The Liturgy is Not a Competition

Rev. Rick Stuckwisch (LC-MS) wrote an excellent post concerning the tension Christians face over their worship practices.

It's worth a read. Some of the quotes I liked where:

In fact, I would go so far as to say that, as soon our liturgical practice has become a kind of competition, it has to that same extent become idolatrous.

How easy it is to forget that our erring brothers are not simply erring but brothers, and that, however wrongheaded and bungling they may be, they are loved and longed for by the Good Shepherd, who seeks out the lost to save them. If a brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him, even if it happens seven times a day. Forgiveness is the goal.

In the end, I would rather be known for an evangelical preaching and faithful catechesis of the Word, than measured by the "height" or "depth" of my liturgical practice.

I don't know if my Baptism was "high church" or "low church," but it was Christ who cleansed me by that washing of water with His Word, who thereby clothed me in Himself and His righteousness forever. There is no greater benefit to be given or received than that.

Devotional idea

I will be forever thankful for a gift my brother gave to me, the Bible on Audio CD.

Here's why I like it:

1. I can clean my office and do a devotion at the same time.
   
2. It forces me to listen to every word, and not skip to the key words nor breeze over the familiar ones.
   
3. I actually look forward to long drives in the car.
   
4. I seem to grasp big picture stuff better. It's amazing how the Holy Spirit threads the Bible together.
   
5. It reassures me that what I'm listening to is real. Kinda like listening to a sermon from another pastor that says the things you expect him to say.
   

I can see the danger in it too. Your mind drifts and suddenly you've forgotten what was said, and now you've broken the 3rd commandment. What an gracious God we have who takes that risk in hopes that the seed is planted on good soil.

I'm beginning to understand why we don't have quiet reading time on Sunday. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. (1 Timothy 4:13)

Balancing act

A member and I meet once a week to read the Bible together. He had read the People's Bible on Revelation and he thought it would be good to read Revelation again together. I agreed. It's nice to tackle the book of Revelation with someone who's already digested it in recent memory.

Anyways, we were reading the 7 letters to the 7 churches, and while there is a lot to take in from what Jesus says to His church, it struck me this time that what's important to Him was that His church hold on to the Word. He doesn't speak highly of blending His Word with false doctrine nor blending His Word with the world. There's tension between "becoming all things to all men" and "Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent."

Productivity

While I know my boss does not view productivity the way the world does, it is hard to let go of that sometimes. For example, my boss thinks that spending time with Him is very important because of the job. However,it doesn't look so good "on paper." "What's your schedule during the week, Pastor?" is often answered in terms of output than input. "I crank out a sermon, I visited so many people, I made so many phone calls, etc. etc."

It's just part of the gig, I guess. How to spend your time making sure you "neglect everything equally" (a phrase I heard at a Pastor Circuit Study once) and at the same time making sure to take care of your soul?

I was talking with a brother pastor yesterday, and he shared with me a phrase "do one big thing a day." With all the busy things pastors do in a day, if you got one big thing accomplished, you've had a good day. I don't remember coming across such a philosophy of ministry in the Bible. However, God did do one big thing called light and then called it a day... *cue audience laughter*

Well, yesterday I was spent most of the day analyzing Luther's Deutsche Messe and putting it together for my rural churches. A good day. Today I made an important phone call and a visit, both of which I had filled my sinful heart with unwarranted anxiety. a good day. Not that I want to scale back to doing just one thing a day, but a positive viewpoint helps.

Thy Will Be Done

After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. Coming over to us, he took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, "The Holy Spirit says, 'In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.' "
When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, "Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, "The Lord's will be done." (Acts 21:10-21)

Is sending a missionary to a field hostile to the Gospel good use of what we've been given? I wonder if that's what the brothers in Caesarea were thinking. Here was a man, Paul, a great missionary because of the message he proclaimed, wanting to go where God's message would be rejected and/or seemingly bear little fruit. Yet he goes, gets the chance of a lifetime to proclaim to his fellow Jews in Jerusalem, before the Sanhedrin, and even before kings...but what a waste. Many rejected his message, they put him in prison, they chained him up, and eventually killed him. Yet God's Word still bore fruit (as you can see from the following chapters in Acts). God's Word bore fruit even when people of faith thought the place and time to proclaim that Word wasn't a good idea. Besides that, our mission as witnesses of the Gospel is to follow our Lord, not only to the heaven He has won for us, but also follow Him to the cross.

This is also a marvelous text on handling disagreements. Was one side (Paul) right and the others (Luke and others) wrong? I'm not convinced of that. Yet what did they do? They yielded to their spiritual leader and said, "The Lord's will be done."

My synod has decided in convention to expand rather than use what it has. Was it the right decision? I'm not convinced it was. My leaders who are fallible have made a decision, and now the Lord's will be done. Good thing there's the rest of Acts, because then I see that even when a seemingly "wrong" decision goes very bad, the Lord's will was done then and it will be done now too. God's Word continues to be proclaimed.

Other than God's Word being proclaimed until the end of time, can we project/predict the Lord's Will?

Guess Who!

He was a respected man in his community, a patriotic citizen, and a leading member of his congregation. He could always be seen in church, at both the regular and festival services. His regular offerings totaled $2,000 per year out of an annual salary of $20,000. He was assiduous in his devotional life, and he never missed his appointed time for prayer, no matter where he was or how busy he might be. He was scrupulously honest in his dealings. He was never seen in bad company. He was deeply concerned about purity of doctrine and practice, and when he discovered what he was convinced were departures from a sound confessional position, he had the courage to protest.

He was a typical member of a Wisconsin Synod church, as we would like to see him, right? No, he was a pharisee – a composite drawn from such passages of the Bible as Luke 18.

Satan has peculiar temptations for every kind of person, and for the dedicated church member Pharisaism is one of the strongest. The way to destruction is broad, and there is room on it for the religious by preference and the righteous by comparison, as well as for the ungodly and the blasphemers.

Scripture exhorts us to add to our faith virtue, but the way which leads to life is traveled by breast-smiters rather than by finger-pointers.

---Editorial written by Pastor Immanuel Frey
---Northwestern Lutheran April 8, 1973

Overheard at a Bible class 25 years ago...

I was listening to a Bible class on the Augsburg Confession that was taped 25+ years ago while my father Pastor Arnold Ruddat was here on earth. I liked this quote from him:

"When the confession condemns anything, it condemns not the persons but the confession, that is, the doctrine they publicly proclaim, for which they stand for and defend. We commit their person to the mercy of God, but we submit their doctrine to a more scrutinizing and exacting investigation. Confessing the truth of Scripture involves a condemnation of opposing error."