Thoughts on Trinity 3

Aristotle’s teaching on virtue was not that it was the opposite of vice, but rather that virtue was the mean between two opposite vices, the mean between an excess and a defect of the same feeling. Courage, for example, is virtue not because it has no fear, but rather that it takes a stand despite fear. It has the proper proportion of fear so as not to lead cowardliness—an excess of fear—and rashness—a defect of fear. So also temperance is virtue not because it lacks all feelings of pleasure, but because it has the proper proportion of feeling pleasure that it neither leads to intemperance—an excess of pleasure—or apathy—a defect of pleasure. Aristotle does this for all virtues and vices, showing how virtue is not vice’s opposite but rather mean between two opposite but equally pernicious vices.

What Aristotle said of virtue, the church, too, has said with regard to doctrine. The opposite of heresy is not orthodoxy, but rather another heresy just on the opposite side. It’s what Luther, among others, calls falling off the horse on the other side. Or as we might call it: running into the opposite ditch. The point is that by overcorrection, we go from one ditch to the other one. The problem, of course, is that we’re still in the ditch. In other words, we don’t fix error with error, by overcompensating. Error is fixed when one follows right behind the Lord and His Words, when we abide in His teaching, shifting neither to the right or to the left.

And so a parable about the virtue of zeal for the lost AND found.  The angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner who repents. And here is where the vices of Jesus’s day and ours enters. For the Scribes and the Pharisees, their vice is a defect of joy over one sinner who repents. They don’t rejoice because they don’t see a need for repentance. They are already righteous. The reality is quite different. The Scriptures are replete with examples of how all men are sinful from birth and are in need of repentance. And thus the final unstated question in our Lord’s parable: If the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner who repents, why don’t you? They don’t because they see no need for it because being righteous in God’s sight in not about being lost and found by God, but by never getting lost. The problem is that sinful man is always lost unless he is found, he is a sinner in need of repentance.

But this is not our vice. Our vice is an overcorrection to that of the Scribes and Pharisees. It is not in the defect of joy over one sinner who repents. It is in the excess of joy over the sinner’s sin. This leads to the same outcome as the vice of the Scribes and the Pharisees. There is no rejoicing with the angels over one sinner who repents because there is no sin that needs to be repented of. The sinner is not lost and found. The sinner in this case is never lost and is not in need of being found because he has done nothing wrong.

Consider the world’s acceptance of same-sex marriage. It’s not enough that we must be tolerant of it, we must rejoice in it. Celebrate it. The acceptance of those with same-sex attraction is not on the basis of being lost and then found, of a sinner who repents of his sin. Rather by the sleight of hand, the stroke of pen, the sin is no longer a sin and made into a good—a transformation of darkness into light, falsehood into truth. It’s a changing of identity not by the Word of God but by the will of the man. It is the polar opposite of the Scribes and the Pharisees, but just as destructive.

But that’s the world, you think. That’s society, our culture. It’s not us. This is true. But we do something similar by our own sleight of hand. And it is always preceded by three little words: “but at least . . . .” The parents in response to the couple living together against the clear Word of God, not to mention, the clear findings of study upon study regarding the detrimental effects of this, “but at least” they’re being honest and not hiding it from us. As though mere brazenness atones. To the girl giving birth out of wedlock, “but at least” she didn’t get an abortion. Yes, this is good. But does the refraining from a second sin atone for the committing of the first?

“But at least” theology blinds us to our sins. It makes us comfortable with breaking God’s law. It dulls our ears and our hearts to hearing not only God’s holy law, but also His life-saving Gospel. It makes Jesus’ death and resurrection completely unnecessary because atonement can be achieved by our own works. It gives us the ability to soothe our own consciences, not by God’s Word of forgiveness, but by rejoicing in the sin the sinner could have done but didn’t. And it still doesn’t rejoice with the angels over one sinner who repents because in our eyes there is nothing to repent of.

Repent! For this is the same sin as the Scribes and the Pharisees but in a different direction. 

And that is where the parable leaves the Scribes and the Pharisees. It’s where it leaves us. The end is left open. What will they do? What will we do? Will we continue to go our own way, either in excess or defect? Or will we follow right behind Jesus, without wavering from His Word and promises? Will we rejoice with the angels over one sinner who repents? Will we rejoice with the Good Shepherd who at great cost to Him seeks to find the one who is lost, carry him on His shoulders so that his friends and neighbors can rejoice with him that what He lost is now found and restored to His fold? Will we rejoice with God who at great effort to Him turns His house upside down and inside out to find the coin that was under His charge for safe keeping? Will we rejoice with the Word of God made flesh, who for the joy that was before Him endured the cross and despising its shame sought to save those who were lost in sin and death? This is how we love one another. For love does not rejoice is wrongdoing. It does not rejoice in evil. Love rejoices with the angels over one sinner who repents, who was lost but now is found, who was dead but now is alive.

