Just think! With angels and archangels!

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. (Colossians 1:16 ESV)

I rarely mention names in my posts; however, I have to mention one of the seminary professors who has guest-lectured for the past three classes in my liturgics course, Dr. Arthur Just. He was my online Gospels professor Once Upon a Time, and I really liked him then-- he has been speaking about the roots of Lutheran worship liturgy (the elements of which go back to the 4th century and grew out of Jewish house worship). He wrote a book (one of numerous, actually) about Lutheran worship history and practices entitled Heaven on Earth, required reading for the liturgics course, in which he writes the following (my underlining):

Early Christians believed that Jesus, the crucified and ascended Lord, was present with them through Word and Sacrament. This biblical eschatology is missing in many discussions about worship and liturgy today. In our liturgy we join all saints in one worshiping assembly because there Jesus Christ is present both in heaven and on earth. The saints in heaven and the worshiping congregation on earth manifest their unity in the one liturgy. In the liturgy the Church tells the world that its story is an eternal one because the presence of Jesus Christ, the eternal One, now dwells in the world.

The liturgy places us on a historical and eschatological line through God's great, objective, cosmic act of justification in Jesus Christ. We now have the same status in the kingdom of God as both the prophets of old and the saints in glory. We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses who have gone before us, and, with Christians everywhere, we rejoice in their presence. They are standing with us and joining their voices with ours in one glorious liturgy. 

In class this afternoon he spoke of graduating from the seminary in 1980 and during the first year of ministry at a broken congregation, he came to the realization that he didn't fully have an understanding of suffering. Folks were bringing him-- a young guy right out of seminary-- their burdens and he described how he was overwhelmed. Then he spoke of two specific incidents that provided a more personal insight into what others are going through. Only a few months into his call as a pastor, his wife's sister was brutally murdered in Dallas. Months later, the son of one of his parishioners was diagnosed with cancer, which took him at the age of 12. Dr. Just recalled in front of us how he wrote a funeral sermon based on the theology of the excerpt above, hoping that the parents would be comforted by knowing that, as their son was with Jesus and we believe that Jesus is present during the service (along with angels, archangels, and all the saints of heaven), that their son was present, too. He then related how the father appreciated his words, but to him his son was still gone...at only 12 years old. It was all I could do to not excuse myself and step out of the lecture hall to regain my composure.

On the drive home I seriously pondered what I'm getting myself into. And I thanked God.

Earlier in the day during field worker class, we few Alternate Route students along with the traditional first- and second-year students listened to three fourth-year guys talk about their vicarage assignments. I nearly excused myself, since I've already served a two-year vicarage, but I thought it would be interesting to hear their opinions. Two of them had positive experiences, the third not so much. I wonder what impression the third guy made on all the younger guys who will be going off to their vicarage assignments in their third year?

One of the fourth-year guys bore a striking resemblance to Tsar Nicholas II (or King George V-- they were nearly identical first cousins). He said something that reminded me of a resolution I made with myself after Greek class ended, but forgot about.

Everyone here at the seminary would agree that devotional time each day is very important, and I have heard more than once that simply reading two chapters of the Bible in the morning and then two more in the evening is a great way to get through the entirety of Scripture in less than a year; and it's a good way to stay Bible sharp. Same rule applies to the Confessions (Book of Concord). So I'm beginning today. With God's help I can make it a habit...

No matter what, every day I learn something new. Mostly about other people and their experiences.

I love this place!

P.S. I bought my first alb (ecumenical robe), Benedictine cincture (rope "belt"), and fancy vestments garment bag with the Luther's Rose seal on it... As my sister would say if she saw it, "Fancy!"  I'll be robed up for next week at church...it's been a few years, but I'm looking forward to being part of the service again!

P.P.S. Speaking (earlier in this post) of worship service and angels and archangels, on Thursday we will celebrate the feast of St. Michael and All Angels on Sept. 29. Who is Michael, and why does he matter to Lutherans and the church?

Get-Acquainted Service(s)

We were officially introduced to my field work congregation by the pastor this morning at both services, after worshiping there for the last month and a half. It was nice to be officially "installed," after which the pastor wasted no time inducting me into service-- I participated in the Communion distribution in the late service...with the fly button missing from my pants...

