Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Thoughts on Easter 6: True Friends Tell It Like It Is
To be a friend means you tell it like it is. True friends speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15). For to speak the truth is to love. To be a friend, then, to truly love, then, is to speak plainly, openly. It's to speak frankly and honestly and truthfully. And when one does this, when one person puts what he really thinks out there he lays down his life for the other's sake. In speaking plainly and frankly to someone, you put them first, you put their needs before yours, you put what is in their best interest before your own. You lay down your own life for the sake of theirs. For in speaking plainly, in speaking frankly, in telling it like it is, you give yourself for their gain rather than taking from them for your own, and thus you subject yourself to rejection, to misuse, and to all kinds of abuse. Nevertheless, this is the mark of true love and true friendship--open and honest speech, laying down your life for theirs.
And this is what, at last, our Lord gives to His disciples when He goes to the Father and sends them the Spirit of Truth. He lays down His life for His friends in being lifted up from the earth on the cross. He goes to the Father and sends the Spirit of Truth. He sends the Paraclete, who comes to lead them into all Truth, to lead them into what is to come, to declare to them what belongs to Jesus. Though they are His enemies according to the flesh, He treats them as friends because he speaks plainly, frankly (John 15:15) and because he lays down His life for them (John 15:13).
And so when the Holy Spirit comes, when the Paraclete, who bears and rears the children of God comes, he will lead them into a life as a friend of the Lord, a friend of the King of Kings. He will lead them into a life of prayer, a life of sacrificial prayer.
παρρησία (John 16:25) is an attribute of friendship because those who spoke plainly were understood to be trustworthy and speaking in the friend's best interest not their own. Whereas someone seeking their own interest would flatter by word and conduct. They would not be honest. They would not be frank and open.
The Lord is free to speak what He wants. He has nothing to hide. He is always open and frank. He has the freedom of speech because He is the Lord, the King. Thus our Lord will speak frankly and openly, plainly, to His disciples. He will use His παρρησίᾳ and thereby give to His disciples the status of friend and the freedom of speech with Him. Our Lord's παρρησία works παρρησία in those who hear Him. For by freely giving His Word He gives them His Spirit, His Voice. He gives them Himself. They are now one, even as the Father and the Son are one.
So now those who hear the Lord's παρρησία have the same. They can speak openly, honestly, frankly, candidly with Him. They are His friends.
But notice that the Lord rebukes His disciples for their response to His gift of παρρησία.
Consider your own life. Consider your own prayers. Do you couch your thoughts and your words to make you look good? Do you flatter your people, your confessor, your Lord with vain and idol speech? Are you open with them. Do you lay down you life for them? Are you their friend?
But here's the point: Despite your answer, regardless of your actions, The Lord is nevertheless your friend. He gave His life for you. He gives you His Spirit, His Word. You, therefore, have the right of παρρησία. You have freedom of speech. You can speak openly, plainly, honestly and frankly. You can tell it like it is. You can complain. You can ask the Father of your friend, our Lord Jesus Christ, anything. You have His ear because He gave it to you. Use it. Use this gift. Use your παρρησίᾳ. Open the Psalter to learn how. It is His Word, which carries His Spirit. And this will lead you into all Truth, which will give you life, joy, a freedom. Oh Lord open my lips. And He does.
And this is what, at last, our Lord gives to His disciples when He goes to the Father and sends them the Spirit of Truth. He lays down His life for His friends in being lifted up from the earth on the cross. He goes to the Father and sends the Spirit of Truth. He sends the Paraclete, who comes to lead them into all Truth, to lead them into what is to come, to declare to them what belongs to Jesus. Though they are His enemies according to the flesh, He treats them as friends because he speaks plainly, frankly (John 15:15) and because he lays down His life for them (John 15:13).
And so when the Holy Spirit comes, when the Paraclete, who bears and rears the children of God comes, he will lead them into a life as a friend of the Lord, a friend of the King of Kings. He will lead them into a life of prayer, a life of sacrificial prayer.
παρρησία (John 16:25) is an attribute of friendship because those who spoke plainly were understood to be trustworthy and speaking in the friend's best interest not their own. Whereas someone seeking their own interest would flatter by word and conduct. They would not be honest. They would not be frank and open.
The Lord is free to speak what He wants. He has nothing to hide. He is always open and frank. He has the freedom of speech because He is the Lord, the King. Thus our Lord will speak frankly and openly, plainly, to His disciples. He will use His παρρησίᾳ and thereby give to His disciples the status of friend and the freedom of speech with Him. Our Lord's παρρησία works παρρησία in those who hear Him. For by freely giving His Word He gives them His Spirit, His Voice. He gives them Himself. They are now one, even as the Father and the Son are one.
So now those who hear the Lord's παρρησία have the same. They can speak openly, honestly, frankly, candidly with Him. They are His friends.
But notice that the Lord rebukes His disciples for their response to His gift of παρρησία.
"Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.” Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone." (John 15:30-32)The disciples don't respond in παρρησία. They respond with flattery. They don't treat Him as friend. They are trying to make themselves look good, hold themselves up. To point this out to them, our Lord says that they will all desert Him. They will all leave Him alone. Their response is a rejection of the παρρησίᾳ He gave them. The disciples, therefore, reject Him as their friend, as one who will will give His life for theirs. It is a rejection of Him, of His Word, of His Spirit. They don't want to be friends. They want to be slaves.
Consider your own life. Consider your own prayers. Do you couch your thoughts and your words to make you look good? Do you flatter your people, your confessor, your Lord with vain and idol speech? Are you open with them. Do you lay down you life for them? Are you their friend?
But here's the point: Despite your answer, regardless of your actions, The Lord is nevertheless your friend. He gave His life for you. He gives you His Spirit, His Word. You, therefore, have the right of παρρησία. You have freedom of speech. You can speak openly, plainly, honestly and frankly. You can tell it like it is. You can complain. You can ask the Father of your friend, our Lord Jesus Christ, anything. You have His ear because He gave it to you. Use it. Use this gift. Use your παρρησίᾳ. Open the Psalter to learn how. It is His Word, which carries His Spirit. And this will lead you into all Truth, which will give you life, joy, a freedom. Oh Lord open my lips. And He does.
On Arrogance
When a pastor and congregation, or parts of a congregation, have conflict one of the chief complaints against the pastor will almost certainly be that he is arrogant.
Without judging the justice of that complaint in any given case, I think we can readily admit that pastors are certainly susceptible to arrogance, perhaps more so than other Christians. They are supposed to be smart, at least to know more about the Bible and Church history than the other folks around them, they are college educated, and they possess authority. All that can go to your head. In addition, a confessional, conservative, propositional denomination like the LCMS tends to attract men with a certain set of personality traits: a preference for right/wrong argumentation and deductive logical thinking, a disdain for emotionalism or even emotion, etc. Sometimes this is referred to as "being German." But it's more than that for there are plenty of Pentecostals and Romantics named Meier, Schickelgrueber, and Hohenzollern.
With that combination of education and disposition, arrogance is a temptation we should expect: γνῶθι σαυτόν. So it behooves us all to cultivate true Christian humility in the same way Christians cultivate all the virtues: with the Word and prayer and faithful use of the Sacraments, especially the Sacrament of Confession and Absolution.
And yet there is still a problem - the appearance of arrogance even when arrogance itself is absent. Some of this will be unavoidable. Folks will charge you with arrogance (and much else) when you have the sad task of calling them to repentance. Calumny comes with the job; get used to it.
But since you know that it is coming on this score, get as much inoculation from that charge as you can. This begins with that genuine Christian humility mentioned above: there is no substitute for virtue. But one should also be worldly wise. In Bible class, in chance conversations in the supermarket, at the ball game, etc., a little self-deprecating humor goes a long way. Bringing a beer to the trustee who mows the lawn goes a long way. Volunteering to help out with some of the manual labor on the spring clean up day goes a long way.
