What Makes Bad Hymns Bad?

Quoting Pastor Richard Stuckwisch, on his September 28 appearance on Issues, Etc., discussing the historic hymns of the Church:

If a hymn is ambiguous, that is to say if it’s unclear what it’s saying, or if it’s saying anything, why use the Church’s time to sing it? Maybe, you know, if it’s a song that’s fun to sing, okay, then maybe people can sing it in the car, or at home, the way they listen to the radio, but if it’s gonna function as a hymn it needs to say something and it needs to say it in such a way that it has clarity and integrity and actually is pointing people to Christ and to the Gospel. If a hymn doesn’t do that, it really isn’t a good hymn. There are hymns that say things that are true, hymns that even say things that come right out of the Bible but are not good hymns because they’re not properly dividing the Law and the Gospel. So they’re focusing on the Law in such a way that the Gospel is not heard, or they’re focusing on the Law in such a way that people are pointed not to Christ but to themselves, or they seek to praise God in a way that actually ends up focusing on the singer rather than on the Savior. These are just some examples, but those kinds of characteristics are part of what makes bad hymns bad hymns.

Listen to the whole program:




photo credit: Leo Reynolds

“In God We Trust”

Facebook has an application which sends out messages on a regular basis called “In God We Trust.” It's tag line is "Receive the Words of Divine Wisdom to inspire you to greatness, to strength, to passion for life. GOD wants You to Know!" Here’s what I found when I checked out the last three messages on a friend’s page:

Monday’s message: “The quickest way to find love is to give love. If you want it too badly, you will not find it. The most secure way to keep love is to give it space and care to grow. If you hold it too tightly, you will lose it.” That would mean “love” is dependent on us. Their statement disagrees with what the Bible says: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10 ESV).

Ironically, there was no message on Sunday.

Saturday’s message: “You keep wanting to know how things will play out, keep asking to see the future. God doesn’t give anyone the power to know the future, because life becomes maddeningly boring when you know everything upfront. So, instead of struggling, enjoy the uncertainty – to be alive means to not know” (emphasis added).

Here’s what the Bible says about being alive: “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14 ESV).

Friday’s message: “You're chasing in the wrong field. What you are looking for is inside of you, not 'out there'. Take a few days off to become quiet and look within, and you will find it.” The Bible says in Hebrews 12:1-2 (ESV): “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Notice the Bible shows us what we find when we look within – sin. It is Jesus to whom we should look. Where can Jesus be found? In the pages of Scripture, in the Word heard preached each Sunday by faithful pastors, and in the Sacraments.

What these messages teach us is to put our trust in ourselves. IN ME WE TRUST. This is essentially secular humanism. It is antithetical to what God says in His Word. All of the above Bible verses point to Jesus. They show us our sin and our need for a Savior. It is in Him that we live and move and have our being. It is through Him that all people are forgiven, and it is only through Him and what He continues to do in or lives that we can truly love. His life, His death, His resurrection – for us. Taking the “In God We Trust” messages to heart turns one into a Christless Christian, which, of course, isn’t a Christian at all.

photo credit: stallio

The Formula for Christian Living

A quote from Dr. Harold Senkbeil's book Dying to Live:

The truth is, all of the New Testament’s imperatives are based on its indicatives. In other words, everything God demands of His children He first gives His children. Everything God wants us to do He has already done in His Son, and He continues to work in us in and through Jesus Christ. He is not a departed hero gone off to heaven to watch how well we’re doing here on earth without Him. He is present here and now with His church in those sacred mysteries we call the Word and the Sacraments. There’s a link between the life Christians lead and their living Lord. And that link is Baptism.

People keep looking for the key to a dynamic Christian life, some magic formula to bring zest to dull, half-hearted commitment. Unfortunately, most of the formulas suggested tend to be do-it-yourself projects. A do-it-yourself approach to the Christian life is doomed from the start. Reform a sinner and you get a reformed sinner. Discipline a sinner and you get a disciplined sinner. Educate a sinner and you get an educated sinner. In every case you still have the same sinner you started out with.

