Gottesblog

The historic Christian calendar is an adiaphoron. One man considers one day holier than another and one man considers all days equal. Let them both do it to the Lord's favor. Celebrate Christmas on Dec 25 or April 17 - or not at all. You are neither more nor less likely to end up in hell whatever you choose.

Obviously, the Gottesdienst Online editors have been as busy as the rest of you during this run up to the Yule. But here's a couple of quick items:

You can't fake a great voice - you can, I suppose, try to find an old fashioned elocution teacher and work on the one you've got. But in general, you've got it or you don't.

It was bound to happen - online churches. If your church devalues the sacrament (either in theology or frequency), eliminates liturgical response, and imitates pop culture music forms designed to entertain: why go to a "brick and mortar" church at all?

I recently read the following description of military decorum from a widely syndicated columnist: "Think about this for a moment. Suppose that your boss at the lab or law firm or newsroom demanded that, when he entered the room, you leapt spasmodically to your feet, stood rigidly erect with your feet at a forty-five degree angle like a congenitally deformed duck, and stared straight ahead until he gave you permission to relax."

Once the wafer or loaf has been consecrated in a celebration of the Lord's Supper it is referred to as the host (beforehand it is altar bread, or simply bread). This term can be confusing to modern ears - perhaps calling to mind the relationship between parasite and host: as if the bread "plays host" to the Body of Christ; as if it were infected with the Body of our Lord. Mh; gevnoito! Although Lutherans have historically dabbled in such crass and clumsy "consubstantiationism," surely we are better off to leave theorizing about how the Lord does his miracles to the angels (or to the man from Aquino).

Or something like that. Recent news that the Vatican is opening a wide door to Anglicans dissatisfied with the crumbling of historic Christianity in that communion includes this paragraph: