Bait-and-Switch "Lutherans" VS. the Unmerited Switch of God

The "sin-and-who's-the-sinner" aspect of Luther’s Great Exchange is rarely emphasized by gutted (and gutless) evangelical "outreach" campaigns.  Christ saw human sin as a given, an disputable fact of the species, and didn't shy from risking an offense to the seeker-ego.   Indeed, among the very first words of the evangelical and preaching thrust of the Lord Jesus, to a lost and bumbling people, was "Repent ye" (Mt 4:17). It wasn't "The Kingdom of God is at hand! So use this, to touch and fellowship your inner-child.  Feel good!"

But ... following the actual example of our Prophet, Priest and King ... there is encouragement to talk of sin, and to do it boldly:  "Forsake the Lord Jesus, and you die in your sins. Accept Him, through the unmerited  grace and power of the Holy Ghost alone [1,2] ...  and our Lord becomes a despicable sinner for life -- your life."

There are some synodical “counselors,” who steadfastly refuse to explicitly talk of sin somewhere on their parish websites; which devices are putatively an introduction to the parish's heart-felt beliefs, and really, what they're all about. Evidently the "counselors" are of the business-driven opinion that "sin" scares people. It should.

Credits and Citations

1.  Carol Rutz (21 Jan 2015; Wednesday, via a Facebook comment), recognizing a potential ambiguity in the text, and encouraging a Lutheran clarification to the heretofore unadorned "Accept Him."  Credit where credit is due, then:  to Ms. Rutz, certainly and thankfully, but firstly also to the Holy Ghost.
2.  The Lord Will Answer:  A Daily Prayer Catechism, Concordia Publishing House (St. Louis MO), 2004; p. 97 (reading for Wednesday 2015, of Epiphany II; at the Office of Vespers):  "WE BELIEVE that, since Christ was our substitute before God, our Savior's perfect keeping of the Law is part of His saving work for us. and because of Him we are considered righteous before God.  In the Ten Commandments God shows us what His will is.  Christians, by the power of the Holy Spirit, are eager to do God's will."  Emphases mine.

On Praying for the Dead, Triumphant

I've suddenly come to realize, upon the occasion of the death of a Christian loved one, the paucity of formal resources for the poor layman, wishing to pray on behalf of the saint; the saint who now (by grace) is wondrously afforded a direct access to God and His Church Triumphant.  Secure in Jesus he or she may be. But that individual is still our brother and sister, still our neighbor.  He or she still exists by the mercy of God and is dependent on Him alone, if being altogether safe from the evil and temptations of this world.

The intercessions provided by the Lutheran hymnals (I've checked the pages of two so far, and have detected what could be a trend for all) and my prized Lutheran Prayer Book (LPB; Concordia Publishing House, 2003/2005; a maroon cover, yes, but still amazingly serviceable)  are frankly inadequate and tongue-tied in this matter of the dead who yet live.  The prayers  we are provided, as examples and for ready use, are lovely and spiritually nourishing for the ill, the convalescing and the dying to be sure.   LPB's "Devotion at the Approach of Death" (p.  239-243) is outstanding in confronting the realities which accompany dying, and furnishing a Christ-based comfort in the face of such.

But as to teaching the newly-grieving how to pray, Christfully,  when a loved-one is summoned to meet God's Face at last... here we are left adrift. 

Yet the Evangelical-Catholic confessors are unequivocal on the matter. The ramblings of Aelius are rejected, and the praying FOR those fallen asleep in Lord Christ's bosom is endorsed. See Ap AC XXIV.94-96.   Epiphanius (in his book detailing doctrinal malpractice, the Panarion Haereses) informs us that Aelius maintained that prayers for the dead were useless.  The papist adversaries slandered the Evangelical-Catholic party, accusing it of agreeing with the heretic.  In the Apology, Melancthon dismisses the calumny, saying flatly "we do not support Aelius [regarding such prayers]."  So then, the public acts or omissions, of "friendly" printing presses may call into question Melancthon's orthodox assertions, as to real-time Lutheran beliefs and resulting behavior ... yet again.

