Sunday -- Happy Hour All Day

A new place opened down the street from my house. To gather new customers in, they have posted banners on the building "$5 lunches." That was enough to get me in there. It is really a bar mostly, I think, but the lunch was good -- certainly worth the $5. While eating there with my wife, Sylvia, we noticed different features of the place, but my favorite sign stated simply: "Sunday -- Happy Hour All Day."
Now, that is what every preacher hopes for -- the hour of worship will bring joy, help folks be happy "All Day" even All Week! What do you think, shall I borrow the sign and post it at church? "Sunday: Happy Hour All Day"

First Day of Spring -- Snow in Texas!

It is odd to think that Jerusalem in Israel and Dallas, Texas are at almost the same latitude on the globe. Is our weather that different then? Israel is not all that familiar with snow either -- the word "snow" is only in the Old Testament and New Testament less than 30 times, and that usually is as a comparative of how white something can be.
Well, every now and then in Texas and Israel it comes down hard! Psalm 147: 16 "[The Lord] gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes." That must have ben written after a storm like our First Day of Spring -- Sunday morning. Some asked if we would even be having church. But by Noon, snow was fading. Psalm 147: 18a "[The Lord] sends out his word, and melts them...." This Texas boy was glad to see the blue sky, glad to know God stays in charge!

"The Pacific" (Hanks/Spielberg share more of World War II)

As a child, I was raised on World War II. Although my father was a Marine involved in the Korean War, he had a brother and brother-in-law captured at Wake Island. And another uncle was wounded at Cape Gloucester and served later at Peleilu. (http://www.purpleheartaustin.org/bankston.htm) So, I waited with anticipation for the beginning of the 10 part miniseries from Hanks/Spielberg called "The Pacific."

In the closing minutes of the first episode, a young machine-gunner on Guadalcanal reflects on a particularly fierce battle in which he killed many Japanese. He asks the very difficult question faced by warriors -- though one might reconcile these actions with God, how does one square it with oneself for participation in such actions?

It may be exactly because we have difficultly forgiving ourselves AND one another, as well as living from that forgiveness, that we need the voice of God from outside our lives, outside even our own experience, to speak that forgiving word.

Lord, save me from faint, really faint, praise

So the old story goes --
When asked how he liked the new minister, an older member replied that he supposed the preacher was all right, although six days the pastor was invisible and the seventh day incomprehensible.

"This is the beginning of the end of the Word."

Well, that title seems dramatic indeed: "For an hour this week, I thought, 'This is the beginning of the end of the Word.'" I ran across this October 2009 quotation from Newsweek's religion editor, Lisa Miller, in another publication. She was commenting on an electronic Bible, and its potential to replace the Scriptures as we generally know it -- a bound Bible book. It is an interesting argument, though I think we are quite a ways from such a day. Technology is attractive, but not all (by a long shot!) have bought in.
Miller's sentiment is an interesting contrast to a recent movie "The Book of Eli" in which Denzel Washington's character protected the last Bible (in an alternative format), so it could be REPRINTED. (Spoiler alert: He dies as the Bible rolls off the press.)
I think the church can handle an all electronic Bible, as the technology people of faith have known has certainly shifted -- oral tradition, papyrus and scrolls, codex, hand-copied book, the printing press, and mass market product. Why not electronic some day?
But hardly, even then, "the beginning of the end of the Word."
How does Isaiah 40:8 say it? "The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever."

The Large Catechism -- largely for Lent

This year for my Wednesday evening Lenten service meditations, I have be using a reading from Scripture and a reading from Martin Luther's Large Catechism.

Last night I was struck by Luther's argument that the Creed should follow the Ten Commandments because the Ten Commandments tell us how we should live, but we cannot so live without God. And the creed reminds us of which god that is, or, who the God is that promises to enter our lives so that we might live with hope! It is refreshing, even in Lent, to remember that our shortfall, our sin, is not so much what we fail to do, but who (God!) we fail to believe in. Hence, the Lenten journey is to draw nearer to God's call, rather than to busy ourselves in doing better. In fact, it is in that very drawing nearer that we are able to do better!

