“Immediately a rooster crowed.  Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken…”     Matthew 26:74-75

“It is the truth which is assailed in any age which tests our fidelity.  It is to confess we are called, not merely to profess.  If I profess, with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christianity.  Where the battle rages the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle-field besides is mere flight and disgrace to him if he flinches at that one point.”

These words were spoken by “Fritz.”  Fritz is a fictional character, of the Saxon-German Cotta Family, 16th century Germany.  In a book known by several titles–the most recent being From Dark to Dawn–author Elizabeth Rundle Charles relates the seismic events of the Reformation in the life of the Church and in the homes and hearts of its people through the individuals of this particular Cotta family.  Embodying Martin Luther’s confession of the faith, Fritz–while (according to the story) encarcerated for the confession of the true faith–gives us the above words.

And Fritz is right.  Many a situation in life will arise when we’ll be required not merely to profess the broad-brush of the Christian faith as a whole, but most especially–and most often–to confess Christ Jesus in a particular point of the faith…the very one that’s under fire at that time.  And most often in our lives–even in the lives of our children–that won’t be before Holy Roman emperors and with the eyes of the world looking on as it was for Martin Luther when, at the Diet of Worms (1521), he confessed Christ with his dramatic “Here I stand!”  No, most often, we–and our children–will confess Christ in the more casual “courtyards” of life (Mt. 26:74-75), around and amid life’s casual conversations that become moments of confession.  Family gatherings, and at dinner tables; schoolyard recesses, and in workplace breakrooms:  these are life’s courtyards.  It’s there–in those very particular moments and in those very particular points–that, like Peter in the courtyard, we’re called to confess Christ Jesus.

Despite our bold intentions to fidelity, you can bet that, at times, fear will rise over faith…as it did for Peter.  You can bet that, at times, we’ll retreat from the moment, only to hear the rooster crow in the night of the conscience…as it did to Peter.  And as if Christ’s eyes had met ours in that courtyard, we’ll regret it.  But, like Peter, we’ll draw highest comfort when we recall that Jesus prayed for us, too, that we might be restored (Luke 22:32; Romans 8:34), that Jesus died for us, too, that we might be forgiven.  And drawing strength and courage from knowing that the risen Christ is not ashamed to confess us before His Father in heaven, like Peter, we’ll forget what lies behind, and press on to that next moment when Christ will be confessed before men.  Lord, grant it!

CHOICE.  It’s the word that drives our national ethics.  “The right to CHOOSE.”   But, it’s a presumed right which assumes far too much.  Because the choices we make have consequences for others, God limits our choices to those things which will neither alter His created order or endanger life or take from another that which is necessary to sustain the life of the individual which is necessary for the existence of society.   Thus, “Thou shalt not bear false witness.”  “Thou shalt not steal.”  “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”  “Thou shalt not murder,”  etc. 

As an agent of God, ordained by Him to order a civil society, government is to do the same thing.   It is to limit our choices to those things which will not take the life of another or take anything that can rightly be said to belong to another.  (See Romans 13:1-10) 

Unfortunately, when it comes to the issue of abortion the government has failed to do what God created it to do!  The negative consequences, the cost:    the lives of over 50,000,000 infants since the US Supreme Court legalized abortion in January of 1973.   The staggering figure dwarfs the number of lives lost in death camps in Germany prior to and during World War II.  It’s nearly double the number of Russian lives extinguished by Stalin in the 1930′s and it excels the number of Chinese lives taken by Mao Tse Tung’s “Great Leap Forward” between 1959-60.  

Think of it:  during the past 75 years, those who have wrongly assumed a  ’right of choice’ when it comes to human life have chosen to end the lives of over 100,000,000 people, half of them being infants whose lives were procedurely ended in ways no more humane than the horrendous ways by which Hitler, Stalin or Mao chose to end  so many lives in the death camps of Germany, Russia or China.    The consequences of wrong assumptions and decisions regarding unchecked  ”choice” are numbing. 

May they never be so numbing that they make us insensitive to the most vulnerable and unprotected life in the world…the life of a child in its mother’s womb.

  After 27 years as his pastor, I’ll miss Hugh Ryan.   No matter how dire his health circumstances —and they were dire many times over!!!— his face bore the mark of confident contentment in Christ which you see in the photo here, taken at the birthday party of our friend, Sonja Heidemann.