That is what repentance is: being found by God through His Word when we are lost in our sins because of the temptations of our own flesh, the world, and the devil. He finds us. He comes into our mess. He breaks in to hinder every evil plan of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature by the proclamation of His Word. Repentance is simply admitting that you’re lost when God’s Word says that you are. It is confessing, saying the same thing as what God’s Word says.

And God’s word says this: You were once lost but now you’re found. You were once dead in your trespasses and sins, but now you are alive in Christ Jesus. You were once not a people, but now you are God’s people. For by water and Word, you bear upon your brow the sign of His victory and our redemption. And now the God of all grace will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you with His own body and blood. Rejoice with me, he says, for what was lost is now found, what was dead is now alive. For you are, and we do, with the angels and all the company of heaven, with shouts of thanksgiving “for though you were angry with us, your anger turned away, that you might comfort us . . . for the Lord God is our strength and our song, and he is our salvation.”

Ecclesiastical Pet Peeves as Ecclesiastical Rubrics

Ironically, Dr. Jerry Kieschnick and the Gottesdienst Crowd agree on something. What you do in the Divine Service with your posture, what you wear, how you speak, etc., actually matters and confesses something about what is actually happening. Without any surprise; however, we differ on what those things are. He calls them “pet peeves,” but make no mistake they are his rubrics.

But at least we’re getting somewhere. We agree that it’s not adiaphora. In other words, we agree that it’s important, even necessary, to conduct oneself in a manner befitting the occasion. Sadly, the occasion for Dr. Kieschnick seems to be of a different spirit and truth than us and that of the Lutheran Confessions (AC XXIV, 1–3). It is more like a meeting of US Presidents and Fortune 500 companies, which his list reflects. It’s a meeting of people who have it all together to praise God, the American flag, and apple pie.

The reality is that we meet before the Altar as those who decidedly don’t have it all together, but eagerly desire it. Thus we come before the King of the universe in words and posture to confess that we don’t, imploring Him for His grace and mercy to forgive us, and give us the will and action to do better. Thus all that we do, everything that we wear, how and why we sit and stand, what we sing and why we sing it, everything reflects the very nature of what is happening—the Holy Trinity coming into our midst to forgive us, renew us, console us, and feed us. 

Thus the importance of ecclesiastical rubrics. And these aren’t pet peeves. They are the wisdom of the church handed down through the ages to confess in word and posture and space—in all that we do in the Divine Service—the reality of the God who comes in Spirit and truth to receive us who prostrate (προσκυνέω) themselves before Him in Spirit and truth. Come to think of it: We agree on one more thing—it’s a pet peeve when other’s don’t recognize it as important. 

Restoring the Sacred!

St. John Cantius, Chicago

By Larry Beane

Here is a remarkable 30 minute, exquisitely beautiful video about restoring the sacred in Chicago's St. John Cantius Church.

In a decaying culture that celebrates death, embraces mediocrity, and revels in the perverse and ugly, this is a refreshing and inspiring respite.

Gloria in excelsis Deo!

Again, click here!  You will be inspired.

Conference: Gottesdienst - St. Louis

A one-day conference: Marriages and Weddings

Tuesday, June 30th, 2015

St. Paul Lutheran Church (Hamel)
6969 W. Frontage Rd.
Worden, IL  62097

Featuring from among our editors

Rev. Fr. Larry Beane, MDiv
Rev. Fr. David H. Petersen, MDiv, STM
Rev. Fr. Heath R. Curtis, MA, MDiv
Rev. Fr. Jason Braaten, MDiv
Rev. Fr. Burnell F. Eckardt Jr., MDiv, STM, PhD
Rev. Fr. Mark Braden, MDiv, STM


Schedule

8:30 - 9:00 am - Registration / Coffee & Donuts
Holy Absolution available

9:00 am - Matins
9:40 am - Welcome
9:45-10:30 am - "The Two Shall Become One": A Theology of Marriage
   Fr. Larry Beane, Online and Departmental Editor
10:45 am - Holy Mass

12:00 pm - Lunch

1:00 - 1:45 pm - "What God Hath Joined Together": A Theology of Weddings
   Fr. David Petersen, Departmental Editor
2:00 - 2:45 pm - "On the Dissolution of Marriges"
   Fr. Heath Curtis, Online Editor
3:00 pm - Panel Discussion - The Gottesdienst editors
3:45 pm - Vespers
4:30 pm - Gemütlichkeit


Lodging - On your own.  Recommended:

The Innkeeper Motel,
401 E. State St., Hamel, IL  62046
(618) 633-2111  www.innkeeperinn.com


Registration

$25 (Payable to Gottesdienst)

You may email the following info to b.f.eckardt@gmail.com with "Gottesdienst" in the subject line, and you may pay the registration fee in advance, or when you arrive.

