Ash Wednesday

Return to the Lord, your God,

for He is gracious and merciful,

slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

Do you live a double life? Think about it. You do. If you cannot figure out how, come to church tonight and I'll fill you in. Then we'll look at the One who didn't, and how He's the answer to ours.

Update: Sermon posted here.

The Good of Confessional Subscription

"The faithful and single-minded fulfillment of such an obligation (a Confessional subscription) is not only not a tyrannical expectation, but it is fair and equitable to all parties. It is fair to the pastor, and protects him in many ways; it is fair to the flock, and is a most important protection to them and their children; it is fair to the Church, and protects her in her most essential principles and work.  . . .  As a co-confessor of the confession of the Apostles and the Church, the minister plants himself upon that same foundation-rock, upon which the congregation is as free from his personal mutability as he himself is free from the fluctuation of his members. For as the minister is no lord of the congregation's faith, so the congregation dare not lord it over his faith by the changing opinions of the majority."

The Confessional Principle and The Confessions of the Lutheran Church, 

p. 86-87.

The Service of the Law

More from Schmauk:

There is a service in the law, which is result and satisfaction; a service above the law, which is joy and freedom; and a service under the law, which is tyranny and bondage. It may be the selfsame service in all three cases. It is a galling service in bondage, to the weak man, the critic, the dissatisfied man, and the thinker of untamed instincts. It is a service in law, to the man of serious conscience. It is a service above law, to the man of [faith].

The Confessional Principle and The Confessions of the Lutheran Church, 

p. 80.

An Interesting Juxtaposition

My church does not have its own building. We rent space in a Spanish Seventh Day Adventist church building. At times, this creates some interesting conflicts and dynamics. This week is one of them. The Adventists are having a revival this weekend, and on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Why not Wednesday night, too? That’s our night to use the building, and it’s Ash Wednesday.

So notice the contrast: although I have not been to an Adventist revival, the revival model is to stir up the people to action using emotion and motivational speaking. Nineteenth century America was awash in this kind of effort (which is when Adventism was born) with tent revivals and itinerant rvivalists. One of the most famous was Charles Grandison Finney, and a book (historical fiction) about this is Elmer Gantry - an entertaining read. Our church is having a kind of revival too, but of a much different sort. It is a call to repentance and the discipline of Lent. It is a call to look at our sins in sorrow and focus on the cross and forgiveness of our Saviour in joy. 

At first, the difference between these two might seem to be outward versus inward - revivals focusing on being on fire and going out to win the world for Christ, while Lent is focused inward, on self examination and repentance. But the difference is far more significant than that. It is really the difference between a focus on what man does and a focus on what God does. Revivals speak of Christ, but the focus is on you and what you do. So get out there and do it! But Lent is focused primarily on what Christ does - a season leading to the remebrance of His death on Good Friday and His resurrection on Easter. Yes, repentance is a focus, but even this is the work of the Spirit in man (John 16), convicting of sin and turning us to our Saviour to receive His gifts.

And it is this focus on our Saviour and His work for us that produces deep and lasting results. It is not a few days dedicated to special and fervent service, followed by burn out and a return to life as we know it (which often cannot measure up to the emotion of the revival, and so quite a let down), but a change of heart that can only occur through Word and Sacrament. A change of heart not for a few days and then a return to life as we know it (or which now seems worse), but to “create in me a new heart” (Psalm 51) and a return to our life callings (vocations) for the long haul. To live for others where the Lord has put us, in those callings He has given us, as parents, spouses, children, workers, friends, neighbors, and more. Callings that are intricate parts of our lives, not outside of them.

So on Tuesday and Thursday, the building we meet in will be filled with fervor and the stirring up of emotion and excitement. On Wednesday night, it will be quiet, reflective, and repentant. On Tuesday and Thursday, the word will be “go out and do it!” On Wednesday night, the words will be: Dust you are, and to dust you will return . . . I forgive you all your sins . . . Take, eat, this is My Body; Take, drink, this is My Blood. Quite a contrast, don’t you think? If only those walls could talk . . .

This is nuts!

This is what it's like in Boston. Crazy. I like snow, but . . .

A Modern Parable

Go read this. Really. Now. Go.

What are the Lutheran Confessions?

"Confessions are Scripture digested, assimilated, and beating in the life pulses of the Church.  . . .  Confessions are the under-framework of the Church -- the spars and the ribs of the ship, resting upon and extending from the centre of strength, the Word, to give protection to any point in the circumference, the Church, where there may be weakness and consequent possibility of wreck. Confessions are the rails; and, let us understand well, not the roadbed or the solid rock, on which the ecclesiastical trains run. The bed is Scripture and the rock is Christ, and they determine the direction; but the rails are of human workmanship, condensing the roadbed to an effective point, and giving guidance, protection and impetus to the moving trains above."

Theodore Schmauk, 

The Confessional Principle and The Confessions of the Lutheran Church, 

p. 9, 12.