Hope in Rhodes

Thoughtful Thursday: "The Worst Parable Ever"

2011-10-20T10:48:00.001-04:00

Here's the way it often goes in church. The Gospel lesson is read -- a lesson containing one of Jesus' more mysterious, less accessible parables. No one understands it -- often including the pastor who's charged with preaching on it. But we all sit there in our pews and nod our heads on cue as if we really do know what Jesus is talking about; even though we don't have a clue.

The Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber doesn't mind admitting, "I don't get it," when she doesn't. Here are some of her thoughts on one of those inscrutible parables, one we heard a few weeks ago -- the Parable of the Wedding Banquet; or, as she puts it, "The Worst Parable Ever." Maybe it's the worst, she suggests, because we ascribe the worst behaviors to the wrong characters.

The Feast of St. Matthew, Evangelist

2011-09-21T08:07:00.001-04:00

Matthew -- Tax collector; Roman collaborator; exploiter and opportunist; outcast; a most unlikely apostle. And yet that's who Jesus called to service, and whose feast is celebrated today.
You can read more about Matthew here.

We thank you, gracious God, for the witness of your apostle and evangelist Matthew to the Gospel of your Son our Savior; and we pray that, after his example, we may with ready wills and hearts obey the calling of our Lord to follow him; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Tuneful Tuesday: "Let This Mind Be In You"

2011-09-20T22:35:00.000-04:00

Here's a little sneak preview of Sunday's Epistle lesson (Philippians 2:1-13), sung by a Lutheran church choir:

Mission Monday: Keeping Children Afloat After Natural Disaster

2011-09-19T09:22:00.001-04:00

Natural disasters can be devastating to children, not only in physical terms but psychologically as well. Traumatizing memories, losses big and small, anxiety about the future...all these things can take a toll on kids.

Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota's Camp Noah was born after the devastating 1997 Red River flood that hit parts of North Dakota and Minnesota, and can now mobilize on a nationwide level. Trained Camp Noah volunteers from around the country, assisted by ecumenical partners, hold five-day camps in disaster-struck areas, helping children in grades 1 through 6 use stories, drama artwork and play to express their feelings and make sense of their experiences. Camp counselors can also help parents connect with resources to assist them.

Follow the link above for more information about this program, or visit Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota's Camp Noah webpage here.

Sunday Sights and Sounds: "Bless the Lord, My Soul"

2011-09-18T12:45:00.002-04:00

Today in both our Old Testament and Gospel lessons we learned that God is unfair -- in a good way. Here's a song from the musical Godspell, taken pretty much verbatim from Psalm 103, that praises God for all God's benefits -- that shower down on slow learners and slackers just as faithfully as the folks who think they're doing everything right. (Lots of amateur productions of Godspell excerpted on YouTube, but this singer really brings it.)

Saturday Saints Alive: Jerome

2011-09-17T01:44:00.000-04:00

Of all the scholars of the early Church, Jerome was perhaps the most important. He was the first to translate the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into the everyday Latin of his time, and his translation, the Vulgate, set the standard for Western Christianity until the time of the Reformation.

Jerome was born around 347. He converted to Christianity and was baptized as a young scholar in Rome. After a brief, unsuccessful stint as a desert hermit, Jerome returned to school in Antioch, where he studied both Hebrew and Greek, and then became the student of the noted Gregory of Nazianzus. He then became the secretary of Pope Damascus I; he also became spiritual director to a number of well-born, educated widows and their unmarried daughters who were interested in entering into the monastic life.

In Jerome's time the Bible had already been translated into formal Latin; but Jerome was interested in a translation that reflected everyday language -- "vulgar," as opposed to classical, Latin. He also decided to translate the Old Testament directly from Hebrew instead of relying on the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament that had long been used by both Jewish and Christian communities.

In addition to this enormous task, Jerome was a tireless author of theological works and polemics -- written arguments against opponents. He was very opinionated and judgmental toward other theologians, labeling as "Antichrist" anyone who disgreed with him. He was also a severe ascetic, following a strict rule of life and expecting others to do so as well. (Pictures of Jerome tend to depict him as a gaunt individual dressed only in a cloth.) Although Jerome had the support of the wealthy Roman women who came to him for spiritual guidance, he made enemies among many of his peers and the public in general. Rumors spread about the nature of his relationship with at least one of his spiritual direction clients. Then, when one of the younger women died after undertaking especially difficult physical deprivations on Jerome's counsel -- Jerome then telling the girl's distraught mother not to cry for her daughter -- much of Rome's Christian population was outraged.

Jerome's impatience with what he saw as the corruption of the Roman clergy, and his problems with opponents, led to his departure for the East. He finally moved to Bethlehem, and spent the remainder of his years as a hermit living in a small cell, with a small circle of male and female friends and students. He died in 420 of natural causes.

Martin Luther was highly critical of Jerome -- and with good reason -- for helping create a culture within the Church where extreme physical deprivations and mortifications were seen as good works. Lord only knows what Jerome would have said about Luther. But the two Christian leaders, though many centuries and theological points apart, did share something in common besides their basic Christian faith: a desire to translate Scripture into the common language of their place and time.

Saturday Saints Alive: Vincent DePaul

2011-09-17T01:30:00.001-04:00

If you've ever been in a larger city you may have seen a Vincent de Paul center in the poor part of town. There's a person behind that name.

Vincent de Paul was born in France in 1580. His parents were peasants, but the young boy demonstrated intellectual curiosity and talent. In those days a career in the Church was one of the few ways that a lower-class child could receive an education, so his father sent him to seminary.Vincent himself was eager to do well in a clerical career and move up the ladder of the hierarchy.

Vincent was ordained at age 20, and became chaplain and tutor in the home of a French count, Philip de Gondi; a rather plum post that would seem a promising start for an ambitious young clergyperson. As a priest attached to the count's estate, Vincent became the spiritual father for the peasants who lived on that estate; and -- perhaps keeping in mind his own humble family background -- he found himself increasingly moved by the poverty and need, spiritual and practical alike, that he saw. After an encounter with a dying peasant, Vincent began to preach eloquently and urgently to his flock -- the lower-class and the elite alike -- about the love of God, forgiveness, confession and amendment of life. His sermons were so powerful that they drew more and more worshippers, until Vincent had to ask for priestly reinforcements. Vincent moved to Paris, where he began a ministry to prisoners awaiting assignment to the galleys -- convicts bound for servitude as oarsmen on large ships.

In 1625 Vincent organized an order of priests who vowed to shun career ambition and instead work among the poor in France's small towns and villages. He later founded an order of nuns devoted to the medical care of the sick and poor right in the community, not inside a convent; this was the first of its kind. He also organized laypeople who wanted to work with the disadvantaged. Concerned by the number of abandoned babies and children in Paris, he founded an orphanage, and personally searched the mean streets of Paris' poor neighborhoods for children needing rescue.

Vincent was concerned for the spiritual formation of all classes. He organized retreats for men preparing for the priesthood, then expanded the program to include laypeople. He also complained to the King of France that church positions were being handed out as political favors, with little regard for the spiritual fitness of the candidates. The King, surprisingly, set up a commission to vet prospects for church positions based on spiritual fitness, with Vincent acting as chairperson. (According to one story, one French noblewoman was so angry that Vincent refused to make her son a bishop that she threw a chair at Vincent's head; bruised and bleeding, the priest's only comment to a companion was, "Is it not wonderful how strong a mother's love for her son can be?")

Vincent's concern for the poor extended beyond the boundaries of his own country. He trained and commissioned priests to work in many countries. He was especially concerned with the welfare of slaves in North Africa, mostly Christians who had been captured by Turks and forced to work for them in horrendous conditions. Vincent sent priests to minister to the slaves' spiritual and practical needs as they were able, and also, using money donated by pious patrons of his movement, organized agents to help redeem over a thousand slaves from their servitude.

Vincent's simple philosophy regarding his works of mercy and justice: "We must love our neighbor as being made in the image of God and as an object of His love."

Vincent died 27 September 1660.

Saints Alive: Nelson Wesley Trout

2011-09-17T01:18:00.001-04:00

To the extent that non-Lutherans think about Lutherans at all, they often think of us as an "ethnic" faith tradition: overwhelmingly white, of German or Scandinavian descent. And that's very often true. But as our country has become more diverse, so has our faith tradition.

Nelson Wesley Trout was the first African-American Lutheran bishop. Born in Columbus, Ohio in 1921, Trout attended Capital University, a Lutheran college, and Trinity Lutheran Seminary, both in Columbus. Trout later earned a doctor of divinity from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. He pastored congregations in Wisconsin, Alabama and California.

In 1955 Trout was pastoring Trinity Lutheran Church in Montgomery, a small congregation with an attached parochial school funded by the World Lutheran Council to provide a quality education alternative to African-American children in that segregated, Jim-Crow city. It was there that Trout met Martin Luther King, Jr., and the two became friends. The cultural disconnect between local African-American churches and the High Church worship style of Trinity provided an opportunity for some good-natured ribbing between the two clergypeople -- Trout asked King how he ever got the name "Martin Luther," while King wondered how Trout wound up in the Lutheran tradition.

In the 60's Trout became the Associate Youth Director of the American Lutheran Church, a predecessor denomination of the ELCA. He moved on to become Director of Urban Evangelism. He also served as a professor of minority ministry studies at Trinity Lutheran Seminary and Executive Director of Lutheran Social Services of Ohio.

In 1983, at the age of 62, Trout served as the bishop of the ALC's South Pacific District. When the ELCA was created in 1987 from the merger of three Lutheran church bodies, Trout's jurisdiction ceased to exist, but he was named Bishop Emeritus of the new Southwest California Synod. He also became Director for the new denomination's Mission Theology and Evangelism Training program within the Division of Outreach.

In 1991 Trout's alma mater, Trinity Lutheran Seminary, established the Nelson W. Trout Lectureship in Preaching, a program that has continued to be a legacy of this groundbreaking bishop.

Trout died in 1996.

[no photo available]

Saints Alive: Gabriel Richard

2011-09-17T01:00:00.000-04:00

Gabriel Richard is not, as far as we know, on any church's official list of commemorations. But he is a Christian whose life and witness is worth remembering, especially for those of us who live in Michigan.

Richard was born in in La Ville de Saintes, France. He was an excellent scholar who entered seminary as a young man and spent some time during his seminary career teaching mathematics to his fellow students. Richard was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1790.

When the French Revolution broke out, its strong anti-clerical sentiments put many clergypeople in fear of their lives. Richard's superior sent him across the Atlantic to safety in Maryland, where Richard taught mathematics at St. Mary's College. Then his bishop gave him a more challenging assignment: He made Richard a missionary to the Native Americans in the Northwest Territory -- which at that time in American history meant the Great Lakes region.

Richard began his missionary career in Kaskaskia, Illinois, but was later assigned to Detroit -- at that time a rough, muddy frontier town populated mostly by trappers and fur traders and surrounded by undeveloped wilderness. Richard became an assistant pastor at St. Anne's Church (now the second-oldest continually operated Roman Catholic church in the United States), which he used as a home base for starting primary schools for both white children and Native American children. Relations between the white settlers and the local Native American tribes had not always been friendly, but Richard's work on Native people's behalf gained the respect of tribal leaders -- so much so that later, during the War of 1812, when Richard was imprisoned by British troops for refusing to swear a loyalty oath to Britain, British ally Chief Tecumseh refused further support to the British until they released the priest from custody.

Richard was a familiar sight along the rutted roads of Old Detroit, clad in his black robes, priestly hat and ever-present spectacles. He was so well-liked by Detroiters that the small Protestant community in Detroit, at that time without a clergyperson, asked Richard if he would fill in as their pastor until they found one of their own -- an amazing request in those religiously polarized times. Just as amazingly, Richard agreed, and provided pastoral care for the congregation by focusing on the common doctrines and practices of the two traditions. Richard became friends with John Monteith, the Protestant pastor who finally arrived to serve that congregation, and the two of them worked with the state legislature to create what is now the University of Michigan in 1817; Richard served first as the university's vice-president, then sat on its Board of Trustees until his death many years later.

Richard became involved in the civic life of Detroit, working hard to improve conditions in what was a backward backwater town even by frontier standards. He established the city's first library. He established a town crier to inform citizens about the news of the day, then finally imported a printing press to the city for the first time and published the city's first newspaper, as well as books. Richard also brought the first organ to Michigan -- mystifying and delighting Native Detroiters, who would sit outside Richard's church at night to listen to the music, and who at one point even took a few of the organ pipes to experiment with themselves, until they were informed that the pipes were used for the Great Spirit's voice...at which point the pipes were quietly and anonymously returned to the church.

When a fire devastated most of Detroit in 1805, Richard rallied citizens, organizing relief efforts to keep Detroiters fed and sheltered while they rebuilt their homes. He also coined a new motto for the tough little community: Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus: "We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes."

Richard's involvement in civic life eventually led to his election as a non-voting representative of the Northwest Territory in the U.S. House of Representatives -- the first Roman Catholic priest to be elected U.S. Congressperson. One of Richard's accomplishments as a state representative was spearheading an effort to create a good road between Detroit and Chicago to ease settlement and commerce -- a road we now know as Michigan Avenue.

In July of 1832 a troop ship stopped in Detroit. Its soldiers were infected with Asian cholera, a deadly disease made even more so by the lack of sanitation and effective medical care available in those days. An epidemic soon raged through the city, with citizens dying of the disease every day. Many residents fled; but Richard, dedicated to the city he'd come to call home, resolutely remained among the sick and dying, providing spiritual comfort and practical assistance to afflicted households. On September 13th, Richard himself became the last recorded casualty of the cholera epidemic. He received Holy Communion for the final time, said, "Lord, now let thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word," and died.

Friday's Here But Sunday's Coming: Too Much Grace?

2011-09-16T10:54:00.001-04:00

Is God's grace a zero-sum proposition? In other words, is there only so much to go around, so that if God is more generous with grace in one situation it takes away from others' grace? That's the theme of our Old Testament and Gospel lessons this Sunday.

Our Old Testament lesson is from the end of the Book of Jonah. Jonah, the reluctant prophet, has been sent to the scary, bloodthirsty pagan Ninehvites to preach. And by golly the message got through; the Ninehvites got the fear of God put into them and have repented of their wicked ways. So Jonah should be happy, right? But Jonah is angry -- angry at God for caring about these bad "other" people instead of just taking them all out in a blast of divine anger. What do you think God is going to tell Jonah about his little snit? What might God be telling us when it's easier to write off people or societies as beyond the reach of God's grace? (Blogmeister's note: Jonah is her favorite book of the Old Testament. Stop trying to wrap your head around the big "fish tale" at the beginning -- it's a story, people -- and read the whole thing in one sitting, as our Jewish friends do on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Why is this an appropriate text to read, do you think, during that time of reviewing and mourning one's failings over the past year and promising God to do better?)

Our Psalm on Sunday is a song of praise to God for God's compassion and providential care for the whole world.

In our Epistle lesson we find the imprisoned Paul -- not at all sure whether he'll be released or executed by the Roman authorities -- giving encouragement to the Philippian church, reminding them of their salvation and urging them to conduct themselves publicly in a manner worthy of citizens, not of Rome but of the Reign of God.

Our Gospel lesson is Jesus' parable of the vineyard workers -- some of whom work all day, others of whom work only a little, but who all wind up with the same wages. Like Jonah in our Old Testament lesson, the workers who feel they're entitled to more money for more work are angry and resentful toward the vineyard owner for what they see as unfair treatment. What does the vineyard owner tell these people? How does that compare to God's conversation with Jonah? Does Jesus' parable have any applications for communities of faith today? What are some parallel situations where one person or group is resented for receiving what's perceived as "too much" grace?

See you in church!

Thoughtful Thursday: Meaningful Mealtimes

2011-09-15T11:49:00.000-04:00

"Everything old is new again," as the song goes; and one traditional idea that is making a comeback in our church and elsewhere is the concept that parents -- not Sunday Schools or confirmation classes or pastors -- are the primary means by which kids learn about Christianity and grow up into their place as baptized, called, equipped members of the Body of Christ. That is, in fact, the whole reasoning behind Martin Luther's Small Catechism, which was written for families, not "catechism class."

But how do busy, preoccupied parents -- often parents whose own formal religious education may have formally ended back in their teens, who may feel inadequate to the task -- take on this real responsibility?

One very effective way to approach religious education at home is a way that seems to help kids in a lot of other spheres of life: Creating a common mealtime where, along with sharing their daily experiences and discussing issues of the day, families can pray together and talk about faith together.

Making an effort to organize regular family mealtimes around the table instead of always letting family members "grab and go," or eat with one eye on the TV or cell phone, has been shown to, over time, help children academically and socially. And including "Godtalk" in dinner conversations helps children realize both that faith is important in their parents' lives and that a relationship with God informs everyday life.

Here is a link to a good article from The Lutheran on making mealtimes a faith-formation time, with links to other resources. And here is a great idea for mealtime conversation starters that could certainly also be adapted to a "scratch-made" version using index cards and a card box. And here's a list of informal mealtime prayers from the Lutheran Church in Australia.

Holy Cross Day

2011-09-14T09:31:00.000-04:00

Scripture texts for today can be found here .

Today Christians around the world celebrate Holy Cross Day -- a day in the church calendar to reflect upon the meaning of the Cross; of God, as C.S. Lewis put it, "stooping to conquer" not only by becoming one of us but by becoming the least among us: suffering, weak, despised, humiliated, condemned.

Why is Holy Cross Day at this time of year, not during Lent? Perhaps because even in the midst of the "green and growing" Pentecost season, when we've been learning week by week what it means to be people of God in the world, it's important to step back and remember the why of it all -- and remember that taking up our own crosses is part of the Christian journey.

Martin Luther: "The Cross alone is our theology."

Loving Jesus, for the sake of your cross and passion, we are justified in faith, washed cleaned of our sins by baptism and repentance, and made one with God. We thank you for your cross and for the depths of your love for us. Help us to bear our cross in the world and follow you until you bring us into your heavenly kingdom; where you reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Here is a much-loved hymn pondering God's deep, self-sacrificing love for us.

And here's a contemporary version of another traditional hymn for this day:

Wednesday Whys: The Case of the Missing Hymns; and Prayers of the Church

2011-09-14T01:44:00.005-04:00

In search of the lost chord
I really miss the older, more familiar hymns I grew up with in church. I find the new ones hard to sing, and the lyrics don't "click" for me, and at least for me they take away from my experience of worship. Why are so many of the hymns we're singing these days newer hymns?

We suspect that the same question has been asked in the Church ever since...well, ever since Christian communities have experienced generational change or an influx of new members with different cultural backgrounds. ("I hate those newfangled Gregorian chants! Why do we always have to change everything?")

Christianity enjoys a rich musical history, one that's always being added to, so there are always new hymns being added to that body of work. At the same time, some hymns that spoke to certain communities of faith in certain places and times have less staying power than others, and fall out of common usage -- sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently. That's just the nature of music and culture and change.

At the same time -- it's as unwise to abandon theologically sound and musically beautiful hymns for mediocre ones just because they're "new and improved" as it is to keep theological and aesthetic clunkers in the hymn rotation forever just because they've been around a long time. People have long found comfort and peace in hearing/singing familiar hymns, and not providing some continuity in what hymns we use in church deprives people of this spiritual tool.

But you don't know which hymns are a "miss" unless you've heard them and sung them. And that's why worship committees and church musicians periodically try out newer pieces of music on congregations. In the ELCA, as in most denominations, these folks have access to lists of suggested hymns and other musical pieces for each Sunday of the Church year, based on the Church season and on the themes of the Scriptural lessons for that day; some of the suggestions will be older, familiar hymns, while others will be newer works.

One of the best ways to voice your concerns is to talk to someone on the Worship Committee; they're the people in our congregation who plan our worship services. Giving them feedback can help them in this important task. Maybe they need to hear from you that we need a more user-friendly mix of older and newer hymns each Sunday.

If you're interested in how church leaders plan hymns for a given Sunday, you might also visit The Text This Week, which every week offers readers links to a wide assortment of worship planning websites and resources based on the Revised Common Lectionary, the series of Scripture readings that we Lutherans share with many other church bodies, from Roman Catholics to Presbyterians to Methodists to liturgically minded folks in "free" churches. Each Sunday's readings will include a list of online resources for complementary hymn/music suggestions.