But I think we do have a sterling example to follow, in the Divine's own petition "Give us this day, our daily bread." You see, the dead's day may have been stretched into an eternity, yes; but they are like us in being still very much dependent on the full grace and Fatherly goodness of our King, even as they too wait for the Great and Glorious Culmination of all things.  And even with that Culmination and the emergence of a new heaven and a new earth, God alone will be our Font of all Goodness.  Right now we can cheerfully remind and thank Him for His promises of being all-sufficient forever, for ourselves and the departed. Those residing peacefully in God's bosom, I say again, are still very much our neighbor. Let us then remember and pray for those who have fought the good fight, and won, and are waiting at rest ...as any true Lutheran confessor would.

A Prayer to Jesus, for the Dead in Christ (Modified after St. Ambrose)

You were medicine to Your servant, when she was sick;

You were her strength, when she needed help;

You were life itself, when she feared death;

You were the Way, when she longed for heaven;

You are her Light,
You in Your wisdom having banished all her earthly gloom forever.

Thank you, dear Lord Jesus.

Amen.

Epiphanytide: The Time for Gentiles, for Gophers and for All

To feed is to grow; thus, the wise man approaches the once mangered and once crucified Christ, feeding on Him with all due reverence and adoration, for our salvation and eternal life.

Professor Northrup appreciated this.  He confessed:

"I recognize in Jesus not a mere man, however remarkable, but a messenger from God who had power to lay down his life and power to take it again, a Person fitted in all respects by character and power to be the light of the world and to reveal God to us as He really is. This, that and the other may disappear or change or perish, but Jesus Christ remains the same yesterday, today, and forever, the Son of man and the Son of God, the Divine Savior of the world."

Source:  http://www.ulcmn.org/About/History-Pless%20Note.html

Cyrus Northrup (1834-1922) was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut; eventually graduating from Yale University, and its law school as well.  For several years he clerked for both houses of the Connecticut state legislature. He then served as a professor of Rhetoric and English at Yale (1863-1884), before assuming the presidency of the University of Minnesota (1884-1911).

This Season, Blindmen Still Seek to "Remove" Him, E'en from Our Flesh: An Illustrated Tale

"Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in Peace,
according to Thy Word.
For my eyes have seen Thy Salvation,
which Thou has prepared before the face of all people ..."   Lk 2:29-31


"And Herod, when he saw that he was mocked by the wise men, was exceeding wroth and sent forth [to slay the Child] ... in Beth-lehem [which is to say, the House of Bread ] ..."   Mt 2:16

"[Let] the mind consider of what nature the act of this Supper is, Who is Present there, [and] what kind of Food is offered and taken there, so that one can prepare himself with due humility and piety for its reception ..."  Ministry, Word and Sacraments:  An Enchiridion, Martin Chemnitz, 1593/1603 (translation, Luther Poellot; Concordia Publishing House, 1981;  p. 131

"At the outset, it is again necessary, by way of preface, to point out that we do not abolish the Mass, but religiously retain and defend it.  Among us the Mass is celebrated every Lord's day and on other festivals, when the Sacrament is made available to those who wish to partake of it, after they have been examined and absolved."  Apology [i.e., Defense] of the Augsburg Confession XXIV.1 (Kolb-Wengert translation, 2000)

O Lutheran, Lutheran:  are you seeking to retain, treasure and defend "Who is Present there," or instead, ever-seeking to remove the promised "there?"

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem ... how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" ... Mt. 23:37

Epiphanymass

At the Anderson cottage, the Christmass trees and outdoor foliage lights are extending their stay.  Certainly, they look very enchanting against that newly fallen 3+ inches of powder, discovered anew this AM.  It assists with the shoveling, when its too early for the coffee-additive Bailey's.  But keeping the photons gallantly streaming fits very well, too, with the Lutheran hymnody devoted to this season e.g., the German J. Franck's "O Light of Gentile Nations," and the German P. Nicolai's "How Lovely Shines the Morning Star."  After all, due to the God-enBabe'd ... adored by bowing Gentile kings ... all darkness, gloom and sadness are enfeebled and thoroughly banished, by His all-encompassing Light.

Once God was mangered; now He is altared.  That is emphasized in yet another great Epiphanytide hymn, composed by the Englishman J. Montgomery: "Angels from the Realms of Glory," its verse 4 (TLH 136) in particular.

Saints before the altar bending,
Watching long in hope and fear,
Suddenly the Lord, descending,
In His Temple shall appear.
Come and worship, come and worship;
Worship Christ the Newborn King.