Title & Name
Parish
Email
Address
City, State, Zip
Phone

Your sectional preferences (please select two):
   Pre-Marital 'Counseling'
   Divorce & Remarriage
   Planning the Wedding
   Having Children and Raising Them

Babysitting requested?

Viability?

Viability study needed?

By Larry Beane

We live in a culture that measures success in terms of numbers.  And so, very often the first question pastors hear when people find out that we are clergy is: "How big is your church?"  Even pastors are often heard asking each other a question that is revealing in its linguistic construction: "How many do you worship on Sunday?"  That's because the sinful flesh revels in the theology of glory.  Bigger is better.  Richer is better.  And when it comes to local parishes, the more "ministries" a church has going (meaning various activities and programs) the more it is perceived as being successful.

But of course, the kingdom of God operates differently than the corrupted world.

The distinction between the Theology of Glory and the Theology of the Cross is part of our Lutheran DNA.  Of all people, we ought to resist this sin of treating God's Word like the stock market and treating human beings like means to one's own enrichment.  Biblical Christianity is antithetical to the Prosperity Gospel and the scandalous behavior those who abuse the name of our Lord by its practice.

I recently received Newsletter #238 from the Siberian Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELC), which relates the ongoing work in finding small pockets of Lutheran Christians in the world's largest country in order to travel to them, teach them the Bible, and to administer sacraments at Divine Services.  The SELC is both the largest Lutheran church body in the world, and one of the smallest.  It is large in geography and small in numbers.  Her parishes are for the most part very small, are served by worker-priests, and do not have the luxury of activities and programs.  It is a great blessing for Russian Lutherans to attend Bible classes and Divine Services.

As a result of their small numbers in terms of members and clergy, combined with the vast numbers of kilometers to cover in tedious and arduous travel (often in brutal conditions) in bringing Bible classes and Divine Services to tiny groups of people, the SELC has unique challenges.

Here is the newsletter article:

Peace to you, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

  

On April, 22, pastor Andrei Lipnitsky has visited the village Oravka in Chany district of Novosibirsk region. This village was founded by colonists from Estonia in 1894.  It had even a church building, but at Soviet time it was confiscated and reconstructed to use as a school.  Thus religious life was extinguished.

  

About 40 people came to meet the Lutheran pastor.  They asked a lot of questions.  At the end of the talk Pastor Lipnitsky gave Small Catechisms to everybody.

To search and to visit such villages where there are people, whose ancestors confessed the Lutheran faith -- this is continuing ministry of our Church. We do it all the time.

The very first time, pastor Vsevolod Lytkin and deacon Daniel Burlakov visited such a village nearly 20 years ago. You may remember this story from our very old newsletters.

That time, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Roman-Catholic priests started to travel over Siberia to look for villages where Roman-Catholics survived.  And accidentally they found a village where people said they are Lutherans.  They spoke Russian with a strong western accent. Their ancestors came to Siberia from Poland.

Catholic priests phoned us and invited to come to this village. It was a long travel.  First, from Novosibirsk to Irkutsk, then for 8 hours by different vehicles through the taiga.  Finally we arrived to our destination, and spent a week there, communicating with the habitants.

The first settlers came to that place in the late 19th century, then many families moved from Poland (that time it was part of the Russian Empire) into deep Siberia.

Their life was very hard; they rooted out trees and arranged fields. Then they lived there and grown.  Pastor from Irkutsk visited the village once a year. He baptized, confirmed, gave the Holy Communion, conducted weddings. Last time a Pastor was there in 1935.

And then Rev. Vsevolod Lytkin became the first pastor who visited this village for over 60 years.  Many old people talked him about the faith of their ancestors, and what terrible persecutions they gone through because of their faith.  Half of the villagers died in the concentration camps during 30s and 40s (at the time of Joseph Stalin’s regime).  People were arrested if a Bible or prayer book has found in their homes.

But older people still remember what parents taught them. For example, a woman who was asked by Pastor Lytkin if she knew what the Holy Communion is, said that she never in her life took the Communion, but she remembers what her mother taught. And then she quoted by heart about Holy Communion from the Luther’s small Catechism.

Then she said: now my eyes have seen a Lutheran pastor, now I can die. And it sounded as in Luke 2: 29-30, it was very touchable. 

“That was so long ago, Bishop Vsevolod Lytkin said. But since then we have found many other villages where people have kept the faith, or even the memory of what their ancestors were Lutherans.  The Volga Germans, Poles, Finns, Latvians, Estonians...  We owe to these people, because they have brought Lutheranism to Siberia.  For many years we are searching for such villages and we try to do something to help their habitants.  To comfort the elderly.  And talk about Lord Jesus Christ and His Church to the younger.