I suspect that a lot of this is a rural/small town phenomenon. In my parishes it's not uncommon for my wife and I to be the only people in a room with college degrees. In their Monday-Friday lives these parishioners often work under managers and bosses with plenty of degrees and very little common sense or kindness. Same goes for the politicians whose rule they live under. So they are set up to expect the same of the other college educated authority in their lives: the pastor.
All of this is even more necessary for pastors concerned with reverence in the Divine Service, for amongst the people of middle America reverence and arrogance are sometimes confused. The signs of the former are taken to be the evidence for the latter. This is what the charge of "chancel prancing" comes down to: You are an arrogant show off. The worst part of this is that you may never hear the charge to your face and have opportunity to explain why you do what you do and to Whose honor you do it.
Furthermore, teaching all that good stuff about why we worship how we worship before, during, and after you make changes for the sake of reverence really won't help you in this regard. I'm sorry, but it's true. Those disposed to listen to your teaching are not the problem. Especially if that teaching is done partly or in whole via the written word. Those who have a predisposition against "elites" will not read what you write and only listen to a fraction of your explanations. You can't tell someone "I'm not arrogant" when every Sunday they can clearly see what they take to be evidence to the contrary.
Some you will never convince. And those you do you will convince not with your words, but with your deeds of pastoral care in tragic circumstances, your small talk about pork bellies, your admissions of ignorance, and your sharing of cold beer after a hot afternoon of painting the rectory porch.
+HRC
Without judging the justice of that complaint in any given case, I think we can readily admit that pastors are certainly susceptible to arrogance, perhaps more so than other Christians. They are supposed to be smart, at least to know more about the Bible and Church history than the other folks around them, they are college educated, and they possess authority. All that can go to your head. In addition, a confessional, conservative, propositional denomination like the LCMS tends to attract men with a certain set of personality traits: a preference for right/wrong argumentation and deductive logical thinking, a disdain for emotionalism or even emotion, etc. Sometimes this is referred to as "being German." But it's more than that for there are plenty of Pentecostals and Romantics named Meier, Schickelgrueber, and Hohenzollern.
With that combination of education and disposition, arrogance is a temptation we should expect: γνῶθι σαυτόν. So it behooves us all to cultivate true Christian humility in the same way Christians cultivate all the virtues: with the Word and prayer and faithful use of the Sacraments, especially the Sacrament of Confession and Absolution.
And yet there is still a problem - the appearance of arrogance even when arrogance itself is absent. Some of this will be unavoidable. Folks will charge you with arrogance (and much else) when you have the sad task of calling them to repentance. Calumny comes with the job; get used to it.
But since you know that it is coming on this score, get as much inoculation from that charge as you can. This begins with that genuine Christian humility mentioned above: there is no substitute for virtue. But one should also be worldly wise. In Bible class, in chance conversations in the supermarket, at the ball game, etc., a little self-deprecating humor goes a long way. Bringing a beer to the trustee who mows the lawn goes a long way. Volunteering to help out with some of the manual labor on the spring clean up day goes a long way.
I suspect that a lot of this is a rural/small town phenomenon. In my parishes it's not uncommon for my wife and I to be the only people in a room with college degrees. In their Monday-Friday lives these parishioners often work under managers and bosses with plenty of degrees and very little common sense or kindness. Same goes for the politicians whose rule they live under. So they are set up to expect the same of the other college educated authority in their lives: the pastor.
All of this is even more necessary for pastors concerned with reverence in the Divine Service, for amongst the people of middle America reverence and arrogance are sometimes confused. The signs of the former are taken to be the evidence for the latter. This is what the charge of "chancel prancing" comes down to: You are an arrogant show off. The worst part of this is that you may never hear the charge to your face and have opportunity to explain why you do what you do and to Whose honor you do it.
