The Trinitytide Skip

Usually, we’ll need to skip a few Sundays of Trinity (up to five) in order to arrive at Last Sunday the week before Advent. But which Sundays should be skipped? This is where the confusion arises, as there are generally three answers:

Evan ScammanSeptember 10, 2024 Comments

From the Archives: Learning from Chrysostom: Indifference to Praise and Insults

Chrysostom is one of the most accessible Fathers. His homilies should be standard and frequent reading for Lutheran preachers. His treatise On the Priesthood is also quite helpful. It was written as a dialogue between Chrysostom, the bishop, and his student Basil. Books 4 and 5 focus on preaching.

David PetersenSeptember 9, 2024 Comments

Throwback Thursday: The Age of Epicurean Delusions: Are Good Works Necessary?

Note: This 2018 offering by Fr. Fabrizius is a reflection upon the Epicurian nature of our American culture, and the danger it poses for confessors of the Book of Concord. ~ Ed.

Karl FabriziusSeptember 5, 2024Comment

In His Presence

Here’s one way to note the difference between our belief about worship and the way of the “contemporary” worship style. Both sides agree that when we are in Jesus’ presence we ought to worship Him, and in fact we can even agree on what that should look like.

Burnell EckardtSeptember 3, 2024 Comments

From the Archives: Singing the Church Year with Paul Gerhardt - Part II

The Church Year begins with the Advent of our Lord, His threefold coming:in the flesh, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary; in the preaching and administration of the Gospel in His name and stead; and in the Final Judgment at the last. It is a season of repentance, marked especially by the preaching of St. John the Baptist, who goes before the Lord to prepare His way. Gerhardt does not mention St. John by name in either of his two hymns for Advent, but he serves the great forerunner’s task; not so much by a proclamation of repentance, as by the prayer of repentance that he gives the people to sing.

HymnsRick StuckwischSeptember 2, 2024Paul Gerhardt, Hymnody, Advent, Christmas, Lent, Holy Week, Easter Comment

Continuing to Walk the Lonely Way

Those at the shallow end of the pool sometimes accuse the editors of Gottesdienst - and you, dear readers, members of The Gottesdienst Crowd - of being “Romanizers.” This is based on the misunderstanding that Lutherans are basically Baptists who use real wine in communion, and anything ceremonially beyond that is “Romanizing.” And one can find such nonsense even among the “doctors” (cough) and Supreme Suits of the Synod.

Larry BeaneAugust 30, 2024 Comments

The American Martyr

For eighteen years I have been standing on the walls of Jerusalem watching the city burn and its children carried away captive into paganism or heterodox churches. During that time most of the watchmen, seeing the ruin, have desperately tried to do everything in their power to take away the offense of the cross. They have tried to make Christianity easier, so that no one would be repelled, no one would fall away, everyone would be attracted.

Evan ScammanAugust 30, 2024 Comments

Throwback Thursday: What's This? Genuflecting in Worship?

Note: This was a Gottesdienst Editorial from 2016 in response to a district president’s public critique of genuflecting during the consecration. ~ Ed.

Gottesdienst EditorialAugust 29, 2024 Comment

A Guest Editorial by Linda Boomerton

Note: Ms. Linda Boomerton is upset at the direction synod is going, and has asked to submit a guest editorial at Gottesblog. ~ Ed.

Guest AuthorAugust 26, 2024 Comments

From the Archives: Singing the Church Year with Paul Gerhardt - Part I

The story goes that Anna Marie came to her husband, the Reverend Paul Gerhardt, with a plea that he give her a small coin to buy the necessary food for their home. There was not a particle of flour nor a crust of bread to be found anywhere in the house, and she had nothing to set before him on the table. The dear pastor had no coin to give his wife, but promised that he would provide her with food that would not disappear but last forever. After a few hours in his study, he returned with the now familiar verse (Befiehl du deine Wege).

Rick StuckwischAugust 26, 2024 Comment

Biblical Sermonizing

Bible, PreachingJason BraatenAugust 23, 2024Bugenhagen Conference, Karl FabriziusComment

Throwback Thursday: One Church, One Call

Note: This is one of the very first blogposts for Gottesdienst, from 2006 - and this one is a bit of an archaeological find. For it was posted at the first Gottesblog site, and was itself a repost of one of Fr. Eckardt’s essays from eleven years prior (which means this was written in 1995. That’s twenty-nine years ago. ~ Ed.

Burnell EckardtAugust 22, 2024Comment

How Lutherans Should Read The Bible

David PetersenAugust 21, 2024Comment

From the Archives: A Sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

Jesus has just traveled from the region of Tyre and Sidon, a place where He cast out a demon that held a young girl in its grip. Now, our Lord is by the Sea of Galilee, and again He comes face to face with a person in the bondage of Satan. The people bring to Jesus a man whose ears are imprisoned with deafness and whose tongue is bound by an impediment of speech. For when a person cannot hear, neither can he speak clearly or rightly. Such is the goal of the devil: to disrupt and tear down the lives and the capacities of those created in the image of God, to cause people trouble in both soul and body. He does this in an attempt to turn our hearts away from the Lord.

SermonStefan GramenzAugust 19, 2024Trinity 12; Mark 7:31-37Comment

The Great Passion: A Delightful Read

The Great Passion by James Runcie is a page-turner that is an especially fun read for Lutherans. This is not so much a review as it is a recommendation. You can read reviews here (averaging 4.3 on Amazon).

Larry BeaneAugust 17, 2024 Comment

Not My Kind of Lutheran...

And now, with the Democratic nominee for Vice President being a “Lutheran” of the ELCA variety, we Lutherans are once again in the spotlight, and not in a good way. We have to explain that that is “not our kind of Lutheran,” that we are LCMS. We’re not the drag queen, alphabet-people, DEI, put-gay-porn-in-kindergarten, pronoun-wielding abortion “Lutherans.”

Larry BeaneAugust 16, 2024 Comments

A Hymn for the Feast of the Dormition B.V.M.

Burnell EckardtAugust 15, 2024 Comment

A Sermon for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

In the name of Jesus Christ, who by His glorious ascension into heaven obtained not for Mary only, but for us all who with Mary take comfort in His bloody death, a joyous ascension of the heart whenever we pray, of the soul whenever we die, of the body and soul on the Last Day; forever most blessed and beloved with God His heavenly Father and the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.