Posted on by Kurt Bodling

irreconcilable differences? hope not!

Quote:
“We have irreconcilable differences with Rome on the second and third articles related to the work of Christ and justification by faith alone that date back to the sixteenth century. But we share a number of common convictions regarding the first article of the creed as it relates to the moral issues of society and God’s continuing work in creation (creatio continua).”

Note:
As a respected seminary professor in the LCMS, Arand knows of what he speaks, but I sure wish he hadn’t called the differences “irreconcilable.” That troubles me. At one time it wouldn’t have. Still, I guess it’s good there’s something we agree on.

Charles P. Arand, “Tending Our Common Home: Reflections on Laudato Si’.” Concordia Journal Fall 2015, vol. 41, no. 4, page 308.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

are you using that phrase correctly?

Quote: “Movements and theologies need short phrases that capture their convictions and give people something easy to remember in times of need. But these slogans can end up being reductive or distorted. A great example of this is sola Scriptura or “Scripture alone.”

“It accurately represents Luther if it means something like “the church has permission to formulate as binding doctrine or practice only those things that are taught in the Scripture, always pointing to the salvation offered in Jesus Christ as the matter of central importance, but it can’t make up new teachings or traditions and impose them on believers as a matter affecting their salvation.” Whew! Not a very catchy slogan, that.

“But, if sola Scriptura means something like “unless it’s explicitly written and defined in Scripture a Christian must have absolutely nothing to do with it” or “nothing in the entire history and tradition of the church is of any value at all” or “anyone can read the Scripture without any education or training and come up with a perfectly valid interpretation that cannot be challenged because after all it’s from Scripture”—then no, those unwieldy versions of sola Scriptura do not accurately reflect Luther.”

(From a now apparently defunct webpage by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson at  https://www.lutherreadingchallenge.org/ which is © Institute for Ecumenical Research “in Strasbourg, France, an affiliate of the Lutheran World Federation (http://www.lutheranworld.org/) that has been devoted to Lutheran churches’ ecumenical commitments since 1965.” The web page existed on 15 November 2016.)

Note: I get so exasperated with writers and speakers who misuse terms like this one. It’s shorthand for an important theological concept. It doesn’t mean what so many people make it out to mean. This is mostly those trying to “prove” fellow Christians are wrong, but sadly also includes lesser-informed Protestants. What Pastor Wilson says in the above quote accords with the original meaning of the pithy Latin phrase as used by those in the 16th century who first used it.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

Living Faith of the Heart

“But the monastic understanding of Jesus is far more than mere correct doctrine about Catholic or ecumenical Christian faith and morality, church and monastery structures, or the correct performance of liturgy and sacraments. It is a life experience. We become ‘like Christ,’ or ‘Christian.’ Perhaps that is why monastics have always been both protectors of orthodoxy and pioneers in ecumenical and interfaith dialogue.”

Talbot, John Michael. Blessings of St. Benedict. Collegeville, MN : Liturgical Press, 2011, page 126.

Talbot says that while correct doctrine is necessary, it isn’t enough. That would only be head knowledge of Christ; and it’s important not to forget a heart knowledge of Jesus. I wonder whether he would admit that this “life experience” of the Lord can be gained through immersion in “correct doctrine.” I ask because I have known many folks utterly concerned about protecting “pure doctrine” and orthodoxy, who never wanted to get tainted by being involved in ecumenical and interfaith dialogue.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

Books as Sources

“I have few of the aptitudes of the scholar, and fewer yet of the methodical habits and industry of the man of business. I live in books a certain part of each day, but less as a student of books than as a student of life. I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey. My memory for the facts and the arguments of books is poor, but my absorptive power is great. What I meet in life, in my walks, or in my travels, which is akin to me, or in the line of my interest and sympathies, that sticks to me like a bur, or, better than that, like the food I eat. So with books: what I get from them I do not carry in my memory, but it is absorbed as the air I breathe or the water I drink. It is rarely ready on my tongue or my pen, but makes itself felt in a much more subtle and indirect way.”

(Burroughs, John. “The Summit of Years” in “The Summit of Years” Volume 15 of The Writings of John Burroughs. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1913; pages 5-6)

Burroughs recognizes his limitations. And in his use of books he notes that he gets inspiration from them but so transforms the content that it really does become his. This is what I hope happens with the books from which these “Commonplaces” come.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

Vocation in the Church

“I sometimes had to stand up against the simplistic equation of ‘vocation’ with the parish ministry of the Church. Therefore, I was repeatedly obliged to explain how scholarship, too, could be a sacred vocation, and one that was needed by the Church — even though, as it happened, I had to leave the employ of the Church thirty-one years ago in order to carry out this church vocation.” 

(Pelikan, Jaroslav. “The Vocation of Scholarship in the Church,” Academy: Lutherans in Profession. 45:3-4, pages 10-17.)

I’ve felt like I always had to stand against that simplistic equation. The Missouri Synod I came up in was hurting for parish pastors (even moreso now) and, even though my personal path did not but bump up against parish ministry except on Sunday mornings, I felt I was an outsider and either ignored or looked down upon because I had no full-time parish experience. I certainly did not know ordained peers whose vocation in the Church was not parish-focused.