And, if you have a chance, look through our "red book," the newer Evangelical Lutheran Worship. Even if you can't sight-read music, read through the hymns; notice how they're grouped by Church season and theme. That way, if one of the newer ones shows up in our bulletin some Sunday, you have at least a passing familiarity with the lyrics before you start singing.

Let us pray...
What is the purpose of the Prayer of the Church? Is there a particular "formula" for it?

Another term for the Prayer of the Church -- the prayers the Assisting Minister prays after we say the Creed together -- is the collect; because this prayer is a way for the entire community to lift up to God its eollective joys and concerns and longings on behalf of everyone and everything. The Prayer of the Church is a traditional element of the Sunday liturgy.

The liturgy is about calling and sending; it starts out with people being called together to hear the Word, and then moves to sending people back out into the world to act as Christ's people; and the Prayer of the Church is a part of that love and care for the world in Christ's name.

Sometimes Assisting Ministers may use pre-written petitions for their Prayer; sometimes they write or ad-lib their own. But in all cases there is a form that these petitions follow. The Prayer of the Church includes a prayer for the Church, the whole people of God everywhere; it includes petitions for the created world; for government and society; and for concerns of the particular faith community. The intention is to make these prayers broad enough and comprehensive enough for everyone to be able to pray them meaningfully; and, increasingly these days, there is a space in the prayers for individuals to include, either aloud or silently, their deepest personal concerns.

Are you confused by some aspect of Lutheran theology or practice? Mystified by something in Scripture? If you ask your question here we'll try to give you an informed answer.

Tuneful Tuesday: "I Want to Walk As a Child of the Light"

2011-09-13T09:42:00.001-04:00

We have a great set of lessons this coming Sunday. Jonah, the reluctant and grumpy prophet, preaches repentance to a hated Ninehvite audience -- who take his words to heart and repent; which upsets Jonah, who really wanted to see God exercise some venegeful whoop-fanny on that society; so Jonah gets schooled by God on the topic of God's grace. Our epistle lesson exhorts its hearers/readers to live their lives in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ. And in our Gospel lesson Jesus tells a story that illustrates God's radical grace, a grace that trumps our human ideas about "fairness" and who "earns" the most in God's economy.

Here's a hymn, sung by alumni of the Notre Dame Liturgical Choir, expressing the hope that we get what all of this is saying:

Mission Monday: The Welcome Church

2011-09-12T22:02:00.003-04:00

It's a church without walls for people with no roof over their heads -- watch a video about The Welcome Church here.

Sunday Sights and Sounds: "Make Me a Channel of Your Peace"

2011-09-11T09:07:00.001-04:00

Sinead O'Connor's version of the Prayer of St. Francis:

Saints Alive! Dag Hammarskjold

2011-09-10T08:47:00.000-04:00

"He who has surrendered himself to it knows that the Way ends on the Cross--even when it is leading through the jubilation of Gennesaret or the triumphal entry into Jerusalem."

That wasn't written by a pastor or a theologian, but by a Lutheran layperson whose life's work took him into the nitty-gritty worlds of economics and diplomacy.

Dag Hammarskjold grew up in a political family -- his father was prime minister of Sweden -- and he studied to become an economist. After that, his work in the worlds of banking and government helped establish the economic underpinnings of modern Sweden. He and other economists also worked toward helping the rest of Europe recover financially from World War II.

This experience paved the way for Hammarskjold's second career as a diplomat and peacemaker. In 1953 he was elected to become General Secretary of a very young United Nations, and spent a large part of his time with the UN traveling around the globe, mediating between hostile countries and between combatants in civil wars, trying to find peaceful solutions to international strife. In 1961, while on a trip to the Belgian Congo (now Zaire) to help negotiate peace in a civil war there, his plane crashed, under suspicious circumstances, and he and 15 others were killed. He was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961 for a lifetime of work on behalf of others. John F. Kennedy said of Hammarskjold, "“I realise now that in comparison to him, I am a small man. He was the greatest statesman of our century.”

But Hammarskjold was influential not only as a statesperson but as a person of deep, complex faith. (One of his legacies as UN General Secretary was a meditation room at the UN for delegates of all faiths to reflect in peace and silence.) His spiritual memoir, Markings, recalls his struggles with belief and vocation.

You can read more about Dag Hammarskjold here and here.

Saturday Saints Alive: John Chrysostom

2011-09-10T08:44:00.000-04:00

Sometimes the individuals honored on the Church calendar make you want to stand up and cheer: Yay, Team Jesus! Others...less yay, more oy veh.

John Chrysostom, born in Antioch in 349 AD, is one of the most important of the early Church Fathers -- someone whose teaching held tremendous influence as the Church was developing into what it is today. He was an eloquent preacher whose hearers sometimes, to his great irritation, would break into spontaneous applause; it is said that local pickpockets would take advantage of his riveted audience while they were listening to him. Unlike contemporary teachers who tended to interpret Scripture largely as allegory, John preached on its "plain meaning," in plain language that uneducated believers could understand. John was also a vigorous reformer who used his position as Archbishop of Constantinople to fight against the opulence and decadence of the institutional church of his day and to criticize the spiritual shallowness of the laity, and sought to return a spirit of discipline and seriousness to the Church while redirecting its wealth to the needy. And John was also a gifted liturgist whose order of worship is still used in the Eastern Orthodox Church and whose prayers are still cherished throughout Christendom.

That's the good stuff.

John also wrote breathtakingly anti-Semitic polemic against Jewish converts to Christianity who retained some of their customs, and other Christians who were attracted to Jewish worship practices. His writings also display misogyny that is deeply offensive to women who read his work today.Instead of engaging with pagan culture in a respectful manner like other great thinkers of the Church, John was "take no prisoners" in his contempt for paganism in a way reminiscent of today's Taliban destroying relics of non-Islamic religions in Afghanistan. His hyper-asceticism ruined his health, and if he were alive today one wonders if he wouldn't have wound up in a mental health ward.

So what do you do with someone like this, in the Church calendar?

Easy. You acknowledge him as a brother in Christ, a sinner by nature and a saint by grace, someone who didn't always get it right but who nonetheless lived boldly in faith.

Here is a short bio of John. And here is a famous prayer of John's that's still in use in many churches:

Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen.

Saints Alive: Cyprian of Carthage

2011-09-10T08:42:00.000-04:00

On a weekend when our Scripture lessons focus on themes of forgiveness and reconciliation, it's a good time to remember a Christian leader who struggled with those things in his own life and ministry.

Cyprian, born to pagan parents around the year 200 in north Africa --in those days that part of the world was Romanized as part of the Roman Empire's colonial reach across the African and Asian continents -- was a successful trial lawyer and teacher of rhetoric when he converted to Christianity. He was later named bishop of Carthage, a major city in north Africa.

Around this time the Emperor Decius began some of the most vicious persecutions of Christians that the Empire had known; and Cyprian went into hiding until the persecution ended, tending his flock from exile.

As one might expect, friction developed in the Christian community between Christians who had remained publicly faithful to Christ, at great cost to themselves and loved ones, and those who hadn't -- Christians who, like Cyprian, went into hiding or who publicly repudiated their Christian faith or who went through the motions of participating in public pagan religious ceremonies in order to receive an official written ticket -- a kind of imperial "get out of jail free" card -- deeming them patriotic Roman citizens. Cyprian himself was reprimanded by church people in Rome and elsewhere for his own physical abandonment of Carthage, a center of some of the worst anti-Christian violence, although he claimed that he had been led to leave by divine warning, and had worked hard to pastor his people from a safe vantage point. Some Church leaders contended that those who had fallen away during the persecutions should never be readmitted into the Church; others counseled readmittance without penalty or question. Cyprian took a middle ground, prescribing various penances for persons who had renounced their faith under duress but eventually welcoming back the truly repentant.

In other respects, though, Cyprian was a hardliner who in his cognitive dissonance didn't seem to appreciate the irony of his lack of charity toward those who in his opinion didn't think the right things about God, in the context of the grace extended to him by other Christians after he avoided persecution by fleeing into exile. In one dispute he deemed baptisms performed by heretics to be invalid even if they were performed using the standard Trinitarian formula of historical Christianity. This was not, nor is it, the position of the Church as a whole in his time (nor is it now in the broad catholic tradition, which includes Lutherans -- which is why we, unlike some other Christian churches, don't re-baptize people previously baptized in other Christian denominations whose doctrines/practices differ from our own).

The period of safety for Christians in Carthage was not long-lived. A plague broke out there, and despite Cyprian's work organizing relief for the sick and suffering in that city, pagan citizens came to believe that this and other social ills befalling the city were due to the gods' anger at those converting to the new Christian religion. (The Christian minority had become a convenient scapegoat for Roman politicians responding to citizens' disatisfaction with their quality of life -- a manipulative trick we contemporary people should remember when popular figures try to do likewise with various "out" groups in our societies.) Meanwhile a new emperor, Valerian, began a new round of persecutions against the Christian community.

This time Cyprian stayed with his people. Government representatives demanded that he participate in a public pagan sacrifice; he refused, and was first sent into exile by the local counsul, then placed under house arrest until local authorities received further instructions from Rome. The Emperor issued a new declaration demanding the execution of all Christian clerics. Cyprian, on hearing the news, only remarked, "Thanks be to God." On September 238 Cyprian -- followed by a large number of the grieving, gloating or morbidly curious -- was taken to a public area, made to strip naked, and was beheaded as he knelt, praying.

Saints Alive! Hildegarde of Bingen

2011-09-10T07:00:00.000-04:00

Back in the Middle Ages, when education for women was often either scoffed at or actively opposed (including by some "good church people"), Hildegarde of Bingen did not let the values or prejudices of her time hold her back from exercising her God-given intelligence and musical talent for the benefit of others.

Despite a sketchy formal education that always made her feel somewhat inadequate, Hildegarde (with the help of secretaries taking her dictation) wrote complex works of theology and descriptions of her spiritual experiences that remain religious classics.

Hildegarde was a preacher and poet. She was also an accomplished musician whose works found a new audience in the late 20th century when historians began rediscovering/reexamining forgotten female composers. Perhaps because of her own health issues -- Hildegarde was afflicted with migraines throughout her life -- she had a keen interest in science and medicine, and was an accomplished herbal healer. She became a leader of her religious community.

And, way before Luther, Hildegarde was also concerned about renewal and reform of the Church and society. She took canny advantage of her lowly position -- "I'm just a poor unworthy woman" -- to either cajole male church leaders and politicians into giving her a hearing or else, at times, to shame them into taking action: "Since you guys obviously aren't doing anything, God's going to use a lowly woman to get the job done." Hildegarde's life exemplifies what gifts God can give the world through one person willing to say "yes" to God's call, no matter what limitations or obstacles seem to be in the way.

You can read more about Hildegarde here.

Friday's Here, But Sunday's Coming: Forgiveness and Reconciliation

2011-09-09T09:35:00.001-04:00

Forgiveness and reconciliation: Nice words to hear, easy words to say, very difficult things to actually do in our everyday lives. And they're the main themes of our Scripture lessons this Sunday.

Our Old Testament lesson takes us back to the story of Joseph and his brothers -- brothers who, out of jealousy toward their somewhat spoiled and self-assured younger sibling lured him out into the wilderness, threw him into a hole and left him for dead. This was just the first in a series of trials and tribulations to come...but Joseph, a young man of faith, eventually overcame these obstacles and was even appointed a powerful official in the Egyptian government. Now he was the one with power over his traitorous, murderous brothers, who'd become refugees dependent upon his good will. What would he do?

In lieu of our weekly Psalm reading, this week we hear the story of the Israelites' deliverance from the hands of a genocidal Egyptian army. What does this have to do with our other lessons? Hmmm. Maybe we can take away from this that 1) God knows our internal and external struggles -- we're not alone; and 2) in this story God is the one who does the liberating and vindicating from that which oppresses.

If you've ever had uncomfortable discussions with Christian friends and neighbors about lifestyle issues over which Christians disagree, you'll recognize what Paul is talking about in our Epistle lesson -- balancing our freedom in Christ with concern over rattling the faith of someone convinced that doing X and Y but not doing Z is important for a "real" Christian. Should you serve your SDA neighbor a nice steak dinner just because you can, or take your Pentecostal friend to the local tavern's Saturday night dance/euchre tournament to expand her social horizons? What does Paul have to say here? And if you're the one uncomfortable by something you perceive as an example of Christian loosey-goosiness, what might Paul have to say to you? What's the guiding principle in both cases?

Our Gospel lessons these past few weeks have focused on our "being the Church together," and this week Jesus addresses the question of forgiveness within the faith community with his Parable of the Unjust Servant. How should forgiven, freed people treat other people who need forgiveness, according to Jesus? How does God's mercy toward you inform the way you deal with people who are in the wrong?

Sunday's coming...see you in church!

(Artwork: "The Unjust Servant," JESUS MAFA)

Thoughtful Thursday: Did 9/11 Make Us Better People? Can It?

2011-09-09T08:21:00.003-04:00

That's the question asked on the Living Lutheran website.

Self-sacrifice...bravery...solidarity...compassion....volunteerism...the 9/11 attacks seemed to bring out the best in many Americans. On the other hand, for others it seemed to fuel paranoia/xenophobia (fear of the stranger, the "other") and bigotry, or something to be cynically manipulated for various self-serving agendas.

Does Scripture offer any wisdom about responding to evil as people of faith, as we remember 9/11 a decade later? Read The Rev. Heidi Neumark's thoughts and questions for reflection/discussion, based upon this coming Sunday's Old Testament text.

Miroslav Volf is a Yale Divinity School professor and author who asks the same question in a Huffington Post column. You can read his thoughts here.

Wednesday Whys: The When of Weddings; Blinded by Science?

2011-09-08T09:59:00.005-04:00

Goin' to the chapel...or not
Are there any days in the Church calendar when Lutherans aren't permitted to marry?
Historically, in liturgical traditions like ours, marriages have been prohibited during the penitential seasons of Advent and Lent, because the joy and merriment of weddings just don't jibe with the reflectiveness, somberness and austerity of those seasons. In addition to that, in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions Sundays and other days set aside as holy days are off limits for weddings -- a conflict of interests, if you will.

While some Lutheran churches still will not schedule weddings during Advent and Lent, period, end of discussion, others (like Hope) are willing to be flexible depending on the circumstance -- paraphrasing Kelly Fryer, are willing to lead with the "love" foot when it comes to weighing what is usually a sensible tradition against the reality of what may be the best scheduling option for a particular situation. These days the fact that a couple, even a marginally-churched or unchurched couple, feels it's important to have their committed relationship acknowledged and blessed publicly by the Christian faith community carries some weight; how do we best serve these people in a way that supports, rather than undermines, their belief that solemnizing their commitment with a Christian ritual is a good idea? On the other hand, couples considering a wedding date should be aware that there are practical/scheduling reasons, as well as theological reasons, why the weeks before Christmas and Easter can be problematic, and have some thought for the rhythm of the Church year when they plan their special day.

Blinded by science?
Why is it that Christians always seem to get it wrong about science -- that they're always behind the curve when it comes to accepting scientific discoveries?
One of the hardest things about being a Christian these days seems to be having to apologize, at every turn, for Christian idiocy -- everything from the Church's condemnation of Galileo for suggesting that the earth traveled around the sun and not vice versa to some fundamentalists' kneejerk, illogical dismissal of established scientific understandings of the world because "that's not what the Bible says."

One thing to remember: Some Christians' ignorance about science says more about a general public ignorance than it does about Christianity. Many of us, sadly, get such an abyssmal science education as children that by the time we hit high school we've written off science as a vocation or even as an interesting topic, and never progress beyond the sketchiest understanding of how the world works. For example, most laypeople, Christian or not, really don't understand the concept of scientific theory, and dismiss scientific theories as mere opinions -- equal to political pundits arguing back and forth on some social issue -- when in actuality they're grounded in an intellectual discipline requiring some very specific, logical steps, and backed by observable, verifiable evidence. So what seems like a specifically Christian unease with/misunderstanding of science is often simply reflective of the educational state of society at large -- in other words, Brother Billy Bob and Sister Sue-Ellen may be using more Godtalk than the boys down at the bar when they criticize science, but they're all operating from the same faulty knowledge base.

Another thing to remember: Some of the greatest scientists of history were people of faith -- people like Copernicus, or Gregor Mendel, the Austrian monk who was the founding father of genetic science. And in fact the earliest scientists did their work in the context of the Church (even if the Church bigshots didn't always like their conclusions), because the Church at the time was the only institution that supported higher education. Many scientists today are practicing Christians, and many others are people of other faiths.There is no inherent conflict between being a scientist and a person of faith.

A friend of your blogmeister's once noted that people tend to be either accelerators or brakes, and that is true in Christendom as well as anywhere -- in other words, there are always people who are eager to explore, to take risks, to entertain new ideas; and there are also always people who feel the need to put parameters on the "accelerators" before things go out of control, or because the "accelerators" challenge the common wisdom of the community. Sometimes that dynamic serves society, and the Church, well; sometimes not so much. And that's the dynamic that, arguably, sometimes creates tension between the worlds of science and religious faith, in some Christian communities.

Did you know, for instance, that medical science was hampered for centuries by Christian church leaders' sincerely "Bible-based" belief that dissecting human bodies to understand how they worked would keep those individuals from participating the Resurrection? That's a case of poor theological reasoning, no doubt mixed with more than a little "ick" factor, on the part of Christians getting in the way of scientific study (by other Christians, no less) that wound up benefitting all of humanity. On the other hand, science uninformed by a moral/ethical counterpoint to impassive research can lead to truly frightening consequences, like the US Health Service's infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiments, which ran between the 1930's and 50's, in which uninformed, uneducated African-Americans were, without their consent, injected with the syphilis bacteria in order to see if there were racial differences in the disease process. Fact is, both the Church and the world of science are in the truth business, in their own disciplines; and mutual respect and dialogue is helpful for both in their service to the world.

The ELCA doesn't ask people of faith to leave their minds at the church door. Our church body affirms science, conducted responsibly, as a good gift to humankind, encourages laypeople and clergy to become more scientifically literate, and supports dialogue between the scientific and religious communities through the ELCA Alliance For Faith, Science and Technology. Did you know that you can even submit science questions to real scientists via the ELCA website? You can learn more about the ELCA's relationship with the scientific community, and its "Ask a Scientist" feature, here.

Tuneful Tuesday: "There's a Wideness in God's Mercy"

2011-09-06T19:26:00.000-04:00

Our Gospel lesson this Sunday is about the unjust servant -- someone who was extended mercy but who didn't "pay it forward." Here, by contrast, is a song about God's mercy, performed by the Birmingham Boys' Choir:

Mission Monday: Defeating Malaria

2011-09-06T11:03:00.001-04:00

This summer's ELCA Churchwide Assembly tackled the complex subject of the ethics surrounding genetic science. Even though this big issue has repercussions for us non-scientists, whether we're pondering the wisdom of genetic testing in our families or deciding what to do as a household about food products made with genetically manipulated crops and livestock...it's still, for most of us, a very abstract topic that can seem a little too "big" to think about.

Malaria, on the other hand, is real, specific and immediate; the disease kills thousands and thousands of people each year in warm climates, and permanently cripples many more. It also cripples sufferers' families, who can lose their self-sufficiency, and entire communities that become destabilized and needy as they try to cope with large numbers of sick people. But malaria is a very preventable, treatable disease with many inexpensive "fixes" like vaccinations and home mosquito netting; the problem is getting these tools into the hands of the people who need them.

The CWA's other milestone vote this summer was an official commitment to helping eradicate malaria; to help give vulnerable people around the world access to medicine, netting, infrastructure improvements and other ways of fighting malaria. It's a matter of Christian neighbors helping neighbors -- even neighbors continents away.

Here's more information on the Malaria Initiative.

Sunday Sights and Sounds: "Teach Me, O Lord"

2011-09-04T18:58:00.002-04:00

Here's our Psalm of the day set to music: Thomas Attwood's "Teach Me, O Lord":

Saints Alive: N.F.S. Grundtvig

2011-09-03T10:25:00.000-04:00

The power of place is important in helping ground people in a sense of who they are and in developing a spirit of community. Nickolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig -- Danish pastor, poet, philosopher, educator and politician -- knew this.

Grundtvig was born in 1783. His father was a Lutheran parish pastor; his mother had a love of old Norse legends and folk culture. Grundtvig shared an interest in both theology and folklore, and studied both when we went to the University of Copenhagen.

