clair090

How often don't you hear it said that our children are our future?  I hear people say all the time that the children in the Church are the Church's future.  I understand the sentiment even though I often point out to the fact that they are not technically the future of the Church but its present as well and, perhaps, even more importantly.  Yet, the future, until Christ comes, lies in some doubt if those children now decide to have no children or few children when the take their places as husbands and wives and families within God's house. Some love to giggle when it is pointed out that the graying of the Church is due less to the fact that we lose our children than it is to the fact that we have less children to lose than in the past.  It cause a laugh because they presume that we don't need children for a future -- just expanded outreach toward those around us who do not yet believe.  I am certainly not one to suggest that we should make it a choice or ignore ...

As you have heard, t he Church of England is now encouraging its clergy to create baptism-style "naming" ceremonies for transgender people to welcome them into the Anglican faith by their new names and according to their chosen gender .  New pastoral guidance now advises clergy to refer to transgender people by their new name, though it is not quite a baptism it attempts to be its equivalent. The decision approved by the House of Bishops details how elements including water and oil can be incorporated into the service to mirror what happens in baptism. The guidance notes: “For a trans person to be addressed liturgically by the minister for the first time by their chosen name may be a powerful moment in the service.” Except that the point of the name is not to liturgically affirm the individual but to point to the fact that they now are named with a new name.  They wear the name of Christ and belong to Him.  No one comes to the font (or to some odd attempt at an eq...

Having endured endless political ads that were quite adept at misrepresenting an opponent's position and equally adept at misrepresenting the candidate's record, I am happy to have found a somewhat quiet reprieve.  The end of the silly season was too long in coming and will surely not last for long until it begins anew.  Sadly, however, this silly season has been more brutal than most and is testament to the difficulty we have in debating positions instead of merely disparaging the candidates themselves.  Some attribute this to the post-Trump era and its hardened positions on the extremes.  I am not sure it has all that much to do with Trump at all.  Instead, I fear, it has more to do with the dead ends of the roads we have left in our pursuit of an illiberal liberalism and a conservatism that destroys more than it conserves.  Such is the end of those who have abandoned morality in favor of a pragmatism of what works. How can it be that the legal default is...

When St. Paul said death reigned from the time of Adam (Romans 5:14), he was not speaking symbolically or even using images but spoke of Adam as historical figure and the fall as history.  Adam is not myth but person, the first person of God's creation, and not simply a archetype of the common man but the one man from whom all men have come. There are all kinds of people who insist that you do not have to have a historical Adam to read Genesis or get its meaning.  I suppose that there is a bit of truth in this but it presumes an awful lie -- that God's Word is either unclear or downright deceptive.  While some may prefer to see Adam as mythological figure and to reduce Genesis largely to fable with a moral to the story, all over the Scriptures Adam is referenced clearly as an historical figure.  It may be interesting to talk about what Adam represents but it is surely more important to know who Adam was and how his story gives context for our world in which sin and d...

What you should not say to a young man who wants to be a pastor. . . 1. “Are you sure you wanna do that?” 2. “Won’t you be lonely?” 3. “I couldn’t do that.” 4. “They don’t get paid very well.” 5. “So you’re really in to that religion stuff?” 6. “Wow . . . never saw that coming.” 7. “Did you just go through a bad breakup?” 8. “What’s the matter? Don’t think you can cut it in the real world?” 9. “Wish I only had to work one day a week.” 10. “I think women should be pastors.” 11. "You used to be so cool, what happened?” 12. “You’re too young to do that now, wait until you have had a little fun.” Maybe you can add to the list of things that could be said to discourage young men from considering the pastoral ministry.  I certainly heard most of them and think most young men desiring to be pastors have heard them as well.  Keep saying them and it may well be that they will give up on this vocation. . . if that is what you want to happen.

I was reading a Roman Catholic author talking about how the canonization process has changed over the years -- even the rites themselves by which the candidates are enshrined among the noble heroes of old.  He briefly noted that the canonization of some modern figures, in particular popes John Paul II and John XXIII, was unusual.  They had not been dead that long and, in the case of popes, not all that many popes have been declared saints.  By Roman count some 265 men have been pope and of these popes, so far 81 have been declared saints (with Paul VI on October 14 of this  year).  Paul VI will become only the 8th papal saint since A.D. 1000, but the 4th of the 20th century, joining Pius X, John XXIII, & John Paul II. Why have only a third of those who sit on the chair of St. Peter or who wear the shoes of the Fisherman been declared saints? Some lament that this whole process is troublesome -- trivial and silly according to some critics.  Even Franci...