And, so, around 20 years ago I, too, left the employ of the Church. Not that anyone anywhere would ever suggest that I’m a scholar in any way like Pelikan was.

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

Easter

In the liturgical churches within the western Christian tradition, we’re still only in the first week of Easter. I feel sad for folks in congregations that practice an Easter that is over and done as you head out the door to a tasty Easter brunch.

Easter, in the narrowest sense, is that Sunday Christians celebrate the fact that Jesus rose from death. But in the fuller sense Easter is a season that stretches from that holiest day up to the Day of Pentecost. Starting the count with Easter Sunday itself, that makes 7 Sundays in the Easter season. That’s a lot of “Hallelujahs” and a lot of “He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!!”

And that’s the kind of Easter I grew up with. That’s the kind of Easter in which we sang the hymns I’ve been posting this week, and many others I’ve skipped over. They’re good hymns with biblical texts and strong spiritual theology, paired with stirring tunes. Singing these hymns year after year after year was a richly upbuilding experience. You might say I sang the truths into my heart. The truths, yes, but also the reassurances of forgiveness, the declarations of grace, the promises of my own resurrection.

Look back over this week’s posts if you dare and re-read the hymn texts. Let God’s love wash over you again. Know and feel the peace that passes all understanding. And allow yourself to continue your Easter celebration through the next 6 Sundays.

(We may talk later about how each and every Sunday is best viewed as a kind of ‘little Easter.’)

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

Easter

I know that my Redeemer lives;
What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives, He lives, who one was dead;
He lives, my ever-living head.

He lives to silence all my fears;
He lives to wipe away all my tears;
He lives to calm my troubled heart;
He lives all blessings to impart.

He lives, my kind, wise, heav’nly friend;
He lives and loves me to the end;
He lives, and while He lives, I’ll sing;
He lives, my Prophet, Priest, and King.

He lives and grants me daily breath;
He lives, and I shall conquer death;
He lives my mansion to prepare;
He lives to bring me safely there.

He lives, all glory to His name!
He lives, my Jesus, still the same;
Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives;
I know that my Redeemer lives!

(“I Know That My Redeemer Lives” stanzas 1,5,6,7, and 8; a hymn text by Samuel Medley in the 18th century; hymn 461 in “Lutheran Service Book,” a 2006 hymnal from Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO)

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

Easter

The day of resurrection!
Earth tell it out abroad,
The passover of gladness,
The passover of God.
From death to life eternal,
From sin’s dominion free,
Our Christ has brought us over
With hymns of victory.

Let hearts be purged of evil
That we might see aright
The Lord in rays eternal
Of resurrection light
And, list’ning to His accents,
May hear, so calm and plain,
His own “All hail!” and hearing,
May raise the victor strain.

Now let the heav’ns be joyful,
Let earth its song begin,
Let all the world keep triumph
And all that is therein.
Let all things, seen and unseen,
Their notes of gladness blend;
For Christ the Lord has risen,
Our joy that has no end.

(“The Day of Resurrection” stanzas 1,2, and 3; a hymn text by John of Damascus in the 8th century, translated by John Mason Neale in the 19th century; hymn 478 in “Lutheran Service Book,” a 2006 hymnal from Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO)

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

Easter

Awake, my heart, with gladness,
See what today is done;
Now, after gloom and sadness,
Comes forth the glorious Sun.
My Savior there was laid
Where our bed must be made
When to the realms of light
Our spirit wings its flight.

The foe in triumph shouted
When Christ lay in the tomb;
But, lo, he now is routed,
His boast has turned to gloom.
For Christ again is free;
In glorious victory
He who is strong to save
Has triumphed o’er the grave.

To halls of heavenly splendor
With Him I penetrate;
And trouble ne’er may hinder
Nor make me hesitate.
Let tempests rage at will,
My Savior shields me still;
He grants abiding peace
And bids all tumult cease.

He brings me to the portal
That leads to bliss untold,
Whereon this rime immortal
Is found in script of gold:
“Who there my cross hath shared
Finds here a crown prepared;
Who there with Me hath died
Shall here be glorified.”

(“Awake, My Heart, with Gladness” stanzas 1,2,7 and 8; a 17th century hymn text by the great Paul Gerhardt, translated by John Kelly in the mid 19th century; hymn 192 in “The Lutheran Hymnal,” a 1941 hymnal from Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis)

Posted on by Kurt Bodling

Easter

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
The strife is o’er, the battle done;
Now is the Victor’s triumph won;
Now be the song of praise begun.
Alleluia!

Death’s mightiest powers have done their worst,
And Jesus hath His foes dispersed;
Let shouts of praise and joy outburst.
Alleluia!

He closed the yawning gates of hell;
The bars from heaven’s high portals fell.
Let songs of praise His triumph tell.
Alleluia!

(“The Strife is O’er, the Battle Done” stanzas 1,2, and 4; a 17th century anonymous hymn text translated by Francis Pott in the mid 19th century; hymn 210 in “The Lutheran Hymnal,” a 1941 hymnal from Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis)