This is an extremely important letter and it is well worth our attention. Here is the text of the open letter sent to Christian leaders by a large group of Muslim clerics, scholars and religious leaders.

Download MuslimLetter.pdf

How should Christian leaders respond faithfully to this letter?
How can Lutherans offer a unique response based on our doctrine of the two kingdoms and our understanding of Christian vocation?
What are the fundementally flawed premises reflected in the Muslim letter?
What are the fundmentally correct premises reflected in the Muslim letter?

For several hundred years, the vast majority of Christians used the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. This translation, known as the Septuagint, was prepared by Jews, not Christians, during what we call the "Intertestamental Period." It is quoted often in the New Testament. A review copy of the translation is available on the web in PDF format. The value of the Septuagint is that it offers the contemporary reader the most ancient translation of the Old Testament available, thus providing a perspective on how the OT was understood by Jews before the time of Christ. Thus, it is particularly fascinating, and led to no little debate between Jews and Christians in the first centuries of the church, when we read in Isaiah 7:14 an absolutely unambiguous assertion of a birth of a child from a virgin, not young woman, a virgin. The Greek uses the word "parthenos" to translate the Hebrew "almah" which may be translated simply as "young woman" but the Jewish translators of the Septuagint used the word "Virgin." Many other examples of this kind of thing abound in the Septuagint. The Septuagint was "the Bible" for many of the greatest church fathers, for example, St. Augustine who vigorously debated the authority of the Septuagint with St. Jerome, who of course, translated the Hebrew Old Testament into Latin.

There is a relatively unknown Lutheran hymnal that is available and I highly recommend you pick up a copy. It is Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary. No, I’m not recommending it for use by congregations of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. There is a better hymnal for that purpose. But, I do recommend you purchase a copy of it for at least two reasons:

1) It contains the historic collects prepared by Martin Luther’s right-hand man Veit Dietrich. They are real treasures and you have them all here in a more readable contemporary English form.

2) You have a lot of hymns by Paul Gerhard, in many cases with all the verse, or most of them, a feature not true in other Lutheran hymnals.

Here is a web site that provides notes and explanations about the hymnal about which I’m writing: Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary. Kudos to Pastor Mark DeGarmeaux and his colleagues for the site.

Why would I not want to use this hymnal for congregational worship? With respect to my friends in the ELS, I would not want to have to use it in congregation worship because it suffers from the dreadful, and dreaded, isometric form of hymns, that form of singing hymns that became quite popular under Pietism which believed that if hymns would be sung s-l-o-w-l-y and with a s-t-e-a-d-y c-o-n-s-t-a-n-t beat on e-a-c-h syllable. Apparently this is popular in old Norwegian hymn singing tradition. And it is used in this hymnal on quite a few of the classic Lutheran chorales. But…yuck. It is horrible. It really ruins the vigor and vitality of the classic Lutheran chorales when they are sung and makes them sound like funeral dirges.

Here is a review of the hymnal, printed some years ago in the Lutheran Church-Canada’s theological journal.

I’m trying to decide if it makes me feel safe more than it frightens me when the local Air National Guard fighter wing buzzes our subdivisions from time to time, like just now. There is nothing quite like a flight of F-15 Eagles blasting over your house at low altitude to cause the adrenalin to start pumping. They are out on training maneuvers and it is heavily overcast today. It always reminds me of 9/11 when all day long flights of fighter planes were zipping over the city.. God bless all those in uniform who are putting their lives at risk to keep us safe from the Islmafascist terrorists who want to destroy us. Many Americans wish we could just somehow close our door, go jump in our cozy beds, pull the sheets over our head and play make-believe and pretend there really are not nations and groups out there plotting to kill us. I’m very glad that our armed forces are out there and doing whatever it takes to kill them before they kill us. It is the reality of life in a sin-filled world that it is necessary to kill and destroy when there is no other alternative.

And another site I’ve come across before, but was recently reminded of when browsing a blog site. A web site where you can study the Greek New Testament. Tremendous resources, for free.

