What Women Wear by Latif Gaba

An interesting post at Br. Latif Gaba's Traditionalist Lutheran blog on the topic of women's attire. This is somewhat related to my previous post of the trailer for the movie Monstrous Regiment of Women.

The Monstrous Regiment of Women

An interesting trailer for an upcoming movie about feminism from the perspective of conservative Christian women.

Sermon: Trinity 9

5 August 2007 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA
Text: Luke 16:1-13

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

It’s very likely that last week in North Carolina, several young people from our congregation heard this statement concerning our modern American way of life: “We worship our work, we work at our play, and we play at our worship.”

Not only is this a clever turn of phrase, it accurately describes the way we compartmentalize our lives and where our priorities lie.

I can’t help but think of a lady I met at a funeral home visitation whose cell phone went off. She answered it and began working right then and there. She explained that she had forwarded her business line to her cell phone so her job wouldn’t be interrupted by a funeral. “We worship our work…”

I’m also reminded of a relative who was so far in debt that she had to borrow from many relatives in order to pay her bills. But rather than pay everyone back, she took a nice vacation instead. “We work at our play…”

I also think about people whose churches (if we can call them that) have things like clown ministry, polka services, dancing girls, and rock music, where fun trumps doctrine and where making people feel welcome is more important than the proclamation of difficult truths. “We play at our worship…”

As topsy-turvy as our culture is today, it’s not a new phenomenon. In our gospel text, Jesus tells a story, a parable. We usually call it the Parable of the Unjust Steward. Basically, the business owner has a bad manager a guy who hasn’t been doing his job. The owner takes a look at the books, and decides to fire the manager. The manager is fearful of the consequences of losing his job (he is too old to work at a fast food restaurant and too proud to be seen trolling around the welfare office). So, in a desperate measure, he holds clandestine meetings and cuts deals and negotiates with the people who owe his boss money. This results in not only a large sudden influx of cash for the owner, but also wins influential friends for the incompetent manager. When the owner finds out, he is amazed at the shrewdness, one might say the “chutzpah”, of the employee. Now, Jesus doesn’t tell us whether the manager gets to keep his job or not – the point is that the unjust steward was willing to work the angles, take extraordinary measure, and think outside the box out of a sense of self-preservation.

Now, there are many lessons in this parable. One of the lessons is certainly not to be a lazy worker and then do something bold and probably illegal when you get caught. Jesus is teaching us several things about the relationship between the riches of this world and how they can be put to work in God’s kingdom. He is teaching us about faithfulness – a person who can’t be trusted with the petty cash probably shouldn’t be in charge of a billion dollar budget. But one who is faithful and attentive to small details typically can be trusted with bigger things.

But our blessed Lord is also addressing our sense of priority, our urgency when it comes to our jobs and the disproportionate lack of urgency when it comes to our church.

Look at how our work life dominates. We will accept almost any change in our lives if we can get more money. We’ll move, we’ll uproot our families, we’ll do work we utterly detest, we’ll sacrifice our limited time with our families to go to school or get specialized training, we’ll cozy up to the “right” people, we’ll rearrange every part of our schedule in order to advance our careers.

If you were offered a huge promotion, right now, say, to be a vice president in your company – with a huge income and all the perks – would you take it? But what if you had to work every Sunday and every Wednesday, and you could never come to church – would you still take it? If you had to essentially cut yourself off from the preaching of the gospel and participation in the Lord’s Supper – but you were looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, prestige, and security – would you take the job?

Would you refuse it outright and say: “No way!”? Or would you ponder it, roll it around your head a while, try to justify it by promising to give the church lots of money, or resolving to only do the job for a year or two – or three, or four…? What would you do?

Of course, we live for such promotions. We get advanced degrees and specialized training, we come to work early and leave late, we rack up sales figures, we get more things done than the next guy, and we keep our eyes peeled for the next rung on the ladder. In the affairs of the world, most people are pretty shrewd – always on the lookout for opportunity.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Education and training in order to have a better life can certainly be a benefit. Working hard in order to give one’s children a good education and home is, of course, something that a responsible parent will do. But it can also become a bad thing as well. Wealth is not evil in and of itself, but “mammon” is. “Mammon” is the name of wealth that becomes one’s god. Mammon is the fruit of the work that is worshiped. When our life of worship and prayer are secondary to our jobs, we are worshiping mammon instead of God.

Of course, one of the consequences of working hard is playing hard. In a hustle-bustle existence of week after week of labor, our precious few vacation days can become rather elaborate. Often the event itself becomes more important than the rest, relaxation, and time to enjoy with family and friends that should be the motivation to begin with. People often go deep into debt because the voice on the radio says we deserve vacations and luxuries we can’t afford.

Typically, when we do come into more money, or when we do finally get the promotion – what is the first order of business? A new car, a new home theater with surround sound, maybe even a new house? Usually, the top priority isn’t to call the chairman of the board of elders and tell him that the budget for missions (which this year has been cut to nothing) can be restored to five thousand dollars once more. Typically, the first thing that comes to mind isn’t a gift to one of our seminaries or colleges so that the child of a seminarian or future church worker will get a toy for Christmas this year.

As shrewd as we can be in worldly affairs, we’re not so creative and motivated when it comes to the kingdom of God. We don’t do such a great job of taking care of the Lord’s kingdom, but we sure can rack up the Best Buy Reward Zone points!

How often does it happen that we find ourselves at work daydreaming, plotting, and scheming as to how we’re going to be able to drive to church on our lunch break, have the pastor hear our confession, and get back to work before the one o’clock whistle sounds? How many times do we sit down as a family and plan our week around Salem’s worship schedule, since missing church and Bible class would be utterly unthinkable for any reason: be it for work or play? When do we ever devote time for brainstorming about how we can serve our church on a committee, teach a Sunday school class, or think of some way to make our shut-ins feel more a part of our congregation?

There cannot be two or three number-one priorities. We really do need to come to grips with what is number one in our lives: our jobs, our leisure, or the kingdom of God. For “no servant can serve two masters… You cannot serve both God and mammon.” And thanks be to God that our Lord turned down mammon when it was offered to Him. For he didn’t put you on the back burner, or give you the leftovers after buying toys for Himself. The Lord Jesus gave us everything – our lives, our redemption, and eternal life. He did not spare His own life. He did not ease His own suffering. He did all of this for us – we who deserve nothing.

