in their faith. They too place their hope in Him who has given the blind beggar not only his sight but the riches of the Kingdom. The people join the former blind beggar in giving praise to God. We continue to join them in their praise, in their hope, and in their faith – as we continue to join with the prayer “Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us.”

And the Lord continues to give out His mercy to every soul who raises his hands heavenward crying out for some of His gifts to be thrown to them.

The annual ritual of Carnival is a symbol of the Christian life. For we beggars stand on the side of the street as our Lord and King is raised up before us. We cry out to Him for mercy with hopeful and expectant hands raised. Our King delivers. He casts His gifts from heaven lovingly toward us, giving us His mercy, knowing that our faith has made us well, by the grace of our King, our Rex.

When you see a crucifix, you may see four letters on top: “INRI.” This is an abbreviation of the Latin inscription on our Lord’s cross. The third letter “R” stands for Rex. For Jesus is the King, the Son of David, the Ruler of the Universe, the one by whose cross we share in the Kingdom of Heaven.

And like parade-goers, no-one whose hands are raised up in faith and hope goes home empty-handed. The Lord’s mercy endures forever. This Rex is a true Rex, the King of all Creation, the Son of God and the Son of Man. He who gives sight to the blind gives hope and faith to His beloved people.

No-one who cries out in faith and hope: “Lord, have mercy” will go away without treasures. And these treasures are not of this world, where rust and moth and flood waters destroy, but rather this Anointed Son of David, our Christus Rex, flings to us heavenly treasures – tossed to us in love and mercy, bestowed upon us by His holy Word and by His holy sacraments.

May we see Him with eyes of faith, never too proud to beg, never in arrogance so as to miss the point of His Kingdom, but rather with humble hands outstretched in hope and faith, receiving His love and mercy and storing up treasures in heaven in a Kingdom that has no end. Amen.

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

A Pleasant Surprise

I had just returned from a hospital visit to find Lionboy with beads! These were not last year's leftovers, but a new stash.

He and Mrs. Hollywood had just been to the Pawty Gras parade here in Old Gretna (which is a parade in which people dress up their pets and march down the street tossing beads, treats, and stuffed toys to everyone). For the past two years, the parade has gone by the Farmer's Market one block from our home - and so they went to check it out.

But, surprise, the parade route was also to pass right by our house. It was coming by just as I got home. So, we were treated to another round of the festivities - dogs dressed up in skirts, masks, and costumes, some dyed in different colors, all very friendly and excited - golden retrievers, boxers, dachshunds, and even a handicapped collie in a wagon - with tails wagging and eager to run to the side of the road for a pat.

Their humans were dressed up too, as music played, decorated umbrellas were twirled, and the two-legged critters showered us with goodies. We got tons of loot - beads, candy, cups, beads, toys, stuffed animals, and did I say beads? This being the last weekend before Mardi Gras, the whole region is festive, happy, friendly, and enjoying our newly-arrived warm weather (it was nearly seventy degrees). Tourism seems to be way up - which is great for our economy. Today is a perfect day for parades and frivolity.

After the parade, we cleaned our part of the street of all debris, scooped up even more candy, draped beads on our fence, and sat on the porch swing as the St. Joseph's church bells rang out Ave Verum Corpus and Panis Angelicus.

Our Depraved Culture

Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Depravity is more than having a few rude or sexually inappropriate words said on TV and some people having too much to drink at Mardi Gras. There is something far more sinister, that I believe, is definitional to depravity. According to the Book of Genesis, mankind's fall into sin had nothing to do with sex, bad language, or drinking. It had to do with Satan tempting a woman into upsetting the order of creation, rebelling against the divinely established hierarchy, appealing to her selfish ambition and rejection of submission - all the while her husband sat idly by and let it happen - for he too had some putative benefit in the unholy deal.

This is when the wheels came off. This is when sickness and death entered our existence. This is when the seeds of violent crime and war were sown - seeds that would necessitate dangerous vocations such as police officers and military personnel - part of the husband's punishment that he would have to make his living by the sweat of his brow. The woman's cross had to do with pain in childbearing. The man's natural bodily strength and the woman's natural vocation for mothering created a universal cultural understanding of sex roles.

Our inability to submit: mankind to God, women to men, children to parents - our loathing for hierarchy - is what has led us into our depravity. And the depravity continues to worsen, and will worsen, until the End.

Our desire to rule: children over parents, women over men, mankind over God, continues to increase the consequences of the fall in new and more depraved ways.

In our culture, we have especially focused on the upsetting of the divine order between the sexes. The leading issues dividing the body politic and the Church are all so-called "gender issues" (e.g. homosexuality, the role of women, abortion, etc.). And these issues are nearly always discussed not in terms of how God's creation was designed to work, but rather in terms of "rights" and "what I want."

