The Holy Cross of Christ

Please prayerfully consider with me these words of St. John of Damascus (A+D 676-749). John, sometimes called "Chrysorrhoas," or "streaming with gold" (i.e., "the golden speaker"), was an Arab Christian monk and priest in the late 7th/early 8th century:

Every action of Christ and all His working of miracles were truly very great and divine and wonderful, but of all things the most wonderful is His honorable cross. For by nothing else except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ has death been brought low, the sin of our first parent destroyed, hell plundered, resurrection bestowed, the power given us to despise the things of this world and even death itself, the road back to the former blessedness made smooth, the gates of paradise opened, our nature seated at the right hand of God, and we made children and heirs of God. By the cross all things have been set aright!

                               – John of Damascus, Book IV: Chapter 11

Silence in the Divine Service

So my article for our congregational newsletter in July is going to talk about a number of different actions and gestures that I do in leading the Divine Service (worship) that require a little teaching in order for their significance to be fully realized. It's inspired by Pastor Weedon in a post from last year. One of the things that I don't mention in this forthcoming article is the use of silence.


And yet, silence is an important part of the Divine Service. For example, in the service (after the Invitation to confess our sins), there is "silence for reflection on God's Word and for self-examination. Despite the fact that the hymnal specifies the reason for the moment of silence, people often wonder what's going on. It's a break from everything that competes for our attention. It allows us to meditate on God- on His Word and on our failure to follow it. Silence allows us to consider the sins we need to confess before Him.


One that's a little more difficult is the moment of silence before the Collect of the Day. The Collect of the Day is a brief historic prayer that summarizes some of the thoughts of the Gospel reading. The moment of silence before the Collect is more difficult because the editors of our hymnal (Lutheran Service Book) opted not to mention the moment of silence in the pew hymnal; the silence is only mentioned in the Altar Book where it says: "The presiding minister faces the altar. A brief silence may be observed. The presiding minister may raise his outstretched hands in the gesture of prayer while speaking or chanting the COLLECT OF THE DAY." The silence, then, recognizes that the pastor's "Let us pray" is an invitation; the congregation is thereby invited to lift its prayers in silence to God. The collect that follows then "collects" those individual intercessions and gives them voice.

In any case, the next time there is a moment of silence in your congregation, don't wonder "what's going on? Is the pastor confused?" Instead, use the God-given opportunity to collect your thoughts and offer them to God. Pray to the God of heaven and earth for God's unmerited favor. And trust that -because of Christ Jesus and His cross- you will receive all the benefits of that cross— peace, favor, grace, and love. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Lutheran Confessions and the Word of God

Pastor Weedon points out an incredibly apt statement in the Treasury of Daily Prayer's assigned readings from the Book of Concord. Here in a single sentence is what it means to subscribe the Confessions:

In my humble opinion I judge that all these [AC, Ap, Treatise] agree with Holy Scriptures and the belief of the true and genuine catholic Church.  - Johann Brenz (A+D 1499-1570).

Accordingly, this is something all Lutherans and all Lutheran Churches can say. Our own beloved Church, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, in its humble opinion judges that the entire Book of Concord agrees with Holy Scriptures and the belief of the true and genuine catholic Church.


Praise be to God! Amen.

Holy Trinity Sunday

So yesterday was the First Sunday after Pentecost. It was a wonderful celebratory service - with sung introit, confessed Athanasian Creed and wonderful Trinitarian hymns. Included was, of course, Reginald Heber's (A+D 1783-1826) "Holy, Holy Holy."

   Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
       Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;
   Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
       God in three persons, blessèd Trinity!

   Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee,
       Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
   Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,
       Which wert and art and evermore shalt be.

   Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide Thee,
       Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see,
   Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee,
       Perfect in pow’r, in love, and purity.

   Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
      All Thy works shall praise Thy name in earth and sky and sea.
   Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
       God in three persons, blessèd Trinity!

Pentecost Monday

A blessed and happy Pentecost Monday to you!


Yesterday at Church we celebrated the Feast of Pentecost Day. Pentecost is an amazing high point in the Church Year and it was a beautiful and moving service - we sang the Introit (which we have never done before), the choir sang at both services, we had a thank-you presentation to this year's Sunday School Teachers and Staff, and we heard the Good News of what it means to be a child of God in the Post-Pentecost Age. Of course, we also had the privilege of receiving the Sacrament of the Altar together in unity of faith. Forgiveness given, Forgiveness received - and lives restored - all by the grace of God and to the glory of God.