HT: Pastor Jonathan Watt

I stumbled across a site I had not been to before the other day. And, it really amazed me. It is the "Web Gallery of Art" and has a huge collection. The feature I enjoy the most is the fact that they allow you to expand the image to fill your computer screen and so, you can really study the paintings they have on display. I highly recommend it!

Is it fair to come to any conclusions, at all, about the following two congregational statistical charts, as available from The LCMS web site. I intentionally am not mentioning the congregations’ names or locations. I’m just wondering what, if anything, it would be fair to conclude by looking at these two graphs. Top number is communicant membership, bottom number is average Sunday worship attendance.

One must, I believe, ask some serious question, such as, why does the district continue to keep these congregations on the roster and why the Synod continues to permit young men fresh out out of the seminary to be sent into what are truly miserable situations with highly dysfunctional congregations that are just sputtering along and that have become not much more than family cliques.

I can think of nothing that will sap the joy out of an eager, committed young pastor than being tossed into these situations where the historic trend is downward. I feel very sorry for the pastor who is presently assigned to be pastor of these two congregations, at the same time! He has been in both parishes for around four years, as his first assignment out of seminary, after studying not only for the basic seminary degree, but an advanced degree as well. I see this taking a toll on him personally and spiritually. This is just not right.

And another one:

Rubrics: the instructions provided to those leading the church’s worship on the proper forms, gestures, postures and actions appropriate for the conduct of the Divine Service. These are usually provided in red ink in the books used by pastors to lead worship. The following are some thoughts on what I regard to be a case of too much of a good thing becoming a not so good thing.

I am concerned that rubrics to the extent described below may encourage a kind of elitist "we know best" and "we know better than the rest of the Synod" kind of attitude, which in turn, in my experience, leads, particularly younger pastors, to blur the line between ritualism and confessional Lutheranism. Further, it may very well mislead people into thinking that genuine Lutheranism is characterized by these kinds of ultra-ritualization of the Divine Service, which in fact is not found in historic Lutheranism, but rather in Romanism, where the precise conduct of the Mass is very much tied into regarding the Mass as a meritorious work by which we propitiate God. Is there a risk in emphasizing rubrics to this extent that we will, no doubt unintentionally, create false impressions?

I’ve noticed that pastors who are this much "into" rubrics tend to look down their noses at any pastor who does not conduct the Divine Service with this level of ritualism, regarding him as somebody who is "not really in the know" and "not as Lutheran" as "we" are. They have a tendency to fancy themselves the ones who "really" know what’s what and consider themselves to be "leaders" pulling the Synod along after their example, considering the approved hymnals and agenda of the Synod to be insufficient, lacking, deficient, etc. I’ve known any number of pastors who are so deeply immersed in rubrics that it finally ends up pulling them away from the faith of the Lutheran Church, either into Romanism or Eastern Orthodoxy.

I asked the person who posted the rubrics copied below what his source was and was informed they come from a mixture of Roman and Anglican sources, and from Lutherans fascinated by such sources in the 1950s and 1960s. I suspect that the source for such rubric details derives in fact not from Lutheranism at all, but in high-church Romanism and/or Anglicanism. See for instance this Anglican manual of rubrics which appears quite similar. I’ve had a hard time locating rubrics like this in the actual practice of historic Lutheranism from the age of orthodoxy. A good bit of this also comes from a LCMS seminary professor who died several decades ago. It was in response to this professor that Hermann Sasse wrote his essays, "A Warning Against the High-Church Danger" and nobody, that I know of, would ever have accused Dr. Sasse of being low church. In fact he was one of the most knowledgeable historians of the Western liturgy we’ve ever had.

I love the liturgy, but this degree of rubricification of the Divine Service may not be helpful ultimately in accomplishing the goal of maintaining and strengthening a love for the traditional liturgical worship of Lutheranism.  And, lest anyone glow a gasket, let me say this. I would, anyday and twice on Sunday, much more prefer all of this to the alternative! So, remain calm. Don’t panic. I don’t intend to start putting on tent revivals.

Your thoughts? Am I simply seeing red, or is this something to be concerned about?

