the discipline of prayer

In order to give the greatest benefit, the discipline of Daily Prayer
needs to be carried out whether we feel like it or not, whether our heart is in it or not.

This is from a book I read recently called Praying with the Church; an introduction to prayer in daily life by Rev Phillip Pfatteicher. His words ring true in all of life, really, but especially so in our individual and corporate life of prayer. If we are Christ's disciples, then we pray. It is just who we are--we were made for this activity, this speaking with our heavenly Father.

It's kind of like eating. Your body was made for eating, it's just who you are as a human being. You don't eat, you will soon cease to have physical, human life. We eat whether we want to or not, whether or not we "feel like it".

So also we pray, as Pr Pfatteicher explains, "whether we feel like it or not". Luther also said similar things about prayer. I'm paraphrasing him, but it was something like this: "the moment we least feel the desire or need to pray, is the very moment when we most need to pray."

So, pray. Pray in the morning when you rise and in the evening when you lay down. (See the catechism for a short form of prayer to use at these times; and don't forget to make the sign of the cross in remembrance of your baptism--it's what Lutherans do, we remember our baptism!) Pray also with your family or those in your household (if you live alone now, know that you are praying with Jesus and the Holy Spirit is praying in you, and the saints and angels in heaven are praying for you, not to mention that your pastor is praying for you each week). And come also and pray with us, often--weekly, and even more often than that if there is the opportunity.

Pray; whether you feel like it or not. Make it a constant in your life, whether it is meaningful or not. It is meaningful and real.

+PH

Ordination

The ordination today of Samuel Beltz in Oskaloosa was absolutely beautiful.

A few of the highlights:
-Holy Communion
-Pr Joel Picard's sermon based upon St John the Baptist's saying: "I must decrease that He [Jesus] might increase".  It was fabulous...and a good reminder!
-about 15 pastors present, including Pr Beltz's father AND grandfather (both are pastors)
-the beautiful chancel area at St John, Oskaloosa
-Pr Beltz's beautiful stole and chasuble (although, I admit that I am biased on this because he has the same set we have at St John's)
-Pr Beltz's wonderful voice as he chanted the Service of the Sacrament
-and, of course, the ordaining of Pr Beltz.

The verse I used in the laying on of hands is one that won't be such a surprise: Colossians 3.16 'Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly' 

One last reflection: It's great to see a man come out of the St Louis seminary who is so well versed and comfortable in the historic liturgy.  I'm looking forward to meeting with him regularly in our Tuesday Greek study in Grinnell.  He'll be a great asset to the group and a fine pastor to the people of Oskaloosa.  (OK, so maybe that was 2 last reflections)

The Lord almighty grant us a quiet night and Peace at the last.

The Gospel is real, really!

The following is from one of my devotional readings from today (Friday after the Fourth Sunday after Trinity). This is from Bo Giertz, who was baptized as an infant in the Swedish Lutheran Church, then became atheist, then stopped rejecting Christ as his baptism held stronger to him than his faulty intellect and was eventually called as bishop of Gothenburg. 
He writes:

It is now obvious that the talk about the cross is God's power of salvation for those who receive it in faith. It's something that affects us, something that shows it's a reality by intervening in our lives. We can't see God. However, we can encounter Him in such a way that there is no doubt who we're dealing with. That happens through the Gospel.

The Christian experience IS truly an experience. Faith is not the adult way of playing make-believe, and Jesus is not our imaginary friend.  He is real.  He really was born, suffered under a specific Roman prefect, truly died and yes, He even rose from the dead.  There were witnesses to all of that.  Those witnesses have recorded what they saw and heard with their own senses.  The Holy Scripture, and specifically the Gospels, are those very recordings.  And because they are the truth, they are God's Word, and because they are God's Word they have power.  They have the power to kill (Law) and they have the power to raise up again (Gospel).   This is how God intervenes in our lives.  Is it mystical?  Yes, in a way.  But that doesn't make it any less real.  In fact, because it is God's Word, it is the most REAL thing we possess here in this life. 

The pope's exoneration of Jews?

It was brought to my attention today in Bible Class that there has been some snippets in the newspaper about the exoneration of the Jews by pope Benedict XVI.  So I've just purchased two of his many books, including his most recent one where he makes these supposed "statements of exoneration".  I am a bit curious about this all, especially from the Roman Church's perspective, because I haven't heard anything about the pope making a formal, verbal statement about it; and if it would be that big of deal, from the pope's perspective, then I would think he'd be a bit more formal.  And, I'm curious how much Jews really care all that much about what the pope has to say (or write, in this case).  More to come later; including what difference this makes for us as Lutherans.

Symposia, Day 4.2011

Well, that went fast!  Symposia 2011 is over and now off to visit the family in Ohio.  Here are today's highlights.

Paper #1: 'Walther's use of Luther' by Dr Cameron MacKenzie
Walther was a Luther-an to the extreme.  A summary of his appreciation of Luther's teaching would look something like this: Luther's teaching is purely based upon Scripture, therefore to reject Luther would be to reject God's Word.  Did Walther go too far in his appreciation?  Perhaps; but for Walther it was only the Word of God that was authoritative and it just so happened that Luther taught the Word of God. 

