The Sacrifices of God Are a Broken Spirit

Psalm 51

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

¹ Have mercy on me, O God,
       according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
       blot out my transgressions.
² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
       and cleanse me from my sin!
³ For I know my transgressions,
       and my sin is ever before me.
⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned
       and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
       and blameless in your judgment.
⁵ Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
       and in sin did my mother conceive me.
⁶ Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
       and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
       wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
       let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins,
       and blot out all my iniquities.
¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God,
       and renew a right spirit within me.
¹¹ Cast me not away from your presence,
       and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
       and uphold me with a willing spirit.
¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
       and sinners will return to you.
¹⁴ Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
       O God of my salvation,
       and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips,
       and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶ For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
       you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
       a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
¹⁸ Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
       build up the walls of Jerusalem;
¹⁹ then will you delight in right sacrifices,
       in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
       then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Psalms 51:1-19

Taste and See that the Lord is Good!

Psalm 34

Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.

¹ I will bless the LORD at all times;
       his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
² My soul makes its boast in the LORD;
       let the humble hear and be glad.
³ Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
       and let us exalt his name together!
⁴ I sought the LORD,
       and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.
⁵ Those who look to him are radiant,
       and their faces shall never be ashamed.
⁶ This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him
       and saved him out of all his troubles.
⁷ The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him,
       and delivers them.
⁸ Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
       Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
⁹ Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints,
       for those who fear him have no lack!
¹⁰ The young lions suffer want and hunger;
       but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
¹¹ Come, O children, listen to me;
       I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
¹² What man is there who desires life and loves many days,
       that he may see good?
¹³ Keep your tongue from evil
       and your lips from speaking deceit.
¹⁴ Turn away from evil and do good;
       seek peace and pursue it.
¹⁵ The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous
       and his ears toward their cry.
¹⁶ The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
       to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
¹⁷ When the righteous cry for help,
       the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.
¹⁸ The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
       and saves the crushed in spirit.
¹⁹ Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
       but the LORD delivers him out of them all.
²⁰ He keeps all his bones;
       not one of them is broken.
²¹ Affliction will slay the wicked,
       and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
²² The LORD redeems the life of his servants;
       none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

Psalms 34:1-22

A Merciful and Faithful High Priest

Hebrews 2

   ¹ Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. ² For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, ³ how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, ⁴ while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
   ⁵ Now it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. ⁶ It has been testified somewhere,

"What is man, that you are mindful of him,
       or the son of man, that you care for him?
⁷ You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
       you have crowned him with glory and honor,
⁸ putting everything in subjection under his feet."

Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. ⁹ But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
   ¹⁰ For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. ¹¹ For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, ¹² saying,

"I will tell of your name to my brothers;
       in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise."

¹³ And again,

"I will put my trust in him."

And again,

"Behold, I and the children God has given me."

   ¹⁴ Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵ and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. ¹⁶ For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. ¹⁷ Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. ¹⁸ For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Hebrews 2:1-18

Hail the King!

Ride on, ride on in majesty!
The angel armies of the sky
Look down with sad and wond'ring eyes
To see the approaching sacrifice.

LSB 441, v. 2


photo credit: sea turtle

I've Had Enough...

...of this purpose-driven Church Growth Movement stuff.


photo credit: brtsergio

Rescue from Abbreviation Hell #3

If you’re hopelessly stumped like I am by abbreviations used in blog posts, websites, and forums, the cavalry has arrived. I’ve compiled another list (the first two being located here and here) of the more common, and some of the more arcane, churchly abbreviations. If you’re up for it, take the test and see how you fare. If not, click on "Read More..." for your rescue from abbreviation "hell."


Take the Test:

Instructions: Read through the list. Write down the abbreviations you know on a piece of paper. Then compare your answers with the correct answers by clicking on "Read More... ." Add up the number of correct answers, and see how you rank. When finished with the test, post answers on refrigerator door for future reference. For extra credit, leave me a list of your abbreviations. This is the hardest test yet. God doesn’t grade on a curve (fortunately), but I do.
Your score indicates:

If you got less than six right: Ignorance is bliss
6-15: A seasoned layperson
16-25: Church worker
26-35: What have you been readin’?
Above 35: You’re a synodocrat