No, the Old Adam will not be tamed or reformed or disciplined or educated. He can only be killed. And this is just what God does; in Holy Baptism we are put to death and buried. But since it is the death and burial of Jesus, it makes all the difference in the world. His death and burial brings with it resurrection and new life. By Holy Baptism the Triune God crucifies our Old Adam, buries our sin, raises us as a new creation, and clothes us in Jesus Christ–thus giving us a whole new life to live. This is the authentic formula for Christian living!

Harold L. Senkbeil, Dying to Live: The Power of Forgiveness (St. Louis: CPH, 1994) 79.

photo credit: Lawrence OP

What Does the Christian Life Consist Of?

Quoting Dr. Martin Luther:

Christian life consists...in a growing confidence in God and a diminishing confidence in oneself.

Ewald M. Plass, compiler, What Luther Says: A Practical In-Home Anthology for the Active Christian, (St. Louis: CPH, 1959) §629, 213.

The Trumpet Will Sound

"Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."

1 Corinthians 15:49-58 ESV

photo credit: benefit of hindsight

Dr. Nestingen on the ELCA

During the September 23 Issues Etc. program, Pastor Todd Wilken asked Dr. James Nestingen, Professor Emeritus of the ELCA’s Luther Seminary, a rather pointed question:

Has the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, at least in this action [dropping the ban on openly gay clergy and approving of gay marriage], forfeited, properly, the name “Christian Church?”

Dr. Nestingen’s response:

Oh, it’s, of course. I mean, God did not call us to be judges of the Word. He called us to be proclaimers. He didn’t call us to vote on whether or not we consider His sexual limitations viable or desirable. I mean, He said, He did not say “Here are the ten options,” or “the ten values waiting for clarification.” I mean all of this stuff is just clear as the nose on your face, and the pathetic thing, of course, the ruefulness in my laughter, and the pain in my laughter is the people I belong to have betrayed their heritage. This is not a church any more, it’s a joke, it’s a religious pretense, you know, a pious fraud, as if another one is needed.

Listen to the whole show:

Great Numbers Do Not Make the Church

Dr. Ron M. Garwood quoting Luther, in his essay "The Nature of the Church With Reference To Its Structure," presented to the Wyoming District Convention this year:

Great numbers do not make the church…We must look to the Word alone and judge on the basis of that. For only those who embrace the Word are the ones who will be as immovable forever as Mount Zion, even though they are few in number and very contemptible in the eyes of the world…The church is a daughter, born of the Word;… Therefore whoever loses the Word and instead eagerly looks to influential persons ceases to be the church and lapses into blindness; neither numbers nor power will do him any good. Those who keep the Word, as did Noah and his family, are the church, even though they be very few in number....

King David's Prayer

Therefore David blessed the LORD in the presence of all the assembly. And David said:

"Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever.

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours.

Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all.

Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all.

In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.

And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.

1 Chronicles 29:10-13 ESV

photo credit: regeniabrabham

Stock Up

Concordia Publishing House, in honor of its 140th anniversary, is having a 140-hour sale through September 14th. STOCK UP! Selected books are 50% off or more.

Examples:

- Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, $14.

- The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology, by Charles Porterfield Krauth, $15.

- A Seminary in Crisis, by Paul Zimmerman, $20.

Happy shopping.

Where’s Waldo?

Rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated. I’ve had several people call or email wondering if I’m all right. Yep, I’m fine. I’ve been taking a break from blogging to spend time with the family this summer and attempt to pare down the “honey-do” list. I’ve been successful in the former and not so successful in the latter. I get one thing knocked off the honey-do list and two more pop up. I guess that means I shouldn’t do any of them, to keep the list shorter. Well, maybe that wouldn’t fit in with my call to be a husband now would it.

Just to eat up a little extra time, I put a new hard drive in our oldest computer, and put a new hard drive and display screen in my laptop, which is now my old laptop, since I just bought a new one. Now I can blog in style. Sorry Mac fans, it’s a PC. At least one of the aviation programs I’m likely to use wouldn’t run on a Mac, even if it were running Windows. (Who would do that to begin with?)

Another speed bump I need to tackle is my annual training at work next month, which takes up two or three weeks between preparation, ground school, and simulator.

One down side to taking a break is that I haven’t been keeping up too much on reading the blogs I normally read either. I just checked my Google reader - 709 unread posts. Hmm... Time to do a little speed reading. Hope y’all had a good summer.