When I Say Run, Run!

Lent is coming

2012-02-09T21:46:00.000-06:00

Thinking about Lent and this... John 3:17...

48] The adversaries feign that faith is only a knowledge of the history, and therefore teach that it can coexist with mortal sin. Hence they say nothing concerning faith, by which Paul so frequently says that men are justified, because those who are accounted righteous before God do not live in mortal sin. But that faith which justifies is not merely a knowledge of history, [not merely this, that I know the stories of Christ's birth, suffering, etc. (that even the devils know,)] but it is to assent to the promise of God, in which, for Christ's sake, the remission of sins and justification are freely offered. [It is the certainty or the certain trust in the heart, when, with my whole heart, I regard the promises of God as certain and true, through which there are offered me, without my merit, the forgiveness of sins, grace, and all salvation, through Christ the Mediator.] And that no one may suppose that it is mere knowledge, we will add further: it is to wish and to receive the offered promise of the remission of sins and of justification. [Faith is that my whole heart takes to itself this treasure. It is not my doing, not my presenting or giving, not my work or preparation, but that a heart comforts itself, and is perfectly confident with respect to this, namely, that God makes a present and gift to us, and not we to Him, that He sheds upon us every treasure of grace in Christ.]

...and while I think the video below is terribly funny, it really misses the point or rather points out the lack of faith in what Christ did and puts it on what we do. When the work become something we do, we make it into some game, some means to an end, but Christ is pushed out.

49] And the difference between this faith and the righteousness of the Law can be easily discerned. Faith is the latreiva[divine service], which receives the benefits offered by God; the righteousness of the Law is the latreiva [divine service] which offers to God our merits. By faith God wishes to be worshiped in this way, that we receive from Him those things which He promises and offers.

The Last WWI Veteran

2012-02-07T21:57:00.000-06:00

This should be an interesting discussion in class tomorrow.

Florence Green, a member of Britain’s Royal Air Force who was afraid of flying, died in England on Saturday, two weeks shy of her 111th birthday. She was believed to have been the war’s last living veteran — the last anywhere of the tens of millions who served.
Mrs. Green, who joined the R.A.F. as a teenager shortly before war’s end, worked in an officer’s mess on the home front. Her service was officially recognized only in 2010, after a researcher unearthed her records in Britain’s National Archives. source

Mrs Green spent her war days working ''all hours'' serving officers breakfast, lunch and dinner and would often spend time wandering the base simply ''admiring the pilots''.
Before her death she said: ''I enjoyed my time in the WRAF. There were plenty of people at the airfields where I worked and they were all very good company.

''I would work every hour God sent but I had dozens of friends on the base and we had a great deal of fun in our spare time. In many ways I had the time of my life. source

Thomas in the Mines of Moria

2012-02-02T22:05:00.000-06:00

A king he was on carven throne

In many-pillared halls of stone

With golden roof and silver floor,

And runes of power upon the door.

The light of sun and star and moon
In shining lamps of crystal hewn
Undimmed by cloud or shade or night
There shone for ever fair and bright.

From: The Fellowship of the Ring

My son wanted to know why Thomas was in the mine and what the name of the mine was. Of course he knew it was called Morgan's mine and he put Thomas there, but he wanted to hear a story.

Here is what he got...

Thomas entered the Mines of Moria to haul rock out of the mine. The Dwarfs had discovered a new vein of Mithril and in return for his services, Thomas was to get Mithril bumpers.

Of course he wanted to know what Mithril was.

Mithril is a material, if my memory from the book is right, could be beaten like copper, shiny like glass, and harder than any metal. It did not rust or get dull.

"Whoa daddy!" "Thomas will be amazing with Mithril bumpers!"

Of course we did not get further than that, off to better things was my son. Yet those small moments are truly the most precious.

Justified

2012-02-01T18:14:00.000-06:00

Our churches also teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works but are freely justified for Christ's sake through faith when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven on account of Christ, who by his death made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God imputes for righteousness in his sight (Romans 3:4). Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran church,Article IV: Tappert

A Lutheran School Memory

2012-01-26T21:53:00.001-06:00

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. Galatians 5:17

Luther states in his commentary of Galatians: "These two leaders, the flesh and the Spirit, are bitter opponents. Of this opposition the Apostle writes in the seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans: " I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into the captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

Mark* was only at our school for one year. Much of that time was spent in the principal's office. He never went to church and he never made an attempt to do his memory work. When the teacher asked for certain Bible verses, he was always the last to find it. Rarely would he complete a Religion assignment. He usually complained the loudest when it came to attending chapel. Yet, when he thought no one was looking, he would open that Bible. He would sing along in chapel if he thought he could get by unnoticed.

I honestly do not know what happened to Mark. I have not seen or heard from him for many years. Of this I do know, while he was at out school he heard the Word of God. The Pastor, teachers, and students demonstrated the love of Christ. He was taught Law and Gospel. It really illustrates to me the importance of the Lutheran school. I believe in those little attempts the Holy Spirit was working in him. We could all see the resistance, but in those little moments we could see the love of Christ shining through.

*Not his real name.

Tired

2012-01-26T16:09:00.001-06:00

Time to rest.

Our 4th and 5th grade teacher

2012-01-26T14:50:00.000-06:00

does some really cool things...

Poison Tongue

2012-01-25T22:06:00.003-06:00

267] Those, then, are called slanderers who are not content with knowing a thing, but proceed to assume jurisdiction, and when they know a slight offense of another, carry it into every corner, and are delighted and tickled that they can stir up another's displeasure [baseness], as swine roll themselves in the dirt and root in it with the snout. 268] This is nothing else than meddling with the judgment and office of God, and pronouncing sentence and punishment with the most severe verdict. For no judge can punish to a higher degree nor go farther than to say: "He is a thief, a murderer, a traitor," etc. Therefore, whoever presumes to say the same of his neighbor goes just as far as the emperor and all governments. For although you do not wield the sword, you employ your poisonous tongue to the shame and hurt of your neighbor.

I was just reflecting on how easy it is in the midst of friends and colleagues that it is to be like those swine that Luther wrote about. How easy it is to get embroiled in things that truly hurt our neighbor. It is one of those things that makes working in a church a little like Mos Eislely Spaceport. As Obi-Wan Kenobi stated in Star Wars, "Mos Eisley Space Port. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.We must be cautious.:

In the midst of that also comes the redemption and that is found in Psalm 119; the way our tongue is healed. While we need that eighth commandment which disciplines and unmasks our sinfulness, we also have God's assurance that with the Holy Spirit we can rise past that and rise to this:

¹⁶¹ Princes persecute me without cause,
but my heart stands in awe of your words.
^{¹⁶² I rejoice at your word}
like one who finds great spoil.
^{¹⁶³ I hate and abhor falsehood,}
but I love your law.
^{¹⁶⁴ Seven times a day I praise you}
for your righteous rules.
^{¹⁶⁵ Great peace have those who love your law;}
nothing can make them stumble.
^{¹⁶⁶ I hope for your salvation, O LORD,}
and I do your commandments.
^{¹⁶⁷ My soul keeps your testimonies;}
I love them exceedingly.
^{¹⁶⁸ I keep your precepts and testimonies,}
for all my ways are before you.

¹⁶⁹ Let my cry come before you, O LORD;
give me understanding according to your word!
^{¹⁷⁰ Let my plea come before you;}
deliver me according to your word.
^{¹⁷¹ My lips will pour forth praise,}
for you teach me your statutes.
^{¹⁷² My tongue will sing of your word,}
for all your commandments are right.
^{¹⁷³ Let your hand be ready to help me,}
for I have chosen your precepts.
^{¹⁷⁴ I long for your salvation, O LORD,}
and your law is my delight.
^{¹⁷⁵ Let my soul live and praise you,}
and let your rules help me.
^{¹⁷⁶ I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant,}
for I do not forget your commandments.

Dang

2012-01-22T23:00:00.000-06:00

We must, therefore, impress it upon the young that they should regard their parents as in God's stead, and remember that however lowly, poor, frail, and queer they may be, nevertheless they are father and mother given them by God. They are not to be deprived of their honor because of their conduct or their failings. Therefore we are not to regard their persons, how they may be, but the will of God who has thus created and ordained. In other respects we are, indeed, all alike in the eyes of God; but among us there must necessarily be such inequality and ordered difference, and therefore God commands it to be observed, that you obey me as your father, and that I have the supremacy.From Luther's Large Catechism-Fourth Commandment

While grocery shopping today, I actually pulled out my cell to call dad. I was shocked at the action and overwhelmed because I knew I could not talk with him.I used to call him while I was grocery shopping so that we could argue and discuss interesting things while I was doing the mundane task of shopping.

I can't recall the trigger that caused me to want to talk to him except that it has something to do with the Civil War. Dad loved Civil War history. Strange how random bits of information conjures such an emotional response. I fought back tears and put on a look that dared someone to say something. 2011 was such a difficult year in which I saw my father go from good health to suffering and finally death. I am reminded of Walt Whitman's Poem 1861:

ARM'D year! year of the struggle!

No dainty rhymes or sentimental love verses for you, terrible

year!

Not you as some pale poetling, seated at a desk, lisping cadenzas

piano;

But as a strong man, erect, clothed in blue clothes, advancing,

carrying a rifle on your shoulder,

With well-gristled body and sunburnt face and hands with a

knife in the belt at your side,

As I heard you shouting loud your sonorous voice ringing

across the continent;

Your masculine voice, O year, as rising amid the great cities,

Amid the men of Manhattan I saw you, as one of the workmen,

the dwellers of Manhattan;

Or with large steps crossing the prairies out of Illinois and

Indiana,

Rapidly crossing the West with springy gait, and descending the

Alleghenies;

Or down from the great lakes, or in Pennsylvania, or on deck

along the Ohio river;

Or southward along the Tennessee or Cumberland rivers, or at

Chattanooga on the mountain top,

Saw I your gait and saw I your sinewy limbs, clothed in blue,

bearing weapons, robust year;

Hard your determin'd voice, launch'd forth again and again;

Year that suddenly sang by the mouths for the round-lipp'd

cannon,

I repeat you, hurrying, crashing, sad, distracted year.

Thoroughly

2012-01-19T22:01:00.002-06:00

"Did you brush your teeth thoroughly?"

