A Christmas Devotion

Let me begin with an unusual statement:  I do not like the Christmas season.  I find it full of platitudes, false cheerfulness, and a false gospel.  Before you go on the defensive or just stop reading let me explain where I am coming from, and I believe you will find my argument more satisfying then cheerful Christmas’ carols.

What do I mean when I say that the Christmas season is full of platitudes, false cheerfulness and a false gospel?  Look at most Christmas carols, movies, and books and you will find them full of words like generosity, hope, peace, joy and love.  All of these things are good things, but as they stand in the Christmas celebration, they are at best platitudes, and at worst lies.  Look at the news, look around the world; the world is embroiled in strife and war.  It is overwhelmed by greed, jealousy, hatred, and violence.   Where is the peace?  Where is the joy? The hope?

Even as we shop for one another and spend time with family, there are millions who go to bed with nothing to eat, who go to bed with family members killed by war or disease.  Where are all the cheerful things that Christmas carols promise us?  Is the Angels’ message of peace and good will to mankind a lie? Is the message of our carols a delusion? No, neither the Christmas hymns nor the Angel’s message lead us astray.  Instead it is ourselves who warp the Christmas message, it is our sinful desires which lead us to strip Christmas of its ultimate context, the context of the Cross.  

We love the message of hope, peace, love, and joy.  We want to hear that message, we long to hear of Christ as King, Christ as the ruler of all the world, a good and gracious ruler who brings an endless peace!  But sadly for our desires that is not the case.  For Christ to be born in a manager means that Christ must die; because there is an incarnation there must be a Cross.

The story of God’s incarnation is irrevocably bound with the story of the Cross.  For God came to dwell among us, not to be a high and mighty king, nor a famous preacher, or a rich philanthropist; instead He came to die the death we deserve so that we don’t have to.  The Christmas story leads straight to the Cross, into the grave, and finally to Easter morn in the ultimate victory over sin death and the devil.

So where is the peace, hope, joy and love we sing about in Christmas carols?  The love is in God hanging upon a cross suffering a humiliating death for us; the peace is in God’s only son shedding His blood to atone for our sins; the joy is in the resurrection of Easter morn, and the hope is found in the promise that we too will one day be resurrected from the grave.  We cannot remember the Christmas story rightly without remembering how the story ends.

This Christmas I pray that you find peace in the atoning blood of Christ, that you find joy in the love of God that lead to giving up His only Son to death on a cross, and hope in the promise of the resurrection at the last day, when Christ will be seated at the right hand of the Father as King over all creation.  Amen.

Seperation

The sky o'er head hung grey,
clouds heavy with divine tears,
as the Father's hand from help did stay,
a Son victim to all our fears.

Seperated from the source of life,
the Son in anguish did loudly cry,
embracing the result of all our strife,
and once for all the Life did die.

The earth in shock might'ly shook,
and tears a mighty torrent formed,
while thunderous gasps the air took,
nature in anguish powerfully stormed.

It is said that tombs burst open,
and ancient dead rose to witness,
a new covenant to which we hearken,
in His blood is our forgiveness.

The Son seperated in our stead,
to death, sin, and satan three days lay,
while we morn in sorrowing dread,
til Christ bursts forth on Easter day!

Hope for Good Friday

Christianity is an extraordinary religion; now let me qualify that statement. I have studied many religions, both modern and ancient, and yet I have never come across another religion which teaches that God became man, suffered, and died for humanity. I know plenty of religions in which god(s) demand animal sacrifices of us, religions in which deities rape humans and unleash wrath upon their foes. But I know of only one religion which teaches that God became man, and died for us.
That central mystery of Christianity, the Cross, should be at the center of our teaching, at the center of our being. We ought to live with the Gospel as the center of our lives. No other message is as important. Seven steps to a better life, the power of prayer, social justice, fire and brimstone; these are not the messages of Christianity. Christianity has one message and that message is Christ crucified.
The entire history of humanity -it's creation, fall into sin, struggles, and salvation- pivots upon the Cross, upon the very Son of God suffering and dying for us. Our's was the sin that was atoned for upon that bitter tree. Our screw ups, our failures, our self centeredness and our tendency to turn ourselves into gods is what Christ atoned for. He the spotless lamb of God bore the full wrath of God's judgement so that we do not have to.
We are a people under the Cross. In baptism we are sealed with the sign of the cross on our foreheads, in our worship spaces the cross hangs(or stands) centrally, in our homes we hang crosses, and many wear crosses as constant reminders. Too often we allow these daily symbols to become common, and we forget the unbelievable message that they represent, the wonderful news which is the Gospel. May this Good Friday be filled with meditation upon the cross and renewed wonder for God's infinite love, and may we carry the message of this day, the message of the Cross, to all we meet. For there is no news more important, then that Christ suffered and died for you. Amen

