Nominations Still Sought

At the annual Fort Wayne Symposia on the Lutheran Confessions (20-23 January 2015 at Concordia Theological Seminary) the editors of Gottesdienst will be meeting to determine the next bearer or the Sabre of Boldness. Send in your nominations now! Submit a signed nomination to Fr. Eckardt via e-mail (click here).  

The award is given “For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity on behalf of the Holy Church of Christ while engaged in the confession of His pure Gospel in the face of hostile forces and at the greatest personal risk.” State the name, address, and telephone number of the nominee and the reasons why he or she is a fitting choice for Sabre Bearer.  The degree of the adversity, steadfast resistance to pressures to compromise, heedlessness of threats, and a clear confession of faith are considered.  The slate will close on Tuesday, January 20^th. 

For reservations at the Gottesdienst Hotel, click here by Wednesday, January 7th, or call 260-484-0411 or toll free 855-322-3224; ask for the group rate for Gottesdienst.

The Sabre ceremony is in its twentieth year.  The list of recipients is below.

Bearers of the Sabre of Boldness

1996  The Reverend Peter C. Bender

1997  The Reverend Jonathan G. Lange

1998  The Reverend Dr. Edwin S. Suelflow

1999  The Reverend Gary V. Gehlbach

2000  The Reverend Peter M. Berg

2001  The Reverend Dr. John C. Wohlrabe

2002  The Reverend Erich Fickel

2003  The Reverend Dr. Wallace Schulz

2004  The Reverend Charles M. Henrickson

2005  The Reverend Edward J. Balfour

2006  Bishop Walter Obare

2007  The Reverend Dr. Ronald Feuerhahn

2008  The Reverend Aaron Moldenhauer

2009  The Reverend Juhana Pohjola

2010  The Right Reverend Dr. Paul Kofi Fynn

2011  The Reverend Brian Saunders

2012  The Reverend Paul Rydecki

2013  Mrs. Katie Schuermann

2014  The Reverend Michael Brockman

Jürgen Diestelmann, R.I.P.

Pfarrer Jürgen Diestelmann

29 May 1928-29 December 2014

Within hours of his demise this past Monday, the electronic news service of the SELK announced the death of Pfarrer Jürgen Diestelmann, pastor emeritus of the famous Brüdern Sankt-Ulrici church in Braunschweig. Although on the roster of the VELKD (United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany), Diestelmann was strongly aligned with the orthodox wing of our German sister church, enjoying a special closeness to Bishop emeritus Jobst Schoene. He will surely rank as one of the last pastors to carry on Hermann Sasse’s protest against the EKD, the German union church of 1948, from within.

Diestelmann’s congregation, where he discharged his vicarage in the mid-1950s and later served as pastor from 1975 till his retirement in 1990, has long been a bright light amid the darkness of the German “Lutheran” territorial churches, noteworthy for its orthodoxy in doctrine and liturgical life. Diestelmann’s personal blog, which he updated even in the past month, offered an orthodox Lutheran perspective on the local and global scene, and also served as the website of the Brüderngemeinde: http://www.luther-in-bs.de/ . Diestelmann’s Brüdernrundbrief, whose last issue appeared in October of last year, was a much appreciated source of news and encouragement for orthodox Lutherans in Europe.

A faithful and energetic parish pastor with every ounce of his being, for more than half a century Diestelmann was highly active in academic research and publishing, focussing sharply on the sacramental doctrine and practice of Martin Luther and his faithful followers in the Reformation period. An 84-pp. book published by Diestelmann in 1960 on Luther’s understanding of the Consecration proved useful in my own doctoral researches more than thirty years ago. Diestelmann untiringly hammered home the doctrinal truth and liturgical-practical implications of the Reformer’s scriptural understanding of the Consecration, publishing a series of volumes culminating in a book issued in 2014 with a view to the impending Luther jubilee of 2017. Luther oder Melanchthon: Der Bruch einer historischen Freundschaft und die Folgen für die heutige Ökumene und das Reformationsgedenken 2017 (= Luther or Melanchthon: the break of an historic friendship and its consequences for contemporary worldwide Christendom and the Reformation commemoration of 2017) must head toward the top of my to-read list. I note from Diestelmann’s website that he recently received a courteous thank-you letter from Benedict XVI/Joseph Ratzinger, to whom he sent a copy.

I last corresponded with Pfarrer Diestelmann in 2009, when he had me review for Logia his Usus und Actio: Das Heilige Abendmahl bei Luther und Melanchthon. A glance at this appraisal of his work will demonstrate how much we shall remain in Diestelmann’s debt: http://www.luther-in-bs.de/Rezension%20Stephenson.pdf

Diestelmann was co-editor of Einträchtig Lehren, the festschrift published in honour of Bishop Schoene in 1997.

Pfarrer Diestelmann leaves behind his widow, Leonore, four children, ten grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

His funeral will take place in the Brüdernkirche on the festival of the Epiphany of our Lord, with interment following the next day.

Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei.

