Love by Serving

"Go my children, fed and nourished, Closer to Me;
Grow I love and love by serving, Joyful and free. Here My Spirit's power filled you; Here His tender comfort stilled you.
Go my children, fed and nourished, Joyful and free."
~Luth. Service Book #922

Confirmation, Welcome to the Grown-Ups' Table

I remember my confirmation. Maybe I was too into King Aurthur, or the Chronicles of Narnia, but it is such a solemn right that I couldn't help imagining that confirmands were receiving a special anointing, like knighthood, we were being commissioned as members of God's kingdom into His service.

It is been hard to hear kids gripe about the requirements of confirmation class. When my wife and I were youth counselors and when I taught high school Bible study class it was discouraging when kids didn't attend or didn't want to participate in youth group.

There's a line in our denomination's confirmation liturgy that always gives me shivers; "Dear Baptized in Christ,. P: Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confes- sion and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it?" This is a BIG commitment, as big or bigger than marriage. I wonder how seriously most 12-14 year olds (and their parents) take it?

These first few comments sound full of law, demanding, maybe even judgmental or condescending. I don't mean to be. After all, "see what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are!" 1 John 3:1

Jesus loved you enough to die for you. What an amazing thing it is to publicly declare that you're grateful for that and that you want to continue to be connected and engaged with Him in an active relationship! And that you want to begin taking on grown-up responsibility as a participating member of His family via your congregation/fellowship!

My hope and prayer for all the kids around the country getting confirmed this time of year, including my nephew (and next year my daughter) will see this as a launching point, the starting line for the great race that Paul talks about in Philippians, not merely as just another rite of passage.

"What is confirmation? Confirmation is the rite by which a baptized person renews his baptismal vow, publicly confesses his faith, and is received into communicant membership by the congregation." (from 1943 LCMS Catechism)

"What is confirmation? Confirmation is a public rite of the church preceded by a period of instruction designed to help baptized Christians identify with the life and mission of the Christian community. Note: Prior to admission to the Lord's Supper, it is necessary to be instructed in the Christian faith (1 Cor. 11:28). The rite of confirmation provides an opportunity for the individual Christian, relying on God's promises given in Holy Baptism, to make a personal public confession of the faith and a lifelong pledge of fidelity to Christ. Matt. 10:32-33 & Rev. 2:10." ( from 1991/2005 LCMS Catechism)

God's blessings on this weekend's confirmands and their families. Remember, this is not "graduation" from Sunday School. May this be only the beginning of a lifelong, committed and always growing relationship with Jesus and lifelong, commitment to active participation in the body of Christ, His church!

May God bless you and keep you as you continue to grow in" faith toward Him and fervent love toward one another," in Jesus name, Amen.

Evening Prayer for the Weary

"Be present, merciful God, and protect us through the hours of the night, so that we who are wearied by the change and chances of life may find our rest in You: through Jesus Christ, our lord. Amen"

~Compline service, page 257 Lutheran Service Book

Hey Culture Warriors, 'Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword!'

So Rick Santorum is claiming President Obama's faith is "phony," just political posturing?

Here we go- will the bogus culture war turn into an inter-Christian-denominational civil war? This is the very reason our founders came up with the separation of church and state, pluralism was the antidote to hundreds of years of wars between Protestants and Catholics in Europe.

Republican thinking: So... unemployment's down, the stock market is up, Detroit's back and both the automakers and the banks have paid back their bail-outs. Meanwhile Bin Laden and Gaddafi are dead, we're pulling out of Iraq & Afghanistan, Al Qaeda's on the run, and people all over the world are demonstrating for greater democracy. Better start a "Culture War."

Of course, I also can't help feeling that there's just a tinge of racism involved here too- under the guise of class warfare. Good suburban white Christians abstain from sex where as those poor urban people just can't help themselves is the insinuation.

But lets face it, the real difference between Santorumism and Obamaism, as I see it, is Legalism vs. Grace- as I've talked about many times on my Prophet, Priest & Pirate blog there's the letter-of-the-law side and the spirit-of-the-law side.

Some Christians want to control the morality of society by banning gay marriage and contraception use, punishing abortion with the death penalty, teaching creationism and demanding mandatory prayer in public schools, denying climate change and using the military to build God's empire here on Earth. These are people actually convinced that poverty is God's punishment for being sinful, irresponsible, lazy, or dependent on the government. They ascribe to Social Darwinism but call it being called, predestined, blessed and exceptional. They stir up anger, fear, resentment and division.

Then there are those who recognize that you only change hearts and minds with things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control. You make friends and convert believers by loving your enemies and praying for those that persecute you. They believe Jesus called us to feed the hungry, heal the sick, and visit those in prison. They read a Bible that calls on them to protect the oppressed, widows, orphans and aliens. They believe that you help build God's kingdom by what you do, not by what you demand others stop doing. They sow empathy, hope, compassion, and tolerance.

It's NOT a matter of who's the better Christian, or a matter of "Real" Christian and "Fake" Christian, it's between those who claim to be arguing for religious liberty but really want to impose their morality on everyone else and wage wars on everyone they deem to be infidels, and those who believe that true religion is a personal matter of the heart, a relationship with God that motivates you to join in God's ministry of reconciliation.

If I'm going to err too much on either the side of the law or the gospel, I would rather err on the side of the gospel.

I know my Republican Christian friends and family no doubt fear for my very salvation...
but I would rather stand with Jane Addams than Ayn Rand
I would rather stand with Martin Luther King Jr. than with Jerry Fawell,
with Billy Graham than with Franklin Graham,
with sinners and tax collectors than with Pharisees and white-washed tombs, and with Barack Obama than with Rick Santorum.

As Martin Luther once said, "Here I stand, I can do no other."