While getting dressed this morning, I noticed that the button on this particular pair of khaki trousers had a loose button... I figured it had enough thread to hold (and made a mental note to tell the cleaners about it) so I wore them to church. I got up to use the restroom during the offering and that's when the thread unraveled and the button dropped off. The only thing to do was to cinch my belt so tight my voice went up an octave and pray that while I was kneeling or bending down to proffer the tray of wine there wouldn't be a wardrobe malfunction...

Luckily I made it through. After the service, however, the pastor took us on a walking tour through the church and school (K-8) buildings. Another prayer before we set off and, thankfully, everything remained in the up or closed position...

And, speaking of a church tour, between the two services we had a chance to wander through the cemetery adjacent to the sanctuary. The congregation started in 1898 (and the church school 15 years earlier), so there are a lot of old headstones. One marker (pictured) kind of stands out-- a tree trunk with a cross. As we were looking at it, I wondered why a tree trunk as a grave marker... As I was placing the image into this post, it dawned on me that the names on there may constitute the trunk of the family tree... It's plausible, though there might be some other reason.

So we're now indoctrinated into the ways of Suburban Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. I will begin my field worker duties in earnest at both services next Sunday as the liturgist (reader). And also I have to do (woe is me) the children's message. The time has come to buy an alb (white liturgical robe)-- the seminary bookstore has a guy coming to do measurements tomorrow, so I'll probably get one then.

In church work, there's no rest for the weary. But that's the nature of the game...

Onward into Week 4!

С Богом!

GREAT letter on the kneeling protest meme sweeping the nation!

So finally the other knee drops-- the Chancellor of the University of Texas system wrote a very sensible and eloquent response to this kneeling "protest" that has been spreading through the herd in the shadow of that San Francisco 49ers quarterback's quixotic (and offensively apostate, I have to say) genuflection during the national anthem at gametime.

This letter needs to be published in Sports Illustrated. For now, though, you can read it here. Enjoy!

Just a news update...

It's been a few days since I've posted, but there's been a lot going on leaving me little time for blogging (actually, I have two papers due by Friday, on 1000-1200 words, the other 1350-1650 words). My intention was to begin them this afternoon, but I have some time before the deadline to get them done...

So last Friday my Liturguics class had a lab with the kantors (music guys) and we got our first chanting lesson. I suck at it. If you're not familiar with chanting in the Lutheran worship service, you're in the majority.

Friday night we attended a dinner hosted by the LCMS Texas District president at the seminary-- brisket and Shiner. We had a chance to talk with the president about my particular situation as a one-year Alternate Route student finishing on August 2 (as opposed to the majority of the traditional 4-year students in the herd). He asked us if we would like to serve in Texas after the seminary and before I could open my mouth, my wife said "Yes!" So, I will be interviewing with him in January, along with the 4th year students looking for an assignment in Texas.

Saturday morning it rained here steadily through early afternoon. We made our way to the 42nd Annual Johnny Appleseed Festival in the rain, slogging past dozens of vendors in period costumes. One of the folksier draws is that all the food has to be prepared as in ol' Johnny's day as the festival itself tries to present an "historically accurate representation of rural pioneer life in the 19th century." It was as wet as it was interesting...

Saturday evening we, along with three other couples and one unmarried student, shared dessert and a glass of wine or two at my advisor's house on the seminary campus. The other two married guys are also one-year Alternate Route students (and one, with whom I became friends with in Greek over the summer, is already ordained through an online program similar to what I began in 2005-- he is here to get certified for general ministry, like me, not to get a masters degree). The single guy and one of the other couples are from Norway. We had a good time chatting (and before we left, the hymnals came out and we sang-- I without my readers...I think my hymnal was upside-down the whole time) and over the course of conversation learned that the single Norwegian guy is a juggler. That's him in the picture. It was a nice time, but went past our bedtime...