Further complicating matters, is that our notion of rights is no longer consistent with that of the founders of the United States. According to Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, rights are bestowed on creation by the Creator. In today's culture, we have dethroned the Creator. Rights are whatever we say they are. They are whatever we want - whether consistent with creation and natural law or not.

When we follow the natural order of creation, things simply work better. A hammer is more effective at pounding in a nail than a screwdriver - by virtue of its design. A screwdriver may be able to do the job, but not nearly as efficiently as a hammer. You may even hurt yourself or damage something in the process of pretending that a screwdriver is just as suited to driving nails as a hammer. It just isn't. Not even an army of ideologue professors, a crush of lawyers, and an aggressive campaign of "political correctness" can change the reality.

Similarly, if you want plumbing to work well, a male fitting needs to be coupled with a female fitting. You may be able to get two male or two female fittings to imitate the job of a properly designed joint (especially with some welding and tape), but it is a flight of fancy to think that such an unnatural arrangement will work as well as the original design and will have the staying power of a more stable arrangement. And there may well be unforeseen (and expensive) consequences for stubbornly trying to outsmart the natural order instead of simply submitting to it.

Feminism is not the "radical notion that woman are human beings" (created in the image of God, to boot). That "radical notion" is called "Christianity." Rather feminism is the radical notion that male and female are only social constructs, that there is no physical, psychological, or spiritual distinction between the sexes. Feminism is the mathematical fallacy that equality is the same as congruity. It's a lie - just as it was six thousand years ago when the Serpent first uttered it and sold us on its alleged benefits - "benefits" which include death itself.

New Orleans recently lost a police officer in the line of duty - always a sobering and somber moment for a community - especially for police officers and their families. In this particular instance the officer killed was well-liked and respected, brave, and a 24-year old woman. She was also two months pregnant.

She was overpowered by a male suspect who disarmed her and shot her with her own weapon.

Feminism killed this woman. For she was fed the lie that she could go to police school, could meet lower physical standards, learn some martial arts, carry a gun, and then she would be at no disadvantage when compared to male officers. "You can be like God" says the Serpent. You don't have to submit to the reality of a natural order you have no control over. "A screwdriver can drive in a nail as well as a hammer" says the Serpent. "Did God really say you would die?" In our post-modern and post-hierarchical culture, we are told that we can ignore the reality of nature and create our own reality. Angelina Jolie can beat up men like rag dolls in the movies, so it must be true.

The officer, Nicola Cotton, was described as a "shy, soft-spoken and ambitious young officer patrolling some of the city's most violent corridors." Her ambition to be something she was not proved fatal. Her shyness, soft-spokenness, and her upper body strength did not give her the ability to overpower her opponent. God did not make this woman for the purpose (however necessary) of confronting criminals and hauling them in. God created this woman for a more noble and sublime purpose - to bring new life into the world. By her very nature, her created nature, Officer Cotton was carrying a two-month old baby inside of her - a baby that will now never be born. I am not being critical of this heroic police officer, but rather of the culture that would approve of putting such a brave woman - a mother - into such a situation. It shows nothing but contempt for women, children, families, and God's created order.

Nicola Cotton was indeed brave and obviously cared about her city and the quality of life in our community. But she was victimized by feminism - as was her baby. The Serpent, the father of lies and the harbinger of death, is laughing.

Had she been driving a car with her two-year old child not strapped properly into a government approved safety seat, the public would be filled with outrage. If a child dies as a result of something like this, people are indignant, and may even want to proffer charges against the grieving parents. But we allow (and even encourage) a pregnant woman carrying a two month old fetus to patrol "some of the city's most violent corridors," carrying a gun, and confronting belligerent and hardened criminals who vastly overpower her physically. Does this make any sense? It does to the Serpent. He is still laughing.

What a sick and depraved culture we have become! We used to hold doors open for women and avoid spitting and using bad language in their presence - but now we ask them to protect us from murderers and thugs who outweigh them, who out-muscle them in upper body strength - and we even ask them to do it while they carry a helpless baby along with them while on patrol.

In the January 2008 edition of Lutheran Witness, LCMS president Gerald Kieschnick mentions "the shaken and upset 26-year-old wife and mother, a U.S. Marine, who sat next to [him] on a plane. She was on her way to Iraq with only a few hours notice, leaving her husband and two young children behind."

