Our Christmas Liturgy

“Stable.”

“Set max power.”

“Power set, N1’s checked.”

“Airspeed alive both sides.”

“80 knots looking for 146.”

“Checks.”

“V₁, V_R, V₂.”

“Positive rate.”

“Gear up.”

“Verify LNAV.”

“Verified.”

“Bug up, N1, flaps one.”

“Selected.”

“Flaps up, after takeoff checklist.”

The wheels retract into their wells as we accelerate and point the nose of the jet southward on Christmas Eve morning, heading for Cabo San Lucas. On board is a full plane of mostly turistas and a few Mexicans. The flight is uneventful and relatively restful. Once we’re handed off on the radio from Los Angeles Center to Mazatlan Center just north of the border, the radio gets pretty quite. There’s not a whole lot to do except monitor the instruments and enjoy the view. From up at altitude, you can easily see all the way across the Baja, which is a beautiful sight. It’s very desolate, mountainous, and not much sign of civilization. The occasional volcanic island goes sliding by against its watery-blue backdrop.

Four hours later we touch down to a warm sunny day at the very tip of the Baja Peninsula. The cacti and mesquite hurtle by out the side window as we roll out on runway 34. While I’d rather be with my family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, getting people safely to their destination on Christmas is a good feeling – lots of folks who want to be with their loved ones, either at home or on the beach.

Every year that I fly on Christmas, I give the rest of the crew a present. This year I bought gift certificates to Amazon.com for the four Flight Attendants and the Co-pilot. Nobody is expecting that. We have our own mini-Christmas before the passengers board in Seattle. On the way back from Cabo on Christmas Day, the Co-pilot brings a bunch of chocolate. I guess he figures a well-chocolated Captain is a happy Captain. So we have a little auburn goodness as Los Arcos recedes in the distance.

Our Christmas liturgy, the series of calls that we made up above on takeoff, help to get us safely off the ground and help to get our passengers where they want to go. Through our vocation as pilots we serve our neighbor – a small gift that comes about because of the big gift of a Savior, God incarnate, who also comes to serve. A blessed Christmastide to you and your family as we celebrate the Liturgy which has no end in our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ.

Here’s a few fotografías:

Everybody lines up to wave goodbye just before we push back.

Looking through the heads up display out the windshield.

We Have Seen His Glory

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
 
John 1:1 ESV


photo credit: .Bala

What Does It Mean to Examine Yourself for Communion?

Quoting from a sermon of Dr. Martin Luther preached in his home on Maundy Thursday in 1534:

To examine one’s self means to consider well in what condition we are. If we find that our hearts are hardened, that we are not willing to refrain from sin, and that we do not fear its presence, then we may well conclude that we should not go to the Sacrament; for we are then no Christians. The best thing we could do, under such circumstances, would be to put a stop to such wickedness, to repent, to trust faithfully in the promises and mercy of God, and to unite again with Christians in the participation of the Holy Sacrament. If, however, we are unwilling to do this, we ought not to approach the Lord’s Table; for we would surely eat and drink damnation there. Let us carefully meditate upon what eternity has in store for us, if we thus fall under the judgment of God. If we are mindful of this, we will not be slow to repent, to put aside anger and other kinds of wickedness, and to make our peace with God in His Holy Supper. Again, if our hearts are contrite, if we confess our sins before God and are heartily sorry on account of them, if we believe that God in mercy, for Christ’s sake, will pardon us, then we are well prepared and can confidently say to the Savior: “O Lord, we are poor sinners, and therefore come to Your table to receive consolation.” If we approach the Sacrament in such a spirit, we shall be truly ready and receive the richest blessings. In behalf of such contrite and sorrowing souls the Lord’s Table was prepared, so that they might find there consolation and joy.

This quote is taken from the inaugural edition of Logia in 1992, in an article titled “Two Sermons on the Holy Supper.” They in turn were quoting from the house postils, in this case from Sermons on the Gospels for the Sundays and Principal Festivals of the Church Year by Martin Luther, translated by E. Schmid and edited by M. Loy (Rock Island, Illinois: Augustana Book Company, 1871).

Quotable Blog Quotes #15

Quotable Quotes From Around the Blogosphere









Abide In My Word
Pastor Tom Messer
Contemporary Worship Came from Others

…Those who led the charge to turn worship into an experiential, enthusiastic, emotional-manipulating, feel-good, fun-fest do not believe Jesus is Present in their "worship experiences." That's the whole point, the whole basis for this genre of worship. Jesus is "up there," not here. We need to reach Him. We need to let Him know how much we love Him. We experience His love in return as we feel Him touch our hearts. And, if the worship is powerful enough, then that experienced love we feel in our hearts will lead us to commit ourselves to Jesus, make Him our personal Lord and Savior, and leave with the intent to live for Him in this world. It's all about you. Your feelings. Your emotions. Your decision. Your choice. Your commitment. Your life. Jesus is nothing more or less than the object of your affection and the arbiter of your feelings. It is little wonder that the vast majority of contemporary Christian praise songs focus on feelings and employ heart-language, since, well, they are simply the subjective experience and shared feelings of their authors put before others in the hope that they, too, will share that experience and those feelings.


Pastoral Meanderings
Pastor Larry Peters
Who is best equipped to change or adapt the liturgy?

