‘A Mighty Fortress is our God’

A special thanks to Mr. Howard Nowlan   for sending us this…

“We in the UK usually sing a slightly different version“
(the translation of Thomas Carlyle):

A Safe Stronghold, our God is still,
A trusty shield and weapon,
He’ll help us clear through all the ill,
that hath us no o’ertaken.
the ancient prince of hell,
hath risen with purpose fell,
strong mail of craft and power,
he weareth in this hour,
on earth is not his fellow

With force of arms we nothing can,                                                                                                                                                        full soon we were down-ridden,
but for us fights the proper Man,
whom God Himself hath bidden,
Ask ye, who is this same?
Christ Jesus is His name
The Lord Sabaoth’s Son,
He and no other one,
shall conquer in the battle

And we this world all devils o’er,
and watching to devour us,
We lay it not to heart so sore,
not they can overpower us,
And let the prince of ill,
look grim as ere he will,
he harms us not a whit,
for why? his doom is writ,
a word will quickly slay him

God’s word, for all their craft and force,
One moment will not linger,
but spite of hell shall have its course,
’tis written by His finger,
And though they take our lives,
goods, honour, children, wife,
yet is their profit small,
these things shall vanish all,
The City of God remaineth.

“Based on the theme of Psalm 46, this has to be simply one of the most comprehensive hymns (in the sense of putting life into its proper context) that’s ever been penned.”

                            - Howard Nowlan

Nothing has Changed…

Written by Martin Luther at a time when the Muslim armies were literally at the gates of Vienna, this hymn tells the story of God’s action to defeat the evil one, who still to the present moment, desires to rip us away from our Lord and devour us. Pay close attention to the words, for they are as relevant today as they were 500 years ago.

 

 

 

Can you get outside of yourself for 4 minutes?

          St. Olaf Choir, Northfield Minnesota

Primer on Infant Baptism

 I wish to thank Eric Anderson for his patience in trying to teach this old dog a few new tricks when it comes to using my computer and this blog program. Eric is Pastor Mark Anderson’s (my Pastor) son and if this works his hours of torment at my request will not have been in vain.

  I just found this video clip on you-tube and thought it would be a good test case, and maybe get somebody’s blood moving faster than normal in the process.  Anyway, I hope you’ll enjoy Pastor Lassman’s class on Infant Baptism (one piece of it anyway).

Pastor Lassman is Pastor of Messiah Lutheran Church,  Seattle, WA.

 

PS - It didn’t take me hours to learn how to post the you-tube to the blog…I’m not that dumb. Most of the time and effort went into teaching me how to turn on the computer.

          - Steve Martin

 

“What’s Wrong Here?”

I am blessed to be a member of a congregation that has a pastor who is a terrific preacher and teacher. He does all he can to wield the two edged sword that is the Word of God. He takes his job very seriously and prepares for his sermons and pastor’s classes as if someone’s life depended on it.   Someone’s does.

I went to his ‘Life with God’ class last evening. The theme of the class is ‘The Last Days’, a study of the Book of Revelation. Interesting stuff, no?

No.

Apparently not to our congregation. Last week we had 3 people and last night we had 2. This is in a congregation of over a hundred families.

It boggles my mind as to how people can ignore such a great gift as to study the scriptures with a pastor with over 30 years experience in teaching the bible.   

Well, in one sense it is understandable. There are a lot of things going on in our lives. We’ve got dinner to prepare… we’re tired from a day at the office or wherever…we’ve got certain television programs that can’t be missed… it’s a long drive… I was just there on Sunday… it’s stuff I already know…etc., etc., etc..

I usually love it when a new person stumbles in off the street into one of these bible studies. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. I was almost glad that no one did last night. It is a sad commentary on the state of our congregation that only two could tear themselves away from all of the other important activities in their lives to spend an hour and a half (or less) with their pastor and the Word of God.  I could just imagine what a newcomer might think if he or she were to arrive at a miserable showing like that… “What’s wrong here?”.

Plenty.

    - Steve Martin 

The Good News!

The ‘Good News’ is that there is nothing that you have to do to enter the kingdom of Heaven.

There is nothing at all that you have to do. If there was something then it wouldn’t be ‘Good News’.

Christ has done it all, on the cross, in your baptism, at His supper, declared you to be forgiven and righteous in Himself. Now you are totally free!

That’s the ‘Good News’! If that doesn’t feel like good news to you, but rather that announcement makes you a little uneasy…then you haven’t really heard it yet. There’s a part of you that still lives under the law. So, we’ll keep repeating this until (by God’s grace) it sticks…’your sins are forgiven for Jesus sake’!

    - Steve

‘How To’ Christianity

It’s everywhere. Turn on the radio…turn on the television…read “Christian” books…read “Christian” bloggers. ‘How to’ Christianity is everywhere! ‘The 10 Biblical Principles for cleaning your dogs teeth’. 14 Principles to become more Jesus’-like. ‘How to have a better Christian marriage’. ‘How to play basketball like a real Christian’.