Once more, can you think of anything more depraved? This is in no way a critique of President Kieschnick, but rather with the cultural situation. Here you see the ultimate goal of the Serpent - children who lack maternal protection, mothers placed into hostile situations, fathers forced into a nurturing maternal role while their wives are off in a foreign land under martial orders and arms. Not only does this do violence to the order of creation, but also to the consequences laid down by God as a result of the fall. In this case, the wife is earning the family's bread (and taking up arms in a military action) by the sweat of her brow, while the husband has the painful duty of raising the children without her, without their mother. And this is all by choice. This woman was not drafted into the Marines.

In fact, it is especially interesting that this young woman is a Marine. For every Marine is, by definition, an armed fighting man regardless of his specialty or job . This is why there are no Marine chaplains or medical personnel (they are provided by the Navy). International law and codes of civility prevent chaplains, doctors, and corpsmen from being Marines - but the same doesn't apply to women - not even pregnant women. This is potentially the Nicola Cotton situation all over again.

How sick a society have we become when men stay at home while women are overseas being taken as POWs and getting wounded in combat situations? Could you imagine, say, Titus Pullo from HBOs Rome staying home to change diapers and buy groceries while his petite wife is camping with Caesar's Army in Gaul and taking part in gruesome battles? I imagine Titus Pullo would not believe such a thing possible, that any society could be so disordered and depraved. He certainly wouldn't just shrug and accept this as normal (and he was not even a believer in God's order of creation as a matter of theology, and knew nothing of the laughing Serpent).

The Christian Church has much more reason to be appalled than Titus Pullo.

Where is Christian outrage when young women - some pregnant, others with children at home - are being put into uniforms, given weapons, and ordered into gunfire - while Dad keeps the home-fires burning? The U.S. military forces have perfectly healthy strong young men in non-combat roles even as we have women, like this 26-year old mom, in battle zones. Police forces around the country have perfectly healthy strong young men sitting behind desks and shuffling paperwork while young women, like the 23-year old pregnant Nicola Cotton, on the streets with their service revolvers and flack jackets. Why don't the men rise up and protect the women? What has become of our civilization?

Why is it that Missouri Synod Lutherans trot out the doctrine of the order of creation when the question of ordaining women comes up, but they suddenly shelve the doctrine when it comes to dressing young mothers in cammies and combat boots and outfitting them with 9 mm revolvers or M16s? Why won't we let a woman serve as a military chaplain, but we do let our unarmed chaplains be protected by these armed women? Why do we let our wives and daughters go off to war without even a word of admonishment from the Book of Genesis? In fact, we seem to laud the practice. And can an LCMS chaplain legally criticize the U.S. policy that is at odds with Scripture? I honestly don't know what he can and can't say, but I do suspect that WELS chaplains (who are civilians) have a little more wiggle room when the Lord and Caesar don't see eye to eye.

I don't endorse female ordination by any stretch. But if we were consistent, we would either speak out against putting women in combat (domestic or foreign, police or military), or we would allow women to serve as spiritual warriors in the pulpit. The order of creation is the order of creation. Gaging by the recently published statistics of the opinions of young members of LCMS churches, we are more likely to see women serving as pastors before we see any consistent call for women to cease serving as cops and soldiers. More depraved amusement for the Serpent.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

I was NOT tagged, but...

I thought I give this a try. There is a "meme" floating around that has the following instructions...

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

This could be interesting. I'm not going to tag anybody, but I snagged the closest book (about a foot from my left eyeball): New Orleans Stories: Great Writers on the City (Ed. by John Miller). On page 123 is a story called "Mumbo Jumbo" by Ishmael Reed (which, if set anywhere other than New Orleans, would be dismissed as comedy):

"The mayor passes the flask of bootlegged gin to Zuzu. She takes a sip and continues to spread sprawl and behave skittishly. Loose. She is inhaling from a Chesterfield cigarette in a shameless brazen fashion."

I Keep Winning Lotteries!

Check this out! I must be the luckiest (and richest) man on the planet. I have yet to figure out how I will use my massive wealth, but you can rest assured, I will not spend it all in one place.

Since 2006, I have won major lotteries in the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, and Ireland.

I have won prizes of:

$500k US,
$1M US,
550k Euros,
three prizes of 750K British pounds,
and another prize of 1M British pounds.

Let's see, all together I have won: 1.5 million American dollars, 3.5 million British pounds, and 550 thousand Euros.

I'm not even trying, and I keep getting these victory notifications. I'm not even entering, and I'm winning like there's no tomorrow! Obviously, the Lord thinks I'm doing something right. Here are all the details of all my winnings. But please don't tell the IRS! Can you imagine my liability? As those great financial analysts the Rolling Stones said: "Gimme shelter!"

My congregation need not worry - I'll be staying right here in Gretna - though I will probably build a cottage in Monte Carlo, snag a nice apartment in Manhattan, and maybe a flat in Paris. I better start talking to Creflo Dollar, Robert Tilton, Joyce Meyer, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, and Oral Roberts to find out the best private jets for the clergy to get around in. I'm new at being filthy rich.

