Sermon: Transfiguration of our Lord

24 January 2010 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA

Text: Matt 17:1-9 (Ex 3:1-14, 2 Pet 1:16-21)

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

We have very bad memories. Thanks to sin, we have forgotten what it is like to see God face to face, to walk with Him in the cool of the day, to call to mind the days of perfect and continual communion with Him.

That’s the bad news.

But the good news is that the Lord is merciful, and He gives us many and various reminders of His love, numerous previews of the glory of the restored creation yet to be revealed, and repeatedly tells us what we need to know to have that broken fellowship mended.

In fact, we gather in this place week after week to hear what amounts to be the same message again and again. We partake of the same sacrament over and over. And in the Holy Eucharist, the Lord Himself reminds us: “Do this in memory of me” – repeating word for word the Lord’s institution of the Supper in the eternal echo of the Church’s liturgy. And given how poor our memories are, thanks be to God that we are reminded again and again.

Since the fall in the Garden of Eden, the Lord has withdrawn His face from us, no longer walks in the cool of the day with us, and even as the old sinful flesh clings to us, we do not enjoy perfect and continual communion with God.

That’s the bad news.

But the good news is that the Lord is merciful, and He allows mankind small glimpses underneath the protective veil that shields us from His overwhelming glory. He reveals His name. He speaks to us. He takes on our flesh. He allows us to see His face in the less threatening countenance of His fully divine and yet fully human Son. He walks with us for three years, and offers Himself as the perfect and continual communion that is God under the veiled forms of bread and wine.

God takes pity on us, knowing that our sinful and faulty memory needs help, for “we have something more sure,” says St. Peter, “the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention.” This is the same St. Peter who was an eyewitness “of His majesty… when He received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to Him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Peter points us not only to His eyewitness account, but also to the Word of God – equally a divine revelation of the God who wants us to remember.

In fact, this is the second time the Father spoke these same words, “This is My beloved Son” in the hearing of men. God knows repetition helps us to remember.

A common remembrance all throughout the Old Testament was the calling to mind of the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt. The Exodus is remembered liturgically every year to this day by the descendants of those who miraculously walked with unmoistened foot through the Red Sea. For the Lord Himself considered this deliverance a “sign for you,” as verification that He had indeed sent Moses.

And Moses would be dispatched again, centuries later, on the Mountain of Transfiguration, where the burning bush and the glowing face of Moses would be called to mind anew by the radiant Jesus, glowing with supernatural light and speaking with Moses and Elijah. We are reminded of the law and the prophets in a way that Peter, James, and John were sure never to forget. Just as the multicolored rainbow was a sign of God’s mercy in the heavens after the flood, here is yet another dazzling sign in the sky – the beaming white luminosity shining off of His face and His clothing – the entire spectrum of the rainbow combined into one pure blazing white light.

“We were eyewitnesses,” says Peter. This transfiguration is not something one would tend to forget. And he also reminds us that God’s Word is not the stuff of myth, but rather “No prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

And lest we forget, dear brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit caused these words to be recorded, these revelations, these reminders of the Lord’s mercy in a written form, where we can read them again and again, constantly reminding our sinful forgetful nature that we are sinners, that we are called to repent, that we are forgiven, and that we are promised eternal life in a new and better age. We are reminded of this promise, and we are urged to call these promises to mind.

The Lord Jesus took Peter, James, and John on the mountain by themselves and lifted the veil, being transfigured, changed in form, once again reminding them that they were not dealing with an ordinary man. His beaming face reminded them of the sun. He reminded them that He is the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament – something He had told them before, and now shows them as a more graphic and visual reminder, calling to mind the law in the form of Moses and the prophets in the form of Elijah. The voice of the Father reminds them of God’s complexity, God being both Father and Son, who chronicles the event by the Holy Spirit.

The Lord Jesus mercifully reminds the three disciples – especially Peter who was earlier frightened by the display of the divinity of Jesus involving a miraculous catch of fish – that there is nothing to fear. For “Jesus came and touched them,” reminding them that His touch is a healing touch, and that His words bring the peace that passes all understanding.

“And when they lifted up their eyes,” reports St. Matthew, “they saw no one but Jesus only.” The holy evangelist reminds us, as he spoke “from God… carried along by the Holy Spirit,” that we are to fix our eyes on Jesus, set our minds on things from above, and look to “Jesus only” for salvation and life.

And later, on another high hill, one of the three disciples who witnessed our Lord’s transfiguration, St. John, stood beneath the cross. There he saw another transfiguration, another change in form in the countenance of Jesus. He saw His glory veiled in His suffering, His radiance hidden in His passion. He saw God robed in humility, reminding us of both our sins and of His mercy. And surely the apostle John must have called to mind the Lord’s words: “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.” Easter was a glorious reminder of the Transfiguration of Jesus.

And though our sinfulness makes us forget whose we are at times, dear brothers and sisters, the Lord is there to remind us anew of His mighty deeds of the past, His acts of grace in the present, and His eternal glory that He will share with us in the eternity to come, when we shall see God face to face, walk with Him in the cool of the day, and call to mind the days of perfect and continual communion with Him, world without end. Amen.

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

U.S. is Becoming Less Free

According to this article, the Heritage Foundation's and the Wall Street Journal's annual ranking of nations of the world based on economic freedom reports that the United States has slipped to only the eighth freest economy - falling behind Canada (ranked as the 7th).

Also freer than the United States are: 1) Hong Kong, 2) Singapore, 3) Australia, 4) New Zealand, 5) Ireland, and 6) Switzerland.

Did you ever think you'd live to see this? Are we destined to drop further down the list?

This is how governments steal from us

Here is an open and brazen example of how governments steal from the people.

Hugo Chavez is, of course, an open and unrepentant Marxist dictator. But at least he's honest and up front about it. All governments around the world that have replaced hard currency with paper money (and that would be all governments around the world...) are actually doing the same thing, only more gradually.

Chavez is devaluing the Venezuelan bolivar in one fell swoop. This is a way of literally stealing from the pockets of the people. The United States has been doing the same thing, albeit gradually, to the U.S. dollar since 1913 with the establishment of the Federal Reserve. The "Fed" enables reckless government spending by giving the federal government an endless source of "money" in the form of paper with numbers printed on it - a "money" monopoly of Monopoly "money"! The Fed itself is conveniently rewarded with exemption from any and all audits and Congressional oversight. It is the ultimate sweetheart deal in which Congress accepts dirty money (made legal tender by force of law) and asks no questions. The Fed gives Congress (and Wall Street bankers) access to the printing press, and, of course, gets a cut for itself and its executives - all with no danger of being audited, that is, until now.

The Fed also causes the boom-bust business cycle by artificially deflating the interest rate, encouraging banks, businesses, and private consumers to borrow excessively (based on false market signals), encouraging a culture of malinvestment, debt and impulsive consumer spending, while at the same time discouraging thrift and savings. We Americans often ride a crest of "prosperity" (which is nothing more than running up the national credit card to the max) only to fall into "unexpected" economic disasters - which the political parties blame on each other. It is a great game of hot potato, and whichever party is in office when the bubble randomly bursts is blamed for the mess - when both have always been to blame.

The result has been the devaluation of the dollar to the tune of some 95% (yes, 95%!) - although it has taken nearly a century to do it. The recent bailouts have even spurred further and faster dollar devaluation.