Furthermore, teaching all that good stuff about why we worship how we worship before, during, and after you make changes for the sake of reverence really won't help you in this regard. I'm sorry, but it's true. Those disposed to listen to your teaching are not the problem. Especially if that teaching is done partly or in whole via the written word. Those who have a predisposition against "elites" will not read what you write and only listen to a fraction of your explanations. You can't tell someone "I'm not arrogant" when every Sunday they can clearly see what they take to be evidence to the contrary.
Some you will never convince. And those you do you will convince not with your words, but with your deeds of pastoral care in tragic circumstances, your small talk about pork bellies, your admissions of ignorance, and your sharing of cold beer after a hot afternoon of painting the rectory porch.
+HRC
Monday, May 7, 2012
A Few Minutes with Fr. William C. Weedon, LCMS Director of Worship and International Center Chaplain
I recently had the pleasure of spending a few minutes chatting with Fr. William C. Weedon, newly installed LCMS Director of Worship and International Center Chaplain, to ask him a few questions about his new post. Here's his response.
GOTTESDIENST: As Director of Worship and IC chaplain, what will some of your duties entail?
WEEDON: Let's start with the easier one: as IC Chaplain I'm responsible for coordinating and planning the services that take place in the International Center Chapel (it needs a name!), and in general finding ways for "the Word of God to dwell richly" among the employees in the building as they seek to seek to serve the needs of the Church. In today's Chapel, President Harrison spoke of the three meanings we find in the NT for "confess" - confession of sins, of the faith, and the confession of praise. As chaplain in this place, it's my calling to assist the workers in embracing all three meanings: learning what it means to live together under the forgiveness of Jesus – and so forgiving one another, building each other up in our wonderful doctrinal heritage, and also growing in the joyous praise of God. They are all tied together as we learn to "say back" to God what He has graciously said and revealed of Himself to us.
As Director of Worship, I'll hope to entice the pastors and parishes of the Synod into a joyous, reverent, and intentional embrace of our heritage as Lutheran Christians – a heritage that virtually drips with the sweetness of the Gospel at every turn. One wonderful thing about that heritage is that it is always open-ended: the Lord of the Church is never done giving His gifts. He always has more: new gifts, new songs, new joys for His Church. But (and this is crucial) these "new" gifts never come by way of replacement of the heritage that has gone before but always as its natural unfolding and growth. "One generation shall declare your works to another." This happens as the song of previous generations lives on on our lips and in our hearts, and as we teach that song to the next generation, and add whatever new the Lord gives in our own day along with it. Also, keep your eye out for workshops for hymn-writers, continued publication of the Let Us Pray series – AND the addition of a set of historic, one-year Let Us Pray cycle, ongoing Lectionary Summaries and perhaps a revival of the Lutheran Musicians Enrichment opportunities.
GOTTESDIENST: You’ve said before that we have a “rich, intentional and beautiful liturgical heritage” and that within that heritage “we possess a wide range of freedom.” What does that mean for LCMS congregations?
WEEDON: The sainted A. C. Piepkorn once famously wrote that the responsible exercise of freedom is itself a catholic virtue. He was right, of course, and yet the chief freedom we are concerned with when we speak of Christian worship is not the freedom from our liturgical heritage, or even the freedom to mold our liturgical heritage, but the freedom that that heritage bears such sublime witness to: the liberation of creation from its bondage to decay, sin and death! Freedom isn't making up a new liturgy each week – in fact, that can end up being bondage to the itch for the novel that Luther decried in the intro to the German Mass. On the contrary, the freedom to which our liturgical and hymnological heritage bears witness is the freedom to live in the Spirit where all is gift from the hand of the Crucified and Risen One (even the sufferings!) who IS the Forgiveness of our sin and the Destruction of all our death, and so where all of life is referred in thanksgiving to His heavenly Father, who has now become our Father. This is the freedom to be the children of God that our Baptism has made us, the freedom to which absolution constantly restores us, and that the most venerable Eucharist strengthens within us every time we receive it in the joys of repentance and faith.
GOTTESDIENST: How can pastors be more purposeful in cultivating a rich liturgical life within their congregation?