Hugh was called home last Thursday afternoon at the age of 64.  His memorial service will be at LCOS this coming Saturday, January 22, at 11:00 a.m. when family and friends will gather to celebrate the grace of God in Hugh’s life.  A light luncheon in the Parish Hall will follow the service.

Pastoral suggestion:  rather than flowers, consider sending Hugh’s wife, Julie, a monetary gift to help her with funeral expenses. I know it would be helpful and very much appreciated.  Make checks payable to Mrs. Julie Ryan.  They can be sent to the church office and we’ll be sure that she receives them.   

“We feebly struggle; they in glory shine!”

While there are numerous rituals of the Roman Rite of Christianity with which confessional Lutherans may not feel comfortable, there are aspects of some rites of the Roman Church which are quite consistent with our convictions.

Epiphany offers us one of the rituals which, I think, merits a mimic in Lutheran homes: the request of our Lord Jesus Christ to bless our homes.   Should you happen upon a home during the next few days that has a “20+C+M+B+11″ over the doorway,  the strange ‘formulae’ is really an Epiphany prayer. 

The first number represents the centuries which have passed since our Lord’s Incarnation.  The second number represents the new year of that century.  So, the blessing request is, in the above case, for 2011.    The letters in between the two sets of numbers are “CMB” which stand for the Latin phrase Christus Mansionem Benedicat” which means “May Christ Bless The House.”   [The Roman Rite also has the CMB standing for the legendary names of the Epiphany guests who came to the house of Joseph to worship the Christ Child, the  'Three Wisemen:'  Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar.  Scripture gives us no information regarding their number or their names, so this detail might be omitted.] 

And, here’s a Lutheranized rite for chalking it on or above your front door.   Or, if you’re handy with wood, perhaps you’d prefer to inscribe the Latin upon a rectangular wooden sign to hang above your front door for the year.   Before chalking or hanging it:

Head of Household:  Our help is the name of the Lord.
Family:   Who made heaven and earth.

Head of House:   The Lord be with you.
Family:   And with your spirit.

Head of House:  Let us pray.   Bless, O Lord God, this house with Your daily presence throughout this new year and bless our family which dwells within it.  As the magi followed Your Word and its star which guided them to the Christ Child,  so also may all who dwell within these walls be led by Your Word to see the Bright Morning Star, our Lord Jesus Christ, who has delivered us from our darkness into His marvelous light.  Hear us now as we together pray:

OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN….

A HYMN to be read or sung:

O blest the house what-e’er befall, Where Jesus Christ is all in all;  Yea if He were not dwelling there, How dark and poor and void it were.

Oh, blest the house where faith ye find And all within have set their mind To trust their God and service Him still And do in all His Holy Will.

Then here will I and mine today A solemn covenant make and say:  Though all the world forsake Thy Word, I and my house will serve the Lord!

Amen.

  A SERVICE CELEBRATING THE NAMING OF JESUS

Friday, December 31st, at  7:3o pm

We conclude 2010 and begin 2011 in the Name of Jesus and gather to receive the Divine Gift of His Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Holy Communion.   He is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. 

In His Name, we commend our past, present and future, to the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, confident that nothing can separate us from the love of God. 

Humbled for a season, to receive a name
From the lips of sinners unto whom He came,
Faithfully He bore it, spotless to the last,
Brought it back victorious when from death He passed.

Bore it up triumphant with its human light,
Through all ranks of creatures, to the central height,
To the throne of Godhead, to the Father’s breast;
Filled it with the glory of that perfect rest.

Name Him, brothers, name Him, with love strong as death
But with awe and wonder, and with bated breath!
He is God the Savior, He is Christ the Lord,
Ever to be worshipped, trusted and adored.

Commenting on the the message of the Christmas angel to the shepherds in the fields, Martin Luther said: “He does not simply say, ‘Christ is born,’ but  ‘…to YOU he is born,’   neither does he say,  ‘I bring glad tidings,’  but  ‘…to YOU I bring glad tidings of great joy.’   Furthermore, this joy was not to remain in Christ, but  ‘… it shall be to ALL THE PEOPLE!”

“O Come, Let Us Adore Him, Christ the Lord!”

CHRISTMAS EVE CANDLELIGHT SERVICE   begins at 7:30 p.m. and includes the singing of many Christmas carols, the lighting of candles and the proclaiming of the Christmas Gospel.

CHRISTMAS DAY SERVICE begins at 10:00 a.m.  and is the service where the Incarnate Christ gives His very Body and Blood to His people in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Christmas hymns and the Christmas Day Word of God to the people of God.