The "inflation rate" - which we have been conditioned to accept as normal - even in "good" years is 2 or 3 per cent (and this is the "official" number provided by the government). This is Marxist theft just as surely (though certainly more slowly and less brazenly) as it is when Chavez does it.

The Fed, which is actually a form of a central bank (which, by the way, is one of the ten planks of Marx's Communist Manifesto), will not be able to keep the pyramid scheme going indefinitely. All bubbles eventually burst, and what goes up must come down. The danger of this economic slight-of-hand was exposed by the late great Nobel prize-winning economist Ludwig von Mises.

The Ludwig von Mises Institute is dedicated to educating the public about economics from the perspective of sound principles of reality - not promises and spin shoveled at us by Marxists, both here and abroad.

It's time to hold our politicians' feet to the fire - of both parties. I do believe the current economic malaise is going to prove to be the endgame of the national prosperity of the U.S. - unless we act quickly to pull the plug on Washington's and Wall Street's theft and replace compulsory devaluation with sound money. We can only do that by educating ourselves.

Unfortunately, you will not learn this from talk radio and partisan entertainers on either side of the political spectrum, nor from bestselling books from people who make a living by being rude and crude. Somewhere along the line, conservatism has lost its reputation of being based on intelligence and sound reason, instead having taken on the air of a professional wrestling match or monster truck rally. The good news is that true conservatism is not dead, and there is a lot of thoughtful and serious economic resources available on the World Wide Web.

Lew Rockwell is a good place to check day to day to understand the nature of the current economic picture, how government steals from us, and what we should be doing about it down the road for the sake of future generations.

January Thaw

Hats off to our local weather guy Bob Breck, who has been openly (and courageously) taking a scientifically skeptical position on "global warming" and pointing out the political chicanery long before the duplicitous cover-up was exposed.

Here is Bob Breck's latest.

Sermon: Epiphany 2

17 January 2010 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA

Text: John 2:1-11 (Amos 9:11-15, Rom 12:6-16)

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s hard to imagine the devastation in Haiti, a mere 700 miles from our safe and well-to-do American coastlands. Can you just imagine the house of the President of our country being in ruins, the leaders of nearly all of our industries and churches dead or missing? Can you imagine a disaster that will likely claim more than a hundred times the lives as Hurricane Katrina?

We know what it is like to suffer devastation. But what has happened in poverty-stricken Haiti is of a magnitude that even surpasses our suffering by far. Generations will date the history of Haiti in relation to this earthquake.

The prophet Amos likewise dated his own ministry as beginning two years before the earthquake that the Lord revealed to him that would happen, did happen. This earthquake of 760 BC was so significant that it was still being called to mind by Zechariah centuries later.

And thus Amos also spoke of ruins. He prophesied literally of the devastated City of Jerusalem. But listen to the promise of God regarding these ruins: “In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old.”

The prophet relays the Lord’s promise: “I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them.”

And notice the sign of this promise: “the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it,” and again, “they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine.”

Wine is not simply something to survive on. It is a gift of joy. The Psalmist tells us it gladdens the heart. It always accompanies feasts and celebrations. The Lord is promising to rebuild in spite of devastations and restore in spite of the ruins, not merely promising survival, but offering the glorious sweetness of celebratory wine.

Jesus begins his miraculous ministry among the ruins of our sin-devastated world in a town called Cana. He is there to observe two people make a fresh start as one flesh, as a new entity, in a loving relationship with one another, a union that exists to bring fruit to the wife’s womb and to bring honor to the husband’s name. And wine is a part of the feast.

But the wine “ran out.” The limits of this fallen world were brought to the fore, invading the joy of the banquet and threatening the couple with shame. The Lord Jesus came into our ruins to cover our shame and to remove our reproach. His mother, who was not unfamiliar with marital shame herself, instructs the servants: “Do whatever He tells you.”

And that they did. The result is that the Lord Jesus, the living and breathing “booth of David” who was Himself to be raised up from the ruin of death following the earthquake on the day of His own crucifixion, would on this day, bring the couple a little foretaste of Amos’s fulfilled prophecy. The wedding party was dripping with sweet wine. Jesus restored the fortunes of those whose wedding feast had lain in ruins. The Lord prevented this marital union from beginning on a note of humiliation by mercifully redeeming the day by providing the wine.

And one of the fruits of this wine was faith: “This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And His disciples believed in Him.”

This wine created faith in those who partook of this miracle, those who were served by the One who would later serve them the wine of His own crucified body.

The Lord Jesus is the epicenter of the greatest humanitarian and rebuilding effort of all, the work of God to take human form, relieve us of the burden of our sins, and to rebuild, renew, and restore our ruined and devastated universe. Even as the changing of the water into wine was a sign, so too are all those who serve their neighbors in Haiti doing Christ’s work, as Luther put it, being “little Christs.” And as Christ Himself put it: “What you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me.”

The rebuilding of the Gulf Coast after Katrina and the rebuilding of Haiti after this earthquake ought to serve us as object lessons of the Lord’s merciful mission to recreate the universe that we have all destroyed thanks to the Fall and thanks to all sin’s effect on all creation. This process of making all things new is what Christianity is all about. And the Lord also makes us new, calling us to daily repentance, imploring us to yield the fruits of good works by virtue of our connection as branches to the Vine, and through the wine of His true Blood, in which we are washed and of which we are bidden to drink along with the bread of His true body.

Like good trees bearing good fruits, we are called upon to bear the good fruits of repentance, of helping our neighbor, of spreading the kingdom, and of striving to keep the commandments. This is how it is that St. Paul pleads with us to “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.”

St. Paul is not giving us a list of hoops to jump through, so that if we do them, God will be impressed with our piety and use those good works to purchase a place in heaven for us at His footstool. No indeed! We are the Lord’s children. We are sons by adoption. We are co-heirs with Christ. We offer of ourselves because He has first given us Himself – at the cross, in His Word, in Holy Absolution, at the Holy Font, and in His Holy Supper.

Rather St. Paul is imploring us to live out this rebuilding, this renewal, this renaissance, with joy, using what God has given to us, to likewise bring it to others in need. The Lord has rebuilt our lives, which has put us in a position to help our neighbors rebuild theirs. By virtue of our own crosses, we are especially in a position to show compassion, empathy, and love to our neighbors. The chalice of joy offered to us by our merciful Father is now ours to share, brimming with the wine that gladdens men’s hearts and brings them relief in suffering. It is the wine of the Lord’s gracious promise, signed and delivered in the wine of His very blood.

“Rejoice in hope,” St. Paul says anew to us, and to the suffering in Haiti, “be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

And listen to this timely invitation from St. Paul, chosen for us to hear on this day by divine appointment: “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.” How moving and joyful it was, dear friends, in our time of need, when so many contributed to our needs and showed selfless hospitality to us – kindhearted and generous people, both believers and non-believers alike – who acted in love toward us, who were in dire need.

The Lord, who has forgiven us all our sins, who has literally given us the universe, who loves us, watches over us, who promises us a heavenly home of mountains dripping with wine and blanketed with fruitful gardens, of peace and harmony, of an end to all disasters and an end to all human need – has given us the opportunity to show the same compassion and love that He has first shown us.

