Northwoods Seelsorger

As our country enters into yet another military conflict, the debate again renews on whether or not such war efforts should be pursued. President Obama indicated in his presentation to the nation that the US was was justified in exercising military force on the moral grounds of protecting the people of this nation from the brutality of its current dictator.  For the church the question has historically centered on the Just War Theory .  Scripture clearly reveals the right of government to use deadly force (Romans 13), but it stops short in defining the precise parameters of that force, especially outside the boarders of the nation itself.  One would hardly object to the need to protect the immediate safety and welfare of ones nation.  However, to what degree is any given nation obligated to protect the safety and welfare of other nations, or to protect the citizens of these nations from their own leaders?  Obama said that a massacre in Libya would have "stai...

Closing night for my son's high school musical came this past Saturday.  My wife and I saw it several times and enjoyed every minute of the light-hearted play Guys and Dolls .  However, ever since then those show tunes keep popping up randomly in my mind.  Perhaps it speaks in part to the simple catchiness of the songs.Yet part of it is also due to sheer repetitiveness.  This reminds me of the broader power of repetitiveness in matters of the faith as well. Carolyn Arends in "Going Down Singing - Why We Should Remember That We Will Die," an article in the April 2011 issue of Christianity Today , tells about the efforts of retired professor Margaret Guenther to ingrain the well-known Jesus Prayer into her daily routine by repetition in preparation for the time of her death.  Guenther writes, "I hope that by imprinting [the Jesus Prayer] on my subconscious, it will be with me for the rest of my life, especially at the end, when other words will perhaps be lost to ...

Decades after its release, the 12 volume commentary series by R.C.H. Lenski still finds avid supporters.  When I graduated from the seminary over 20 years ago it would have been considered a standard resource for the new pastor.  For the most part his theology was acceptable, although there were some issues, especially with Romans and what would be termed "Objective Justification."  Lenski was born in 1864 and died over 71 years later, apparently of complications due, in part, to diabetes.  A graduate of Capital University, he earned a BA degree in 1885, and then graduated from the affiliated seminary two years later, a shortened term due to the great need for pastors in the Ohio Synod.  Like other well respected scholars highlighted on this blog in earlier posts, Lenski never received an earned doctorate.  He did receive, however, a Doctor of Divinity degree at some later time.  Nevertheless, he became, in his own time and much later, a recognized sch...

A video message from President Harrison is available on the Witness, Mercy, Life Together blog site regarding the recent tragedy in Japan and the response of the LCMS.  Information is also available on the LCMS web page , including updates from our missionaries.   From the headlines it appears that our missionaries and staff from our partner church are ok.  We give abundant thanks to God for his tremendous mercy.  However, we continue to pray for all those in need as well as those who minister to them.  The strength needed for such service will great indeed.  Kyrie Eleison . 

Today I was working on delinquent letters, not a very encouraging and uplifting experience.  My church, while smaller on Sunday morning than a decade prior, still resonates with the sound of children, so calls for its demise  remain premature.  Nevertheless, tracking down the 20 and 30-somethings who have quietly drifted from the scene demoralizes you and you begin to ask yourself:  Are we losing a generation?  A question which caused me to google my frustration looking for answers.  Lo and behold I found an insightful article in Christianity Today from November 2010 entitled "The Leavers: Young Doubters Exit the Church."   Author Drew Dyck offers a reasoned and balanced examination of the situation that is worth reading.  He does not present a 'magic bullet' to solve the problem or present a shallow hope filled with mere wishful thinking.  Knowing we ultimately have no real control on the outside culture, he encourages to take a hard long lo...

As with our brothers and sisters in New Zealand, now our prayers turn also to those in Japan.  Recently a young man from our area was called to a position in Niigata and is scheduled to leave in about a week (his blog, for those interested in following his work this coming year, is "Mission in Japan." )  I was curious about whether our sister church in Japan was affected there, so using the internet I was able to determine that at least in this city the effect seems to be on the lighter side (as far as the earthquake is concerned.)  However, the Japan Lutheran Church also has a church in Tokyo where the damage is much greater.  The USGS has a map indicating the intensity of the quake in the various cities of Japan.  Although the epicenter appears to be off the coast to the north-east, the greatest affect seems to be in the major metropolitan area around Tokyo and a bit south of there.  The Lutheran Church in Japan has several congregations throughout t...

Dr. Becker draws attention to an anniversary many of us would probably have missed in a blog article entitled "The AV at 400."   It turns out that 2011 is the quadricentential anniversary of the King James Version.  My parents came of age with the KJV, but as for me it was the RSV.  Nevertheless, the KJV has been part of my library and world, especially since I grew up with the Lutheran Hymnal in which much of the language is old Anglican/KJV.  When I read Becker's article two books in my library came to mind that had received little to no attention in years, save being moved from one shelf to another: White, James R.  The King James Only Controversy: Can You Trust the Modern Translations ? Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1995. Moynahan, Brian.  God's Bestseller: William Tyndale, Thomas More, and the Writing of the English Bible - A Story of Martyrdom and Betrayal.  New York: St. Martin's Press, 2002. It occurred to me that the 400th annivers...

Fists thrust in the air in angry defiance.  Faces contorted with enraged shouting.  Noise so deafening that law enforcement is reduced to wearing earplugs.  A Lybian protest against Muammar al-Gaddafi?  Not quite.  Think Madison instead.  Regardless of the issues in debate at the moment, it is the behavior of those involved in the debate that has revealed a very ugly underside of our society.  Overall it seems that our culture is being reduced to its lowest common denominator when it comes to how we communicate.  Social network mediums such as Facebook  bring out the most surprising narcissistic tendencies in people who seem completely uninhibited about sharing every thought, even those that are vindictive, mean-spirited, and vulgar.  Of course, such behavior is hardly new.  Still, it feels as if technology has given it a boost.  Once content to vent their rage from the seeming anonymity of a car rushing through traffic, the ne...

In the old historic one-year series one encounters three Sundays prior to Lent that neither belong to Epiphany nor fully to Lent.  They were dispensed with when the newer lectionaries came into being, although they are retained in the 'revised' one-year series as found in LSB (I say 'revised' since a comparison with the original historic series will reveal obvious changes in the lections from one to the other.)  Having never grown up with these Sundays, and having never observed them in my over two decade ministry, I wondered what their purpose was.  Epiphany I understand, and Lent makes sense to me, but why would one need a kind of "pre-Lent" season?  It would seem according to one source I found that these Sundays are tied to the need for 40 fast days in the season.  At one point in history not all the days of the week were designated as fast days, such as Thursday and Saturday, and of course, Sunday.  With two extra days 'off the calendar,' so to sp...