A blog of the Evangelical Lutheran Liturgy
The emphasis has been on the fewness of the number of people. I submit that we should emphasize not the fewness in terms of number of people, but the fewness in actual laborers. What you are being called into is labor. It is work. By the sweat of your brow you will eat. It is a daily picking up of your cross. It will be difficult, challenging, exhausting. It is work, which is fitting for a laborer.
Read MoreThe world is always evil, but as age gives way to age, the spirit of the age chooses different evils to emphasize. Today’s preachers of the Church must bring the Word to bear on today’s evils.
Read MoreIn our current (Easter) print issue, my Liturgical Observation column provided an analysis of preaching, and some common preaching practices that cannot even legitimately be classified as preaching. The article is posted here, in hopes that a wider discussion of these matters can be generated, toward the hope that in the end, better preaching might be result.
Read MoreThis article about the ongoing current debate about clerical celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church made me think of the same debate embedded in our Book of Concord - namely Article 23 of the Augsburg Confession, it’s response by Rome in the Roman Confutation, and our counter-response in Apology 23.
Read MoreWe don’t have an appearance of Jesus. We have fear. Those are the last words of Mark. “For they were afraid.”
Read MoreScamman’s Law states that whenever two Lutherans attempt to discuss a liturgical practice, a third Lutheran will try to end the discussion, citing “Adiaphora!”
Read MoreEarly bird registration for The Gottesdienst Conference on Art , Beauty, and Confession expires on April 15.
Read MoreI read something on social media recently, that if true, is a disgrace, and an indictment of both our polity and lack of erudition in the LCMS. An LCMS layman reported being summoned to a meeting of the Board of Elders of his congregation and was castigated for reading Thomas Aquinas and sharing the above two quotes on social media.
Read MoreSome Lutheran thoughts about humor in sermons, the intimacy between believers and the apostles, and a sermon on John 21.
Read MoreThere’s a lot of clutter out there in the world of podcasting. But there is also pure gold! I encourage everyone to watch or listen to the Rev. Dr. William Weinrich’s 2.75 hour presentation on the On the Line video podcast.
Read MoreThis 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,
Read MoreAlleluia! 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?
Read MoreNote: Fr. Sean Daenzer wrote this wonderful piece in 2019. It seems that the Seder Meal ritual remains popular among some Lutherans and other Christians. I recommend reviewing Fr. Daenzer’s "Beware the Unleaven of the Pharisees” ~ Ed.
Read MoreThere seems to be a ruckus on X (formerly “Twitter”) over whether or not it is socially acceptable to say, “Christ is King.” And of course, it isn’t socially acceptable. We live in “negative world.”
Read MoreThe 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.
Read More2023 Christian Culture Conference at Luther Classical College
Read MoreNoah Hahn defends Walther’s position on lay consecration as a hypothetical possibility without endorsing it or suggesting that it should be done.
Read MoreI am prompted to write something on this topic by a heartbreaking incident that has recently occurred in a small vacant mission congregation in Ontario under my pastoral care.
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