Oh Say Can He Sing!

I'm told that the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's very own Pastor Peter Bender, pastor at Peace Lutheran Church in Sussex, Wisconsin, will be singing the national anthem at the October 1 Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field. If you're not headed to the game on that day, you might still be able to catch it, either on MLB.TV, or you may be able to listen on the radio if you live in the right spot (it won't be streaming).

For details on how Pastor Bender was picked for this singular honor, read Fred H. Keller's August 29 Bald Facts column.


photo credit: wallyg

Sublime Monotony

Quoting Hermann Sasse, from section III, We Confess the Church, of the We Confess Anthology:

"We are witnesses to all that He did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree; but God raised Him on the third day and made Him manifest; not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead" (Acts 10, 39-41). It was always the same message, repeated with sublime monotony by the apostles, who were eyewitnesses, and then after their death by those to whom the apostolic proclamation was committed. The church of all times lives from the doctrine of the apostles.

But does it really? Must not the church adjust its message to the contemporary situation? The reproach of not moving with the times was heard in Germany through the 18th and 19th centuries from those who held a naive faith in progress. Why go on preaching the same as Peter did in the Acts of the Apostles? How many theologians, indeed whole churches, finally had enough! They did not continue in the apostles' doctrine. They preached something else. Forty years ago they preached sermons on Goethe and Schiller. They preached the current view of the world, although most world views are lucky if they last as long as 30 years. And the churches did not become fuller, but emptier. And rightly so. For since 1848 any member of German society could read in the newspaper every morning as he drank his coffee what the latest and only acceptable world view is. For this I do not need to go to church. But where the church continued in the apostles' doctrine, there the congregation remained.

To the world it is inexplicable that the church lives on, always preaching the same old thing. In fact, it is because the same old thing goes on being preached, the apostles' doctrine, that the church goes on living. This is because the apostles' doctrine is the everlasting Word of God to all men, to all nations, to all times. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, "who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven ... and was made man." He "was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification" [Rom. 4:25]. He "is seated at the right hand of the Father ... and His kingdom shall have no end." The apostolic doctrine witnesses to the Word of God become flesh. In this witness, in the simple words of the apostles, in the straight­forward words preached in the church, Christ, the eternal Word, is Himself present. Therefore the church lives from the apostolic doctrine.

Hermann Sasse, We Confess Anthology, Trans. Norman Nagel (St. Louis: CPH, 1999) 132.

Don’t Miss It! The Lutheran Concerns Association Annual Conference Is Coming Up

Monday, January 21, 2013 marks the date for the Lutheran Concerns Association Annual Conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana, followed the rest of the week by Concordia Theological Seminary’s annual Symposia. This year’s LCA speakers are a top notch group. Rev. Dr. Peter Scaer has an early morning Bible Study, and Rev. Dr. Bill Weinrich will begin with an opening devotion. Walter Dissen and Indiana District President Rev. Daniel May will welcome the attendees. Synod President Emeritus Rev. Dr. Robert Kuhn and Rev. Dr. Tim Rossow will tag team on Issues and Overtures, and hot button Synod issues and the local parish, respectively. Rev. Peter Bender will be speaking on pastoral care and admission to the Lord’s Supper, a particularly relevant topic given the varying positions in our Synod. Attorney Scott Meyer will discuss religious liberty, another highly relevant topic. Rev. Dr. Martin Noland will give a presentation titled “Missionals vs. Confessionals & Other Issues at the 2013 LCMS Convention,” and CTS professor Rev. Dr. Richard Nuffer will offer a presentation titled “SMP: Aerobatic Acronym.”

This is a great opportunity to hear top notch speakers in a relatively intimate setting, including sharing a word or two over lunch. If you’re not familiar with the Lutheran Concerns Association, their website is here. You can read the current issue of their newsletter, The Lutheran Clarion, here, which contains a registration form for the Conference. Older Clarions are available here.

A photo from last year's panel discussion

Get Those Nominations In

The deadline to nominate people for officer, board, and commission positions to be elected at the LCMS 2013 National Convention is drawing nigh - October 20 to be exact. Positions to be filled include Secretary of the Synod, LCMS Board of Directors, Concordia Historical Institute Board of Governors, Concordia University System Board of Directors, Concordia Publishing House Board of Directors, LCEF Board of Directors, LCMS Foundation Board of Trustees, Commission on Theology and Church Relations, Seminary Boards of Regents, and College/University Boards of Regents.  You can view the details for these positions here. Qualifications desired can be viewed here.  The nominating form is available here.


photo credit: KClvey

Quotable Blog Quotes #18

 Quotable Quotes From Around the Blogosphere




BBC News Europe
Spanish fresco restoration botched by amateur

The woman, in her 80s, was reportedly upset at the way the fresco had deteriorated and took it on herself to "restore" the image. BBC Europe correspondent Christian Fraser says the delicate brush strokes of Elias Garcia Martinez have been buried under a haphazard splattering of paint. The once-dignified portrait now resembles a crayon sketch of a very hairy monkey in an ill-fitting tunic, he says.


Brothers of John the Steadfast
Pastor Tim Rossow
Is the Lectio Divina a Practice to Be Encouraged?

The very notion of mistaking honest and edifying theological critique in this post and on this string for slander, is exhibit A of the need for such critique. It is the woosification of society and also church culture that has people being offended by the mere exchange of ideas. This woosification is a product of the psychologizing and sociologizing of culture and theology.


