Thoughts on Trinity 4

We can only give what we have first received. As radios and television sets can only broadcast new, music, and movies because they have first received a signal, so also we can only give what we have first received.

We can only live because we have first been given life. For which of you has chosen to be born? We can only love because we first have been loved. We can only forgive because we have first been forgiven. We can only give because we have first been given to. We are spiritual radios, spiritual television sets. Really spirituality is all about receiving and receiving the right things.

And so our Lord promises: "Be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful." For he has been merciful. He has forgiven. He has loved. He has judged and condemned. He has done all this in the person and work of His Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. In Jesus and His cross: sin, death, and the devil are judged and condemned. In Jesus and His cross: the mercy and love of your heavenly Father is made evident. And Jesus gives it all for you to receive in Holy Absolution, Holy Baptism, and the Lord's Supper--in Word and in Sacrament. And by it you are forgiven. You have life. You are saved. For you can only give what you have first received. You can only teach what you have first learned. No student is above his teacher. The blind can't lead the blind. The empty can't fill up the empty. You can only give what you have received. And you have received and still receive much, haven't you?

But what have you given? Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Why do you point out all their faults, all their foibles, all their blemishes? Why do you pick and poke and prod all the little things about everyone else, but refuse you look at yourself, refuse to consider your blemishes, your faults? Why do you hold everyone else to a higher standard than you hold yourself? When they are in the wrong, you demand apologies and penance. But when you are in the wrong, the best confession you can give is "Well we're only human? Everyone makes mistakes."

And actually it's worse than that isn't? The foibles and faults, the specks that we see in others, aren't they done at our . We know other's weaknesses. And so we set out to see them fall into temptation at our bidding, at our prodding. We bait them. We go looking for a way to make them look bad so that we will look good. We know just what to say, just what to write, just what look to give so to bring out the worst in others. And not just others, are they, these are people we love. People we care about. We provoke them to anger, to jealousy, to fear. We provoke them to sin.

"You hypocrite," you actor, for that is what hypocrite means, "first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye." Consider your life--your words, your deeds--and confess. Repent. Be like your teacher. Receive the cross, be crucified, be killed, with all sin and evil desire. For in death you receive life. And in confession, you receive forgiveness. In emptying yourself you shall be filled.

You are filled with the Holy Spirit, through the Word, through the sacraments. You have received all the gifts of the Spirit, patience, kindness, self-control, etc.

And having received, so now give. Give as you have received. For no student is above his teacher, but just like him once fully trained. Let the holy things of God that fill your cup, run over upon all those around you. Subordinate yourself and your needs to theirs. Place them above you. Pray for them. Offer help and guidance. Visit them when they are sick. Feed them when they are hungry. Show hospitality. In short, Love them. For love covers a multitude of sin. It is what covered yours.

Liturgical Go Fish

Here's one for those who have a lot of contact with children. Whether your own, or Summer Sunday school, VBS, or preschools, here is a simple way to teach children the things of the church with names. Plus the name is fun: Liturgical Go Fish. 

I might suggest making your own with pictures from your churches vessels, sanctuary, and nave. What other things could you include? What other games have you come up with on your own?

Papists behaving like Lutherans

Old school Lutherans, that is. Like Chemnitz and Andrae who wrote Church Orders that mandated fixed liturgical forms, prayers, readings, vestments, times of service, etc. If you refused to follow the Church Order, then you were ousted from your parish. This is how Lutheranism worked at the time of the Reformation and in the generations afterward. This is the kind of authority that is discussed in AC XXVIII and FC X - the latter does not refer to each and every parish minister getting to write his own liturgy, but rather to the various Church Orders in the various territorial churches in the lands which received the Lutheran Reformation. Do all those various Church Orders need to be the same? Of course not. In the Church there have always been different rites - Gallican, Roman, Ukranian, etc. And in Lutheranism, too, there were different Church Orders, different rites. But within each Church Order, everyone was expected and required to keep the Order.

At any rate, we don't do this any more. We live in chaos and without liturgical authority. If you were wondering how Lutherans used to live, see here.

+HRC

My Postils

by Burnell F. Eckardt

Not wishing to be presumptuous, I am nevertheless providing this for consumption, as a resource if for no other reason.  At my www.box.net web site you can now find a great number of audio files, neatly categorized according to season, Sunday, and Feast, containing sermons I have preached over the past several years.  They are not transcriptions, of course, and no text version of them exists (except in a few rare cases in which I have produced transcriptions that are lying around somewhere).  That is because I generally do not preach from a manuscript, but as a result of careful musing on the Gospel reading appointed, prior to the time of preaching.  Hence what you hear in the audio file is a sermon more or less in the patristic style of musing on the Gospel and proclaiming it.  The link, once again, is here.

Portals of Gottesdienst: Thoughts on Nativity of John the Baptist

Comfort, comfort, my people. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. And so John the Baptist shows up and what does he proclaim? "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at Hand." Comfort? Tender speech? What gives? Yes, all those. For he comes to prepare the way of the Lord. He preaches the Truth to make Way for Life. He preaches the Truth, which bears the Holy Spirit, to cause true worship. He preaches the Truth so that all who hear his sermon will receive salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.

The truth hurts. The truth exposes us for who we really are inside and out. Mirrors don't lie. Neither does the Truth. It cuts, it bashes, it lays to waste every carefully devised falsehood. Every lie we tell ourselves to help us feel better about ourselves. My kids aren't crazy, they're just active. I'm not overweight, I'm just big-boned. That's not a baby, a human being, but a fetus, a zygote, a bunch of cells. I'm really good most of the time except when I'm not. The Truth hurts. Repent for the Kingdom of God it at hand. He is standing right in front of you. He is Jesus, the perfect, sinless, son of the Most High God. How do you measure up? You don't. You can't. And if you're honest, you don't always want to. So Repent.

And the Truth will set you free. It will free you from your need to make your own way. Free you from attempting the futile, free you from banging your head up against the wall of God's perfect, immutable will, against His Law. Free you from having to fulfill it to escape His wrath. Freed because the truth is someone has fulfilled it for you. And his name is Jesus. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He has done all that it required and endured the punishment it requires for all who have transgressed it. 

Thus freed, the Truth now comforts. It's the tender speech of a lover taking care of his beloved. It is a salve that binds up the wounded after the war is over. It's the good news that tells them that the war is over. That everything is done, completed. That all is safe.  Because the war is over. It has been won. It is finished in Jesus, who has saved you. Thanks be to God.