Dear friends, what goes on in this church, the miracle of forgiveness and faith, the unspeakable presence of God in the flesh, the free gift of eternal life for any and all who do not turn down the gift is the most important thing in our lives. The kingdom of God is a free gift, but it is not cheap. It was bought “not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.”

Because Jesus was shrewd in His dealings with the devil, we have everlasting life – a life where the curse of work will be no more, a life of an eternity of play and leisure, and a life of everlasting worship of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.

In the mean time, let our work and play be work and play to the glory of God. Let us serve God by making mammon serve God’s kingdom. And as forgiven sinners who often forget our priorities, let us worship Him who gives us not only work to do in the kingdom of God, but who also showers us with indescribable riches and leisure that will have no end! Amen.

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

Sermon: Funeral for Bonnie Sprouse

4 August 2007 at Mothe Funeral Home, Harvey, LA
Text: John 14:1-6 (Job 19:23-27a, Romans 6:3-9)

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

Russell, Kristen, Lee, Judy, Brenda, Laurie, Wendy, Andy, family, and friends. What a profound time of grief this is to lose a faithful wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, and friend. Her heroic struggle against cancer has ended not in defeat, as it may seem to our feeble senses, but in victory.

Bonnie’s life and courage has served as an example and encouragement to many, and her death in no way negates that. In fact, her suffering gave her the opportunity to display courage and steadfastness. Her suffering gave all of you the opportunity to display mercy and love. And in death, Bonnie has overcome the evil one.

Bonnie’s suffering is a portrait of the suffering and passion of our Lord. And Bonnie’s victory over death was given to her by the ultimate victor over death, the same Lord Jesus Christ. For though death comes to all of us – thanks to sins of our own as well as those of our ancestors – our Blessed Lord overcame death and the grave by His resurrection. That resurrection, that victory over sin, death, and the devil was placed upon victorious Bonnie’s little forehead in the form of baptismal water.

Not even the most sophisticated science, the most advanced medicine, the finest minds of research, could destroy the cancer that assaulted Bonnie. And yet, the most simple and humble substance in the world – a splash of water – when combined with the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, has removed all of Bonnie’s sins, destroyed her disease, overcome all of her pain, and has conquered death itself.

“Do you not know” asks St. Paul, “that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? …For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.”

What looks to the world like a meaningless ceremony is in fact the eternal antidote to all sickness, the cure for death itself.

We have the promise of the Lord Jesus Himself: “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many rooms… I go to prepare a place for you.”

The Lord has not abandoned Bonnie. He has taken her unto Himself. He has prepared a place for her. He has prepared a place for all of His people, those who have been baptized and redeemed. Jesus, the One who rose from the dead and defeated the evil one, speaks with authority: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

What has saved Bonnie, what has brought this saintly woman out of pain and into eternal joy, what brings all of us comfort in the face of death is not the fact that Bonnie was courageous, loving, inspirational, or devout – though all of these are true. What gives us comfort in times like these, my dear brothers and sisters, is the promise of God. The sure Word of Him who rose from the dead, the One who promises that Bonnie is with Him this moment, the One into whose holy name she was baptized.

We Christians grieve, to be sure. But we don’t grieve like those who have no hope. For we know our separation is only temporary. We know that Bonnie was given the gift of eternal life. The gift is as real as the water that splashed upon her tiny forehead so many years ago. The promise is as real as the body and blood of the risen Christ that was given to her to eat and drink for the forgiveness of sins and the guarantee and pledge of eternal life.

For we know that in these rooms prepared by our Lord Jesus there is no more suffering, pain, doubt, anxiety, or death. She now awaits the great day of resurrection, when all of our graves will open, when our bodies themselves will rise, when you will once more hold her very real hand, be embraced by her very real arms, and look into her very real smiling eyes, knowing that the promises of God have been fulfilled.

For though we see only dimly by faith, Bonnie gazes upon the kind and gentle face of Jesus, and proclaims in the words of Job: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold and not another.”

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

A Traditionalist Lutheran Bishop is Consecrated

The latest issue of For the Life Of The World includes an article about the historic consecration of Fr. Vsevolod Lytkin as Bishop of the Siberian Lutheran Church at the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Talinn, Estonia. Three members of the CTS Fort Wayne faculty were on hand: Drs. Wenthe, Weinrich, and Quill. Unfortunately, the online version of the magazine omits the article - which includes the newly-consecrated bishop's magnificent sermon that shows the triumph of the Christ's cross over Marx's hammer and sickle.

However, I did find an article here which includes some striking photographs showing what traditionalist Lutheranism looks like - as our Lutheran brethren from behind the erstwhile Iron Curtain have avoided some of the political and cultural pressures that we in America have allowed to mold and shape our piety, polity, and churchmanship.

I think we have a lot to learn from our brethren who have clung to tradition through centuries of oppression.

One thing I have learned in my thirteen years of marriage to a non-American is how full of hubris our American culture is. We really have bought into the idea of Manifest Destiny, of the City on the Hill, that the Americans are a Christian Nation, a Chosen People Favored by God. We must police the world and export "democracy" out of a sense of "noblesse oblige" to our inferiors, to those not fortunate enough to be born American (especially little brown people Over There - they are always in need of What the Greatest Country in the History of the World Has to Offer). It was only after I met my wife that I learned the word "un-American" sometimes has positive connotations by people outside of our borders - depending, of course, on the context.

Someone just mentioned to me about a Lutheran blog site that quoted a foreign source that uses the term "Lutheran priest" - which apparently caused a few bronzed-Protestantized eyes to roll. This is yet another example of American myopia and provincialism. Lutheran pastors are not only called "priests" in our confessions, but also in common parlance throughout much of the world (go ahead and google "Lutheran priest" in quotation marks). I suspect that many American Lutherans would be shocked (if not scandalized) to learn that much of the Lutheran world (especially among traditionalists who cling to the historic liturgy) refers to their pastors as "priests" or "bishops," addresses them as "Father", and knows nothing of the voters assembly and congregational polity that has almost risen to the level of de jure divino ("by divine right") among some latter day disciples of Carl Vehse and adherents of the mob rule democracy so feared and loathed by the founders of the American republic. Many Lutherans around the world (such as those in Russia, the Baltics, Scandinavia, and Africa) have maintained the traditional episcopal polity (as preferred by our Lutheran confessions) of bishops consecrated in apostolic succession, and who ordain and oversee the ministries of Lutheran priests and Lutheran deacons. I believe these increasingly common international contacts with our more traditionalist brethren from around the world (whose church bodies, in many cases, date back to the Reformation itself) - some of whom we Missouri Synod Lutherans are in full communion and altar/pulpit fellowship with - can only be a good thing.

If given the choice between 1) attending a casual devotion led by a district president in a golf shirt with a praise band leading a round of Shine Jesus Shine in a cafe-style "worship center," or 2) participating in a solemn High Mass presided over by a bishop in a miter as the choir chants Veni Creator Spiritus in an incense-filled Gothic cathedral - I wonder how many comfortable American Lutherans would opt for the latter. I also wonder how many Lutherans who have endured and overcome oppression would opt for the former. In a McDonald's culture, tradition is only a plastic fork that gets stuffed along with unopened ketchup packets and half-eaten food into the industrial receptacle with "THANK YOU" printed on the door. In a culture forged by frugality and austerity, utensils are precious and are not thrown into the garbage.

Thank God that there are "un-American" Lutherans who have maintained the traditional polity and catholic identity of the Church of the Augsburg Confession and have not been impacted as much as we by the confusing influences of the Reformed, Anabaptist, Pentecostal, and non-denominational Christianity (not to mention the flippancy, shallowness, and lack of historical grounding) that dominate the contemporary American religious culture - as well as the secular ethos of democracy and egalitarianism that is upheld with a pseudo-religious fervor in the United States).

Anyway, here is Bishop Lytkin's sermon (as published in For the Life of the World) on the occasion of his elevation to the episcopacy:

Tallinn, Estonia May 6, 2007
Sermon on Cantate Sunday
by Bishop Vsevolod Lytkin

Fathers, brothers, and sisters: I would like to begin my sermon with a quote from the song of a famous bard of the Soviet time,

I remember, I was silly and young,
I heard from my parent
How my parent destroyed
The Church of Christ the Savior.

You know that this is not black Russian humor. There is history in these words, history of my country of Russia as well as history of your country of Estonia, since by evil destiny you were forced to share our sufferings with us. For over fifty years, you were part of the Soviet Union, the country that was founded by hangmen and tzar-murderers.

This country is no more. We now live in free democratic countries. Still, almost all of us have come out of that Soviet time. Some people were touched more by this, others less. Some tried to oppose the regime, others have realized all the terror of the Soviet system only after its fall.

“I remember I was silly and young.” From a Christian perspective, one realizes that the most terrible thing that was that such a great multitude of people were born in unbelief. They lived all their life in unbelief and the most terrible thing is that they also died in unbelief. I don’t like to speak about politics, particularly while preaching, but it’s impossible to forget those times. I remember them especially when I visit Estonia, as it was here that all my Christian life began at that time.

Just like many others, I was looking for God. I remember how “silly and young” I was, yet, gradually, little by little, I began to seek answers to eternal questions. My family was not Christian. Nevertheless, my parents taught me not to trust Soviet propaganda, and so I did not. Since Soviet propaganda said that God did not exist, it seemed quite likely that he did. Thus my Christian faith began due to my parents, though they did not tell me about God directly.

Like many other people at that time, we also understood that it was impossible for God not to exist. What would one live for if one’s life were limited to earth, not even in a sense that we were just temporary dwellers on this earth, but, as one priest once wrote, “if there is no God… then all humankind is found collectively not on earth, but in the earth, in our common grave.”

I understood little of religion, but I knew that there must be something besides this material world, in which we live, only to die.

I purchased books, atheistic books, for there were no others at the time, and I tried to find quotations from the Bible in them, words about God, and I found them and tried to understand. Obviously, the atheists quoted the word of God only to critique. But, we were Soviet people – we got used to interpreting all things official backwards.

Finally, God’s grace led me to Estonia. Here I met Christians for the first time in my life. I will never forget how I talked to an old man who was the guard at the Holy Spirit Church. Then I spoke with the wife of Pastor Jaan Kiivit, and finally with the pastor himself.

I was twenty when I came here for the first time in order to find the Lutheran church. I did not know anybody. I had virtually no money, and I lived at the train station for a week and memorized Luther’s Catechism.

I would never dare to do that now. But then I came back to the train station every evening and tried to find a seat on a bench in the waiting hall area. There were a limited number of seats. I was surrounded mostly by similar poor travelers, and also alcoholics and homeless people. It is so strange to recall it now. But I learnt the Catechism, and then Jaan Kiivit baptized me. This is how my Christian life began here in Estonia during the old Soviet era.

I remember, I was silly and young,
I heard from my parent
How my parent destroyed
The Church of Christ the Savior.

You know, these words are perfectly descriptive of the Soviet life! Certainly, my parents did not participate directly in the destruction of Christianity, but a number of people participated on a global scale in the construction of society with no room for God. Wily rulers deceived them by promises of earthly paradise, and they gullibly followed them.

Afterwards it was too late. Millions of Christians were tortured in prison camps; thousands of churches were blown up and demolished. To be sure, the Orthodox Church suffered the most, but other confessions also shared in that horrible slaughter.

As you know, we have no Lutheran church buildings left in Siberia. All that could be destroyed was destroyed. The last Lutheran church building – St. Peter’s in Barnaul – was destroyed in the early seventies.

So, what a grace has been given to us that this regime did not outlive us, but, rather, we outlived it! And we have not become only passive witnesses of its end but rather participants of building a new life.

It is so, because God placed us in the ministry in his church. We save people’s souls through the word of God and the holy sacraments. Can there be anything more wonderful that this task? This, nevertheless, is not of us; it is only due to Christ. It is he who came to us with his word. However little this word was to be seen in the articles in the atheistic books, nevertheless, God helped us to see his word there.

And he called us through this word, just as we read in today’s Gospel:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden. (Matt 11:28a)

The word of God always fulfills that for which God sends it. One believed secretly, and then he began to believe openly.

Another remembered the faith of his parents, and yet another began to seek and he found. You can meet such people, laymen and priests, in every parish. One of my colleagues almost joined the Communist Party, but he heard the gospel and was captivated by this news to such an extent that he finally left everything, took his wife and children and a box of potatoes, and went to work as a missionary, and then became a priest. This is how miraculously God acts in our lives.