WEEDON: First let them be men of prayer. The Daily Office should be no stranger to our pastors. We have rich resource here. I think of Treasury of Daily Prayer or The Brotherhood Prayerbook among others. Let the pastors be men of prayer and among their concerns in prayer, let them pray for the renewal of their parishes (that they might truly become outposts, colonies of the Age to Come)and for a growing and deep reverence and love for the Blessed Eucharist in their congregations. Let's also watch HOW we conduct ourselves in the service of bringing the gifts of God to the people of God. Not stiff and wooden and choreographed, certainly not casual and comfortable, but with fear and trembling, commingled with the unutterable joy of being in the presence of the Lamb of God with all the saints and angels. When pastors orient themselves toward this great present but unseen reality in our worship, it will then invite the congregation along with them into the holy presence. We also need to remember this: the liturgy is at its heart simply prayed confession, prayed doctrine. Discomfort with our historic liturgy may sometimes be a sign and symptom of discomfort with the Lutheran doctrine embedded in it. That needs then to be addressed for what it is: not a quarrel about worship style, but a struggle to confess the truth of God.
GOTTESDIENST: What can the pastors of the LCMS be doing or praying for that will assist you in your new role?
WEEDON: The pastors of the LCMS need above all to attend to this: the preaching of the Word entrusted to them. The preaching of God's law in such a way that the sinner is not merely irritated but slain; the preaching of the Gospel in such clarity that the slain are raised from the dead by the life-giving Spirit. I have said for many years that what we face in the Synod is not so much a crisis of liturgy as a crisis of preaching. Lutheran liturgy tends to take care of itself when the preaching is strong. There is nothing that would so strengthen the worship life of the congregations of our Synod, nothing that would so delight our Lord's heart, as more careful attention to our preaching. If there is one thing we should ask the Lord of the Church to grant us, it is renewal in the pulpit. That will lead, I firmly believe, to renewal at the altar, in the choir loft, and out in the community.
 |
| Fr. William C. Weedon, LCMS Director of Worship and International Center Chaplain |
GOTTESDIENST: As Director of Worship and IC chaplain, what will some of your duties entail?
WEEDON: Let's start with the easier one: as IC Chaplain I'm responsible for coordinating and planning the services that take place in the International Center Chapel (it needs a name!), and in general finding ways for "the Word of God to dwell richly" among the employees in the building as they seek to seek to serve the needs of the Church. In today's Chapel, President Harrison spoke of the three meanings we find in the NT for "confess" - confession of sins, of the faith, and the confession of praise. As chaplain in this place, it's my calling to assist the workers in embracing all three meanings: learning what it means to live together under the forgiveness of Jesus – and so forgiving one another, building each other up in our wonderful doctrinal heritage, and also growing in the joyous praise of God. They are all tied together as we learn to "say back" to God what He has graciously said and revealed of Himself to us.
As Director of Worship, I'll hope to entice the pastors and parishes of the Synod into a joyous, reverent, and intentional embrace of our heritage as Lutheran Christians – a heritage that virtually drips with the sweetness of the Gospel at every turn. One wonderful thing about that heritage is that it is always open-ended: the Lord of the Church is never done giving His gifts. He always has more: new gifts, new songs, new joys for His Church. But (and this is crucial) these "new" gifts never come by way of replacement of the heritage that has gone before but always as its natural unfolding and growth. "One generation shall declare your works to another." This happens as the song of previous generations lives on on our lips and in our hearts, and as we teach that song to the next generation, and add whatever new the Lord gives in our own day along with it. Also, keep your eye out for workshops for hymn-writers, continued publication of the Let Us Pray series – AND the addition of a set of historic, one-year Let Us Pray cycle, ongoing Lectionary Summaries and perhaps a revival of the Lutheran Musicians Enrichment opportunities.
GOTTESDIENST: You’ve said before that we have a “rich, intentional and beautiful liturgical heritage” and that within that heritage “we possess a wide range of freedom.” What does that mean for LCMS congregations?