Grundtvig had had a profound religious experience as a young man, and found the Danish state church to be too intellectually focused, dismissive of the "living word" of Scripture and disconnected from the spiritual lives of laypeople. When his ailing father asked him to help out with his parish back home, Grundtvig preached a sermon criticizing the institutional church's lack of serious engagement with the Bible, and was promptly censured by church superiors for his opinions. Grundtvig's relationship with the church continued to be somewhat strained for the rest of his life; while he was a popular preacher, he was overlooked for parish jobs and wound up as chaplain in a rest home for many years.

But meanwhile Grundtvig's career as a folklorist had taken off. Grundtvig published scores of books and articles on Northern European mythology and early culture. He also wrote works of poetry, and philosophical treatises. And Grundtvig also became involved in Danish politics and education.

In Denmark, Grundtvig is perhaps best remembered for his efforts to provide free public high school education for all Danish young people -- this at a time when public education of any kind was a rare thing. He envisioned "people's schools" that, rather than channeling the academically talented into university careers, taught everyone a combination of practical life skills and Danish culture -- history; mythology; folk ways. He felt that it was important for Danish children to grow up with a common understanding of who they were, and a sense of pride in place. Grundtvig also envisioned a future multinational Nordic university dedicated to preserving and promoting.Nordic culture. But Grundtvig wasn't an isolationalist or a "my country right or wrong" nationalist -- he believed in free, lively exchange of ideas between people and cultures, and he could also be a sharp critic of the Danish government as well as its establishment church. Grundtvig's interest in education also extended beyond curriculum to include how learning happened: He criticized the strict disciplinarianism of conventional schooling, insisting that true education happened in a spirit of freedom, cooperation and excitement in discovery: "Only willing hands make light work."

Grundtvig, surprisingly, eventually became a bishop, although one without a geographical jurisdiction. Which presumably suited him just fine; he envisioned individual congregations, rather than the halls of the church bureaucrats and academicians, as the heart of the church.

Grundtvig is recognized by the ELCA as a renewer of the Church.

Saints Alive: Peter Claver

2011-09-03T08:45:00.000-04:00

What do you do if you're a Christian caught in a culture that victimizes and dehumanizes thousands upon thousands of people? What is your job as a person of God called to live Christ into that world?

That was the dilemma of Peter Claver. Born in 1580 to a very devout family in Verdu, Spain, near the city of Barcelona, Claver was raised to understand that nothing should ever come between himself and the love of God. Claver, an excellent student also known for his piety, attended the University of Barcelona and then studied for the priesthood at a Jesuit college. There he noted in his journal, "I must dedicate myself to the service of God until death, on the understanding that I am like a slave."

Claver's experience of slavery was more than metaphorical. Seventy years before Claver's birth, King Ferdinand of Spain had authorized the acquisition of 250 African slaves to work in Spain's new territories in the New World, setting in motion what had become a wide-ranging, brutal and lucrative international industry in human trafficking. The slave trade had been condemned by the Church, but so much money was to be made that church leaders', even the Pope's, entreaties against slavery were ignored by European slave traders and colonists who benefitted from it.

Claver wanted to dedicate his life to the lowliest of the low. So he was sent by the Jesuits to the New World, to the Colombian city of Cartagena, where 10,000 slaves from West Africa passed each year. Conditions for the slaves were so terrible that about a third of them died before even reaching their final destinations. Claver's assignment was to take over the ministry of Jesuit Father Alfonso de Sandoval, a priest who had dedicated 40 years of his life to working with slaves. Claver, like his predecessor, would meet the incoming slave ships in the harbor, providing what medical and spiritual care he could to the miserable, sick human beings crowded into the ship's hold. As the slaves were herded onshore and put on display for potential buyers, Claver would pass the waiting slaves food and medicine. He explained, "We must first speak to [the slaves] with our hands before we can speak to them with our lips."

But Claver also tried to reassure the terrified slaves that they were known and loved by a caring God. Using interpreters and a picture book he'd developed, he introduced them to the story of Jesus, and baptized them; it's estimated that Claver baptized over 300,000 slaves during his own 40-year ministry among them. But he didn't send them off with a "Goodbye and good luck" -- he followed through with pastoral care for the slaves that as he could, and also worked behind he scenes to ensure that the baptized slaves were accorded what few human rights had been granted to them. He raised money for slaves' provisions, to the point of being thought something of a nuisance by the city fathers.

Claver's ministry also extended to sailors and other itinerant persons in the port city, to the hospitalized, and to the imprisoned, particularly the condemned. Ironically, perhaps, he also performed priestly duties for the city's upper classes, and for the traders and others who benefitted from the slave trade. But he spent the bulk of his time with the slaves. And his presence among them, as well as his quiet but persistent moral authority in the midst of those exploiting them, gradually helped improve the slaves' treatment.

Sadly, when Claver himself became ill and homebound, no one treated him with the same care and concern that he'd extended to so many others; he spent the last four years of his life neglected and forgotten -- perhaps because the conscience-pricked citizens of Cartagena, enriching themselves as they did at the expense of slaves, preferred to forget about this annoyingly idealistic priest who referred to himself as "the slave of the slaves." Yet -- very typically -- when Claver died, the city arranged a huge ostentatious public funeral, at public expense. It was only years after his death that the scope and import of his life's work was realized.

Peter Claver was canonized in 1888, and is especially honored by Colombian and African-American Roman Catholics.

If you think that slavery is something that went on "once upon a time," you may want to visit this website, which describes the problem of human trafficking today and what caring people can do to help.

Saturday Saints Alive: The Galludets

2011-09-03T06:00:00.000-04:00

For much of history the hearing-impaired were effectively shut out from the rest of society. Unable to communicate, usually unable to work, the deaf were considered burdens; were kept at home, or forced into lives of begging and want. But thanks to a vocationally restless Episcopal priest named Thomas Gallaudet, and later his son Thomas, a new world was opened to the deaf through communication and education.

The elder Galludet was born in Philadelphia in 1787. He was a brilliant student who graduated from Yale at age 17 and went on to earn a master's degree there. He had many interests and couldn't decide what career to pursue -- law, theology, business -- but he finally decided on becoming a clegyperson, enrolling in Andover University and training for the Episcopal priesthood.

But the young cleric's career path took a dramatic turn after he was introduced a neighbor's deaf nine-year-old daughter. Galludet, who taught the girl to communicate by writing on the ground with a stick, developed a passion for creating educational opportunities for the deaf and helping the deaf better communicate with the rest of the world. He went on a tour of Europe, visiting some of the pioneers of deaf education there. In France he met Abbe' Sicard, the head of the National Institute for the Deaf-Mute in Paris, and was impressed with that institution's use of sign language. He stayed there for some time, studying the technique.

Galludet and one of his teachers at the Institute, a deaf faculty member named Laurent Clerc, returned to the United States and went on a tour of New England, raising awareness of deaf education issues and raising funds to create a school for the deaf in America. The two successfully raised enough money to found the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. One of the first students there was Galludet's former neighbor, Alice Cogswell, the little girl who had sparked his interest in deaf education.

Galludet eventually married one of his former students, and raised two sons who also dedicated their lives to the education of the deaf. Edward Galludet, seeing a need for higher educational opportunities for the deaf, founded what is now Galludet University (which also includes elementary and secondary schools on its campus). Thomas Galludet, like his father, wanted to study for the priesthood, but his father persuaded him to first spend a few years helping him at his school. Thomas eventually did puruse a vocation in the Church, but with an emphasis on serving the deaf -- in 1852 he founded St. Ann's Church in New York City, a congregation specifically for the hearing-impaired, and he also founded a home for the deaf in Poughkeepsie.

Saturday Saints Alive: Augustine of Hippo

2011-09-03T03:00:00.000-04:00

If "sex, drugs and rock-and-roll" had been a clarion call for clever, restless young people in the 4th century, Augustine of Hippo might have said, "Rock on!" As it was, he joined his peers in a lifestyle of "living large" and intellectual one upsmanship in a university-town atmosphere...that is, until Augustine's long struggle with the Christian faith finally ended -- rather reluctantly on his part, at first -- and he was set upon the path of becoming one of the most influential Christian thinkers of all time, and a major theological architect of what's now called the Western Church.

Augustine was born in the district of Thagaste, in what is now Algeria in 354. His parents were of Berber descent, but their region had been Romanized for several generations, so they were considered Roman citizens and lived according to Roman customs. Augustine's father was a pagan; his mother, Monnica (or Monica) was a devout Christian. Augustine was a brilliant scholar from a young age, but also very headstrong, rebelling against both teachers and his mother's Christian influence. When he hit his teen years he became involved with a hedonistic, sexually promiscuous crowd; but eventually he settled down, still in his teens, with a live-in girlfriend (who may have been an ex-slave or in another social category that rendered her unmarriageable to Augustine) and began to get more serious about his studies, particularly philosophy and rhetoric -- disciplines that provided talented young men with the opportunity to get jobs in law, government and education. Much to his mother's dismay, he also got involved with a Gnostic sect called the Manichaeans.

Augustine wound up teaching grammar in Thagaste, then moved on to teach rhetoric in Carthage. After nine years Augustine had had enough of his students' poor attitudes and disinclination to pay their tuition, so he headed for Rome -- only to experience a repeat of his Carthage experience. Finally a friend introduced Augustine to the prefect of Rome, who had been looking for a rhetoric professor for the imperial court at Milan, north of Rome. This was a plum position for the now 30-something Augustine, so he accepted it. His mother joined him, and -- after making him break off his 13-year relationship with his lover, even though the two had a son together -- arranged a socially advantageous marriage for him with a very young girl; because she was only 11, the marriage couldn't take place for two more years.

Augustine had found himself disappointed with the Manichaean sect, and had moved through other phiilosophical schools of thought...but kept coming back to Christianity, encouraged by his mother and friends and by a rhetorical colleague, Ambrose, a devout Christian and bishop of the Church as well as a skillful debater. Ambrose seemed to be an appealing example of a thinking Christian, who seemed to have answers to Augustine's questions about God and the meaning of life. Meanwhile, Augustine had been emotionally devastated by the forced breakup of his relationship, but wasn't willing to wait for his young fiancee', and had fallen back into his promiscuous teenage habits. At one point, he recalled later in his autobiography, he prayed, "Lord, grant me chastity and continence, but not yet."

Eventually Augustine had a profound spiritual crisis. As he prayed for guidance, he heard what sounded like a neighborhood child's voice calling in a singsong voice, "Take and read...take and read..." Interpreting that as a sign from God, Augustine picked up a copy of Scripture and found himself reading from Paul's Letter to the Romans: "The night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness,
not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires." Augustine later told of feeling a sudden conviction of his sin, and the offer of divine forgiveness; after many years of struggling with the issue of faith, Augustine finally gave in. Augustine had not been baptized as a child; on Easter of 387 his friend Bishop Ambrose finally baptized him. He decided to embrace a monastic lifestyle, and broke off his engagement.

Augustine traveled back to Africa, gave his inheritance away to the poor, and commenced turning the family house into a monastic community. One day while he was in church the visiting bishop said, "This church is in need of more priests, and I believe that the ordination of Augustine would be to the glory of God." Despite Augustine's reluctance, others in the congregation dragged him to the front of the church, where the bishop ordained him then and there. Several years later, after the bishop died, Augustine was selected to take his place.

Augustine was a faithful priest and bishop -- but in the meantime managed to write extensively. His spiritual autobiography, Confessions, is considered a classic of Christian writing as well as a heartfelt retelling of his spiritual journey. His book City of God, written as a response to social critics who were blaming the decline of Roman culture on the rise of Christianity, is a treatise on God's intervention in human history, and the comparison of the Christian's life as a citizen of a worldly government with his citizenship in the Reign of God. Augustine also wrote a highly regarded exploration of the doctrine of the Trinity, On the Trinity. Augustine was also active in tackling popular heresies of the day, including Donatism (the idea that the holiness of the Church and its sacraments was dependent on the holiness of its leaders -- so that, for instance, Holy Communion served by an "unworthy" clergyperson was invalid) and Pelagianism (the idea that there's no such thing as a sinful human nature -- that we're all as good or as bad as we want to be, and that if we just try really, really, hard, we can be "good enough").

Augustine's thoughts on the nature of God, human nature and free will (or lack thereof), salvation, morality, sacramental theology -- all have, for good or ill, been foundational in the development of Western Christian thought and in the world of secular philosophy -- thinkers as diverse as Thomas Aquinas, Luther, John Calvin and Bertrand Russell have been influenced by Augustine.

Augustine died in 430, at the age of 75, of illness, as Vandals (there was an actual tribe of barbarians called Vandals, from whence we get the term for pillagers or hoodlums) who'd invaded north Africa were advancing on the city of Hippo, where he lived. In the 13th century Augustine was named a Doctor of the Church by the Pope.

Friday's Here, But Sunday's Coming: Life in Community

2011-09-02T12:18:00.002-04:00

Ah...Christian community...it sounds like a such a nice, warm, cozy place to be!

But, as we read in Sunday's lessons, people of faith living in community isn't about, as the REM song goes, "shiny happy people holding hands. (Does our graphic illustrate people engaging in a group hug, butting heads or about to tackle another group of people? Hard to say.) It's tough work, being the Church together. And thinking or expecting or wishing that it isn't, isn't being real about ourselves.

In our Old Testament lesson the prophet Ezekiel is tasked with the difficult job of telling members of his faith community that they need to change their wicked, self-centered ways...they've already experienced a societal crisis, and more are on the way unless they repent. But God also wants it to be known that these bad consequences for bad behavior aren't any fun for God either.

In our Psalm for the day we meditate on what grounds us as individuals in the community of faith -- our desire for God and desire to know what God wants from us/for us is that commonality that brings us together.

Our Epistle lesson, again this week from Paul's Letter to the Romans, further describes the way the Christian community should be conducting itself in the world, and why. Paul exhorts the Roman church to be "people of the light." How can we be "people of the light" in our own society?

Jesus tackles the issue of conflict resolution in our Gospel lesson. How should someone respond when treated badly by another member of the faith community? And what does "treat him like a Gentile or a tax collector" mean coming from a rabbi who regularly hung out with -- wait for it -- Gentiles and tax collectors? Hmmm.

Thoughtful Thursday: Talking About Christianity in a Post-Christian Society

2011-09-02T10:59:00.002-04:00

David Lose is the director of the Center For Biblical Preaching at Luther Seminary. He's one of the developers of Working Preacher, a website that offers insights into our weekly lectionary readings for pastors and laypeople alike.

But in addition to all this Lutheran academic busy-ness, Lose has also written books like Making Sense of Scripture for a general audience. And he moonlights as a regular contributor on the online newspaper Huffington Post -- which takes him out of the ivy-covered halls of academia right into the secular marketplace of ideas. For many Huffington Post readers Christianity is either a great unknown or, more frequently, invariably equated with Christian fundamentalism, and thus regularly disparaged or mocked as ignorant, bigoted and even dangerous to the common good.

How does Lose represent for the Christian mainstream in this alien and often hostile territory? With thoughtfulness and humor. We suspect he's helped more than a few Huffpost readers reconsider what they think they know about Christianity and Christians.

You can read some of Lose's Huffington Post columns here.

Wednesday Whys: Lutheran Confession; and Peter the "Rock"

2011-08-31T12:14:00.003-04:00

True Confessions
What do Lutherans believe about confession?
Many Lutherans would be surprised to learn that Martin Luther was a fan of individual confession; that in fact he initially struggled with whether or not to retain it as an official Sacrament. (He eventually decided that it wasn't quite in the same category because of a lack of a visual/tactile element like the water in Holy Baptism or the bread and wine in Holy Communion.) Many might also be surprised to find an Order For Individual Confession and Forgiveness in our hymnals.

The fact of the matter is: Confession is important in the life of every Christian; getting real about the ways in which we anger and disappoint God and the ways which we, both by doing the wrong things and not doing the right things when we can, hurt our neighbors. This isn't about beating yourself up because God wants you to feel bad; it's about recognizing problems in our relationship with God and one another so we can work on resolving them. Scripture is filled with examples of individuals and faith communities being called to confess their sins. Jesus included a confession in the Lord's Prayer. Most traditional daily devotionals include a time for self-examination and confession to God. Confession isn't just a necessary reality check in our Christian lives, though; it's when we actually understand how short we fall from the glory of God, and how much we need God's forgiveness and transforming help in our lives, that we can start to feel grateful for God's love and grace.

Luther, affirming the priesthood of all believers, argued that this cycle of examination, confession and assurance of God's forgiveness was not the exclusive province of clergy, but part of the duty and privilege of every Christian. In other words, we can ask God directly for forgiveness. We Christians can also ask one another forgiveness, and receive the same assurance of God's grace from one another.

But sometimes we just need to confess, and just need to hear about God's forgiving love, from someone we know and trust as a person of God on a special mission to teach and lead us. Sometimes we need to hear Christ's voice forgiving us through the voice of that person. And sometimes we all need to hear that as a faith community. That's why Luther retained, and why today's Lutherans still retain, orders for corporate and individual confession; to help support a penitent person's faith in a loving, forgiving God, especially in the case of a particularly troubling sin that may cause that person to despair of forgiveness.

So the next time you have some quiet moments in church, you might want to glance through either our green or red hymnals until you find the Order For Individual Confession, just to see what it's like.

And to hear what Luther has to say about confession in general, you can read the Confession section of Luther's Small Catechism.

Peter Panned

Why is so much prominence given to Peter as an Apostle when the Gospels portray him as -- well, as kind of a dope?

Traditionally the Western church has tended to make a big deal out of the Apostle Peter based on Jesus' comment (taken somewhat out of context) that "upon this rock will I build my Church." But even that story in Matthew's Gospel immediately segues into Peter not getting what Jesus is saying, opening his big mouth to object, and Jesus calling him on it in unusually harsh language. (When's the last time someone called you Satan?) And then of course the Peter who swears up and down to Jesus that he'd never, ever betray him winds up doing exactly that.

But Peter (like the rest of us) is redeemed by Jesus. And in the rest of the New Testament we find Peter assuming an important leadership role in the early Church, although he seems to have deferred to others like James the Just. Peter is thought to have been marytered around 67 AD; according to early Church historians he was crucified head-down, per his own request, because he said that he was not worthy of dying in the same manner as his Lord.

Peter seems to have been a "go big or go home" kind of guy, with his emotions on his sleeve, and often, at least during his journey with Jesus on this earth, with more enthusiasm than insight. Perhaps part of his appeal is that the rest of us can relate to him -- we're people who love Jesus, we don't always know what to do with that or how to talk about that or what that entails (or even what Jesus is talking about) and we wind up, like Peter, messing things up despite our good intentions. "We're all bozos on this bus," even the Apostles closest to Jesus. And it's worth noting that Jesus never told Peter, "You're hopeless -- I'm through with you." Which tells you that Jesus will stick with us as well.

Do you feel like a bozo about some aspect of Lutheran theology or worship practice? Ask your question here, and we'll try to answer it next week. The more people who ask questions, the more interesting that makes Wednesday Whys.

Tuneful Tuesday: "Teach Me, O Lord"

2011-08-30T23:35:00.002-04:00

Mission Monday: Not Exactly Coffee and Donuts

2011-08-29T17:17:00.003-04:00

Martin Luther, we are told, loved his beer -- so much so that he used to hold chug-a-lug contests with his friends.

Here's the story of a Lutheran church that isn't afraid to pop a brewski or two in order to get out in the community and engage people who may be keenly interested in matters of spirituality but who are, for one reason or another, alienated from the church and conventionally churchy stuff. As Marty might say: "Prosit!"

Mission Monday: This Youth Group Spells "Disaster"

2011-08-16T10:29:00.001-04:00

Teenage youth mission groups are nothing new. They're usually idealistic but untrained kids sent into situations where they really can't do much other than offer empathy and some minimal unskilled labor.

But what would happen if the mission group actually had some technical expertise in disaster relief -- because they're from an area of the country that knows firsthand about natural disaster?

This Vero Beach, FL, church's "disastrous" youth group has the skills to provide some serious help to people in need. Read about them here.

Thoughtful Thursday: Dealing With "Mean Jesus"

2011-08-11T22:53:00.001-04:00

This Sunday's Gospel lesson presents readers/hearers with a real dilemma: How to square our image of Jesus as compassionate, kind and equitable with our text's portrayal of a Jesus who seems aloof, maybe even arrogant, and bigoted when confronted by a Canaanite woman in real distress over her daughter's illness.