The subdeacon distributes the offering plates to the ushers and receives them back. The celebrant does not concern himself at all with the collection of the offerings unless there are no attendants. Meanwhile the server takes the items from the credence to the celebrant. First he takes the veiled chalice to the celebrant. The celebrant, upon receiving the chalice, places it just to the left of center. He carefully uncovers the chalice, folds the veil (ninefold), and places it on the altar to the right of the corporal. He removes the pall and places it on the folded veil.

Read more…

Priests warned that clerical collars increase risk of attack
ENI-07-0778

By Trevor Grundy
Canterbury, England, 9 October (ENI)–Priests and pastors in Britain
have been warned not to wear clerical collars when they are not working
because of the danger of being attacked.

"We’re not alarmists but we’re telling the clergy not to risk attack by
motivated offenders by wearing their [clerical] collars when they’re
off duty, visiting friends, shopping at the local supermarket, unless
they have someone who would help them in an emergency," said Nick
Tolson, director of National Churchwatch, an independent group advising
clergy about security.

A recent report by National Churchwatch said the fact that priests are
clearly identifiable away from their home or place of work increases
the risk of them being attacked. Five clerics have been murdered in
England and Wales since 1996, the report noted.

A 2001 academic study estimated that clergy are more at risk from
violence than members of other professional groups. It found that 12
percent of clergy had suffered from physical violence, and that 70
percent had experienced some other form of violence such as swearing,
spitting, shouting and name calling.

Tolson said that in a study of 90 clergy in 2006, he found that almost
half had encountered at least one violent incident in the preceding
twelve months.

However, the Rev. David Houlding of St Paul’s Cathedral in London said he felt safer wearing his clerical collar.

"There is still an air of respect to it," Houlding was quoted by the
Daily Telegraph newspaper in London as saying. "Most of the time I wear
it every day. It’s my uniform. [Without it] we’d lose our presence in
the community and our witness." [282 words]

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See http://www.eni.ch/rss/
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Reproduction permitted only by media subscribers and
provided ENI is acknowledged as the source.

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Something deeply moving happened in our church last Sunday. We have been "camping out" in our parish gymnasium while some major renovations have been underway to our church, one of which is extending the size of our balcony and making it much more acoustically friendly. Wow, is it ever. Our string ensemble was fantastic last Sunday, even more so now that we can actually hear them well!

Well, part of the move to the gym meant that we could no longer kneel to receive the Sacrament, and receive it by table, but instead had to use a sort of standing/shuffling movement to receive it. Now, before anyone says, "It doesn’t matter what posture is used to receive the Sacrament." Yes, I know. It "doesn’t matter" in the sense that no particular posture makes the Sacrament "work better for you."

But I do feel sorry for people who don’t kneel as they receive their Lord’s body and blood. What a wonderful way to receive Him. On your knees, in the position of penitence and humility and need. Kneeling to receive the gifts we need the most, to receive the Priceless Treasure beyond all measure.

Last Sunday was the first time in a long number of months that we have been back in our church building and able to kneel to receive the Sacrament. But, alas, amidst all the things necessary for worshiping in the sanctuary again somebody forgot to put the kneeling cushions back down. So, Pastor announced that if anyone didn’t feel like kneeling without cushions, that was fine.

We like to sit in the front row in church so I was interested to see what would happen. The chancel of our church is made with stone slabs. These stone slabs are not smooth, but textured. So, I kind of thought most people would choose not to kneel on: a) a hard surface; b) cold stone; c) rough stone. But something marvelous happened. Time and time again, the very aged, gingerly knelt down, putting old arthritic knee to cold, hard rough stone. The very young did to0. I did not see anyone not kneel, except for maybe a handful who have severe knee problems, and they can never kneel anyway.

I found it deeply touching that so many chose to kneel to receive their Lord’s body and blood rather than stand. They, like me, were looking forward once more to kneeling before the Lord’s altar, kneeling before the Presence of their Lord and God and taking Him into their mouths, where under the bread and wine they received the true body and blood of their Lord Jesus Christ, for forgiveness, life and salvation. And they did so as we sang, "Lord, may Thy Body and Thy Blood before my soul, the highest good!" Good indeed!

