Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Is Wright all Wrong?

Has it occurred to anyone else that if Rev. Wright was doing his job, Obama would have nothing to comment on? I don't care what color he is, nor whose pastor he is. What I do care about is the fact that he is not preaching Christ and him crucified. He is not preaching Law and Gospel. If he were doing this instead of making political commentary, he would not be causing this kind of division--true, he would be branded as a close-minded Christian or something like that, but 'tis better to be persecuted for preaching what is right and true. Pastors, please, do the job you are supposed to do and help to be a solution--not part of the problem.

Monday, April 28, 2008

LEA Convocation Update


I had the ability to attend the LEA Convocation in Minneapolis this past week. I would recommend NOT having anything having to do with water as the theme of any convention. If you're wondering, it rained the first two days of the convocation, and snowed the third day. I know it's Minnesota, but I still didn't really expect it to snow in April!
I always enjoy the sectionals at LEA. It seems as though I always seem to pick ones that are very good. Yes, I know I can pick what I wish to go to, but you never know when reading a title and description.
Oh, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Ken Davis as the comedian at the Thursday night banquet--my face hurt from laughing so hard!
The keynote speaker was Professor Lessing from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and his address was very good. I think he tied everything together quite well, and got me thinking about the fountain of blood and water flowing from Christ's pierced side.
At this convocation I learned much good and much bad.
The negative part of LEA is usually the mass events. This year I was surprised. We actually had a Lutheran worship service for the closing worship. It followed the divine service! I find this amazing, considering there are so many who push for something other than the liturgy.
The opening celebration was another thing. It was fine if one took it in the sense that it was not expected to be worship, but a gathering where we sang and listened.
Pastor Nunez in our opening celebration said we are "marked people in baptism." I'd agree there. He said, "There are no illigitimate children, only illegitimate relationships." I'd agree with that too. He said that as Christians we sometimes suffer from "celebration constipation" and we don't tell our faces that we have joy. Hmmm. . . He also said, "God is a dream weaver." What does that mean (or maybe that means I wasn't listening closely enough)? He also--at the end of his speech--said that there were platters of water on each table and we were to "play around as we remember our own baptism." I ask again, what does that mean? He did say later that Martin Franzmann was his favorite hymnwriter. To echo Nagel, "there is still hope for our church."
All in all, it was a good convocation--just don't let the song leader do anything but lead the songs.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Worship on the Fifth Sunday of Easter


I play in our church's handbell group, and lately we've been playing for both worship services on Sundays we play. The first service is the "traditional" one, and the second is the "blended" one. The first service has liturgy and hymns. The second service has a form of litugy, a hymn, and some songs.

My hymnal sat on the floor for most of the second service. Not that I was not participating, I just had little reason to use it. I used it for the hymn before the sermon and then during the sermon (which I had heard once already) I read some hymns. It was a sermon which, if run through the Issues, Etc. diagnostic, would not pass.

I was thinking during the closing song which the praise team was singing--I'd say leading, but few people sing because they don't know the music (words don't help if you can't find the tune)--that the harmonies were reminiscent of the soundtrack of Wicked, which I have been listening to frequently of late. I don't know about you, but I don't think music at church should make me want to sing "Loathing" or remind me of the Wicked Witch of the West.

The other thing I found strange was some of the words to the closing song said, "May the Child of God grow in you. . ." I know what point the composer was trying to get across, but it seems to me that whenever one talks of children growing in people, it has nothing to do with the increase of faith. This is why we need to strive for purity of doctrine. That, however, is another blog for another day.

Friday, April 18, 2008

One month


It’s been a month since all 64 listeners were stunned by the sudden silencing of Issues, Etc. I must admit I like WMC's explanation. Thirty-one days since we last heard about St. Patrick and Obama’s pastor. Since then, petitions have been signed, the vigils have been held, the bratwurst has been consumed, and even Obama has moved on to other “bitter”ness. The marginalized 1/3 of 1% has largely been ignored, and I still have to ask (with apologies to the WWJD? crowd) one question—WWTS? (What would Todd say?) It's 10 o'clock, do you know where your Issues, Etc is?

