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Gottesblog

A blog of the Evangelical Lutheran Liturgy

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Making a Mockery of Death

This sermon was preached by Fr. Eckardt at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Kewanee, Illinois, on Easter 2017.

 Alleluia! Christ is risen!

 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Answer me! You, O death, who have paraded yourself and boasted that you were unstoppable, whom no one could undo, for whom no one had an answer,

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Touch me not? Why not?

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

And we have heard the sweet reports of his resurrection, we have heard them! Sweeter than honey to our taste are they! So let us recount these glad reports again on this glad Easter Day. And especially the report of the first witness to the resurrection, Mary Magdalene, as we recounted in the ancient Sequence Hymn for today: Dic nobis Maria, quid vidisti in via?

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How Lutheran Hymns Train For Martyrdom: Meditation on Jesus’ Wounds

 The hymns of the Lutheran Church teach us how to be martyrs for Christ.  Martyrs are witnesses.  The most extreme form of witness is shedding our blood to seal our testimony to Christ, but before a Christian can do that, he must (usually) learn to be a faithful witness in smaller things.

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Out of the Barn!

The long-awaited Easter issue of Gottesdienst has bolted! It has been released from the barn, and it flies through its appointed pathways to a mailbox near you. Is your subscription up to date?

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I Disagree!

One argument for the validity of lay consecration is that it is not by virtue of the man speaking the words, but the words of Jesus, that make the sacrament a sacrament. And this is true. These are not the pastor’s words, but Christ’s words. The pastor’s “virtue” is not what consecrates the elements, but Christ, by means of His Word.

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