WEEDON: The sainted A. C. Piepkorn once famously wrote that the responsible exercise of freedom is itself a catholic virtue. He was right, of course, and yet the chief freedom we are concerned with when we speak of Christian worship is not the freedom from our liturgical heritage, or even the freedom to mold our liturgical heritage, but the freedom that that heritage bears such sublime witness to: the liberation of creation from its bondage to decay, sin and death! Freedom isn't making up a new liturgy each week – in fact, that can end up being bondage to the itch for the novel that Luther decried in the intro to the German Mass. On the contrary, the freedom to which our liturgical and hymnological heritage bears witness is the freedom to live in the Spirit where all is gift from the hand of the Crucified and Risen One (even the sufferings!) who IS the Forgiveness of our sin and the Destruction of all our death, and so where all of life is referred in thanksgiving to His heavenly Father, who has now become our Father. This is the freedom to be the children of God that our Baptism has made us, the freedom to which absolution constantly restores us, and that the most venerable Eucharist strengthens within us every time we receive it in the joys of repentance and faith.
GOTTESDIENST: How can pastors be more purposeful in cultivating a rich liturgical life within their congregation?
WEEDON: First let them be men of prayer. The Daily Office should be no stranger to our pastors. We have rich resource here. I think of Treasury of Daily Prayer or The Brotherhood Prayerbook among others. Let the pastors be men of prayer and among their concerns in prayer, let them pray for the renewal of their parishes (that they might truly become outposts, colonies of the Age to Come)and for a growing and deep reverence and love for the Blessed Eucharist in their congregations. Let's also watch HOW we conduct ourselves in the service of bringing the gifts of God to the people of God. Not stiff and wooden and choreographed, certainly not casual and comfortable, but with fear and trembling, commingled with the unutterable joy of being in the presence of the Lamb of God with all the saints and angels. When pastors orient themselves toward this great present but unseen reality in our worship, it will then invite the congregation along with them into the holy presence. We also need to remember this: the liturgy is at its heart simply prayed confession, prayed doctrine. Discomfort with our historic liturgy may sometimes be a sign and symptom of discomfort with the Lutheran doctrine embedded in it. That needs then to be addressed for what it is: not a quarrel about worship style, but a struggle to confess the truth of God.
GOTTESDIENST: What can the pastors of the LCMS be doing or praying for that will assist you in your new role?
WEEDON: The pastors of the LCMS need above all to attend to this: the preaching of the Word entrusted to them. The preaching of God's law in such a way that the sinner is not merely irritated but slain; the preaching of the Gospel in such clarity that the slain are raised from the dead by the life-giving Spirit. I have said for many years that what we face in the Synod is not so much a crisis of liturgy as a crisis of preaching. Lutheran liturgy tends to take care of itself when the preaching is strong. There is nothing that would so strengthen the worship life of the congregations of our Synod, nothing that would so delight our Lord's heart, as more careful attention to our preaching. If there is one thing we should ask the Lord of the Church to grant us, it is renewal in the pulpit. That will lead, I firmly believe, to renewal at the altar, in the choir loft, and out in the community.
 |
| Fr. Weedon's installation as LCMS Director of Worship and International Center Chaplain |
Gee, Brain, what do you want to do tonight? . . .
The same thing we do every night, Pinky--try to take over the world!!!
This from The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod's Facebook page (I put it here for Fr. Curtis's sake. He's lame and doesn't have a Facebook page):
This from The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod's Facebook page (I put it here for Fr. Curtis's sake. He's lame and doesn't have a Facebook page):
"Today at the LCMS International Center, we welcomed the Rev. William “Will” C. Weedon as director of Worship and International Center chaplain! Weedon was installed by the Rev. Timothy Scharr, president of the LCMS Southern Illinois District."And this is the picture under the caption. Be still my heart, look at the recently installed director of Worship and International Center Chaplain's hands . . . .
It is all part of our plan to take over the world. Muwahahaha!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)