Let us partake of the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper. Let us enter into the eternal fellowship anew in the communion of His body and blood. And let us joyfully share the wine of the Lord’s grace and mercy as a sign, not only to manifest the Lord’s glory and bring others to faith, but also as a sign of the love and mercy shown to us by the one who has saved the good wine until now. Amen.

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

The Big Oh-Five!

January 15, 2010

A happy dual birthday to our son Leo, who turned five according to the flesh yesterday (January 15), and according to to the spirit today (January 16).

We had a fun day yesterday: lunch at Chuck E. Cheese (pizza and games - which Mommy and Daddy may have even enjoyed more), dinner at IHOP (complete with ice cream and singing waitresses). His favorite present was an anatomically-correct model of a tarantula. Yes, Leo is a weird as his parents. We wound the day down with a video-conference with Uncle Bryan and Aunt Pia in Ottawa.

Thanks also to relatives and parishioners whose calls and presents made the day so joyful. We hope you had a great day, notre fils!

January 15, 2005, moments after being born

January 16, 2005, moments after being born again

A song about a song, Wallgreen's, and musical memory

Since I no longer commute, the only time I really listen to the radio is when I'm in the car making visits to parishioners. And since they all live pretty much close by, and even the hospitals are generally a short drive - even those sessions with the car radio are brief. So, I don't listen to a lot of music on the radio.

And so I was fooled briefly when I heard "Sweet Home Alabama," and following Lynyrd Skynyrd's rubric early in the song to "turn it up," I did. But it actually wasn't "Sweet Home Alabama," but rather a song about "Sweet Home Alabama." It was a catchy little tune about a guy reminiscing about his youth in the 1980s listening to the archetypal Skynyrd tune about the Southland and what it's like to miss home - even though his childhood was actually in Michigan.

I didn't realize it was Kid Rock (I'm not a fan), but like I said, the tune was catchy and made me think about how music gels and sets in the memory, linking to other memories, resulting in a cerebral explosion of recollection of old times and oddly-related happenings.

Music is powerful that way.

Shortly, I heard the song again, only this time I heard it from the very beginning, and was fooled again! Only this time, I thought it was the late great Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London," (thanks to the song's borrowing of the opening chords), but no, for some reason, the Kid Rock song about "Sweet Home Alabama" includes the opening piano riff from Zevon's "Werewolves." Go figure. Can you believe that song ("All Summer Long") fooled me twice?

But anyway, my own young adulthood was a lot of fun, though not quite as "edgy" (shall we say) as the narrator of the Kid Rock "All Summer Long" tune.

I was not a fan of Lynyrd Skynyrd in those days, but in the mid 1990s I did have the honor of having "Sweet Home Alabama" played as bumper music before I gave a speech in tribute of Stonewall Jackson at a Lee-Jackson Day event in Danville, Virginia (from the steps of the Last Capitol of the Confederate States of America). I can't hear "Sweet Home Alabama" without thinking of Virginia (ironically), Stonewall Jackson, and the Third National Flag of the CSA. Music is powerful that way.

Since commentary about the music being played at Wallgreen's has somehow become a feature of this blog, tonight's tuneage is illustrative of this effect. Today, the frequently-Hollywood-visited Gretna Wallgreen's on Stumpf blared out Thin Lizzy's "The Boys are Back in Town" - which never fails to make me think of my high school class ring (Walsh Jesuit H.S., 1982) and send a chill up my spine.

Okay, here's the connection:

In the same period of time cataloged by Kid Rock (the late 1980s), I was working the midnight shift at a warehouse. My boss turned me on to Stephen King, whose short story collection Skeleton Crew includes a macabre tale called "The Raft." In this story, a bunch of high school kids are on a raft, and a monster from under the raft's boards sucks the football star ("Deke") gruesomely between the floorboards. I hate when that happens...

Here is King's description of the unfortunate football player's extraction from my 1985 edition of Skeleton Crew, pages 298-299:

"Deke's football ring - All Conference, 1981 - slid slowly up the third finger of his right hand. The starlight rimmed the gold and played in the minute gutters between the engraved numbers, 19 on one side of the reddish stone, 81 on the other. The ring slid off his finger. The ring was a little too big to fit down through the crack, and of course it wouldn't squeeze.

"It lay there. It was all that was left of Deke now. Deke was gone. No more dark-haired girls with sloe-eyes, no more flicking Randy's bare rump with a wet towel when Randy came out of the shower, no more breakaway runs from midfield with fans rising to their feet in the bleachers and cheerleaders turning hysterical cartwheels along the sidelines. No more fast rides after dark in the Camaro with Thin Lizzy blaring 'The Boys are Back in Town' out of the tape deck. No more Cisco Kid."

Do you see what I mean? After all these years, each and every time I hear "The Boys are Back in Town," I think of my own gold class ring and poor old Deke being eaten by a sea monster. And I didn't even have a Camaro.

Music is powerful that way. "Turn it up!"

Haiti Emergency Ham Radio Updates

We live in a highly technologically connected world - with ubiquitous cell phones, laptops, satellite communications, e-mail, facebook, text messaging, etc. But all these things depend on some outside source beyond one's control in order to function. And it is extremely frustrating when they don't work - even for a few minutes.

When devastating emergencies like the Haitian earthquake take out all the normal methods of communication, sometimes for weeks on end, amateur radio operators and their radio stations often become the only means to get information in and out of the disaster area.

The International Amateur Radio Union is posting emergency updates as they come in. You can track them here.

Amateur radio allows for small privately owned radio stations operating on frequencies across the radio spectrum - including shortwave communications that skip off the ionosphere and travel worldwide - to be run off of emergency power (batteries or generators), often making use of primitive antennas, such as strings of wire cut to the right length. An amateur station can be set up anywhere - even in a car. After Katrina, one of our local ham radio operators who did not evacuate (a lady from Honduras who lives in Kenner), has a ham station in her van. For weeks, her station was one of the very few means of communications into Kenner from the outside world. She worked tirelessly to "pass traffic" during the crisis - all powered by her 12-volt car battery using an antenna mounted to her bumper.

When all else fails...

Ham radio operators worldwide coordinate with each other to bring instructions to save lives into disaster areas, as well as critical timely news about the local situation to people on the outside world. Ham radio is literally a lifeline in these kinds of situations and still works when there are no landlines, no cell phones, no electricity, no internet, and no commercial or government radio or TV operating.

Anyone can get a ham radio license with a little study. It is not just a fun hobby that enables people to make friends around the world, but it becomes much more when disaster strikes: the only way communications can flow to people in need of information in order to stay alive.

Haiti

Dear members and friends of Salem:

As people who understand what it is like to suffer the results of a terrible natural disaster, we're in a position to empathize with the people of Haiti as they dig out from the recent earthquake and its aftershocks. Thousands of lives hang in the balance this very minute. Ham radio operators in Haiti are just now beginning to make post-earthquake contact with the outside world. Rescue workers are making their way to Port-au-Prince any way they can. And we know that this is just the beginning of the rebuilding of this country and the lives of its people.

We can help.

Even if you're like me and unable to physically go to Haiti to help the people there onsite, you can do two things: pray and send money. If you think back to the desperate times after Katrina, you will recall what a great blessing it was when people traveled long distances to come to help us and when we received financial gifts to keep us going until we could get back on our feet. A lot of people selflessly donated money and time to help us. Now is our chance to show the same Christian compassion and charity to our neighbors.