Theologians, preachers and laypeople have all wrestled with the story of Jesus and the Canaanite woman. Maybe you've wrestled with it in your own reading of Scripture.

Here's what some other people are thinking about this text:

"Yelping Puppies: The Canaanite Woman

"The Woman Who Didn't Take No For An Answer -- Not Even From Jesus" .

"Faith Like a Dog's Breakfast" .

Wednesday Whys: The "Why" of Camp; the "How" of Vacation Bible School; and Lutherans Versus Baptists

2011-08-10T16:21:00.004-04:00

Why do we make such a big deal about camp?
Why is church camp so important?

This summer Hope's young people -- along with many other young people of other faiths and Christian denominations -- made their annual treks to summer camp. Why is this such a big deal in faith communities?

A few thoughts: First, there is something about being in nature (even with dozens of other kids) that seems to connect us to the spiritual side of things -- that underscores the truth that we're part of something much bigger than ourselves; that confronts us with the beauty and complexity of creation; that gives us more opportunities for quiet time and reflection than what we usually give ourselves in the course of everyday life. Secondly, it's often helpful in our spiritual lives to meet other people on the same faith journey, who speak the same "faith language"; it helps connect us to our larger family of faith, and of course helps us make new friends. And finally, sometimes it's beneficial to experience worship in different settings, with different people -- for instance, sharing Holy Communion around a campfire with a group of peers can be a spiritual "aha!" moment for someone who has only experienced Holy Communion Sunday mornings in church.

Postscript: If you're an adult reading this, thinking, "Sheesh..why do kids get all this special faith-formation help in the great outdoors?"...did you know that many Lutheran camps offer programs for all ages, all year 'round, provide space for individual congregational retreats and may even make their facilities available for private rentals? If you'd like to learn what our synod's Lutheran camps have to offer you and your family, visit the Living Waters website.

Vacation Bible School Curricula
How is the curriculum decided for Hope's Vacation Bible School?

Some years Hope has used "out-of-the-box' VBS programs from Augsburg Fortress, the ELCA publishing house; some years we've just made up our own program. But in either case, what we do for VBS is -- or is supposed to be -- a collaborative effort that involves the pastor, the Education Committee and parents. (Which made it especially disappointing this year when we asked parents for input into our VBS program and received no response. Fortunately some creative minds came up with an innovative and ultimately successful idea -- why not take VBS to an existing preschool program.) If you want to be involved in children's faith formation activities at Hope -- if you want to help us plan next year's Vacation Bible School and other educational activities -- our Education Committee would love to hear from you. Call our office and we can connect you with the go-to people.

Lutherans and Baptists -- Oh My!
What are the differences between Lutherans and Baptists?

Our first thought, upon reading this, was, "Which Baptists?" Because the Baptist tradition pitches a wide, wide tent in the United States, one that includes everyone from the mainline American Baptist Church to the ueber-conservative Southern Baptist Convention to a lot of storefront, do-it-yourself churches with no affiliation to any larger group. Your blogmeister has even encountered Seventh-Day Baptists, who worship on Saturdays, adhere to a dress-code and have a lot of other rules that other Baptists might find odd or objectionable.

First, some history -- but not a lot, because this is a blog: Both Lutherans and Baptists have their roots in the Protestant Reformation in Western Europe in the 16th century. Now, think of the Roman Catholic Church as a kitchen cupboard, and think of the various reformers as people cleaning the cupboard. Our guy, Martin Luther, believed that if it wasn't broke you didn't fix it; his approach to reform was like going through our metaphorical kitchen cupboard shelf by shelf, taking out the items that were bad, leaving the good items and just cleaning things up as needed. The more radical Reformers believed that over the centuries the Church had become so corrupted and divorced from its New Testament roots that nothing short of a total do-over was acceptable; instead of cleaning the cupboard shelves, these radical reformers were of a mind to toss both the cupboard and its contents into the nearest Dumpster and start all over again.

That radical Reformation tradition is the spiritual pedigree of today's Baptists. That is why if you attend a Baptist service you will find a much more unstructured form of worship; no recitation of the historic creeds of the Church (even though most Baptists would affirm the articles of the creeds in general); a non-sacramental understanding of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion. These are all elements of historical, catholic Christianity that the Baptists' spiritual ancestors pitched in an attempt to get closer to what they believed was a simpler Christianity more in keeping with the first generations of Christians. (This is a debatable point, but that's grist for another discussion altogether.)

In general -- and be advised that when we try to answer big questions like the differences in two very big faith traditions, we're always speaking in generalities -- the Baptist tradition tends to stress the human response to God; things we do for God out of love and obedience. For most Baptists (but not all -- there is a small but strong Calvinist branch of Baptists who believe in old-school-Calvinist double-predestination) our salvation is a matter of an adult decision to commit to the Christian faith. Baptism, in Baptist theology, is an ordinance commanded by God of believers, that someone who has made this decision undergoes out of obedience to God and as a public demonstration of his or her commitment to the Christian faith. Holy Communion, in Baptist theology, is another ordinance, one instituted by Christ at the Last Supper, that Christians of like mind participate in out of obedience to Christ and as a memorial to remember Christ's sacrifice for us.

In Lutheran theology, by contrast, the emphasis is always on God's saving work. We believe, as Martin Luther put it in his Small Catechism, that we cannot by our own effort or intelligence or feeling come to have faith in Jesus as Savior; that it's the Holy Spirit, working in us, that brings us to saving faith. Baptism is, for Lutherans, the usual entry point at which God, according to God's own promise, "comes down," claims us as God's own, and begins God's redeeming/renewing work in us. (That understanding is why we baptize infants. That's also why, unlike in the Baptist church, children are considered part of the Church from the git-go, not as potential converts who must at some point as young adults "make a decision.") Likewise, when Lutherans celebrate Holy Communion, we believe that Christ is truly present "in, with and under" the bread and wine, gracing us with forgiveness and spiritual strength -- that while in one sense like our Baptist friends we are "proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes," we are also receiving a special spiritual gift by partaking in this meal. Our understanding of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion is sacramental; we believe that God's grace works in and through the elements of water, bread and wine in an immediate way that's both spiritual and tangible; in both cases it's a holy Mystery, and we're okay with that.

So those are some major differences between the Baptist and Lutheran traditions. Because of its emphasis on adult conversion, and because of its history as a tradition of converts, Baptist church culture often tends to have a more emotional, "come-to-Jesus" element. There is also usually more stress on behavioral rules; while times are changing in many congregations, traditionally Baptist worshipping communities have had prohibitions against members drinking, dancing, playing cards and/or engaging in other behaviors deemed inappropriate for "born-again" people, and formally joining a Baptist church may mean agreeing to certain lifestyle rules.

As Christians from differing faith traditions intermingle socially and intermarry, and as we partner ecumenically with other churches in community work and world relief, we're learning not only more about but more from one another. Some Baptists are rediscovering some of the good things left behind by their spiritual ancestors in the Reformation -- lectionaries that give more structure and discipline to preaching, meaningful rituals of the historical church, the writings of the early Church Fathers, greater attention to Holy Communion. Likewise, we Lutherans are starting to appreciate things that our Baptist neighbors seem to do well, like recognizing people's need for an emotional as well as intellectual element in our faith lives, spending more time reading Scripture on our own outside of church and starting to think more about the sanctification -- the "saved for what" -- part of the salvation equation; how we can more mindfully live into our baptismal promises.

Tuneful Tuesday: "Kyrie Eleison"

2011-08-09T09:40:00.001-04:00

Kyrie eleison: Greek for "Lord, have mercy." That familiar line from our traditional liturgy is also the persistent cry we hear in this Sunday's Gospel lesson when a Canaanite woman -- someone who in Jesus' cultural and religious context had no right to be heard either as a woman or as an "unclean" Gentile -- defies Jesus' uncaring, bullying disciples and even what seems to be a reluctant Jesus in order to find healing for her daughter.

Here is a beautiful musical rendering of Kyrie eleison by Georgian singer Miriam Roinishvili, choir and orchestra:

Mission Monday: Bringing Hope and Healing to Cameroon

2011-08-08T10:32:00.000-04:00

Not all, or even most, missionaries are engaged in church work in the countries they serve.

Many missionaries are medical missionaries, helping bring medical care to underserved populations. here are two ELCA missionaries who've taken their healing hands to Cameroon, an African country where even the most basic, routine medical care is a rare commodity.

Thoughtful Thursday: "Digging" the Parables

2011-07-21T15:12:00.001-04:00

Sometimes Jesus' parables -- stories filled with everyday, homely activities like planting and baking and doing business -- seem so familiar, even to us in the 21st century, that we can miss elements that would have been perplexing, even shocking to his original listeners; and that might provoke the same reaction in us if we think about them long enough.

Lutheran pastor Brian Stoffregen talks about this Sunday's Gospel-lesson parables here. This is a bit long, but it's layperson-friendly; and you'll learn something if you read it all the way through.

Tuneful Tuesday: JS Bach and the Who -- Together at Last!

2011-07-20T11:02:00.000-04:00

In Sunday's Gospel lesson Jesus describes the Reign of God as something so precious we should be willing to give everything to obtain it. Here are two very different musical explorations of that longing for God's presence and goodness and just rule:

Mission Monday: Vacation Bible School Hits Lutherland!

2011-07-19T12:21:00.001-04:00

This week Hope is holding Vacation Bible School in a unique way -- Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning at Big Adventures Day Care.

Our VBS is always a work in progress as we try to discern the best ways to provide this service for our local children. What are other Lutheran churches doing with children's ministry this time of year? Check out this article from Living Lutheran and find out.

Sunday Sights and Sounds: "You Are the Seed"

2011-07-17T08:19:00.000-04:00

On a Sunday when we hear a lot about sowing and reaping, here's the English version of a popular folk hymn from the Latin American church:

Wednesday Whys: Why is the Pentecost Season So Long?

2011-06-29T22:29:00.000-04:00

The season of Pentecost runs all the way into November? Seriously? Why is it so long?

Another term for the Pentecost season is Ordinary Time. And that's good to remember -- because after the special seasons focusing on Jesus' life, death and resurrection, the Pentecost season switches the emphasis to our ordinary everyday lives in Jesus. If you pay attention to the Gospel lessons from now until November, you'll notice that they are less stories about Jesus and more Jesus' actual instructions for his disciples (which include us). We'll also be hearing a lot of teaching about life in Christian community in our Epistle lessons.

Some liturgical Christians have suggested that we need to spend more time as God's people thinking about God the Creator and creation -- giving thanks for the gift of the earth; reminding ourselves of Scriptural injunctions to be good stewards of creation; discussing and praying about ways we can all do a better job of caring for creation, whether by consuming less or by doing proactive things as individuals and households to protect the environment. So some churches exercise the option of observing four Creation Sundays in September preceding the feast day of St. Francis, who was known for his love of the natural world.

That's enough to keep us all busy until December.

Do you have a "churchly" question? Ask it here in our Comments section, and we'll try to answer it next week.

Tuneful Tuesday: "Guide My Feet"

2011-06-28T09:00:00.001-04:00

Our Epistle and Gospel lessons this coming Sunday aren't easy to hear. They tell us that following Jesus isn't about joining a fan club but rather about actually doing what needs to be done in order for God's Reign to break through to our world. It's intentional, and difficult. And, as Jesus notes, a lot of people want him to be a performer, not a Savior; and that it's some of the least likely people in society who actually "get" him and what he's saying. (So much for "Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild.")

Are we up to the task to which Jesus calls us? Here's an old spiritual -- sung here, very appropriately, as the benediction at a Perkins School of Theology graduation ceremony, sending a new classful of potential pastors and other church workers out into the world -- that prays for God's help as we seek to do what Jesus wants us to do in the world:

Mission Monday: Stream If You Want To...All Around the World

2011-06-27T09:19:00.001-04:00

Remember that B-52's song that goes, "Roam if you want to/all around the world"?

Trinity Lutheran Church in Reading, Pennsylvania, an ELCA congregation that's been around since colonial times, uses webstreaming technology to literally share its message around the world by broadcasting its worship services over the Internet.

Read about Trinity's longstanding commitment to outreach, and the impact it has on people around the globe, here.

Sunday Sights and Sounds: "Gotta Serve Somebody"

2011-06-26T08:01:00.000-04:00

It's the message of our Scripture lessons today -- presented to you this morning by Bob Dylan via Booker T and the MGs!

Saints Alive: Ireneaus of Lyons

2011-06-25T17:34:00.004-04:00

Some contemporary Christians have a very romantic notion of early Christianity -- that in its earliest days Christianity was "pure," with no inconsistencies in belief or practice.

In reality, as the story of Jesus was told and retold across the Mediterranean world, it spawned any number of sects, many of which combined parts of Christianity and Judaism with bits of Greek philosophy and pagan "mystery" religions. (Sort of like the New Age section at Barnes and Noble.) Despite diverse and sometimes contradictory ideas, these groups did tend to hold some beliefs in common, most notably that 1) the earth was created not by the Supreme Being but by an inferior demigod who didn't get it right, either by accident or by malicious design; 2) human beings contained a divine "spark" that had been trapped in this inferior state of existence; and 3) getting free of this inferior way of being was a matter of attaining special, secret knowledge. In these scenarios Jesus was not the incarnate Son of God -- earthly matter being icky and bad and all -- but a unique spiritual being who just masquaraded as a human in order to impart this secret knowledge and thus free discerning recipients from the evil of the material world.

Because of their emphasis on special, occult knowledge, these groups came to be known as Gnostics, from the Greek word for "to know." And in the early days of Christianity, the Gnostic movement was in hot competition with apostolic, orthodox Christianity for hearts and minds.

Enter Irenaeus, the bishop of Lyons, in what is now France. (At that time France, or Gaul, was under the rule of Rome, and its people had generally adopted the Roman culture as their own.) We don't know much about Irenaeus' early life -- he may have been born anywhere between 120 and 140 AD -- but we do know that, unlike many early Church leaders, he had been born into a Christian family; accounts say that as a child he was fascinated by the accounts of first-generation Christians who'd actually known the Apostles. He later became a disciple of Polycarp, an early Christian theologian who had himself been a disciple of John the Apostle.

Irenaeus had been sent to Lyons as a bishop after his predecessor had been killed during a massacre of Christians in that area. His tenure as bishop involved not only pastoral care of the Christian community, but also missionary work. And he found himself up against an insurgence of Gnosticism. (Some scholars speculate that the high infant and maternal mortality rate and regular epidemics that plagued the Roman Empire due to urban overcrowding, poor sanitation and other reasons made Gnosticism's world-negative message attractive to many people.)

So Irenaeus wrote theology refuting Gnosticism. He wrote lots of it. His most famous work, Against Heresies, both described and critiqued many Gnostic sects, and for many years was the primary reference for later scholars trying to understand Gnosticism. Basing his arguments on the Gospels, Irenaeus' central point was that the only "special knowledge" that imparts salvation is knowing Jesus -- the real, flesh-and-blood Messiah, not some airy-fairy spirit Jesus.

And then Irenaeus' story disappears. Some speculate that he too was eventually martyred during one of the imperial perseuctions of Christians, although if this were true there would probably have been more written evidence of that. But however he died, he seems to have died around the year 203. And while he may not be the most well-known Christian in our list of commemorations, he contributed much of the intellectual heft that helped keep the apostolic tradition of Christianity alive at a time when it could have easily been overtaken by Christian spin-offs with little connection to Jesus' first disciples.

The Presentation of the Augsburg Confession

2011-06-25T13:37:00.003-04:00

On this day in 1530 a group of German nobles who supported Martin Luther's reforms of the Church presented the Emperor Charles V with a summary -- written principally by Luther's friend and associate Philip Melanchthon -- of what the Lutheran movement believed, taught and confessed. They did this at considerable personal risk; remember that these were times when perceived heresy could be a capital offense.

The document affirmed Lutheranism's strong grounding in historical, catholic Christianity while at the same time affirming its commitment to reforming the errors and abuses that had arisen in the medieval Church and had blurred the Gospel message.

What are we talking about? The Augsburg Confession -- still the most concise explanation of what it means to be Lutheran.

You can read the Confession here.

Saints Alive! Jan Hus

2011-06-25T07:41:00.001-04:00

He was alarmed by the corruption he saw in the Roman Catholic Church, and called for reforms in its polity and practice alike. He denounced indulgences. His followers became a new branch of the Church.

No, we're not talking Martin Luther; we're talking Jan Hus, a priest in Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic) several generations before Luther nailed his theses to the Wittenberg church door in 1517.

Hus, born in about 1371, was a highly educated man, both a priest and a professor at Charles University in Prague. (Among other things, he was responsible for some simplifying reforms to the written Czech language.) At the time the university, like the rest of Europe, had been rocked by instability in the Church that began at the beginning of the 14th century, when the then French king moved the seat of the papacy from Rome to Avignon. The papacy finally returned to Rome, but in the meantime French and Italian factions among the College of Cardinals vied for power, with three people at one point claiming to have been voted the "real" Pope. This struggle had implications for all of Europe, as various heads of state took sides in the argument. The schism was eventually breached, but it had shaken the Church to its core.

The unrest in the religious and political worlds was reflected by unrest in the universities. In Bohemia the work of John Wycliffe, a reforming English priest who had been executed for questioning elements of Roman Catholic theology, practice and governance, had become popular; and it resonated for Hus and for much of the student body at his university. Hus was less interested, it seems, in arguing theology with his superiors and more interested in issues of worship and in how the Church should be run.

One argument Hus had with the Church was over the celebration of the Eucharist. It had become customary, in Hus' time, for priests to start reserving the wine for themselves and only serving wafers to the congregation. Hus said that this practice was unbiblical and a departure from the ancient practice of the Church. But what got Hus in real trouble with Rome began with his criticism of the recent institution of indulgences -- the faithful being asked to pay for what amounted to a written "get out of jail free" certificate that promised them time off from the unpleasantness of Purgatory (in Roman Catholic doctrine, a kind of halfway point between death and heaven, where the soul is purged from whatever impurity keeps it from being "good enough" to get into heaven). Hus denounced this practice as unbiblical. He went on to criticize other abuses of power by the Church, including various church taxes that oppressed the laity, especially the poorest and most vulnerable. And -- his most dangerous critique of all -- Hus argued that the office of the Pope was not one established by divine will, but by Christians as a practical means of bringing good order to the Church. He asserted that the Pope and other church authorities should confine their scope of authority to the spiritual rather than the political realm, and deemed as un-Christian the Church's use of temporal power and military/physical force to get its way.

Obviously, Hus' outspokenness painted a big target on his back for Church heretic hunters eager to gather the ecclesiastical wagons in a circle after decades of chaos. In 1414 Hus was summoned to the Council of Constance, tried for heresy and convicted. He was given several chances to recant his statements but refused to do so. Finally, Hus was publicly defrocked -- vested in his priestly garments, then stripped of them. He in turn publicly forgave his enemies. He was then led to the stake and burned to death on July 6th, 1415.

Hus' influence lived on in his inspiration of later reformers like Luther, and in his followers' formation of what is now the Moravian Church in 1457. The Moravians were known for their piety and missionary zeal despite persecution; by the time Luther wrote his critique of the Roman Catholic Church, there were 200,000 Moravians in Europe. The Moravian Church in North America is in full fellowship with the ELCA; you can read more about our Moravian partners in ministry here. And Hus is also regarded by most Czechs as a national hero.

Saints Alive! Catherine Winkworth

2011-06-25T06:55:00.000-04:00

The German heritage of many Lutherans who came to the United States is reflected in the number of German hymns in our collective hymnals: A Mighty Fortress; Lo, How a Rose is Blooming; Now Thank We All Our God; O Sacred Head, Now Wounded; Wake, Awake For Night is Flying; and many more. But these cherished hymns might never have found their way into the hymnals of the English-speaking world if not for Catherine Winkworth, an Englishwoman whose translation work was just one aspect of a life devoted to scholarship and the education of women.

Winkworth was born in 1827, in London, the daughter of an affluent silk merchant who later moved the family to Manchester. Despite the common wisdom of the time that women didn't need an education beyond basic literacy, homemaking skills and enough "charm"-related training to make them attractive to suitors -- or, worse yet, that women weren't smart enough to be educated -- Winkworth's family supported their daughter's intellectual gifts, and provided her with the opportunity to study with a Unitarian minister, William Gaskell, and the English philosopher James Martineau.