Thursday, April 17, 2008

The Pope's Comments Make Sense

The Pope said that U.S. society can undermine the faith. (Read the story.) This is very true. American individualism, the idea of "let's just all get along", political correctness, and the postmodern traits which carry the statement of "you can believe what you want as long as it's right for you" all contribute to the breakdown of faith. How can one lean on a crumbling wall? How can a house stand solidly on a cracked foundation? The truth is that one cannot. Faith built on anything but Christ alone cannot stand securely. Faith in whatever-floats-your-boat today will, in the end, not float anymore. It is only upon Christ and Him crucified that we lean. Any compromise will not work, for how can one compromise the Word made flesh?

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Not-fair-a-thon


Here's just a little bit of irony from LCMS's website.
So KFUO's Share-a-thon starts tomorrow, Thursday (make that today, now), and they want to raise money to keep bringing us quality programming. I beg you people, please bring us Issues, Etc. back. That would be quality programming. Until then, don't expect to see any of my money. The money I had planned on sending KFUO was going to go into the envelope I received when I got my Issues, Etc. mug in the mail. That envelope with the Issues, Etc. logo and address is still stuck to my refrigerator door. I never got to send it. I won't now.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

The Pope is in the House

There was a stir today at Andrews AFB, as the Pope's plane landed. President Bush met with him there. Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate his 81 birthday tomorrow at the White House, amid hoopla and all sorts of Roman Catholics who wish to see his pontiffness and others who are curious to see him. From DC he will move on to NYC where he will lead Mass at Yankee Stadium (where worship in a ballpark ALWAYS seems to go well).


There will be many who will make the trek from all over the world to see his Popeness. I was one (yes, I'm Lutheran) who walked from point A to point B to see PJP II zip down Lindell (in the Popemobile at 40mph) from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport to wherever it was he was going--the Cathedral? The Edward Jones Dome?--when he made his appearance in St. Louis in 1999. There's nothing wrong with wanting to see such an important figure.


There will be others who will wish to see the pope to carry forth an agenda. Take, for example the two excommunicated priestesses who "will join other aggrieved Roman Catholic activists drawing attention to their causes on the occasion of Pope Benedict XVI's visit." I'm sure that Pope Benedict will just be eager to speak with them; after all he is the man who said, " An Adult faith does not follow the waves of fashion and the latest novelties."

Frankly, I'm weary of these two women as well as Father Marek Bozek of St. Stanislaus Kostka who (all three) are being held up by St. Louis media as martyrs for going contrary to church teaching. Way to go Archbishop Burke for holding to the teachings of your church! Father Bozek can speak all he wants of the difference between doctrine and dogma, but the point is, sir, that what you say can be changed can and should not. Otherwise, find yourself a church that teaches what you belive. My guess is that the Roman Catholic church is not that. Same for you two priestesses. Join a church that ordains women if you feel the need.

Which makes me jump back to the quote Pope Benedict XVI: "An Adult faith does not follow the waves of fashion and the latest novelties." Here are these three people who are trying to change their church for the waves of fashion and latest novelties. On the flip side is a program like Issues, Etc. that was trying to hold fast to whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—namely, Christ, on whom our faith is built--this gets shut down and replaced with words that follow the waves of fashion and the latest novelties. So, why isn't the St. Louis media all over this instead of one 1/4 page article on the back of the third section of the newspaper? Something just doesn't seem right to me. I guess no good deed goes unpunished.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Why I don't listen to Christian Radio

When my husband served a parish in the land of the frozen chosen, invariably certain "civil-religion-minded" (those people who are rather like civic-minded community members) members of the congregation would ask me, "Do you listen to Christian radio?" I would always say no, and then they would become offended. That would be like a pre-teen girl not liking High School Musical, or something of the sort. I'm sorry, I just don't like Christian Radio, generally speaking.

It may go back to my maternal grandmother. The woman had a Christian radio obsession. She listened to so much of it that I thought Fibber McGee and Dr. McGee were the same person. I knew of Biola University because I heard it's name so often as the sponsor of some show. I truly believed that the music for the Valley Furniture commercial was the music for a religious show.

It may go back to the time when I listened to Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith (and they still talked about God in their music), and I was unfamiliar with the concept of Christocentric music. I remember when a new Christian Radio station began broadcasting in the valley and I was excited to listen. I was first introduced to artists like Steven Curtis Chapman and Carman. I still didn't see that the music was theologically challenged. I stopped listening to said station when they stopped playing the kitschy '80s artists and starting playing Christian rap. I have no use whatsoever for rap--of ANY kind.


