O Tree of beauty, Tree of light, O Tree with royal purple dight; Elect, on whose triumphal breast Those holy limbs should find their rest

Burnell EckardtSeptember 14, 2021 Comment

Weaponized Vice

How often have you heard people say that all sins are equal?

Larry BeaneSeptember 13, 2021 Comments

New Bloggers!

The addition of three new bloggers helps us move energetically toward our goal of promoting confessional and liturgical integrity.

Burnell EckardtSeptember 10, 2021Comment

We Will Not Shut Up

The Supreme Court of the United States refused to hear arguments against a new Texas law that outlaws abortion once the child has a heartbeat. President Harrison caught a lot of grief - even from many claiming to be LCMS members…

Larry BeaneSeptember 9, 2021 Comments

In League With Satan

It’s a scene that Matthew, Mark, and Luke record, but for the sake of the length of the post, I’ll stick with Mark’s account.

John BussmanSeptember 8, 2021 Comments

Geburtstag Maria

That, at any rate, is how the Feast of the Blessed Virgin’s Nativity was denominated in the back of the old German CPH Bibles, with their lists of Sundays, Feasts and Minor Festivals: Mary’s Birthday.

Sanctoral CalendarWilliam WeedonSeptember 7, 2021Comment

Happy Labor Day!

This last week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block the “Texas Heartbeat” law, which bans the murder of unborn children after they are six weeks old in the womb.

Jonathan ShawSeptember 6, 2021 Comments

Fulfilled is All That Moses Told in Sure Prophetic Song of Old

What the Prophet Moses once saw from afar, from the cleft of the Rock on Mt. Sinai and from the heights of Mt. Nebo outside the Promised Land, he has rejoiced to see fulfilled in the One of whom he wrote and testified. On the Mountain of Transfiguration he spoke with Him concerning that great Exodus which the Lord Jesus was about to undergo and accomplish in Jerusalem. [So has He] opened the way through death into life. He has opened the Kingdom of heaven to all who believe and are baptized into Him.

As Moses carefully constructed the Tabernacle according to the sacred pattern that the Lord God showed to him, so has the true Image and Likeness of God been manifested in the Incarnate Son, Christ Jesus, who is the radiance of His Father’s Glory and the exact representation of His Nature, who upholds all things by the Word of His power. In Him, who has become Flesh and tabernacles with us, all the fullness of God dwells bodily.

Sermon, Sanctoral CalendarRick StuckwischSeptember 4, 2021Moses, Commemoration, Christ Jesus, Old TestamentComment

What Will It Take?

Burnell EckardtSeptember 3, 2021 Comments

The Ministry of Prayer

The ordination vow to pray for those under the pastor’s care could use a little more scrutiny. Petersen provides that here along with some small advice about how to go about it.

Thoughts on Trinity 14

Historic Lectionary, PreachingJason BraatenAugust 31, 2021Trinity 14, Luke 17:11–19Comment

Cana in Rural Ontario on a Summer Afternoon

This past Friday afternoon Bonnie and I were in Kurtzville ON for the wedding of Pr & Mrs Kurt Reinhardt’s firstborn son, Eduard, to Miss Anika Molenaar. In advance of this beautiful ceremony, Pr Reinhardt had composed a poem that the gathered congregation sang to the tune of Old Hundredth.

John StephensonAugust 30, 2021 Comment

Martin Chemnitz on the Office of the Holy Ministry

“What, then, is the office or work of the ministry of the church?”

Fr. Mark BradenAugust 30, 2021Comment

Singing Even When Your Head Gets Chopped Off

This sermon was preached for the Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Charlotte, Iowa… Who else but the Church could rejoice on the day of a martyrdom? Who else could confidently call an execution a feast and sing praise to God?

Anthony DodgersAugust 29, 2021 Comments

To Fear, Love, and Trust in God above All Things

“If we were able to believe firmly that God will keep His promises and that the oath with which He has pledged His Deity and has given His Son as a sign will be sure, then we would regard death, want, shame, and hell as if they were life, riches, glory, and heaven, just as they differ in no wise before God. But because this does not happen, it is a sure proof of our unbelief and mistrust. . . . But this serves to glorify the marvelous patience and mercy of God, who forgives not only past but also present sins and with great tenderness of heart puts up with this common indifference toward His grace.”

TheologyRick StuckwischAugust 28, 2021Luther, Lectures on Genesis, Faith and LifeComment

"This Courageous and Inspiring Testimony of Päivi Räsänen"

A pro-life member of the Finnish Parliament, a medical doctor and Lutheran confessor of the Bible named Päivi Räsänen, is being threatened with prison by the Finnish government.

Larry BeaneAugust 26, 2021 Comments

A Reply to the Texas District Paper on Internet Communion

The official title is “The Church in a Post-Covid World,” but that’s not really what it is about. It is, in fact, an advocacy and apologia for “internet communion.”

Larry BeaneAugust 25, 2021 Comments

MYSTICAL BENEDICTION

Before COVID, there were already casual Fridays, and in companies where it was mainly young people every day was casual. Even nicer restaurants are often full of casually dressed people. Now people may never dress for work when they work from home. This has affected the church as well.

Karl FabriziusAugust 24, 2021 Comment

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