Luther on the importance of Prayer...

Luther said, "To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing."

Prayer is an important part of our spiritual life, but who do we pray FOR? Do we pray for our benefit of for God's? Do we pray to be better people, to somehow earn favor with God?

To take Luther's comparison of prayer and breathing further, who do we breathe for? Do we ever breathe for anyone else? Certainly not! We breathe to have life. In prayer, we "breathe" so that our new life in Christ will be made stronger. Just as God provides the oxygen we need to breathe, He also provides the Words we breathe in prayer. And the pneuma, that is the Spirit, "helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." Romans 8:26.

I encourage you to be healthy "breathers" and not asthematic Christians. If you don't know what to pray, try this "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner."
Or, "Holy Spirit, my Comfort, pray for me a sinner."

Amen.

Great and hilarious Lutheran Blog site.

I am not the papal anti-christ, but I am linking to this great site! Check it out!

St. Thomas

Stichera for the Aposticha (Tone 4)
What miraculous wonder, that lack of faith became conviction of faith; for Thomas exclaimed, "Unless I see, I will not believe." Wherefore, when he searched the side he spoke of the Godhead of the Incarnate, who is Son of God, and knew that he verily did suffer in the flesh, and thus cried proclaiming the Risen God, shouting in a loud voice, "My Lord and my God, glory to Thee."

What miraculous wonder, that grass should touch fire and be safe: for Thomas cast his hand into the fire of the side of Jesus Christ God, and was not consumed by touching Him. Verily, the obstinate soul turned with fervour to true faith, and he shouted from the depth of his spirit, Thou art my Master and my God who didst rise from the dead. Glory to Thee.

Arm yourselves

With the upcoming Davinci Code movie coming up, as well as the much ado about nothing in regards to the Gospel of Judas, I think it is important for Christians to be educated. Here are some tools that might be helpful:

DaVinci Code online resouces from a very sage man.

and an audio discussion on the Gospel of Judas from two very knowledgeable seminary professors.

Education and knowledge are invaluable gifts that God gives us.

Nice try, but not quite right

ABC's The Ten Commandments may seem like a great victory to some Christians and otherwise "religious" people. Isn't it thoughtful that a major network would go to the trouble of producing an updated and "good looking" version of the well-known Exodus story? It's interesting that a network with programing like Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, and other programming that has been frowned upon by Christian viewers has annual "religious" broadcasting around Easter and Passover.

It's unfortunate that they miss the mark by so far though. It's unfortunate that many Christians miss the mark. Christianity is NOT about keeping the commandments, it's not about what we do. It's about what God has done for us through Christ. It is about the grace of God in flesh. It is about the love of God that gave up everything to make us His own people. I plan on watching the new and updated Commandments. As a Christian, it is an important part of my heritage and faith. But I will be watching the law with the assurance of the gospel.

And, just a little advice for ABC from our brother and Apostle St. Paul:

"You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law." (Romans 2:23)

Check your ears!

One of the temptations and dangers of serving a congregation is getting caught up in praise (not of God, but of yourself.) I'm not saying this to be boastful, but I do get a lot of praise as a Vicar. The congregation likes me and likes to tell me that and I admit sometimes I get to thinking I am pretty great. I was going along with my head about the size of a football field when I turned the page of my Old Lutheran "Tidbit of the Day" Calendar. It had a quote from Luther that really brought me down to earth.

"If you are highly pleased when someone praises you in the presence of others; if perhaps you look for praise, and would sulk or quit what you are doing if you did not get it; if you are of that stripe, dear friend, then take yourself by the ears, and if you do this in the right way you will find a beautiful pair of big, long, shaggy donkey ears."

Dear Lord, You spoke truth through Balaam's ass. I pray that You would continue to use me as Your servant when I am an ass. Keep me and all of Your servants humble as we serve Your Word, that Word that was made flesh for us, that Word that was crucified for us, Jesus Christ. In His name hear all of our prayers!

Amen

Now, that takes a lot of faith

Jesus could have walked on ice?!? This "genius" bit of crud from the scientific community shows its absolute hypocrisy. Don't believe in an intelligent God that formed everything and has a hand in the daily intricate workings of all human life. Instead believe in an absolutely absurd set of highly improbable coincidences that would only happen if a butterfly in the Amazon farted at the exact same instant a monkey in Africa sneezed. Give me a break! This is absolutely ludicrous! The scientific community screams bloody murder anytime the dreaded religion or faith seeks to shine the light of truth, yet the universal Christian community is expected, and unfortunately taught by many clergy (some even in the LCMS), to swallow hook, line and sinker the ridiculous claims of evolution and now Jesus on ice? What's next? Jesus fed the 5,000 with a really good coupon from Denny's?


For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." (ICorinthians 1:18-19)

Sometimes all that needs to be done to "destroy the wisdom of the wise" is to give them enough rope.

A Pondering...

I just had a thought, a pondering really, and it struck me, "Jim, this is the kinda thing you should put in a blog!" So. . . here it is:

Is there a real need, desire, want for more "relevant" Christianity(i.e., contemporary music/worship, worship leaders, big screens and in general audio/visual extravaganzas)? If this is the case, is it right to manipulate and bend church tradition to fit human needs and desires?

-OR-

Is the need only perceived by well-meaning, or maybe not so well-meaning, theologians, pastors, or other church leaders? If this is the case, has that created a perceived need and craving amongst the various sheep in the flock of Christ's church? Example: I have a cousin who was brought up with a strict rule against sweets and sugary foods. The only reason she desired it was because her older cousins and siblings who were not under this rule persuaded her that it was needed and to indulge in this potentially harmful and certainly unhealthy treat, thus creating an unhealthy and unnecessary obsession with it.

