It is a pity and dreadful cowardice when a person sacrifices the good ancient church customs to please the deluded American denominations just so they won't accuse us of being Roman Catholic! Indeed! Am I to be afraid of a Methodist, who perverts the saving Word, or be ashamed in the matter of my good cause, and not rather rejoice that they can tell by our ceremonies that I do not belong to them?

It is too bad that such entirely different ceremonies prevail in our Synod, and that no liturgy at all has yet been introduced in many congregations. The prejudice especially against the responsive chanting of pastor and congregations is of course still very great with many people—this does not, however, alter the fact that it is very foolish. The pious church father Augustine said, "Qui cantat, bis orat—he who sings prays twice."

This finds its application also in the matter of the liturgy. Why should congregations or individuals in the congregation want to retain their prejudices? How foolish that would be! For first of all it is clear from the words of St. Paul (1 Cor. 14:16) that the congregations of his time had a similar custom. It has been the custom in the Lutheran Church for 250 years. It creates a solemn impression on the Christian mind when one is reminded by the solemnity of the divine service that one is in the house of God, in childlike love to their heavenly Father, also give expression to their joy in such a lovely manner.

...

Whenever the divine service once again follows the old Evangelical-Lutheran agendas (or church books), it seems that many raise a great cry that it is "Roman Catholic": "Roman Catholic" when the pastor chants "The Lord be with you" and the congregation responds by chanting "and with thy spirit"; "Roman Catholic" when the pastor chants the collect and the blessing and the people respond with a chanted "Amen." Even the simplest Christian can respond to this outcry: "Prove to me that this chanting is contrary to the Word of God, then I too will call it 'Roman Catholic' and have nothing more to do with it. However, you cannot prove this to me."

If you insist upon calling every element in the divine service "Romish" that has been used by the Roman Catholic Church, it must follow that the reading of the Epistle and Gospel is also "Romish." Indeed, it is mischief to sing or preach in church, for the Roman Church has done this also...Those who cry out should remember that the Roman Catholic Church possesses every beautiful song of the old orthodox church. The chants and antiphons and responses were brought into the church long before the false teachings of Rome crept in. This Christian Church since the beginning, even in the Old Testament, has derived great joy from chanting...For more than 1700 years orthodox Christians have participated joyfully in the divine service. Should we, today, carry on by saying that such joyful participation is "Roman Catholic"? God forbid! Therefore, as we continue to hold and to restore our wonderful divine services in places where they have been forgotten, let us boldly confess that our worship forms do not tie us with the modern sects or with the church of Rome; rather, they join us to the one, holy Christian Church that is as old as the world and is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.

from an address given at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, August 9, 1871, at the 16th Central District Convention. (Essays for the Church, Vol. I, pp. 193-194) and from an editorial in Der Lutheraner, Vol. 9, No. 24, p. 163 (July 19, 1853)

I find myself in a good position that my people love chanting (and all things Lutheran). I am fortunate that they love my chanting.

I got to do something today I have been wanting to do for as long as I have been in the ministry. At both places previous to this current location I have pleaded with my people to let me do this.

I didn't preach tonight, so there's no sermon. But we did have a service; a meditative service on the seven last words of Christ. So, for your own meditation, the seven last words.

What follows is a powerful letter by a former constitutional lawyer regarding the recently passed health care bill. It was written well before the bill was passed, but it is still appropriate given the fact that it's still the same bill.

Early in the career of almost every student in the United States is learned the phrase from the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." And like little, mindless automatons, we soak it in and soak in the way it is falsely taught. There are a few, however, that learn to question what they are taught, not to be confrontational, but to be inquisitive. To them is granted the knowledge found in the following line.

So, I'm now going to be fined for not buying something I cannot afford by the government forcing me to buy that which I cannot afford. How can that not scream socialism and fascism?

It's no secret that I like the Winter Olympic Games. I really enjoyed the games this year, though I would have preferred more diverse coverage than what we got simply on NBC and Universal Sports (we don't have cable); and I could have done with less figure skating. I even enjoyed the closing ceremonies. But, I miss the games.

A bit of a warning (I guess) before you watch it. The intro and outro are loud compared to the actual "content" of the video, so adjust your volume accordingly. Don't expect to see a man vested and in a pulpit, looking like a "stodgy old minister." Oh, he's a confessional man, alright, but not what one might expect such a man to look like.

In any event, enjoy the video!

I have been including audio of my sermons with the manuscripts lately when I've been posting them to the site. As these mp3 files have been ranging from just over 5MB to just over 10MB each, they would quickly fill up the space we have at ms11. So, I found a free host at which I get 1GB of space. I'm putting my audio files there; it should last me a little while, and give me some time to find some more for when I need it.

The side affect of this is that the flash player on the site no longer displays the id3 tag information of the mp3s. You can, however, still listen to them as normal.

If a file doesn't start playing (the player gets stuck on buffering), let me know. I might have inadvertently skipped editing that entry.