"Yes daddy, thorowee."

"What does thoroughly mean?"

'I don't know!"

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Dad used to say the same thing to me.

Church Council Meetings

2012-01-15T22:24:00.001-06:00

sound something like this...

We had a visitor

2012-01-13T23:10:00.001-06:00

Congressman Paulsen came to our school this week. It was really great to hear him talk about his role in government and to hear the questions the students asked. They asked some tough questions from so many angles. The kids did a great job listening and questioning. We look forward to meeting him again when we go to D.C.

I had to laugh...

2012-01-10T21:46:00.002-06:00

John 10

⁷ Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. ⁹ I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

"Daddy, what is Batman doing with the cows?" After my coughing fit induced my hilarious laughing finished (I hate being sick), we made up a story. In short, Batman is saving the cows from a giant cattle thief named Holgar.

"Batman has his really cool Batarang ready to strike the giant cattle thief Holgar who wants to pick up each cow under his arms and take them for his favorite game of cattle tossing." "Holgar holds the record for tossing cattle."

"Why does the Holgar want to do that daddy?"

umm the story kept going and got terribly convoluted, but I really cannot remember where or how the story ended, except that Batman wins.

Doesn't he always?

If I Were a Semiotician

2012-01-09T21:52:00.000-06:00

My preschool son was doing homework tonight. Part of his homework involved discussing his Baptism. In the course of his drawings for his assignment, he drew a roller coaster. What an odd thing to draw on a sheet about Baptism!

Later on the words of Titus 3:5 came to mind: "He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior." I thought of the daily life of the baptized person. Every day through repentance and faith we cling to Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Through the ups and downs of daily living with Christ we live the Baptismal life. Kinda like a roller coaster...

LSB 597 Water, Blood, and Spirit Crying v. 2 + 3

In a wat'ry grave are buried all our sins that Jesus carried; Christ, the Ark of Life, has ferried us across death's raging flood.
Dark the way, yet Christ precedus us, Past the scowl of death He leads us; Spreads a table where He feeds us. With His body and His blood.

They did it!

2012-01-08T20:16:00.002-06:00

They did it! Sadly I could not watch the game. Stupid washing machine. Although the boy and I did get to hear the last 5 minutes and the amazing 11 second overtime in the car!

Photo credit

Even with a rework

2012-01-07T22:34:00.001-06:00

still not buying it...

Lutheran School Memories

2012-01-06T18:19:00.000-06:00

I sit beside the fire and think

of all that I have seen,

of meadow-flowers and butterflies

in summers that have been;

Of yellow leaves and gossamer

in autumns that there were,

with morning mist and silver sun

and wind upon my hair.

I sit beside the fire and think

of how the world will be

when winter comes without a spring

that I shall ever see.

For still there are so many things

that I have never seen:

in every wood in every spring

there is a different green.

I sit beside the fire and think

of people long ago,

and people who will see a world

that I shall never know.

But all the while I sit and think

of times there were before,

I listen for returning feet

and voices at the door.

-Bilbo The Lord of the Rings

I look on the past and get a little misty eyed. I remember the good days the glory days. Those bad days fade away as if they were an evil dream. There is a little truth in the phrase Tempus omnia vincit; time conquers all for I do not remember those bad things.

Of all the Lutheran schools I have been part of, St. Matthew's was the best. Those were good years and a testament to good Law and Gospel teaching in the heart of the city. God was preached in fullness, Sacraments were given, and students received the Word of God in an inner city setting. Yet, St. Matthew's Lutheran School fell victim to the same thing that is plaguing many of our schools today. It closed because the congregation was no longer able to keep it open. I was too young to know the reasons for its closing and I have not been able to find out any more information as to why it closed.The reasons for the school closing are really immaterial.

In the years I have been involved in Lutheran schools as a student and now as a teacher, I have seen many rise and fall. When they fall it is always sad, sometimes it is a slow death from depleting resources and students. The death can be accelerated over warring doctrinal positions, conflicting teachers or antagonistic church members. Even pastors can be the source of the downfall of the school.

What a loss to our church body when these schools fail! Our schools have been the source of great teaching not only in the secular academic subjects, but also in Law and Gospel. If more schools are allowed or encouraged to fail, our precious LC-MS will have lost an integral part of itself and be lessened.

Yummy

2012-01-04T07:36:00.000-06:00

How do you like your Mountain Dew? How about a new flavor of Dew, dissolved mouse. One man who claims to have found a dead mouse in his Dew is suing Pepsi. Pepsi's response? The contents of Mountain Dew would dissolve the mouse. Oh that makes me feel better. The mouse could not have been intact in the can without dissolving. I love the strategy; make the problem go away by introducing a whole new problem.

Ronald Ball of Wisconsin claimed that he purchased a can of the bright green, supercaffeinated citrus-flavored soda only to discover mid-sip that there was a dead rodent inside, according to theMadison Record.
Ball claimed that he sent the mouse in a Mason jar to Pepsi and that the company destroyed the evidence.
He is seeking damages of $50,000.
PepsiCo is fighting back with some pretty disgusting proof: a scientist who testified on behalf of the company said that there was no way a mouse could have made it through the bottling process intact, that its body would have dissolved into a “jelly-like substance.” source

Dissection Time

2012-01-03T16:15:00.003-06:00

source

Dissection time is always exciting. Screams, yells, smiles, laughs, and great moments of learning happen in the classroom. What fun!

No Resolution

2012-01-02T22:43:00.001-06:00

Just moving forward.

2011 Reflection

2011-12-31T09:25:00.000-06:00

As this year closes I want to reflect on the past year. Dad's cancer returned and he battled hard but was called to his eternal home with Jesus. My daughter was born weeks before dad died. He was able to hold her and love her.

Here is a post that I wrote in October soon after he died and Sophia Baptized.

Tomorrow, my daughter will be Baptized. She will receive the means of grace through the water and Word being born again of water and Spirit. Through the excitement of it all I can't help but to reflect on my father's death. Tomorrow, the old Adam in Sophia will be put to death and that will continue daily for the rest of her life. She is moving from death to life from old to new. My Dad has completed that daily journey. Our deaths are certain, but what is also certain is our resurrection. God is going to make Sophia His own in Baptism just like he made Dad his own in Baptism. We know this because Jesus told us in John 14:19 "Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live (John 11:25). "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved" (Mark 16:16).

Fun and Games as a Parent

2011-12-29T20:55:00.000-06:00

My son placed the Riddler on his parking garage. He asked me, "What is he doing here?" I replied, "I guess he needed a job." "Why does he need a job?" " Because he did not make it into the new Batman movie?" "Daddy, why not?" "Well, he..."

The story went on and on and evolved due to the nature of the probing questions of the four-year-old mind. That is the really great thing about being a father. Spending time with your children making stuff up as it happens. No plans, just fun. I would not have it any other way.

Thank Goodness

2011-12-28T22:23:00.000-06:00

it does not work this way.* Good old Luther wrote in the Small Catechism of the first petition of the Lord's Prayer...

Our Father who art in heaven.
What does this mean?.
God would thereby tenderly urge us to believe that He is our true Father, and that we are His true children, so that we may ask Him confidently with all assurance, as dear children ask their dear father.

* Although I did find this really funny.

Liturgical Metropolis

2011-12-27T22:01:00.002-06:00

I spent two years in purgatory err community college because I really did not know what to do with myself. To put an exclamation point on that last statement I took a class on Sci-Fi/Horror films. Really I did. What better way could I spend four hours on a Tuesday night for nine weeks?

One movie that was introduced to me was Metropolis. Not the original one, but the altered one. Yup that one. The altered version was criticized for its treatment of a classic film and I loved it. It introduced me to something that I had overlooked and broadened my imagination and love of movies. So yes, I really love the Moroder version and yes I love the original version.

A few years after first seeing that movie I broke from the Orthodox church and came to the Lutheran church; specifically the LCMS. I entered a church full of contemporary music as if it was a Moroder version of the liturgy; I liked it.

As time went by the music seemed hollow to me. The music did not do anything and I thirsted. It took me awhile to realize what I thirsted after. I thought I thirsted for more of the contemporary thing and blamed my red hymnal TLH loving church for it. What a mistake! After ten years of contemplating this, I realized what it was that I thirsted after. I thirsted after the Word of God. Sure I was getting it in the contemporary service, but it lacked something. It seemed disjointed and hollow. I discovered what I was missing and what I missed was the Word of God in the Divine Service.

A Blessed Christmas to all

2011-12-24T21:26:00.001-06:00

Brown Christmas

2011-12-23T13:11:00.000-06:00

So many seem to be complaining about a brown Christmas in MN so Captain Picard....

Dignity

2011-12-20T21:08:00.000-06:00

Dying with dignity is an awful phrase. I remember hearing that phrase as I was sitting next to dad. On the radio was a discussion of dying with dignity which prompted dad to give an outburst, "To hell with that!" "To hell with what?" was my reply. "Dying with dignity," said dad.

According to our society, dying with dignity means at best dying peacefully in your sleep and at worst choosing when and how to die. Dying is something everyone has to face and in typical human avoidance behavior we want to choose the time and method of our dying.

Society would find no dignity in the way dad died. Dying of cancer strips away human dignity. System after system began to shut down as he died. As dad came closer to his death his human dignity was stripped away. His mind was strong, but had to physically rely on others, even strangers for his physical needs. He grew quiet and contemplative as he came to his end. He gave his trust in healing to the Great Physician.

This way of dying, I insist, is dying with dignity. Dad showed us all how to die. He showed us how to die with dignity. The kind of dignity disdained by the world. The world would have us become a god unto ourselves by choosing to the hows and when to die. Knowing that he was a child of God and that God was calling him he was able to accept the indignity of his way of death because he knew that following the way of the cross is the ultimate dignity of Christ.

Lutheran Schools-Strange but True 1

2011-12-20T18:39:00.000-06:00

GoAnimate.com: Lutheran schools by Darmok

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

A Two Year Journey

2011-12-16T15:16:00.000-06:00

Tonight is the Christmas concert at school. The kids always do a wonderful job and it is nice to see the fruition of so much work. The music is always beautiful and the message of Christ is wonderful to share. I am a little nervous about this one. One night, while lining the kids up before the concert, I received a call. Mom called to tell me that the doctors had finally discovered the source of dad's problems. She uttered the words that I still dread; bladder cancer. It has only been two years since that phone call and dad is no longer here. I miss my father and I fervently pray for peace for my mother who endured so much with him, yet I am glad that the long road of suffering that dad undertook has also led him into the arms of Jesus.

