My Easter Posting

So, it's Tuesday and I'm back at work. Funerals behind me (they went pretty well) and Holy Week services over (they were awesome). During Holy Communion on Sunday I chose one of the modern praise choruses that made it into Evangelical Lutheran Worship to be sung. My teenage girls liked singing it. Here it is.

Lord, I Lift Your Name on High

Lord, I lift your name on high;
Lord, I love to sing your praises.
I'm so glad you're in my life,
I'm so glad you came to save us.

You came from heaven to earth to show the way,
from the earth to the cross, my debt to pay,
from the cross to the grave,
from the grave to the sky;
Lord, I lift your name on high.

by Rick Founds

Alleluia. Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us keep the feast. Alleluia. (1 Cor 5:7, 8)

Good Friday

I won't be blogging this weekend so I thought I'd post the words to one of my all time favourite hymns in advance.

O Sacred Head, Now Wounded

O sacred head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
now scornfully surrounded with thorns, thine only crown;
O sacred head, what glory, what bliss till now was thine!
Yet, though despised and gory, I joy to call thee mine.

How pale thou art with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn;
how does thy face now languish, which once was bright as morn!
Thy grief and bitter passion were all for sinners' gain;
mine, mine was the transgression, but thine the deadly pain.

What language shall I borrow to thank thee, dearest friend,
for this thy dying sorrow, thy pity without end?
Oh, make me thine forever, and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to thee.

Lord, be my consolation; shield me when I must die;
remind me of thy passion when my last hour draws nigh.
These eyes, new faith receiving, from thee shall never move;
for all who die believing die safely in thy love.

Text: Paul Gerhardt, 1607-1676,

based on Arnulf of Louvain, d. 1250;

tr. composite

Look to Jesus, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb 12.2).

Holy Week

I love this week. I love the services of this week. But this year it's a bit of a drag. Not only do I have extra sermons to write. Not only am I down on myself because I haven't visited many of our shut in members for a while and won't get to it this week either. Now I've got a funeral on Thursday afternoon. I don't know how I'm going to get everything done.

Revision:

I got a call from the funeral home after I posted this. I thought there might be some changes for the Thursday funeral. Nope. Now I've got another funeral on Saturday. I hope nobody attends both funerals or else they'll be hearing a couple of very similar sermons.

I Bind unto Myself Today

I've never been big into St. Patrick's Day. I'm of German descent so that might have something to do with it. I've got nothing against the Irish showing some pride in their heritage today but there's often a whole lot of foolishness that goes along with that and way to much drinking.

At sixteen, Patrick was kidnapped by Irish pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland. He himself admitted that up to this point he cared little for God. He escaped after six years, returned to his family in southwest Britain, and began to prepare for ordained ministry. He later returned to Ireland, this time to serve as a bishop and missionary. He made his base in the north of Ireland and from there made many missionary journeys with much success. In his autobiography he denounced the slave trade, perhaps from his own experience as a slave. Patrick's famous baptismal hymn to the Trinity, "I Bind unto Myself Today," can be used as a meditation on Lent's call to return to our baptism.

from Sundays & Seasons, Augsburg Fortress, 2007.

I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity
by invocation of the same, the Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this day to me forever, by pow'r of faith, Christ's incarnation,
his baptism in the Jordan River, his cross of death for my salvation,
his bursting from the spiced tomb, his riding up the heav'nly way,
his coming at the day of doom, I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself today the virtues of the starlit heaven,
the glorious sun's lifegiving ray, the whiteness of the moon at even,
the flashing of the lightning free, the whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,
the stable earth, the deep salt sea, around the old eternal rocks.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the name, the strong name of the Trinity
by invocation of the same, the Three in One and One in Three,
of whom all nature has creation, eternal Father, Spirit, Word.
Praise to the Lord of my salvation; salvation is of Christ the Lord!

attr. Patrick, 372-466

para. Cecil Frances Alexander, 1823-1895

Spicy Me

You Are Oregano

You have are charming, funny, witty, and smart. You love to party - and people love to party with you. You are always friendly and warm. You are able to help people get along.

What Spice Are You?

Snow, Snow Everywhere

I wrote this last week to appear in tomorrow's paper and wouldn't you know it, we were hit with a 36 hour snow storm on Friday and Saturday which makes my pining for snow sound ridiculous this week. Oh well.