Today’s sermon is based on the Old Testament reading in our church lectionary. It is taken from the twelfth chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah. This chapter describes the joy of deliverance, but it is not limited to description; it is rather a praise song of God’s people, gratitude to God for his miraculous gifts.

It is obvious that his song of praise had a liturgical meaning because one may see a number of parallels here with the other hymns of praise, most notably with the Hallel psalms that the Old Testament church was singing at the Passover (and other celebrations) while thanking God for the gift of deliverance.

Our chapter has much in common with Psalm 118. As you may remember, we sang this Psalm on Easter Sunday.

The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation…. I thank thee that thou hast answered me and hast become my salvation. (Ps 118:14, 21)

Salvation is a major theme of both the Psalter and today’s text from Isaiah. The key word here is yoshuakh, which is related to the name of our Savior:

Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. (Is 12:2)

We also sing another part of Psalm 118 every Sunday. We sing “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” when we greet Christ who comes to us in the sacrament of the Eucharist.

God comes to save us. Just as the people of old were saved from Egyptian slavery, so also have we been saved from the slavery of in and death through the death and resurrection of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Christ – Joshua – has become our salvation. He has come to us in order to bring liberty to the oppressed and to give rest to all who labor and are heavy laden:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and by burden is light. (Matt 11:28-30)

That is:
Come to me, all who carry heavy burdens of life,
And I will give you rest…
Take my yoke, not yours. Take my burden, not yours.

The yoke that our Lord gives to us is quite unlike those yokes to which we are accustomed to bearing in this world. There is no violence and oppression here, as Christ is gentle and lowly in heart.

It is not difficult to see here an idea of blessed exchange, so loved by Luther. Those carrying their burdens may take them off their shoulders and take another one, which is of Christ. Those tired and looking for rest may find it with Christ, Son of god who humbled himself, took the form of a servant, and also took our sins upon himself so that he could present his righteousness to us.

He brings salvation to us as a gift. He does not require from us to redeem our own sins but grants forgiveness to repentant sinners at every liturgy. It is only in him that a soul of a sinner who is thirsty for forgiveness and reconciliation with God may find rest:

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matt:29-30)

As children we were taught that only obedient children receive the gifts. However, the gifts of God are given to us without any qualifications or conditions. God does not postpone his grace until people do something. God freely gives his blessings. (If I have to become somebody or do something for my salvation, if I have to earn salvation, then there is no grace here but only unrealized Law.)

We can do nothing to be saved. The Lord does not require it from us. He came and died for us and rose even before we were born. He still continues to come and serve us by giving his true body and blood to us at the Eucharist. Through these he strengthens our faith and gives us power to follow him into the kingdom of his Father.

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. (Is. 12:3)

Remember your baptism now. Remember how God accepted you and how you became a Christian. Maybe, we do not remember it often, but today God gives us a new opportunity to thank him and rejoice that water from the wells of salvation was poured also on us, that we are saved, and that nobody may snatch us from the hands of Christ.

And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name; make known his deeds among the nations, proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be known in all the earth.” (Is 12:4-5)

God always makes great things, even if it seems to us at times that he is idle. Isaiah wrote at a terrible time, when her enemies were threatening to destroy God’s people. The strong ones of this world attempted to destroy the chosen nation and her monotheistic faith. The hearers of Isaiah may have found it difficult to believe that their God would be known in all the earth. The ancient prophesies are, generally speaking, an unusual thing. They are spoken, and then time seemingly stops for ages until it finally wakes up and resumes moving. The powerful ones think that all the power is in their hands. Therefore they create empires and call cities in their honor, they build monuments and mausoleums for themselves. But in the end, it turns out that time is not in their hands. Time is in God’s hands.

A day comes when that which seemed indestructible and unshakable is destroyed. People in all the earth are given knowledge of God, acquire faith, come to church, are baptized, and bring their children. The church grows – this is how God acts in our lives.

Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. (Is 12:6)

Brothers and sisters, the Lord is in our midst. We are able to hear his word and partake of him. He comes so close to us in the sacrament of Eucharist that we can even touch him.

Eucharist does not only connect us to Christ, but also unites us with each other.

It is so wonderful to have spiritual fellowship with the brothers with whom we share a common faith. However, the special character of this day for us Siberian people is that not only have we been one in faith with the Church of Estonia, but, for a long time, we have also been a part of her. Now we become the autocephalous church. Still, though we are independent, the Church of Estonia will always remain a spiritual mother to us. No matter what happens, we will remember the many years in which you cared for us.

No matter what happens… We went through a number of things together. And who knows what else we will have to go through. We know how the church buildings, even those that are large and sturdy, are destroyed. We know also how fragile temples of human lives are destroyed. It happened often – and who knows – it may happen again. Who knows what the future has in store for us. Global warming, materialism, street extremism, Islamic terrorism, liberal theology: there are so many terrifying and deadly things around us!

But Christ is among us, both now and forever. Neither death nor hell nor the devil may change that. We will receive forgiveness of sins, rest, and a blessed eternity in Christ. Amen.

Consumer Culture

Here is a thought-provoking article by freelance writer Dean Abbott concerning our consumer culture - which has spilled over from the secular world to the church.

I'd like to flesh out this idea more when (and if) I get time to ponder and research a little more, but I do think this is a crucial piece to the puzzle of what is happening to the American scene of Christianity - including our little microcosm known as The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod.

Commercialism is at the center of our culture, but isn't often addressed by the Church as something that is hostile to the Gospel.

In his novel Hammer of God, Swedish Lutheran Bishop Bo Giertz tells the story of a small rural parish in Sweden from the early 19th century to the mid 20th century. Breaking the story into three novellas, Giertz captures three "snapshots" of the major cultural movements that challenged the church's proclamation and confession: modernism, liberalism, and pietism.

