We pray:

O Lord, You strengthened Your patient servant Monica through spiritual discipline to persevere in offering her love, her prayers, and her tears for the conversion of her husband and of Augustine, their son. Deepen our devotion to bring others, even our own family, to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, who with You and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Today we honor and remember St. Monica, beloved and blessed mother of St. Augustine. Her experiences as a wife of a man who was a harsh pagan, but who was converted eventually due in large measure to her loving patience with him, are immortalized for us by St. Augustine himself, chiefly in his deeply introspective work of spiritual autobiography, Confessions. Her ardent and continuing prayers for her son and her constant love and support for him saw him move from paganism, to heretical Christianity, while living outside marriage with a woman who fathered him a child, to eventual orthodox Christianity and service as a bishop. Here is The LCMS biographical note about her.

A native of North Africa, Monica (A.D. 333–387) was the devoted mother of Saint Augustine. Throughout her life she sought the spiritual welfare of her children, especially that of her brilliant son, Augustine. Widowed at a young age, she devoted herself to her family, praying many years for Augustine’s conversion. When Augustine left North Africa to go to Italy, she followed him to Rome and then to Milan. There she had the joy of witnessing her son’s conversion to the Christian faith. Weakened by her travels, Monica died at Ostia, Italy on the journey she had hoped would take her back to her native Africa. On some church year calendars, Monica is remembered on May 4.

Here is a longer biographical note about her from “Lives of Saints”, Published by John J. Crawley & Co., Inc.

Read more…

Robert Gagnon, author of what has proven to be the most devastatingly thorough critique of the so-called “scholarship” that homosexual advocates have used to try to change the Christian Faith on these issues, and others, has an excellent article, titled “Ed Schroeder Parodies the Lutheran Faith.” Available here

FYI…more on Gagnon:

He is the author of The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001; 520 pgs.); co-author (with Dan O. Via) of Homosexuality and the Bible: Two Views (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003; 125 pgs.); and, as a service to the church, provides a large amount of free material on the web dealing with Scripture and homosexuality. In addition, he has published scholarly articles on biblical studies in Journal of Biblical Literature, New Testament Studies, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Novum Testamentum, Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, Horizons in Biblical Theology, and The Christian Century.

Mr. Brian Yamabe, a fellow LCMS Lutheran, put up a post on his blog “Vocation in the Valley: Life Under the Cross” yesterday that I found very helpful and well put. Whenever I mention the Apple iPhone app marketplace, I get, understandably, a number of inquiries from Android uses asking if/when we will be releasing Android-friendly apps. Some ask nicely, some make blanket accusations, some get downright angry and say some pretty silly things. Well, Mr. Yamabe is a professional in the field and his blog post explaining why the Apple app market is, at this point, the place to be, offers very helpful insights. Let me assure you that CPH is monitoring all these developments very, very closely. We have a full time staff in our Emerging Products department who stays abreast of all the latest technological developments. We have not slammed the door shut on Android, but at this point, for the reasons Mr. Yamabe identifies below, we are devoting our work to the Apple app marketplace.We will continue to monitor the Android market and if/when we can devote resources to Android app development, we certainly will.

Here is his post:

Is Android Un-Lutheran?

If you do not follow Matthew Carver’s blog, you are really missing out on a lot of great translations of classic treasures of Lutheran hymnody. Today, for example, this one came across my RSS reader. Check it out. Notice the richness of the Christ-centered, Law and Gospel, deeply Biblically based text.

Lässet Gottes Sohn sich taufen?
from HYMNOGLYPT by Matt Carver (Matthaeus Glyptes)

Here is my translation of the Epiphany hymn, “Lässet Gottes Sohn sich taufen?” (S. von Birken). Many thanks to Armin Wenz for pointing out and providing the words. The appointed melody is “Freu dich sehr, o meine Seele.”

ART THOU baptized, God most holy?
Art Thou bathed in Jordan thus?
Though in sin we sank so lowly,
Thou the Clean One cleansest us.
All earth’s waters as a flood
Thou wouldst purple with Thy blood
Making robes of royal station
For the heirs of Thy salvation.

2. Now this flood for us is given
By the Clean One pow’r to cleanse;
All the wounds by Adam riven
Now this fount of life amends.
Jesus, oh! to Thee I look;
Thou the Jordan, Thine the brook
Which upon my soul hath showered,
Washed me, and all filth devoured.