While I was at seminary, we had many Haitian students and their families on campus as Haitian men studied for the ministry, prepared to do mission work, and worked towards the establishment of a Haitian seminary. This was a project especially dear to the late Prof. Kurt Marquart, who took a special interest in our Haitian brothers and sisters. As of now, many of our classmates are unaccounted for. Please keep them and all earthquake victims in your prayers.

You may have heard or seen Pat Robertson's claim that the Haitians brought this disaster upon themselves owing to some pact with the devil. This is simply nonsense, and it is a horrible witness of the Christian faith. Our Lord's response to Robertson's false theology can be found here and here. The same kind of things were said about New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The Church is to be a beacon of hope in such times, and we are to be unconditionally compassionate and loving toward these the least of the Lord's brethren - even as the Lord Jesus shows compassion, grace, and mercy to us.

Click here for a video from LCMS World Relief and Human Care director Rev. Matthew Harrison. Click here for a radio interview with Pastor Harrison on Issues, Etc. Click here to see how you can help, whether giving your time and talent, or by sending much needed money to help LCMS World Relief and Human Care carry out its humanitarian work.

To make a financial donation to LCMS World Relief and Human Care for relief work in Haiti, click here. And of course, please keep the people of Haiti in your prayers.

Lord, have mercy.

Pastor Beane

Romans 2:24

Sermon: Baptism of our Lord

13 January 2010 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA

Text: Matt 3:13-17 (Josh 3:1-3, 7-8, 13-17, 1 Cor 1:26-31)

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

The baptism of our Lord is a study in the unexpected mercy of God.

The most surprised of all was John the Baptist. He knew the Lord called him to preach. He knew the Lord called him to baptize. He knew the Lord called him to call others to repent of their sins for the sake of the near and imminent kingdom of God. He knew the Lord called him to be the forerunner of the Greater One.

But he did not know that he would be baptizing his cousin who was also God. He did not know that he would hear the voice of God the Father, saying: “This is My beloved Son, with Whom I am well-pleased.” He did not know that he would “fulfill all righteousness” by obeying the Word of God the Son. He did not know that he would see a rare physical manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove.

So surprised was John that he first sought to refuse God’s request to baptize him.

But, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we worship a God who never fails to surprise, to amaze, to astound, and to confound!

Baptism continues to baffle people by its simplicity and its mystery. “How can water do such great things?” Blessed Martin Luther asks in the Small Catechism, reiterating the question in everyone’s mind. “Not just water,” we confess with the good Reformer, “Certainly not just water, but the Word of God in and with the water does these things, along with the faith which trusts this Word of God in the water.”

The Lord in His wisdom invites us into His kingdom using the most common and even despised and taken-for-granted substance on the planet, combined with His Word and command, administered in His Holy Trinitarian Name, sealing the baptized with a promise – all in order to “fulfill all righteousness” for us. For our Lord Jesus, the crucified One, has indeed fulfilled all righteousness on our behalf, calling us to live out that fulfilled righteousness in a new life as a new creature.

It was not the Lord who needed to be baptized, for He had no sins to wash away. It was not the Lord who needed to be circumcised, for He, the Redeemer, is not one who needed to shed blood to seal the covenant as one of the redeemed. It was not the Lord who needed the sacrifice of the blood of the innocent Lamb, the blood of the new testament, “for the forgiveness of sins.”

No indeed, the righteousness He fulfilled by John’s baptism is His righteousness applied to us “poor miserable sinners.” We are the ones in need of baptism, we who are likewise unworthy to untie His shoes, and yet He allows Himself to be bound to a cross for us “unholy and forlorn.”

The Lord’s submission to baptism, cross, and grave is utterly surprising and a joyful manifestation of the Lord’s divine mercy and compassion for His broken creation.

And look at what He saves! We baptized Christians are looked upon as unwise and ignoble according to the unbelieving world. “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.” We Christians are lampooned and ridiculed, slandered, and often shut out of society – and yet we are still loved by God and shown mercy through our most humble and yet most powerful baptism.

“God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” Might does not make right, and today’s strong man is tomorrow on his own death bed. No matter how much the world rants and raves against the Church, and no matter how much the Church deserves it with her sins and foolishness, the Lord continues to abide by her in her weakness, unworthiness, and folly. Not even the gates of hell shall prevail against her.

“The Lord chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are.” And He affects this great surprising and ever-merciful reversal “so that no man might boast in the presence of God.”

We have been rescued, dear friends, because we needed rescuing. The strong have no need of One stronger. The perfect have no need of a Savior. And this is how it is that we ordinary sinners become saints, thanks to a little water, a pastor, some words, and the Name of the Holy Trinity.

The fact that our Lord uses Holy Baptism to save us takes away all pretence we might have to boast. You were not baptized because you deserve to be – in fact it is the opposite. You were not baptized because you can recite the catechism and pontificate about Christian doctrine – for what common demon can’t do that much? You were not even saved because you have such strong and stellar faith – for faith itself is a gift given to us in spite of our unworthiness!

And so we have been rescued, surprised to find that God was not ready to swoop down on us in rage, but ever-eager to pardon us, take us under His wings, and show us love.

This is all wrapped up in the mystery of the Lord’s explanation to John: “to fulfill all righteousness.”

Let us follow the baptismal invitation from John the Baptist to “repent” and “believe” – to take comfort in the unchanging reality that we have been “dipped in the brink” and marked by the sign of the holy cross as one of the Lord’s beloved and redeemed. Let us give up all pretension and arrogance, as though we can take credit for any of the mercies shown to us by our Savior in whom the Lord is “well pleased.” Let us live out the baptismal and cruciform Christian life in redeemed joy, in sanctified service, and in the assurance of eternal life.

“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Amen.

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

Memo to Borders: "Move Orwell's 1984 to the non-fiction section..."

This unbelievable article was (accurately!) summed up by a submitter to a popular site for news headlines as follows:

"In Britain you can now be arrested for writing an email you did not write, because it contains a word that rhymes with another word that some official thinks is racist, but no one complained about."

But wait! There's more! Now how much would you pay?

Welcome to the 21st century. The entire world is a lunatic asylum.

So it goes...

Dresden Frauenkirche (the Church of Our Lady Lutheran cathedral in Dresden, Germany)

A remarkable piece of WW2 history and a real treat for fans of American literature can be found here.

Eine Kleine Bluesmusik

A little Sunday Night Sonny Boy Williamson's "Sad to be Lonesome" (recorded in Frankfurt, Germany) for your Father Hollywood listening pleasure.

And as a bonus, here is a cover of Sonny Boy Williamson's "Eyesight to the Blind" performed by B.B. King and (Pink Floyd's) David Gilmour, a tune fans of The Who will recognize from the rock opera Tommy.

Lil Rev aficionados may hear hints of the sainted Rev. Dr. Stephen "Big Rev" Wiest in SBW's harmonica riffs.

Sermon: Epiphany 1

10 January 2010 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA

Text: Luke 2:41-52 (1 Kings 8:6-13, Rom 12:1-5)

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

St. Luke records only this single event in the later childhood of Jesus. And it is based on the same idea as the old Home Alone movies. Only there is nothing funny going on here.