Paper #2: 'Missouri’s First Justification Controversy: Edward Preuss Goes to Rome'
Prof Ziegler's paper was one of the two best at the conference.  Edward Preuss was a confessional Lutheran at the time of Luther who shocked the Lutherans by leaving Lutheranism for the Roman Catholic church.  It was a huge surprise at the time and is still shocking.  Prof Ziegler investigated why he left and warned us pastors to keep watch lest the same happen to us.  The major issue is that Preuss lost a proper understanding of the distinction between Law and Gospel and therefore he saw Scripture falsely from then on.  I'll give you two points for your consideration: 1) the spiritual struggle doesn't occur before conversion, but only after when we are marked as God's children and therefore attacked by the 3 great enemies; 2) the Gospel affects our whole person, therefore we do 'experience' our faith (more at times, less at other times), but the feelings we experience (including tears of sorrow and joy) do not (and cannot) produce the faith, rather the faith produces the feelings.  This is what Walther urged in many of his sermons and writings. 

All in all a great experience for a young pastor like myself.  I was able to sit at the feet of not only the presenters, but also many other seasoned pastors from around the synod.  I'm looking forward to returning to you all and incorporating these ancient truths into sermons and lessons. 

God's Peace.
+PH

Symposia, Day 3.2011

Day 3 mostly done, it's gone fast, been great.  5 papers today, plus a reception and banquet tonight with Synod President Rev Matthew Harrison.  Pres Harrison preached today in chapel; great sermon, wonderful service, although I was late and had to stand outside in the narthex area because the sanctuary part was overflowing.  Should be a treat tonight!

The highlight paper of the day was one by Dr David Scaer, 'Walther and the 3rd use of the Law'.  (in case you've forgotten the law is a singular thing, but it functions in 3 ways. 1) like a curb to keep us on track, e.g. the 10 Commandments, 2) like a mirror to show us our sin, which is the main use of the law, and 3) as a guide, to show us how to live out our baptismal lives as Christians in the world.)  Dr Scaer's paper was about how Lutherans misuse the 3rd use by de-emphasizing it.  Although the main use of the law is the 2nd, to show us our sin, if we neglect to preach/teach the 3rd use then we get into all sorts of ethical/moral trouble.  The main example is in the cultures acceptance of homosexual behavior and how this has affected the church.  The ELCA in particular, in not teaching the demands of the law concerning how Christians properly act in marriage, etc, have allowed for unChristian behavior.  In summary, he said, "The 3rd use of the law allows us to make a temporary retreat to paradise [in the Garden of Eden, where man lived perfectly before God], and allows a view of the future in the greater paradise of eternal life."  Very intriguing. I've never considered it this way; not sure what I think about it, though. 

Now, it's time to get ready for the banquet.  I'll write again after tomorrow's papers and take off for Ohio in the afternoon. 
God's Peace.
+PH

Symposia, Day 2.2011

Another full day.  7 papers today and a chapel service and then Choral Vespers (which was actually Evening Prayer like we've been doing for evening prayer offices).  I won't give descriptions of all the papers for today, but just give some highlights.  I appreciate all you checking in a seeing what's going on.  Being here makes me long to be back in Victor.  But, alas, a vacation stands in my way, which I am also looking forward to. 

Today marked the end of the Exegetical Symposium and the beginning of the Confessions Symposium (hence the name symposia, which is plural for symposium.)  Anyhow, we began today with some very interesting papers, one on the 'supposed' problem with the river of blood (the 1st plague of Egypt) found in Ex 7.  Apparently some scholars don't think that 'blood' really meant 'blood', but either some sort of algae or a mineral deposit.  Since when does God not mean what He says in His Word!?  And that was the conclusion of the paper: that we must take God at His Word, when He reveals things to us in Scripture, He really does mean it!  And the final Exegetical paper (exegesis literally means 'to guide out'; in theology it means getting the meaning of the text from the text itself as opposed to eisegesis, which means that someone is getting a meaning of the text by putting his/her own thoughts into the text; exegesis is good, eisegesis is bad.)  the paper was about the King James Version.  We got a brief history of the King James Version and how it has affected other English translations of the Bible.  Our ESV, for example, is a descendant of the KJV. 
After the Exegetical papers, we were given 5 Confessional papers today dealing with CFW Walther (our synod's first president) and his relationship with theologians and other Lutherans of his day.  There are a lot of misconceptions about Walther, and some of the these misconceptions are being challenged.  I'll just mention one now and you can ask me about more later, if you care.  Perhaps the most significant misconception is that Walther was the 'father of confessional lutheranism' after the time of the reformation.  Walther was NOT, it was actually Martin Chemnitz (the second Martin).  This is not to discount the priceless contributions he made to lutheranism in America, it's just that, technically speaking, he didn't take the lead role. 
Another paper that very much interested me was one given by one of my favorite professors, Dr Naomichi Masaki (yes, he's Japanese...and proud of it...and hard to understand at times).  He gave a paper on a little known Lutheran Father named Theodor Kliefoth.  In his time (1800s in Germany) Kliefoth was very well respected by all confessional lutherans, including Walther.  But he's not very well known to us primarily because most of his writings are still in German.  So I need to learn German to start translating. 

The papers were great, the conversation was fabulous, but the most important highlight of the day was...I got to play soccer with some the guys on the old seminary team.  Good fun, great exercise.  I'm outa here. 

God's Peace. 
+Pastor Huelsman