While ruminating about the state of confirmation in the LCMS and in my own parish, we were faced with a number of things to consider.  On the one hand, we face a complex and confused world with respect to the age of confirmation, the curriculum used, and the time spent in catechizing our youth.  Confirmation practices vary widely throughout the Synod but it is not alone responsible for the decline in youth participation and for the loss of young people.  In comparison to the practices of Luther's day, it could be said that our youth are better educated but not as formed in the faith.  We have Sunday school, VBS, catechism classes, youth group, children's Bibles, catechism books, videos, graphic catechisms, large youth gatherings, and all kinds of things to help -- all at a time when losses of youth mount. I wonder if we have not confused and conflated education with faith formation.  Faith formation is first of all the fruits of a home life rooted in the faith a...

If you want to know the problem orthodox Christianity has, just remember that for the vast majority of those not Christian, it is Benny Hinn, John Hagee, Marilyn Hickey, TD Jakes, Jessie Duplantis, Creflo Dollar, Jamal Bryant, Joseph Prince, Joyce Meyer, the Osteens and and the Copelands that they think of when they hear the word Christian or pastor. They are the most watched, most listened to, and , perhaps, the most influential Christian leaders in the United States.  What they teach and the church they represent is what characterizes the conception most people outside of orthodox Christianity have of things Christian and Christian pastors.  How embarrassing!! Worse than embarrassing, this is perhaps the biggest challenge we face in evangelization.  Those who are not yet of the Kingdom think they know who Christians are.  They are not like the pagans of old who had no conception of the Gospel before St. Paul proclaimed it before the altar tot he unknown God....

Sermon for Advent 2C, preached by the Rev. Daniel M. Ulrich on Sunday, December 9, 2018.                Right now, we’re preparing for the Lord.   We’re all getting ready for Christmas: buying gifts; planning dinners; making travel plans.   We think the holidays are supposed to be relaxing time, but they’re a lot of work.   They take a lot of preparation.   But this holiday preparation isn’t the preparation I’m talking about.   Right now, at this very moment, as you sit in those pews, you’re preparing for the Lord.   You’re getting ready to receive your Savior, not just on Christmas Day, but on the Last Day.   You’re preparing for the Lord right now by being prepared by the Lord.                  It’s a fact of Scripture that the Lord prepares His people.   Ever since the beginning, when He made Adam and...

Discernment is getting a bad name.  The Wiki dictionary says (in Christian contexts) discernment is perception in the absence of judgment with a view to obtaining spiritual direction and understanding.   In other words, discernment is without judgment but seeks to transcend judgment with understanding.  If you are shaking your head now, you should be.  This is a false idea of discernment.  Discernment is not the suspension of judgment but precisely the judgment that discerns truth from error.  This is its simplest definition.  Discernment is nothing more and nothing less than the ability to decide between truth and error, right and wrong. Discernment is critical thinking, making careful distinctions in our thinking about what is truth. For the Christian, to think with discernment is synonymous with thinking Biblically.  Legitimate discernment is never open-ended but begins with truth, in distinction against error, and moves to its application wit...

Faded photographs,  covered now with lines and creases Tickets torn in half,  memories in bits and pieces       Dennis Yost and the Classic IV   Oh, we won't give in Let's go living in the past Oh no, no we won't give in Let's go living in the past       Jethro Tull “My days of old have vanished in tone and tint.”       Last words of General Douglas McArthur If you are old enough, you recall photos that faded from their crisp black and white to a shadow of an image, colors that turned orange and dark, paper that became brittle and fragile.  The photos of old were not a lasting impression of the moment they preserved in time but a temporary glimpse, preserved longer than some of the memories but not much longer. In contrast to this, we live in the digital era in which the photos on our computers, cameras, and phones appear eternal.  They do not fade in color and their focus does not blur with t...

Curious.  The Roman Mass counts as Propers (in addition to the Introit, Gradual, Collect, Alleluia (or Tract), Sequence and Readings) the Offertory and Post-Communion Prayer.  Lutherans typically treat the Offertory and Post-Communion Prayer as part of the Ordinary and not a Proper.  Anyone know why Lutherans decided to treat these pretty much as Ordinary (though with perhaps a few choices)?  I wonder why this survived even after the Liturgical Renewal Movement and its deference to Roman practice.  Does anyone know of a reasoned explanation for this?

I recall once thinking that it was high time to switch to the Revised Standard Version (yes I am that old) since the King James is so antiquated and so difficult to understand (perhaps I should have said it is hard to read).  Yet I have learned over the years that the problem lay not with the text but with the person holding it.  Some education helped (no, I am not talking about college here but middle school -- junior high we called it -- and high school).  Shakespeare helped.  Reading did even more.  As I spent time with those who knew the language and knew how to use it, I discovered that the text that once seemed so formidable was and is really rather accessible.  Let me go one further, the antiquated language of Cranmer, Book of Common Prayer, The Lutheran Hymnal, and the Authorized Version of the Bible are not easy but that is because they use well the richness of our language.  They have not succumbed to the great temptation to minimalism. ...