Beyond the Infinite

‘Prophecy Son of man, prophecy to these dry bones’

All of man’s wisdom, all of man’s knowledge, all of his greatness, his achievements, they are all but dust, and man is but dry dusty bones. We seek meaning in wealth, in fame, in drugs, alcohol, sex! But not just in what the world would call darkness, but also in that which claims to be light! We seek meaning in work, in good deeds, in love, music , peace, nature. We seek meaning in so many things, but it is all vanity.

Modern man is the epitome of vanity. No afterlife, no eternity, everything has a beginning everything has an end. We have characterized and set bounds on the infinite, we have probed the depths of the see and the heights of heaven. Modern man the pinnacle of history, modern man the pinnacle of emptiness and vanity. All that exists is before us, all the mystery has been boiled down into theorems and conjectures. We have conquered we have won! No more subject to the hocus pocus and the superstitions of the past.

The modern church bends to the vanity, bends to be relevant, throwing out mystery for logic and proofs. Angels and demons, heaven and hell, these must be sacrificed in an age where everything is quantified and understood. Science tells us that if prayers aren’t answered there either isn’t a God, or God doesn’t answer prayer. The only faith worth having is one that has visible signs and benefits, there must always be proof.

When we look to the stars no longer do we see spheres controlling fates, nor the rings of heaven. No more do we hear the music of the spheres, or fear the dryads of the woods, or the demons of the deep.

We have pulled leviathan out with a fishhook, have seen Pleiades and Orion bound, and know the ordinances of Heaven. We were there when the foundations of the universe were laid, have walked the depths of the sea, and broken the gates of the dead.

Modern man has grasped the infinite, and has tamed it, the universe is bound to our whims, to our wills…or is it?


So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.
And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them.

The stars shine above without our willing them, the days go by without our influence. We have become complacent in assuming that the mere knowing of how something works means we have power over it. And so we have sought so desperately to know, to understand and claim power. But in the end, all human knowledge crumbles all thought fails and we realize there is no answer to that three letter question: why? It is a question of infinite iterations, an uncountably infinite question, and only a being beyond the finite, a being beyond the infinite can know and comprehend the answer, only such a being can be the answer.

All of modern thought and science, all logic and reason, all human endeavors fall flat and die upon the question why. Hear O Man! Thou art but dry and dusty bones in the valley of the dead, and the power of the Lord alone can give you form and give you sinews, the breath of the Lord alone can give you life.


The actual infinite arises in three contexts: first when it is realized in the most complete form, in a fully independent otherworldly being, in Deo, where I call it the Absolute Infinite or simply Absolute; second when it occurs in the contingent, created world; third when the mind grasps it in abstracto as a mathematical magnitude, number or order type. ~Georg Cantor

Living Among the Bones

In my time here at WSU I often wonder what the entire point of this endeavor is. It’s certainly not money, as I will probably never be paid well. It is certainly not pleasure as graduate school is one of the most sadistic things you could do to yourself. Is it knowledge? I came into grad school thinking knowledge was the point of this endeavor, but now I realize differently. WSU certainly has the knowledge, there are a lot of great physicist here, but they have all missed the point. My experience here has been one of great amounts of knowledge but no understanding.
WSU is one of those bastions of secular thought, an Athens, full of all the modern science and modern ways of thinking, very progressive and on the cutting edge, but for all this they miss the point entirely. There is no understanding.
“Have you not heard? Have you not seen?” For all the proof, for all the glory, all the wonder that is revealed in this place of research and study, those here miss the Truth shouting at them. It depresses me how modern mans distrust and loathing of faith has made it impossible for them to see reality through the eyes of faith. They do not see the beauty, the life, the Divine Harmony in reality. All they see is atoms and molecules, numbers and figures. The universe is dead in this world view, a bland set of rules and matter that exists and acts for no reason and no purpose.
Why have I come to WSU? Why have I come to Athens? I doubt there are many schools that are different from WSU. The dead universe is the prevailing world view in academia. How can there be life in a worldview that rejects the Life? Why am I here in this dead place? To share the Life.