Ecumenical Fail

2011-12-15T17:34:00.000-06:00

Picture of the Pope credit

"Elvis" Monkey

2011-12-14T13:26:00.001-06:00

source

Discovered in Myanmar's section of the Greater Mekong-a sprawling realm of water, wetlands, mountains, and forests-was well known to local Himalayan hunters, but its discovery stunned scientists like Stuart Chapman, conservation director of WWF's Greater Mekong program, based in Vientiane, Laos. source

The First Time I Saw Dad Die

2011-12-13T22:47:00.000-06:00

I will never forget when we found out that dad's cancer was terminal. I remember sitting across from him and seeing the realization hit him. Dad died a hundred little deaths last summer and with him we did as well. Along with those little deaths were little resurrections as well. Little moments of hope or little miracles sent by God. They were not earth shattering things, but things to remind us of the foretaste of the feast to come that we sing of in the liturgy. Those little deaths were difficult for me as I found myself trying to plead with God for some way dad would be healed. I tried to reason with God. I tried to bargain with God. I tried to make God do what I wanted Him to do as if I could lead God around by the collar. Those little resurrections were moments of clarity that brought me out of that very human misery and reminded me that Christ did the work. There was no way that I would be able to reason or bargain with God to save my dad. Despite my weakness in trying to understand what dad went through those little deaths and resurrections point to a happy truth for I know that it is Christ who justifies us, Christ who bought us and Christ who will resurrect us. I know that without a doubt dad is with the Lord. Romans 5:12-18

Father, go back to your church...

2011-12-12T22:01:00.002-06:00

"This is my church!"
Something that has been forgotten in the age we now live is found here in this clip. We go to church, we support our church, we serve the church, we receive the Word of God, forgiveness of sins and Christ's very body and blood; that is what enables us to be the church through our vocations whatever they may be. It is sometimes said that our churches are designed to contain God and we need to be doing something; yet we forget that Christ comes to us in Word and Sacrament and in that way the church does not contain Christ at all, but radiates Christ to the world.

Inspired by Father Coniaris Orthodoxy: A Creed for Today

Parking in New York

2011-12-12T21:59:00.001-06:00

;

If this is my worst problem, life is good.

2011-12-12T20:31:00.001-06:00

I have an uncanny ability. I can park in a crowded parking lot and leave my car for an indefinite period of time, and when I return, there will be someone in a space next to mine.

You may say no big deal. It happens all the time. Let me explain this in more detail. When I return to my car SOMEONE is getting in, getting out, or backing out of a space next to mine. This seems to happen more than just occasionally. I will go so far as to say that I carry a curse. Of course I do not believe in curses, but this parking lot nonsense happens all the time. It's not like I care which parking space I use. I park in the first space I see.

I look forward to the day that I can return to my car without having to wait for people next to me.

Update!
Yesterday I took the family to Holidazzle, it looks like this. My son wanted to ride the light rail home and my wife agreed to indulge him. She did not want to have anything to do with getting out of the parking garage. After the parade, I made my way to the garage. As I entered the building and waited at the near eternal line to get to the elevator, I overheard a family mention that they were parked on level H. So was I. We ended up on the same elevator despite the jostling and 8 banks of elevators. I exited the elevator and made my way to my car. As I opened my trunk, the beep beep of the Toyota next to me sounded. What are the chances?

Heretical Name Calling

2011-12-12T18:43:00.000-06:00

Interesting things are popping up on the web today. Those interesting things have connected to a few things that I have been reading. Those interesting things can be found here, here, here, here, and here. Things look pretty messy in old Missouri right now. At the center of this for Lutherans is Article VII of the Augsburg Confession:

Our churches teach that one holy Church is to remain forever. The Church is the congregation of saints in which the Gospel is purely taught and the Sacraments are correctly administered. For the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree about the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. It is not necessary that human traditions, that is, rites or ceremonies instituted by men, should be the same everywhere. As Paul says, "One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all" (Ephesians 4:5-6). -Concordia The Lutheran Confessions.

The problem for us is that we do not agree if the Gospel is being purely taught, if the Sacraments are being correctly instituted, or even what a man made tradition or rite is. We have lost a sense of it all.

Peter Berger writes in A Far Glory regarding interfaith dialogue, but I believe that it does apply to our current situation in the LCMS as well.

Finally there is the sort of dialogue that might better be called "contestation" a serious, no holds-barred confrontation between competing truth claims on the level of truth. To enter such a dialogue is dangerous unless one has a very clear and confident idea of one's own experiences of truth. If one lacks such an idea, one will in short order be sucked into the worldview of whoever does have clarity and confidence. Therefore: No wimps! On the other hand, one cannot enter such a dialogue honestly (that is, without a covert missionary or pragmatically exploitative agenda) without accepting the risk that one's own position might change as a result of this encounter. Therefore: No thugs! Such dialogue becomes a common journey toward truth. The Christian embarking on such a journey will naturally believe that no future destination can invalidate what he now holds to be the truth; if he though otherwise, he could hardly be called a Christian. He must, however, accept in principle the possibility that another truth might supersede his own, or that (more likely) his conception of the truth will have to be modified at various points. Dialogue entered upon with such presuppositions will be existentially risky, intellectually unpredictable, and sometimes socially awkward if not rude. It also holds the promise of new intuitions and insights.

If Koinonia is ever to occur all issues need to be on the table. Even the ones that cause the most guffaws. The synod would be stronger and much more united if it would have a serious open debate about it. There should be a no-holds-barred debate and not just on the internet.One should note that some of our greatest theological writings have come out of conflict and I believe that the tendency, at least since seminex, has been to push each other to the fringe and cover it up. We would rather lob shots from a distance rather than confront an issue face to face.

A Nice Teaching Tool

2011-12-09T14:10:00.001-06:00

For the teachers out there... A 360 view of the The Sistine Chapel which is really useful for art and history classes. Check it out!

Reflections

2011-12-08T21:29:00.001-06:00

Man is it cold out there. I dread winter and the cold every year. One would think that in the near twenty years of living in MN I would be used to it. But I am not. One day, perhaps, I will grow accustomed to the bitter cold.With the dread of winter comes the nagging feeling that something is missing. Things are not as they should be. With sudden clarity I realize that dad is not here with us anymore. The world feels colder without him there. The feeling comes in unexpected ways. Usually I think of something to tell him and realize I can't do it anymore. When my son boldy exclaimed; "She's going number three!" I thought "Dad would really find that funny." His booming echoing laugh would have been heard across the room. The realization that he is not here floods in and a chill creeps down my spine.

Luther states "When I feel the dread of death, I say, "O death, you have nothing to do with me, because I have another death which kills my death. And the death which kills is stronger that that which is killed." While I tremble in anguish, I have the faith and knowledge that "Christ has risen from the dead, trampling death by death."

That which has died should come to life again

2011-12-07T22:11:00.001-06:00

If the earth and heaven are renewed, why should we doubt that man, on account of whom heave and earth were made, can be renewed? If the transgressor be reserved for punishment, why should not the just be kept for glory? If the worm of sins does not die, how shall the flesh of the just perish? For the resurrection, as the very form of the word shows, is this, that what has fallen should rise again, that which has died should come to life again. And this is the course and ground of justice, that since the action of body and soul is common to both (for what the soul has conceived the body has carried out), each should come into judgement, and each should be wither giver over to punishment or reserved for glory. On the Death of His Brother Satyrus

Worth the Watch

2011-12-07T16:41:00.001-06:00

I got nothing today, except this.

I know it is late and all, but I know you will enjoy it anyway.

Zombies and parenthood

2011-12-06T22:11:00.000-06:00

There you go. Now you can save the world from zombies or at least from overly caffeinated parents of really young children...

What if it happens? What if our worst fears are realized? If the Dead walk, the continuation of the human race will become a daily struggle. Are you prepared to protect and defend your family and friends? Your best chance lies in the Gerber Apocalypse Survival Kit. Enclosed in a super durable canvas carrying case with reinforced stitching, the kit is compact and packable. To beat the uprising we must work together. We must arm ourselves and organize.

Source

Lutheran "ism" #11

2011-12-06T15:06:00.001-06:00

Gossip is mischievous, light and easy to raise, but grievous to bear and hard to get rid of. No gossip ever dies away entirely, if many people voice it: it too is a kind of divinity. -Hesiod

More gets done in a parking lot than ever accomplished in a council meeting.

Lutheran "ism" #10

2011-12-05T15:53:00.001-06:00

Another great Chesterton quote

2011-12-01T19:40:00.000-06:00

But the humorous look of children is perhaps the most endearing of all the bonds that hold the Cosmos together. Their top-heavy dignity is more touching than any humility; their solemnity gives us more hope for all things than a thousand carnivals of optimism; their large and lustrous eyes seem to hold all the stars in their astonishment; their fascinating absence of nose seems to give to us the most perfect hint of the humour that awaits us in the kingdom of heaven.
-Chesterton- The Defendant

Lutheran "ism" #9

2011-12-01T19:38:00.000-06:00

Gotta love LCMS convention season...

Crabby

2011-11-30T21:34:00.001-06:00

I am a little crabby tonight...

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
   his love endures forever. Psalm 118:1

I don't want to.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
   his love endures forever. Psalm 118:1

I'm busy.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
   his love endures forever. Psalm 118:1

I'm tired.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
   his love endures forever. Psalm 118:1

What is there to rejoice in?

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
   his love endures forever. Psalm 118:1

I do not trust you.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
   his love endures forever. Psalm 118:1

I am empty.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever. Psalm 118:1

Life is too hard.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever. Psalm 118:1

Thankfully, The Lord gives me strength to overcome those feelings despite my unwillingness. The gifts he offers through his Son are free.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever. Psalm 118:1

I will.

" For God has made us anew. He is the Re-Creator

as well as the Creator, and his work of re-creation has taken place on

the cross and in Christ’s resurrection. From this throne of the cross

God does our sinful identity to death and gives us new birth as his

children.God is in charge.He is Lord.He determines who his human

creatures are.