3. Wide the heavens opened o’er me,
Even as they did o’er Thee,
When Thy Word and water bore me
To God’s cov’nant family:
“This is My beloved child,
With whom I am reconciled.
In whom I take all My pleasure.”—
This is mine in fullest measure.

4. From above the Dove, descending,
Also to my cleansing came,
Thus the Holy Ghost attending,
Did my soul for heaven claim,
As Thy crimson ink, Thy blood
Reconciled me to my God,—
With Thy friends a place awarded—
In Thy book my name recorded.

5. Lamb of God, then didst Thou bind me
To Thy service as Thy knight;
Of Thy very wool consigned me
Warrior’s robes of purest white.
This fair garment, O my groom!
Is my bride-gift from Thy loom;
That my soul, to Thee united,
May be Thine, as Thou hast plighted.

6. Though Thy hellish competition
Ever still doth me pursue,
Makes my fall His constant mission,
Coaxing me to be untrue.
Oh! if once he tempted Thee,
Will he stay away from me?
Nay, at peace he’ll leave me never:
With the head the limbs go ever.

7. When in grief I seem to lose Thee,
Satan says, “Art thou God’s child?
Why then doth He thus abuse thee?
When have fathers e’er beguiled,
Giving stones instead of bread?
Hath He left thee then for dead?
If His pow’r hath not deserted,
Have this stone to bread converted!”

8. Soon would Satan, thus deceiving,
Turn to pride my trust in Thee,
Of Thy help my soul bereaving;
Make me thrall to vanity,
To the world would lure my soul,
Glory, lust, and wealth extol,
Till I sell Thee for the famine
Of his empty lies and Mammon.

9. Dearest Jesus! Make me stronger,
That, as Thou hast done, I too
May the devil crush and conquer;
With resolve my faith endue.
Let Thy Word my weapon be,
And Thine angels be with me.
Though I suffer, let him sever
Me from my dear Jesus never.

Translation © Matthew Carver, 2010.

Read the extended entry for the German text. Read more…

You can view, online, several CPH catalogs, one for children’s ministry resources, another for bible study materials and another for curriculum. View them here.

A good video making an important point. There will be the temptation among people  who are swayed by emotional arguments to think that the homosexuality issue in the Church is just about homosexuality and does not involve anything else. Check it out:

People who get the willies about the subject of typology may not like this, I think it is pretty well done. What do you think?

George Bernard Shaw to the Times of London:

There is a pedant on your staff who spends far too much of his time searching for split infinitives. Every good literary craftsman uses a split infinitive if he thinks the sense demands it. I call for this man’s instant dismissal; it matters not whether he decides to quickly go or to go quickly or quickly to go. Go he must, and at once.

Cited in Patricia T. O’Connor’s Words Fail Me: What Everyone Who Writes Should Know about Writing.

HT: Trevin Wax via Justin Taylor

On October 10, 2010 (2:00 PM Eastern/ GMT-5), Rev. Dr. Joel Heck of Concordia University, Austin will give a one hour presentation on the Book of Genesis, followed by a question and answer session. While the host congregation will be Shepherd of the Ridge Lutheran Church in North Ridgeville, OH, Dr. Heck will give his presentation from Austin via streaming Internet video. We will, in turn, broadcast this presentation live via our website, shepherdoftheridge.org. Anyone anywhere in the world with a broadband internet connection can watch live. We will also allow viewers to comment and ask questions via our chat boxes. The presentation will be recorded for those unable to watch live.

Local congregations can host a “Genesis Day” if they have access to a large enough screen, displaying the live stream on their screen. If churches need help with setup for this event, we would be happy to help (http://shepherdoftheridge.org/contact ). (And if you’re planning to host such an event, we’d be thrilled to hear about it!)

Following the event, we will begin an ongoing indepth study of Genesis. The discussion will take place on multiple levels and locations. We will meet live to discuss it in person on Sunday evenings at 7 PM (Eastern) at Shepherd of the Ridge Lutheran Church. The conversation will be streamed live, so anyone unable to be present can watch and join in the discussion via chat, Twitter, or Facebook. Those unable to watch live can either watch the recorded class or listen online via podcast or just read the questions online and discuss the questions in the comments section. We will also have forums to discuss tangential topics like the age of the earth, archaeology, and more.

Anyone interested is welcome to attend or participate in any way, regardless of beliefs, background, or location. We encourage church members to use this opportunity to invite their unchurched friends, family, and colleagues.

Get more information and sign up at http://shepherdoftheridge.org/bible_study/genesis for updates.