See?  Saints behaving out their faith, their love and their fear towards the Newborn King.  See?  The august Lord Christ, stooping low again to visit His people, in His Temple, even if the numbers be as low as two or three gathered together in His Name.   Now, it is likely that Mr. Montgomery's immediate intent was to poetically reference the Lord's Presentation, and the Old Testament faithful waiting and yearning for such.  But there is more to the words than first  meets the eye, and the Lutheran should see the more and exult in it.  It is wrong, spiritually blind and intemperate to separate His Mass, His Supper, from the Lord's Day or any high festival day  ... whether that day be December 25 or January 6.  We'll be feeding for an eternity with and on the Once Feed-Troughed; all self-described Lutherans had best get used to it, then, in the here-and-now.

On the Evangelical-Catholic Ecclesiastical Polity

We are to honor the emperor; this is an Apostolic teaching. We are to honor our Lord and King, with our lips and with our heart-perfused human bodies.  Democracy is okay, temporally, although many a smart man has had his doubts about such ... including Plato, and surely Robespierre minutes before his head was lifted from his shoulders, by Dr. Guillotine's efficiency.   America's own evolving notions of equality, life and liberty have had their own acid-wearing effects on churchly behavior.   Many of us lack any respectable notions as to how to behave with fear and love, in the Presence of a saving King (eternity will correct this), or how to deal with the under-shepherd of the King's flock.  All too often, the bites of sheep hankering to be lions or bears come in the form of what is excused as "ballots."

In the Smalkald Articles (IV.7; 1537), Dr. Luther fantasizes on the possibility of the pope coming to his senses, and rejecting any notion of being the supreme head of the Church "by divine right; that is, by divine command."   Perhaps,  Luther granted, such a head could better pummel the inevitable  wacky sects and wolfish heretics;   but  such a head would first needs be "elected by the people, and it would remain incumbent upon their power and choice to change or depose this head (Kolb-Wengert translation, p. 308; Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2000)."  Have a massive, empowering Supreme Voters Assembly, a royal priesthood, a holy nation wildly beyond any previous Oecumenical Council's extent.

And here, then, is the sorry rub:  Yet "Christianity would not be helped in any way, and there would be even more sects than before, because they would not have to submit to such a head on the basis of God's command but rather as a matter of human good will."   But good will is in remarkably short supply, as short as peace treaties, on earth; Guillotine's ingenuity, unfortunately, is not.

The true Lutheran solution to this fleshly dilemma is this, from the Confessions themselves:  1) "the Church cannot be better ruled and preserved than if we all live under one head, Christ (SA IV.9)" and  2)  "all the bishops -- equal according to the Office (although they may be unequal in their gifts) -- keep diligent together in unity of teaching, faith, sacraments, prayers, and works of love etc.." (SA IV.9; italic emphasis mine)

Dr. Luther goes on to quote St. Jerome, to effect that the priests at Alexandria "ruled the churches together in common, as the Apostles also did and afterwards all bishops throughout Christendom, until the pope elevated himself over them all."  There is no immediate mention, here, of the elevating Donation of Constantine being an out-right fraud, and most slanderously attached to a pious bishop of Rome whom all Evangelical-Catholics laudably commemorate on the Sixth Day of the Christmastide.  But then, we all know this from Sunday School.  Or at least, from Melanchthon's Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope (and footnote 32 of the same, penned by Kolb and Wengert, pp. 335-6).

The point is, in my opinion, that one should not place undue confidence in periodic Lutheran elections, or the products of such, since few angels of good will are punching the tabulating electronic buttons; that humble country parsons are quite the equals of district presidents, in Office and in divine rank (although perhaps unequal in personal gifts, and certainly of perks); and that we of the Church of Augustana ought to be on the same page when it comes to such things as "teaching, faith, sacraments, prayers, and works of love etc.." 

What we teach and how we worship mattered to Dr.  Luther.  It matters to the Confessions, to which our preachers and celebrants have individually pledged their allegiances, in a vow to God.   Evidently, the simple priests/pastors of Alexandria long ago,  ruled in common; and it seems reasonable that they shepherded also in a common way.  How they "sacramented," and how they prayed, etc., etc., surely reflected the very Presence of the Lord among a gathered two or three or more, and not a Calvinistic concept of Christ "out there."  I think there is a need to parley among the priests and bishops, openly and honestly, and decide if we can live up to the name Lutheran in faith, polity, practice, and ceremonies.  I think the SA's own "etc.," above, covers those things quite nicely and very comprehensively.    Anything less, when it comes to our behavior, is dancing a tango delusionally and living a lie.