John R. Stephenson, PhD
Professor of Historical Theology

Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary

St. Catherines, Ontario

Gottesdienst Online: Big Enough for Spam and Hate

By Larry Beane

GO must be moving to the big leagues.

A few months ago, we began to notice that we were being spammed.  Comments began to appear with user names of middle-eastern origin, with links to a variety of websites from job postings to pornography.  It has become increasingly difficult to track these down and delete them.

It speaks well of GO, as we must be generating the kind of traffic that would interest such, er, "entrepreneurship."

We've also noticed another recent phenomenon, which seems to be motivated by the same yearning desire for internet hits: comments consisting of provocative anti-Christian hate-speech in the form of screeds and rants unrelated to the topic.

In this day and age, anyone and everyone can have a blog, can spew slander and hatred against Christians, engage in lies and sensationalism, and even expressions of psychological derangement: freely and without government interference.  But, of course, such bloggers rarely get noticed, and so they resort to the same piggyback method as our middle-eastern friends in a desperate bid for attention.

I do feel compassion for such people, and we certainly should pray that they get the help they need, the forgiveness in Christ that they crave deep down inside, and that they learn the Christian values of love, tolerance, and respectful dialogue and discussion.  These qualities are becoming increasingly rare in an environment of mounting hostility to Christianity and to traditional values, in a world of increased narcissism, and where mental illness and lack of self-restraint seem to be on the rise.

In short, our culture is becoming increasingly uncivilized.

I believe that, to a man, the editors of Gottesdienst believe in freedom of speech.  Speaking for myself, I would oppose any effort to censor or outlaw repugnant or even blasphemous speech.  But having said that, nobody has the right to barge into my church or home, use profanity, blaspheme our faith, or engage in slander.  Anyone who would do such a thing would be asked to leave and practice his free speech on his own property and in his own forum.

Similarly, Gottesdienst Online is our forum for discussion.  We are unabashedly Christian in faith, Lutheran in confession, liturgical in our tradition, and catholic in our orientation.  We unreservedly and unashamedly accept the Holy Scriptures as being the inspired Word of God, without error, and divinely authoritative.  Those who hold contrary opinions are truly welcome to engage in respectful dialogue with us.

However, antics such as that of a recent commenter who dropped the name of a Lutheran layman (who sometimes comments at GO, and often disagrees with us) and falsely accused him of wearing Klan regalia, and maliciously and ruthlessly attacking several Lutheran pastors and bloggers, describing them as "evil" - as well as referring to our church body as a "hate group" - are not welcome here.  It is one thing to express disagreement; it is entirely indecent and sinful to engage in slander.  It will not happen on our watch.  We will not encourage or tolerate such comments here.

If you don't get the hits at your own blog, perhaps that is helpful feedback that no-one is interested in your attempts to provoke.  If none of the Gottesdienst editors are taking your bait and reading your material, perhaps that is helpful feedback that we're just not interested in rolling around in the mud with you.

For the time being, comments on GO will be moderated.  This is no different than a newspaper editor picking and choosing which letters to publish, or a person holding a press conference refusing to answer ridiculous questions unrelated to the topic.  We encourage spirited debate.  But rants and raves unrelated to the topic at hand, hate-speech, spam, slander, and blasphemy against our Lord and the Christian faith will simply have to be taken outside.

But we do appreciate the compliment, and are very happy that so many people care about the faith and its confession in the traditional liturgy so as to put us in the category of blogs that are spammed.

We must be doing something right to attract such attention!

Soli Deo gloria!

No Peppermint For You!

Even the Pope of Rome can only get 33% of his acolytes to hold their hands right at Christmas.

Merry Christmas from Gottesdienst.

Christmas - by Sir John Betjeman

CHRISTMAS

The bells of waiting Advent ring,
The Tortoise stove is lit again
And lamp-oil light across the night
Has caught the streaks of winter rain
In many a stained-glass window sheen
From Crimson Lake to Hookers Green.

The holly in the windy hedge
And round the Manor House the yew
Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge,
The altar, font and arch and pew,
So that the villagers can say
‘The church looks nice’ on Christmas Day.

Provincial Public Houses blaze,
Corporation tramcars clang,
On lighted tenements I gaze,
Where paper decorations hang,
And bunting in the red Town Hall
Says ‘Merry Christmas to you all’.

And London shops on Christmas Eve
Are strung with silver bells and flowers
As hurrying clerks the City leave
To pigeon-haunted classic towers,
And marbled clouds go scudding by
The many-steepled London sky.

And girls in slacks remember Dad,
And oafish louts remember Mum,
And sleepless children’s hearts are glad.
And Christmas-morning bells say ‘Come!’
Even to shining ones who dwell
Safe in the Dorchester Hotel.

And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue,
A Baby in an ox’s stall ?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me ?

And is it true ? For if it is,
No loving fingers tying strings
Around those tissued fripperies,
The sweet and silly Christmas things,
Bath salts and inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so kindly meant,

No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare -
That God was man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.

-Sir John Betjeman