Below are all the details of my streak of "Success-N-Life(tm)"...


On 3 August 2006, I won a lottery in Amsterdam...

PROMOTION AWARD NOTIFICATION

ATTENTION

We are delighted to notify you
of the result of the SPONSOR LOTERIJ AMSTERDAM quarterly award
program. In accordance with the world lottery ordnance, you authorized
as an
official lottery prize winner to immediately file in for your
claims upon receipt of this mail.
This is an online promotional program
organized by SPONSOR LOTERIJ AMSTERDAM A total number of various
individual email addresses and companies alike were entered for the
Free Lotto Automatic Subscription Ticket Game. Details were submitted
by international email service providers/marketing companies including
public service providers strictly for this exercise. No ticket was
sold.

Bear in mind that prizes will strictly be remitted to winners
that officially file in for their claims within the given time frame.
To begin your claim process, you are advised to immediately contact our
program coordinator with the details below.

MR. ROD THOMPSON
EURO
ACCREDITED AGENT
Tel: +31 623 106 984
Email:
rodthompson666@netscape.net

Note that all winnings must be
claimed within 10 working days from the date of this notification; any
unclaimed prize will be returned to the treasury of the organizing firm
as unclaimed prize.

(NB) You are to file in for the claim of Five
Hundred Thousand United States Dollar($500,000.00) under category "A"

Here are your winning details:
Batch Number: LN-DN0TR764
Ticket Number:
LN-TW09XV51
Ref Number: LN-883M09
Lucky Number: 554-20-501
Serial
Number: LN/ERS

Congratulations once more and thank you for being part
of our quarterly promotional program.

Yours truly,
Sandra Smith


Then, on 26 September 2006, I won a British lottery...

FREELOTTO INTERNATIONAL
CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPRTMENT
******************************

***************
82 VICTORIA STREET, VICTORIA
LONDON SW1 UNITED KINGDOM
*********************************************
Ref: FRL0/941OWI/02
Batch: 12/25/0034
*********************************************
WINNIG NOTIFICATION

Dear Mr/Mrs/Sir/Madam:

We happily announce to you the draw of the Freelotto
International programs held on the 25th of September 2006 in
London. Your e-mail address attached to ticket number
:564 75600545 188 with Serial number 5388/02 drew the
lucky numbers: 31-6-26-13-35-7, which subsequently won
you the lottery in the 5th category.

You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of
$1,000,000 USD (One Million United State Dollars) in cash
credited to file FRLO/9080118308/02/BST.This is from a total
cash prize of $10.000,000 USD (Ten Million United State Dollars)
shared amongst the first Ten (10) lucky winners in this
category.

All participants were selected randomly from 'World Wide Web'
site through computer draw system and extracted from over
100,000 companies.For security reasons, you are advised to
keep your winning information confidential till your claims is
processed and money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem
fit to claim your prize. This is a part of our precautionary
measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this
program by some unscrupulous elements.

Note that all claims process and clearance procedures must
be duly completed early to avoid impersonation arising to
the issue of double claim. To avoid unnecessary delays and
complications, ,you are advised to keep this notice to yourself
because we shall not be responsible for any divert of funds as
a result of you disclosing your lottery award details,I hereby
advice you to report to: lottery.verificationunit2006@yahoo.co.uk
within 24hours of reading this mail.


Congratulations once more from all members and staffs of
this program.

Yours faithfully,
Mrs. Teresa Eaton

Then, on 11 November 2006, I won some kind of German Microsoft lottery...

MICROSOFT / STAATSLOTERIJ
INTERNATIONAL PROMOTION PROGRAM

Date: 11th November, 2006
Ref Nr: MSTL/CN/2628/YT
Batch Number: 26/386/UTR.
Serial Number 25742-86
Coupon No. MSTL-146478972197

Dear Email Bearer,

CONSOLATION PRIZE WINNING NOTICE!!!

Europe/America private international e-games organizers and Co-sponsors, MICROSOFT / STAATSLOTERIJ, officially bring to your notice of the final draw result of November - 2006 MICROSOFT / STAATSLOTERIJ wheel E-game which was conducted at our international corporate office complex in The Netherlands.

Most recently this foundation set up the NEW LOTTERY SCHEME to give outprizes based on COMPUTER BALLOT SYSTEM. By doing this the foundation seek to encourage the use of Internet for academic and business pursuits. It major aim is to promote music, theater, art and literature projects in the social and political arena with a focus on health, as well as science, research, and higher education. We wish to congratulate and inform you on the selection of your email coupon number which was selected among the 45 lucky consolation prize winners.