When I lived in the land of SPAM, the Christian radio station played the kind of Christian music that I had come to know and loathe. It was either in the genre of Donny and Marie Osmond or it talked nothing about Jesus. So much for Christian. I only listened around the time of President Barry's death to see if other people were talking about the passing of such a wonderful man.

Fast-forward to a couple years ago. . .I began listening to KFUO. It was Christian radio of a different sort. It was LCMS. Sure, the music they played during "Jubliation" wasn't always the best, but they did much well. They had devotions from Portals of Prayer and Higher Things which actually talked about Jesus. They talked about the "Today's Light" Bible study. I could listen to worship services. Most of all, I began listening to Issues, Etc. I, a pastor's wife and a Lutheran teacher, learned much from Issues, Etc. I can't even begin to relate what I gleaned from the conversations.

Now Issues, Etc. has been pulled from KFUO. I have pulled my support from KFUO. (Okay, not entirely true--I will still listen to "Sing for Joy" because I like to hear good choral music, but I don't listen in the car to/from work anymore.)

So if you ask, NO, I don't listen to Christian radio. I listen to WARH and, excuse me, my favorite song is on now--". . .I wanna rock 'n' roll all night, and party every day. . ."

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Not Too Inspiring

KFUO says it is “Inspirational Christian Radio for the World.” Hmm. . .
What does KFUO stand for, I was asked. “Keeping Forward, Upward, Onward” is what it stands for. (Better than station WLJN in a small town of Michigan which stands for “We’re Lifting Jesus’ Name, which is so evangelical.)

It seems as though KFUO’s call letters are imitating C.S. Lewis at the end of The Last Battle. The world of Narnia has been destroyed and the Narnians are in Aslan’s land and they are going “farther up and farther in”—a picture of heaven, as it were.

KFUO is supposed to allow listeners to hear the Word of God. It does with such shows as “The Bible Study” and “Law and Gospel”. It gave a little milk with “The Morning Show” and a lot of meat with “Issues, Etc.” Now we are in a recession and the first thing to go is the meat.

Mr. Strand’s computer-generated SPAM e-mail says:
“I invite you also to listen to “The Afternoon Show” on KFUO-AM, weekdays from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. Now and into the future, it will be the constant endeavor of KFUO-AM management to offer the best in Gospel-based programming throughout the day—programming that reaches out to Lutherans, other Christians, and the unchurched, and all within a budget we can hope to sustain.”

Now they are offering us more milk with more of the same morning and afternoon (no offense to the hosts who are just doing their jobs), and frankly, from what I heard, I was not inspired. When I turned it on they were talking about something “geriatric” which did not inspire me to buy a book or check out a website as the “Issues, Etc.” interview with Greg Koukl did. The only thing it inspired me to do was to change back to the rock station.

I did briefly switch back to give it a second chance. They were then interviewing a person who did some missional work. Very laudable, yet there are thousands of missionaries around the world who could have just as easily been interviewed. Don’t get me wrong—I’m not downplaying this man’s work in spreading the Gospel to those who have never heard—I just want to know why we are hearing “nice stories” about “nice people” and not hearing that which encourages us in our faith, builds up the body of Christ, and equips the saints so that we can spread the Gospel.

I, for one am not inspired. I cannot speak for the whole world.

Whose Church?

I’ve been doing some thinking here. The phrase that keeps popping up, especially under “comments” on the petition is, “This is not your Grandfather’s church.” The phrase, as you know, is a certain synodical leader’s turn of the phrase, “This is not your Father’s Oldsmobile.” This of course makes my mind jump to Dave Barry’s 25 things I’ve learned in 50 years.

Number teen-something states:
“The value of advertising is that it tells you the exact opposite of what the advertiser actually thinks.For example: If the advertisement says, "This is not your Father's Oldsmobile," the advertiser is desperately concerned that this Oldsmobile, like all other Oldsmobiles, appeals primarily to old farts like your father. . .”

In good Lutheran fashion, I pose, what does this mean? Obviously Dave Barry is attempting to be funny, yet I ask if he is inadvertently commenting on the fact that no matter how much we try to move away from our grandfather’s church, there is no getting around the fact that that’s exactly what we should be?

What is/was our grandfather’s church? I speak with others who say our grandfather’s church is nothing more nor less than CHRIST’S church. Never was ours. It wasn’t Peter’s, the Pope’s, Martin Luther’s. . . it is Christ’s. I’d like it to stay that way. Period.