ACP =
AELC =
BfMS =
BME =
BUE =
CALL =
CDR =
CEU =
CGMEF =
CICR =
CIM =
CLB =
CMGS =
CMO =
CNM =
COH =
CORE =
CRM =
CSC =
CUS =
EIIT =
ELCL =
ELS =
EMV =
FGAL =
FMTF =
GEM =
HFP2010 =
HR =
IELC =
LBT =
LGTB =
LINO =
MAF =
MCG =
MLS =
NCD =
OIM =
ONM =
PALS =
PotS =
SC =
SMP =
SPIFE =
STLK =
TAM =
TCN =
TFDFNC =
VEBA =
WLI =

Click HERE to continue reading >>

Subjectifying the Objective

A comment on yesterday's post regarding the liturgy by Pastor Martin Diers was so good that he's been upgraded to First Class. Here's what he had to say:

A confessional study of the liturgy is not easy, because it cannot be presented in soundbites. It requires extensive teaching, more so today than at any time in the recent past, because our laity and ministry are woefully ignorant of their own history (And ignorant pastors are responsible for the ignorant laity - so don't blame the flocks!) But, more than the history, they are ignorant of the doctrine of worship, or even that there is a Biblical doctrine of worship. It is clearly laid out by Christ Himself, and established by the Apostles as the norm for the Church for all time, namely, that we are to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins in His name, baptize, give the Lord's body and blood, and instruct in all Christian doctrine. These are the things that Jesus specifically bids His Church to do when they assemble together. Because we have a clear prescription from our Lord, however much the precise forms of worship might be adiaphora, no form which does not do the things which Jesus has explicitly bidden us to do can be called true Christian worship! Therefore, unless this is first understood, it will not be possible to instruct our pastors and laity in how the divine liturgy of the Mass fulfills this purpose, whereas all forms of modern contemporary worship do not.

We are quite literally re-fighting the battle for the liturgy that was fought during the Reformation. In both cases, we are dealing with a fanatical spirit which subjectifies the objective. The "sacrifice of the Mass" and the modern contemporary worship / seeker sensitive movement have in common a denial of the means of grace as God's objective imputation of the forgiveness of sins. They replace it with a spiritualistic grasping after God's glory via our own works, whether those works are "fulfilling your obligation" by showing up at the Mass and gaining merit ex opera operato, or by preparing yourself to "enter into the holy of holies" by a progressively ecstatic cycle of mindless or mind-altering psyco-hypnotic praise music (which in itself has much in common with the ascetic mysticism of the past).

And so, while it is certainly useful to demonstrate from the confessions that our churches fully intended to continue the Mass as they had received it (as purified by Luther), it is much more important to demonstrate from those same confessions just what, exactly, Christian worship is, and why the Mass IS true Christian worship, whereas modern contemporary worship is most certainly not.

Leitourgia Divina Adiaphora Non Est

Here's a quote from yesterday's excellent post by Pastor Larry Peters on his blog Pastoral Meanderings:

Some suggest that the Confessions do not prescribe a liturgical format, and, to a certain extent that is true, since they do not contain the text or form within their documents. However, they describe what is going on among the churches that confess the Augustana. When they say, "this is what we are doing" (or We are falsely accused of having abolished the Mass), they are not saying "This is what we are doing now but that might change soon" or "This is what some of us are doing" or even "This is the first stage in the reform of the Mass which is ongoing among us...." Their descriptive language is in itself prescriptive since nowhere in the Confessions is their any signal of an intent to vary or deviate from this fundamental statement that is put in confessional form.

The Mysterious Case of the Disappearing Gospel

My friend Daniel Neades lives on the Isle of Man, a small rock in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom. He produced the following video, which graphically points out the difference between a social gospel, which is devoid of salvific power, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. His accompanying blog post, “The mysterious case of the disappearing gospel,” should be read first at his blog BetterThanSacrifice.org in order to place the video in a proper context.

D&RGW

No, it's not the initials for some new LCMS task force. The letters stand for the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. Once the king of the Rocky Mountains, this railroad was swallowed by the Union Pacific in 1996. The Rio Grande chugged higher than any other mainline railroad in the U.S., crossing Tennessee Pass in Colorado at 10,240 feet, and its silver rails snaked through the Royal Gorge and under the Continental Divide via the Moffat Tunnel.

I shot these photos long before the advent of digital photography, around 1982 in Denver. The cars pictured here were a part of the Rio Grande Zephyr, which originally was a part of the famed California Zephyr until its demise in 1970. The day of the mighty steam locomotive and the E-unit are largely gone, but they live on in the hearts of rail fans and in the pages of cyberspace. If you enjoy railroad photography, head over to dogcaught: a railroad blog, where they've got superb photos of present-day railroading.