St. Mark’s Lutheran

This article by Mr. Charles Blow in the New York Times is an interesting article that confirms a longer running idea in kids or young adult ministry. I can remember 12 years ago when the catch phrase was mystery. Youth didn’t like “religion”, but they dug that mystery.

The opening story of the young woman going to Costa Rica for a month to lose her religion, get over hang-ups from it and reconnect as a spiritual person just screams lost. God works in a bunch of ways which we can’t limit Him, and he could meet this young woman in Costa Rica between fifth of rum, but that would seem slight. The Christian witness is that God has told us he will be in very specific places. God has promised to be present where two or three are gathered – i.e. God is present in the church. God has promised to be present in the sacraments, in baptism and the Lord’s supper. God meets us from the outside. In the proclaimed Word and in the Sacraments. God can meet us in what gets labled as spiritual today, but that is not guaranteed. There is no promise of God associated with trips to Costa Rica or in individual seeking.

Unfortunately that is way uncool – emphasizing religion (the communal gathering around a shared belief) at the expense of personal spirituality. Especially when you add the statement that the important religious institution is the congregation – the local place where the word is taught and virtue encouraged and built up. Christ is present in the gathering and the life of that community. That is where grace happens. Larger groups may be necessary as practical matters, but they are not the church. Saying to sacrifice some of you personal spiritual freedom for the good of a local community is way uncool. St. Paul would see this in speaking in tongues and say if you don’t have an interpreter – shut up. Being spiritual and on your own quest is just so much more romantic, but less likely to actually find grace.

Tags: Culture, Word, cross, grace by Parson Brown
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I probably should not add this, but I’m going to write it anyway. Read Luke 5:1-11 in your favorite translation. When I was translating the lessons for the week what I see is a very funny moving to a very serious situation. I want to focus on Luke 5:5, Simon’s answer to Jesus.

Jesus has commandeered Simon’s boat to continue teaching. Simon has worked all night and got nothing. He’s cleaned the nets and just wants to go home. This itinerant preacher gets in his boat and starts making requests. Peter obviously complies, but then when Jesus is done teaching he turns to Peter and tells him to go back out to sea. Peter has just finished cleaning up and wants to go home.

My translation would be something like – “Chief, although we worked this whole night and nobody caught nothing, now at your word, I will let down the nets.” Reading the situation and the language his reply is sharp sarcasm. The ESV translates it as – “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets. (Luk 5:5 ESV) ” If you are giving it a close read, you might catch it. But c’mon man, that is pure Biblish. You can see the Jesus as Washington crossing the Delaware with his hand out and a golden halo with Peter rowing the boat and gazing doe eyed at Jesus. And that is boring.

The change in this story is in Peter. He goes from this sarcastic put upon peasant calling Jesus “chief” to a man scared for his existence at his encounter with God and grabbing at Jesus’ feet and calling him Lord. A purely literal translation like the ESV misses that. Unless you are going to read the Bible very closely, everything comes off as this pious gauzy picture. These people were real. They had real lives and wants and emotions. And those real people met a real Christ. It is that real encounter with the living Christ that the Word causes.

Do yourself a favor and get a translation that lets you read God’s Word. The danger of swallowing bad theology from the translator is much less than the danger of never opening the word because you think it is boring or just pious stories.

Tags: Culture, Luke, Word by Parson Brown
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I’m Lutheran – I believe teach and confess this. But I also like to think or lay claim to the title catholic – as in the one holy, catholic and apostolic church.

This article from the Wall Street Journal on Catholic schools had one of the most hopeful sentences I’d read in a long time.

Tim Busch has an answer to the epidemic of closing Catholic schools. And it has nothing to do with vouchers…”We can’t wait for vouchers, and we can’t look to the old model of relying on our pastors and bishops to come up with the money and answers,” says Mr. Busch. “If we want Catholic schools for our children and our society, we have to adopt new models that let us compete.”

That is a sign of hope and renewal. And if the stodgy institutions can’t adapt or move fast enough, well, its too important to wait. As a minister, I would pray that we could provide some of the leadership. If we can’t or won’t, don’t just sit there. The gospel is too important to be locked up in old wineskins.