Your email ID identified with Coupon No. MSTL-146478972197 and was selected by our E-games Random Selection System (ERSS) with entries from the 50,000 different email addresses enrolled for the E-game. Your email ID was included among the 50,000 different email addresses submitted by our partner international email provider companies.

You have won a consolation cash prize of €550,000.00 (Five Hundred and fifty thousand Euros Only). The MICROSOFT / STAATSLOTERIJ Group have approved a payout of your consolation cash prize which will be remunerated directly to you by the official Payment Agency Board.

Our DUE PROCESS UNIT (DPU) will render to you complete assistance and provide additional information and processes for the claims of your consolation prize.

For due processing of your winning claim, please contact the DPU Information Officer Mr. Bill Anderson who has been assigned to assist you.

Contact:
NAME: Mr. Bill Anderson
E-mail: staatsdesk01@aol.com
Tel: +31-620 897102

You are advised to provide him with the following information:

Names:
Phone/Fax number:
Nationality:
Ref Number:
Batch Number:
coupon Number:

Once again congratulations from all our staffs on your consolation prize winning, we hope you will partake in our forth coming MICROSOFT / STAATSLOTERIJ Email-games.

Regards,

Anita Raynes(Mrs.).
(Group Coordinator)


Then on 28 March 2007, I won the Irish Lottery

The Irish National Online Lottery
P O Box 1010 Dublin, 11 G
Lower Dorset Street
(Customer Services)

Ref: UK/9420X2/68
Batch: 074/05/ZY369

Dear Winner

This is to inform you that you have been selected for a cash prize of £750,000.00(GBP) in cash credited to file KTU/9023118308/03. held on the 27th of March. 2007 in Uk.The selection process was carried out through random selection in our computerized email selection
system(ess) from a database of over 250,000 email addresses drawn
from which you were selected.

The Irish National Lottery is approved by the Uk Gaming Board. In other to claim your won prize from the lottery board you are required to fill out the claims processing form and send it to our Claims Agent here in the UK with the details below:

Name Of Claims Agent: Mr. Robert Micheal
Email address : fiduciaryagent_rb@yahoo.ie
Phone : +447011148108

Below is the claims form you are required to fill:
FILL AND SUBMIT.

PAYMENT PROCESSING FORM
1.FULL NAMES:________________________

__________
2.ADDRESS:_____________________________________________
3.SEX:_______________
4.AGE:________
5.MARITAL STATUS:___________________
6.OCCUPATION:________________________
7.E-MAIL ADDRESS:_____________________________
8.TELEPHONE NUMBER:_____________________
9.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF COMPANY/INDIVIDUAL___________
10.AMOUNT WON:___________________________________
11. COUNTRY________________________________

Goodluck from me and members of staff of the IRISH NATIONAL LOTTERY.
Yours faithfully,
Sir Kolyn Perkins.

Online coordinator for
IRISH NATIONAL LOTTERY
Sweepstakes International Program.
powered by-2007 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved

Not to be outdone, on 3 December 2007, the Swiss awarded me a lottery victory

SWISS ON-LINE LOTTERY
P O Box 1010 Liverpool,
L70 1NL UNITED KINGDOM
(Customer Services)
REF NO: SL/74/368/05
BATCH NO:SL-121-LT-11-12-05

ONLINE
NOTIFICATION
We are pleased to inform you that your e-mail address has won the Swiss On-
line Lottery. Therefore you have been approved for a lump sum payout (
£750,000.00 ) Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pounds Sterling in the Swiss On-
line Lottery program held on 1st December 2007, and released today 3rd
December 2007. The online cyber lotto draws was conducted from an exclusive
list of 21,000 email addresses of individual and corporate bodies picked by an
advanced automated random computer search from the internet, no tickets were
sold. After this automated computer ballot, your e-mail ID emerged as one of
the winners in the 3rd category.

You are therefore been approve to lump sum of £750,000.00(GBP). To file and
claim your winning, please contact our Fiduciary Agent for the processing of
your winning particulars, with the following information's below.


To file for your claim, please contact our
******************************

**************
United Kingdom Lottery Fiduciary
Contact Person: MR Micheal Anderson
E-mail address:mic_anderson009@hotmail.co.uk
Telephone Contact: +447031946384
+447031955501

*********************************************
Provide him with the information below:
1.Full Name:..................................
2.Full Address:.............................
3.Status:.......................................
4.Occupation:................................
5.Age:...........................................
6.Sex:...........................................
7.Country:.....................................
8.Tel.Number:................................
9.Country Of Residence....................

Congratulations once more from all members and staff of this program.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Rose Wood
Swiss On-Line Lottery.

