1 Year

What a difference a year makes. The only thing that seems to be similar between today and a year ago is that it is raining. There is a different President with different challenges, a differing ideology from mine, and we wait to see what happens . There is a different principal at my school. I am not on spring break right now. The economy has altered much of the country's outlook. Issues, Etc. is back up and running (although I have missed it quite a bit lately due to the hectic schedule I have been keeping recently), and our church body is facing some unique challenges due to economy and ideology--I sense a theme here. It will be interesting to see what transpires in the next 365 days.

I take back my second sentence. There is one other similarity, no, an identical fact. Christ is still Lord of all, and He knows what the future holds for each of us.

Oh, That's Just Your Opinion

Today’s guest on Issues, Etc. was speaking about abortion and confusing objective claims with subjective claims. During the conversation the guest mentioned a bumper sticker which said, “Don’t like abortion? Don’t have one,” and indicated that this misses the point of the whole issue. He likened it to saying, “Don’t like slavery? Don’t own a slave,” or “Don’t like spousal abuse? Don’t beat your wife.”
I would glibly offer this statement in response to the original bumper sticker: “Don’t like life? Don’t conceive one.” One on the pro-choice side of the issue might say that this statement is too self-righteously derisive, yet the same person passing judgment on this response would likely not have the same opinion on the original statement. Why is that, do you think? Could it be that one’s right to reproduce and abort is morally acceptable, yet indicating one’s displeasure with such an approach is morally reprehensible?
I will agree that morality cannot be defined by personal opinion if humans are to co-exist and survive to tell the tale. Truly, if morality is defined by personal opinion, then Hannibal Lector is fully self-justified in consuming his victims. After all, they are rude and obnoxious and no one will miss them; in fact, he could be a hero. Oh, wait, there I go again being self-righteously derisive. . .

Eight Months Later. . .

Jean-Paul Sarte said in his 1938 novel Nausea that three o’clock is either too early or too late do anything. I agree—mostly. There is one thing that three o’clock (okay, 3:05) is just perfect for.—listening to “Issues, Etc.” live on the internet.
I am glad that I was right and wrong. I was concerned that when “Issues, Etc.” came back on the air it wouldn’t be the same show. It is and it isn’t. The focus (Christ-Centered, Cross-Focused) is still the same. The wit of the host is still the same. The quality guests are still present. The thing that I sense has changed is that the show is the same only more so. There’s a deeper quality to the topics and guests. Maybe I just took it for granted the first time around.

The End is the Beginning

It began with Wednesday Bible study as we wend our way through Leviticus. Then it was faculty devotions on Monday last when the subject resurfaced. Thursday last it was the Pastors' Roundtable discussion on the 3rd commandment on Issues, Etc.

The first day is the eighth day. It is the first day of the week, as well as the last. It is the beginning of eternity. It is the connecting link between weeks. The start of the week when God gives us His gifts; it was the start of all our weeks with our first Sunday in baptism.

We move through our week, living out our vocation. Then we return to it at the end of our week, as we repent of our sins, and find that it is the beginning of our week as we receive forgiveness through Word and Sacrament.

It is not only the day which ties together the loose ends of temporal life which would surely unravel without God's grace; it is the day which is transcendent, linking us to angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven.

On the first Sabbath God rested, setting the pattern for our lives. God works so that we can rest. We as humans rebel against renewing rest. Laziness doesn't count. We strain to show how good we are through our own works.
In the divine service, we rest. This rest is not taken, but in Jesus' salvation, rest is given.
In him is the Sabbath in completion, in fulfillment.

Preaching Tips

While reading Pastor Peperkorn's blog, I came across this comment and piece of advice by Pastor Wilken about being bored with preaching.

“Bring your own struggles with the text into the pulpit with you and lay them out for the hearers. Be honest. And, get to the Cross. If necessary, drag yourself and your hearers there kicking and screaming. Remember, the sermon isn’t over until Jesus is dead for three days. Get him out of the grave, and onto the altar, and then stop talking.
“Finally, stop trying to be interesting. Focus on Jesus, he’s interesting enough.”

Then there is Pastor Wilken’s sermon analysis diagnostic:

How often is Jesus mentioned? Is he the subject of the verbs? What are those verbs?

Then Pastor Wilken gave this piece of advice on Issues, Etc. today:

Don't give Jesus the week off, and don't let your pastor either.

To [mis]quote Dolly Levi, “Advice on preaching from Pastor Wilken? The world should hear it and grow rich.” At least, I wish my pastor had heard and heeded it before yesterday’s sermon.

I am not a homilist. I do not purport to know how to write a sermon or any such thing, so I rely on pastors to tell me how to recognize good preaching. So here’s my analysis of the sermon I heard yesterday:
#1—I counted that Jesus was mentioned twice. For a Lutheran sermon, that does not seem like enough.
#2—He was the subject of the verbs, but they were wimpy verbs; they were not verbs such as “save,” “forgive,” “die,” or “rise”.
#3—He alluded briefly to the cross. He did not drag us kicking and screaming there. It was more talked around than talked about.
#4—Since Jesus never made it to the cross, then He never made it to the grave in the sermon; therefore, He could not have been gotten out and onto the altar.
#5—I think I missed the point. It was something about exercising our faith so that it doesn’t get flabby, fat and lazy. Even though pastor said we don’t save ourselves, we have to exercise faith ourselves. I think I missed something there.
All in all, if pastor didn't quite give Jesus the week off, he at least relegated Jesus to a lesser seat off to the side. To echo the words of the Greeks to Philip, “Sir, we would see Jesus.”