I believe that our own era is in many ways similar - and yet, these specific -isms have evolved into our own culturally unique landscape within which the church does battle. I believe modernism (the rejection of the supernatural) has developed into postmodernism (the rejection of the objective truth). I believe liberalism (a philosophy of change for change's sake) has refined and focused itself into feminism (a rejection of the traditional roles of gender and sex - which includes not only a challenge to tradition regarding women, but, I would argue, includes the homosexual/trans-gender movement as well). As far as pietism goes, it too has transformed. Today's religious emotionalism is in some ways similar to the heart-tugging of Spener and Wesley - and yet it is also different. Today's pietism is driven by a certain faddishness - a desire to be "cool" and accepted by one's peers. Hence the highly emotional and subjective nature of "contemporary worship" that seeks to co-opt a hip rock and roll ethos, of tattoos and body piercings, a youth culture of t-shirts and bumper stickers, of bobble-heads and trinkets that seek to rebel against tradition by an appeal to American sales jingles and slogans, the culture of the mall - in short: commercialism.

Salvation Army bands have been replaced by praise or rock bands. The mourner's bench has been replaced by the theater seat with cupholder. The 19th century Methodist minister's rejection of the cassock and surplice in favor of a coat and tie has moved on to either the American business uniform of Dockers and a golf shirt, or to a more niche market of t-shirts, jeans, leather jackets, and biker or cowboy attire for the "worship leader" of the 21st century non-denominational megachurch.

I think Mr. Abbott is spot on. Consumerism is a huge force in modern Western culture - and it has largely taken over conservative Christianity - even confessional Lutheranism which has its own form of t-shirt culture.

The only way to reject commercialism is a concerted movement toward traditionalism. Unless cassocks start having designer labels or rock bands on them, the best way for clergy to fight back against commercialism is to revert back to traditional attire, rubrics of worship, and churchmanship. His vocabulary and point of reference should be the church, not the mall. He should seek guidance from the Scriptures and confessions, not from the latest books about colored parachutes and moved cheese. He should be shaped by bishops, not CEOs. The Gospel of the Word of God as confessed through the ages ought to shape his mind and theology - as opposed to the science of marketing: how to get people to buy laundry soap and hamburgers. Using marketing to "sell" the faith inevitably leads back to the days and methods of Tetzel - which is not a very satisfying model of ministry to Lutherans (at least those Lutherans who actually have a clue who Tetzel was).

When asked if his church is Ablaze!(tm), the traditionalist LCMS pastor probably ought to be completely puzzled, scratch his head and say, "Well I hope not. We do try to keep the hot coals in the thurible."

Sermon: Trinity 8

29 July 2007 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA
Text: Matt 7:15-23 (Jer 23:16-29, Acts 20:27-38)

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

Our blessed Lord is warning us today about false prophets. He says we can tell them by the fruits of their teaching. Rosebushes don’t yield grapes, thistles don’t produce figs, and those who teach an alien gospel do not bring forth repentant sinners living in the grace of God through Jesus Christ.

How often today we hear people pompously decry so-called “organized religion” while claiming to be “spiritual” as opposed to “religious.” Oh how convenient! One can declare himself aloof and above those who cling to Christ in His church – the same church that was given the Holy Scriptures, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Sacraments, the Office of the Keys to forgive sins, which is the Office of preaching to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the earth. “No thanks, I’m ‘spiritual.’” “Spiritual” people are free to sleep in on Sunday, to ignore Scripture, to gainsay the forgiveness of sin, and are above the need to hear a sermon.

Such people deserve our pity and our prayers. For they are captivated by the very false prophets our Lord warns us about.

In Jeremiah’s day, the false prophets kept preaching that “The Lord has said, ‘You shall have peace’, and to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, ‘No evil shall come upon you.’” And who would not like to receive this kind of preaching: fluffy, upbeat, so-called “relevant”, no mention of sin and repentance, all glory and all happy. Who wouldn’t want his pastor to say: “No evil shall come upon you”? Or “in this life, you will never have to contend with sickness, disease, death, doubt, fear, loneliness, depression, hurricanes, floods, accidents, birth defects, temptation, hurt, anxiety, or anything unpleasant. Name it and claim it. If you have enough faith, you will be rich and happy, healthy and wealthy. Follow these seven steps (and buy my book) and you will always prosper.” Who doesn’t want to hear that?

Of course, the only downside to this upbeat message is that it isn’t true. It is an evasion of the reality of the fallen world. It is a repudiation of God’s Word of judgment that began in Genesis 3, and also of God’s final Word of victory over death and the devil when our Lord breathed out His triumphant cry from the cross: “It is finished!”

Just as in Jeremiah’s day, just as St. Paul and our Lord both warn us, we are surrounded by false prophets. They wear sheep’s clothing. They have “Reverend” in front of their names. They confidently prance about on television before thousands of happy people seated comfortably in theater seats with cup-holders. They entice us with promises of glory in this life, of gold jewelry, of fat bank accounts, of and of healing and health. These promises are punctuated and supposedly proven by the preacher’s own cadre of swanky homes, private jets, and celebrity status. And as Paul warns, they do not spare the flock, but rather “draw away the disciples after themselves.”

But those who speak falsehoods instead of the reality that God has given us in His holy Word are setting themselves up for failure. “Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury – a violent whirlwind! It will fall violently on the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart. In the latter days you will understand it perfectly.”

These are the “ravenous wolves” spoken of by our Lord in the gospel reading, the “savage wolves” according to St. Paul in our epistle. Our Lord warns us that these false prophets can do wondrous works. They can prophesy in the name of Jesus, they can cast out demons, and they can even perform what seem to be miracles. And in spite of these great works, our Lord says: “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” For even though these works may seem godly, they aren’t. They are done by those whose teachings are false, whose preaching is not that of repentance and faith in Christ Jesus alone unto salvation – rather these are the false prophets with whom Jeremiah contends: the “name it and claim it” preachers, those who claim to speak for God something other than the terrifying Word that we are sinners and the comforting Word that through our Lord’s passion and death, we are forgiven.

By their fruits you will know them.

What makes a prophet false is not necessarily the piety of his life, the size of his congregation, or even his wealth. Rather what makes a prophet false is what he is teaching. A false prophet has exchanged the truth for a lie. And the father of lies is Satan. But a true prophet preaches the truth. His Word is God’s Word, the Holy Scriptures, the norm of our faith and life. False prophets may strut around with a well-worn Bible in their hands – and they may even be able to impressively quote large passages. But in the end, they distort God’s Word, they turn the grace of God into a human work, they debase the promises of God’s eternal reward of everlasting life into mere trinkets of jewelry and gaudy material possessions – things which our Lord warns us are only destined to be destroyed by rust and moth. A glittering Rolex watch may look beautiful and cause envious heads to turn, but once the whirlwind of the Lord falls violently, it is only so much twisted metal fit for the junk-heap.