On 18 January 2008, I hit the U.K. National Lottery...

UK NATIONAL LOTTERY6/49
P O Box 1010, 3b Olympic Way,
Sefton Business Park,
Aintree, Liverpool,
L30 1RD
FINAL NOTIFICATION

This is to inform you that you have been selected for a cash prize
of £1,000,000.00(British Pounds) held on the 17th,of January,2008
in London, Your e-mail address was attached to TICKET No: 56475600545188
and your REF No:UK/9420X2/68.

The selection process was carried out through random selection
in Our computerized email selection system (ess) from a database of
over 100,000 email Addresses drawn from which you were selected.

Contact our fiduciary agent for claims with:

Mr. Edward Fring
Tel:+44-703-191-6044
Tel:+44-703-191-6896
Tel:+44-703-191-8799
Email: mr.edwardfringg@hotmail.co.uk

Fill the below:

1. Name: 2. Address 3. Marital Status: 4. Occupation: 5. Age: 6. Sex:
7. Nationality: 8. Country of Residence: 9. Telephone Number:

Sincerely,

Stella Roberts (Mrs.)
LOTTERY CO-ORDINATOR
INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS
PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT.


Finally, today, 30 January 2008, I won the Irish National lottery.

Ref: UK/9420X2/68
Batch: 074/05/ZY369

Dear Winner

This is to inform you that you have been selected for a cash prize of £750,000.00(GBP) in cash credited to file KTU/9023118308/03. held on this Month January 2008.The selection process was carried out through random selection in our computerized email selection system(ess)from a
database of over 250,000 email addresses drawn from which you were selected.The Irish National Lottery is approved by the Uk Gaming Board. In other to claim your won Amount £750,000.00(GBP) prize from the lottery board you are required to contact our Claims Agent here in the UK with
the details below:

******************************

****************************
1.Full Legal names 2.Occupation 3.Tel. Number 4.Country
**********************************************************
Name Of Claims Agent: Mr David James
Email address :irishclaimsunit@hotmail.com
***********************************************
Goodluck from me and members of staff of the IRISH NATIONAL LOTTERY.

Yours faithfully,
Sir Phillip Johnson.

The Bayeux Tapestry Comes Alive!

You students of Latin might be familiar with the Bayeux Tapestry, a beautiful work of eleventh century art that illustrates the Battle of Hastings (1066 AD) with annotations in a fairly easy to understand Latin. It is huge - 20 inches wide and 230 feet (!) long.

A frame by frame look at the tapestry can be found here. And if you'd like to read the Latin and English texts, they can be found here.

Thanks to computer technology and YouTube, the Bayeux Tapestry comes to life in the form of a movie:



Now, how cool is that?

Father Hollywood Recommends...

I'm about a third of the way through a really enjoyable book called New Orleans, Mon Amour: Twenty Years of Writings from the City by Andrei Codrescu.

Codrescu is a Romanian born New Orleanian who is a professor at LSU in Baton Rouge. He is also a commentator for NPR. Amour is a collection of his essays about New Orleans from 1985-2005.

This is the kind of book that is best read in New Orleans - or at least in Gretna where I live. I'm reading the book aloud to my wife. We're both suffering with sore throats and Mrs. Hollywood is laid out on the couch with a fever that I hope I don't catch - but probably will. So, we're lounging in the parlor in our robes with a fire going, reading delightful words about the place that surrounds us, the place we also love.

Codrescu's book is a mélange of the acute observations and descriptive prose of Alexis deTocqueville, mixed with the brevity, wit, and the storyteller's eye for ironic people and exotic places of O. Henry, tossed into a French press with strong coffee and a touch of gin, and plunged into a frothy brew with an intoxicating aroma that is best enjoyed served in cups and saucers in unhurried and languid sips.

Codrescu is a storyteller who tells stories about stories, about the telling of those stories, and about the storytelling itself - which is the stuff of stories and storytellers. He weaves beautiful imagery with his words - which are spun from the perspective of outsider-turned-insider, a left-wing European intellectual who seems to really want to be a vegetarian, and yet who just can't figure out his fascination and love for right-wing American red meat - especially the kind that one usually finds baking on the side of the road with its feet in the air, or something that creeps out of a swamp and looks at you suspiciously from the plate.

Codrescu may be a native Romanian, but he is a Louisianan through and through. Like Christianity, one can be converted to Louisiananism and New Orleanianity. And it is often the convert who is the most zealous.

Some of his prose is peppered with his leftist politics as well as a pinch of NPR-ish academician snobbery. And his emphasis on voodoo, quirky novelists, tombs, fig trees, and naked people is, to be sure, overstated. But the author is writing about his New Orleans, and he is truly in love with his subject - hence the title "Mon Amour" ("My Love" for the Francophonically-impaired). New Orleans really is unique, and the author conveys it well - with humor, with charm, and with affection in this collection of essays compiled over two decades of Crescent City life.