Tags: Culture, Word by Parson Brown
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Text: 1 Cor 14:1-12

Looking at the passage for today those in Corinth are hungry for what Paul calls spiritual gifts. If you read closer you realize that these spiritual gifts are not the list of love, joy, peace, patience, etc but are manifestation of the Spirit such as speaking in tongues. Paul directs them instead at two things: 1. prophecy and 2. building up the church. I could be wrong here, but that word prophecy is not the popular imagination of telling the future, but simply the speaking of the Word of God. At a minimum, that is supposed to be the guy in the pulpit. Now I’m sure there are many times when what that guy says sounds like he is talking in a tongue, but it should go beyond that. We should not be looking at speaking the Word to God alone in showy babbling tongues, but speaking the Word to each other. Instead of being foreigners to each other, we are to be brothers and sisters. Instead of looking for ways to look holy without saying anything, look to build up the place where we meet prophets and hear the Word. Is there some way that you can share the Word of God and prophesy to your brothers and sisters?

Tags: Meditation, Witness, Word by Parson Brown
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Texts: 1 Kings 22:29-45 and 2 Kings 1:2-17

The history books have this snarky line – “Now the rest of the acts of [King's Name], and his might that he showed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel/Judah.” At the death of each king that line appears. (If anyone is a Lord of the Rings fan you hear the echo in the Return of the King when Gandalf overdubs the guy jumping off the cliff -”And so was the reign of elsinore, Steward of Gondor”.) The biblical Chronicler, set against his time and place is unique. In no other documents would you get a King being made to look like the fool. If you want Pravda – go read the other Chronicles – aren’t all of the exploits recorded? But here, we have recorded the Word. And you can hear some of the playfulness of the Holy Spirit. Are not all those great exploits written elsewhere? Go read them if you want. Of course today and probably not long after each king died those exploits were lost, but the Word remains. These things are recorded for your instruction – said with snark.
And Ahab killed in battle and his end pictured as the remains of his life blood washed out of the more valuable Chariot and given to the dogs gives way to his son who falls through the floor of his palace. But within that is part of the story of Elijah. Elijah was just a blunt guy. After falling through the floor, Ahab son sends people to Baalzebub – a Philistine God – at Ekron to discern if he will live. Elijah meets them on the road and asks – “It is because there is no God in Israel?” The answer is of course no – it is because we don’t like that God of Israel’s answers. For Ahab’s son the answer is you’re a goner. But for us isn’t it the same. We can send messengers to this Baal or that Baal – our work or our sports team or our house – won’t you keep me safe? To which we always get a positive reply…until we don’t.
Ahab’s son doesn’t like the message and sends a captain and 50 soldiers to take care of Elijah the messenger. Some fire gets in the way. It also gets in the way of the second cohort. That third captain though is a little brighter. This one can see who is the bigger dog in this fight. Instead of “taking care of Elijah” he and his men become Elijah’s bodyguard. And Elijah delivers the same message in person. As long as we think we are the kings or that the Baals will save us that is the message. The message of the biblical chronicler is exposing the lie, stripping down the kings. And that is the message of the law. It strips us down until we are able to say – where should I go, you have the words of eternal life – until we can enter the Kingdom not as kings but as children.

Tags: Meditation, Word by Parson Brown
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Full Text

The arresting line in the gospel text (Mark 9:14-29) is of course – ‘I Believe, Help my unbelief!” But, the point of the text by its own words are prayer – “this kind only comes out with prayer.” What comes out? A demon of muteness and deafness. If faith comes by hearing, and if those who have believed in Mark’s gospel respond by telling everyone even over Jesus’ commands – is there not a better description of unbelief than one who is deaf to the Gospel and mute at its reception? Help my unbelief was the father’s cry. The disciples said as much when they asked – “why couldn’t we drive it out?” Jesus answer is get connected. Renew and strengthen your faith through prayer.