The Bridge is Back

When I think of the I-35 bridge collapse in Minnesota, I next think of Issues, Etc. I know; it sounds like an odd connection. The bridge collapsed one week to the day I drove under it coming back from a live broadcast of Issues, Etc. at University Lutheran Chapel near the campus of the University of Minnesota. Now, while still odd, it makes a little more sense.

Not to trivialize the tragedy of the bridge by any means, nor to disrespect the families who lost their loved ones; I do see some similarities.

A corroded infrastructure led to a collapse. There was a public outcry, and rebuilding began again. The bridge collapsed, they investigated, rebuilt, and are now moving on. Issues, Etc. went off the air, they protested, started over, and are now moving on.

When the bottom falls out, what can one do?

There is never a returning to normal. There is learning from what has happened. There is moving forward with a new sense of not taking anything for granted. There is a fresh reminder that God is in control, even if things are out of control.

The Waiting Game

Listening to Issues, Etc., this question came up as a “teaser” for an open-line discussion. I pondered emailing my comment to the show, but it has grown beyond a comment into a blog.
It is true that the “marriage age” has been pushed back farther and farther. Consider Laura Ingalls Wilder who got married at 18, and that was about 125 years ago; in Shakespeare’s day it was even younger. In his play Romeo and Juliet, Juliet was only 13 when she married Romeo, although her father argues this point with Paris.
Capulet: But saying o’er what I have said before:
My child is yet a stranger in the world,
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years;
Let two more summers wither in their pride
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.
Paris: Younger than she are happy mothers made.
Capulet: And too soon marr’d are those so early made.
So let’s cut to the chase: Above all, Christian parents should encourage their children to marry responsibly and for life.
Why after college, like my mother encouraged me? Maybe the parents believe that their children can be better providers for their family with a college degree. The bachelor’s degree of today is nearly equivalent to the high school diploma of 50 or 60 years ago in terms of employment.
On the other hand, it could be that in our society today people view the job as the most important thing in a person’s life, not the family, and so a college degree is the status symbol, not a marriage. Consider again Laura Ingalls Wilder who had a job—she was a teacher, but hated teaching and hoped to marry so that she would not have to teach any more.
It does put teens and twenty-somethings in a situation of temptation. Waiting longer for marriage is harder when they are bombarded by sexual temptations every day. Is that the fault of the length of the educational system? No, it is the fault of the content of the educational system. The same system which encourages education at the highest level possible (get your bachelors’, master’s, doctorate) also encourages sex—see the posting at Opus—and discourages the nuclear family. Have sex, do what you want, but remember: pregnancy bad, abortion good; marriage bad if it holds you back, marriage good if you’re ready for that step (you can always divorce if he/she holds you back later). No wonder it’s a plethora of confusion.How does waiting to marry after college carry any more temptation for the person who has a significant other than a person who does not? You wait for marriage regardless of when that marriage happens, pure and simple. Christian parents will always encourage their children of that, reminding them that a spouse is a gift, not a right, whenever they are gifted.

The Returning

Issues, Etc. is officially back! I admit that I am listening online right now. I am glad the show is back. I am glad "Christ-centered, cross-focused talk radio" has returned to the mass-communication devices. I am still concerned.

It is no secret that this whole debacle has been, well, just that--a debacle. It is no secret that the removal of Issues, Etc. from KFUO has galvanized the whole LCMS. Okay, it has galvanized the people paying attention. Blogs, websites, protests, the whole shebang. It makes me concerned. Unified in our Disunity is being touted as our banner. We are ostracizing ourselves. It makes me think of the "Divided We Fail" campaign put out by the AARP with the hybrid donkey/elephant animal.

I don't know what to do with it (not the weird AARP animal). There are those who teach the LCMS should be bold, exciting, and new; bowing to the desires of the mainstream American Christianity, whatever that may be. There are those who teach that we should do it the way we've always done it, whatever that may be, and end up being old and tired and everyone else is evil. There are those who teach we should be faithful to the Word of God (a novel idea), and we should teach people what that means. Yet here we are, squabbling over right and left and finances and shutting people down, while a world is still dying and the harvest is still white and in the field.

I guess there are two things to say: Lord, have mercy; Come, Lord Jesus.

It IS Political

So they eliminated "Issues, Etc." from KFUO for financial reasons. Now a new "Issues, Etc." will be on the air elsewhere (KSIV 1320 in St. Louis). There are some ponderings as to whether the same line-up of guests will be on the show. True, nobody ever was told not to go on a radio program because it hadn't made enough money. If they had cancelled Don Imus for not making enough dough, would guests go on still if he started a new show? I can understand not going on because of his basketball comments. That's politically understandable.

Problem is with "Issues, Etc.," even IF the reason had been truly monetary, it is no longer. It has been dragged into the (church) political arena. I'm guessing that even those guests who were not in favor of its cancellation may not want to place themselves in a political spotlight because in this world, a vote FOR someone is equal to a vote AGAINST.

Bear in mind, I am not evaluating, I am merely stating.