To ponder…from a book that if you don’t have, you simply must have.

"Many upright Lutherans have an aversion to private confession and absolution. This is because, first of all, they regard its institution partly as something new and partly as a return to papal institutions. But this is not true. Private confession was in use long before the rise of the papacy, and until the 18th century, it existed in all Lutheran congregations in all countries. Only a few enthusiasts openly rejected it, and only after the Rationalists (that is, the preachers of reason of the new age) had increased in the Lutheran churches was private confession abolished and the general confession introduced in its place.

"A second reason why so many inveigh against private confession derives from their belief that the Christian Church does not have the power to forgive sins on earth. These individuals have become just like the Pharisees, who, after hearing of One who forgives sin, thought, “This Man is blaspheming!” (Matthew 9:3), for “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:7). Either such people do not believe in God’s Word or they do not consider that forgiving sins in their own name and in the name of God are two different things. In His own name, of course, only Christ could speak the absolution, for only to Him did God say, “Sit at My right hand” (Psalm 110:1), but in God’s and Christ’s name, the servants of the Church also loose and bind, for Christ Himself has commanded them to do so. Therefore, Saint Paul offers the words of today’s text. What further proof does one need?

"A third reason why so many fail to recognize the special comfort that lies in private absolution is that they do not vividly recognize their sins. They may say: “I have no need of this. I can sufficiently comfort myself with the general absolution.” However, is it not possible that a true Christian would not at times be so weighed down by his sins that from his heart he would gladly hear the voice, “your sins are forgiven you”? Or are there today Christians with the kind of strong faith that people sought in vain at the time of the Reformation? Indeed, is there anything more lacking today than strong faith? Everyone who wants to be sufficiently comforted should examine himself closely to see if this contentment has arisen from the strength of his faith or if it has resulted from his own disregard for his sins. It is no wonder that thoughtless Christians do not desire private absolution. The wounds of their sins do not burn them, and thus they do not desire the soothing balm.

"A fourth reason why so many do not want to use private confession is because it was not generally introduced into the contemporary Church. Instead, private absolution was granted mostly to gross sinners who returned penitent. “Therefore,” one may say, “is not every Christian free to use or not to use the human institution of seeking private absolution before every use of the Holy Supper?” This is truly a part of Christian freedom. Therefore, no Christian should and can be compelled. But we might well ask ourselves if that which a person can do is also godly.

"A fifth and final reason why so many oppose the use of private absolution is because they suppose that it must be preceded by a detailed confession of their sins. “How,” they say, “should I uncover to a man the secrets of my heart, in whose experience or honesty I perhaps have no confidence at all? Must I not fear that a dishonest father confessor would misuse my confession?” There is no demand that the special absolution be preceded by a special confession of sin. Does not Christ absolve the paralytic without such a confession? Was it not enough for Him that the paralytic came to Him as a poor sinner with a believing heart? In the same way, an enumeration of sins is never demanded by a right-believing servant of Christ. Indeed, it is forbidden, as the words of the 25th article of the Augsburg Confession make clear: “And it is taught about confession, that one should not compel anyone to specify the sins.”

Note also:

"It is not appropriate for a person to fold his hands in his lap and say, “Now then, if the absolution was so richly poured out for us, if the whole world is full of it, we have nothing else to do but to enjoy this and to hope for heaven.” That is not so! What would it help a prisoner if he heard that he is pardoned but then refused to leave the prison and exercise his freedom? It would not help him at all. So it is with the forgiveness of sins, which can be spoken to us both by every preacher of the Gospel and by every Christian. If we want to use this forgiveness rightly, we must depart from the prison of our sins. We do this by heartily accepting our absolution, by comforting our self in it. In other words, it is by maintaining a firm and certain faith. If we hear the preaching of the forgiveness of sins, let us believe that this preaching is God’s forgiveness for us. If we hear a Christian comforting us with the forgiveness of sins, let us accept this as God’s comfort. If a servant of the Gospel speaks forgiveness to us, let us receive this as a word from God Himself."