The Lord says: “I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.” They are liars and frauds. They are the devil’s puppets. The Lord warns: “But if they had stood in My counsel, and had caused My people to hear My words, then they would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings.”

This, dear friends, is the difference between a false prophet and a faithful preacher: the proclamation of repentance and the forgiveness of sins.

The false prophet may have a TV network and a Malibu compound, but he doesn’t preach the Word of God unto repentance. He speaks not of sin, nor does he call his flock to repent. He certainly does not point them to, and proceed to serve them, the crucified body and redeeming blood of Christ, nor bring them to the living waters of Baptism attested by the Scriptures, the true Word of God. He has no time of day to hear confessions and pronounce absolution, nor to stand in lonely midnight vigil at the hospital bedside of a dying parishioner gasping his or her last breath.

The true prophet addresses sin and proclaims its cure – repeating the holy words of Scripture. But instead, the false prophet says: “I have dreamed, I have dreamed.” And the Lord says of such as these: “Indeed, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart.” For the true prophet will tell you things you don’t want to hear. A faithful preacher speaks God’s Word, which is “like a fire,” like a “hammer that breaks the rock in pieces.” For this hammer of God is what brings about repentance, what induces the sinner to confess – so that he can be brought to eternal glory through the forgiveness of sins. He declares the “whole counsel of God” – the things we like and the things we don’t like.

The true preacher has the Holy Spirit, given to him at ordination as a bishop and pastor of the church “which He purchased with His own blood.” Like St. Paul, he covets “no one’s silver or gold or apparel.” He is not seduced by the “theology of glory” or the “prosperity gospel.” For the faithful preacher simply repeats the Lord’s Word: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Even at his departure, the preacher of the Truth says with St. Paul: “I commend you to God and the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God! Amen.

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

Sermon: St. Mary Magdalene

22 July 2007 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA
Text: John 20:1-2, 10-18 (Prov 31:10-31, Acts 13:26-31)

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

Satan has been in a declared war on women since the days of Adam and Eve. Womanhood is especially despised of the devil, for it is through a woman that God became flesh. There is nothing more hateful, abominable, and ugly to the devil than motherhood.

The other side of the coin is that the greatest defenders of womanhood are Jesus, the apostles, and the Christian Church. In the name of Jesus, the Church has been upholding the honor of women and championing the mystery of the vocation of motherhood from the start.

But notice how the vile devil, the father of lies, and his allies in the secular world, have twisted everything around. They claim that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator and Designer of all things – hates women.

To hear the world spin the tale, the Church has been run by a bunch of old men who build themselves up by tearing women down. Self-proclaimed champions of womanhood believe that it is their job to liberate women from the Church – liberate them by promoting the womb as a place of destruction instead of nurture, by depicting motherhood as an embarrassment, by holding the vocation of wife and helpmeet as something evil, by pushing women into the notion that without a career outside the home, without being a “cash cow” to the family, without “having it all,” the life of women is of no value.

In the name of this liberation of women, the notion of the family has been steadily in decline, if not outright devastated. Divorces are so common as to be considered normal, women are routinely and publicly treated as objects of lust, day-care centers proliferate like mushrooms, and the notion of sexuality has been distorted to the point where the Church is expected to bless anything and everything that anyone wants to do – with the Word of God being treated as of no consequence.

These social changes have Satan stamped all over them. For look at the consequences: children who lack not only fathers, but who don’t even know their mothers. Poverty and illegitimacy, parents with no influence over their children, people growing up with a sense of indifference to the family – that institution where the body is not only nurtured and fed, but where spiritual life is cultivated. In the “modern” family, there isn’t the time or the inclination to teach children the catechism or pray with them.

Meanwhile, women repeatedly report that they would rather be at home creating a nurturing environment for husband and children than swimming with the sharks every day. They are so unhappy with this unnatural situation that they pop antidepressant pills in record numbers.

But somehow we, the Church, guided by the Word of God – including our Old Testament reading in Proverbs 31 – are the ones who hate women.

What woman wouldn’t want to have her children “rise up and call her blessed”? What woman wouldn’t want a husband who praises her, boasts to his friends about her “when he sits among the elders of the land,” and loves his home so much that he actually wants to be there? And just how does God hate women when He sings the praises of her who “girds herself with strength and strengthens her arms”? The vocation of woman is to be a helpmeet to her husband, manager of the household and its finances, one who gives charity and nurture to those in need, a dispenser and fount of wisdom, one clothed with “strength and honor” – all virtuous attributes hated by Satan and the world.

Instead, the world upholds air-headed starlets, lying politicians, and grunting athletes as the ideals of womanhood. The world wants women who are “equal” to men – which is to drag them down from the vaunted position God and Christianity have assigned them. Television promotes a wise-cracking, vulgar form of womanhood that is indifferent (at best) toward children, hateful to husband (if they even have one), and stuck in the rat-race of careerism and materialism.

It is fitting that in the midst of this fierce warfare of the secular world against womanhood that this year, the Festival of St. Mary Magdalene falls on a Sunday. Christians around the world honor this truly great women – a woman whose reputation has been soiled by the slanders of those who hate all that is good and true.

Even before Mary became a disciple of Jesus, the devil waged war against her. When Jesus met Mary Magdalene, she was possessed by demons. The legions of evil targeted Mary in anticipation of her role as witness of the resurrection of Jesus and messenger to the holy apostles.

When the Lord Jesus cast out her demons, she became a disciple. She did what the devil and the world hate more than anything – she submitted to the authority of her God and Lord. She lived out the vocation of womanhood, supporting the work and ministry of Jesus with her money and her prayers. When the Lord hung on the cross, Mary was there. Her maternal and womanly compassion enabled her to serve the Lord and the Church not as a preacher, not as a minister, but as one offering kindness and mercy to the suffering – divine and holy works that are dismissed by this world as weak, despised, and of no consequence.

And when our Lord was put into the grave, Mary was among the volunteers to clean His spilled blood and reverently oversee the care of His sacrificed body, of applying spices, of making sure the linens and grave-clothes were in order. Mary did not despise her work on the altar guild, deem it of no value, and demand instead to be ordained as an apostle. Rather Mary served within her holy vocation motivated by love and a desire to advance God’s kingdom where the Lord had placed her.