CHRISTMAS SUNDAY, Dec. 26…  It’s a “one service Sunday” for LCOS, so NO standard 8:00 and 11:00 services with Sunday classes in between. Instead, only ONE SERVICE WITH HOLY COMMUNION AT 10:00 AM followed by Christmas fellowship in the Parish Hall.

“O COME, ALL YE FAITHFUL!”

Children of The Lutheran Church of Our Savior …

will present the Christmas story to members of the congregation this Sunday between morning services. The program begins in the Parish Hall at 9:40 am.

Sunday morning services are at 8:00 and 11:00 with Holy Communion at the 8:00 service this Sunday.   Fellowship immediately after the services.  But, because of the children’s Christmas presentation, there will be no classes this Sunday.

Why is it then that we Lutherans with our pure Gospel and sacraments have not been firebrands of missionary dynamism? Is it because our faith is drab and old-fashioned, and we haven’t managed to spiff it up for modern tastes? Or is it because we have not been trained in the right ways of saying it? Or perhaps because we care too much about the truth and not enough about people? Or because traditionally only our clergy preach and lead services?…What is much more likely is that we Lutherans are simply not convinced enough ourselves to go about convincing others….

In other words, if Lutherans are to be contagious in their faith, they need to be convincing and therefore convinced as Lutherans—not as imitation Pentecostalists, imitation “Evangelicals,” or imitation anything else. Such convictions cannot be “put on,” as salesmanship bravado. They arise quite naturally, or I should say supernaturally, from faithful preaching, faithful catechesis, faithful sacramental life, and faithful pastoral care, all upheld within the mutual solidarity of a faithful, confessionally sound congregation. Such a fount of conviction will draw others into the fold, the members’ own life and confession being the chief “cutting edge.”

– Dr. Kurt E. Marquart, Church and Ministry Today: Three Confessional Lutheran Essays, 2001, p.153

It’s the time of the year when our own highways and byways are busy with seasonal traffic.  Circumstances, of course (seasonal or otherwise), compel us onto the road, along the way, and unto our place of destination.  The figure of the road is Scriptural.  The holy writers used it to describe aspects of the human condition, and we’ll consider it this Advent season.  What circumstances compelled us onto the road?  What’s the natural condition of the way, and how must our Lord prepare it?  Is it a manger that lies at its end?  This year, consider with us…“The Highways and Byways of Advent.”

“Out of Eden…” – December 1

“In the Wilderness…” – December 8

“To the Manger…” - December 15

Wednesday Evenings, 7:30 – 8:15 p.m.    Join us!

“Come, ye thankful people, come!”  The great Thanksgiving hymn invites us to gather together as God’s people to thank Him for the myriad of His gifts which He so generously gives us, gifts for both body and soul. 

They need not be enumerated.  Besides, His gifts are far too many for us to recall at even the height of conscious thoughts of gratitude.  And, sinful creatures that we are, we would likely do with the enumeration of our blessings what our first parents did in Eden:  get so caught up in a tree  that we don’t see the whole forest of His blessings! 

Isn’t that what happened?   Father Adam and mother Eve… so obssessed with the one tree in Eden from which they were NOT to eat  that they failed to see the whole forest of trees from which they COULD eat, their sin necessitating for them and for us all the “Tree of Life”  –the Cross– upon which God gave us the greatest Gift of all:  His only Son!  The Tree of the Cross bearing the fruit of forgiveness given us in the very Body and Blood of His Only Begotten who is  hidden in the bread and the wine of His people to whom God says, “Take, eat!  Drink!”

Little wonder that the Apostle John —in the last book of the Bible— puts it this way:   “WE GIVE THANKS to you, Lord God almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.”  His focus for ‘thanks?’  The One who who is and was and is to come!  The One who reigned from the Tree when He was upon it for us, crushing Satan underfoot, making Him a footstool beneath His feet!   (The theme of the last Sunday of the Church Year which we celebrated last Sunday.)   The One who is visibly coming again at time’s end, as we celebrate in Advent which begins this coming Sunday!   

Though not an historic part of the Church Year, how appropriately THANKSGIVING is wedged between the last and the first Sunday of the Church Year, not robbing from either, but as our GRATEFUL RESPONSE to what He HAS done and to what He has YET TO DO…FOR US!  

So, “come ye thankful people, come!”  This THURSDAY- THANKSGIVING DAY — 10:00 AM.