Today all the first-year pastoral and deaconess students were formally assigned field work churches. First- and second-year seminary students are "farmed out" to area congregations for OJT. I sort of greased the skids (as we used to say in the Navy) by talking with the pastor at Suburban Bethlehem Lutheran Church here in Ft. Wayne where we have been worshiping for the last month and a half. I asked him if he would accept me as a field worker and he was more than willing. During the summer we got to know the couple who were assigned as field workers there last year (she's in the deaconess program...and has the same name as my wife, same less common spelling, too) and have remained assigned for their second year. So the pastor was on campus this morning for our "convocation" and then we had lunch together and discussed the next steps, the first of which is to be introduced officially to the congregation at both worship services next Sunday. After that, I am at the pastor's beck and call, basically-- he's a very nice guy and I think we'll have a great working relationship; plus, we're friends with the other field worker couple, so it shouldn't be too taxing of an assignment (outside of time management).

Now I'm just waiting to hear whether or not I need to do a one-year vicarage (internship) as part of my program requirement or that it can be waived in light of the two-year vicarage I did as part of the online program I was in a few years ago. That decision should be coming soon.

Oh and since June I have been battling with the Tarrant County, Texas, voter registrar who twice has rejected my application for ballot by mail (I hope they handle ballots better than applications!). In today's mail I received a third rejection letter, along with my new county registration card-- so I called the registrar's office this afternoon and they assured me that the third rejection letter is a mistake and that I will be receiving my ballot in the mail after September 23. (Now I'm not even sure I want to vote, given the candidates.)

AND tonight Gotham is back on! Woo-hoo! (I'm kind of addicted...)

There you have it. All is good in our neck of the woods for today.

С Богом!

Where would we be without Wikipedia?!

I must apologize for letting Wikipedia speak for me, a Lutheran seminary student, about things Lutheran, but I'm on my lunch break between classes and I just want to share. Besides, for the non-Lutherans tuning in, or for the Lutherans with a sketchy knowledge of the whys and hows of our denomination, the simplicity of Wikipedia is doing us all a favor...

As a new full-time seminary student, I am required to attend 3 weeks' worth of Wednesday evening "Bib Tech" classes (6-9pm, which cuts into my bedtime) in the library, a leading theological research institution in itself at a leading theological teaching institution. At the end of last  night's session, the director put on some white gloves and offered up two medieval tomes for show and tell. The first, pictured below, is an original (albeit rebound) 1521 copy of Martin Luther's De Libertate Christiana (On the Freedom of a Christian), about which Wikipedia says...

On the Freedom of a Christian (Latin: "De Libertate Christiana"; German: "Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen"), sometimes also called "A Treatise on Christian Liberty" (November 1520), was the third of Martin Luther’s major reforming treatises of 1520, appearing after his Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (August 1520) and the work Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church (October 1520). This work was originally written in Latin then translated into German and developed the concept that as fully forgiven children of God, Christians are no longer compelled to keep God's law; however, they freely and willingly serve God and their neighbors. Luther also further develops the concept of justification by faith. In the treatise, Luther stated, "A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all."

The second item was a much larger in size, first-publication 1580 copy of The Book of Concord (below). Again, I defer to Wikipedia...

The Book of Concord or Concordia (often, Lutheran Confessions is appended to or substituted for the title) (1580) is the historic doctrinal standard of the Lutheran Church, consisting of ten credal documents recognized as authoritative in Lutheranism since the 16th century. They are also known as the symbolical books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

The Book of Concord was published in German on June 25, 1580 in Dresden, the fiftieth anniversary of the presentation of the Augsburg Confession to Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg. The authoritative Latin edition was published in 1584 in Leipzig.

Those who accept it as their doctrinal standard recognize it to be a faithful exposition of the Bible. The Holy Scriptures are set forth in The Book of Concord to be the sole, divine source and norm of all Christian doctrine.

The Book of Concord was compiled by a group of theologians led by Jakob Andreae and Martin Chemnitz at the behest of their rulers, who desired an end to the religious controversies in their territories that arose among Lutherans after the death of Martin Luther in 1546.

It was quite moving to actually be less than an arm's reach away from books that were written and published nearly 500 years ago in the winds of the Reformation!

We are STILL the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave!

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage! (Psalm 33:12 ESV)

I was a first-year high school ESL teacher in Texas, less than a month into my job when one of my students stuck her head into my classroom during my morning conference period to tell me that a plane had crashed into a building in New York City.