Let us consider then, first of all, our human weakness and imperfection. . .Let us consider, in the second place, our unworthiness. . .man is unworthy in very many and more grievous ways, for by his sins he has offended his Creator. . And in our preparation for this Holy Supper, let us not simply examine ourselves, but let us also consider this blessed bread, which is the communion of the body of Christ, and then will it appear to us as a true fountain of God’s grace, and an inexhaustible spring of divine mercy. . .Thus this Holy Supper will transform our souls; this most divine sacrament will make us divine men, until finally we shall enter upon the fullness of the blessedness that is to come, filled with all the fullness of God, and wholly like Him. (Johann Gerhard, Sacred Meditations, 20:108-111)

HT: Pastor Alms

‘How does the Lutheran Church understand itself? What do we mean, when we call a church “Lutheran”? We mean that it is a Church of the Lutheran confession. That distinguishes Lutheranism from other confessions [of the faith]. One could not label the Orthodox Church of the east simply as “the church of the Nicene Creed.” The Roman Church is not simply “the church of the Tridentinum” [Denzinger 994-1000] or one of the other confessions collected in Denzinger’s Enchiridion or other private collections. It is very telling that there is in no Catholic Church a book, which would correspond to our Book of Concord, which in the nineteenth century was also called “The Symbolic Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.” This is true also of the Reformed Churches. They are not “Churches of the Heidelberg Catechism,” of the Helvetic Confession, of the Gallicana, or of the Thirty-nine Articles. Yet the Lutheran Church of all times and places is the “Church of the Augsburg Confession.” Whence this comes, and upon what this distinction rests, which is here between Lutheranism and other denominations, we will not take up here, as we have spoken about this in letter 2 (“Concerning the Nature of Confession in the Church”) and letter 3 (“On the Problem of the Relation Between the Reformed and Lutheran Church”).

“We will only recall that for the Lutheran Church, as for the church of the New Testament, the confession of faith is indissoluably bound to the confession of sins and the praise of God. Further, that the confession of faith is not the formulation of a human world-view or religion. It is rather the answer of faith, affected by the Holy Spirit, to the question of Jesus, contained in the Gospel, about who He is. It is the answer of the individual believer as well as the answer of the entire church; and this answer distinguishes the proper church from heresy. The deep pathos, with which the Lutheran speaks of the confession, is not the pathos of a ecclesiastical patriotism, which absolutizes its formulation of faith. It is rather the passion of the faith in the Gospel, the passionate “Yes!” to the pure Gospel. Every article of the Augsburg Confession or of the Formula of Concord is intended to be nothing else than an unfolding of the original profession of the church of Jesus the Christ and Lord. “You are the Messiah,” the savior of His people, the Lamb of God which bears the sin of the world, the Son of Man who will come with the clouds of heaven: this is the topic of all articles about God, about justification, about salvation.

“And when mention is made of the saints, of the sanctification of Christians, of the communion of saints, then the basic topic of all these articles is the “You alone are holy” [Tu solus sanctus]. Whoever does not understand the Lutheran confessions as the great “Yes!” of faith to the beatific message of Jesus Christ as the only hope of sinners, has never understood them. Only from this is it also to be understood, that the confession in the Lutheran Church is taken so seriously. A confession which wants to be, and is, nothing more than the careful formulation of a theology, the expression of an understanding of Scripture attained in serious searching for the truth, will always bear the character of the more-or-less unbinding and tentative. The last degree of seriousness will be missing from it, which the confession in the sense of the New Testament and of the Lutheran Reformation has. Just as the confession in the New Testament is made with a view toward death and Judgment Day, so also the confessing Christian and the confessing church stands, in the sense of Lutheranism, on the edge of eternity:

Therefore, in the presence of God and of all Christendom among both our contemporaries and our posterity, we wish to have testified that the present explanation of all the foregoing controverted articles here explained, and none other, is our teaching, belief, and confession in which by God’s grace we shall appear with intrepid hearts before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ and for which we shall give account, [F.C. S.D. XII].

Hermann Sasse, Letters to Lutheran Pastors 19. HT: Harrison

I ran across this link to a fascinating interview with the head of the Vatican’s “Department of Justice” [I'm using a term more easily understandable]. I think you will find this interview very interesting.

Did you know Lucas Cranach provided all the illustrations for a little book portraying key members of the ruling families in Saxony? Roughly 1500-1546? Yup, he did. And you can enjoy a virtual read of the book here. Check it out.