Not only that, but as part of our spotlight on the work of the Holy Spirit -as He continues to serve us faithfully and powerfully through the Word and Sacraments- we took the opportunity (in place of the Nicene Creed) to confess together Martin Luther's Explanation to the Third Article of the Creed from the Small Catechism. It's a powerful testimony not only to the deadness of our hearts, but to how the Holy Spirit lifts us out of death and into life through His own work:

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the bodya, and the life everlasting.

What does this mean?

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.

In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.

In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers.

On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.

This is most certainly true.

Christ Has Ascended

Today is the fortieth day after Easter. Forty days since our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, rose from death and the grave. Forty days during which Jesus showed His once-dead body as living-- to Mary Magdalene, to Peter and John, to the ten disciples, to the two disciples on the Emmaus road, to the eleven disciples, to seven by the seashore, even to five hundred disciples, to James... 









See, the Lord ascends in triumph;
    Conqu’ring King in royal state,
Riding on the clouds, His chariot,
    To His heav’nly palace gate.
Hark! The choirs of angel voices
    Joyful alleluias sing,
And the portals high are lifted
    To receive their heav’nly King.


Who is this that comes in glory
    With the trump of jubilee?
Lord of battles, God of armies,
    He has gained the victory.
He who on the cross did suffer,
    He who from the grave arose,
He has vanquished sin and Satan;
    He by death has crushed His foes.


While He lifts His hands in blessing,
    He is parted from His friends;
While their eager eyes behold Him,
    He upon the clouds ascends.
He who walked with God and pleased Him,
    Preaching truth and doom to come,
He, our Enoch, is translated
    To His everlasting home.

Now our heav’nly Aaron enters
    With His blood within the veil;
Joshua now is come to Canaan,
    And the kings before Him quail.
Now He plants the tribes of Israel
   In their promised resting place;
Now our great Elijah offers
    Double portion of His grace.


He has raised our human nature
    On the clouds to God’s right hand;
There we sit in heav’nly places,
    There with Him in glory stand.Jesus reigns, adored by angels;
    Man with God is on the throne.
By our mighty Lord’s ascension
    We by faith behold our own.    (LSB 494)

Theology of the Cross

Dr. Hermann Sasse (A+D 1895—1976), student, pastor, scholar, teacher, and confessor Herman Sasse, is recognized as one of the leading voices of confessional Lutheranism in the 20th century. He speaks cogent words about the development of the theology of the cross, now sadly being lost to the seemingly unstoppable forces of triumphalism which is dominant in most corners of the American Christianity:

Something very profound happened in the inner life of Christendom when for the first time in the churches and monasteries of Europe the suffering of the cross was understood. This change becomes visible in the representations of the Crucified, who now no longer stands as victor at the tree of the cross but hangs there suffering, later even writhing in agony and dying. This change took place in the late Middle Ages, when the great realistic crucifixes hung in the high choir of the Gothic churches replaced the triumphing Christ. The depth of Christ's suffering is deeply felt and experienced. The lowly Christ, the God-man in His deepest humility, becomes mankind's Brother. It became an ideal of medieval Christian piety to fashion oneself like Christ (imitatio Christi), even to the point of mystically experiencing all the agonies of the cross. Certainly it was only a narrow stratum of church people who experienced this, but all were affected by this piety. The liturgy and the way churches were built made sure of this.

It is significant that the discovery of the suffering and death of Christ as a fearful reality went hand in hand with a new realization of the seriousness of sin and of its forgiveness. There is nothing to equal this in the ancient church. Much can be said against what was taught about sin and its forgiveness in the Middle Ages. No one at that time grasped the depth of the Biblical understanding of sin. The whole system of penance was faulty, yes, a denial of the Gospel. Yet the observation of Claus Harms remains true: At that time people at least still felt sin and let forgiveness cost them something, and therefore the Middle Ages stood higher than the modern world.

       Source: "We Confess Anthology," translated by Norman Nagel, ©1999, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, p.43