Reformation Sunday

Readings

Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 46
Romans 3:19-28
John 8:31-36

Reformation Sunday, we remember Martin Luther's efforts to reform the Church by being clear about the proclamation of God's grace and how humans are made right with God, that is humans are justified by grace through faith. And we remember that the Church is always reforming, always returning to that core proclamation, without which we condemn ourselves since we can never earn God's grace, love and forgiveness.

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Pentecost 23 -- Matthew 22

Readings
Isaiah 45:1-7
Psalm 96:1-13
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Matthew 22:15-22

In this gospel reading, Jesus is tested by the Pharisees regarding the legality of paying the Emperor's census tax. Jesus sidesteps the trap, and takes us to a deeper, more dangerous place than just our relationship to the governing authorities. Instead, Jesus points us to our relationship to God.

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Pentecost 22 -- Matthew 22

Readings
Isaiah 25:1-9
Psalm 23
Philippians 4:1-9
Matthew 22:1-14

The Kingdom of God will be like a banquet... so promises the gospel reading from St. Matthew, as well as the psalmist and the prophet Isaiah. God is in the business of feeding people. The question is will we, fallen creatures that we are, want the good food that God is offering us?

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Is Christ everywhere?

In writing about the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, Martin Luther wrote:

See, the bright rays of the sun are so near you that they pierce into your eyes or your skin so that you feel it, yet you are unable to grasp them and put them into a box, even if you should try forever. Prevent them from shining in through the window—this you can do, but catch and grasp them you cannot. So too with Christ: although he is everywhere, he does not permit himself to be so caught and grasped; he can easily shell himself, so that you get the shell but not the kernel. Why? Because it is one thing if God is present, and another if he is present for you. He is there for you when he adds his Word and binds himself, saying, “Here you are to find me.” Now when you have the Word, you can grasp and have him with certainty and say, “Here I have thee, according to thy Word.” Just as I say of the right hand of God: although this is everywhere, as we may not deny, still because it is also nowhere, as has been said, you can actually grasp it nowhere, unless for your benefit it binds itself to you and summons you to a definite place. This God’s right hand does, however, when it enters into the humanity of Christ and dwells there. There you surely find it, otherwise you will run back and forth throughout all creation, groping here and groping there yet never finding, even though it is actually there; for it is not there for you.

So too, since Christ’s humanity is at the right hand of God, and also is in all and above all things according to the nature of the divine right hand, you will not eat or drink him like the cabbage and soup on your table, unless he wills it. He also now exceeds any grasp, and you will not catch him by groping about, even though he is in your bread, unless he binds himself to you and summons you to a particular table by his Word, and he himself gives meaning to the bread for you, by his Word, bidding you to eat him. This he does in the Supper, saying, “This is my body,” as if to say, “At home you may eat bread also, where I am indeed sufficiently near at hand too; but this is the true touto (note: touto is the Greek word for "this"), the ‘This is my body’: when you eat this, you eat my body, and nowhere else. Why? Because I wish to attach myself here with my Word, in order that you may not have to buzz about, trying to seek me in all the places where I am; this would be too much for you, and you would also be too puny to apprehend me in these places without the help of my Word.” (emphasis added)

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Luther, M. 1999, c1961. Luther's works, vol. 37 : Word and Sacrament III (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works. Vol. 37 (Vol. 37, Page 68-69). Fortress Press: Philadelphia

On the Current Financial Crisis

I received a link to a pastoral letter from the ELCA Conference of Bishops regarding the current financial crisis. The letter in its entirety can be read here.

Here are the opening paragraphs.

As bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, we are deeply concerned about the current financial crisis, which is affecting not only our nation but the entire global economy. This crisis is causing fear and loss in our country as thousands of families face unemployment, foreclosure, and uncertainty about savings and pensions. Meanwhile, they struggle to put food on the table and gas into their cars. The future is uncertain for all of us, but it is especially frightening for those who are already vulnerable and struggling to survive. We offer our prayers for those whose lives are being affected and for our national leaders as they seek to address this complex matter.

We call on all people in our own communities of faith and those from every segment of our society who seek the health of our nation to join in conversation and prayer about our collective economic life, our financial behaviors, and the interconnectedness of all life and creation that cries out to be reclaimed.

This church has addressed the issues surrounding economic life in its social statement, “Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All,” (www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/Social-Issues/Social-Statements/Economic-Life.aspx), and we encourage the use of this statement as a way to understand more fully how the following theological and biblical principles are central as we respond to this situation.

Please note that the social statement to which they refer is linked so you may click on the link to read it in its entirety.

In their letter, the bishops also lift up some of these principles: Concern for People in Poverty, Personal and Corporate Responsibility, the Need for Good Government, and the Benefits and Limits of Free Markets.

Please read these and pray for the world, the church and all those in need.

Pentecost 21 -- Matthew 21

Readings
Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm 80:7-15
Philippians3:4b-14
Matthew 21:33-46

In the lessons from Isaiah, the psalm and Matthew, we hear God's people compared to a a vineyard which is to bear the particular fruit of God's Kingdom.

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Weekly Calendar -- Oct. 5 through Oct. 12

Today 10/5 — Confirmation 11:30 AM
Blessing of the Animals 3:00 PM

Tuesday 10/7 — Bible Study 10:00 AM
Jesus over Java 7:30 PM

Wednesday 10/8 — WELCA 2:00 PM
Choir Rehearsal 7:00 PM
Council Meeting 7:00 PM

Friday 10/10 — Piecemakers 10:00 AM

Sunday 10/12 — Sunday School 9:00 AM
Communion Service 10:00 AM

Please note: Council meeting this week has been moved from Thursday to Wednesday.

Politics, Progress and Christian Hope

At the risk of gross oversimplification, we suggest that there are two quite different ways of looking at the future of the world. Both of these ways are sometimes confused with the Christian hope, and indeed both make use of some elements of the Christian hope in telling their grand stories. But neither comes anywhere near the picture we have in the New Testament and, in flashes, in the Old....

The first position is the myth of progress. Many people, particularly politicians and secular commentators in the press and elsewhere, still live by this myth, appeal to it, and encourage us to believe it. Indeed (if I may digress for a moment), the demise of serious political discourse today consists not least in this, that the politicians are still trying to whip up enthusiasm for their versions of this myth--it the only discourse, they know, poor things--while the rest of us have moved on. They are, to that extent, like people trying to row a boat toward the shore while the strong tide pulls them further and further out to sea. Because they face the wrong way, they can't see that their efforts are in vain, and they call out to other boats to join them in their splendid, shore-bound voyage. That is why the relentlessly modernist and progressivist projects that the politicians feel obliged to offer us ("vote for us and things will get better!") have to be dressed up with the relentlessly postmodernist techniques of spin and hype: in the absence of real hope, all that is left is feelings. Persuasion will not work because we're never going to believe it. What we appear to need, and therefore what people give us, is entertainment. As a journalist said recently, our politicians demand to be treated like rock stars while our rock stars are pretending to be politicians. Sorting out this mess--which the Christian hope, despite current opinion, is well suited to do--should mean, among other things, a renewal of genuine political discourse, which God knows we badly need.

--N.T.Wright
Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven,
the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church