Source:
CFW Walther
God Grant It
CPH: 2006, p. 787-789, 792-293

Funny how you find things out that have been going on for quite some time. I did not know until just now that you can subscribe to a service that will deliver to you, each week, an electronic copy of readings from the Book of Concord tailored edited to fit with the appointed readings in the lectionary for the Sunday coming up. No, sorry, they are not for the one year lectionary. Check out this link.

Check it out!

(Anyone who wants to see this also for the one year series, please….pitch in and give Pastor May a hand! He would love the help to get this also for this historic lectionary).

Kudos to Pastor Matthew Thompson for tracking these down. They were mentioned in a recent comment here. Fascinating stuff indeed. Read these and ask yourself what are the points of comparison between what Harms was protesting in the 19th century and what is of concern in Lutheranism in the 21st century. These were located on the "Lutheran Wiki" which I had not heard of before. Read the link for an article on Harms and what the context was for these theses.

A Call to Repentance from Man-Centered Religion and Ethics, A.D. 1817 (Theses 1-8)

1. When our Master and Lord Jesus Christ says: "Repent!", he wants
that men conform to his doctrine; he, however, does not conform his
doctrine to men, as is done now, according to the changed spirit of the
times, 2 Tim. 4:3.

2. Doctrine in relation to faith and life is now construed in
such a way so as to accommodate men. This is why now protest and reform
have to be repeated.

3. With the idea of a progressive reformation — as this idea
is defined and how it is brought up — one reforms Lutheranism into
paganism and Christianity out of the world.

4. Since the doctrine of faith has been construed according to
the doctrine of life which has been construed according to the life of
men, one has to start again and again with this: Repent!

5. In a time of reformation, this sermon addresses all, without
distinguishing between the good and the bad; for also those who have
conformed to the wrong doctrine are considered bad.

6. The Christian doctrine as well as the Christian life is to be built according to one draft.

7. If men were on the right way as to their actions, one could
say: In doctrine go backward and in life go forward, then you will
arrive at true Christianity.

8. Repentance shows itself first of all in falling away from
him who has placed himself, or has been placed, in God’s place; at
Luther’s time this was, in a certain sense, the pope, for him the
antichrist.

Read more…

A terrific sermon, anchoring our hope and life
in the wounds of the One who loved us and gave Himself up for us. Preached on the occasion of the dedication of a new church called "Church of the Holy Cross."
______

Prayer:

So, LORD, there it stands, our new sanctuary after our little flock
only a few months ago closed down and began building it. It is
fortunately and gloriously completed. And we have now been led in to
celebrate. LORD, it is like coming out of a dream as we look around us
and our hearts cry out in wonder: God, is it possible? For it is not
we, not we, who have built you this house. You have done it through
your blessing and your heart-moving power and grace. Yes, by you, by
the LORD, it was done and it is a wonder in our eyes.

LORD, we are unworthy of all the mercy and truth which you have
performed to us, your poor servants and maids. Your goodness reaches so
far as the heavens and your truth ascends to the clouds. Heaven and
earth, angels and men, yes, everything that has breath must join us in
honoring and praising you.