Winkworth was deeply involved in the English women's rights movement, and during her lifetime she was a financial supporter and board member of a number of schools for girls as well as an advocate for higher education for women. She was also a dedicated member of the Sunday School and District Visiting Society, then a new social services organization in England that got women from privileged families involved in visiting and helping the poor.

Winkworth's interest in German hymns was sparked by the German ambassador to England, Christian Karl Bunsen, a family friend who had given her a copy of a German devotional book containing well-loved German hymns. Winkworth also had the opportunity to research German hymns during a year-long stay in Dresden. In 1857 she published Lyra Germanica, a selection of German hymns translated into English, dedicated to her mentor the ambassador. She followed up the next year with another collection of translated hymns, and in subsequent years collaborated with others to incorporate these hymns into English hymnody. And Winkworth's translations also crossed the Atlantic into American Lutheran hymnals as immigrant congregations here began to transition into English-speaking services.

We can thank Catherine Winkworth for helping bring the gift of German, particularly Lutheran, hymns to English-speaking churches around the world. And her translation work was only part of a life well lived in service to justice, equity and zest for learning.

Friday's Here, But Sunday's Coming: Slavery, Freedom and Christ's Call

2011-06-24T09:06:00.005-04:00

Welcome to the 2nd Sunday of Pentecost, and the long, "green and growing" stretch of the Pentecost season. We've heard the story of Jesus' life, death and resurrection; now, until Advent returns at the end of November, we'll be digging more deeply into Jesus' actual teachings, and into the other Scriptures that address the issue of being people of faith in the world.

Sunda's coming...what Scripture lessons can we expect to hear Sunday morning?

Our first lesson is from the Book of Jeremiah, and needs some backstory to make sense. (Also -- relax about all those cumbersome OT names; the story's the thing.) Judah's "last good king," Josiah, is gone; Judah is on the social and moral skids, and in its weakness has come into the orbit of the Babylonian Empire, its professional and intellectual classes taken into exile to serve that system and its king demoted to imperial puppet. The false prophets attached to the present king, Zedekiah, have lulled king and country into complacency with a lot of happy talk and braggadocio about Judah's future triumph over its enemies. Jeremiah, by contrast -- God's real prophet in this scenario -- after a futile attempt to get the people to return to a godly, societally healthy way of living, has concluded, "Stick a fork in us -- we're toast," and (wearing an actual ox yoke on his neck to prove his point) counsels the king to submit to the inevitable yoke of Babylon rather than to try and wage war against that superior power. This of course does not go over well with the king and his advisors, so Jeremiah is persona non grata at court, and is forbidden from prophesying publicly.

[Sidebar: Remember that prophecy, in the Old Testament sense, doesn't mean oogity-boogity fortunetelling, but rather speaking God's truth to the community -- advising them of what is going to happen to them if they keep on doing what they're doing; explaining to them what will happen if they change what they're doing; advocating economic and social justice for the poor and marginalized; "comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable."]

Anyway, back to our text: The false prophet Hananiah sends a private message to Jeremiah, claiming to be speaking on God's behalf, and repeats the popular prophetic line of the day: Everything's going to be fine. We're going to kick Babylonian booty. All of our people sent into exile will be home in two years.

Jeremiah's response? After a somewhat conciliatory, "Gee, I hope so," he turns stern and skeptical: "I'll believe it when it happens."

Any parallels between the false prophets of those times and politicians/spiritual leaders/social gurus of our own age who promise peace and prosperity without personal/social accountability or consequences or concern for vulnerable in society? It's a question worth asking.

Our Psalm reading, excerpts of Psalm 89, praise God for both his might and his faithfulness.

Bob Dylan once sang, "You've gotta serve somebody" -- and that's the theme of our Epistle lesson, from Paul's letter to the Roman church. Paul's thesis is that we're either slaves to Christ or slaves to sin -- to our own self-absorbed, self-serving, self-indulgent, other-exploiting ways. He notes the double irony that slavery to sin is often perceived as "freedom," while real freedom in Christ involves voluntary submission to Christ's teachings. (Or as one therapist advised a patient with a history of poor impulse control and self-destructive personal choices: "You don't always have to do what you want to do.") And he reminds his Roman readers/hearers of their own formerly wanton lives, with a very Dr. Phil-ian observation: "How was that workin' for ya?" His observation that "The wages of sin is death" can be taken not only in a literal sense, but in all the other "deaths" we experience as a result of sin -- the death of relationships; self-respect; a sense of meaning and purpose in life. He contrasts those consequences with the gift of salvation found in Christ.

Lutherans sometimes have a hard time transitioning from questions of "Saved from what?" to "Saved for what?" Paul gives us some food for thought in this lesson.

Our Pentecost journey into the teachings of Jesus starts with a hard jolt in our Gospel lesson, where Jesus demands our ultimate loyalty -- even above family ties. Talk about afflicting the comfortable! He challenges his listeners to let go of their old ways of living and thinking in order to be free for the work of the Reign of God. And he praises those who are open to this new way of living and thinking, who provide a welcome to this Reign of God when it comes to them. Our tendency in reading this text is to let ourselves off the hook by assuming that we're the hospitable receivers of the good news that Jesus is praising in the text -- but we Christians are actually those being called and sent out to proclaim the good news ourselves! How comfortable are we in doing that? What are some things we might have to give up (Our self-consciousness? Our need to "do it right or not do it at all"? Our not wanting to engage with strangers or have "deep" conversations with our loved ones? Our time and attention?) in order to be the ambassadors of God's Reign that Jesus expects us to be?

Lots of big ideas in what are relatively short lessons this week! See you in church!

Thoughtful Thursday: Meeting God in the Everyday

2011-06-23T10:13:00.002-04:00

While it may seem that your blogmeister does nothing all day but find content for Hope's online presences...fact of the matter is, she has a pretty limited playing field both in terms of time and scope; about a half-dozen favorite online stopping places where she finds much of what winds up here.

But every so often she goes spelunking on what are called webrings -- associations of bloggers who write about particular subjects -- and is pleasantly surprised by what she finds.

Here are two very good blogs by Lutherans that focus on the spirituality of the everyday.

The Shepherdess Writes is the blog of a busy ELCA pastor in western North Carolina, who juggles parish ministry with campus ministry in what she describes as "the most beautiful place on earth." Recent posts include musings on the spirituality of The Green Lantern and what happens when the hinky "Prosperity Gospel" starts seeping into our thinking.

Yo! Dude! That was our first impression upon visiting On the Fritz, the blog of an ELCA pastor in New York. But when you get past the tough-guy photo, you'll find many thoughtful posts on Scripture, spirituality and current events, in a way that's both profound and very down-to-earth.

Wednesday Whys: Pets in Heaven?

2011-06-22T08:40:00.003-04:00

Do animals go to heaven?

The Bible doesn't have a lot to say about the spiritual life of animals -- probably because the Bible was written by and for humans, at a time in history when animals were principally thought of in utilitarian ways -- handy things to eat or to do manual labor for us.

What Scripture does tell us is that creation of the non-human world was not an accident or something done merely to provide an interesting/useful backdrop to the human story, but rather an intentional process carried out for its own sake in love by our Creator. And in a few places in Scripture -- the 8th chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans, the Book of Revelation -- we get a hint of an idea that God is redeeming and renewing not only humanity but indeed, eventually, the whole of creation.

How do animals, and especially our beloved pets, fit into this picture? We just don't know. But if we trust in a God who loves us all and means us all well, then we don't have to worry that God isn't going to do the right thing by our animal friends.

The Luther family, by the way -- a big, rollicking family that included lots of kids and pets -- experienced sadness at the loss of an animal companion. Luther is said to have consoled his grieving children over their dog's death by holding a backyard doggie funeral, noting, "Be thou comforted, little dog; in heaven thou too shalt have a golden tail."

Do you have a why about the Christian faith or Christian practice from a Lutheran perspective, about Church history, about differences between Christian traditions? Don't be shy -- ask it here in our Comments section and we will try to answer it.

Tuneful Tuesday: "The Servant Song"

2011-06-21T22:58:00.001-04:00

"Brother, sister, let me serve you..." A hint of what we'll hear this Sunday in our Gospel lesson:

Mission Monday: Vacation Bible School, Grownup Style

2011-06-21T22:47:00.000-04:00

Vacation Bible School is as much a part of summer church culture as church picnics and church camp.

But what would happen if a church held VBS for adults?

Read about one congregation's experience offering Vacation Bible School to grownups.

Would you attend an adult Vacation Bible School? Why or why not?

Sunday Sights and Sounds: "Holy, Holy, Holy"

2011-06-19T05:05:00.001-04:00

For Trinity Sunday -- a contemporary version of "Holy, Holy, Holy" from alt-folk-rock artist Sufjan Stevens:

Saturday Saints Alive: Onesimus Nesib

2011-06-18T15:40:00.001-04:00

Ethiopia is home to one of the very oldest Christian communities. But because of language, tribal differences and indifferent religious education, that Orthodox Christian church did not gain a foothold everywhere in the country. And western Ethopia is where Onesimus Nesib was born around 1855.

Nesib's given name was Hika, meaning "translator" in the Oromo language. That would prove to be a very appropriate name for someone who, after a harrowing experience as a slave, would come back to his homeland as a Lutheran missionary and Bible translator, becoming the first to translate Scripture into the language of his people.

Nesib's father died when the child was four. Slavers then kidnapped him from his family and sold him into servitude. He changed owners eight more times until Swedish Lutheran missionaries freed him and enrolled him in their mission school. He was an enthusiastic student; and the good news of Jesus that he learned in his new home made a deep impression on him. He was baptised on Easter Sunday, 1872.

Nesib desired to become a missionary working with his people, the Macha Oromo. His Swedish benefactors, recognizing his giftedness for sharing the Gospel, sent him to Sweden for five more years of theological studies, after which he returned, married a young woman from his mission school, and set off back home.

But missionary work in this officially Christian country was a difficult proposition. The Ethopian church fiercely guarded its theological turf, and the Ethiopian emperor put severe restrictions on the activities of missionaries. Despite several failed attempts to get back home, and a bout of severe illness that almost cost Nesib his life, he persevered, all the while working on an Oromo translation of the Bible. He had been away from home so long that he had forgotten much of the idiomatic, everyday language of his people, and had to enlist a helper from his old mission school, a rescued slave named Aster Ganno, to assist with his translation.

Finally, in 1904, Nesib made it back to Welega, his region, where he was received warmly by both the governor and the people, especially when he preached in the Oromo language. His use of local vernacular outraged the local contingent of Ethiopian Orthodox priests, who couldn't speak it -- they held worship in another language -- and at one point in true dog-in-the-manger fashion they even tried to have him arrested on a trumped-up charge of blaspheming the Virgin Mary, and exiled out of the country. A somewhat sympathetic emperor intervened on Nesib's behalf, but did forbid Nesib to preach. So Nesib concentrated on teaching in the mission school he'd established, until the emperor died and his successor rescinded the order -- leaving Nesib free to both teach and preach in his homeland for the rest of his life. Nesib died in 1931.

Saturday Saints Alive: Philip Melanchthon

2011-06-18T15:02:00.000-04:00

He's arguably as much a founder of the Lutheran faith tradition as Martin Luther himself. But you may never have heard of him, or heard much of him. Maybe it's just because his name is so difficult to spell. Philip Melanchthon -- perhaps Luther's best friend after Katie Luther, architect of the Augsburg Confession, thoughtful scholar, mediator -- is a Reformer who might have felt more at home in our own time than in his own, during the tumultuous days of the Reformation.

Philip Melanchthon was born Philip Schwartzerdt in 1497 in the German city of Bretten, to a family with connections to the local count; Melanchthon's father was armorer to the count. Melanchthon's family valued learning, and as a child he was sent to school to learn Latin and Greek; and like many in the educated classes, Melanchthon eventually changed his German name to its Greek equivalent.

Melanchthon had barely hit puberty when he was accepted into 1509 the University of Heidelberg. There he studied philosophy, rhetoric, and astronomy/astrology (which in the Middle Ages was one and the same). Despite being an excellent student, Melanchthon was not allowed to receive a master's degree, simply because of his age. So he went on to the university in Tübingen, where his ecclectic interests let him to humanistic and philosophical studies, jurisprudence, mathematics, more astronomy/astrology and even medicine. After finally being granted a master's degree in 1516, he began studies in theology, and eventually became a tutor in Greek and Latin for younger seminarians.

Melanchthon, influenced in part by humanist thinkers like Erasmus and by the young Martin Luther's criticisms of the Church, was developing an increasingly testy relationship with his old-school Roman Catholic superiors in Tübingen. He happily accepted an offer by Luther to come study at Wittenberg, the epicenter of the Reformation; he eventually married the mayor of Wittenberg's daughter, further sealing his relationship with that college town. Melanchthon eventually became a member of the university faculty there, and became not only a colleague but a close friend of the Reformer. Out of the two, Philip was the cool-headed intellectual and diplomat, trying to translate Luther's populist (and hotheaded) style of theological discourse into language more suited for the academic world, and sometimes putting out fires created by Luther's more intemperate utterances and writings. But Philip's more cerebral, less confrontational approach to Church reform could also be a liability; for instance, when Luther was forced into hiding for two years after being condemned by Rome, his friend's lack of vigorous support for his ideas stalled the forward movement of the Reformation.

Perhaps Melanchthon's greatest contribution to the Reformation was the 1530 Augsburg Confession -- our tradition's major confessional document, the foundational statement of who we are as Lutheran Christians (and something you should read -- do follow the link). As principal author, Philip stated his case in a way that affirmed both the primacy of Scriptural authority and the rejection of Roman Catholic practices the Reformers felt to be contrary to the Gospel message, and at the same time the Lutheran movement's essential grounding in historical Christianity; in other words, Lutherans were not some bizarre heterodox sect, but orthodox Christians whose intent was on reforming the greater Church and returning it its focus on Christ and grounding in Scripture. (Luther,unsurprisingly, reportedly thought the Confession not angry enough.)

Luther stood by his friend all his life even when they disagreed in the details of their theology. But Luther's more hardline associates frequently found Melanchthon's middle-of-the-road approach to Reformation ideas maddening. His softer commitment to the concept of the Real Presence in Holy Communion labeled him a sympathizer of the more radical, anti-Lutheran Reformers like Zwingli (whose influence is found today in both the Baptist and Mennonite/Amish traditions), despite his protests to the contrary. And his conciliatory attitude toward veneration of the Virgin Mary and the saints -- he felt that as long as laypeople understood the difference between honor and respect and idolatrous worship, it wasn't an issue -- made some of the Lutheran hardliners accuse him of being a closet Papist.

After Luther died and his followers continued to sort out what it meant to be a Lutheran Christian, Melanchthon found himself increasingly, reluctantly involved in theological controversies, which he found tiring. He was at heart an academic, not a churchman or politician. That's perhaps why, toward the end of his life, he shared these thoughts about death: ""Thou shalt be delivered from sins, and be freed from the acrimony and fury of theologians...Thou shalt go to the light, see God, look upon his Son, learn those wonderful mysteries which thou hast not been able to understand in this life." Melanchthon died in 1560.

Friday's Here, But Sunday's Coming: The "Three-Person'd God"

2011-06-17T09:34:00.000-04:00

This coming Sunday is Trinity Sunday, when we celebrate the mystery of a God who, as Henri Nouwen once described it, loves relationships so much that God IS a relationship. And our Scripture lessons today reflect that developing understanding of God in the Christian community.

Our first lesson is the story of Creation, a kind of poem to the Creator of all things. (And note that creative "wind" that hovered over the waters...does that remind you of a lesson we read last week?)

Our Psalm of the day, Psalm 8, praises the God of creation that we met in our Old Testament lesson, whose creative and sustaining work is still going on -- and who has given humankind the honor and responsibility of participating in this task.

Our Epistle lesson, at the end of Paul's second letter to the church in Corinth, seems to strike an odd note in our collection of Scripture readings...until we get to the very end, to what would seem to be a very early acknowledgement of the Trinity. Most scholars would say that, this early in the game, Jesus' followers were still at the very beginnings of working out a uniquely Christian way of understanding the nature of God. But this text is probably one of the pieces of the puzzle that later theologians used to formulate the concept of the Trinity. And note how Paul uses this closing in the context of addressing a community -- a community with whom Paul has sometimes had a difficult relationship -- reminding them of why they are all walking together on this journey of faith.

Our Gospel lesson, from the end of the Gospel of Matthew, is the resurrected Jesus' final send-off to his disciples -- whom, the author notes, are a mixed bag of true believers and doubting hangers-back. Hmmm...kind of sounds like us, doesn't it? And while part of the reason this text was selected for Trinity Sunday was its Trinitarian God-talk...it's also a reading that sets us off on the path through the "green and growing" Pentecost season, where the focus of the Gospel texts shifts from simply telling the story of Jesus' life, death and Resurrection to emphasizing Jesus' teaching -- what he wants us to be doing in the big world he's sending us out into. Lutherans sometimes have a problem moving from believing to doing; what does our text say about that? And what, according to Jesus, can we be confident of as we take those hesitant steps toward being doers as well as hearers?

Thoughtful Thursday: A Forgotten Mission Field?

2011-06-16T07:55:00.003-04:00

Scott Alan Johnson is an ELCA campus pastor and blogger. He's been writing about the challenge of Lutheran campus ministry these days...and he believes that one of the biggest problems in getting Lutheran students involved in Lutheran campus ministries happens long before they reach those ivy-covered halls.

What do we as adults find meaningful in Lutheran Christianity? What does it mean to evangelize our own children to recognize the truth and beauty in our own faith tradition?

You can read his thoughts here.

Wednesday Whys: Who Cares About Pentecost?

2011-06-15T19:20:00.001-04:00

This week's question is a great one, courtesy of an "off the record" questioner. We don't care how we get them...just keep 'em coming!

I know that Pentecost is supposed to be one of the most important days on the Church calendar...but it seems that you can't get anyone all that interested in celebrating it. Why is that? And if people don't want to observe it, why keep pushing it? It just makes me feel guilty for not feeling excited enough.

As soon as you asked your blogmeister that question, she thought back to her old grade-school Children's Bible; and how she never read it past the story of Jesus' Ascension. Come to think of it, she never thoroughly read Acts and the Epistles until she was in college.

We all tend to be more intellectually and emotionally engaged in the story of Jesus; that's just natural, since he is the focus of our faith as Christians. But by the time the Christian story moves past the Ascension, it starts feeling like dry "church history" -- the players get confusing; the stories are often less compelling. And it also doesn't help that Pentecost, unlike Christmas or Easter, isn't a day supported by the dominant culture -- when's the last time you got a "Happy Pentecost" greeting card?

But Pentecost -- that day recorded in the Book of Acts, when the first community of Christians was visited in a dramatic, empowering way by the Holy Spirit -- is an important symbolic milestone for us as Christians. It's often called the Birthday of the Church, and is celebrated in many congregations with birthday cake, candles, balloons and such -- but in many ways it's more the Day Jesus' Followers Grew Up. Think of the day your parent handed you the car keys and empowered you to use the family car by yourself. Think of the day you got your first "real" job, the one that at the same time made you truly independent and truly responsible for your own financial well-being. That's kind of what that first Pentecost was: Jesus had left in the flesh; but now through the Holy Spirit he empowered his friends to keep doing his work in the world.

And therein, past all the weird stuff about gusts of wind and tongues of flame, lies the good news of Pentecost -- because it's a way to remind ourselves that Jesus didn't simply die for our sins, but also provided a way for us to join with him right now, to become part of his team, healing and blessing the world in his name.

Tuneful Tuesday: "Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise"

2011-06-14T01:10:00.000-04:00

This coming Sunday is Trinity Sunday...and this hymn is a favorite on this day when we ponder the divine Mystery:

Mission Monday: God's Love Turns Enemies To Friends

2011-06-13T08:52:00.000-04:00

"In Christ there is no east and west." And in Christ enemies become friends.

Read this article on the Living Lutheran blog to see how -- and why -- World War II veterans Ebb Culp and Shelton Rimer responded to the recent Japanese tsunami disaster. It's never too late to forgive...and it's always the right time to help.