But see how this holy woman’s reputation has been attacked yet again by the devil! Various people throughout history have slandered Mary – right up until the present time by the diabolical author of The Da Vinci Code. In this fantasy, Mary, like her ancestor Eve before her, sought something that was off limits. In this lie, Mary sought Jesus to be the father of her children, to be the ancestor of a powerful line of kings, part of a great conspiracy to seize power from others. In this literary hack job that even atheistic historians consider to be the equivalent of Jack and the Beanstalk, Jesus is not God, did not die for your sins, did not rise from the dead, did not crush the head of Satan with His heel, and will not redeem you from hell on the last day. And this, dear friends, is the ultimate strategic end of the devil’s lies: to wrench you from the grace of God by replacing your faith with doubt, exchanging the truth for a lie, and unseating the Lord Jesus from the throne in favor of himself. But it is not to be: you are sealed by baptism, the truth of God’s Word cannot be replaced by falsehood, and Jesus has already given Satan his mortal blow.

And we partake in that death blow to the head of the evil one as we commune with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit through the elements made into the body and blood of Christ by the Word of God. Satan and the world will do anything to separate you from this holy meal, from communion with the resurrected Christ attested to by Mary.

St. Mary is not only attacked by those outside, she has also come under fire by those who claim to be within our holy mother that is the Church. Self-declared feminist theologians also slander Mary and refuse to accept the testimony of the Word of God that she was faithful to her womanly calling. For they claim the Bible is a lie, that Mary was, in fact, ordained by Jesus to be an apostle – even to be the leader of the apostles. These feminist theologians – with no historical record at all – claim the early church (with the blessing of Jesus) called and ordained women to serve as pastors and bishops, as preachers and shepherds, as heads of the family that is the Christian congregation.

Through it all, Mary stands as not only an example of holy womanhood, but as a saint for all people, a disciple who did not abandon Jesus when the devil and the world attacked Him, a humble servant who sought God’s will, not her will, who cared for others instead of seeking a manly vocation for herself and her own glory.

For what the feminist theologians do not want to discuss as they make their claims that the Church revised the record out of hatred for women, is that Mary Magdalene was the very first witness of the resurrection. She, and she alone, has that honor. This is also repugnant to the devil – for her testimony that Jesus has risen from the dead is the ultimate verdict that Jesus has triumphed over the serpent – the same one that attacked the ancestral mother of Jesus and of all of us so many thousands of years ago.

In a courtroom, a shrewd lawyer will attack the reputation of a hostile witness. And that, my brothers and sisters, is really the source of this entire war against Mary and all women. The devil attacks her testimony by slandering her.

If you confess the resurrection of Jesus, expect your reputation to be attacked. Expect your vocation to be under assault. And if you are a woman, be leery of the many voices of those who claim to be interested in your liberation (for they and their father only seek to enslave you). Remember who it is who has truly liberated you: Jesus of Nazareth, friend of Mary Magdalene, and Son of Mary. For this is St. Mary’s message to the apostles, and it is our message to the devil and confession before the world: “God raised Him from the dead. He was seen for many days by those… who are witnesses to the people.” May we emulate our dear sister Mary Magdalene and uphold her reputation until we join her and our risen Lord in eternity. Amen.

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

Sermon: Trinity 6

15 July 2007 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA

Text: Matt 5:17-26 (Ex 20:1-17, Rom 6:1-11)

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

The Lord has given us very hard words today, my dear brothers and sisters. The fathers of the church in their wisdom have made sure we hear these hard words every 6^th Sunday after Trinity – which are so full of the law that it’s almost enough to make us think we’re in Lent.

I should have known the holy ministry was not going to be an easy task when these were the readings at my ordination.

But thanks be to God they were. For we Lutherans – preachers and hearers alike – don’t like the law. That’s because we are sinners in need of daily repentance. Our Old Adam much prefers flattery and praise, we would rather hear God’s Word fawn all over us than tell us what God demands of us. If it were up to us, there would be a hymn in our hymnal called “How Great We Art.” But we all know better, don’t we?

As Lutherans, as a tradition within the one holy catholic and apostolic church that grew out of a dispute over the nature of grace and the Gospel, we want to rush through the Ten Commandments and get right to the forgiveness. We want to shorten our confession to the point that we don’t even confess our sins individually any more – so we can bolt right to the absolution. As pastors, we want to soft-pedal the law so we can tell our hearers only what they want to hear.

But thanks be to God once again that our Lord Jesus sets us straight: “Do not think that I have come to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”

This is why the venerable leader of the Reformation, Blessed Martin Luther – a man who truly understood the good news of the forgiveness of sin – instructed us to repeat the Ten Commandments every day. He himself, though a prominent Doctor of Theology, lecturer, preacher, parish priest, and professor specializing in the Old Testament – daily recited the Ten Commandments like a little child being taught for the first time - and humbly admitted that he needed to do so.

As Lutheran Christians, we must be aware of a particular angle the devil will use on us. We are not tempted so much into seeing ourselves earning our salvation though saying a regimen of certain prayers or by doing a certain quota of good works – especially in churches where the Gospel is preached and taught aggressively and the people listen and take that preaching to heart. No, for us, the danger is the opposite one. Since we know we are saved by grace apart from works, and since we are baptized, Satan and our sinful flesh lead us to taking the Gospel for granted, to despising the law and seeing it as of no use to us.

A Lutheran may be tempted to say: “I don’t need to repent, I’m baptized.” He may be tempted to withhold almsgiving, to avoid prayer, and to not partake in fasting – and then convince himself that this is acceptable, because, after all, we aren’t saved by our works. Of course, our Lord Jesus Himself says: “When you give alms… when you pray… when you fast…” Lutherans feel the call of the devil to stay home from church and not receive the Body and Blood of Jesus because, after all, we’re free in the Gospel, right? Lutherans are especially tempted to avoid their responsibilities to bring their families to church, to teach them the catechism, to lead them in prayers at the dinner table and before bed – since we’re saved by grace and not by works.

But what does our Lord say? “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The law is nothing to sneeze at. The Ten Commandments are not just a bunch of words we babble before Bible class. Our sins are grievous and serious, and should keep us awake at night. There should be times when we literally hunt the pastor down because we need to unburden ourselves of our sins. There should be times in which all of us will actually grab the pastor by his shirt and demand that he hear our confession right that minute.

