With Angels and Archangels and the Cleaning Staff

Clarence and Mildred are an amazing, and faithful, couple. Clarence had a stroke umpteen years ago and is in a nursing home. At the same time, his wife, Mildred lives at home, but can't drive. I have the opportunity and privilege of bringing God's Word and Sacrament to them on a regular basis. I usually pick up Mildred and we drive to meet Clarence at the nursing home.
You never know what's going to happen or under what circumstances you will be at the nursing home. Sometimes we worship together in a private dining room, or even in a staff-members office. This past visit, I asked the activities director what was available. He told me, "The main dining room is free. No one should be in there right now." So that's where we went. We found a table and talked awhile. Then I began our worship service using a brief order found in my LSB Pastoral Care Companion. As I began to prepare for the celebration of the Sacrament, in walks a couple of cleaning staff people. They were going to clean the light fixtures. So here I am, saying the Proper Preface as one of the crew plops down a ladder about four feet away and climbs to the fixture right above us. You never know what's going to happen in the Nursing Home! So I just keep going through the order. So there we are celebrating Holy Communion while the light fixtures are cleaned.
This isn't at all like celebrating the Sacrament in our Sanctuary where there are hundreds of people singing hymns with the organ and we use beautifully-crafted communion ware to distribute our Lord's Body and Blood. This is three people, with a little, unassuming Communion kit, no organ, no singing, sitting around a small table, with cleaning people just doing there job around us. But it's no different. It's no different than any other beautiful celebration of Holy Communion. Jesus Christ, the Son of God was born in a stable in a little, unassuming town in the backwater of the Roman Empire. But there, angels and archangels and all the company of heaven celebrated and praised God for what he has done. Same here, in the nursing home, with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven - Christ came to Clarence, Mildred, and myself in, with, and under the bread and wine of his holy meal; forgiving us, nourishing and strengthening us, and sending us.
Even with cleaning people around.

Just Humming Along

How often do you find yourself still singing those hymns from Sunday morning in your head? How often are you humming those tunes in quiet moments at home or work? What we sing on Sunday is important. The decisions made about hymnody for any given Sunday have lasting implications. The hymns sung on Sunday continue to resonate the rest of the week. Important question: Are those hymns/songs faithful confessions of who Jesus is and what he has done for us? That question is important because, in way, the hymns become your confession of the Faith the rest of the week and a probably remembered better than the words of the sermon.

Crumbs from the Table

This past Sunday's Gospel lesson was Matthew 15:21-28 - the story of Jesus and the Canaanite Woman.

And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon." But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, "Send her away, for she is crying out after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." And he answered, "It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table." Then Jesus answered her, "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly. (ESV)

So this text was on my mind the entire service. However, the text became a physical reality for me as a knelt at the Lord's Table to receive Christ's Body and Blood in the Sacrament. As I took the bread, a quarter of the broken consecration host, I immediately thought "crumbs from the Master's table." Here in my hands and then in my mouth was crumbs from my Master's table given to me - a gentile dog begging and waiting at the foot of my Master's table. That's the grace and mercy and love of our God who offers his Son as crumbs falling from his table. The power of crumbs from God's table! - forgiveness, reconciliation, peace, salvation, eternal life - all offered through the Son of God, broken and bleeding on the cross in order that those crumbs - himself - might be given to so many.

Back to School at a Birthday Party

Over the weekend I attended a birthday party with my daughters. One of their neighborhood friends was celebrating her 7th birthday. It's always uncomfortable going to a party like this as an adult, not knowing anyone else but the host. But I did strike up an interesting conversation with someone I discovered also lived in the neighborhood. His name is Hal. And the commonality we shared is the seminary experience.
Hal has just completed his first year in seminary via distance learning. I completed my seminary training over 5 years ago. Hal is of the Methodist tradition. And what we discussed at length was not so much our differences in theology, but our differences in polity. What I mean by polity is how your Church body organizes and governs itself. We compared and contrasted each others. he had not learned much about Lutheranism in general and certainly almost nothing about how the LCMS governs itself. So I think the afternoon was certainly fruitful for him. And while I studied Methodists before, talking with someone intimately involved within that denomination put flesh and blood on the facts and words on a page.
Lesson learned: get to know more people from other Christian traditions.

Blood on My Hands

I once heard a Roman Catholic priest say, “Sacraments are messy.” This spoken within the context of a video documenting the Roman Catholic RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) just after he finished baptizing a number of folks. It was, in fact, messy. Those baptized got very wet. He may also have been speaking with regard to their understanding of the Lord’s Supper as a “re-sacrificing” of Christ’s body and blood – not Scriptural at all (Hebrews 9).

Nevertheless, this morning, the celebration of the Sacrament did get a bit messy – literally – for me this morning. Some of the wine spilled onto my hands. And a wave of theology came over me. Christ’s blood, present in, with, and under the Sacrament of the Altar was physically on my hands. My hand was sticky, just like real blood gets sticky before it dries. His blood on my hands. How true. “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus, whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:36) My sin nailed him to the cross. I am guilty. And look at the price paid. His blood on my hands. What shall we do?

“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” His blood is on my hands, but he does not hold it against me. For I am baptized. I have died with Christ and have risen with Christ. That same blood of his on my hands is also my forgiveness.

The Sacraments are messy – physically in their administration, but also messy because of Christ’s messy, bloody, ugly death on the cross that paid the price of the gracious gifts of forgiveness of sins and eternal life freely offered through them.

Thoughts on the Death of Osama bin Laden

I must admit, I missed all the news Sunday night. I had stopped watching TV not long after dinner and went to bed around 9:30. So I woke up to the news Monday morning. While the world is still digesting what has happened, I thought I might jot down a few thoughts.

My first thoughts were probably similar to most Americans - a sense of relief, that a great evil had been removed from our world. But I also began to think about how this was all accomplished: from within the proper authority in this matter – government. It's the government’s job to defend and protect its citizenry and it properly wields its power when it accomplishes just that. President Obama has the authority to protect the nation and did exactly what he is supposed to do as Commander in Chief. The soldiers who carried out the mission had the authority to do exactly as they did by killing Osama bin Laden – an enemy of the state. They all operated within their vocations and performed their jobs very well in service to others.

God has eliminated a great evil from the earth (Romans 12:19). But he didn’t strike down bin Laden with a lightning strike from the heavens . While that is not beyond his power, the vast majority of the time, God uses means to accomplish his intent. Our God is both the Lord of the Church and of all the nations. He uses the Church to reveal himself and his love for the world in Jesus Christ – the head of the Church through means – Word and Sacrament. And God uses government and its means – the power of the sword, to keep the peace and bring about justice. Paul writes about this in Romans 13:1-7.

Yesterday was a victory for our nation. Yet, I would say, a muted victory because the war on terror will still go on. But maybe, God willing, we have witnessed the beginning of the end.