Sunday Sights and Sounds: "Every Time I Feel the Spirit"

2011-06-12T07:45:00.001-04:00

Enjoy these versions of an old gospel tune that, like the Holy Spirit, has traveled the world:

Saturday Saints Alive: Basil, Gregory and Macrina

2011-06-11T16:13:00.000-04:00

Christianity's history includes many sets of siblings who made Christian ministry a family affair -- all the way from the Zebedee boys in Jesus' time to the Wesleys to the pastoral families we may know where sets of "PKs" may themselves wind up active in Christian ministry.

This week Lutherans remember an important sibling trio from the early days of Christianity: Basil the Great, his sister Macrina and his brother Gregory of Nyssa.

Basil was born around 329 in Cappadocia, in what's now central Turkey. At this time the great persecutions of Christians around the Roman Empire had ceased, but Basil's parents had lived through them; and their steadfast faith seemed to have made a profound impression on their ten children, all of whom eventually wound up in the Christian ministry. But Basil's first career choice was the law, and he went to Athens to study law and oratory there.

Meanwhile Macrina, Basil's older sister, had entered into religious life at the tender age of 12, after her arranged fiance' had died prior to their marriage; she became leader of her community, which in addition to worship and prayer spent its days helping poor and needy women -- some of whom eventually also joined the community, along with women from richer families who had been moved by Macrina's example. Macrina's strong model of Christian devotion and service, and her influence on Basil, gradually changed his mind about a secular career, and after he returned home he decided that he too would enter into a monastery. After traveling to several monasteries in Egypt to see what they were like, Basil came back home and founded a spiritual community of his own.

As Basil developed a rule of life for the monks in his community, the monastery became a powerhouse of social services at a time when the poor and sick had no one else on whom to depend. In 367 and 368, when a severe famine ravaged the region, Basil arranged to have much of his family's land holdings sold to provide money for hunger relief, providing an example that other citizens of means followed in the crisis. He also did not hesitate to throw on an apron himself and serve in the monestery's soup kitchen. In addition to feeding the hungry Basil built a hospital, a hostel to provide safe lodging for travelers, and the 4th century version of low-income housing.

Basil's influence on monasticism in Eastern Christianity was so profound that, unlike the many different relgious orders of Western Christianity, the Basilian Rule is standard throughout the East.

Basil, who'd been ordained as a priest in 362, eventually became a bishop. This was at a time when the nature of Christ was a hot theological topic, and the Arians -- people who denied that Christ was truly divine -- were making political as well as theological gains among the Christian community. Basil was a Nicene, an affirmer of Christ's divine as well as human nature and an outspoken and tenacious critic of Arianism; and would not back down even when the Emperor himself, an Arian, demanded theological obedience; the Emperor was said to have been taken aback by Basil's refusal to give in to the Imperial order, to which Basil cheekily replied, "Maybe you've never met a real bishop before."

Basil did not hesitate to use his power as a bishop in other ways as well. He hated the exploitation of the poor, and under his leadership inviduals who owned brothels (a convenient dumping ground for poor girls) were excommunicated; clergy who used their position to acquire wealth or to live "high on the hog" in relation to their flock were severely disciplined; and, drawing on his lawyerly training, he advocated on behalf of the poor against those who would take advantage of them.

Basil was also an enthusiastic preacher and writer. Many of his sermons are still with us, and are used in Eastern Orthodox churches. Some of his most famous writings included treatises on the beauty of the natural world and how that reflects the glory of God; the nature of the Holy Spirit and the rightness of worshipping the Holy Spirit together with the Father and the Son; and the wisdom of Christians' acquainting themselves with pagan philosophy and literature so as to gain a better understanding of their own Christian point of view.

You can read about Basil's brother Gregory of Nyssa, here. Like Basil and the rest of the family, Gregory played an important role in defending orthodox Christianity against competing ideas.He died around 386.

Macrina, Basil's sister, kept a lower profile, in accordance with the role of women in those times. But that did not mean that she was any less theologically astute than her brothers. In addition to her works of spiritual instruction for members of her monastic community, she also wrote theology, and is sometimes cited by Universalist Christians for her belief that, at the end of all things, even the souls of the wicked would finally be transformed by the love of God. After the siblings' parents died, Macrina assumed a parental role over her younger siblings, and often served advisor behind the scenes to her more public and political brothers. She was reportedly was quick to put down their sometimes bombastic assessments of their own intellect with well-timed, well-aimed sisterly gibes. Macrina died in 379. You can read her brother Gregory's portrait of her here.

The Feast of Barnabas

2011-06-11T14:56:00.000-04:00

Barnabas is actually a nickname: "Son of Encouragement." Barnabas, aka Joseph, a Levite, was born in Cyrus. We first read of him in the 4th chapter of Acts, where he sells property and donates the proceeds to the Christian community, to help the poor.

After Saul's/Paul's conversion -- news greeted with skepticism, to say the least, by the Christians who had been actively persecuted by Paul and his henchmen up to that point -- Barnabas was a member of the Christian community who said, "Wait a minute -- let's give this guy a chance," and who later introduced Paul to Christians in Jerusalem to vouch for his sincerity.

Barnabas became Paul's missionary partner, along with Mark. At some point in their missionary trip Mark, to Paul's displeasure, decided to return home. When Paul planned his next trip, Barnabas suggested bringing Mark along again, but Paul thought Mark was too unreliable. Barnabas, though, thought Mark deserved a second chance, and took him on a separate missionary journey while Paul took Silas on another. Mark subsequently proved himself a capable missionary, and elsewhere in Paul's epistles Paul mentions him as a friend and colleague.

According to tradition, Barnabas was martyred in Cyprus.

Grant, O God, that we may follow the example of your faithful servant Barnabas, who, seeking not his own renown but the well-being of your Church, gave generously of his life and substance for the relief of the poor and the spread of the Gospel; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Friday's Here, But Sunday's Coming: Pentecost Sunday

2011-06-10T03:03:00.002-04:00

Even though many churches take great pains to celebrate this "Birthday of the Church," it sometimes difficult for people to wrap their heads around Pentecost Sunday, the day we remember the first community of Christians being overcome by a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit that manifested in dramatic ways. Here are the texts we'll be hearing Sunday:

Our first lesson takes us to the "upper room" in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost -- this is the Greek version of the Hebrew word Shavuot, a Jewish holiday marking God's giving of the Torah to the Jews on Mount Sinai. The tiny Christian fellowships' celebration of this day takes an amazing turn.

Our Psalm praises God for the wonders of the natural world, and God's gracious provision for life. (And recall the Genesis image of God's Spirit "hovering over the waters" at creation.)

In our Epistle lesson Paul talks to the church in Corinth about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, how each Christian is gifted by the Spirit in a unique, useful way, and how these gifts enlighten and support the entire faith community

Interestingly, our Gospel lesson takes us back to the story of "doubting Thomas," where we read of Jesus ritually breathing the Holy Spirit upon his disciples, empowering them to continue his work in the world.

For more thoughts about Pentecost Sunday, visit One Little Word, a Lutheran pastor's commentary on the Sunday Scripture lessons, and a meditation by writer/artist Melissa Bane Sevier. For some ideas on sharing the Pentecost story with children, visit Worshipping With Children, a blog we've spotlighted here before; while the suggestions are for Sunday School classes, creative parents can probably adapt some of the ideas for home.

Thoughtful Thursday: The Bible in 90 Days?

2011-06-09T08:29:00.001-04:00

Diane Roth is a Lutheran pastor in Minnesota who blogs at Faith in Community. She's given herself a pretty intense summer challenge: Read the entire Bible in 90 days.

This kind of "full-immersion" Bible reading is less about Bible scholarship and more about simply diving in -- as Kelly Fryer says, reading Scripture like a Tom Clancy novel. Because sometimes instead of thinking about it it's better to just do it.

As Pastor Roth is reading through the Bible, she's sharing her impressions on her blog. Check it out; and consider taking the challenge yourself.

Wednesday Whys: Reading vs. Hearing; Self-Communion?

2011-06-08T09:12:00.002-04:00

Are we "supposed to" read along, or not? As a cradle Catholic who is now Lutheran, I have vague memories of Sister lecturing us about the difference between the "proclaimed Word" (read out loud in worship) and some other manifestation of the Word. It boiled down to saying only those with hearing difficulty should read along during the lessons at Mass, everyone else should listen only. Does this distinction apply in Lutheran practice?

With all due respect to the good sister -- it's all good; whether you read along in the bulletin or Bible as the lesson is spoken or simply listen to it is entirely up to you.

People process information in different ways. Some of us are visual learners; we're the kind of people who like written instructions and visual demonstrations. Others among us are aural learners; we're better able to understand and retain information when we hear it. And unlike ancient times, when most people either could not read or had no direct access to the Scriptures and had to rely upon worship leaders to read the texts aloud for them, in our worship services today people can engage with the texts in whichever way is most meaningful for them.

Is it okay to give myself Communion, at home?

When some of us church geeks were part of Campus Ministry, we used to pose all sorts of questions like this in the wee hours of rustic retreats or over a cold frosty down at our favorite tavern: "If you were stranded on a desert island with a box of hardtack and a bottle of wine that washed up on the beach with you, could you give yourself Holy Communion?" Seriously. Because we were church geeks.

Here's the thing: The word communion is a lot like the word community, isn't it? That's because they have the same root. And they both connote the idea of relationship. Christianity isn't a private drama between ourselves and Jesus; being a Christian is about living in community with other Christians. And the common, good-order practice of the Church since its beginnings -- since Jesus shared that last meal with his friends before his crucifixion -- is to celebrate Holy Communion as a group with a designated celebrant, not as individuals all having our little me-'n'-Jesus experiences off in a corner somewhere. Even in cases where we take Communion to the hospitalized or homebound, there's still that interpersonal interaction between the pastor or designated Eucharistic minister and the communicant; that hearing of the Words of Institution; that sharing of the bread and wine.

Since most of us will never be stranded on a desert island or similar extreme circumstances, having to self-communicate isn't something we ever have to worry about.

Persons with agoraphobia or other conditions that make it difficult for them to leave their homes can have access to Communion by contacting their church home.

Some persons' desire to self-communicate is honestly rooted in the spiritual comfort and peace they receive when they participate in Holy Communion in the context of Sunday worship. These individuals might want to simply spend some more time cultivating a life of prayer and contemplation that helps connect them to the sacramental nature of many things in their lives -- everything from the love and community they experience with family and friends to the joy of giving to others to the sense of awe and mystery one can feel looking up at the stars at night or walking in a forest. Philip Melanchthon, Martin Luther's good friend and fellow Reformation theologian, once observed that, while we only have two Church sacraments, hundreds and even thousands of daily experiences have a sacramental, grace-full quality about them that should be celebrated.

As for anyone who just finds sharing Communion with their sisters and brothers in Christ so inconvenient or distasteful that they want a DIY option -- well, they would seem to have...erm...issues that should probably be addressed with a pastor and/or other helping professional.

Tuneful Tuesday: "Veni, Creator Spiritus"

2011-06-07T10:10:00.001-04:00

As we wait for the drama of Pentecost Sunday...here is a version of the ancient hymn Veni, Creator Spiritus composed by Hildegarde of Bingen, a remarkable medieval woman: not only a nun, but a theologian and church musician at a time when women were not supposed to concern themselves with either pursuit; an outspoken Church reformer; a mystic; an amateur scientist and healer. This hymn begins: Come Holy Spirit, creator, come/from your bright heavenly throne/come take possession of our souls/and make them all your own... It's sung by Anonymous 4, a quartet of musicians/music scholars who've made it their special mission to "go back" for neglected female composers of centuries past.

Mission Monday: Remembering Our Missionary Past

2011-06-06T07:05:00.000-04:00

Papua New Guinea, half of the mountainous tropical island of New Guinea in the southeast Pacific Ocean, is one of the least developed, least explored nations in the world. Its 6.5 million inhabitants live in over a thousand culturally distinct rural tribal communities with at least 800 distinct languages. Despite a wealth of natural resources that have over the years been exploited by international investors, most people in Papua New Guinea engage in subsistence agriculture, living on less than $1.25 a day. Until fairly recently in its history small-scale warfare with neighbors, headhunting and cannibalism were part of the culture of many of these communities. Citizens of this nation struggle with poverty, illiteracy, violence, economic and social exploitation by foreign interests, disease and the stresses of modernization on traditional cultures.

Despite all of these challenges, Lutheran Christianity is robust in Papua New Guinea, with over 1 million Lutheran citizens. And the groundwork for this growing church was laid by missionaries like Ida and Luthilde Voss -- sisters who, inspired by a traveling missionary from New Guinea when they were young girls, dedicated their lives to serving the people there.

You can read the story of the Voss sisters here, in Lutheran Women Today.

Sunday Sights and Sounds

2011-06-05T19:14:00.001-04:00

Some very redheaded lads sing a hymn that should be familiar to you:

Saints Alive! Aidan of Lindisfarne

2011-06-04T14:57:00.000-04:00

Today in what is increasingly a post-Christian Western world, many Christians feel anxious about the future of the faith. The story of Aidan, sometimes called a patron saint of England, is a reminder that "It ain't over until it's over."

While Christianity had come to Britain with the Romans very early on in its history, by the 7th century invasions by pagan German tribes had nearly wiped out the new religion. But then in 634 Oswald, the Gaelic king of Northumbria (which is now the northern part of England and a southeastern section of Scotland), who'd been forced to escape to Scotland during the German raids and who had converted to Christianity while in exile, had the opportunity to come back home and resume his rule; and when he did he decided to invite missionaries from the Christian community on the island of Iona, in Scotland, to Northumbria and reintroduce the Christian faith.

The first missionary was a bishop, Corman, reportedly a harsh and impatient evangelist who received a cold welcome by the Northumbrians and eventually went back home, declaring theNorthumbrians hopeless savages and the mission a waste of time. A year later, though, a new missionary or Irish descent, Aidan, arrived in Northumbria with a a few colleagues and set up a diocese on the island of Lindisfarne, a place much like his adopted home in Iona.

Unlike his predecessor, Aidan tried to meet the people of Northumbria on their own level, even though as Gaelic-speaking Irishmen he and his associates had to first learn English, and until then relied on a translator (sometimes the king himself) while traveling the countryside. Aidan spent a lot of time on the road, simply walking and talking to the people he met, and slowly introducing them to the story of Jesus. He was also known as a generous giver to the poor he encountered. When the king gave Aidan a horse to aid in his journeys, Aidan promptly gave the horse away to a needy individual; he preferred his "boots-on-the-ground" method of evangelism.

Aidan understood the need for missions to be "organic"; grounded within the local culture. As his monastery developed, he took pains to recruit English monks so that this new mission plant would one day be an entirely English community, firmly rooted in the language and in the local way of life.

In 651 a pagan army attacked the royal fortress of Bamburgh, seat of the local government and home of Aidan's royal patron, and began setting the walls on fire. According to legend, Aidan prayed for the safety of the fortress, and a sudden wind began to blow the fire and smoke back toward the enemy, causing them to retreat. Whether or not this is actually what happened to repulse the invaders, the story gained enough traction to eventually make Aidan a patron saint of firefighters.

Shortly after this event a friend of Aidan's was murdered, which seemed to affect Aidan's own health. Twelve days later he died. But his religious community lived on, becoming a center of learning and evangelistic activity, and effectively re-grounding Christianity in England for centuries to come.

Saints Alive! Columba

2011-06-04T12:40:00.000-04:00

Supersmart, hotheaded religious guy goes out of control, gets people killed, has a "metanoia moment" and eventually goes down in history as a respected holy man and effective missionary.

The Apostle Paul? No; actually we're talking Columba, a missionary monk of 6th century Ireland who was instrumental in evangelizing Scotland and in revitalizing a British Christianity that had taken a hit with the fall of the Roman Empire.

Columba was born around 521 in County Donegal. He was the descendant of Niall of the Nine Hostages, one of the Irish High Kings. The Irish had a tradition of supporting higher learning that went back to the time of the Druids, and as Christianity replaced the old religion centers of learning shifted to monasteries. As a young man, Columba studied for the priesthood at the monastic school of Clonard Abbey in County Meath, a kind of proto-university that, it was said, attracted thousands of young men.

At some point Columba became involved in a quarrel with with Finnian, another member of the Clonard community -- ironically, over a copy of a psalter, a book of Psalms, that Columba had handwritten in the abbey's scriptorium -- this back in the days before the printing press -- with the intent of keeping for his personal use. This argument turned into a full-scale battle in which several people died. (If this story sounds a little over-the-top, remember that this was in an age when Europe was still in tribal mode, with clans and chieftans and ongoing feuds -- less like frat boys arguing over an iPod and more like Braveheart in monks' robes instead of kilts.) After the fight was over, Columba found himself in big trouble with his superiors, who wanted him kicked out of the abbey and excommunicated. But another member of the community interceded for Columba, and instead he was ordered into exile. Columba offered to go to pagan Scotland and promised to convert as many people as had been killed in the riot.

Once on the west coast of Scotland with a dozen helpers, Columba set out to support the struggling existing Christian communities, to evangelize among the pagan Picts, and to establish monasteries and schools, beginning with a monastery on the small, isolated island of Iona that he intended to become a training center for missionaries. He had a reputation as an ascetic, a serious and holy person, and his reputation led to work as a trusted diplomat between chieftans, even pagan ones.

In addition to his efforts to increase literacy in his adopted home, Columba was also a noted man of letters. He transcribed over 300 books and also wrote several hymns.

Columba only returned to his homeland of Ireland once, to help found a new monastery there, but returned to Scotland, where he died in 597. He was later disinterred and reburied in Ireland, reportedly near the tombs of St. Patrick and St. Brigid.

Columba was a leading figure in the Christianization of Scotland...and his leadership and missionary spirit still live on on the island of Iona, now the home of the Iona Community, an ecumenical Christian intentional community with associates worldwide, working for the renewal of the Church.

Saints Alive! Blandina and the Other Martyrs of Lyons, and the Martyrs of Uganda

2011-06-04T12:38:00.000-04:00

They're separated by centuries, continents and cultures...but in June the Church recognizes two groups of Christians who died for their faith.

In the 2nd century Lyons in Gaul, in what is now France, had become a center for Christian missionary activity, drawing Christians from around the Roman empire. The newcomers and their local converts aroused the suspicions of other citizens by their odd religious beliefs and refusal to engage in public support of the official Roman religion; rumors swirled -- probably due to misunderstandings about Holy Communion and about the early Christians' preference for celibate lifestyles and reference to one another as "brothers" and "sisters," -- that the Christians practiced cannibalism and sexual perversion. Christians became targets of physical harrassment by their neighbors and were banned from marketplaces, the baths and other popular meeting places. Finally the local government began investigating Christians, arresting them and subjecting them to interrogations and, if they did not renounce their faith, execution. The Roman Emperor at the time, Marcus Aurelius, was a fairly enlightened ruler, but was preoccupied with fighting barbarians who were invading Roman-controlled Europe, and refused to intervene on the Christians' behalf.

One group of Christians thus arrested included a young slave girl, Blandina. Because Blandina was just a slave, she was tortured severely in order to make her confess to the crimes the Christian community was being accused of, but despite her age and weakened condition she refused to say anything except, "I am a Christian, and we commit no wrongdoing." Her steadfastness wore out her torturers, who finally gave up, according to one historian, because they couldn't think of anything more to do with her. Blandina's citizen companions were, mercifully, beheaded; but she and a number of other aliens were taken to the local amphitheater during the public games and subjected to a final round of terrible tortures, for the amusement and satisfaction of onlookers, until she was finally gored by a bull, then stabbed with a sword.

Fast-forward to the 1870s, in what is now Uganda. Anglican missionaries from England and Roman Catholic missionaries from France, at the behest of then-King Mutesa, had made converts among the royal court. But a decade later the current king, Mwamba II, felt that these individuals, along with Muslim traders from Zanzibar, had become dangerous foreign influences upon the fortunes of his country. He made a law forbidding his people to go near missionary outposts, but when that failed to stop new conversions he began killing Christians, determined to wipe out the Christian presence in Uganda. Among others, he put to death 32 young Anglican and Roman Catholic men associated with his court, burning them to death or having them killed with spears. Martyrs went to their deaths praying and singing hymns; more Ugandans were inspired to convert to Christianity by their example of persistence in faith; and instead of destroying the Christian presence in Uganda, the persecution of the marytrs actually accelerated the transition of Christianity from an "imported" faith of white missionaries to fully enculturated churches with native-born leadership.

In the 1970's a new Ugandan strongman, Idi Amin, developed a similar distrust of his Christian citizens, whom he suspected of being more loyal to the Church than to himself, and began a new round of Christian persecutions, killing thousands, including the Anglican archbishop, Janani Luwum, and leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Uganda. Yet Uganda now has a larger percentage of professed Christians in its population than any other country in Africa.

Saints Alive! Boniface

2011-06-04T12:37:00.000-04:00

If you are of German descent, as many Lutherans are, you have an Englishman to thank for the Christian churches in Germany that nurtured your ancestors' faith -- Wynfrith, aka Boniface (a Latin nickname meaning "good deeds"), a Christian missionary credited with helping Christianity take root in Germany and much of the rest of Western Europe. Even though you may not have ever heard of him, he has been identified as one of the most influential individuals not only in the Christian history of Europe, but in Europe's history overall.

Boniface was born in Devonshire, England around the year 680. When he was a child a group of missionary monks stayed at his parents' home and told the family about their experiences preaching the Gospel on the European continent. These stories made such an impression on the young boy that he resolved that he too would be a missionary. His father, who had planned a different career for his son, allowed him to, at the age of seven, attend monastery school, in the city of Nursling. Boniface did so well there that he eventually became school director, and wrote the first Latin grammar book in the English language. (If you think about this sentence, it will eventually make sense.)

At the age of 30 Boniface was ordained, and began his missionary career with a trip to Friesland in what is now the Netherlands. He had to flee when war broke out, but moved on to Bavaria and Hesse in what is now Germany. In Hesse Boniface engaged in some potentially dangerous performance art with the local population by chopping down the Sacred Oak of Geismar, a very old tree that was a focal point for worship of the Germanic god Thor; according to the story, after only a few whacks the tree crashed to the ground in pieces, revealing a rotten center -- a metaphor that, fortunately for the zealous missionary, seemed to hit home with the surrounding pagan onlookers. Boniface made many Christian converts, and he was eventually made a bishop in Germany; English churches supported him with money and supplies, books and more missionary monks to help him.

Meanwhile Boniface also helped support existing Christian communities on the Continent, helping organize church synods to reform what had become a corrupt, politicized church system in France.

Boniface always remembered his first, unsuccessful mission trip to Europe, and in his old age he resigned as bishop so he could return to Friesland. It was there in 754 that Boniface and a class of local confirmation students were all killed by a band of pagan warriors.

Friday's Here, But Sunday's Coming: Easter 7A

2011-06-03T08:40:00.000-04:00

Sunday's coming...and what will we hear in our Sunday Scripture lessons?

Our first lesson, from the beginning of the Book of Acts, describes Jesus' final instructions, and promise, to his disciples before he returns to the Father. It also describes the disciples waiting. Waiting for what? We'll soon find out.

Psalm 68 calls on the faithful to praise a God of power -- but this God not only exercises power through the forces of nature and the forces of history, but exercises power on behalf of the powerless in society, like widows and orphans, on an individual as well as collective basis.

Our Epistle lesson, from 1 Peter, is a continuation of instructions and encouragements to a community of persecuted Christians. Something to think about as you read/hear this lesson: The early Christian community was considered disruptive and dangerous because it refused to participate in worship of the Roman emperor, who was officially a "god" in the Roman pantheon; and because the early Christians' relationships with one another crossed boundaries of social class and gender that offended the Roman sense of "traditional values." How are we as Christians in this country, where Christianity is the dominant religion and where Christianity is often conflated by manipulative politicians with nationalism and "traditional values," supposed to read this text? If the author were speaking to us, in our situation, what would he be saying? How are we called to live boldly and counterculturally as followers of Jesus in our own culture and time?

Jesus continues what's known as his farewell discourse in our Gospel lesson. In our text, which takes us back to the hours before Jesus' arrest and crucifixion, he prays for his followers -- which includes all of us. What does it mean for us to know that we are held in prayer by Christ itself? And what does it mean for us that Jesus' references to his glory refer not only to his relationship with the Father, but to his crucifixion -- to that ultimate expression of divine love for humanity? How does that inform our relationship with God and with one another?

See you in church this Sunday!

Thoughtful Thursday: Why Does the Ascension Matter?

2011-06-02T08:33:00.001-04:00

This week's Thoughtful Thursday happens to fall on a significant day in the Church calendar: The Feast of the Ascension.

Once upon a time Ascension Day was a major holy day; in parts of Europe it's still a national holiday, and it's one of our Amish neighbors' main holidays, observed with fasting and prayer during the day, then a breaking of the fast with a family dinner in the evening.

These days the Ascension sometimes feels like a kind of Easter afterthought; most churches instead emphasize the upcoming festival of Pentecost, the "birthday of the Church." So why should Christians care about this day, when the Gospels tell us that the resurrected Jesus, whom they encountered in various ways in the 40 days after Easter, finally returned to the Father?

Here are a few thoughts on Ascension Day. Two are from representatives of church bodies/traditions that have formal collegial relationships with Lutherans -- meaning that we're generally on the same page about a lot of things, and have over the years formally extended altar and pulpit fellowship to one another. Our first link comes to us from "RJ," a rockin', bloggin' UCC pastor in Massachusetts. Our second comes to us from the Rev. Becky Bevan, an Anglican priest in the UK.

Our third link takes you to an essay by your blogmeister's online friend the Rev. Chris Duckworth, an ELCA pastor and blogger.

The Ascension of Our Lord

2011-06-02T08:14:00.001-04:00

Lessons for today can be found here.

Historically it's been an important festival day in the Church year, and in many parts of Europe it's even a legal holiday...but Ascension Day has, in recent decades, been forgotten by many Christians..

Part of it is that Ascension Day comes during the week, so unless the pastor and worship planners set aside the Sunday lectionary for Ascension Day texts and theme, it comes and goes without much fanfare. Part of it may also be our discomfort with the whole image of Jesus ascending into the clouds in what is sometimes described or envisioned in almost cartoonish terms. It's hard to know what exactly to do with this day.

Yet the early Church thought that this event was significant enough to include in its creeds; its basic faith statements. Tertullian, an early Christian theologian, put it this way: "(Christ) received from us the earnest of the flesh and has carried it with Him into heaven as a pledge of that complete entirety which is one day to be restored to it. Be not disquieted, O flesh and blood, with any care; in Christ you have acquired both heaven and the kingdom of God." ("On Resurrection of the Flesh.")

Presbyterian theologian John McClure notes several reasons why contemporary Christians who don't do so already might want to revisit the practice of celebrating Ascension Day:

The Ascension is an "Amen" to the story of Jesus of Nazareth, and an introduction to the unfolding Reign of God.
As Tertullian noted, Ascension Day is a divine "yes" to our enfleshed existence. The Jesus who ascended was not some sort of ethereal "friendly ghost" who hung around for 40 days after the Resurrection, then disappeared, but was indeed a real flesh-and-blood being. The risen Christ, truly divine and truly human, has in a way taken all of humanity with him and acts as a kind of ambassador, intercessor and advocate on our behalf while also once again acting as The One Who Goes Before to Show Us the Way.
The Ascension story ends with a promise -- that Jesus will return to finish what he began. This is a message of hope for all who suffer -- from pain, from injustice, from the consequences of human weakness -- that in the end God's justice and compassion will make all things right.

It is also perhaps a reminder that for new things to begin, old things must pass away. Endings and goings-away are always sad; but they bring with them the opportunity for new beginnings. Jesus' departure from this world as an individual living in a particular place and point in time allows Jesus to become accessible to all people everywhere.

These are all great reasons to take some time today to remember and celebrate Jesus' departure in glory, and thank God for the hope of a similar final transformation of all God's people at the restoration of all things.

Almighty God, your only Son was taken into the heavens and in your presence intercedes for us. Receive us and our prayers for all the world, and in the end bring everything into your glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Wednesday Whys: That's the Book For Me?...

2011-06-01T13:52:00.006-04:00

Why don't Lutherans bring their Bibles with them to church and use them during the service, like so many other Christians? And why don't we have a Sunday morning Bible study?

First question first: The simplest answer, these days, is because we church folks make it easy not to -- we include Sunday's lessons right in our bulletins.

And because we use a lectionary -- a given set of Scripture lessons for each Sunday -- our sermons will tend to focus on those lessons, reducing the need for worshippers to constantly flip through their Bibles in order to find pastors' Scripture citations.

That doesn't mean that it's not a good idea to bring one's Bible to church. It's often helpful, with lectionary lessons, to be able to read "around" the text for the day in order to get a better handle on its larger context; and having a Bible handy makes that possible. A Bible also makes good reading for that meditative time before the service begins. (You can also, by the way, utilize the Psalms section of our hymnals for this purpose.)

We have lots of Bibles, in contemporary, easy-to-read translations, available at church -- just ask and we will find you a copy if you want to use one during worship.

As with most church programming issues, a Sunday morning Bible study needs some participatory energy to get going and function well -- in other words, in order for any church activity to be a "go," we need a critical mass of people really motivated to get involved and stick with it. We've had Sunday morning studies in the past, but they're frankly difficult for us to maintain. If you have an interest in being part of a Sunday morning study, talk to one of our Education Team members.

In the meantime, we have some great resources for you to study the Bible on your own.

The new Lutheran Study Bibles from Augsburg Fortress -- the big blue Bibles you see around church -- are a wonderful resource to have in your home for many reasons, not the least of which is the amount of helpful information about how to read the Bible. Special chapters include: "What Should We Expect When We Read the Bible?" "Lutheran Insights That Open the Bible," "The Bible and God's Mission" and "A Short Guide to Personal Bible Reading." One of the most helpful sections for independent Bible students is its "Bible Reading Plan," giving participants the choice of three year-long courses of Bible study. In addition the Lutheran Study Bible also includes lists of key Old Testament and New Testament stories -- kind of the building blocks of Bible literacy for people who perhaps haven't had a lot of exposure to Scripture.

Most study Bibles -- Bibles that feature commentaries and special helps like those described -- cost more than $50 these days. The Lutheran Study Bible is a bargain by comparison; and we'd be happy to order copies for interested people. Contact our office for more information. You can also buy used copies on Amazon for as little as $15.

Here is a link to the ELCA's online Bible resources. If you're a young person (and even if you're not that young) Faith Lens is an online weekly Bible study based on current events. And here is a link to a very helpful discussion on how kids can become more Bible-literate -- even if you're a parent who's a little afraid of tackling Scripture yourself.

Bottom line: Physically toting a Bible around doesn't earn us any heavenly gold stars. What counts in our spiritual formation is respecting the Bible because it is, as Luther said, the cradle that holds Christ -- and, precisely because we respect and cherish it, regularly reading it, reflecting on it and taking opportunities (on our own and with others) to learn more about it, as befits people who take the Bible seriously.

The Visitation: May 31

2011-05-31T10:56:00.003-04:00

It's a day in the Church year that at first seems incongruous with the Easter season we're now in -- the day we set aside to remember Mary's trip to visit (or perhaps more accurately to take refuge with, given her awkward social situation as an expectant fiancee') her elder cousin Elizabeth, and the two miraculously pregnant women (along with the unborn John the Baptist) rejoicing in happiness and wonder at the events about to occur. It's a day when we recall Mary's triumphant hymn of praise, the Magnificat:

My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his hame.
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever. -- Luke 1:46-56

This day (as well as the Annunciation, another special day in the Church calendar that, unfortunately, slipped right past your blogmeister's radar this year) reminds us that, even though we follow a Church year that tells a linear story in history, all the parts of the story are interrelated and necessary -- there'd have been no Easter had there not been that frightened but faithful young girl in Nazareth who gave her "yes" to God's plan of salvation for all people.

Here is a prayer from the Oremus daily prayer website, for this day:

Following the example of Mary's patient love,
we pray for grace to follow God's will.

We pray for the Church.
May it follow Mary's example of patience, humility and trust.
God of love,
hear our prayer.

We pray for women
who serve as bishops, priests, deacons and ministers in your Church.
Open our ears to their witness and teaching.
God of love,
hear our prayer.

We pray for the world.
Teach us to honor the wholeness of God's creation
in both male and female.
God of love,
hear our prayer.

We pray for mothers.
May the knowledge of your love
ease the burden of those who are live with poverty or anxiety.
God of love,
hear our prayer.

We pray for women
suffering from cruelty and indifference.
Give us strength to give them comfort and relief.
God of love,
hear our prayer...

O God our deliverer,
you cast down the mighty,
and lift up those of no account:
As Elizabeth and Mary embraced with songs of liberation,
so may we also be pregnant with your Spirit,
and affirm one another in hope for the world;
through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Tuneful Tuesday: "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name"

2011-05-31T08:09:00.000-04:00

This coming Sunday we hear about, and think about, Jesus' Ascension -- the exclamation point at the end of the Gospel story, and the end of the disciples' relationship with Jesus as they'd known it. We thought that this "citizen video" of a hymn commonly sung on this Sunday was especially poignant because it was recorded at a congregation's last worship service before its doors closed; another mixture of triumph and sadness and moving on into an unknown future trusting in God's grace:

Mission Monday: The ELCA Responds to Spring Disasters

2011-05-30T07:09:00.002-04:00

The devastating tornado that recently destroyed large sections of Joplin, Missouri, is just one of many springtime weather disasters in the United States that have killed hundreds of people and left many others homeless and without the necessities of life.

You can read about the ELCA's efforts to aid victims of earlier weather events here. As of last week the ELCA had pledged $25,000 to disaster aid for Missouri.

Where does ELCA Disaster Response money come from? It comes from Lutherans just like us. The article above tells you how you too can contribute to the recovery of these stricken American communities.

Photo credit: ELCA News Service

Sunday Sights and Sounds: "Ubi Caritas"

2011-05-29T20:38:00.000-04:00

Here's a beautiful, impromptu performance of this hymn by a Luther College Choir. Translated, the words are: "Where charity and love abide, there is God."

Saints Alive! Justin Martyr

2011-05-28T01:49:00.001-04:00

If you've ever read/seen The DaVinci Code or been in a theological discussion with someone who thinks that liturgical churches like ours have it all wrong, you'll know that some people seem to think that there was once a pure, "primitive" Christianity that Christians subsequently messed up with a lot of overthinky theology and worship innovations. This may sound very spiritual and appealing...unless you actually pay attention to history and know that it's romantic bunk. And we can thank, among others, early Christian theologian Justin Martyr, who was killed for his Christian faith in 167 AD, for what we know about what the Church thought and practiced even in its first centuries of existence.

Justin was born in the Palestinian city of Flavius Neopolis -- also known as the biblical city of Schechem, now Nablus on the West Bank -- around the year 100. His parents were Greek pagans, apparently of some means, and Justin received a rigorous education. Like many well-appointed young men of the time Justin developed a keen interest in ways of explaining "life, the universe and everything," and wound up traveling to Alexandria and Ephesus, important centers of learning in the Classical world, to study a variety of philosophies. He became a teacher of philosophy himself. But to borrow the words of a U2 song, even as a professional philosopher he still hadn't found what he was looking for.

In Ephesus Justin had come to develop an admiration for the young Christian movement -- for the sincerity and steadfastness of Christians even in the face of harrassment and martyrdom. And one day while he was walking on a local beach he encountered an older man with whom he began to converse about religion, who talked to him about Jesus and how Jesus had fulfilled the prophecies of the Hebrew prophets. Justin later wrote, "Straightway a flame was kindled in my soul, and the love of the prophets and those who are friends of Christ possessed me."

So Justin became a Christian. But Justin did not abandon the ways of thinking about -- well, thinking -- that he had learned as a philosopher. It was his assertion that Christianity was not only a matter of faith, but an intellectually defensible way of thinking about God; and that all philosophy contains partial truths about God that are ultimately fulfilled in the Christian story -- that it acts as "a schoolmaster that brings us to Christ." So, still clad in his professional philosopher's robes, he began to publicly debate various non-Christians -- pagans, Jews, the educated non-religious -- about the validity of Christianity. He also began a school of philosophy for Christians, first in Ephesus and later in Rome.

Justin wrote a series of treatises about Christianity. His most famous is The First Apology -- apology meaning defense or vindication -- written to the then-Emperor and his sons. Rumors swirled around the pagan world about the Christians' strange ceremonies involving "bodies" and "blood"; some people thought that Christians were dangerous cannibals engaging in illicit human sacrifices; and of course there was a widespread belief that Christians were dangerous seditionists and traitors to Rome. Justin described typical Christian worship, particularly the celebration of Holy Baptism and the Eucharist, in an attempt to fight popular pagan misunderstandings of these things.

Justin also wrote a Second Apology, addressed to the Roman Senate, defending the Christian community against charges that they engaged in "immorality" and were radicals and seditionists, arguing that Christians in fact made fine citizens who actually upheld "traditional values." (Like our own Religious Right, patriotic Roman pagans felt that their society's economic and social supremacy in the world was due to divine favor, and feared that imported religions like Christianity were undermining Roman society and the proper worship of the traditional gods and would eventually bring divine wrath down upon the nation.)

Justin's Dialog with Trypho is an account of his debate with a rabbi about the connection between Judaism and Christianity and whether Christianity is compatible with a belief in one God.

(If you ever want to read English translations of early Christian thinkers and historians like Justin Martyr, visit the Christian Classics Ethereal Library .)

In 167, after engaging in debate with a noted Cynic philosopher, and winning, Justin found himself denounced (probably by the same philosopher) to the authorities for engaging in unauthorized religious practice. He was brought to trial before a Roman prefect, pressured without success to renounce his Christian faith, and was beheaded, along with six of his philosophy students (one a woman). We know details about this trial thanks to a reliable account preserved by other Christians, The Acts of Justin Martyr.

In addition to Justin's status as martyr for the faith, he is significant in his ability to see God's Word, God's Logos, active wherever there is truth, and for affirming what is true in other systems of belief; and for his witness that Christianity, while being a "faith thing," doesn't mean that you need to leave your brain outside the church door.

Friday's Here, But Sunday's Coming: Easter 6A

2011-05-27T04:55:00.000-04:00

What lessons will we hear this Sunday, as we approach the end of the Easter season?

Our First Lesson is once again from the Book of Acts. Here we find Paul in Athens, at the Areopagus -- the public area where the citizens of this very intellectual, religious pagan city came to share ideas about spirituality and philosophy. Paul engages this challenging audience by speaking their language -- quoting their thinkers; speaking approvingly of their quest for spiritual truth. He then uses the opportunity to share a rather startling proposition: that the God they sought so diligently cou

ld be found in the story of an obscure Galilean rabbi who died and rose again.

Our Psalm reading, Psalm 66, is a psalm of praise for deliverance. It starts by praising the God of creation...then it praises God for God's saving acts on behalf of Israel...then it becomes a personal hymn of praise for God's love and mercy in the Psalmist's life.

Our Epistle lesson, once again from I Peter, encourages beleagured Christians to trust that God will give them the tools they need to defend their faith when confronted by hostile others; and they're reminded that because God will empower them to make this defense, they can do so in a calm, gentle

way. Readers/hearers are also reminded that Jesus also suffered in this world; and that in baptism we are united with Jesus in his victory over sin and death.

Our Gospel lesson continues Jesus' farewell discourse to his disciples, when he promises them that, even though he is going to be leaving them, the Advocate, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, is coming to stay with them (and us) forever: "I will not leave you orphaned."

Thoughtful Thursday: "Never Alone" Via Our Baptism

2011-05-26T02:33:00.003-04:00

If Holy Baptism isn't about "fire insurance," as many people treat it...then what is it about?

The Rev. Jenn Moland-Kovash, writing as guest blogger for Living Lutheran online magazine, reminds us that, joined to Christ through our baptisms, we're never alone -- and that means something. Follow the link to read her essay. And keep that "never alone" thought in mind on Sunday when we hear the Gospel lesson!

Wednesday Whys: Synod Assemblies

2011-05-25T08:32:00.004-04:00

A What Assembly? A Synod What?
I know Pastor Reed and others are attending a Synod Assembly this week. I'm embarrassed to say that I'm not sure what that means...I don't even really know what a "synod" is. What is a Synod Assembly, and why should I care about it?

A synod, in general terms, is an administrative division (usually geographical) of a church body. In the ELCA, a synod is a regional unit. Each synod is administered by a bishop. If you are familiar with the Roman Catholic or Episcopal diocesan system, a synod is like a diocese.