The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know." Then he said to me, "Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD." Eze 37:1-6

God grant me the patience, the faith, and the perseverance to prophesy to this valley of dry bones, that your abundant life may flow into them and let them live. Amen

The Ecclesial Depression

I continually find myself frustrated and aggravated with modern Christianity. It is not one specific denomination or group, it is a predominate reality that very few people are educated about the Church. This often leads to false perceptions and expectations of God, and leads those outside the Church astray into believing that the Church is something its not. There are many reasons for this mistaken view of the Church, but the one that I believe is the most dangerous, and damaging is the individualization of faith.
Individualism was one of the great triumphs of the renaissance and modernism. It is wonderful to consider individual rights, and treating everyone with proper respect and dignity, but as with all ideas, there is a dark side tagging around. Individualism no longer means that each person has inherent dignity, now it means that the highest good is the individual. A long list of societal and political woes can be made because ‘I’ and ‘me’ have become our most favored pronouns, but my concern is with the Church. Individualism has crept into the Church in the form of individualizing God and our relationship to Him. The view of ‘me and my god’ is overwhelmingly present in the Church, at least in America. Congregation’s have begun to cease the proclamation of the Gospel and who God is, and instead now proclaim an individualized god, an individualized gospel. I have had the odd chance of traveling a lot and experiencing congregations across the US and it disheartens me the number of congregations that get the individualized gospel of “believe in God and he’ll make your life turn out alright”.
Christians have forgotten what it means to be the body of Christ. We have forgotten what it means to have a communal faith, a faith shared by the saints in heaven and here below. Faith is now about myself, in a room with my Bible and God, about praying and having God answer with warm tingly feelings. And if we cant get those experiences we cry to God and ask what is going on, why is my ‘individual walk with God’ going so rough. The reason is, there is no ‘individual walk with God’! The road of Faith is one filled with the communion of saints, it is one populated by those who have gone before us, those who come after us, and those who walk with us. When we suffer the body suffers, when the body suffers we suffer.
A few years ago I was suffering severe depression after my grandmother’s death, and I told my pastor that I wasn’t planning on coming to Church because I couldn’t bring myself to sing songs of praise when all I was doing was mourning. He replied that even when we cannot seem to sing praise, and we are in mourning, the Body is there to lift up songs of Praise, songs of Mourning and songs of intercession on our part. The One True Faith, is one shared by the body of Christ. It is not some individual path. God is not revealed by sitting alone with a Bible in some wilderness, God is revealed in the assembly, proclamation, and work of the Church. It is when we assemble and hear the Word proclaimed to us and for us that God is revealed.
There is a lack of strong Ecclesial theology in the Church in America, and not only does this lack harm the Church’s members by not doing its job of proclaiming Christ crucified for us, it also hurts its mission to the world. Individualism is a plague upon the Church, and its cure is for the Church teach and educate its members in its ecclesial nature. The American Church must reform or else it will follow Europe to the same depressing end.
If the Church is to survive and succeed in its mission of proclaiming Christ crucified we must stop going along with society and falling into all the popular ideologies. The Church plagued by individualism, must start healing by having individuals reject the lie that the self is the most important thing. Only by the death of self will the individual find life.

While Christians slept: The Washington Euthanasia Initiative

In the elections of last November an initiative to legalize euthanasia was passed in Washington State, making it the second state in the United States to do so, Oregon being the first. Below I post the wording of the initiative:

Initiative Measure No. 1000 concerns allowing certain terminally ill competent adults to obtain lethal prescriptions.

This measure would permit terminally ill, competent, adult Washington residents, who are medically predicted to have six months or less to live, to request and self-administer lethal medication prescribed by a physician.

