The dedication of the chancel at St. Paul’s on Sunday evening October 13th was a glad occasion that kicked off this year’s Oktoberfest in Kewanee, at it marked the culmination of a three-year project of renovation and repairing the church. Our choral vespers was a most festive occasion, which we expect to become available as a video at Gene Wilken’s website Flaneur Record sometime soon. Flaneur record is a marvelous resource.

In the meantime the full audio recording of the beautiful choral vespers and dedication the chancel is available here. It’s worth your listening time.

The bratwurst banquet the followed the service was well attended; many more came than registered, and the total attendance had to have been around 90.

More central to the success of this year’s conference was the fact that my taking of the advice of my son, Fr. Peter Eckardt, paid off in spades. He had recommended in the early part of this year that I consider asking Dr. James Bushur, professor of early church at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, to be the featured speaker for Oktoberfest. And on Monday the 14th, Dr. Bushur’s seminar lectures on preaching in the early church were outstanding.

It’s refreshing to hear perspectives out of the church’s misty past that give catholic contours to the things we hold dear. Dr. Bushur provided a patristic perspective which served to expand our own understanding of preaching as a divine phenomenon. As Dr. Bushur explained, preaching originates in God himself. The sounding forth of the Word is “constitutive” of God’s own eternal Being. In the beginning was the Word that was with God and that was God. The better Latin translation of logos is not verbum but sermo; for the logos is vibrantly active. Hence, preaching is a divine activity, and is not indirect communication, but direct, engaging the passions in a personal way. Moreover, God is an artist, and his medium is human flesh. Man, made in the image of God, has passions, desires, which are constitutive of his being; so when God addresses him he does so on this level. You may look forward to taking all of this in, including the Monday morning mass and the Monday seminar, as soon as it becomes available at Flaneur Record. The Monday vespers included this reading and sermon.

On Tuesday, October 15th, a smaller group continued to consider, under my own facilitation and direction, the topic of preaching as the activity of the Holy Spirit. Tuesday morning’s mass included this Gospel and sermon.