A blog of the Evangelical Lutheran Liturgy
Sometimes Gottesdienst gets criticized for complaining too much and too quickly, and not leaving enough leeway for district officials to handle trouble spots that pop up in the Missouri Synod. And we’re certainly willing to take constructive criticism, since we know how fallible we are, and that we sometimes can get things wrong, or make mistakes, and that we certainly have the capacity to be unfair. It’s always a good thing to be circumspect.
Read MoreI recently heard a talk by an LCMS presenter… mention in a talk that in our current day and age, Christians “no longer have a place at the table,” and he said that we should thank God for that. His remark was cheered.
Read MoreThe debate about whether observing Halloween is appropriate is not new. I am aware of the history and the Christian element in its origin, viz., the Eve of All Saints.
Read MoreA defense for reserving the title “Saint” for those who died in the faith after the Incarnation as opposed to calling the Old Testament saints “Saint.”
Read MoreSometimes we advocates of traditional liturgy are stereotyped as not liking any contemporary music. Often amid histrionics and eye-rolling, we are told that unless something was written in the 1500s, we don’t like it.
Read MoreThis paper was presented at the 2016 Iowa District East Symposium on Just War on May 20, 2016.
Read MoreTuscola IL, August 26, 2023
Read MoreA Lutheran sermon on the resurrections of the widow’s son in Nain from Luke 7:11-16 with particular focus on the gates of the city.
Read MoreI received this link to a fine assessment of the Seminex history afforded by an interview on the online Eric Renn show, with astute layman Eric LeFevre. It’s definitely worth a listen. It comes at an appropriate time, just about 50 years after the St. Louis walkout (in January 1974). And as he wrote to me, "it is very important that we pass this history on so that we can learn from mistakes.”
Read MoreThrough a felicitous turn of events, I stumbled onto the writings of the Rev. A.W. Tozer (1897-1963), a self-taught Pietistic Fundamentalist Baptist who was critical of the Evangelical Church of his own time for being too insular, cut off from church history, and who saw worship as entertainment.
Read MoreSo it goes, you sit down in your study early in the week and begin poring through the appointed readings for next Sunday. You begin with the Old Testament reading from 1 Kings. What a wonderful and uplifting reading for a pastor to encounter! A woman who is on the brink of death puts her preacher before herself.
Read MoreThe clip above from an LCMS Divine Service is a demonstration of the impetus to liturgical conservatism. Once a particular liturgical tradition has been established, we Lutherans are reticent to change - even when times and situations have changed.
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