...about Snow Days

I remember the snow days we used to get when I was a kid. Maybe I’ve just got a selective memory but it seemed we used to get a lot more snow back in my grade school days in the ‘70s. I grew up in Burlington, only an hour away from here, but it seemed to me that there would be snow on the ground all winter long. And you could probably count on three or four big storms that would shut down the schools.

We’ve had snow this winter but not the up-to-your-knees kinds of snowfalls that I remember from my childhood. (Granted, my knees were closer to the ground back then.) When it snowed here this winter it might have stayed on the ground for a week before we saw the brown grass again. And those snow days when the school would be shut down didn’t happen at all. I think the school was closed once this winter and not because of a heavy snowfall but because of the threat of freezing rain.

I like winter to be winter. It should be cold and there should be snow. This is Canada after all. If I were in charge of the weather we’d have a blanket of snow a week or two before Christmas (because Irving Berlin has taught us all to dream of a White Christmas), it would last through the March Break so that kids could play in the snow on their week off, and we’d have 3 or 4 storms evenly spaced in between that would give kids the much-loved snow days off of school.

Having said all that, I’m ready for spring. I wrote this a week ago as snow was falling. It’s March Break now and I don’t know if there’s any snow on the ground as you read this. But now I’m looking forward to spring. Spring brings with it new life as the snow melts, the ground thaws, and nature begins to green up. The days have been getting longer and with the clocks springing forward this past weekend we get even more daylight in the evening.

In the church we’re approaching the end of the season of Lent. Lent is a springtime for the soul. It’s a time of renewal. In our church, before we hear the reading of the Gospel, we sing "Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love" (Joel 2:13). It’s a time for our spirit’s to be refreshed as we anticipate Holy Week and Easter.

During Lent we journey with Christ toward the cross. The cross looms before us and its shadow falls on our path as we journey. But for Christians the cross does not loom ominously. We see hope in the cross. We see glory and triumph as Jesus willingly gives himself for us. And on Easter that hope is realized in the new life that Jesus promises to all.

Life after death. Springtime following winter. May the grace of Christ warm you and give you new life as we move into the warmth of a new season.

Spring Newsletter Items

The following are a couple of articles I compiled for our Spring Newsletter.

The Way of the Cross

In November I was in Jerusalem. It was the end of two-and-a-half weeks of touring through Egypt, Jordan, and Israel. I was getting tired of traveling on buses, living out of a suitcase in a series of hotels, eating hotel food, and mostly I was missing my wife and kids and home. So the sites and experiences of Jerusalem didn't have the same kind of impact they might have had if it had been the first stop on our tour or if the tour hadn't been quite as long.

One of the things we saw and did in Jerusalem, something that every Christian pilgrim to that holy city probably does, is walk the Via Dolorosa, the ancient "Way of Sorrows" walked by Jesus on his way to his Crucifixion. The streets through which we walked are lined with small shops and stalls like any other market street. The streets through which Jesus walked were likely very similar.

Now the route is marked out by 14 "Stations of the Cross," linked with events that occurred on Christ's last, fateful walk. Some of the Stations are commemorated only by wall plaques which can be difficult to spot among the market and souvenir stalls. Others are located inside buildings or commemorated by small chapels. The last five stations are all within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre built around what is believed to be the site of Christ's Crucifixion, burial and Resurrection.

The 14 Stations of the Cross are not all biblical. Some have been added by Christian tradition over the centuries. But one Lutheran resource I have provides a liturgy with prayers and readings and suggested hymns for the 8 stations that are mentioned in the Bible. It's traditional to meditate on these events in the last day of Jesus' life on the Fridays in Lent and especially on Good Friday. I obviously won't put the entire liturgy in this newsletter but I will list the 8 stations and the biblical references to them and perhaps on Good Friday you might read them and ponder just what our Lord went through on that holy day.

First Station: Jesus is Condemned to Death

Mark 15:1, 12-15

Second Station: Jesus Takes Up His Cross

John 19:17; Hebrews 5:8; Isaiah 53:7b; Revelation 5:12

Third Station: The Cross is Laid on Simon of Cyrene

Luke 23:26; Matthew 16:24; 11:29a, 30

Fourth Station: Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem

Luke 23:27-28

Fifth Station: Jesus is Stripped of His Garments

Matthew 27:33-35; John 19:24b

Sixth Station: Jesus is Nailed to the Cross

Luke 23:33; Isaiah 53:12b

Seventh Station: Jesus Dies on the Cross

John 19:26-27a, 30

Eighth Station: Jesus is Laid in the Tomb

Matthew 27:57-60

As we approach the joy of Easter let us not ignore or skip over the sorrow of Good Friday. Good Friday reminds us that God's love for us came at a great price. But there is Good News on Good Friday. Jesus is our triumphant king who reigns from the cross. It is not a day of mourning but a day to celebrate the sacrifice of Jesus that give us life. His death transformed the cross from an instrument of death and torture into the tree of life.