Sadly, we do not have many resources to do this work. After all, we are a very small Church, and we are poor.  And distances in Siberia are huge.  But we try, because it is our responsibility before God.” 

  

Please pray for a safe travels of the pastors in Siberia, and that they find more villages, whose inhabitants have been and will be Lutherans.

These tiny pockets of Christians are not ignored by the bishop and the priests of our sister church body in favor of "ministries" and programs and a great chase for numbers.  They are cherished as souls whom the pastors have been called to serve with the Word and the Sacraments - even if it is costly in terms of financial resources and time to reach them.  If there is one thing our Russian brethren understand by experience, it is the Theology of the Cross.

Our Lord said, "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them" (Matt 18:20).  He did not say anything about throwing such small numbers of people out of the church body, nor pressuring them to become involved in revitalization programs, or compelling them into mergers or closures.  The Lord commissioned His pastors to "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matt 28:19-20).  He sent them out to teach and to administer sacraments, for that is how disciples are made.  He didn't say anything about mergers, closures, or revitalization.  There was no mention of viability studies.  He says nothing about the need for a certain minimum number of parishioners or programs.

By contrast, a circuit of pastors in my district has an interesting take on small congregations and how they ought to be treated - as articulated in their proposed memorial:

MEMORIAL # 1 – 04 RE: TO ADOPT A DISTRICT PARISH MINISTRY VIABILITY TASK FORCE 

WHEREAS, the 65th Synodical Convention adopted Resolution 7-04 that addresses the establishment of general principles for the evaluation of the viability of a district, and 

WHEREAS, congregations have input into the final process of the district viability evaluation, and 

WHEREAS, a number of congregations are faithfully administering the Word and Sacraments of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, while also experiencing other extreme ministry crises that are impeding the level of positive and effective outreach ministry and community involvement as related to the “Great Commission” (Matthew 28:19-20), and 

WHEREAS, the overall community outreach programs or other ministry services of a number of congregations are non-existent, and 

WHEREAS, the overall ministry of a number of congregations is basically a Sunday morning Bible study and worship, and 

WHEREAS, the records of baptism and confirmations of a number of congregations have experienced an extreme dramatic decrease, hitting rock bottom, and 

WHEREAS, the doors of a number of congregations remain open only because of a few number of remaining dedicated families having deep roots in the historical foundation of the church, and 

WHEREAS, the Task Force indicated in the 1969 Resolution 4-03 adopted “General Principles for the Formation of the Realignment of Districts,” offering adequate parish services was one very important principle; therefore, be it 

RESOLVED, THAT the Southern District establish a Parish Ministry Viability Evaluation Task Force; and, be it further 

RESOLVED, THAT the District President and the Board of Directors, establish and empower the Task Force consisting of the VP Regional Representative, the Circuit Visitor, the Mission Executive and one member of the Mission Committee, the Pastor and President of the congregation being evaluated, meet to develop the general principles of evaluating the viability of the parish as identified by the Circuit Visitor and District President; and, be it further 

RESOLVED, THAT the Task Force forward its recommendation to the President for his disclosure to the Board of directors, and the respective congregation. Such a recommendation could include a possible merger, entering into an official revitalization process, and redesign of the parish ministry to better meet the needs of the community, or final dissolution of the ministry; and, be it finally 

RESOLVED, THAT the President of the District issue an official letter of recommendation to the evaluated congregation, indicating a triennium time frame to reach an acceptable improved level of viability. Included in the letter of recommendation are suggested available resources and suggestions for the ministry. The President’s final letter of recommendation may include a recommended merger, dissolution of the congregation or a removal from the LCMS Roster. 

Submitted by: Circuit Forum 1 

By the way, this same circuit has invested the time and energy to memorialize the synod to ban the word "Easter" in all its publications (Memorial 1-05).  

I guess this is one of the differences between first- and third-world Christianity.  We American Lutherans have not been decimated by a Lenin or a Stalin.  We have not lived through a time when Bible Studies and Divine Services were yearned-for luxuries, and the thought of having a pastor come to give the Lord's Supper was the answer to six decades of fervent prayer.

However, we are moving toward a time of hostility toward - if not outright persecution of - orthodox Christianity in this country.  We may be approaching the days when "Sunday morning Bible study and worship" are actually appreciated by all circuits within our districts as the very center of parochial and ecclesiastical life, something important, urgent, and life-giving, instead of the mark of ecclesiastical failure to be bureaucratically remedied.  

Maybe viability (from Latin: vita meaning "life") in the Lord's kingdom is not really about numbers at all.  Maybe big, comfortable, numbers-driven American Christianity is the one with the viability issues.  

Kyrie eleison!

Now, that's more like it!