Hope Lutheran Church is part of the North/West Lower Michigan Synod, whose geographical area covers all but the southeast section of the Lower Michigan mitten. Our bishop is John Schleicher; our synodical offices are in Lansing. You can learn more about our synod here.

Synod Assemblies are annual events that bring together clergy and designated lay representatives from all over our synod. (Charlotte Groat and Richard Klender are our representatives this year; they volunteered to represent us, which is how someone from Hope can become a representative.) Participants engage in worship and fellowship; they hear keynote speakers; they attend Bible study and breakout workshops on practical topics that can help their congregations back home; they also participate on the "business" side of the Assembly: hearing reports; discussing budgets; introducing, discussing and voting on resolutions; in some years, electing a new bishop.

(There is also an annual Churchwide Assembly that works on the same principle but on a national scale. It meets in August.)

Why should the average layperson care about Synod Assemblies? First of all, they're a great place to network with fellow ELCA members and learn about what other folks are doing in their congregations -- and, for that matter, for other participants to learn about all the good things we're doing in our congregation. It's sometimes hard for us to remember that Hope isn't an isolated faith community unto itself, but part of a larger network of ELCA congregations and a much larger national church body; Synod Assemblies help us do that. And they're also places where the church administration meets the people in the pew; Assembly resolutions and their discussion reflect that. If you want to have an active understanding of the ELCA, if you want to get together with other Lutherans from all around the state, if you want more practical knowledge that can help us "be the Church together," if you want to be part of the "holy conversation" of faithful people working for the good of our church body, then you will want to consider volunteering to be one of our two lay representatives in the future.

Do you have a question about Christianity from a Lutheran perspective? Don't understand some bit of Christianese jargon? Liturgically challenged? Curious about Church history? Ask your question here, and we will try to answer it next week.

Tuneful Tuesday: "Christ, Be Our Light"

2011-05-24T08:11:00.000-04:00

This choir -- part of the Filipino-American ministry within a larger church -- does a super job with this hymn:

Mission Monday: "Worship is Cancelled -- Join the Service!"

2011-05-23T08:19:00.001-04:00

That was the church signboard message that no doubt startled many citizens of Cherry Hill Village, Colorado, as they drove by Bethany Lutheran Church.

But the congregation wasn't simply taking a break from its usual Sunday morning schedule yesterday. On its first Be the Blessing Day, after initial prayer and devotions over 700 church members, friends and staff descended upon over 20 ministry sites around the Denver area, providing hands-on service in the community in places ranging from nursing homes to rescue missions. Ministry activities were planned so that anyone of any age, physical ability or skill level could participate in something. It also maintained one of its other Sunday services, where worshippers prayed for their fellow members out in the community that morning.

Read about this event in the latest edition of the Living Lutheran blog; and learn about a church in Illinois whose similar Faith in Action Day took members out of the church building one recent Sunday and into places ranging from a prison to a homeless shelter.

(Photo from Living Lutheran)

Sunday Sights and Sounds: "The Call"

2011-05-22T08:12:00.002-04:00

Saints Alive! John Calvin

2011-05-21T08:05:00.000-04:00

If you had to cast The Odd Couple using the major players of the Reformation, you'd instantly know who would play Oscar and Felix. Martin Luther: down-to-earth; rough around the edges; pithy; passionate; "livin' large"; someone you'd feel comfortable sharing a beer with. John Calvin: cerebral; fussbudgety; morally scrupulous to the point of cruelty; not exactly the life of the party.

Yet John Calvin -- spiritual ancestor of the various Presbyterian and Reformed denominations, to the Puritans and to what is now the United Church of Christ, and influence on other traditions ranging from the "Low" end of Anglicanism to certain varieties of Baptist -- casts a large shadow over the development of Protestant Christianity, as well as over the cultures of countries like ours with a strong history of Calvinism.

John Calvin, or Jean Cauvin, was born in Noyon, France, in 1509. He was something of a child prodigy, with a special interest in religion -- he was acting as a clerk for a bishop by the time he was 12 -- and at the age of 14 he went to Paris to study theology, with the intent of becoming a priest. But after receiving an MA at the age of 19, Calvin's father decided that Calvin would be of better use to the family as an attorney than a priest, and compelled him to begin law school; a course of study that only lasted three years, until Calvin's father died.

Calvin returned to his theological studies, and as the ideas of the Reformation began to circulate throughout Europe Calvin came to support the Reformers' calls for change in the Church. It was around 1534 when Calvin reported experiencing a sudden profound spiritual experience that underscored in his mind both God's tremendous mercy and his total unworthiness to receive God's grace. In the meantime, the Roman Catholic Church was pushing back against Reformation ideas, and the outspoken Calvin found himself, with other Protestant supporters, fleeing to Basel, Switzerland, a stronghold for supporters of Reformer John Zwingli, a radical Reformer frequently at odds with Luther -- someone who basically wanted to deconstruct Western Christianity and start all over again, as opposed to Luther's relatively conservative attempts to reform specific problems within Roman Catholicism.

While in Basel Calvin began work on his Institutes of the Christian Religion, a defense of the doctrinal positions of the Reformers who had influenced him and, moreover, Calvin's systematic, logic-based exploration of the "how" and "why," as he saw it, of Christian concepts like the sovereignty of God and the Atonement; what is called a systematic theology. Calvin's work also provided a kind of dispassionate, intellectual counterpoint to Zwingli's often hotheaded, enthuisast approach to Church reform.

Calvin realized that he probably would not be able to return to France because of his religious convictions. He accepted a position as a preacher in Geneva, and was instrumental in attempting to institute a reformation of personal and civic life as well as of the churches there. Instead of Luther's "If it ain't broke don't fix it" attitude toward worship, Calvin supported the Radical Reformers' push to remake churches -- tearing out stained glass, statuary and other churchly bling, replacing the sacramental emphasis of the Mass with an emphasis on preaching, and radically simplifying orders of service. Calvin's push for lifestyle austerity, which included prohibitions on card playing, drinking and dancing and attempts to exact biblical punishments for religious and civil misconduct, didn't sit well with much of the population, who'd refused to sign on to the Reformed religious mindset; and Calvin was temporarily banished from the city. But Calvin's supporters eventually prevailed, and he returned three years later. It was at this time that Calvin undertook a reform of church polity -- the governing structure of churches -- in Geneva, creating a congregational system of governance instead of the old top-down hierarchy. Calvin also had a deep interest in education, and also promoted better educational opportunities for laity and clergy alike. He maintained dialog with other leaders of the Reformation, including Luther's best friend Philip Melanchthon, and wrote a great deal of apologetics -- works defending Reformation doctrines. He was also a preacher, maintaining a heavy schedule of preaching at multiple services during the week for much of his career.

Calvin, like Luther, supported the idea of married clergy but was initially reluctant to get married. He did finally marry Idelette de Bure, a widow with children, but unlike the well-documented family life of the Luther clan, we know almost nothing about Calvin's private life other than the premature death of a son, Jacques. We do know from Calvin's letters that he and his wife appeared to have a happy marriage, and that he grieved when she became sick and died: "I have been bereaved of the best friend of my life."

While Luther and Calvin shared many essential beliefs in common, they also parted company on many points of doctrine, including the issue of predestination and the theology surrounding the Eucharist. And, again, while Luther considered himself a reformer within Roman Catholicism, seeking to keep what was good while changing what had gone wrong, Calvin felt that the Church had become so corrupted through the centuries that it basically needed to be remade from the ground up. Someone once compared Luther and Calvin's approaches to the Reformation to two different people cleaning a chest of drawers; while Luther could be compared to someone opening each drawer, picking through it and discarding items on a piecemeal basis, Calvin was more like someone who dumped everything out of all the drawers first, then only put selected items back inside.

Despite these differences, though, over the years Lutherans and Calvinists -- like Lutherans and Roman Catholics -- have become partners in both ministry and dialog. The German Evangelical Church, our counterpart in modern Germany, is actually the result of a merger between Lutheran and Reformed churches, with each tradition maintaining its own churches but sharing a common administrative structure. In the U.S., the ELCA entered into an altar and pulpit fellowship agreement with the Presbyterian Church in the USA, the United Church of Christ and the Reformed Church in America, and also participates in cooperative ministries with these denominations.

Saints Alive! Bede the Venerable

2011-05-21T08:04:00.000-04:00

At a time in history when Christians are often stereotyped as "ignernt and proud of it," it's good to remember that, whatever dumb things Christians have done and said throughout history, the Church has also been an important incubator for scholarship, and driving force for education, in the world.

The Venerable Bede is an example of this. He was an 8th century monk in the monastery of Wearmouth and Jarrow in Northumbria. He was born around 673 AD in the city of Tyne,in County Durham, but sent to the monastery as a child. He chose to officially enter into monastic life at the tender age of seven, and except for brief excursions to nearby communities never left his home. But Bede's interests went far beyond the confines of the monastery walls; as he relates, "I have devoted my energies to a study of the Scriptures, observing monastic discipline, and singing the daily services in church; study, teaching, and writing have always been my delight."

At a time in history when Latin was the standard language for scholars, Bede was the first known person to write scholarly works in English as well as Latin. He also translated the Bible into the English of his day. But he is chiefly remembered for his history of England, History of the English Church and People, still considered the chief source of information about English history from the first centuries of the Christian era up until 729. Unlike many of his contempories whose histories were often woven together with folklore, hearsay and conjecture, Bede was a careful scholar who took pains to distinguish fact from hearsay and to cite his sources. Bede also wrote poetry, hymns and biographies of saints. In addition, he had an interest in astronomy, and was the first to point out flaws in the Julian calendar system that needed regular adjusting to keep the months consistent with the seasons. And he developed the system of dividing history into the years before and after the estimated birth year of Christ; it's thanks to Bede that we have the term "AD," for "Anno Domini," or "Year of Our Lord."

Here's what Bede had to say about the value of studying history: "For if history records good things of good men, the thoughtful hearer is encouraged to imitate what is good; or if it records evil of wicked men, the good, religious reader or listener is encouraged to avoid all that is sinful and perverse, and to follow what he knows to be good and pleasing to God."

Saints Alive! Nicholas Copernicus

2011-05-21T08:03:00.000-04:00

Nicholas Copernicus' inclusion in the Lutheran and other Christian traditions' commemorations calendar may surprise some -- not so much because of who he was (not only a scientist but a true "Renaissance man" whose academic interests ranged from theology to medicine to mathematics to economics to poetry), but because his work and Christians' reactions to it spotlights, in an unflattering way, the Church getting it wrong -- Christians turning Scripture into something it's not; in this case a science book; then winding up with egg on their collective face when observable facts fly in the face of "The Bible says it; I believe it; that settles it."

Copernicus was born in Poland in 1673. His parents died when he was young, and he was placed in the care of an uncle, a Roman Catholic bishop who provided for the young man's education, at universities in Poland and Italy. The young Copernicus was eventually elected canon of Frauenberg Cathedral, came home to help his uncle, and helped establish a free clinic for poor people.

But in the meantime, Copernicus pursued a favorite discipline: astronomy. At this point in history, before the advent of telescopes, people's understanding of the cosmos was limited to what they could see with the naked eye and the inherited folk wisdom of how the universe was set up. This was also a time when astrology -- the study of how planets and other heavenly objects supposedly affected people's personalities and fates -- was considered a "science" on par with astronomy. Because of that, astronomy tended to be heavy on theory, light on actual observable data. Astronomers relied greatly upon the astronomical opinions of Greek philosophers and upon cherrypicked prooftexts from the Bible.

And both those sources assumed that the earth was a stationary object sitting smack in the middle of the universe, with all the planets, the sun and the stars moving around it. (See Chronicles 16:30; Psalm 104:5; Ecclesiastes 1:5.) This geocentric model seemed to jibe with people's everyday perception of living on stable ground; and it also corresponded with an assumption that the human drama on our planet was the central concern of God and the universe. The whole of classical and medieval scientific thought was held together, in a way, by this theory.

The problem, though, with the idea of a geocentric universe was that, when astronomers and mathematicians tried to accurately calculate movements of the heavenly bodies through the sky, the numbers just wouldn't come out right. Something was awry with their suppositions, but they didn't know what. All sorts of complicated mathematical formulae were devised in order to fix this mysterious problem.

In 1530 Copernicus came out with a pamphlet, the Commentariolus, in which he suggested that making the sun and not the earth the center of the astonomers' model would simplify astronomers' calculations and make them more accurate; and he actually received provisional papal approval to publish this pending more investigation . Over the years Copernicus retooled his theory, rechecked his numbers, and expanded his thoughts into an entire book, De Revolutionibus. Toward the end of his life he entrusted his manuscript to an old pupil of his in Leipzig, Germany, who -- perhaps to prevent controversy -- had a well-known Lutheran pastor, Osiander, write a preface to it stating that it was just a way to simplify astronomical computations and not a questioning of the actual form of the universe, then had it published.

At first this rather esoteric book didn't generate a lot of negative feedback; although Luther, citing the biblical story of Joshua and the "sun standing still," blasted Copernicus' new theory as nothing more than a presumption of human pride in being "clever," and Reformer John Calvin huffed, "Who will venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that of the Holy Spirit?" Some Dominican scholars wanted the book banned.

But then along came Galileo, with the first telescope, and his observations that supported Copernicus, not the assumed common wisdom. This caused a firestorm in the religious and scientific community, resulted in the Roman Catholic Church censoring Copernicus' book, hauling Galileo to religous court and placing him under house arrest for the remainder of his life, and banning all subsequent books arguing for a heliocentric theory of the universe. This ban remained in effect until 1758, well after the scientific world had accepted heliocentrism, and in fact had moved on to a fuller understanding of the sun as merely one star in a universe of many, not some special heavenly object.

Interestingly, even though Christians critical of Copernicus cited Old Testament texts in defense of their position, there was very little controversy in the Jewish academic community over Copernicus' work and that of subsequent astronomers.

Friday's Here, But Sunday's Coming: Easter 5A

2011-05-20T01:50:00.003-04:00

The word for this week, in our Scripture readings, is trust. How do we trust the good news of the Resurrection?

Our first lesson is from the Book of Acts. (By the way -- did you know that Acts was originally the second part of the Gospel of Luke? Same author.) We've been hearing stories of that very first community of Jesus' followers. This Sunday we hear about Stephen, a pious and trustworthy young man commissioned as a deacon -- someone whose job was to take care of the practical, everyday needs of the faith community. In our lesson we hear Stephen's impassioned defense of faith in Jesus in the face of an angry mob who responds by stoning him to death. (Do you know which major player in the early Church was the instigator of this stoning, before his own conversion?) In Stephen we find someone who trusted in the Jesus proposition even when it cost him his life.

Psalm 31 is a psalm of trust in God that not only brings to mind Jesus' ultimate trust in his Father's saving power but also our trust, as Jesus' followers, in God's saving power in our own lives.

Our Epistle lesson, from 1 Peter, is an exhortation to a group of struggling Christians in the midst of persecution to keep trusting in Jesus, whom the author describes as the living cornerstone whose followers also become living stones, building up the house of faith. The text encourages its listeners and readers to recognize and trust in their chosenness as God's people, no matter what is happening to them.

You will no doubt recognize our Gospel lesson, from John's Gospel, where Jesus comforts his disciples as they express anxiety over his leaving them. And he answers a question that many of us have often wondered:"What is God really like?" What he has to say is really good news!

Thoughtful Thursday: Why Youth Don't Stick With Church

2011-05-19T09:20:00.001-04:00

There's an old joke about a group of clergypeople, sharing some coffee after a local ministerial meeting, bemoaning the problems of maintaining their old church buildings. One clergyperson mentioned the problem he was having with bats in the belfry of his church, making a mess and frightening parishoners, and heads nodded in sympathy.

At this point the Lutheran pastor in attendance smiled. "We don't have any problems with bats anymore," she noted smugly.

"How can that be?" asked another pastor. "Your church is like the rest of ours. How can you not have bats in your belfry?"

"Easy," she replied. "One day I climbed up the ladder to the steeple; I took a sack with me that had a jar of water and a hymnal in it. I found the bats, baptized them and confirmed them -- they flew away and we haven't seen them since."

"Where do all the teenagers go?" is a not-so-funny conundrum for many churches these days. Andrew Steele, a young missionary serving in South Africa as part of the ELCA's Young Adults in Global Mission program, has some thoughts about what young people find lacking in church -- thoughts based in part on his experiences in South Africa. He shares these on his blog. (Which is very interesting reading overall. If you click on the title, after reading this particular post, you can access the rest of his online journal.)

Wednesday Whys: Where Did All the Church Mission Work Go?

2011-05-18T15:01:00.002-04:00

Why don't we ever talk about missions anymore? I remember when our church had a very active mission society that helped support overseas missions and local evangelism events.

Ah, yes...your blogmeister remembers the same thing at her childhood church. Her church's mission society did things like send care packages of healthcare items overseas, and sponsor church visits by missionaries who came to talk about their work. At her church, when anyone in Sunday School had a birthday, the child would bring as many coins as s/he was years old and drop them, one by one, into a bank whose proceeds went to foreign missions.

Supporting missions -- both overseas and here at home -- looks a lot different now. Part of that is because in the past women were the backbone of most mission support in churches; most women today have careers outside the home, leaving them with neither the time nor energy to channel into the sorts of church support activities that our mothers and grandmothers took for granted as their Christian responsibility. Part of it has to do with the changing face of mission work itself, and our perception of what it means. Unlike our ancestors, we tend to feel some tension between our desire to share the story of Jesus with the world and our sensitivity toward the integrity of other cultures. Both the reality of history and the rather skewed treatment of missionary work in popular culture can sometimes make us uncomfortable about the whole idea of missionaries; the very word may make us think of overbearing, patronizing, even abusive church folks imposing a belief system on unwilling others.

But that's not what ELCA missionary work looks like. We in the ELCA are partners with over 140 different Lutheran church bodies around the world -- some of which had their beginnings as "foreign missions" back in the heyday of the missionary movement in the 19th century or before, but which now are independent denominations in their countries, with their own administration and staff. Our missionary work is now largely about helping these partner churches in areas where we have expertise and resources -- education, community development, disaster relief, social work, healthcare and the like. The ELCA also wants to help provide leaders in these churches with education and training that they can not only use themselves but also use to build up their home church bodies' seminaries and schools.

The ELCA has 240 missionaries in 40 countries, working with our partners in ministry in everything from vocational training for Thai children saved from sexual exploitation to helping coordinate healthcare services in Liberia to teaching English in China and Japan.

At Hope, we have been through a very long process of rebuilding our faith community and developing a unique "voice" and type of ministry that fits our community. While that's been going on, we've kept our mission goals modest and largely local, through groups like our quilters and our Saginaw Thrift Store volunteers. But we are believers that, when the time is right for a new venture in our congregation, the people to pursue it, and the energy to sustain it, will show up.

In the meantime...are you interested in sharing the Gospel in a "big picture," all-around-the-world way? Here are some things you can do right now, without having to be in an organized church group, to be a part of the ELCA's missionary efforts:

Read about the ELCA's Global Mission. The links will take you to examples of how we engage in global mission, and ways you can help as an individual or household. This will help put a human face on what our church body is doing around the world.

Become a prayer partner with ELCA Prayer Ventures. Participants pray for a particular ministry of the ELCA, at home or abroad, every single day. You'll get a real education in what our missionaries and others are doing. You can bookmark this Prayer of the Day page, or go to our Hope Facebook page, where we regularly print the Prayer Ventures prayers.

Join in an ecumenical (different churches working together) prayer cycle. The World Council of Churches offers a cycle of prayers for every nation that will help you pray your way around the globe.

Talk to other people at church about your interest in missions. Talk to your other ELCA friends/family; what do their churches do as far as raising consciousness about global mission?

Do you have a question about the Christian faith from a Lutheran perspective? About some aspect of church worship? About Church history, or about how our church body works? Ask it here, and we will try to answer it next week.

(Top photo: Lutheran missionaries Pr. Dana Nelson and Tom Ososki in Peru, courtesy of the ELCA website. Bottom photo: ELCA missionary kids with their friends in Senegal, also courtesy of the ELCA website.)

Tuneful Tuesday: "Be Thou My Vision"

2011-05-17T01:00:00.001-04:00

Here's Van Morrison -- of "Brown-Eyed Girl" and "Into the Mystic" fame -- singing "Be Thou My Vision":