When Mary and Joseph realize that Jesus is not in their travel party, one can only imagine the panic. This young man Jesus was the miracle baby foretold by the angel Gabriel and mysteriously implanted into Mary’s virgin womb by God Himself. He was visited by shepherds who were themselves visited by angels. He survived Herod’s murderous rampage thanks to an angelic message delivered in a dream, and He was worshiped as God in the flesh by the gift-bearing magi. The Book of Revelation makes it clear that Satan is obsessed with destroying this Jesus.

And Mary and Joseph think they have lost Him.

If we’re to believe only in His divinity, we could just shrug the incident off. But this young Man is not merely God, He is also miraculously human! He is capable of death, and this is likely what is flashing through St. Joseph and Blessed Mary’s aching minds in their frantic search.

In fact, Mary’s tension comes across even in St. Luke’s rather journalistic account of the incident: “Son, why have You treated us so? Behold, Your father and I have been searching for You in great distress.” The Greek reads in a very literal sense: “Your father and I have been torturing ourselves.” And though Blessed Mary relieves her tension by scolding her perfect and sinless Son, her use of language reveals that her source of anguish is really self-inflicted.

Our Blessed Lord, having been teaching the teachers in the Temple, replies: “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

It would be easy for us to criticize Jesus and accuse Him of backtalk – but this is not the case. Far from it! Mary’s holy Son offers His beloved mother comfort in the form of trust in God. He gently reminds her that her very human Son is also her very divine Son, that His dear and devoted stepfather is not His true Father. And the adolescent Christ also reminds both of them that He has a mission. He is growing up, and His hour will come. And yet, that time was still some 18 years away. And so, “He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And His mother treasured up all these things in her heart.”

It isn’t easy being the mother of God. It would surely have been less of a burden for St. Mary if her Son were an ordinary sinner. For the distress of three agonizing days of believing Him to be lost and wondering if He were dead would be repeated at the cross, a stone’s throw from this same place, 21 years later, as Mary would once again be in great distress hoping once again to see her Son, who on the third day would emerge from death, again in the Temple of His own body, teaching, preaching, and about His Father’s business for eternity.

There are certainly a few lessons St. Luke has for us as the Holy Spirit inspired this piece of our Lord’s childhood to be recorded. For Jesus is in the Temple. He is physically present where the Word of God is being preached and taught. He is present in flesh and blood in the proximity of the altar. He is bodily present in the presentation of the sacrificed flesh and blood for the benefit of those covered by the Blood of the Lamb.

Dear Christians, we know where to find Jesus. Unlike the Blessed Virgin and the Lord’s sainted Guardian, we have no reason to be shocked to learn that the Lord is physically present near the altar, in the holy places around the world where His Word is read, preached, and taught, and where His true body and blood are delivered for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life!

The Lord continues to ask people today: “Why were you looking for Me?” People are seeking God in all sorts of places, in the smug esoteric teachings of conspiracy theorists who join forces with novelists and filmmakers. Others seek God in ultra-hip religious fads that suck in Hollywood actresses, or cults fronted by a-list actors. Others go hunting for God in “alternative scriptures” because the ones that have been revered for centuries as the Word of God are not trendy enough. Still others seek God in money, drugs, fame, thrill-seeking, violently controlling others, or even in entertainment.

But most people seek God on their own terms, in ways that are conveniently self-serving. But Jesus continues to ask, His face set like a flint: “Why were you looking for Me? Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?

The Son is never apart from the Father who was well-pleased at the Son’s baptism, nor ever disjointed from the Holy Spirit, who even as He hovered over the waters of creation “in the beginning,” likewise hovered over the waters of re-creation in the beginning of the Lord’s ministry in making all things new.

If you seek the Father, you don’t need to hunt for Him in vain in a spiritual fantasy. You don’t have to create some made-up religion that is bogus anyway. Rather you can, and you do, still find Him in His physical reality, the flesh-and-blood Jesus, who abides in the Temple of the Church, where His prophetic Word is preached and His miraculous true body and blood of His Supper are freely given to freely forgiven sinners.

And just as finding the young Lord Jesus was a great relief to Mary and Joseph, so too is our encounter with the risen Lord Jesus a great relief to us as well. His Word assures us and comforts us; it teaches us who He is, and what He does for us. And Jesus carries this out by His same mighty Word and by the same holy Presence that filled the Ark of the Covenant “in the Most Holy Place, underneath the wings of the cherubim.” Just as it was a great mystery how the limited space and time of the Temple could contain God Almighty, we too have the promise that He is present with us, in Word and Sacrament, until the end of the age. And what a great joy this is, dear friends!

And according to these “mercies of God,” St. Paul describes us as priests of a New Covenant, offering ourselves as “living sacrifices” – not the dead flesh and blood of animals that of themselves are powerless, but rather we offer ourselves as thank offerings because of these “mercies of God.” In response to the once-for-all sacrifice of our Lord on the cross, the holy apostle exhorts us: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” Rather than being conformed, literally “molded” to the darkness, we are called to be transformed, literally “metamorphosized” in the dazzling light of the glory of the Lord, the same glory that “filled the house of the Lord.”

Dear Christian brothers and sisters, the same glory is here for you now, calling you to a new and better priesthood, to be partakers of His nature and witnesses of His glory, renewed in the mind and discerning of God’s will by testing. For Mary and Joseph did not lose Jesus. They found Him where God promised always to be. We are blessed to continue to be “amazed at his understanding and his answers.” We continue to hear His Word of forgiveness and assurance, and to take comfort that He is in the Most Holy Place near the altar, in flesh and blood, sharing not only His teaching with us, but offering us His very self, even to the end of the age. Thanks be to God! Amen.

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

Yo, Gaba.

A belated Happy Birthday to my friend and colleague, the Rev. Deacon Latif Gaba.

An Apologetic Orange Epiphany

This is our final week of Christmas break, and I have been busy attending this apologetics conference called Confronting the Culture, at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary under the auspices of the Institute for Christian Apologetics.

Both the format and the line-up of speakers has been outstanding. And I want to thank NOBTS and ICA director and NOBTS Philosophy professor Rev. Dr. Robert Stewart for their hospitality and for putting together such an opportunity for Christians to learn the nuts and bolts of defending the Christian faith against the multifaceted attack coming from the evil one. The conference is not expensive, and included in the registration cost, each attendee receives an MP3 CD of all of the talks by all of the speakers (11 plenary sessions and 69 breakout sessions of an hour-and-a-half each!). Since it is impossible to attend every session, having the notes and recordings of all the lectures is a great use of technology.

I really had hoped to have been able to attend my own Alma Mater's theological symposia this year (my last visit to Fort Wayne was five years ago), but it simply proved too expensive. So, it was fortuitous to have the opportunity to attend this week-long intensive Apologetics event, and it has been a great blessing in thinking about the faith and delving into the Scriptures - and I still have two more days left!

Being on campus does remind me of my time at the sem (which I really loved and treasured). One thing that was not a completely pleasant flashback is walking around in the cold. Our weather is breaking records because of the plummeting mercury. We were below freezing today (which is rather atypical for us), and in a couple days, we are looking at a low of something like 18 degrees. I had to dig out a parka out of the shed. It has kept me sane the past couple days (I really don't like being cold).