From the foot of the cross, Luther confessed, the bent and broken

shape of humanity in ﬂight from, in revolt against, God can be seen

for what it is. The fundamental fact of human existence after the fall

is that sin pays its wage, and sinners receive what they have earned

through their doubt of God’s Word and deﬁance of his lordship—

death. Reﬂecting on Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, Forde

writes, “No repairs,no improvements,no optimistic encouragements

are possible. Just straight talk:‘You must be born anew.’”Sinners

must die, eternally or baptismally. The children of God become his

children not by recovering from serious illness but by being born

anew, and that new birth presumes death to the old, sinful, identity.

For God confronted both kinds of human sinfulness on the cross—

the symptoms and the root sin of doubt,denial,and deﬁance of himself.

His declaration of war against them seized the victory in the battle at Calvary,

and he delivers the fruits of the victory in baptism

and in the return to baptism in daily repentance.

“When Christ calls a person, he bids him come and die,” Dietrich

Bonhoeffer observed. “Every command of Jesus is a call to die, with

all our affections and lusts. But we do not want to die, and therefore

Jesus Christ and his call are necessarily our death as well as our life. The

call to discipleship,the Baptism in the name of Jesus Christ,means both

death and life.” By incorporating fallen human creatures into the death

and resurrection of Jesus Christ through baptism, the Creator has repeated

his modus operandi of the ﬁrst week,at the beginning.He brings

forth a new creature through the creative power of his Word.

Adam and Eve were not given a probationary period in which to

demonstrate that they were worthy of their humanity. It could not be

earned. It was a gift. Human performance—proper human behavior—

ﬂows from the gift of identity, the gift of life. Human identity as

child of God cannot be earned. It must be passively received.For those

addicted to sin, as for the alcoholic, “Thou shalt quit!” is a salutary

command, “but it does not realize its aims but only makes matters

worse. It deceives the alcoholic by arousing pride and so becomes a

defense mechanism against the truth, the actuality of addiction.”

Law-ism, behavior-ism, tells the sinner the same kind of lie.

The theology of the cross labels as a lie the idea that human performance can

establish human identity as a child of God and a true human being.

Beyond this denial of the nature of the evil that captivates us, in

our rejection of the love of our Creator, sin also prevents us from

perceiving clearly the height of our own possibilities as people freed

from sin,law,death,and the devil. We have been liberated from slavery to all

that focuses life on our works and ourselves.

We have been freed to love our neighbor in a way that brings the good to them

and pleasure to us which is the fulﬁllment of our humanity. The light

of the cross does liberate sinners from the darkness of the fears that

have driven them in upon themselves so that they can appreciate the

wonder of the creature God has made them to be. The light of the

cross generates the power to fulﬁll God’s plan for human living—in

a sinful world, even under the cross—and to acknowledge and appreciate the joys of life as God’s child."

Robert Kolb, "Luther on the Theology of the Cross"

Psalm 118

¹ Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
   his love endures forever. ² Let Israel say:
   “His love endures forever.”
³ Let the house of Aaron say:
   “His love endures forever.”
⁴ Let those who fear the LORD say:
   “His love endures forever.”
⁵ When hard pressed, I cried to the LORD;
   he brought me into a spacious place.
⁶ The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid.
   What can mere mortals do to me?
⁷ The LORD is with me; he is my helper.
   I look in triumph on my enemies.
⁸ It is better to take refuge in the LORD
   than to trust in humans.
⁹ It is better to take refuge in the LORD
   than to trust in princes.
¹⁰ All the nations surrounded me,
   but in the name of the LORD I cut them down.
¹¹ They surrounded me on every side,
   but in the name of the LORD I cut them down.
¹² They swarmed around me like bees,
   but they were consumed as quickly as burning thorns;
   in the name of the LORD I cut them down.
¹³ I was pushed back and about to fall,
   but the LORD helped me.
¹⁴ The LORD is my strength and my defense;
   he has become my salvation.
¹⁵ Shouts of joy and victory
   resound in the tents of the righteous:
“The LORD’s right hand has done mighty things!
¹⁶ The LORD’s right hand is lifted high;
   the LORD’s right hand has done mighty things!”
¹⁷ I will not die but live,
   and will proclaim what the LORD has done.
¹⁸ The LORD has chastened me severely,
   but he has not given me over to death.
¹⁹ Open for me the gates of the righteous;
   I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.
²⁰ This is the gate of the LORD
   through which the righteous may enter.
²¹ I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
   you have become my salvation.
²² The stone the builders rejected
   has become the cornerstone;
²³ the LORD has done this,
   and it is marvelous in our eyes.
²⁴ The LORD has done it this very day;
   let us rejoice today and be glad.
²⁵ LORD, save us!
   LORD, grant us success!
²⁶ Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.
   From the house of the LORD we bless you.
²⁷ The LORD is God,
   and he has made his light shine on us.
With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession
   up to the horns of the altar.
²⁸ You are my God, and I will praise you;
   you are my God, and I will exalt you.
²⁹ Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
   his love endures forever.

Lutheran "ism" #8

2011-11-30T19:38:00.000-06:00

Assumptions: What a confessional church looks like.

This concerns me...

2011-11-29T18:03:00.000-06:00

Who makes the rules? Who decides what happens? How much more invasion does the government need? What is the criteria for removing a child from the home? Is it really in the child's best interest to put him in foster care?

CLEVELAND — An Ohio third-grader who weighs more than 200 pounds has been taken from his family and placed into foster care after county social workers said his mother wasn’t doing enough to control his weight.
The Cleveland 8-year-old is considered severely obese and at risk for such diseases as diabetes and hypertension.
“They are trying to make it seem like I am unfit, like I don’t love my child,” the boy’s mother said. “Of course I love him. Of course I want him to lose weight. It is very hard, but I am trying.”
Records show the child’s only current medical problem, sleep apnea, is being treated and that he wears a machine nightly that helps and monitors his breathing.
A spokeswoman says the county removed the child because caseworkers saw his mother’s inability to reduce his weight as medical neglect. The boy is currently living in a foster home. AP

source

I found this little nugget today...

2011-11-28T18:49:00.000-06:00

Dad wrote this in 2008 and it echoes exactly what he taught me as I kicked and screamed and nearly caused apoplexy when he took me to church.

Take the Children to Church

by George Strickland, Ph.D. -
Based on new studies conducted by Baylor University, children from more religious families and from families with higher rates of religious attendance are better behaved and more well adjusted at home and at school. Better educated people generally had parents who attended church services twice or more a month. Among people with graduate level educations, two-thirds had mothers who were from frequent church attenders, compared to just under half of people with only a high school education. The difference is just as significant when looking at the frequency of church attendance by both parents and even larger when looking at fathers’ attendance. This evidence is highly correlated with other studies that show church attendance during adolescence helps reduce a number of the damaging long-term risk factors of disadvantaged children and leads to better education success overall.

There are a number of reasons why parents’ religious attendance might improve children’s educational and developmental outcomes. First, children may be more likely to learn wholesome values and moral commitment if they go to church. Second, a parish can provide an important sense of community that can help develop commitment to voluntarism, social responsibility and a sense of self-worth.

Third, having children who attend church together can help assure that a child grows up in an intact family. The Baylor studies show:

The average person is fifty percent less likely to be divorced or separated if he or she attends religious services at least twice a month.
The divorce rate among those who never attend worship is close to double that of weekly church goers.

If parents go to church—especially if they go together—children are likely to grow up in intact families. Having an intact family has numerous benefits, both financial and social-psychological: higher household income, better health care, more involvement by parents, result in children who are less likely to smoke, less likely to have sex early, and more likely to be happy. Any of these benefits could explain why children are more likely to get a good education when there parents attend church often.

Since the parents church attendance is highly correlated with educational outcomes, the Baylor studies indicate some fascinating observations. Among people with children, the more educated their occupational classification, the higher level of church attendance. But among the childless, things go in the opposite direction–the less educated is slightly more likely to attend church at least twice a month. What is really fascinating is that people in high and mid-range education dramatically increase their church attendance when they have children—while those in the less educated occupations do not.

The connection between family and church is quite strong. Despite the perennially announced decline in the church’s importance–its announcement being greeted with cheers among the “cultured despisers of religion”–the church remains vital and intact. Often overlooked in various studies are the ways in which the values expressed by the church infiltrate and influence countless lives for the better. When parents go to church and take their children, the kids get more education, and have more satisfying and happy lives.

HT www.directionstoorthodoxy.org
http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/blog/2011/11/take-the-children-to-church/

God loves us

2011-11-27T22:20:00.000-06:00

I have been contemplating the suffering dad went through during the last months of his life and struggling with the the purpose of his suffering. Was it senseless due to the cancer or did it have more meaning than that? During the weekend I have come to a larger understanding of it. Peter Kreeft writes:

Once again, Christ is the answer as the love of God made visible. Christ transforms the meaning and value of suffering from something to be feared or at best endured to something redemptive. His suffering changes the meaning of suffering and thus our our suffering, just as His death changes the meaning of death and thus our death. Our sufferings can become grafted onto His. Paul says so; it is the very sufferings of Christ which he partakes. (Col 1:24)

God's answer to the problem of suffering was to carry it Himself: "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows" (Is 53:4). Far from disproving God's love, suffering draws that love down into itself like a magnet on Calvary."

Kreeft goes on to say:

My suffering unites me with God partly because it dissolves the glue that bonds me to the one thing that keeps me from God: my own self-will. This is the "I want what I want when I want it" principle that theologians call Original Sin. Suffering conforms me more closely to the likeness of the One who called not His will His own but welcomed every opportunity for saying, "Not my will but thine be done." ...In a universe ruled by an all-loving and all-powerful God, no suffering should be wasted. The answer to the question "Can it do any good?" has to be Yes. It may do others good rather than myself when I suffer, for we area ll one family, one body, and we suffer for each other. But this means it is for me, too, for I am part of this body. What I give, I also receive. If my suffering contributes to the greater health and strength of the body of Christ, then I also receive that greater health and strength if I am in that body.

-The God Who Loves You

During the thirty-four years with dad, he taught me an enormous amount of head knowledge. It was not until the last few months with that I gained through the sufferings dad endured a new appreciation of the depth of Gods' love.