But behold! LORD, this house should also be a house of prayer.
Therefore we also come into your presence today with prayer and
intercession and implore you: Also fulfill now your promise on this
house: "In the place where I establish that my Name be remembered,
there will I come to you and bless you." We are most surely unworthy
that you, holy and almighty God, whom all the heavens cannot contain,
should come under our roof; but we are, oh, so thirsty. What good would
a house do us, even if the walls were made of gold and the doors of
pearl, if you were not present with us in your grace? Oh, then come
that way here, come here, heavenly Father, to your children, enter in,
faithful Redeemer to your redeemed, enter, sweet Comforter to us, who
so need your comfort, and stay with us! Remove not the light of your
Word from this holy place, but let it always burn here brightly until
the end of days. Let this sanctuary be your seat of learning for all
who are here gathered. Let this baptismal font be for all who will be
baptized here in your Name, the source of an ever-purifying birth. Make
this altar an eternal table of grace for all who will draw near for the
celebration of the banquet of reconciliation. Through the keys of the
heavenly kingdom here release all who are weary and heavy laden who
here will confess to you their sins. Pour out your temporal and eternal
blessings upon all who will tie the knot of holy matrimony here in your
presence. Give steadfastness unto death to all who pledge to you upon
the stairs of this altar their eternal devotion to you. Heed the united
prayers that will arise from here to your throne. Let all who are
spiritually dead here awaken, all the erring be brought to the
knowledge of the truth, all sinners here converted, all the fallen here
arise again, all the burdened, troubled and afflicted hearts here be
comforted and brought peace, all the weak here be strengthened, all the
strong here be protected and defended until their last hour. Yes, LORD,
make this house your temple where is heard the voice of thanksgiving
and where all of your wonders are preached at the place that is your
house and the place where your glory dwells. So may it be dedicated to
you. Let it be yours. Let it remain yours, LORD God, Father, Son and
Holy Ghost, most highly praised eternally. Amen.

"Church of the Holy Cross" shall be the name of this our new house
of God and "Congregation of the Cross" shall be henceforth also the
name of this congregation. You dear guests might wonder about this and
ask, what does that mean? What exactly is the reason that you have
chosen this name? The reason this was done, my beloved, is that just
with this name we want to show that in this church there will never be
anything else proclaimed than the Word of the cross. As holy Paul once
had written to the church at Corinth: "And I, dear brothers, when I
came to you, I did not come with grand words or exalted wisdom in order
to proclaim to you the divine preaching. For I resolved to know nothing
among you except only Jesus Christ, the Crucified," which is also our
intention. And this, our intention, has been given a public witness by
the name which we have imposed upon our new church. That is also the
reason why we have given the footprint of the building the shape of the
cross and high upon the steeple a distant illuminating cross: the cross
of the Savior shall thus be the foundation of this congregation as well
as her crown.

Read more…

"Calls for liturgical reform
written from a Rationalist perspective began to appear in the 1780s. They
called for drastic modifications to the traditional liturgy or even wholesale
abandonment of it. … Johann Wilhelm Rau argued in 1786 that the old formulas
were no longer usable because the expressions in them were in part no longer understandable
and in part objectionable. Fixed forms in general were not good, and even the
Lord’s Prayer was meant only as an example to follow and not as a prayer to be repeated.
Some said that liturgical formulas served to ease the task of the pastor and
preserve order in the service.

But [according to Rau] the
advantages were specious: very few pastors had so little time left over from
other duties that they could not prepare a service… Each pastor used his own
self-written order or spoke extemporaneously. According to Rau, the most
important abuses to curb were the too-frequent use of the Lord’s Prayer, the
making of the sign of the cross, the Aaronic benediction, chanting by the
pastor, the use of candles on the altar, private confession, the use of the
appointed lectionary texts for sermons, and various superstitious practices
surrounding communion, such as carrying the houseling cloth to catch
crumbs that might fall and referring to the "true" body and blood of
Christ. …

Peter Burdorf, writing in 1795,
argued that repetition in the liturgy weakened the attention of the listener
and the impact of the form. The current liturgy did not hold people’s
attention, nor did the sermon. … Some liturgy was necessary for public services
to be held, but it should be as simple as possible in order to meet the needs
of contemporary Christians. Rationalist writers backed up their words with deeds
and produced a number of new liturgies written with the above concerns in mind.
Luther Reed…offered the opinion that these liturgies "ranged in character
from empty sentimentality to moralizing soliloquy and verbosity." …

Hymns were rewritten as well
with a view to removing "superstition" and outdated theology. . . . This,
then, was the situation around the turn of the nineteenth century. In 1817, the
three hundredth anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation, Claus Harms published
his anti-Rationalistic Ninety-Five Theses, which marked the beginning of a
revival of Lutheran theology and liturgy that was to continue for more than a century.

(Worship Wars in Early
Lutheranism [New York: Oxford University Press, 2004], pp. 127-29)