With a worse cold front on the way, Mrs. H. and I decided to harvest all of our citrus this morning - comprising of a Meyer lemon, a Louisiana Sweet orange, and a Navel orange tree. It was a fun job, but took so much time that I ended up missing the sessions at NOBTS for today (I was already going to miss the evening sessions on account of Epiphany Day service and Bible class). It was also a lot of work climbing ladders and using a tree cutter on a pole to retrieve the high fruits - tossing them down into Mrs. Hollywood and her awaiting basket. It became quite an operation, and we had no idea how much was out there! Our kitchen smells like orange peels. We have been eating oranges all day today, and Mrs. H. is squeezing lemon juice and freezing it into cubes.

Man, it is good! But it sure was a long day today. We also winterized a temporary shelter for our local colony of cats. It is not a good time to be an outdoor feline, that's for sure.

We had guests for Epiphany Mass and Bible class this evening - a couple dozen college students, mainly from Central Michigan University. They are here for a week-long mission trip to help in the ongoing post-Katrina restoration. It was really a great joy to have them visit us for the Divine Service! They were led by my dear friend, classmate, and colleague The Rev. Jon Bakker, who serves Zion Lutheran Church, Mt. Pleasant, MI and Christ the King Lutheran Chapel at CMU, and Shaina Mitchell, who serves as a deaconess at Grace Lutheran Church in Muncie, IN. John Zimmerman, a brother of another classmate and son of a pastor who worked at the sem while I was a student was also in the group.

Most of the students in the group were Lutheran, and sang the service with gusto. My pal Joe Taylor (a Lutheran religion teacher) was also present for the service.

And, as a very special treat, trombonist Pastor Bakker, along with a long-time friend of the congregation (a member of a sister congregation), Donna, played trombones for our service under the able command of Shelly, our organist. It was beyond delightful! I got to hear the trombone (or as Donna calls it, "the voice of God") and organ in my seminary days. Pastor Bakker also showed up at my ordination with his trombone, and it was a great ordination present. So, it was glorious to hear, and served to glorify our Blessed Lord. Thanks, Jon, Donna, and Shelly!

And thanks to all of our friends - who represented three countries: the U.S., Canada, and Nigeria - as well as the states of Michigan, Idaho, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa - who traveled such a long way to spend their Christmas break in hard physical labor for the sake of New Orleanians in need. We are grateful, and hope they can all come back again when it is warmer. We did pass around some fresh oranges - though there may have been a lemon or two in the basket. So, if you are one of our guests, and your "orange" tasted like a lemon, that's because it was a lemon. Meyer lemons are huge, and can easily be confused with oranges. So, you know the expression: "When life gives you lemons... (fill in a punch line about your least favorite auto company here).

So, after a rewarding day of physical labor and spiritual service, I will flip back into student mode and be returning to my intensive series of lectures all day tomorrow.

In a few weeks, NOBTS's annual Greer-Heard Point Counterpoint series will include noted skeptic and Jesus Seminar member John Dominic Crossan debating against Christian apologist Ben Witherington III - as well as other speakers. The cost for the conference for the general public is $20. These debates and discussions are recorded (audio and video) and will be available for purchase soon after the conference. This is a Friday and Saturday event, and I highly recommend it to theologically-interested clergy or laity in the NOLA area.

From the Greer-Heard website:

Previous forums have featured discussions between N. T. Wright and John Dominic Crossan on The Resurrection of Jesus (2005), William Dembski and Michael Ruse on Intelligent Design (2006), Alister McGrath and Daniel Dennett on The Future of Atheism (2007), Bart Ehrman and Daniel Wallace on The Textual Reliability of the New Testament (2008), and Paul Knitter and Harold Netland on Pluralism (2009). Books based on the first three conferences and edited by Robert B. Stewart are available for purchase from Fortress Press. The Textual Reliability of the New Testament and Pluralism are also forthcoming with Fortress.

The discipline of Christian Apologetics doesn't include a lot of Lutherans. However, I was pleasantly surprised to learn what a giant The Rev. Dr. John Warwick Montgomery (LCMS pastor and professor) is in his ongoing legacy as an apologist. He is the director of the International Academy of Apologetics, Evangelism, and Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. He virtually pioneered the very idea of debating against skeptics and those who attack the faith - such as the format of the Greer-Heard forum above).

At the conference, I ran across the 2008 book: Tough-Minded Christianity, a hefty 768 page tribute of essays (I suppose what we Lutherans would call a Festschrift) in honor of Dr. Montgomery. It is authored by some 44 contributors across the Christian landscape - including some very heavy-hitters in modern Apologetics. In the forward, Paige Patterson, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, credits Montgomery for saving the SBC from the ravages of Biblical liberalism. LCMS pastor and professor Rev. Dr. Alvin Schmidt has a contribution called "Christianity Needs More Lutheran Apologetes." I read the essay, and I agree with Dr. Schmidt's premise.

Obviously, we Lutherans have some pretty basic theological differences with our Baptist brethren. But when it comes to defending the biblical account of creation, the integrity of the testimony of Holy Scripture, the two natures of Christ, the Holy Trinity, the real historic Jesus, the veracity of the miracles (including the virgin birth and th resurrection), and taking on the outrageous claims of the New Atheists, Neo-Gnostics, cultists, postmodernists, and celebrity attackers of the faith, we can stand shoulder to shoulder with our Baptist brothers and sisters in Christ, learn from them, and join with them in the battle for the hearts and minds of those whose faith has been wounded by these attacks.

I also picked up a book co-authored by two of the speakers at this year's conference, Dr. Michael Licona and Dr. Gary Habermas, entitled A Case for the Resurrection of Jesus. It is endorsed by not only Dr. Montgomery, but also by LCMS pastor and scholar Rev. Dr. Paul Meier as well. I was very impressed not only with the intellectual acumen of Habermas and Licona, but also by their ability to communicate and do so in a pastoral way. I enjoyed speaking with both of them, and I look forward to reading their book - hopefully making use of it in giving a defense for the hope that is within us.

Mrs. H. communicates with some strange specimen on Pandora...

Sermon: Epiphany

6 January 2010 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA

Text: Isa 60:1-6

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

Let us pray:

Joyous light of glory, of the eternal Father, heavenly, holy, blessed Jesus Christ. We have come to the setting of the sun, and we look to the evening light. We sing to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: You are worthy of being praised with pure voices forever. O Son of God, O Giver of life: the universe proclaims your glory. Amen.

This prayer is actually a hymn. We sang it on Wednesday nights this past Advent season, and we Christians have been singing it for some 18 centuries. And in this ancient prayer, our Lord Jesus Christ is called: Phos Hilaron – the Joyous Light. And it is our Blessed and Joyous Light of Glory that the Church worldwide celebrates on this Holy Epiphany Day.

For an “epiphany” is a “manifestation,” or a “showing.” An epiphany is the taking off of the veil to show us things as they really are, an enlightenment of the underlying reality – like the unwrapping of a gift. And we, like the gift-bearing wise men of old, have been shown a great revelation of the glory of God in the most unlikely of places: in the gift of a human baby. Here, cradled in this flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone, our brother according to His humanity, is our God, according to His divinity. This Jesus is truly the Light of the World, the Joyous Light, the uncreated Light, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, unlike any light in this universe. All other light is His creation or His reflection. All other light points to His glory. But He is the Light that calls all other light into being. And it is in this holy light that we can truly see, truly understand, and truly have enlightenment.

