“Singing the Faith is a DVD-based study of the history of Lutheran congregational song. It “invites viewers and listeners to discover God’s Word proclaimed in a rich heritage of music that faithfully confesses Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
“It is a study of the history of Lutheran congregational song – an accessible educational tool for teachers and students, pastors and congregations, parents and their children. “
Posts Tagged ‘Lutheran’
Singing the Faith Now Online
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
Lutheran Identity? – a conversation starter
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
In the heady early days of Lutherans blogging, I had just opened the tentative predecessor of Blog My Soul for business and somewhat regularly participated in discussions on others’ blogs. One of these discussions ended up in a personal exchange, both in blog comments and in e-mail, with “Martin,” a seminary student who, at the time of the conversation, was serving as vicar. The purpose of posting the conversation is not to evoke a defense of the Scriptures or the Confessions, but to get you thinking about what is it that defines or demonstrates a Lutheran identity (vs. a Christian identity)? Is there a difference? And if there is, what does this mean for us as Lutherans?
Martin: ScotK, Honestly! Just when I think you and I are starting to see eye-to-eye on some things. Do you really think that only the Book of Concord (BoC) has the genuine faith of Scripture?!? I really find it hard to believe that you would make such an assertion. Please tell me I am misunderstanding you.
ScotK: Martin, the only place, no. Anytime the doctrine of Scripture is truly proclaimed I rejoice. …However, what I think will annoy you is that the Symbols and Confessions of the 1580 Book of Concord-in that they faithfully expound the Scriptures-are the benchmark by which I do theology. Yes, Martin, to be Lutheran is a confession. And that confession is, in sum, in the BoC. (more…)
Where can unity be found?
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
God has two messages. He speaks Law and he speaks Gospel. The Law is God’s message of judgment against my sin. The Gospel is God’s word of forgiveness in Christ. It is his gracious response to my guilt.
The Law differentiates. It distinguishes. It says that I have failed God and I have failed you, my brothers and sisters. You might have something against me, as well. The Law forces me to measure myself against the standard of the Ten Commandments. And the Law has the nasty ability of making me better or worse than you.
The Gospel makes us all the same. When I am serving my neighbor then I am different and unique. But when I am being served by the Gospel, then I am just like every other sinner. I am equally as sinful as you. And I am equally as forgiven as you. We are the same. We are identical. Of course my sins might be more profound, more heinous, and more creative than yours. But in Christ both you and I are declared righteous, clothed and covered in the righteousness of the heavenly Bridegroom and cleansed in the blood of the Lamb. Sin, which makes us different and which divides, is forgiven. Good works, which distinguish and divide us, are irrelevant when it comes to salvation. So we are the same. The Divine Service reflects this.
If we are all the same, the services we attend should be pretty much the same. And if all the Christians in the world are the same, if the church is really “catholic,” then the worship services throughout the world should be pretty close to the same. If the saints from age to age are the same, and they are, then the worship services from age to age reflect our oneness and sameness in Christ.
But, if worship is primarily me serving God, then my worship will be different than yours because we are different in our good works. Worship will then be far from uniform. If we get the direction of the communication right in worship then we will also understand that uniformity in worship is good.
Paul addressed the problem of divisions in the church in his letter to the Ephesians. The Christians of Jewish descent felt that they were closer to God than the Gentile Christians. They thought they were more advanced in the law and where therefore better Christians. What a divisive attitude. Christian people have always had the same temptations toward disunity. Today we hear the same. Some Christians are considered more advanced, more dynamic, more mature, more committed, more engaged, more vital, more something. How did God create unity according to the apostle Paul? (more…)
What is Lutheran Worship?
Monday, March 23rd, 2009
Another part of my ongoing answer to the one who wanted to know about Lutheran worship. Here, trying to define the essence and dynamic of worship and then a look at how the confessions talk about worship and the role of faith and works in the Divine Service.
What is worship?
I think Dr. Norman Nagel captured the essence of the Lutheran Gottesdienst best when he wrote in the Introduction to Lutheran Worship: “Our Lord speaks and we listen. His Word bestows what it says. Faith that is born from what is heard acknowledges the gifts received with eager thankfulness and praise.” “Saying back to him what he has said to us, we repeat what is most true and sure. Most true and sure is his name, which he put upon us with the water of our Baptism. We are his.” “The rhythm of our worship is from him to us, and then from us back to him. He gives his gifts, and together we receive and extol him. We build each other up as we speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Our Lord gives us his body to eat and his blood to drink. Finally his blessing moves us out into our calling, where his gifts have their fruition”
What is worship as defined by our Lutheran confessions?
From the Book of Concord. Citations are given in the following form Symbol:Paragraph
Athanasian Creed:3, 28 –that our worship is catholic
And the Catholic faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity.
For the right faith is, that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man.
Apology XXIV:27 -that we worship in spirit and in truth
Christ says, John 4, 23. 24: True worshipers shalt worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. This passage clearly condemns opinions concerning sacrifices which, they imagine, avail ex opere operato ["on account of the work having been performed"], and teaches that men ought to worship in spirit, i.e., with the dispositions of the heart and by faith. (more…)
You Are Dying
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009
Note: That which follows is a presentation made by me to a teacher’s symposium, held June 19, 2002 at Peterschule (the St. Peter School), St. Petersburg, Russia. The purpose of the presentation was to introduce to the group the book by Rev. Dr. Harold Senkbeil, Dying to Live, a volume that had just been translated into Russian by Lutheran Heritage Foundation.]
… In Adam all Sin: An Introduction to
Dying to Live: The Power of Forgiveness
by The Rev. Dr. Harold L. Senkbeil
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1
“For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!” (Romans 5:10-15) –From the book
I. YOU ARE DYING.
One day you will be dead. Hopefully not today, hopefully not even tomorrow, but with certainty I can say “you are dying and one day you will be dead.”
“The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23
“Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.” Romans 5:12
From the account of Adam’s sin in Genesis, to the teachings and writings of the Apostle Saint Paul years after the death of Jesus, all of salvation, surely all of history, is predicated on the fact that because of sin you and I will die. From the moment of our conception in our mother’s womb, you and I are walking the road to our grave.
Dying to Live, Russian edition
Yet we were not created to die. Man was created by God to live with him forever. This knowledge, this shadow of what was to be, causes us to revolt against the idea of our death. We make laws to, ultimately, protect and safeguard life and a way to live. We send our men and women to war, to die, that a country may continue to protect the lives of many more of its citizens. We go to doctors when we are sick, we pay for research to find wonderful new cures for illness; we transplant hearts and livers and we employ amazing drugs to lengthen the number of our days as long as possible
The fact of our death scares us, and we will do nearly anything to prevent it or put it off as long as humanly possible. We can create life in a test tube, we can recombine DNA to make a better human, we can make five sheep out of one through cloning, but we have not found a way to stop death. For all have sinned (Romans 3:22), and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
In the United States we have an idiom “I would die for…” Since we fear death and would rather do just about anything but die, to say “I would die for” shows the terrific need or desire that one has for something. An alcoholic might say, “I would die for a shot of vodka.” “A smoker might be “dying for” his next cigarette. A young woman in love would just die, if only her true love would ask her to marry. Our desire is expressed as we offer to give up that which is most dear to us—our life. (more…)