God bless you this Holy Week and Easter Season.

Pastor Tom


Easter Dogma (not a scary word)

To begin with, a joke.

A Lutheran gentleman died and approached the pearly gates to heaven. St. Peter met him there and refused him entry to paradise, pointing instead to a long staircase going down. The man descended the stairs and at the bottom of the stairs his worst fears were realized as he arrived in hell.

As he entered hell he saw many other Lutherans, people he knew from his congregation. He asked them "What’s going on? Why are we all here?" All they did was point to another set of stairs.

He climbed down another flight of stairs and found a gathering of Lutheran pastors and bishops, some of which he also knew. He asked them "What’s going on? Why are we all here?" All they did was point to another set of stairs.

He climbed down another flight of stairs and saw another group of men. He recognized one of them as Martin Luther. The others were Luther’s fellow reformers. He asked them "What’s going on? Why are we all here?" All they did was point to another set of stairs.

He climbed down another flight of stairs and met St. Paul. He asked the apostle "What’s going on? Why are we all here?" St. Paul shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Maybe it was works."

Now, most people who aren’t Christians wouldn’t understand this joke. Even many Christians might not get it unless they were Lutheran. But I’m guessing that there might be some Lutherans who don’t even get the punchline. What it comes down to is dogma. Dogma is not a scary word. Dogma is, simply defined, a set of principles that we believe to be true.

For Lutherans the single great proposed dogma is "justification by grace alone through faith alone, without the works of law." The Lutheran reformers proclaimed this as the doctrine by which the church "stands or falls." We are made right with God
- by grace alone, a pure gift that we did nothing to deserve, that we can do nothing to deserve.
- through faith alone, the utter and unmixed dependence on God.
- without the works of the law, not by keeping the commandments, not even by choosing to believe or by accepting God’s gracious gift.

This is the gospel in a nutshell. The gospel, rightly spoken, involves no ifs, ands, buts, or maybes of any sort. It does not say, "If you do your best to live a good life, God will fulfill that life," or, "If you fight on the right side of the great issues of your time...," or, "If you repent...," or, "If you believe...." It does not even say, "If you want to do good/repent/believe...," or, "If you are sorry for not wanting to do good/repent/believe...." The gospel says, "Because the Crucified lives as Lord, your destiny is good."

How is this Easter dogma? Jesus’ life and ministry embodied self-giving love. To those who were seen as nothing, the last, the least, the lost, he demonstrated love and caring even though they did nothing to deserve it. Pure grace. But this association and identification with lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors, cripples, and all the other dregs of society incurred the wrath of the religious and political powers. Jesus’ death demonstrated that this kind of life could never be excused or justified.

But then came Easter. By all social and religious standards Jesus got what he deserved. By the rules of society Jesus ought to have been eternally damned, but instead God raised him from the dead. If Jesus had not been raised then the obvious would be proven: Fools who give themselves to the poor get what they deserve. But he didn’t. Because of the resurrection we can no longer see him as just a good person, just a prophet, just a radical advocate of the poor. We can’t even think of him as just a sacrifice for our evil.

Jesus Christ, the crucified one, is alive! He is present today and his presence is for us. Faith is the real presence of Christ. Christ is really present in his body the church, in the feast of Holy Communion, and in his disciples. Christ continues to be crucified whenever opposition to his gospel and his witness tries to snuff out love and liberation. But Christ continues to be resurrected. Crucifixion is the beginning of new growth and new energy in the Spirit. In the end, death will have done its worst and be defeated utterly. The hymn of all creation will ring out: Death is swallowed up! Where, O Death, your victory? Where, O Death, your sting? Worthy is Christ, the Lamb who was slain, Lord of all creation!

Jeff Healey Dead

Jeff Healey died on Sunday. He was such an awesome guitar player. I serenaded my wife with an a capella version of his song Angel Eyes before I proposed to her and then it was our first dance at our wedding reception. Only 41 years old. My age. Too young. Now he can See the Light.