Dear friends, since the fall into sin, we have been deprived of light. We are so used to walking in the darkness that we have come to believe the normal state of life is dull, dim, dark, death-ridden, and devoid of meaning. In this sad, color-deprived world, modern man seeks validation in the neon glare of extreme entertainment, in sexual adventures, in indulgence of mind-altering experiences, and in the endless pursuit of material goods – none of which satisfy him nor bring him happiness. Fallen man continues to stumble about the darkness in a state of stupor and madness, drifting from one gutter to another until he falls the last time not to rise again.

It is into this dark and dreary existence that our Lord Jesus has come to bring light. Unlike the seedy and counterfeit glare, He is truly the Lamp unto our feet and the Light unto our path.

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you,” Isaiah joyfully proclaims to us. For Jesus, the One who fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy, is our light. He has come to shine upon our darkened world. Listen to this contrast between the light and the darkness: “For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.”

Since the fall in Eden, our world has been enshrouded in a terrible darkness. As St. Simeon sang upon seeing the Christ Child, and as we sing with Him, Jesus is truly “A Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.” And as St. Zechariah sang only short time before, Jesus is the “light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,” who guides “our feet into the way of peace.”

The wise men were led by a brilliant light to a still more brilliant Light. They brought to Him gifts of glittering gold, as well as frankincense and myrrh that glow from the burning embers of a hot coal. And yet none of these glorious creaturely gifts can compare to the Gift of the Light of the Christ child which we, the nations of the world, receive.

That, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is what the glorious Epiphany is. It is the manifestation that our Lord is the Light to guide us home, to lead us out of the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace, of the Gospel, of fellowship with God. He is the uncreated, divine Light who not only shines, but pierces through, our darkened hearts of sin and death, enrobing us in the dazzling brilliance of the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life.

And this Christ child, this Savior and Redeemer, brings the enlightenment that all men truly desire, the peace that all of the temporary and temporal entertainments and distractions of this world cannot give, for through the prophet Isaiah, God promises us: “Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and exult.”

“Radiant,” dear brethren! We have been given the glow of the warmth of God’s love, the penetrating blast of the Creative Might of the universe, and we have been given this radiance in the form of a tiny version of ourselves, a Baby in whose image we were created, and according to whose human nature we share. He has come not only to illuminate our dark hearts, but to banish all darkness forever. “Your heart shall thrill and exult.” And this thrill is not one that will fade away, become boring, or lose its shine.

Our Lord gave Peter, James, and John just a little taste of this radiance when He thrilled them by pulling back the veil, showing them a small glimpse of the dazzling light of His countenance. And like “mole people” from a science fiction story, their eyes were unable to process the brilliance of the light. So immersed in sin, so clouded by the Old Adam, so accustomed are we to the gloom of sin’s dark night that Jesus can only give a peek into what He offers us in eternity – a life so full of energy and light, completely devoid of sin and darkness, that there will be no need for sun and moon, as we are taught at the end of the last book of Scripture, the Revelation.

For through this Light, we are told at the beginning of the first book of Scripture, Genesis, it was through Jesus, the Word of God, that God indeed created light before all things, saying: “‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” The uncreated Light created light, and as Isaiah said: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.”

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this prophecy is not only about camel-riding magi from a far distant middle eastern country two thousand years ago, it is about you! You are the people “who walked in darkness,” who “dwelt in a land of deep darkness.” But no more, dear Christians! No more! For on you, a great light has shined. He continues to shine on you and be gracious unto you. He continues to radiate His glory upon all of us, allowing us poor miserable sinners to reflect His glory in our lives and through our deeds – all to His glory and the furtherance of His kingdom of light and life!

Arise and shine in splendor;
Let night to day surrender.
Your light is drawing near.
Above, the day is beaming,
In matchless beauty gleaming;
The glory of the Lord is here. Amen.

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

Sermon: Christmas 2

3 January 2010 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA

Text: Matt 2:13-23 (Gen 46:1-7, 1 Pet 4:12-19)

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

One of the leading “new atheists,” Christopher Hitchens, wrote a popular book called God Is Not Great. It’s a funny title of a book written by an Atheist. But the subtitle shows where the author is going with his argument. It is: How Religion Poisons Everything. In this book, the author claims that our faith is: “violent, irrational” and “coercive toward children.”

It is easy to dismiss such nonsense out of hand, but people outside these walls – including our own friends and relatives – are reading, and believing, these claims. Christian churches all across America are emptying – especially of young people. Churches in Europe are already empty. In fact, in many places around the world, it is open season on Christians and on others who hold to some kind of belief in the supernatural. A recent study estimates that 70% of the people on planet earth live under religious restrictions.

And in spite of Hitchens’s bombastic claim, it is not the church, but the secular world, that has the blood of 40 million unborn children on its hands, sacrificed to a pantheon of false gods that include: political correctness, convenience, money, and yes, Atheism.

The slaughter of innocents is nothing new. The Old Testament prophets called the children of Israel to repentance for sacrificing their own children. On December 28, Christians around the world remembered the Holy Innocents who were sacrificed by wicked King Herod as “collateral damage” in Satan’s war against our Lord Jesus. And this too was addressed by Jeremiah in the Old Testament: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted because they are no more.”

In modern society, there are very few advocates for the modern-day versions of the Holy Innocents, those millions of children who are murdered in the womb, unable even to scream. With few exceptions, Mr. Hitchens’s Atheist comrades are not speaking up for them. In fact, most would agree with the horrifying slogan that “a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.” No, we Christians are not the irrationally violent and coercive of children, for as God’s Word teaches us, every child is created in God’s image and every life is sacred. The concentration camp is the tool of the Atheist, not of the Christian.

But, Mr. Hitchens would retort with a sneer, "Why does God allow such evil as the slaughter of the innocents?" We do not know why God prevents some tragedies and allows for others. We do know that evil is sin, and sin is spawned not by God, but by the enemies of the cross, by the forces of darkness, by the “old evil foe” who seeks to teach us such lies as “God is not great.” It is the selfish and ruthless evil of King Herod, seeking to destroy the Christ child, as well as that of a similar ruler, the Pharaoh of Egypt, who tried to destroy an earlier savior, Moses, who likewise led the people out of slavery.

The Lord, in His infinite wisdom, does not foil every plan of evil. He told that us the wages of sin is death, and so all of us poor miserable sinners are mortal. Whether we die of old age or by the sword of a tyrant, we will all die. Our world is rotting and decaying, falling farther into the abyss.

But thanks be to God that we are “not of this world.” We are of the Lord’s kingdom. We are but strangers here. We have been baptized, born again, and called out of darkness into the light. We have been saved by the One who cheated death as an infant so as to cheat death by dying as an adult on the cross. Herod’s irrational, violent, and coercive plan did not succeed, and like all evil, his actions contributed to the misery of this world. And yet, the true King whom Herod sought to kill, overcame all evil. “It is finished,” He was to proclaim after being sent to the cross, in part by the corrupt acts of another Herod.

For although the world is filled with brokenness, evil does not have the final say. For God is indeed great, and what’s more, He is merciful. He loves His creation. He takes flesh and dies for His creatures. He gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit to keep us, His redeemed creatures, faithful in His Word. He provides us with fellow believers and worshipers, to bolster one another’s faith. He provides us with the holy sacraments to comfort and fortify us.

And this is why St. Peter tells us not to be “surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you.” We shouldn’t think of this as “something strange.” If the fallen world, filled with evil, hates the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, sought to murder Jesus as a child, and if evil men conspired to put the Lord to death on a cross – why should we think the world will treat us with kid gloves?