Although I'm not yet done with the book, I recommend it already.

The message of the book is clear: New Orleans is unique. The author points out that people from elsewhere either hate us or love us. I think most of us who live here love it - even if we gripe about this and that. I do think that a lot of other places in the country would have simply become a ghost town after Katrina - whereas the people of this region continue to fight for their Amour and are determined to remain, even if irrationally, in a tempestuous relationship with their fiery home rather than to throw in the towel, divorce, and get remarried to a sensible and staid suburb Somewhere Else. We are determined to "make it work."

Part of that determination involves a kind of graveyard humor combined with a resolution to live - not just to survive - but to live. The French term is joie-de-vivre. There is another term as well: élan.

In the preface, the author writes about the days right after Katrina. His home in Baton Rouge was "filled with poet refugees from New Orleans" (p.10) - people who had no idea what kind of condition their homes were in - or even if anything was left at all. This is a bizarre feeling that I remember all too well. They had escaped New Orleans in a stolen school bus. One of the author's friends "cooked four-star meals because, as he said, 'I will not have the apocalypse without style!'" Codrescu continues: "On various nights we had black mushrooms in oyster sauce with dumplings, pad thai, cold shrimp with new potatoes and corn, gazpacho, and dobache cake. With the appropriate wines. That's New Orleans awright - it may be the end of the world, but that's no reason to become uncivilized." (p. 11)

I know exactly what the author is talking about.

While I was working with a few fellow pastors and Lutheran laymen doing relief work after Katrina, we were headquartered in a church parsonage in Metairie. The house was powered by two large generators, and was filled by a motley crew of local Lutheran clergymen and parishioners, of adventure-seeking young Pentecostal volunteers from up north who had never been to the bayou, of hip veterinarians and animal lovers from California, and a few journalists from the New York Times. We put in long days on boats and ATVs. In the midst of the surreal emptiness, of camouflaged soldiers with rifles, of putrid flood water standing in residential neighborhoods, of military helicopters and deserted dilapidated houses - our little band of misfits was served fine meals by the owner and the loyal staff of Barecca's - one of those elegant neighborhood restaurants New Orleans is known for. They opened up in order to feed cops, soldiers, and volunteers for free. We ate (and were treated) like royalty. Amid the uncertainty and destruction, the staff still took pride in their culinary prowess. We were not eating MREs and hot dogs.

One of the photojournalists - a cranky French atheist whose craft took him everywhere from Paris to Palestine, from America to Afghanistan, demonstrated to the local clergy whom he had befriended the European art of opening a champagne bottle with a saber. Lacking the proper military accoutrements, he improvised: popping the cork ceremoniously with a machete, to the cheers and back slapping of his new comrades in arms. We drank champagne, smoked cigars, and ate fine food at the end of the day as the helicopters chopped their way through the heat.

Now that's joie-de-vivre. That's élan. That's New Orleans. That's why we love it. I suspect that's a good bit of why Andrei Codrescu speaks of it as his Amour.

Sermon: Sexagesima

27 January 2008 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA
Text: Luke 8:4-15

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

We are surrounded by words. There was a time when people walking down the street muttering to no-one were considered mentally ill. Nowadays, we presume they’re chatting on their cell phones through Blue Tooth attachments stuck in their ears.

Cell phones are absolutely everywhere. Televisions are almost as common.

In election years, there is a constant buzz from “talking heads” and the stifling clutter of political signs and billboards with brightly colored words and hackneyed slogans.

Even DVDs and videos are filled with unread words citing FBI regulations and quotations from the United States criminal code, not to mention the Interpol warnings flashed up so fast that no human being could possibly read them – followed by the same unreadable and unread blurb in French.

Car ads inevitably have a whispered disclaimer rattled off like an auctioneer explaining all the fine print about APR rates. And who hasn’t grown weary of the litany of possible side effects that are blurted out with every pharmaceutical ad?

Blah, blah, blah. Words have become worthless. We are surrounded by clutter – spoken and written. And we are so used to being lied to and given sales pitches that for the most part, we ignore the constant buzz of words that dance around our heads.

This clutter serves to choke out the one Word we need to hear, the only Word that truly matters: the Word made flesh, the Word by whom the world was made, the Word that brings us good news of redemption. Because of the constant hum of words, we often don’t hear the Word. And even when we hear it, do we listen?

Our Lord’s parable uses words to convey the power not only of words but of the Word.