When I sat down at my desk to check CNN's website, all that came up was text...

Then the principal spoke over the school's PA system...

By lunchtime there was a loud line of impatient parents stretched out the front doors, some yelling at the poor attendance clerks to "Can't you hurry up!! Please get me my child!! We're under attack!!"...

When I walked out of that school building later in the afternoon, there was the sound of a pair of fighter jets droning on in the sky above; there was no sign of the usual passenger planes departing from and arriving at Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport...

On tv and seemingly everywhere around me people were asking each other and God... "Why?!"

My faith in a Lord and Savior who understands suffering in a way we cannot assures me that not for one second were we alone in our tears, grief, and fear on September 11, 2001. That same God in Christ who suffered and died in abject dejection by the very creations he was sent to save also understands self-sacrifice. While we still mourn those innocent persons senselessly killed by Hate that day, we must never forget the heroes who sacrificed their own lives to save others.

Contrary to the idealistic but poorly executed message of a handful of professional athletes, whose quixotic refusal to stand for our national anthem contributes more to a culture of confusion than one of resolve, the United States of America is STILL the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

And God is STILL with us.

Now Hebrew is Greek to me!

"I said it in Hebrew—I said it in Dutch—
     I said it in German and Greek:
But I wholly forgot (and it vexes me much)
     That English is what you speak!" (from The Hunting of the Snark (An Agony in 8 Fits) by Lewis Carroll in 1876)

It's a rainy Saturday morning here in Indiana. I've just finished my first week (though only four days) as a bona fide full-time seminary student and I need the weekend just to figure it all out! My classes are great, and I really like the professors. I'm in a mixed bag of courses, as I've had many of the 2nd- and 3rd-year level ones in the past, so I sit among mostly 1st-year and 2nd-year students. I'm definitely a far cry from the cookie cutter seminarian who shares his class schedule and dorm with a cohort; for example, the Old Testament course I'm taking is for 2nd-year students who have had Hebrew making me the only guy in the class who hasn't had it (a fact about which the professors jokingly, but relentlessly, remind me and the other three dozen students). My handicap will require me to use the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) to keep up.

The course topics-- Old Testament (Genesis, specifically), Gospels (Matthew), pastoral theology, liturgics, and even guided weekly small group readings of a New Testament text in Greek are very interesting! But I'm still not sure how I'm going to balance the workload. I already have a 10-page paper due on Thursday, with others due not too far behind. And there's an incredibly large amount of reading! But, again, I find it all very interesting, so I can bear it...

Anyway. So far, so good. Not much else to report about, other than academics. (Well, the cat had to go to the vet with a swollen front paw-- vet said he had an abscess from, most likely, a bite from something in the woods. Probably a bug of some kind or a rodent, but I think maybe a vampire bat or a moose.)

Ahead is the first full 5-day week... I'll no doubt be ready for Friday!

С Богом! (Neither Hebrew nor Greek, I remind you, but Russian...)

Smack your next spook with a smudge stick!

I went out for a solo death march this morning-- the weather was so nice! A cold front chased away the humidity and it was sunny, breezy, in the low 70s, so I just kept going...a smidge over 10 miles! (I've only run further than that twice in my life...)

Every ghost-bustin' housewife needs
a smudge stick (for those times when
a Swiffer just won't do)!

From smidge to smudge. The day before yesterday I caught a commercial for one of those stupid paranormal shows my wife says I shouldn't be watching. In it a frantic woman called her pastor to come bless her house; his response was "not until you get someone to smudge your home first." I had to rewind to listen again to what I thought heard, "smudge your home," and, sure enough, that's what I heard. There was no other context, so I Googled it and found out that smudging is a thing (which requires a "smudge stick"). A woefully named blog, Spiritual Spew, has all the poop one needs to smudge (so to speak): When and How to Smudge (with Videos)

But more than the smudging, I'm concerned with the woman's pastor who needs a house "cleansed" of spooks before agreeing to give a blessing... (Maybe that lady needs to get him a smudge stick of his very own.)

Tomorrow I have orientation at the seminary, then Tuesday I start crackin' the books... I'm ready.

So ready.

P.S. Consider aseity for a moment (if you can), as an attribute of God...