Indeed, the history of the church is a bloody one. We are at war, dear Christians. It is Satan, our belligerent enemy, who is irrational, violent, and coercive. Satan wants to destroy your faith, and Satan’s helpers like Christopher Hitchens are targeting us – especially our children and grandchildren. Christians around the world are still being put to the sword, and in America, the faith is under a cultural, intellectual, and political full-press. And there are indeed 40 million tiny casualties of this war in America alone – a number that climbs into the billions worldwide –
whose blood cries out to God for vindication.

And when the world attacks us in its many ways, St. Peter exhorts us to “rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.”

Peter teaches us that we are blessed in our sufferings for Christ, for we are joining Christ in His passion. We are taking up our own cross, and are serving the kingdom in our sufferings – even if we do not see or understand how. This is how we are to approach Christopher Hitchen’s question “Why?” The answer is not for us to know, but to endure, to persevere, to give glory to God, and to receive the eternal blessings promised to us in Christ Jesus. God has a plan. Our suffering somehow serves the kingdom. And that is our cause of rejoicing.

Indeed, those left behind to mourn the innocent victims of evil “weep with loud lamentation.” But as our Lord teaches us, “blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Our comfort will come in the fullness of time, when all sin and sorrow is banished and when all unbelief is done away with. For our Lord promises to wipe the tears from every eye of those who have been redeemed, all of us, victims of every manner of evil, of violence, of irrational hatred, and of coercion of children.

And even those among us who have succumbed to temptation and joined the world’s war against children will be comforted. For Christians too have been caught up in the sin of abortion and in making convenience and money a god at the expense of the Lord’s children. Your weeping will also come to an end, for He who survived the sword of Herod died for you as well, to take away your guilt and shame.

The English writer and Christian thinker known to us today as Lady Julian of Norwich summed it up like this: “All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.” The widowed St. Julian could say this in the face of a the evil surrounding her in her own day, of the black death and peasant revolts, of her own aging and dying – because she was, and remains eternally, in Christ.

Jesus came to make all manner of things new, to forgive sins, to abolish all evil, to raise the dead, to restore the broken creation, and to give us everlasting life. The horrific events of the slaughter of the Holy Innocents are overcome by the Lord’s life-giving love. The sin of abortion is overcome by the good news that the One True Holy Innocent died for us poor miserable sinners. God’s greatness is not in His destruction of evil, but rather in His patience with us, who have been corrupted by evil. Rather than kill us, He dies in our place to give us life, washing us with baptism, nurturing us with His body and blood, and breathing life into us by His Holy Spirit through the Word. God’s greatness is not in His mighty power, but in His restraint, in His patience, and in His mercy.

Though we Christians cannot speak for God, we know that God permits evil at least to some degree because He gives us time to repent. He calls us to join in His greatness through the cross. For it isn’t religion that poisons everything, but sin. The one true faith is the faith that teaches us that we are indeed poisoned, and the antidote is found in the Lord’s blood and in His recreation of us. Nothing else will save us: not clever circular arguments against God’s existence, not turning the abomination of child-murder into a virtue, not the superstition of Darwinism, and certainly not the wise-cracks of a cynical non-believer.

God is indeed great. He tolerates far more than a lesser god would. And unlike the bluff and bluster of the frail and mortal Mr. Hitchens – whose first name means “bearer of Christ” – God’s greatness is most clearly shown when God, like the Holy Innocents, becomes a baby and is eventually put to death for our sins. Christ died for Christopher Hitchens too. God is great – and merciful.

“Therefore, let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” Amen.

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

Rusted From the Rain

In the late 80s and early 90s, I lived in New York and make frequent trips to Ottawa and Montreal. In the latter, there was a radio station called CKMF in Montreal that played mostly French-language pop/rock. There is nothing quite like being bundled in a parka tooling along the icy 417 headed from Montreal to Ottawa (Mrs. H's hometown), aiming between the snow drifts in a little Ford Escort, listening to the curious blend of 98% rapidly-spoken French with perfectly articulated English words thrown in. And there is a good bit of music that is largely unheard in the States, by both English- and French-speaking Canadians. CKMF always came in loud and clear, and had quite a mix of music.

In those days, the CKMF radio announcer would frequently identify the call sign of the station in a high-energy, loud, gravelly, manly voice (not unlike the stereotypical American promoter of "monster trucks"): "Quatre-vingt-quatorze, virgule trois, C-K-M-F, Montréal!" The station's frequency is 94,3 (with the comma replacing the period in our convention).

The announcer would really emphasize the first syllable of "virgule" (comma), "VIR-gule!"

I can just imagine the coaching that went on in the studio to get the right sound. If the "VIR-gule!" guy from CKMF is a Fr. H. reader (and my actually winning a million British pounds is more likely), I would like an exclusive interview...

Anyway, thanks to the Interwebs, we don't have to be in a Ford Escort in Québec to listen to CKMF 94,3. You can go to their site here and click on the little arrow and stream it in. They even have a little graphic of the particular music that is playing now. They don't seem to have the same announcement of the station, and in fact, they are pushing their corporate persona more than their call letters these days (NRJ, which means "énergie").

While listening to a little of the countdown yesterday, I ran across the above video of the tune Rusted From the Rain by the Canadian band Billy Talent.

It's pop music. It's nothing of an eternal or deeply profound nature, but I enjoyed the performance and the musicality of it. I thought the video was interesting, and (I might be wrong about this) I suspect that this band is much better known in Canada than in the U.S. Maybe you'll like it, maybe you won't - but you can watch for free right here.

And if you're a student of the French language, a Canada-phile, or just looking for something a little different to listen to musically, keep CKMF in mind. And again, if you are the VIR-gule guy, shoot me an e-mail and let me know how things are going in La Belle Province.

The best New Year blog entry you will read...

Everything you always wanted to know about the history of New Year's Day, the Julian and Gregorian calendar, the Name and Circumcision of our Lord, British tax policy, papal bulls, the Roman Republic and Empire, April Fool's Day, Japan, Moses and Joshua, the Annunciation, Dennis the Short, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and how it all ties together - right here, told as only the inimitable Past Elder can do it. This one is not to be missed.

Enjoy!

I have won even more money...

Dear Mr. Benham:

Thank you so much for notifying me by e-mail:

You won £850,000.00 GBP in Google new year promotion. Ticket
number:00869575733664,CGPN:7-22-71-00-66-
12,Serial,numbers:BTD/8070447706/06,Lucky numbers:12-12-23-35-40-41(12).
For more info, For more info contact Mr Graham Benfield e-mail: benham.promotion2009@gmail.com.

I do appreciate your taking the time and effort. But frankly, I have won so much money in similar e-mail sweepstakes - and considerably more, I might add, in the millions of pounds sterling, euros, and American dollars - that this sum of £850,000.00 is just not even worth my while to cash. And being a clergyman, these kinds of winnings tend to complicate my tax returns - and so it is my policy not to accept any winnings unless they are at least a million pounds or the equivalent in euros. And, no offense, but I really would prefer payment in gold given the current state of affairs of the world's central-bank-based bubble economy.

However, if you would like to sweeten the pot to seven figures, I would take upon myself the burden of managing this sum of money, otherwise, please feel free to pass along my winnings to someone else.

Cordially,

Father Hollywood