But we don’t. And we don’t because we don’t think the law is serious. But what good is the gospel if the law is no big deal? Why should anyone ever make a private confession if God really doesn’t care about sin?

We must repent of our smugness, our abuse of the Gospel. We are the very Christians Paul preaches to in our epistle lesson: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”

Rather than thinking: “I don’t need to repent, I’m baptized,” we should confess: “I need to repent, I’m baptized!” As Paul concludes: “Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

For we can “reckon” ourselves dead to sin, for God Himself “reckons” us to be forgiven. For in our baptism, we are “no longer slaves to sin.” So why should we as freedmen, having been released from our chains to the bondage of sin, then turn around and submit anew to slavery? The purpose of Holy Baptism is not to give us license to sin, but rather to give us release from it.

This is the reason, my fellow sinner-saints, why we must recite the Ten Commandments daily. This is why we must read and pray the Small Catechism – for this meditation upon the law isn’t an academic exercise or just a hoop to jump through for confirmation (then to be forgotten) – it is a window through which we can examine ourselves so that we might indeed pray: “I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.”

If we have prepared properly for the Divine Service, for confession and absolution, the words of forgiveness spoken by the pastor should be like a pitcher of ice water in the middle of a parched and dying desert. They should be the sweetest words ever heard by anyone – like being on trial for capital murder and hearing the verdict “not guilty.” If we have meditated on the Ten Commandments – and upon the many and various ways we break them every hour of every day – then missing church would be the most unthinkable thing in our lives. We should rather miss a week of work than to miss out on the sweetness of the mystery of the Lord in His body and Blood giving us pardon, peace, life, and salvation. If we daily pray the Ten Commandments and take them to heart, we should become almost physically ill when we are tempted into any kind of sin, great or small.

It should horrify us that we are so unlike the Good Samaritan who helped his neighbor in his need, but are rather like the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees who didn’t want to get involved. It should cause us grief that we gossip and participate in rumor mongering, that we are greedy and lazy, that we routinely fail in our vocations as parents, as spouses, as children, as citizens, and in our various kinds of work.

But even more than simply making us feel guilty, the Ten Commandments should serve as a signpost. The confession of our unworthiness, our inability to keep this law that Jesus says is inviolate until the end of time must not just leave us in despair. For the righteousness that surpasses the Pharisees that our Lord speaks of is indeed yours, dear friends. We can confess our sins. We can (and must) receive forgiveness. The Lord will give us His Spirit unto our repentance. The Lord will send his holy angels to protect us as we make war on the old evil foe that seeks to devour us. The Law points us to the cross where our sins are paid for. And the cross brings us here – to the communion rail – where the forgiveness is ours, body and soul. And that communion rail is the gate of heaven, where time and eternity meet in the presence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

For even as we read the Ten Commandments as orders: “You must” and “You must not” – let’s not lose sight of the fact that they are not only commands, but promises: “You shall have no other gods.” “You shall…” our Lord promises. It will not be completely fulfilled on this side of the grave, but you are being recreated. It started at baptism, and will be completed at your resurrection. The Ten Commandments grieve us by showing us what we are not, but they should also bring us joy by showing us what we baptized children of God are promised to become:

You shall have no other gods.
You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
Honor your father and mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

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

Song of the South

In 1946, Walt Disney made a groundbreaking film called Song of the South. It was the first movie to combine animation and live action. It was filmed in Technicolor, and included the song Zip-Ah-Dee-Doo-Dah which won an Oscar. James Baskette, the star of the movie who played Uncle Remus, also won an Oscar for his brilliant performance in this film. He and co-star Hattie McDaniel (who played Aunt Tempy in Song of the South and had previously won the Oscar as Mammy in Gone With the Wind) were the only two black Oscar winners up until 1964.

But best of all, the movie brings to life the beloved African folktales immortalized by Atlanta Journal newspaperman Joel Chandler Harris (who had a photographic memory, and who in 1881 had published dozens of these tales told to him as a child by former Georgia slaves under the title The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus).

These fables, some of which have been traced to antiquity, involve "critters" like the resourceful Brer Rabbit, the cunning Brer Fox, and the not so bright Brer Bear. The morals of the fables typically involve how a weaker person can overcome adversity through cleverness and "using his head instead of his foots."

These stories were so widespread - especially in the South - that they became fodder for the blockbuster Disney movie in 1946. I ran across an interesting article about the film written by a Canadian animator.

Sadly, political correctness has all but rendered the movie dead in North America. Disney, sensitive to the charge of racism (due to the period of the movie and the racial sensibilities and dialect of the time in which the story is set) will not release the movie in the United States. However, to the delight of many, Disney has released it in other markets around the globe - and thanks to the internet - it is now available on DVD to American audiences.

Interestingly, Disney has some of the characters from the film displayed at their theme parks - while most of the younger children who see them have no clue who they are. The irony is that these folktales are an integral part of the literary heritage of American blacks - having been brought from their ancestral home and employed to cope with the difficulties of slavery and exile.

There are black and white voices alike clamoring for Disney to free Uncle Remus from the bondage of the film vault and the shackles of leftist racial politics.

I'm happy to report that I purchased my own copy here. I put in on for my two-and-a-half year old son who sat spellbound through the whole movie, and asked to watch it again. He shrieked with joy at Johnny's and Toby's leaping frogs, giggled riotously at the antics of Brer Rabbit, and laughed himself silly as Brer Bear struggled with a beehive on his head. Leo seemed to relate to the children in the movie who brought the folktales to life by tenderly applying Uncle Remus' stories to their own situations and struggles.

I'm gratified that my son, like countless other Southern children, will grow up singing "Bawn and bred in a briar patch," learning the very important lesson not to get stuck to the Tar Baby, and spending time in his Laughin' Place.

For the wisdom of these tales is summed up at the very beginning by the hero of the movie, the wise old storyteller Uncle Remus:

"There's other ways of learnin' 'bout the behind feet of a mule than gettin' kicked by him, sure as I'm named Remus. And just because these here tales is about critters like Br'er Rabbit an' Br'er Fox, that don't mean it can't happen to folks! So 'scuse me for sayin' so, but them who can't learn from a tale about critters, just ain't got the ears tuned for listenin'."