The passing of such a bill in a liberal state, with a predominately secular population is not terribly surprising. The surprising aspect of the situation is the somnolence of Christians in the face of evil.
Neither before the elections, nor after elections did I hear the initiative discussed in Churches. There were no protests, no petitions, no signs of Christians even knowing or caring what was going on. It was as if the Church in Washington fell asleep while the roots of evil were passed into law.
Now you may think I am overreacting, I mean the bill is for euthanasia lite, but in the face of evil there is no such thing as overreacting. Certain nations in Europe passed similar laws many years ago. The allowance of those first laws has led to a situation in which doctors in much of Europe can kill anyone, even against there will, if the doctor deems their quality of life to be inadequate. Think I am still overreacting? Sociologists commonly say that the United States tends to follow trends in Europe with regards to society, laws, etc. If this is true, then one day in the near future, you may go for a doctor visit because of a runny nose, and the doctor will lay you, say that the runny nose makes your life quality poor, and kill you with a lethal injection, no matter how much you protest. If we do not stand now and root out the evil, then it will spread, and doctors may become dealers of death.
We legalized abortion in certain cases, and now women can kill their babies at any point in pregnancy: million of children have been murdered. We are legalizing killing the elderly, soon there will be no retirement as we kill off anyone over 60. And after that? Who is left but those in the middle? If life is not sacred at the beginning or the end, then it isn’t in the middle either, and murder at any state will be legal.
I leave you a poem by Martin Niemoller:

"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."

A Call to Arms

The world is doomed. The armies of satan are matching over the earth, and most Christians are off hacking at the branches of even, and only a few, if any are striking its root. Injustice, poverty, the legalization of sin, are all branches from the same tree of evil. It is truly good and holy work to be just, charitable, and supportive of holy legislation, but that cannot be all we do. If all we do is help the poor, we are just pruning a branch off evil, while ten more sprout up. We, as the Church must unite and storm the bastions of the devil on earth, overthrow them and trample them to dust in the name of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.
‘What are these strongholds of sin, death, and the devil?’ you may ask. They are the philosophies, ideas and constructs which deny Christ as Lord, and attempt to make man into his own gods. These fortresses were constructed starting with the enlightenment when mankind proudly proclaimed that we can know everything, we are enlightened, and we will be able to do away with God and become our own lords and masters. Parts of the enlightenment were not bad of course, but deep within it was the ever present sinful desire of man to be god. Ever since Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil mankind has been trying to be god. It is our oldest, and deepest sin. Humans want to be god, they want to be their own master, and so throughout all time we have sought ways of abolishing God and setting ourselves up as gods. The enlightenment did not turn out any differently. Mankind set themselves up as gods in the enlightenment and Marxism, fascism, individualism, modernism, and a dozen other philosophies which are hostile to the Gospel sprang up.
In the enlightenment the forces of evil declared open war on the Church, no longer was it hidden and covert, now it was mainstream, the norm. The forces of evil which are hateful of the Gospel are in control, are ruling our society, and the church for the most part still doesn’t seem to realize there is a war going on! Many church bodies have already succumbed and fallen to the enemy and let the Gospel be distorted and destroyed by the philosophies hateful to it. And those churches which have not succumbed and hold fast to the Gospel are all busy hacking at the branches, or secluding themselves in order to remain untainted!
If the Gospel is truly all powerful as we believe, if demons truly will flee at the name of Jesus as we say, why do we still doubt and hide behind stained glass curtains and never engage the world and be the church militant? Rise up you redeemed! Rise up the baptized believers, incensed by the call of the Spirit to defend the Holy Church! Now is the time for battle, now is the time to engage the enemy strongholds; else the Church will fall in western society, and what was once a bastion of Faith will be claimed by the forces of the devil.