Confessing Moments
Pastor Michael Schmidt
Such a time as this – Esther 4:14

The Lion’s Club can hold a picnic, only the Church can baptize. The Boy Scouts can serve a meal, only the Church can offer the body and blood of Jesus. The city council can organize a community clean-up day, only the Church can forgive sins. So at future conventions, do not tell me about the work that anyone can do; rather tell me about the work that only the Church can do. Encourage me, refresh me, build me up with the news of baptisms, confirmations, Law and Gospel preaching, sins forgiven, and the Lord’s Supper administered.


Confessional Gadfly
Pastor Eric Brown
The Law, Finding Fault, and Self Service

Proclaiming the Law is never self serving. At least proclaiming it properly isn't. Well, what do I mean by that? When one speaks the Law to another person, one is laying them bare, is killing them. The Law kills. It slays the Old Adam -- it kills what needs to be killed but it still kills. But that killing is done in order that the Holy Spirit may make alive again through a word of the Gospel proclaimed as soon as the Law has done it's work. Using the Law is always to be a service to the neighbor, to be about their good, their benefit. It *is* to be an act of love. And as an act of love, the follow through of the Gospel and Comfort will be second nature -- but if there is no love, it will just be hanging, dangling law.


Gottesdienst Online
Pastor Larry Beane
Goldilocks, George Carlin, and the Middle of the Road

Moreover, the argument that "smells and bells" and "happy clappy" are two sides of the same coin is a false analogy, and nowhere near a valid approach to liturgy. It is a convenient way to appeal to the center, to the majority that are somewhere in the middle, to those who (for whatever reason) are not interested in pursuing a richer ceremonial and liturgical life in the parish as has been the trend among our synod as a whole for decades. Liturgy is normative in our Lutheran confessions. Going without the liturgy is un-Lutheran and antithetical to our confession. On the other hand, being "high church" is consistent within our tradition as articulated in the Book of Concord. To lump the two together in a box and label them both un-Lutheran is just plain wrong.

Click HERE to continue reading >>

Just Sayin'

From the Useless Slang Department:

One of my favorites: “It is what it is.”

Well yes, I suppose that’s true. Isn’t everything what it is? One generally doesn't come across anything that truly isn’t what it is, or is what it isn’t. So when I hear someone say “It is what it is,” my reaction is usually something akin to “My, you’ve got a tremendous grasp of the obvious.” The possible exception to this helpful maxim is if you’re a cult member, in which case suspension of disbelief often makes things what they aren’t, at least for you.

My favorite though is “Just sayin'.” This one is tremendously useful:

“Your dog is really ugly. Just sayin'.”

“Your church stinks. Just sayin'.”

It’s as though tacking “Just sayin'” onto the end of your observation gives you license to forgo social pleasantries and be brutally tactless. Kinda like having a few drinks makes boorish behavior perfectly acceptable.

Just sayin'.


photo credit: Adam Awad

The Case of the Incredibly Expanding Sin

"Small sins become great when they are regarded as small. "

C. F. W. Walther, The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel, (St. Louis: CPH, 1986) 332.

Clashing Theology: The Willow Creek Association and Lutheranism

A quote of Pastor Todd Wilken discussing the Willow Creek Association and Lutheran churches who join the association, from an Issues, Etc. segment on May 3, 2011:

Like it or not, it’s a theological association. They’re going to be presuppositions behind everything that’s taught at a leadership seminar, or going or using Willow Creek materials about the nature of the Church, the nature of the pastoral office, what is Baptism, what is the Lord’s Supper. That all goes to the question “How are Christians made?” Are they made by the artful persuasion of the mind and eventually a decision that the unbeliever makes to accept Jesus into his heart? That’s the Willow Creek model. Read Bill Hybels many books. Or, is this entirely the work of the Holy Spirit working through, as Jesus says, through Baptism, and the teaching of God’s Word. Two completely different views. Is there a conflict here? Obviously. A Lutheran pastor who says “We can consistently be Lutheran and a member of the Willow Creek Association as a congregation is either fooling himself, or, worse yet, being dishonest.

A list of LCMS congregations that belong to the Willow Creek Association can be found here.

The Smoky Mountain Bible Institute: Scientific Disciplines Through a Biblical Worldview

It’s hard to read anything, even Christian literature, that doesn’t frame such things as geology or biology in terms of an old earth time frame and millions of years, which usually equates to evolution. The Bible, on the other hand, says something different, that God created the earth and the heavens in six days. It can be hard to reconcile the two when we’re awash in a world that views everything through a naturalistic lens. If you’re interested in reconciling the sciences with a Biblical worldview that is still true to science, you might want to try the Smoky Mountain Bible Institute.

The Smoky Mountain Bible Institute is an online series of “classes” which walks you through the various disciplines of science, such as biology, astronomy, archaeology, anthropology, and dating methods, and explains how all of these disciplines can be used to explain God’s Creation from a Biblical perspective. Pastor Robert Portier began the Institute last year as an offshoot of a series of articles he had written.

If you don’t have a scientific background, or are grappling with how science and Christianity can be harmonized using today’s branches of science, this may be the place for you. Each post, which comes out more-or-less monthly, will walk you through an area of science, explaining how that particular discipline can be used in a proper Christian worldview to explain the world around us. The lessons are written so that they are easily understood by the average layman, and are quite helpful in demonstrating the truths found in the Bible while remaining true to the scientific evidence. The first lesson begins here; scroll to the post at the bottom of the page to being your adventure.

Eschatological Irony

There are “unchurched” who will be saved and “Christ followers” who will not.

"And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life."

1 John 5:11-13 ESV

photo credit: Brett Jordan