Gottesblog

The desire for “conversation” seems innocent. And sometimes it is.

But sometimes it isn’t.

This calls for discernment and strategic self-awareness. For every error that has gotten a toehold in the church began with “conversation.” Now is a good time to review the trenchant and ever-relevant analysis by the Rev. Charles Porterfield Krauth, from back in 1871.

“Too often,” he said, voice becoming firmer, “the world mistakes Christian meekness for passivity. It assumes that turning the other cheek means closing one’s eyes to evil. It believes that loving our enemies is the same as forgetting justice.”

Our Lutheran identity is grounded not only in our biblical evangelical theology of justification but, also in our catholic practice of reverence and beauty in worship that is liturgical. The Real Presence means that we don’t serve the King with plastic forks and red solo cups. If there is ever an occasion to bring out the fine china, it is when God is physically present with us by means of a miracle. If the Mass is not the time and place for reverence and beauty, then what and when is?

This hymn was originally written in Latin by the great Bishop St. Ambrose of Milan (d. 397). We are still singing this hymn today (well, most of us, anyway). It is a treasure, a hymn that is so confessional as to almost be a creed, one that confesses the two natures of Jesus, but does so poetically, lyrically, and devotionally. It has stood the test of time because it is pure gold.

A long time ago, I heard a smug old LCMS liberal pastor (sympathetic to Seminex) denigrate closed communion with the quip: “It’s the Lord’s Supper, not the LCMS’s Supper.” Of course, he had that arrogant smirk as he said it. He thought he was so clever.

St. Wilhelm Loehe was a German missionary to America who never set foot in America. He was a Bavarian pastor who was fiercely dedicated to the liturgy and the Eucharist, as well as pastoral training. He also established an order of sisters who would care for the sick and elderly.

Lutheranism is arguably the tradition with the strongest hymnody. Many of our finest post-Reformation hymnists were also pastors and/or theologians, great writers and servants of the Word,

Today is not only New Year’s Eve, it is also the seventh day of Christmas.  And as we continue to ponder the miracle of Christmas, that is, the incarnation of God into flesh, we should remember that our Lord’s coming is not just a matter of “where” (that God came to us in our material, fleshly world), but also of “when” – in time. 

The worship at these congregations is as fake as a Zimbabwe banknote. It really is analogous to paper money, backed by nothing, and easily inflated to worthlessness. And no matter how many zeroes one adds to the piece of paper, it never becomes the equivalent of the gold that it replaced. It is rather a kind of officially-sanctioned counterfeiting.

Old and busted: Canceling church on Christmas Day. New hotness: Holding church ‘online’ on the Sunday after Christmas.