Eucharistic Fellowship

I recently had the pleasure of visiting a Benedictine monastery. It was a wonderful experience, as usual, but with one hijink: it was Catholic. Since it was a Catholic monastery and I am a Lutheran both my governing body, and their governing body forbade my sharing in the Eucharist. Both the Catholic’s and Lutheran’s(LCMS and WELS) practice close communion.
Now some of those who know me may be rejoicing thinking that I have changed my stance on close communion, but I have not. I still support and believe in close communion, but I find terribly frustrating and depressing the reasons we need close communion, namely the schismatic nature of the church. Eucharistic fellowship was never a question in the early centuries of the formal church (after council of Nicea to about the 11th century), there was one catholic church, and therefore no need for close communion in the modern sense. It wasn’t until the east west split, and later the reformation which necessitated the institution of the modern form of close communion. Before the schisms close communion merely meant withholding from the unbaptized and uninitiated, but after the schisms the meaning was changed to being: withholding Eucharistic fellowship from those who believe differently than us.
You may want to argue whether or not close communion is right, but I am not here argue the validity of close communion. I am a supporter of close communion who is here to mourn the necessity for it. Every time we close off the Eucharist to a fellow Christian of a different denomination we are announcing the disunity of the body, and the terrible reality of sin within the Church. I am not saying that all Christians are the same, if I did I wouldn’t support close communion, but I am saying that Christians should be the same. Some of the strongest condemnations in the New Testament are against those who would divide the Body of Christ. It is a sad reality that the Body of Christ is divided, whether by politics, theology, or practice. This does not mean that we should forget all differences and make a goopy form of Christianity, which is a mixture of all. Quite a few denominations stand diametrically opposed to one another on certain issues, and it would be unwise to throw out such distinctions just for the sake of unity.
I desire unity for the Body of Christ. I dream of a day when we can over come schisms and meet in a catholic Church, one in which Christ is present and the True faith is taught unadulterated by the fashions of the times. Such a day may never come this side of eternity, as sin distorts and corrupts the thinking of the faithful, and heresies run rampant and seek to destroy the church. But God in his odd ironic way has turned the plethora of denominations into modern day Athens in which we can argue and discuss the faith, and ever strive toward the perfection, which is the One True Church. We may never be able to realize a true catholic faith this side of eternity, but we can certainly try.

Where are the thankful giving hearts?

As the years go by there seems to be a trend about this time of year. A trend to skip over Thanksgiving, over Advent, and jump straight to christmas. In years past stores resisted putting up christmas decorations and items until after Thanksgiving, radio stations played everyday music til at least Thanksgiving. But now stores have skipped Thanksgiving and some even hand up christmas products before Halloween was even over. A radio station in Detroit started playing Christmas music on November 1st, nearly two months before the holiday, and every ad on TV, the radio, and the paper seems to be about christmas shopping and products. It is interesting that the richest and most greedy population on Earth are the ones who have decided to skip over there own holiday Thanksgiving and go onto a more tolerable holiday of self indulgence, greed, and selfish desire.
Writing on how christmas has lost its meaning in America is a very long and drawn out topic, and is for another time. No, for now is the time of Thanksgiving, despite what the media tells us. It is time for American's to give thanks for what they so abundantly have. It was pointed out to me by a charity worker that even the poorest of the poor in America get more to eat, clean water to drink, and shelter than a good part of the world, I think he said a number even as large as 75%. To realize that even our poorest, most destitute citizens are richer than 75% of the world! And we skip over giving thanks and demand more!
Our economy is shot, we are all afraid of losing money, all our savings, being unable to support our dry houses, our clean water, our daily supply of food. Oh how terrible it is to be an American today! What we as a country spend on our venti half caf lattes a year alone could end world hunger if not more! And yet we think we have a right to pray to God to save our economy, restore our fortunes and save us from actually living thankful lives. Because no, we do not want to give thanks, we do not want to admit that what we have is a gift, we want to believe that we achieved it all on our own, that we are strong enough, smart enough, independent enough, that we do not need God or His gifts.
I am not saying that wealth is inherently bad, or that we deserve the crisis we are in, but I am asking us to return to reality. To realize that we are blessed above every other nation in the world by God, and because of that we have responsibilities. We have responsibilities to give thanks, and to properly use our wealth. God gives gifts not because he wants to please us, but because he wants to teach us to give. We all are nothing on our own, we all have nothing, and so we cannot give on our own. It is only by God's mighty grace that we have anything to give. God desires us to become like him, to become loving, to become full of Life through love. When we hoard and store and turn our backs on the world we sink deeper into sin, deeper into our selves, farther from God and deeper into death. God desperately desires that we would turn outwards, acknowledge the gifts we have been given, giving thanks everyday, and as a corollary to share those gifts with others spreading God's love and grace. And maybe, just maybe we will find that when our hearts are turned outwards and we give more than we want, and we thank more than we whine we will find that God gives so abundantly that we cannot hope to give it all away, that we will find that His Love, His Life is a boundless spring which seeks to permeate the universe with infinite Glory, infinite majesty, harmony and joy. God desires so much more for us than we have, if only we would cease to cling to the clay sculptures that adorn our hearts and let the refining fire of God's grace and love fill our heart's instead. It is my hope and prayer that I can live by my own words, but only by the help of the One who came to help the helpless, and bring the dead to Life. To God be the Glory, Father Son and Holy Spirit now and forevermore. Amen.