One of dad's favorites...

2011-11-26T21:01:00.001-06:00

Hope Beyond Hope

2011-11-25T16:23:00.000-06:00

As the word "unreasonable" is open to misunderstanding, the matter may be more accurately put by saying that each one of these Christian or mystical virtues involves a paradox in its own nature, and that this is not true of any of the typically pagan or rationalist virtues. Justice consists in finding out a certain thing due to a certain man and giving it to him. Temperance consists in finding out the proper limit of a particular indulgence and adhering to that. But charity mans pardoning what is unpardonable, or it is no virtue at all. Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all. And faith means believing the incredible, or it is no virtue at all. Chesterton- Heretics

Thanks

2011-11-24T09:24:00.000-06:00

The Road goes ever on and on

Out from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

Let others follow it who can!

Let them a journey new begin,

But I at last with weary feet

Will turn towards the lighted inn,

My evening-rest and sleep to meet.

Bilbo Baggins- The Return of the King

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for the thirty-four years the Lord gave me with my father. Dad taught me so much and even in his death he taught me to have faith in the salvation of the cross. I thank the Lord that I have had those years with him.While I miss my father terribly, I am thankful for the time we had together.

Out of context

2011-11-23T14:03:00.000-06:00

Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy word,for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people,a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel.Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost,as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen

I have always loved the Nunc Dimittis. I have always found the words beautiful whether after communion or at a funeral the words are beautiful as they were when Simeon first sang them. Since dad died, I have not been able to sing those words without tearing up. I reflect on the moment when dad first held my daughter and I lose it. He always wanted a granddaughter. This picture was taken three and a half weeks before dad died. He finally did get to hold the granddaughter he wanted. I know this is out of context, but the words are especially beautiful now.

Lutheran "ism" #7

2011-11-22T16:41:00.000-06:00

It is a dark scary place when you don't forgive...

Christ brings satisfaction

2011-11-21T23:00:00.000-06:00

There are times I miss the old house. There were many good memories there and a lot of work. Over time we did grow dissatisfied with it and we moved on to a larger house; one that would fit the growing family.

There are times that I long for the old house and that underscores the whole human problem. The Declaration of Independence states that the "pursuit of happiness" is one of our inalienable rights, which seems like a little hell on earth. I am not arguing that we should give up the pursuit of happiness, but that pursuit is an unending quest for happiness and we never seem to be satisfied with what God has given us. Unless, Unless that which we are seeking is truly God. The Holy Spirit is working in us helping us to seek him out. In proclamation of the Gospel and the sacraments we get a taste of that which we are seeking and catch a glimpse of Joy. Malcolm Muggeridge writes:

For me there has always been, and I count it the greatest of all blessings, a window never fully blacked out, a light never fully extinguished. I has a sense, sometimes enormously vivid, that I was a stranger in a strange land; a visitor, not native... a displaced person... The feeling, I was surprised to find, gave me a great sense of satisfaction, almost ecstasy. Days or weeks or months might pass. Would it ever return, the lostness? I strain my ears to hear it, like distant music, my eyes to see it, a very bright light very far away. Has it gone forever? And then-ah! the relief. Like slipping away from a sleeping embrace, silently shutting a door behind one, tiptoeing off in the grey light of dawn, a stranger again. The only ultimate disaster can befall us, I have come to realize, is to feel ourselves to be at home here on earth. As long as we are aliens we cannot forget our true homeland. -Jesus Rediscovered

Inspiration

The Third Day

2011-11-21T18:19:00.000-06:00

This is one of my favorite Chesterton lines. It beautifully captures the wonder of what Christ did.

On the third day the friends of Christ coming at day-break to the place found the grave empty and the stone rolled away. In varying ways they realized the new wonder; but even they hardly realized that the world had died in the night. What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of the gardener God walked again in the garden, in the cool not of the evening but the dawn. -Chesterton The Everlasting Man

Life is too short

2011-11-20T21:40:00.001-06:00

When death comes near, life becomes clearer. When dad died the pain I felt, and still feel, of his loss is the result of losing that earthly relationship. It is at precisely that same time, paradoxically, that in the midst of loss and black grief life seems all the more sweet. At those moments in our lives when death draws near we hold onto the precious relationships in our lives and they become more important to us. C.S. Lewis puts it this way:

"The Englishness of English is audible only to those who know some other language as well. In the same way and for the same reason, only Supernaturalists really see Nature. You must go a little away from her, and then turn around, and look back. Then at last the true landscape will become visible. You must have tasted, however briefly, the pure water from beyond the world before you can be distinctly conscious of the hot, salty tang of Nature's current."- Miracles

Life is far too short not to cling to our relationships.As Christians we have a God who loved us first: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) When death comes near we get a glimpse of that love that Christ gave to us.

Inspiration

How Long O Lord?

2011-11-18T19:27:00.000-06:00

Our present circumstance is profoundly, wrenchingly, unsatisfactory. Christian faith does not relieve but intensifies our dissatisfaction with things as they are. From all the centuries of exodus from slavery to freedom, from all the poor exiled children of Eve, the cry arises, "How long, O Lord, how long?" And with it the unceasing prayer of the saints, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be don on earth as it is in heaven." Richard John Neuhaus -American Babylon

Lutheran "ism" #6

2011-11-18T19:04:00.000-06:00

Lutheran "ism" #5

2011-11-17T18:50:00.000-06:00

Omnia fert aetas, anumum quoque.
Time bears away all things, even our minds.

-Virgil

Law and Gospel in a sermon is great but...

Out of doubt, out of dark...

2011-11-16T23:13:00.000-06:00

Out of doubt, out of dark, to the day's rising
he rode singing in the sun, sword unsheathing,
Hope he rekindled, and in hope ended;
over death, over dread, over doom lifted
out of loss, out of life, unto long glory.
Tolkien- The Return of the King

There are many thoughts of dad these last few days with little reminders of him everywhere. One of the biggest reminders in the massive blob of books on my night stand. Books were ever-present in dad's life. I would not be surprised if I discovered that there was a book next to him on the couch in this picture.

Dad was always able to rekindle hope in me with my doubts and dark broodings even while he struggled to do that for himself. And even at the end the hope he rekindled was always the knowledge and faith of Christ Jesus. That hope rekindled, for me, was stronger than the fear and dread of his death, the doom that I felt hanging over us as the inevitable came. That hope rekindled is present now in the loss I feel because he has gone out of this life into a new life in the long glory of Christ.

Lutheran "ism" #4

2011-11-16T22:56:00.001-06:00

On Church Politics
Matthew 18 makes a really good shield and weapon until someone uses it on you. Yup, sinners we are, can't help it.

Lutheran "ism" #3

2011-11-16T16:45:00.000-06:00

Time it takes a toll...

The Love of Christ

2011-11-15T19:33:00.000-06:00

I announce to you redemption. Behold I make all things new. Behold I do what cannot be done. I restore the years that the locusts and worms have eaten. I restore the years which you have dropped away upon your crutches and in your wheelchair. I restore the symphonies and operas which your deaf ears have never heard, and the snowy massif your blind eyes have never seen, and the freedom lost to you through plunder, and the identity lost to your because of calumny and the failure of justice; and I restore the good which your own foolish mistakes have cheated you of. And I bring you to the Love of which all other loves speak, the Love which is joy and beauty, and which you have sought in a thousand streets and for which you have wept and clawed your pillow.

Thomas Howard Christ the Tiger

Inspiration

Lutheran "ism" #2

2011-11-15T19:00:00.000-06:00

Listening to History

2011-11-15T15:40:00.001-06:00

There is a reason the gridlock in Washington is good.
Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony.

-Heraclitus the Obscure

The First Thing

2011-11-14T21:50:00.001-06:00

I thought of when I read this poem was vocation.

The Donkey

When fished flew and forests walked

And figs grew upon thorn,

Some moment when the moon was blood

Then surely I was born.

With monstrous head and sickening cry

And ears like errant wings,

The devil's walking parody

On all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,

Of ancient crooked will;

Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,

I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had in my hour;

One far fierce hour and sweet:

There was a shout about my, ears,

And palms before my feet.

G. K. Chesterton The Wild Knight

Going out on a limb...

2011-11-13T21:52:00.001-06:00

Looking back on dad's illness has been an enlightening yet incredibly difficult experience. Moments of hope and successes were plentiful. They were fleeting moments and did not last, yet I have come to realize something. Those moments of hope were glimpses of God; specifically the comfort of the Holy Spirit and just a brief glimpse of Christ's redemptive act in our daily lives. It was almost as if He was granting us a measure of comfort as the mouth of despair widened. It was God who is there reminding us that He is there, He is in control. I look back on these events and where I viewed them as a roller coaster before, I now see them as lifelines given by God to help us all to hold on and cling to the cross of Christ. I do not doubt this.

In Peter Berger's Redeeming Laughter,he says:

But it is the game of peekaboo that takes on an even more surprising meaning the the wake of the epistemological reversal brought on by the act of faith. Let us recall what this game is all about: The child sees the mother; then the mother disappears, causing the child to be anxious; when the mother reappears after a brief absence, the child smiles or laughs; this laughter expresses a great relief (or, as German Psychologists have put it an Entlastung, and "unburdening"). Here, in a wondrous nutshell, is the drama of redemption as seen in the light of faith. Etsi Deus daretur, God's dealings with mankind cane be seen as a cosmic game of hide-and-seek. We catch a glimpse of Him and then he promptly disappears. His absence is a central feature of our existence, and the ultimate source of all our anxieties. Religious faith is the hope that He will eventually reappear, providing that ultimate relief, which, precisely, is redemption.

Lutheran "ism" #1

2011-11-11T18:00:00.000-06:00

Mr. Flibble's Very Cross

2011-11-11T16:00:00.000-06:00

This has to be one of my favorites!

Christ Victorious

2011-11-10T20:00:00.001-06:00

Facilis decensus Avemi: noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis; sed revocare gradium aperasque evadere ad auras.hoc opus, his labor est.