It follows then that for whom the liturgy feels like an ill fitting garment, whose memory needs ever to be prompted by the appropriate response, for whom the church year is alien to their sense of time, and who seek to remove the liturgy as if it were a shackle or chain should not or cannot engage their discretion in adapting or changing the liturgy.


Pastoral Meanderings
Pastor Larry Peters
Fluidity…

The good and wise presider will work to keep the liturgical flow going, without intruding or distracting from the unfolding of Confession to Word to Meal to Sending. That is, I often think, the gift of presiding at the liturgy -- knowing when to speak and when to keep silent, what is needful to be said and what just happens and, well, flows. Far from assisting this flow, the constant flow of announcements, explanations, and page numbers turns this flow into a faucet that is on and off, on and off, jerky and disconcerting.


Preachrblog
Pastor Tom Chryst
Three Reactions to the Law

The great blessing of the law though, is that it drives us to despair - but in preparation for the hope and joy of the Gospel! To die, only to know the life he brings. Yes, without knowing our sin, how could we know our savior? Without knowing the severity of our sin, how could we appreciate the depth of his forgiveness? Without a daily, hard, cold look in the mirror, and a true view of the ugliness of our own sin, how can we daily know the forgiveness that flows from our baptism? This is the great blessing of the law - that it prepares us for the Gospel. It is the diagnosis before the treatment, the plowing of the dead field before the seed is planted and flourishes. The law lowers us down into the grave and shovels on the dirt, only for the trumpet call of Christ to bust our tombs open and burst death open into life.

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Santa Sighting!

I bumped into Santa Claus at the Seattle airport. He had just finished up his deliveries and dropped into Seattle to get his sleigh runners waxed before the return flight to the North Pole. He and one of his elves commandeered a cart and were headed to the Sports Page Pub to tip back a cold one (doesn't it seem like he'd be drinking hot chocolate or something?), but I couldn't join them, since I was on duty. Oh well. Maybe next year. See ya Santa.

The Nativity of Our Lord

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns." 8 The voice of your watchmen--they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion. 9 Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem. 10 The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.  Isaiah 52:7-10 ESV

Christmas Eve 2011

Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, 11 "Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven." 12 But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test." 13 And he said, "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.   Isaiah 7:10-14 ESV

The Triple Advent of Christ

The thoughts of 16th century Lutheran musicologist Lucas Lossius:

The Church celebrates the triple advent (or “coming”) of Christ. First is the advent into flesh, which is despised and humble before the world, of which Zechariah 9[:9] says, “Behold, Your King comes to you, gentle and poor, sitting upon a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden,” [cf.] Matthew 21[:5]. The second is the spiritual advent, which happens daily into the minds of the righteous, since He is present constantly with the Church, hears her, helps and consoles her, concerning which Christ said, John 14[:18]: “I will not leave you orphans, but will come to you.” Again, [v. 23:] “If anyone loves Me, We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him.” The third advent of Christ is His glorious return to judgment, concerning which Isaiah 3[:14] says, “The Lord will come into judgment.” And Matthew 24[:30] says, “And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with much power and majesty.” It is useful always to consider these three advents of the Son of God—into flesh, the minds of the righteous, and for the last judgment—and to have them set forth in the Church for stirring up faith in minds, invocation, and the fear of God or repentance. St. Augustine says thus on Luke, “This time is called the Advent of the Lord for good reason: so that every believer will prepare himself and mend his ways, so that he may have strength worthily to celebrate the nativity of his God.”

Treasury of Daily Prayer, ed. Scot A. Kinnaman, (St. Louis: CPH, 2008) 1045.

Comfort Ye, Comfort Ye My People

Quoting from Dr. Martin Luther's treatise The Blessed Sacrament of the Holy and True Body of Christ, and the Brotherhoods, written in 1519.  God becomes incarnate that we might break His body on a cross, and that same body then be given back to us in the Sacrament of the Altar, healing our bodies and uniting us in perfect love: 

Whoever is in despair, distressed by a sin-stricken conscience or terrified by death or carrying some other burden upon his heart, if he would be rid of them all, let him go joyfully to the sacrament of the altar and lay down his woe in the midst of the community [of saints] and seek help from the entire company of the spiritual body—just as a citizen whose property has suffered damage or misfortune at the hands of his enemies makes complaint to his town council and fellow citizens and asks them for help. The immeasurable grace and mercy of God are given us in this sacrament to the end that we might put from us all misery and tribulation [anfechtung] and lay it upon the community [of saints], and especially on Christ. Then we may with joy find strength and comfort, and say, “Though I am a sinner and have fallen, though this or that misfortune has befallen me, nevertheless I will go to the sacrament to receive a sign from God that I have on my side Christ’s righteousness, life, and sufferings, with all holy angels and the blessed in heaven and all pious men on earth. If I die, I am not alone in death; if I suffer, they suffer with me. [I know that] all my misfortune is shared with Christ and the saints, because I have a sure sign of their love toward me.” See, this is the benefit to be derived from this sacrament; this is the use we should make of it. Then the heart cannot but rejoice and be strengthened.

 

Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 35 : Word and Sacrament I, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann, Luther's Works (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999, c1960). 35:III-54.

E'en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come