enslaved

Enslaved

When the night fades into twilight morn,
And the lark’s song rises forlorn,
Thoughts lay heavy where sleep should dwell,
Enchanted by sorrow’s bitter spell.

The bright day turns to shadowy evening,
Then to dark nightly monsters seething,
All things fading from light to dark,
As death claims all cold and stark.

Short the joy of gain, and long the grief of loss,
As all happy memories to storms we toss,
And we suffer under death’s fierce hold,
As we fear to meet the end of numbers untold.

We say Christ is Life and salvation!,
But think: why not grant it to creation?
Why must death still claim away all life,
In this seemingly ne’er ending strife?

Oh Lord why must death still rule,
the devil be a worldly king cruel,
and sin be the master of these living slaves,
trapped in dark and shadowy caves?

Reformation Day II: Sorrow

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that all unity may one day be restored
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
They will know we are Christians by our love

Today is Reformation day, and so one part of me rejoices in the triumph of the gospel over those human failings that would have hidden and distorted the gospel so many years ago. But another part of me weeps in sorrow over the bitter schisms, which rend our Lord’s most Holy Church. We are all under one calling, one gospel, one Lord, and yet our sinful humanity divides us, we fight, we argue, we even go to war over those things which divide us. Reformation day is a wonderful day to remember the strength of the Word and of the gospel shining throughout time and rising in loud strains upon the criticisms which the reforms made of the Church. Yet one cannot but help to remember all the schisms and the brokenness of the Church today. How the day of victory is one of sorrow?
I pray that one day I may be reunited with my brothers and sisters in Christ under the Word free of all the human sinfulness that so distorts our thoughts and causes us to depart from one another.

The Church’s One Foundation
By Samuel J. Stone

The Church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ, her Lord;
She is his new creation
By water and the Word.
From heaven he came and sought her
To be his holy bride;
With his own blood he bought her,
And for her life he died.

Elect from every nation,
Yet one over all the earth;
Her charter of salvation:
One Lord, one faith, one birth.
One holy name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses
With every grace endued.

Through toil and tribulation
And tumult of her war
Se waits the consummation
Of peace forevermore
Till with the vision glorious
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest.

Yet she on earth has union
With God, the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won.
O blessed heavenly chorus!
Lord, save us by your grace
That we, like saints before us,
May see you face to face.

Reformation I: Mysterious Ways

18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. 1 Cor 1:18-19 ESV


When all was naught, when neither energy nor matter, neither space nor time existed, You existed. In emptiness You alone were infinite fullness, and from Your infinitude through absence all things came to being. Where there was no space to be filled your fullness made space to overflow into. You are the ontological mover, the One from whom and by whom all things were made and without whom not even nothing would be made. Your existence is even necessary to predicate such a thing as non-existence, for without You there is neither existence nor nonexistence, for there is no thought not concept to comprehend the negation of the ontological necessity of You.

Your ways are higher than my ways, Your thoughts higher than my thoughts. You act in mysterious ways that we can neither observe nor understand. For you became incarnate as a man who neither betrayed the Glory of God to those around him, nor thought the glory a thing to be grasped but humbled himself to death, even death on a cross! And so the incomprehensible mystery of the cross, of infinite humility killing the infinite deity. The death of Life itself, and yet in that death, the death of death itself. Life giving death, the abdication of death by death itself. Oh Glorious Holy Mystery! How I yearn to dwell in your mystic incomprehensibility!