What a joke. A bad joke.

People, do you not know that the law is written upon your hearts? The fact that people are running around saying they don’t know how to live their lives as a Christian is a load of bunk. Any adult man or woman knows in his or her heart what God expects of them. They just flat out refuse to do it. They flat out refuse to live up to the high standards that God demands that they live up to so they whittle those standards down and carve them into principles that they can manage or at least enough to fool other Christian friends and neighbors who are busy trying to fool them as well. 

Christian Principles for living is just the law packaged in a friendlier format. The law is still the law.

“I wish you would stop talking about Law and Gospel”. “I’m sick of you always bringing up that Law/Gospel paradigm, what does that have to do with trying to live as Jesus tells me to live?”

Just everything…that’s what.

Why is this law banging so pervasive? Why can we not get away from the constant barrage of law posing as gospel in our churches? Because the law is what we do. We are all about the self justification project and we will get better even if it kills our Lord Jesus…and it did.

“He must increase, I must decrease.’ Oh really? Then why in heaven’s name are you trying to pack goodness onto yourselves with your little righteousness projects?

Trust in Him!  That’s how He increases! Get off the religion project! There’s a lot more productive stuff you can be doing…like focusing on your neighbor and being a freed human being that loves and cries and mourns and prays and sings and laughs and lives..in the freedom of Christ!

‘How to’? Faaghettaboudit!!

    - Steve Martin

‘Becoming more Jesus-like’

Some people love the religion game. They love to talk a real good game , but when it comes right down to it, they are just like the rest of us…incapable of being ‘Jesus-like for more than a minute or two…if that’s even possible.

How can this be? The Bible surely tells us in Jesus’ own words what He expects from us. And the Bible is replete with examples of Jesus’ own works. So there it is; a road map clearly drawn. Open and follow.  “What must I do to inherit eternal life”, the lawyer asked Jesus,  Jesus answered, “What does the law say?”( There it is…the first part of the Law/Gospel paradigm) The lawyer answered, “You shall love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And Jesus said to him, “You have answered rightly, do this and you shall live.”

You want to be more Jesus-like?  There it is. “Go and do, and you shall live.”

The Theology of Glory vs. the Theology of the Cross

 Getting better? Gradually progressing up the ladder of righteousness and spirituality? Working on my sanctification?  Well, the late Dr. Forde has a thing or two to say about that type of thinking.  You really ought to read ‘On Being a Theologian of the Cross’

by  Gerhard Forde

Stand Up, Sit Down, Fight Fight Fight!

“You Lutherans are too religious!”

“You Lutherans have to stand up, and sit down and mindlessly repeat words that you just make up in some sort of man-made ritulal!”

“Lutheran Pastors wear vestments and you have candles in your churches!”

 

Have you ever heard this line of horse dung from fundamentalist Evangelicals before?

I have. It is perpetuated by an ignorance of Lutheranism, of the Christian faith and the history of the Christian Church.

As Lutheran Christians, we don’t have to do any of that stuff. Unlike the worship practices of the churches that are not really free, we are free to do these things…or not!

We do these things because they anchor us in Christ. Our liturgy keeps us from floating hither and yon and ending up looking like the non-denominational, entertainment style, therapuetic, self-focused, styles of worship that predominate the landscape of Orange County, California.

Our symbols speak to us. Their symbols speak to them.

Ours are centered on Christ, His Word and sacraments. Theirs are focused on the believer… their faithfulness, their decision, their comfort, their music, their law based theology. Christ is there, but He is no longer the Center. The onus shifts to the believer. Listen to one of their sermons. Who is the focus?  9 out of 10 times it will be you.

Our focus is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The killing of the Old Man/Woman by proclaiming God’s Law and the raising of the New Man/Woman with God’s forgiveness in Jesus, proclaimed freely without qualifications or conditions.

We uphold Christ’s Supper and His full presence therein. We unabashedly hold up infant baptism as it is God that does the baptism and makes His promises to the child.  Who are we to say that He needs our profession of faith before He can act on our behalf?

Every word in our creeds and liturgy is derived entirely from the Bible. It is all in there.

Is the Bible our pope? No! The only Holy Father we have is Jesus Christ our Lord.

If we got rid of some of these traditional Christian symbols, and had music that is more pop oriented would we get more people in the door? We probably would. Would it be worth it to sacrifice the centrality of Christ and the ‘other world-ness’ of our traditional confessional service to get more bodies in the door? I say no, it wouldn’t be worth it because you would inevitably start the slide towards the self. It’s a lousy trade off.

I for one, am thankful for our great confessional Lutheran message that is centered on, and anchored to our Lord Jesus and His forgiveness of our sins. I want to tell others and invite them to worship with us.   I hope you will too.   

                                   - Steve M.