-It is easy to go down into hell; night and day, the gates of dark death stand wide; but to climb back again, to retrace one's steps to the upper air- There's the rub, the task.
-Virgil

Knowledge of hell without a Savior is a terrible thing. Which makes the resurrection so wonderful; so powerful. Christ did what Virgil could not conceive. One of my favorite traditions of the early church is that Christ was crucified over the bones of Adam and Eve. They were the first to be Baptized by Christ as the blood and water was spilled over their graves. They were the first to be resurrected upon Christ's resurrection. It is a beautiful image to ponder.

Last night, while rocking baby S. I broke down into terrible tears. I have kept a pretty good facade the last few days and had forced myself to almost forget the pain and loss of dad's death. It was a terrible feeling. All the sadness that I had locked away and forced myself to ignore came rushing back. Without the knowledge of Christ, the feeling would be far more terrible. I grieve because I miss him so much. I long to talk with him, to embrace him again. I grieve because my children will not remember him . I know that he is at the throne of Jesus and that does give me comfort. I do not doubt it.

The novel The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis contains a beautiful image of heaven. Amid the shocking revelation of death contained in that novel is the knowledge of what comes after:

"You do not yet look so happy as I mean you to be."

Lucy said, "We're so afraid of being sent away, Aslan. And you have sent us back into our own world so often." "No fear of that", said Aslan. "Have you not guessed?"Their hearts leaped and wild hope rose within them."There was a real railway accident," said Aslan softly."Your father and mother and all of you are- as you used to call it in the Shadow-Lands-dead. The term is over; the holidays have begun. The dream is ended; this is the morning."
And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. Ad for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page; now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read, which goes on for ever, in which every chapter is better than the one before."

Inspiration

Tacitus

2011-11-10T16:00:00.000-06:00

Ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant.
When they have wrought desolation, they call it peace.
-Tacitus

Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/Vox-News/2011/1005/Occupy-Wall-Street-Why-this-revolution-isn-t-made-for-TV

Humility

2011-11-09T17:02:00.002-06:00

Nescie mens hominum fati sortisque futurae et servare modum rebus sublata secundis!

How ignorant are men's minds, of fate and of their destinies; how loathe to keep due measure when uplifted by success. -Virgil

Plunging Down

2011-11-08T20:21:00.001-06:00

"I should really like to think there is something wrong with me- Because, if there isn't, then there's something wrong ... with the world itself- and that's more frightening." T. S. Elliot

Plunging toilets is one of my least favorite activities, yet in the age of low flow toilets it is all too common. I despise even more the flowing over of water. Sometimes the clog is so bad that a snake needed to be used which gets all manner of filth everywhere. When even the all powerful snake does not work one has to get really serious.

I'm sure the neighbors loved seeing a toilet in my front yard that morning, but sometimes the whole thing needs to be removed to get at the problem. I never found what clogged the toilet, but it works now. There was no reason to move it to the front yard except it was funny. Yup there is something wrong with me.

You see, plunging toilets is not really all that big of a deal. It is something that needs to be done and usually takes little time, yet it is do jarringly out of routine that it becomes a major annoyance.Of all the problems people have in the world, I complain about plunging toilets. There is something wrong with me.

Funny that even in a despised activity joy can arise. Dad used to plunge toilets with extreme vigor. He threw everything he had at the activity. Our new house in the '90s had a toilet that would clog with nothing but liquid in it. Dad would jump all over that thing and it was dramatic. At the time, he loved watching The Apostle and would recite lines from the movie as plunged away. It was loud enough and dramatic enough that friends loved to see him do it. It was not uncommon to hear lines such as "Jesus did a back flip on the devil," "Holy Ghost Power," and "The devil thought he had the keys. Usually when the act was completed he would yell in a big booming voice, "Jesus done did a back flip on the devil!" It was all quite silly.

You can get an idea of what it sounded like below:

What frivolity! What total insanity! That is where hope comes in. There is something really wrong with me to find plunging toilets so annoying and yet funny. But there is something wrong with all of us. Yet God loves me, loves all of us so much that he sent Jesus to restore that wrongness. His suffering and death and then resurrection restores that wrongness. He has chosen us even in our wrongness. As Luther says in the Large Catechism regarding Article 2 of the The Apostle's Creed:

Let this, then, be the sum of this article: the little word Lord means simply the same as redeemer. It means the One who has brought us from Satan to God, from death to life, from sin to righteousness, and who preserves us in the same. But all the points that follow in this article serve no purpose than to explain and express this redemption. They explain how and by whom it was accomplished. They explain how much it cost Him and what He spent and risked so that He might win us and bring us under His dominion. It explains that He became man, was conceived and born without sin, from the Holy Spirit and from the virgin Mary, so that He might overcome sin. Further, it explains that He suffered, died, and was buried so that He might make satisfaction for me and pay what I owe, not with silver or gold, but with His own precious blood. And He did all this in order to become my Lord. He did none of these things for Himself, nor did He have any need for redemption. After that He rose again from the dead, swallowed up and devoured death, and finally ascended into heaven and assumed the government a the Father's right hand. He did these things so that the devil and all powers must be subject to Him and lie at His feet until finally, at the Last Day, He will completely divide and separate us from the wicked world, the devil, death, sin, and such.

Wrongness restored.

O Death

2011-11-07T15:54:00.000-06:00

While flipping through Augustine's Confessions last night, I came across this passage about his friend's death. The loss that Augustine confesses is heart wrenching.

"My heart was black with grief. Whatever I looked on had the air of death. my native place was a prison-house and my home as strange unhappiness. the things we had done together became sheer torment without him. My eyes were restless looking of him, but he was not there. I hated all places because he was not in them. They could not say: "He will come soon," as they would in his life when he was absent. I became a great enigma to myself and I was forever asking my soul why it was sad and why it disquieted me so sorely. And my soul did not know what to me... I had no delight but in tears, for tears had taken the place my friend had had in the love of my heart.

I was at once utterly weary of life and in great fear of death. It may be that the more I loved him the more I hated and feared, as the cruelest enemy, that death which had taken him from me; and I was filled with the the thought that it might snatch away any man as suddenly as it had snatched him... I wondered that other mortals should live when he was dead whom I had loved as if he would never die; and I marveled still more that he should be dead and I his other self living still. Rightly has a friend been called "the half of my soul." For I thought of my soul and halved."

Dad and I used to enjoy seeing all sorts of movies together both the good and the bad. There are some really good memories of those times together and some quite wonderful catch phrases that he used to utter. One of my favorites came while sitting in the front row watching We Were Soldiers. He loudly exclaimed, "We're in Vietnam!" Dad was always willing to listen to whatever problem I had and offered sage advice. In many ways I feel like Augustine did at the death of a friend.

Amor vincit omnia, love conquers all, so says Virgil, but what about death? The death of dad removed his physical presence from his family, but death did not remove him from God, who first loved him. And it is us that are still removed from Dad not Dad from us for his life has just begun. To paraphrase C. S. Lewis, we are still masked. Love really does conquer all, because eternal love comes from the Lord;

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

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 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: 54-58

Inspiration

Choices to Make; Roads to Take

2011-11-06T22:43:00.000-06:00

There are many choices to make. I could head left or right in the same circular roads never finding what I seek, lost in the journey of the world. Or I could follow the path that Dad advised "Go straight." "Take the path of Christ and move forward."

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12-14

I was reminded of this passage from The Silmarillion. The image of losing the straight road and getting lost are quite vivid, yet that straight road remains, for us.

"Avalonne is vanished from the Earth and the Land of Aman is taken away, and in the world of this present darkness they cannot be found. Yet once they were, and therefore they still are, in true being and in the whole shape of the world as at first it was devised. For the Dunedain held that even mortal Men, if so blessed, might look upon other times that those of their bodies' life; and they longed ever to escape from the shadows of their exile and to see in some fashion the light that dies not; for sorrow of the the thought of death had pursued them over the deeps of the sea. Thus it was that great mariners among them would still search the empty seas, hoping to come upon the Isle of Meneltarma, and there to see a vision of things that were. But they found it not. And those that sailed far came only to new lands, and found them like to the old lands, and subject to death. And those that sailed furthest set but a girdle about the Earth and returned weary at last to the place of their beginning; and they said: "All roads are now bent."

Thus in after days, what by voyages of ships, what by lore of star-craft, the kings of Men knew that the world was indeed made round; and yet the Eldar were permitted still to depart and to come to the Ancient West and to Avallone, if they would. Therefore the loremasters of Men said that a Straight Road must still be, for those that were permitted to find it. And they taught that, while the new world fell away, the old road and the path of memory of the West still went on, as it were a mighty bridge invisible that passes through the air of breath and of flight (which were bent now as the world was bent), and traversed Ilmen [the atmosphere] which flesh cannot endure, until it come to Tol Eressea, the Lonely Isle, and maybe even beyond, to Valinor, where the Valar still dwell and watch the unfolding of the story of world."

Inspiration

Difficult Questions

2011-11-05T22:20:00.002-05:00

Dad left this icon to my son and he simply adores it. I'm not sure why, maybe because it is unlike other images of Jesus; although his interest in it is quite fascinating. He looks at it daily.

Finally, I got around to hanging it in his room. Of course he was underfoot and asking many questions. Who put a quarter in this kid? And typically, the inevitable questions about dad came up. He really does have many questions. We talked briefly about death, resurrection and heaven, but how far can you really get with a four year old? At one point he got really worried.

"Will Mister Bear be with me in heaven?" Ummmm well.... Before I could answer he was off to another topic-trains. Ahh, the attention span of a four year old. I had an answer to the question, but how to phrase it?

C. S. Lewis wrote the answer to that question and I have always loved his answer:

"Yes," my friend said. "I don't see why there shouldn't be books in Heaven. But you will find that your library in Heaven contains only some of the books you hand on earth." "Which?" I asked. "The ones your gave away or lent." " I hope the lent ones won't have all the borrowers' dirty thumb marks," said I. "Oh yes they will," said he. "But just as the wounds of the martyrs will have turned into beauties. so you will find that the thumb-marks have turned into beautiful illuminated capitals or exquisite marginal woodcuts."

From God in the Dock

Romans 8

¹⁸For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. ¹⁹For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²²For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. ²³And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

That's Normal

2011-11-03T21:40:00.002-05:00

There are times when I almost forget. The rush of the daily activities overwhelm me. Much energy is needed to go through the routines of the day from waking to school to family activities and then finally winding down; there is not much time to reflect.

Despite the hectic schedule and business, there are moments that memory and sadness break through.

Yesterday afternoon all I wanted was to hear dad's voice one more time. All I could think of was the weak sickened weary voice of the last few weeks of his life. I called mom's house because I knew on the voice mail would be dad's large booming voice so full of vigor.

Today it hit me again. I had a thought, one little notion, that I wanted to discuss and there it was like a brick in my chest and the grief took me. I never even saw it coming. I used to call and bounce ideas off of dad on countless occasions. He had such an agile mind with an ability to talk through ideas to a natural ending point. I can't do that anymore; I'm on my own.

I am told this is normal to feel this way. "They" say it comes in waves. I do not like normal and it certainly does not feel anything like normal to me.

Again, as I have done several times since dad died, I opened one of his books. I sifted through it and found another little nugget of help for me and I offer it here for you.

In Christianity for Modern Pagans, Peter Kreeft outlines Pascal, who dad was pondering the last few months. Read what Kreeft writes, especially #5.

"There are only five solutions to our most crudely obvious problem, death:

1. Don't look at it. Look the other way. Be an ostrich; hide your head in the sand, you mind in worldliness. Stay diverted.

2. Look at it with a heard dulled by pop psychology. "Accept" it. Be bland and indifferent to it. Do go gentle into that good-night; do not rage against the dying of the light.

3. Look at it and despair. This is the admirable but unlivable honesty of nihilism; of Sartre, and Camus, and Johns in the Seventh Seal.

4. Look at it and put your hope and faith in science to conquer death by technology, by cryogenics or by artificial immortality by genetic engineering. This a faith as old at Renaissance alchemy and occultism. There has never been anything whatever to verify this faith, and it it were verified , it would create not heaven on Earth but Hell.

5. Put your faith in God, in Christ, in Resurrection. Pascal eliminates all other contenders. The problem itself eliminates all other contenders. Death kayos all the philosophies; only Christ kayos death.

All Saints Day

2011-11-01T22:21:00.001-05:00

Dad striking an angelic icon pose.

A saint has gone before us. He will never be called St. George of Northfield, but he was a saint nonetheless. Dad fell asleep in Jesus on October 19th and as this is All Saints Day I would like to commemorate him.

What did Dad teach me about being a saint? Dad demonstrated a quiet yet loud devotion to the Lord. He loved to chant loudly and very off key. He led us to the Orthodox church and there we learned theology through the liturgy. Dad and Mom sent us to parochial schools our entire life, most of those being LCMS schools. His support for me converting to the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and a called Lutheran School teacher helped me to become who I am today. The wide variety of theology he surrounded me with has led me to be a much more discerning reader. Our sometimes heated theological debates were something to look forward to much to the annoyance of our family. Sometimes we would clash, but always we forgave. Watching him die with a still devout faith was a lesson unto itself.

So yes, today I commemorate St. George of Northfield, may his memory be eternal.

Erasmus

2011-10-30T22:45:00.001-05:00

Tonight, I picked up a copy of Erasmus. It was Dad's from 1964. The book is well marked and noted, not bad for one of his first theological ventures at the age of sixteen.

I am trying to work through the loss of my father and it helps to look at his books and the notes that he wrote or highlighted in them. The past six months are vivid in my mind, but there is one image of Dad that I cannot get out of my head. It is the image of death. This is not the funeral home sanitized unreal treatment of death, but the stark reality of death.

When I opened the yellowed fragile pages, my eyes fell upon this underlined section of Erasmus:

I think that we can agree that the sensation of death in the body is very slight or, at least, very brief. the sensation of death in the case of the soul is entirely different; it is more that death itself, because it is everlasting....Let us not forget that our encounter is not with an undefeated enemy but with one who was once broken and who many years ago was overthrown, despoiled, and led captive by Christ our Head. From The Handbook of the Militant Christian

It was as if Dad had marked that page forty-seven years ago for his family as he in the words of one gentlemen "prepared to meet God."

Winter is Coming

2011-10-28T21:39:00.002-05:00

Winter must be coming. My hands are already chapped and bleeding. Those little red fissures are beginning to spread. Oh, how I love winter and it has not even begun. Sometimes I leave bloodstains on various things having no idea that I was bleeding. Looking at my chapped hands now takes me back to last week and brings intense memories.

Holding Dad's hand a little more than a day before he died is an intense memory. I sat there beside him almost saying nothing. He was quite distant looking off to some far off place that I'd like to think was heaven. There was one moment though. He turned and looked at me and stated "Andy, your hands are so dry." "Winter is coming," was my reply. He was quiet for a long while after that, looking back into heaven.

For us that dark, sunless period known as winter came a little early, but Dad is in the eternal summer of the Glory of the Holy Trinity which is a comfort.

Best Quote Ever

2011-10-27T22:51:00.004-05:00

I must say that the concluding paragraph of Chesterton's Orthodoxy has to be my absolute favorite and has a special meaning to me since Dad died. That is to say, joy. Joy is the knowledge that Dad's suffering is over and he has joy in Jesus.

Joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the christian. And as I close this chaotic volume I open again the strange small book from which all Christianity came; and I am again haunted by a kind of confirmation. the tremendous figure which fills the Gospels towers in this respect, as in every other, above all the thinkers who ever thought themselves tall. His pathos was natural, almost casual. The Stoics, ancient and modern, were proud of concealing their tears. He never concealed His tears; He showed them plainly on His open face at any daily sight, such as the far sight of His native city. Yet He concealed something. Solemn supermen and imperial diplomatists are proud of restraining their anger. He never restrained His anger. He flung furniture down the front steps of the Temple, and asked men how they expected to escape the damnation of Hell. Yet he restrained something. I say it with reverence; there was in that shattering personality a thread that must be called shyness. There was something that He hid from all men He want up a mountain to pray. There was something that He covered constantly by abrupt silence or impetuous isolation. There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth.

Darkness to Light

2011-10-26T20:39:00.002-05:00

When I came across this picture of Dad, I really broke down. Not sobbing, but soul shattering. At the time I could not understand what it was about this picture that I found so heartbreaking. It hit me last night while I was tossing and turning trying to get to sleep. There was so much darkness in the picture. The last two months of Dad's life were filled with so much suffering interspersed with little moments of grace. Why did he have to suffer so much? I will wrestle with that question for a long time, but I do have a glimpse of understanding.

When I woke this morning, a new thought struck me. There was Dad standing in the light. He has come out of the darkness. His suffering is at an end. He is with our savior Jesus Christ whom he has been reading and writing about since he was twelve and that is a truly wonderful blessing.

Revelation 7:15-17 Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. they will hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

A Good Friday Writing

2011-10-25T20:48:00.000-05:00

We are starting to uncover some things Dad wrote. Here is one he wrote for Good Friday this year

On Good Friday two trials were conducted.

The news flashed across the networks of the time—the religious elite as a blasphemer of God, and the Romans as a troublesome gnat have condemned Jesus.

People were saying and grumbling that he got his just desert, or that he was a victim of his own zealotry. Either he got what he deserved, or let his idealism got the best of him.

But the trial of Jesus was only externally a trial before the Jewish elite and the Romans. On the inside it was a trial of his soul before God. Jesus was facing the cross. He was a tortured soul. The philosopher Socrates died and cheerful death. He gave a marvelous farewell address. He felt like a free man. He had a cock sacrificed to Asclepius,which was only done when a person became free, or recovered from an illness. The death of Socrates was an escape to freedom.

But Jesus was struggling in these last hours. He was a man of grief and of sorrow and suffering. He has fought for a lost cause, but he was not sure now that God would not by bringing in the kingdom.

This way of the cross was not a like a death of a martyr. The martyrs died knowing they were right. They believed that if they died, their cause would triumph in the end. But not so with Jesus. If he should die , that would end the cause for which he lived. Than everything has been in vein, down the drain, all for nothing. And wickedness and sin, and death will continue in the world as before. And nothing will have changed for the better, if he should die and the kingdom not come.

But Jesus was on the way to the cross, not like a Socrates and not like a martyr, not to die a cheerful and honorable death, but an ugly, unhappy, despicable and disappointing death.

We cannot beautify the suffering, the betrayal, the way of the cross. The soul of Jesus, we are told, was greatly distressed and troubled, sorrowful even unto death. Soon there would be loud cries and tears Soon he would cry out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Let us remember the man of sorrow on the way of he cross, suffering with bitterness of a soul being forsaken by God ,left to suffer and die for sins he did not commit, left to proclaim the kingdom of God without the power of God to vindicate him, left to die on the cross all alone.

God’s Triumph

Jesus Christ emerged from the tomb and goes before us to make all things new. He emerged from the tomb to break open the vicious cycle of endless and monotonous repetition. The great rival of the resurrection is the myth of the eternal return. It’s to be found in most world religions. Life goes in a circle, where every end brings you back to the beginning again. We have all had perhaps the eerie feeling of déjà vue; we’ve been here before. Well, Christianity tells us it is not so.

Chrysippus, a Greek philosopher said, “Socrates and Plato will exist again. Everyone will suffer the same and do the same thing again. Every city, every village, and every field will grow again, and this will happen not once, but in an endless repetition.” The early Christians broke away from this eternally rolling wheel of existence, because they believed Jesus emerged from the tomb of the dead., never to return again. So neither are we clones of anything that ever existed before.

Jesus emerged from the tomb, and he goes before us to make us free. He leads the procession of humanity to the freedom of the kingdom of God. Pascha spells liberty. It is God’s triumph against the powers and principalities that enthrall us. Death is swallowed up in victory. O, death where is thy sting?

The tomb of Christ burst open from the impact of the new life it could not contain, giving us a sign and promise that every form of bondage will be ended and no one can snatch from whose who are in the presence of Christ.

Pascha calls us to be conquerors, while were still being conquered. We are victors, while we are still victims. We are in the kingdom of glory, while still in bondage, thumbing our nose at the evils that run riot in the land, making a mocking attitude toward sin, and death, and hell and wrath and all the demons of damnation that our souls and bodies sick, that still subject our world to suffering.

During a communist party rally in the old Soviet Union, the communist propagandist eloquently spoke of the death of God and debunked the myths on which Christianity is based. After the harangue the crowd was silent. An old Orthodox priest was given one minute in rebuttal. The priest shouted, “Christ is risen!” One by one the crowd joined in the exuberant Paschal response, “Indeed, He is risen.”