Ok, the questions are out there (granted, they are a bit biased.)

Talk amongst yourselves.

What is in a name?

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other word would smell as sweet." --From Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)


First of all, yes, I am a very bad blogger. I admit it! I don’t make time to blog! Ok, glad I got that off my chest! Now… for the real deal!

As many of you who, for whatever warped reason, may read this blog know, I am a Vicar. It seems that across the board Vicars inevitably get the great honor and blessing of “youth work.” This has been my lot. The couple who had been teaching the High School Bible study informed my supervisor that they no longer wanted to do it, so, as could be expected I was called upon with my youthful qualities to lead the youth.

I had no idea what to do with these kids. As are many seminarians, I was a dork in high school. I didn’t like being a kid and felt that this was an unfair type-casting. Just because I am under 30 does not mean I know the inner workings of the teenage mind.

I decided to try to get to know these kids, most of whom are boys, on a more personal level. I figured, what teenage boy doesn’t like video games? I like video games so maybe I could work something out.

It turns out that one of the boys was being left home alone for a while. He lives close to my wife and me so I decided I would invite him over to enjoy some of my wife’s amazing culinary skills and video games with me.

What this inane rambling is all coming down to is that the whole time this young, well-behaved man was in our home he always addressed me as “sir.” Everything was “Yes, sir,” “No, sir,” etc. At first I felt kinda weird about this. Yes, yes, I know I said earlier I didn’t like being a kid, and being called “sir’ by a junior in high school certainly does NOT make one feel like a kid. My first reaction was to tell this young man not to call me “sir,” to be on a more familiar basis with him.

But then, in one of my rare moments of cognizance, I thought about what it meant for him to call me “sir.” Being a good Lutheran I decided to explore “what does this mean.”

For this young man, I was a respected authority. I represented to him the strange and different “adult” class as well as the equally strange and different “clergy” class. For him to call me “sir” was and is a sign of respect. It is a sign that he looks up to me, a sign that he holds me as an authority in his life. The title “Vicar” or “Pastor” also hold with them these signs of respect.

Just two days ago, while ministering to an elderly woman and her family as she neared death, I again was honored with this same kind of respect. The woman’s granddaughter had been calling me by my name. She is not a Lutheran and therefore not familiar with the title of “Vicar” (but then again, many Lutherans are not even familiar with that title!) When we first met and the following couple of meetings after, she addressed my by my first name. I was not offended by it, I didn’t correct her. That would not have been a good ministering thing to do to this woman whose grandmother lay on her death bed. And besides, she was obviously older than me and maybe she thought I was too young to have such a title.
But after a few days of ministering to her grandmother and her family, she came to me and apologized for not calling me Vicar. I assured her it was not a problem and that I was not offended, but she then told me that she thought I deserved that title, she wanted to call me that.

Boy, was I knocked off my feet! Sure, I wear a clerical collar, sure I preach, sure I teach Bible studies, sure I was blessed to minister to her dying grandmother, but I never really thought I deserved to be called “Vicar.”

Then it really hit home. Titles are not a bad thing! They can be misused. They can be abused and elevated to a level that breaks the Second Commandment, but that doesn’t make the use of titles bad, it just makes the people who abuse them bad. This young man who calls me sir, this middle aged woman who wanted to call me Vicar were telling me something very important: they want to be lead, they want a shepherd, they want me to take the mantle of responsibility my age or my office dictate. It’s not wrong for them to call me by “sir” or by “vicar” but it would be wrong for me to look at them and tell them “I don’t want to lead you! I don’t want my self-perceptions to be changed! I don’t want to grow up!”

Jesus never told the people when they shouted out to Him "Rabbi!" or "Master!" "Hey, dudes, I just wanna keep it real, why don't you just call me JC?" Jesus took on the responsibility of what His name and titles meant, He lived up to "God Saves" and "Annointed of God," and "Immanuel" and I thank God that He does live up to those names and titles! I would never want to call Him anything other than Savior!

So, as I am half way through my Vicarage year, I have learned that this office that I seek to serve in has responsibility. It has respect and honor from those who desire a real pastor. To shirk those responsibilities, to reject that gift of respect would be selfish, rude and immature of me to do!

What I can do is pray that our good and gracious Father would make me worthy of such a calling, that He would work in and through me so that that respect, honor, and responsibility would be held as a beautiful gift from Him and a blessing for those who bestow it upon me.

Lord, help me to do this!
Amen.

Lutheran Lent!!

I have been thinking a lot about Lent lately. I know we are still about a month and a half away from it, but this will be my first experience preaching for all the midweek Lenten services, so I’ve been thinking about it.

For the 40 days of Lent, people come up with a lot of ideas, some good, some wanting, of ways to reinvigorate faith. It is common practice for Catholics to give something up for Lent; Evangelical churches have used the popular “40 Days of Purpose” study.

As Lutherans, both of these ideas (although I think “fads” would fit better) have been put to practice. Sometimes they are effective, but many times they are not.

I am not immune to this idea of using somewhat faddish ideas for Lent, but I think I have put a uniquely Lutheran spin on it.

With my supervising Pastor’s approval, I will be preaching on the 6 Chief Parts of the Small Catechism. To go along with that, we will be encouraging our congregation to read just one of the 6 Chief Parts a day, Monday through Saturday, every week during Lent.

By the time Lent is over, people who participate will have read the Catechism 6 times! I’m excited about this idea! I pray that the parishioners will be excited too. What better way to recognize Lent then to reaffirm the basic Christian doctrines of the Small Catechism?
I’ll post as time goes by about the progress of this little scheme.