Read the Red-Letters

‎(NET) Matthew 6:6 But whenever you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.

I've been reading through the book of Matthew during my morning devotions and it's really reinforcing for me Tony Campolo's concept of "Red-Letter Christians," that if you read the red-letters, the words spoken by Jesus Himself, it's pretty difficult not to adopt a progressive point of view or abandon a hyper-conservative one.

Matt 6:6 for example flies in the face of pushing for mandatory prayer in public schools or publicly flaunt one's praying like GOP candidates Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry have done on the campaign.

Loving our enemies & praying for those who persecute us in Matt 5, storing up treasures in Heaven in stead of serving money as a god in Matt 7, not judging others in Matt 8, giving to the needy in Matt 25... So much of Jesus teaching seems contrary the ideas of this world, of America today, and of the Republican party and the "1%."

Rick Santorum may tap into many Christians fear and anger about abortion and homosexuality, but I for one think he could stand to read some of the "red letters." I'm not saying that we throw out the book of Leviticus, but I encourage Christians to spend some more time in the book of Matthew.

We can't follow, imitate, emulate or obey Jesus if we never read what He Himself taught. 

This year, make it a goal to read through Matthew. Pay attention to the red letters and are if God doesn't change your mind about a few things, open your eyes about a few things, plant a few things in your heart and do some new things in your life. I DARE you!

Once you do, pass it on (especially to your Republican and independent friends!)

EVERYONE's invited (part II)

(NET) Galatians 3:28 "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female - for all of you are one in Christ Jesus."

I had a college professor who used to welcome students to Bible Study by proclaiming there there is "neither graduate nor undergraduate!"


Could we include distinctions like these; neither Black or White, Asian or Hispanic, Native American or European. Neither Liberal or Conervative, progressive or libertarian. Neither natural born citizen or immigrant, neither doccumented or undocumented. Neither gay or staight.

Just as ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ALL are equal at the foot of the cross and ALL are welcomed into the family of God and the arms of Jesus.

This new year, resolve to see everyone we meet as what they are, a unique and precious creation that God loves, created in His image.

Everyone' invited

(NET) Revelation 7:9 "After these things I looked, and here was an enormous crowd that no one could count, made up of persons from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb dressed in long white robes, and with palm branches in their hands."

EVERY tribe, EVERY nation, EVERY language. Jesus died for EVERYONE's sins. God wants EVERYONE to accept His love, grace, mercy, & forgiveness.

How can we DARE to hold on to our racism, prejudice, & tribalism? We are ALL God's children.

Childermas; Massacre of the Innocents

Childermas is a feast on the church calendar, that remembers the "slaughter of the innocents" by King Herod (all the baby boys under 2 years old when the Magi came to him looking for the King who's star they'd followed from the East). It it celebrated on December 28th every year.

Back in 2006 the South African Episcopal Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu recommended we observe Childermas by praying for children, orphans, and especially infants dying of AIDS.

I'd throw in there, to pray for child refugees and survivors of war and terrorism.

Perhaps the GREATEST OT Prohet

Another of my favorite Old Testament prophet (that wasn't human) is the lowly worm.

It's not because I relate so much to Psalm 22:6, "I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people." Although, I do and probably should-

No, actually its because of how God used the worm to teach one of His human prophets a lesson in Jonah 4 about compassion and how our assumptions are not necessarily as aligned with God's actual plans as we'd like to think!

One of my Favorite Biblical Prophets, "Donkeh"

Numbers 22:22-33

But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the LORD stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. 23 When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, it turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat it to get it back on the road.

Then the angel of the LORD stood in a narrow path through the vineyards, with walls on both sides. When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, it pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam’s foot against it. So he beat the donkey again.

Then the angel of the LORD moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no room to turn, either to the right or to the left. When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, it lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat it with his staff. Then the LORD opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?”

Balaam answered the donkey, “You have made a fool of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.”

The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?”

“No,” he said.

Then the LORD opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown.

The angel of the LORD asked him, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared it.”

Sometimes I feel like that donkey. Stubborn, a jackass- maybe, but I keep trying to tell people what I see the way I see it and it seems to fall on deaf ears. Most people think I'm too religious, many of my fellow Christians prefer to listen to political conservatives rather than Christ's own Word, let alone me. But after all, 

"...God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong." ~1 Corinthians 1:27

Reading some really 'OLD-school!'

GEEKING OUT; last night I was reading the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope compiled by theologians in Smalcald, Germany in 1537 and it totally reinforced for me democratic philosophies about bottom-up structures, empowerment of the populace, and an aversion to tyranny. Amazing how conservative/orthodox 16th century theology is a good model for liberal/progressive 21st century politics.

Not to mention servant-leadership, egalitarianism or the separation of church-and-state!

It amazes me that Lutherans can purport to agree with this stuff from the Reformation and then seem to support so much of the ideology and behavior espoused by today's Republican candidates and pundits that's pretty much antithetical to what Martin Luther and his colleagues found in Scripture and wrote and taught. 

Antithetical and in my opinion, short-sighted and irresponsible.

But it does not surprise me that Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. was impressed enough to change he and his son's names after learning about the reformer's on a trip to Europe.

Advent; Hope, Peace, Joy, & Love

Every year, I try to write some posts here that could sort of almost be considered Advent Devotions. Some are too short to qualify, most are actually way too long to qualify. As with most posts on this here blog, many are peppered with humor, sarcasm, and a progressive political slant. They're more sporadic than regular and consistent, so if you're looking for something to edify you daily, this ain't the place, but if maybe once a week or occasionally more interests you- then watch this space over the course of the next 40 days or so, and sure as the seas, you'll get yer fill of pre-Christmas reading.