Texas Independence and a Blue-eyed Alien in the Land!

Today is Texas Independence Day! A true Texas day of celebration of freedom from despotic rule (Santa Anna in 1836). As a Texan I will wear my Texas tie with pride today!

At my home, there is another reason to celebrate: 44 years ago my wife became an American citizen when her family was sworn in on Texas Independence Day, 1966. I thank God that they journeyed from Germany to Australia to Milwaukee to Texas; otherwise, Texan or not, I would find my life to be far, far less and have much less reason for celebration!

“Venus and Mars and Percy Jackson?”

There is a movie out right now called “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” which has the teenage son of a Greek god and human mother on a quest to save the world. Well, it is very entertaining, but entertaining fiction, to be sure. I have been fascinated since childhood by the ancient stories of the Mediterranean people trying to make sense of the world before Christianity arrived with its answers. And that reminded me that we have two subsequent months that honor Greek/Roman ideals – love and war: Venus and Mars. You might even remember that several years ago there was a series of books about “Men Are from Mars and Women Are from Venus.” I actually think we humans are all probably from both Mars and Venus.
Last month was the big Love festival of Valentine’s Day, and Love moved through the culture – music, movies, money. The goddess of Love, called Venus by the Romans or Aphrodite by the Greeks, ruled the nations’ attention. We will shortly be entering March (named for the Roman God Mars, called Ares by the Greeks -- the god of war). Are we similarly dominated by war? There is a war, a couple of wars, half a world away, often called to mind only when we hear of soldiers who are wounded or killed in action or civilians caught in the combat crossfire. And we are still in the middle of Lent when we remember the war that is internal for many of us, a war that the Apostle Paul noted: “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” (Roman 7:19)

This two-fold, Love-War, Good-Evil, are realities indeed for human life. We do not need a modern half-god, half-man like Percy Jackson to solve the problem. And the Greeks and Romans though instructive do not solve things for us. So, we have a good Lutheran concept that recognizes “Simul justus et peccator” – simultaneously saint and sinner – the very human nature we share, the very human nature that the true God, true Man, Jesus Christ solved for us, a solution we ponder in the Christian faith which has made its way beyond the Mediterranean to Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, the Americas – that is, to us!

So, we draw close to the end of the Lenten season in March (this month of warfare) and we look forward to the Easter promise, when Divine Love erupts from the tomb in April! “Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7: 24b,25)

Ash Wednesday 2010

This year my Lenten Wednesdays will emphasize basic catechetical themes -- Confession, Sacraments, Creed, and Lord's Prayer. Today, for Ash Wednesday, we began appropriately with Confession. I read a portion of Martin Luther's Large Catechism, in which he addresses the need for Confession. I appreciated his reminder that the Reformation maintained the practice of Confession but shifted the focus from the abrasive scrutiny of the soul in pursuit of every transgression (large, small, and minute!) to an emphasis on the liberating freedom of forgiveness. It is a powerful gift of God to release us from guilt, worry, and animosity between ourselves and other Christians.

Susan Briehl's 2010 Hein Fry Lecture on Feb. 12

Rev. Susan Briehl presented the 2010 Hein Fry Lecture at 1:30 p.m., Feb. 12 at Texas Lutheran University. It was an "exciting" ride leaving the Dallas snow and ice that morning to drive the 250 miles down there. But the journey was smooth and the presentation ("Hearing the Word: Teaching the Bible in the Parish and Beyond") was encouraging. Pastor Briehl, an English major in college who took a Bible literature course from "the Lord" (her teacher's name was Dr Lord!), has a wonderful way of presenting with almost hymnic or poetic words as well as directly to the issues. I hope I can incorporate even a portion of the ideas in my regular Sunday morning Adult Bible Study.