Pascha is tense with contradictions. So full of joy, so full of pain; so close to heaven, so close hell; the empty tomb is not far from the cross; only three days and a brief walk. Those who shout for joy at Pascha also bend low at the pain of this world and the suffering of the people. But it is the glimpse of the future that Pascha brings, a foretaste of joy and victory, and an eternal celebration of redeemed life, that gives unconquereable hope in the midst of the dark age of our time—that gives hope that God can take what is weak, and broken and good for nothing, that God take the crucified, the outcast and the damned, and make us all free and new. For Pascha happened in a graveyard. That’s the precedent on which we bank our hopes. Resurrection takes place in the midst of dead. There is the promise by which we live. The Lord of life has emerged from the tomb, and he goes before us. Christ is risen! Indeed, He is risen!

George Strickland, Ph.D.

Editor

Separation

2011-10-24T23:14:00.004-05:00

1 Thessalonians 4:13
Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.

This was certainly a rough summer for my family. I feel blessed to have spent so much time with Dad as he battled cancer. I wish I had spent more time with him.

I would like to forget some of the events of this summer and I know that those memories are going to be the hardest to forget. There was so much suffering that I wish I could fully resolve. I pray that someday with the help of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, that I find peace with those memories.

My Mom showed fierce resolve through this whole battle and was by my Dad constantly. She gave up her entire life to help him. I do not know a more caring or tough person.

When a parent's death occurs, the children no matter the age have to deal with it in their own ways. My brother and I have much talking to do.

The grandchildren need to know who their grandfather was.

Of all of the memories from the past six months, one memory stands out. Mom called one day while I was teaching. I never pick up my cell during the school day, but I had a standing rule, if it was my wife who was due to deliver soon or my parents the phone would be answered. Mom said Dad wanted me by his side. When I arrived at my parent's house, I found my Dad laying on the couch in the living room. I sat on the floor next to him and held his hand. At first, he was upset that he had dragged me out to his house. The anxiety on Dad's face was clear. While holding his hand, he cried. I can count on one hand the amount of times I have seen Dad cry and all of them were this summer. This was a time that Dad cried and cried. He talked about holding me when I was a baby and how much he loved my brother and me. I tried to say something, but could not say the words and so we sat together quietly as I held him tight. It is such a bittersweet memory, but it is one that I will treasure.

Findings

2011-10-23T22:40:00.001-05:00

Two weeks before Dad died he expressed strong feelings about the Church and his weariness over the struggles the Church has been going through. He stated that the church is chasing after so many things, but is missing the real struggle. I have been pondering what he said ever since.

After he died, I came across a book he was reading. The book : Introduction to Christianity by Joseph Cardninal Ratzinger was written in 1968 and undergone several revisions, the latest in 2000. This, of course, was many years before he became Pope.

Dad was an interesting book reader. He could read a book of considerable difficulty quickly and never read a book from cover to cover, but rather from wherever he felt like reading to whenever he wanted to stop. Oh, and the amount of books at his disposal was phenomenal.

I digress.

I picked that book up tonight and opened to one page that was flagged. Suddenly I realized what he was talking about. He was referring to that page in the book. I am sure he had not picked up the book within the last few months, but he must have been pondering it for a long time.The following is a quote from the book that Dad had noted:

"One thing is clear; the Church is not to be deduced from her organization; the organization is to be understood from the Church. But at the same time it is clear that for the visible Church visible unity is more than "organization". The concrete unity is more than "organization". The concrete unity of the common faith testifying to itself in the Word and of the the common table of Jesus Christ is an essential pare of the sign that the Church is to erect in the world. Only if she is "catholic", that is, visibly one in spite of all her variety, does she correspond to the demand of the Creed. In a world torn apart, she is to be the sign and means of unity; she is to bridge nations, races, and classes and unite them. How often she has failed in this, we know: even in antiquity it was infinitely difficult for here to be simultaneously the Church of the barbarians and the Church of the Romans; in modern times she was unable to prevent strife between the Christian nations; and today she is still not succeeding in so uniting rich and poor that the excess of the former becomes satisfaction of the latter- the ideal of sitting at a common table remains largely unfulfilled. Yet even so one must not forget all the imperatives that have issued from the claim of catholicity; above all, instead of reckoning up the past, we should face the challenge of the present and try in it not only to profess catholicity in the Creed but to make it a reality in the life of our torn world. (346-347)

On Death and Baptism

2011-10-22T22:27:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow, my daughter will be Baptized. She will receive the means of grace through the water and word being born again of water and spirit. Through the excitement of it all I can't help but to reflect on my father's death. Tomorrow, the old Adam in Sophia will be put to death and that will continue daily for the rest of her life. She is moving from death to life from old to new. My Dad has completed that daily journey. Our deaths are certain, but what is also certain is our resurrection. God is going to make Sophia His own in Baptism just like he made Dad his own in Baptism. We know this because Jesus told us in John 14:19 "Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live (John 11:25). "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved" (Mark 16:16).

The Time Machine and Dad

2011-10-21T22:05:00.003-05:00

The Time Machine (1960) Part 1 (Full Movie) by goldrausch

Dad loved to share the things he loved with us. Movies were one way he showed us his childhood. He loved to regale us with stories of his grandmother taking him to the movies. "The Time Machine" was one of his favorites. Channel 39 in Houston played the movie often which granted us the opportunity to share in his childhood.

Many years later, soon after his mother died, I had my appendix removed. When I got home he came over to stay with me. He brought "The Time Machine" with him. We watched it twice one day remembering my childhood and the good times. We loved to watch movies together, especially the old ones. We had no idea what would come next. I treasure those times we had together, watching and talking.

That Christmas we found out he had cancer. With extensive surgery, the cancer was beaten or so we thought. It came back the next year and it was vicious. Right before the treatments began I was with Dad. Again we watched the time machine, for what was to be the last time. This time there was silence. There was no need for words. At first, the treatments were going well, but the cancer overcame the treatments and Dad fell asleep in the Lord.

Dad used to say that suffering and death are meaningless without the salvation given through the cross of Christ. With the death and resurrection of Christ the deadly sting of death is overcome. Because Christ lives we too will live. The resurrection means we shall rise to share Christ's eternal glorious life.

1st Corinthians 15:
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 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 this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 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." 55 " O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the lay. 57 But thanks be to god, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 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.

Dad, Mom and Me

2011-10-20T22:01:00.000-05:00

Dad Died Yesterday

2011-10-20T21:13:00.000-05:00

I can't even begin to fathom the loss I feel right now. Through this whole experience of helping and watching him battle cancer the last two years, I have come to realize the truth of Martin Luther's words; we are beggars this is true.

I know my Dad is before the throne of Jesus and I can rejoice in that.

" And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And He said unto me, It is done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. " Revelation 21

I can't help but wonder

2011-10-15T22:10:00.002-05:00

if the Occupy Movement is running from one kind of slavery into the arms of a much greater and much more evil form of slavery.

Dad and Dr. Who

2011-10-15T21:53:00.001-05:00

We spent some time with Dad today. There are always the flood of memories that comes while spending time with him. One of those great memories, was camping out on the floor watching Doctor Who on Saturday nights. It was a tradition that carried on for years and it started with this one...

When I watch the news I feel like...

2011-10-14T21:58:00.001-05:00

Timing

2011-10-12T16:10:00.001-05:00

Replace war with junior high and it still makes sense.

Occasio in bello amplius solet juvare, quam virtus. Amplius juvat virtas, quam multitado.

In war, valor is more useful than strength in arms, but even greater than valor is timing.

Vegetius

Only A Matter Of Time

2011-10-11T22:28:00.000-05:00

1 Thessalonians 4:13

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

Dad has entered hospice. He is no longer receiving the nutrition that his body has rejected. It is only a matter of time. The journey has been arduous. We discovered that his cancer returned earlier this year. In June, we learned that it that same bladder cancer that caused the removal of his bladder almost two years ago. Dad made the decision to fight the cancer and fight he did. He underwent several sessions of chemo and radiation therapy. Unfortunately, the cure for the cancer caused complications. He developed a blockage and sepsis set in. He fought, oh did he fight it.

He overcame that sepsis, but the blockage remains. He has gone on a month and a half with that blockage. There is no way to fix it, the radiation did far too much damage and surely the cancer has spread. The doctors wanted to continue to fight it, but it could not happen. Finally the TPN that has been keeping him alive caused complications.

Without a doubt this has been a difficult time for us. So many times we were lifted up with good news and hope to only have it come crashing down. That must be what it is like to have no hope in the Lord. No knowledge that He is with us.

I am not sure how I will tell my son when Dad falls asleep in the Lord. I know that I can tell him one thing I can tell him that ...I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! Job 19: 25-27

Thinking of Dad

2011-10-08T22:10:00.003-05:00

and the stories he tells.

I am my Father

2011-10-01T22:03:00.000-05:00

My Dad has a hard time with names. There was one memorable occasion in Denver. Our waiter Juan, was excellent. He gave us prompt service, refilled our drinks and offered some good food suggestions. My Dad with typical politeness thanked him every time. "Juan, may I say this food is excellent." Thank you Juan for a fantastic meal." "Juan will you please point us to the bathroom?" I am not sure when I noticed, but when I looked at "Juan" I noticed his name tag said Jose. I decided to tell my Dad after we left to see if he would ever notice. He never did. I am heading down that road. Oh No. I hope Jose did not spit in our food...

The Gift of Time

2011-09-26T21:58:00.002-05:00

Today I rushed out of school to be with my Dad. It was that simple, he wanted me. I do not know when he will be called home to be with Jesus, but I do know that I had the chance to sit with him, hold his hand and just enjoy the time with him and I took it.

God's Terms

2011-09-25T19:28:00.001-05:00

I wanted so much to be there and see Dad ring that bell. What a significant accomplishment for him to have been able to ring that bell! The end of radiation therapy is a gift.
Things do not always work the way we want them to. Dad finished his therapy because his body could not go on. The time will come when the Lord will call him home.
I wish that he could have completed his therapy and had the opportunity to play with his grandchildren. But it is not about me. He will soon be with the Lord and I have to have faith. He will be with Jesus.