Scotland has been on my thoughts lately.  Having lived there for a year, and visited last summer, it is a familiar place.  It is a magical place, where one steps from this high tech and busy world back into the medieval world of castles and kings and queens.  It is a “thin place”—where heaven and earth seem to intersect at places like Iona.  It is a place of thorns.  The national flower is a thistle.  Driving through the rich, verdant countryside one’s eyes are repeatedly greeted by the sight of the thistle with the purple plume crowning its head.  It is a reminder, to me, of the Christian life.

While most Christians desire glorious thrones on earth, the promise of our Lord is that we will have thorns.  St. Paul is an example of this, with his words in 2 Cor. 12:7 describing his struggle with his own personal thorn.  It is no accident that our Lord Jesus wore a crown of thorns on His head in His crucifixion.  He would wear a crown of glory in His resurrection, but for this life His adornment was thorns.  Is this not true for us as well?

What thorns are besetting us as we begin this New Year?  What thorn have we begged the Lord to take from us, only to be told that Christ’s grace is sufficient?  Rather than rebelling against the thorns of this life, we should relish them.  Like the Scots we should see them as thistles that adorn this foreign country that we call home, until we reach our true country, our eternal kingdom of heaven.  In faith we are called to see not only the thorns, but also the purple that adorns this life.  It is the purple of kings and queens.  Not the kings and queens of Scotland, but of Christ’s kingdom.  It is the purple that our Lord Himself wore on his way to the cross.  It is the purple of God’s priesthood, that we have been cloaked with in righteousness that is not our own.  It is the color that reminds us that one day we will also wear the crown of glory in heaven, but until then we can, like St. Paul, be thankful for the thistles and thorns that adorn the roadways of this life.

posted by Pastor

“Are you better off now than at the beginning of this year?….

For Christians, however, there is a different way to look at things.  The year we have just lived was another year under the grace and care of our Savior, Who does all things well.  He worked in our lives for us.  This has been another year lived in His forgiveness and life.

Maybe this year brought heartache or pain or financial difficulties.  Maybe things were not easy and smooth.  But through it all, Christ has been with you.  His Word and Sacraments sustained you.  No matter what your feelings, dreams, or emotions tell you this night about another year gone by, look not to them, but to Christ.  In Him, you have all that you need.

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, help me trust in You.  Give me strength in the bad times and joy in the good times to live all my live in You.  Amen.”

posted by Pastor

“Should the Christian stand all day long at the grave of all joys which he enjoyed in past years?  Through Holy Baptism a great stream of joy has been conducted in his heart, which does not drain away, but streams forward with his life until its waves carry him into the sea of a blessed eternity.  Should the Christian be reminded all day long that the flowers of his youth fall more and more?  He stands planted by God in the water of his Baptism as a palm tree which becomes greener and whose leaves never wither.  Yes, his Baptism makes death for him like a short winter’s nap, out of which an eternal spring—an eternal youth—follows.

Now then, all of you who believe in God’s Word, let your watchword for entering the new year be this: ‘I am baptized!’.  Although the world may laugh at this comfort, the enthusiasts vex its confidence . . . nevertheless, abandon any other dearly held pledges and speak only throughout the entire year to come, in all terrors of conscience and necessity trough sin and death: ‘I am baptized!  I am baptized!  Hallelujah!’  And you shall prevail!  In every time of need, you will find comfort in your Baptism;  on account of it Satan will flee from your faith and confession; and in death you will see heaven opened and will finally come into the joy of your Lord to celebrate a great year of jubilee, a year of praise, with all the angels forever and ever!  Amen.”

-C.F.W. Walther as summarized by the Treasury of Daily Prayer for January 1.

posted by Pastor

“Spiritual Disciplines for the Pastor”  by Wolfgang Trilhaus

The preacher must practice discipline. A real preacher without “training” and discipline is inconceivable.

Above everything else, a part of the continuing discipline of an evangelical preacher is incessant study of Holy Scriptures. One must know the Bible and learn to think “biblically” and to see the world “biblically”. Constant use of the Scriptures must not yield to and substitute, such as a devotional book. There are two things that are important for the pastor’s reading of the Bible: to stick to complete passages, to read entire books in sequence, and to practice reading it daily as lectio continua, that is, to adopt a daily minimum as a rule. The evangelical pastor should not be put to shame by the Catholic priest who read his breviary. But in all this one must not lose sight of the purpose of reading, which is to nourish one’s thinking, feeling, and believing through reflection on what is read [meditation].

Living and thinking with the people of the congregation is also a part of the pastor’s discipline just because it is not easy for him. We know how Friedrich von Bodelschwingh the elder at the beginning of his ministry had to struggle against his aversion to meeting strangers. Personal disappointments, the demands that are made upon us, and realization of our own inadequacy, doubts that trouble our faith, the shaking of hope for the church which is necessary to our life – all this is hard, but it is part of the discipline of our office to fight our way courageously through all these temptations and trials [tentatio]. Everything in personal and ministerial life that “goes against the grain of nature,” the endurance of one struggle after another, this must be accepted for the sanctification of life and the strengthening of faith.

But there can be no discipline of obedience in faith without prayer. Prayer must be learned and practiced. IN the prayer life of the pastor, like that of all Christians, there are many times of dryness, much irregularity, and sometimes years of neglect. To meet this the church in times past was wise enough to make use of prayer books, in order to learn discipline and for guidance in what we should pray. In particular, intercession for the congregation must have its place in the daily prayer of the pastor. Löhe said that the church register could be, among other things, “a great assistance to the pastor’s memory and prayerful remembrance.”

Thus at all times, meditation, tentatio and oratio have obtained and should obtain great importance in the church.

After writing about the sign of the cross and “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” last month, I thought it would be appropriate to share a bit about reverencing and “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit…” or the Gloria Patri. The Gloria Patri, also known as the “lesser doxology,” (the Gloria in Excelsis as the “greater doxology”) is a hymn of praise and is traditionally associated with the Psalms, though it can also be found at the end of the Nunc Dimittis and other liturgical texts, as the final verse of some hymns, and at the end of prayers.  You will notice at the end of the Introit, we sing the Gloria Patri, praising God for His giving us salvation through His Word.

While we praise God with our mouths, we can also worship with our whole bodies.  Bowing is one way in which Christians have shown reverence before God in worship, hence why it is sometimes referred to as reverencing.  We read in Psalm 95:6-7, “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our maker.  For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.”  Through the act of bowing, we are physically remembering our relationship to God as the Almighty King on His throne, who has forgiven our sins and the sins of the world through His Son.  It reminds us to humble ourselves before God.  Luther wrote,

[Worship] is not a function of the mouth but of the whole body.  It is to bow the head, bend the body, fall on the knees, prostrate oneself, and so forth, and to do such things as a sign and acknowledgment of an authority and power…Where worship is offered from the heart, there follows quite properly also that outward bowing, bending, kneeling, and adoration with the body.” (from “The Adoration of the Sacrament”)

While the pews in the church may inhibit full prostration, we certainly are able to bow.  The Gloria Patri is one such time when bowing is appropriate in honor of the Holy Trinity.  We also can bow when the crucifix passes us during the procession, when we approach the altar, during the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy), and at many other times, which I could share with those that are interested in knowing.  Of course, just as with making the sign of the cross, bowing is not required and should not be looked at as a test of piety.  It is yet another way that we can praise and worship God through our whole body, joining those in heaven who “fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. (Rev. 4:10).