The sower tosses his seeds to the four winds: by the wayside, upon the rock, among the thorns, and upon good soil. And as our Lord tells us, the seed in the parable represents the Word of God. The Word is sown in the ears and hearts of men by preachers who recklessly heave the seed of the Word of God to those same four winds. He preaches to those from whose hearts the devil wrests the Word. He preaches to the shallow who hear the Word gladly but lack the depth for the Word to take root in their lives, who fall away in time of trouble. He preaches to those distracted by the cacophony of competing words, whose attention is dragged away by worries and riches, by pleasures of this world and priorities that choke out the Word. And yes, he also preaches to those who will hear the Word, who will take it to heart, who will bear the fruits of repentance to the glory of the Lord and His kingdom.

The Parable of the Sower is particularly important for our ears to hear in this day and age, even as there are so many competing words seeking to drown out the still small voice of the Lord’s Word.

Even Christian churches are befuddled by the clutter of words. Preachers think they need to shout and strut, do parlor tricks and put on side shows. They write books filled with empty words that have nothing to do with the Gospel. Church officials tell us that the simple preached Word of God will no longer work, especially among the twenty-first century emerging iPod and text message generations.

We are told that the old method of casting seeds to the four winds must yield to a targeted marketing model that looks and sounds like the very clutter that surrounds us.

And this makes perfect sense. It is logical, it is reasonable, and it can be used in any sales situation. But that’s the fatal flaw. The sower is not a salesman. The seed is not a commodity. The Christian faith is not a brand to be sold like Old Navy or Abercrombie and Fitch. We sow by faith, not by reason. We proclaim, we don’t sell.

We have lost our faith in the Word. We no longer believe there is an unseen power lying dormant within the seed of the Word of God. We seem to think that the power of God needs the help of mass marketing and slick salesmanship to empower the Word take root, sprout, resist the attacks of its enemies, and grow to bear fruit. But our Lord uses the metaphor of the seed and the sower for a reason. The seed bears its power within – independent of the sower’s skill or cleverness. The Word of God is effective because it is God’s Word, not because of the messenger or the method.

The Lord chooses to work through words because He is the Word. The Lord chooses to describe the working of His Word through the seed, for He is the Seed as prophesied to the devil right after the Fall: the Seed of the woman who will crush the Serpent’s head and reclaim creation from evil unto Himself. The job of every sower is to toss the seeds and get out of the way. The task of every preacher is to faithfully proclaim the Word and get out of the way. For even the biggest agribusiness can’t make seeds grow. The seeds grow because that’s just what seeds do. They grow because that is their nature, the latent power waiting patiently inside for water and good soil.

When water works on the seed, the seed grows – even if the sower has long since gone away.

The Word of God has the power of God within itself. Nothing can be added to make it more powerful. Just as the Lord has provided sowers to cast the seeds to the four winds, He has likewise provided baptismal water to make the seed sprout.

Of course, not all words are spoken. In fact, some of the most powerful words are not spoken at all. Actions can indeed speak louder than words. The Gospel is as often communicated by acts and deeds of love as it is conveyed by doctrine and reason. The Word of God sprouts in the fertile soil of a faithful hearer when conveyed through the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Supper, where the Word of God is joined to worldly elements that are eaten and drunk. And these elements come from wheat and grapes – both of which began in God’s creation as tiny seeds.

Just as a grain of wheat dies and falls to the ground, and just as a grape seed sprouts into a vine – the Seed of the woman, our Lord Jesus Christ, comes to us by wheat that has borne the fruit of grain beaten into flour and made into bread, as well as by the vine that has borne the fruit of grapes crushed into wine. And through these seeds, the Seed comes to us. Through words meeting the fruits of these seeds, the Word Himself comes to us. And this Word goes forth from the mouth of God. It accomplishes what He pleases, and it prospers in the thing for which He sent it.

The thing for which the Word is sent is simply this: for us men and for our salvation. The Word of God accomplishes the creation of the Creator and carries out the redemption of the Redeemer. All of this is done through seeds – the seed of wheat, the seed of the grape, and most importantly, by the seed of the Word of God, proclaimed by a preacher, sown by a sower, cast about to the four winds, in faith that the Word of God bears its own power within, that the Word of God will not return void, but will indeed burrow into good soil, to sprout, to burst forth from the good creation of the earth, to beat back the clutter of thorns, to soak up water and nourishment, to triumph over the crafts and assaults of the devil, to bear fruits in keeping with repentance – all for the glory of God and for the spread of His Kingdom.

In spite of all of our lack of faith, over and against all appearances to the contrary, the Word of God can and does blast through the clutter of meaningless words and the drone of empty babble to bring forth the Lord’s glorious Kingdom unto eternity. Amen.

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