markel

I know and understand that I missed an entire week without writing a single thing, but I will try to make up for lost time over the weekend and into next week.

I go to my bed this night with a heavy heart and a troubled mind as I have spent some time this evening reading about churchly matters, both LCMS and non-LCMS, and I find myself concerned and frightened for the Church and her place in the world. Has the visible Church on earth become so corrupted, so stained by the sin surrounding us that she rarely appears to be different from the very things she is sworn to stand against?

The challenges before us in this age of relativism, “tolerance,” and other such nonsense are breaking down the walls of the Church (at least, in this country), and I found that the only thing I could do was to grab my hymnal and begin to pray. I prayed for those who are leading faithful Christians into false teaching and heresy. I prayed for those tempted to misuse authority or to ignore doctrines and understandings contrary to the right application and interpretation of God’s will revealed in Scripture.

I prayed for my wife, that the concerns and the difficulties I sometimes lay at her feet will not crush her or discourage her in her vocation as a wife and mother. I prayed for my children, that they would learn well and stand fast against the dark and horrible forces already arrayed against them. I prayed for my work, that God would strengthen me and guide me in my vocation.

I am continually reminded in recent days of the words of our Lord in Matthew 10:34-39:

Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

It is troubling that I feel that all we have been seeing recently in the Church is that sword, terrible and swift.

I long for the Sabbath—to worship and receive forgiveness for my worry and my despair over these troubled times!

!מרנא תא

Near the end of my vicarage year, and into my fourth year of seminary, as I was still preaching, I made a subtle but meaningful (for me, at least) shift in my sermon construction. During my study in Lent of my vicarage year, I altered the salutation given at the opening of my speaking to a (slightly edited) form of the salutation on the Revelation to St. John:

Grace to you and peace from him who is, and who was, and who is to come: Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from among the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

It was—in my opinion—a fitting way to describe how the Church is to exist on this earth, in anxious but steady preparation for the coming of the Lord at any time. He is the Lord of the Church.

May he continue to bless and preserve his bride for all time, and may we trust in him to simply be who he is.

Beloved, these are dangerous times
Because you are weightless like a leaf from the vine
And the wind has blown you all over town
Because there is nothing holding you to the ground

So now you would rather be
A slave again than free from the law

Beloved, listen to me
Don’t believe all that you see
And don’t you ever let anyone tell you that there’s anything that you need
But me

Beloved, these are perilous days
When your culture is so set in its ways
That you will listen to salesmen and thieves
Preaching other than the truth you’ve received

Because they are telling lies
For they cannot circumcise your hearts

Beloved, listen to me
Don’t believe all that you see
And don’t you ever let anyone tell you that there’s anything that you need
But me

Beloved, there is nothing more
No more blessings, and no more rewards
Than the treasure of my body and blood
Given freely to all daughters and sons