I concentrated on the disciples as learners (the core meaning of the word). Rev. David Bernard (VP of the Eastern District) shared a different view that captured my attention today. The father says “I believe, help my unbelief” after the disciples are unable to cast out the demon. If you look at the disciples as either the church or the ministerium (they are the proto-church and also the proto-ministers and sorting out when they are what is often subtle), that phrase takes on a very potent modern view – “I believe in you Jesus, but your church/ministers sure brings out my unbelief.” In an day when entire church bodies vote to ignore the Word of God as authoritative (see the post below on the ELCAs recent statement on sexuality), the church can get in the way of faith and even encourage faithlessness.

Tags: Culture, Mark, Sermons, Word by Parson Brown
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This is the internet so we can post drafts of things that we can alter later, right? Here is a draft which I’ve sent out for some review on a teaching response to the actions by the ELCA and the EC-USA this summer. I say teaching response because while I think many people would be able to tell you that the LC-MS and the ELCA do not agree on Human Sexuality issues, I also think that many would not be able to tell you why they disagree other than just plain orneriness. This response attempts to fairly review ELCAs arguments and to also provide the basis for the LC-MS position.

Here is the first paragraph…

Even for someone who would rather ignore denominational and church politics, this summer in the United States saw two major church bodies take hard votes on issues of sexuality. The Episcopal Church, much smaller in numbers today but long the church of the old WASP elite with cultural significance much larger than numbers, and the other body carrying the Lutheran name, the ELCA, both voted to recognize homosexual clergy and monogamous homosexual relationships. Those votes by those church bodies to adopt policies that are in opposition to historic Christian teaching are tough to ignore. What I intend to do in this note is to fairly and clearly portray the action taken and also to state the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod’s teaching on the same maters.

A Turbulent Summer – A Response to the ELCA’s Social Statement – Human Sexuality – Draft

Tags: Church Direction, Culture, Word by Parson Brown
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Texts: 1Samuel 4:1-11, 1Samuel 5:1-12, 1Samuel 6:1-16

The three text sections above carry the full tale of the Ark. The Israelites under old Eli have gone to war with the Philisitnes and were being slaughtered, so they think “let’s bring the Ark out with us!” This of course is the Indiana Jones Ark, along with the spear of destiny and any other “holy” artifact that would give anyone – even Hitler – the victory. Sorry for the sarcasm. Indy is a great movie, but the theology is horrendous. A bad theology shared by the Israelites of the time. “We’ve got God in a box. Let’s take him out to fight for us.” That ends badly as the Philistines capture the ark.

The Philistines have their own bad theology. “Since we defeated the Israelites, our God must be stronger. Let’s put the Ark of their God in our temple as a lasting tribute.” The theology is suffering equals punishment from God or in a multi-god worldview -”Nah, Nah, your god is a 98lb weakling.” But the “winning idol” falls over twice and plagues start appearing in the land. The Ark becomes a hot potato being passed around among the cities of the Philistines, and plague travels with it.

Eventually the Philistines just want the Ark gone. What is interesting is that the Philistine priests acknowledge the Exodus. The warning is don’t be like Pharoah – let the thing go now! The hook it up to two cows, put images of the plagues inflicted on them next to it and send it on its way driverless. Never-the-less the cows go the right way and the Ark is returned.

It is probably a moral failure in me, but I find stories like this one amusing. We moderns think we are so advanced, but the two theological errors of the Israelites and the Philistines are still with us. When things are going bad, the first response for the christian is often to play the religion card – “God, get me out of this.” Or should we call it is the Jesus Take the Wheel theology. Not that God is not there, it is the easy and thoughtless manner of the call for divine intervention. When we think we are on top an easy triumphalism enters or maybe “Our God is an Awesome God” theology. Again, not that he is not awesome, but He claims everything is his and not just one side in a petty dispute.

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob whose Ark this was has his own ideas. Ideas as crazy as “I am God – there is no other. (Isa 45:5)” Ideas as crazy as dying on a cross actually being victory. Whose ideas have ultimate reality? God has a way of poking fun at our bad ideas about Him – like a driverless cow cart bringing back the Ark with gold tumors next to it.

Tags: Meditation, Word by Parson Brown
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Text:1 Samuel 3:1-21

It is hard to really get a grip on poor old Eli. I guess the picture is just of a weak man in an office much bigger than he was. His kids ignore him and do despicable things. He assumes that drunk people normally stagger into the Tabernacle (Samuel’s mom), and quickly rushes to cover his mistake. He lives and works in the place of worship, is the chief worship leader, and yet the Word of the Lord was rare in those days.

In the Lutheran tradition we speak of Law and Gospel proclamation. The Law is what bring terror while the Gospel is God’s peace for us. I wonder if when Samuel told Eli what God said – that his house would be cut off – if Eli took that as law or as Gospel. If it was law you’d expect a personally pious man to repent and be grieved (think David when confronted by Nathan and Psalm 51). Proclaiming the law is tough and Samuel doesn’t have an easy first assignment – hence the hesitency and Eli’s insistence. Maybe for the first time in his life Eli is forcing “his son” and himself to do the hard thing. Eli’s response is – “It is the LORD, let him do what seems good to him.” I can’t help but think he took it as a Gospel proclamation – God would deliver his people from all of Eli’s faults. No tearing of the clothes. No sacrifices or attempts to save himself, his son’s and his line. But a sense of consigned happiness. The weight of it all, the office, the misbehavior, that lack of the Word, would be removed.

I can’t help but think of Eli as something of a symbol for much of our leadership both national and in families – too weak a people to carry out the duties assigned and expected. 40% of children in America are born outside of marriage. Fathers are too weak to accept the role their bodies signed them up for. Mothers too weak to admit picking poorly. Those parents bring up children who run loose and behave like Eli’s children with any amount of power. Religious leaders afraid of preaching and teaching the gospel with personal lives too screwy to do so effectively. And if they are too afraid and live like that, why should parents teach their own kids. Political and cultural leaders who behave as children and cry when caught with their hands in the cookie jar. But the LORD appeared again at Shiloh, for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the Word of the Lord. So is our prayer – Lord reveal yourself again by your Word in our lives.

Tags: Culture, Marriage, Word by Parson Brown
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Text: 1 Samuel 2:12-26

I got a kick when the phrase “…before I go Old Testament on you…” entered into the vocabulary of every 6th grader. (If I remember right it was from Pulp Fiction which I can’t explain why 6th graders would be watching that movie.) The phrase actually captures some of the flavor of these Old Testament stories. Eli’s sons in the space of a few versus: are called worthless, demonstrate their disregard for God and their positions by abusing them and the people they serve, and using their position to procure sex from those who served in the place of worship.

I remember as a kid both at home and in Sunday School a steady diet of these Old Testament stories. Now with my oldest being 6 years old – and her favorite bible story being “The Ten Plagues” – I sometimes have the same thoughts as Ben Myers here. Just what is this little one getting out of this? Samuel was a constant in those Sunday school lessons. First his mother’s piety and Eli stupidity. Then Samuel’s calling by God in that small voice that would doom Eli. It was usually tied together with some type veggie-tales “little guys can do big things to” moral or a stern warning to “obey your parents and respect God.” (Like Mr. Myers’ child thinking about the goat, my Anna always cracks up at the frogs in the plagues. There is something about a swarm of frogs that tickles her funny bone.)

I wonder how many kids of even Christian familes are hearing the old testament stories today? And I am not asking that strictly through a sentimental fog. There is no question that the OT seems rougher and more brutal (excluding the cross of the NT). After growing up, did those stories at that age have an effect on our rougher and vulgar culture today as Ben implies? Or do we not tell those stories to our children (in violation of the old testament directive to speak of them always) because we have lost or never gained the vocabulary to talk about them? Since they end up watching Pulp Fiction anyway, shouldn’t Eli and his worthless son’s get their time? And think for a second about the implied lessons on duty, authority and justice. Justice is the purpose of all authority. The authority that perverts justice loses its mantle. To the extent that a small child will tell a 90 year old the Word of God. Even from a secular point of view those sound like good republican virtues.

Tags: Culture, Meditation, Word, Youth by Parson Brown
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