All my wisdom, all my ways, all my self-reliance, my feeble power is swallowed up in the mysterious ways of God.

From the cross thy wisdom shining,
Breaketh forth in conquering might
From the cross forever beameth
All Thy bright redeeming light

Oh Mysterious Cross! The wisdom of God shining as death and suffering redeem! In the broken places, in death on the cross comes the conquering redeeming light. Not in chariots and horses, not in regal glory, but instead in abject despondance and brokenness. Oh the folly of God that causes the wise to stumble and the arrogant to fall, but to use who cry out in despair and hopelessness we are given hope and life, we are raised from the pit and into a new life, not just one of a new experience of this life, but a new life all together which permeates all things and raises us to be no longer creatures of God, but instead sons and daughters of God.

Lord, keep us steadfast in your Word;
Curb those who by deceit or sword
Would wrest the kingdom from your Son
And bring to nought all he has done.

Lord Jesus Christ, your power make known,
For you are Loud of lords alone;
Defend your holy Church that we
May sing your praise triumphantly.

O Comforter of priceless worth,
Send peace and unity on earth;
Support us in our final strife
And lead us out of death of life.

Keep us steadfast in your Word, hold us in the gospel light never to fall away from your son. Oh Lord of Lords and King of Kings, hold us in your hand, guide and lead us through the dark nights of life and lead us by your ever shining light. For from the cross your love and grace call us from death to life through the Holy Spirit. Guard and protect your church, lead it to unity in your Word and Spirit.

Quotes taken from the LSB. Thy Strong Word, and Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in your Word are written by Franzmann and Martin Luther respectively.

help....

Oddly it seems that we are unable to desire the light
until we are surround by pitch black night.
Lost in the eve of grief and hopeless despair,
we finally seem about life to care.

Gone the easy peaceful days,
spent lazing in the sun's comforting rays,
replaced by nights full of tears,
and many many lonely years.

Where did it all go awry?
rise to deaf heaven my bootless cry!
shake awake the Lord from groggy slumber,
Lord! your help no longer encumber!

prayer

Many would consider me fortunate, blessed, given to a wonderful life full of joy, but it is all a lie. I would give up everything I own, everyone who loves me here for the opportunity to spend just one moment in the incomparable ecstasy of divine union. Oh Lord it is you alone I long for, you alone I desire! All other things pale in comparison to you and your divine Glory! I am a broken and shattered man without you. I could be king of the world and be loved by all and have all, and I would still give it all up for you. Sola Deus!
I yearn in bitter longing, I am in misery day and night! Every moment spent apart from you is the worst torture, far worse than anything that man in his sinfulness could devise. Hide not your face from me! Kiss me with the kiss of thy mouth! Destroy me in thy brilliant glory and unite me to you in everlasting praise and love! Lord I beg you, grant me your presence lest I die of yearning!

Sonnet 23 by William Shakespeare:
When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf Heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least:
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee,--and then my state
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings'.


The Pulley by George Herbert:

VVHen God at first made man,
Having a glasse of blessings standing by;
Let us (said he) poure on him all we can:
Let the worlds riches, which dispersed lie,
Contract into a span.

So strength first made a way;
Then beautie flow’d, then wisdome, honour, pleasure:
When almost all was out, God made a stay,
Perceiving that alone of all his treasure
Rest in the bottome lay.

For if I should (said he)
Bestow this jewell also on my creature,
He would adore my gifts in stead of me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature:
So both should losers be.

Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining restlesnesse:
Let him be rich and wearie, that at least,
If goodnesse leade him not, yet wearinesse
May tosse him to my breast.

hear my cry!

"For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain"

Oh what sorrow fills my soul that the one thing it yearns for cannot be? To meet with and dwell with Thee forevermore, no longer suffering thy absence through ontological disunion. To be unified, brought together, lost in the infinite sea of your Glory! To live is Christ, to die is gain. I live for your service, I am your hands, your mouth, part of your body working for your will here on earth, yet even in this working I am heart broken, shattered by hopeless longing for you. To die would be gain, but alas death does not come unless you will it, and so I suffer longingly for thy face, and know that only by your desire and will shall my desire be fulfilled. Teasing God! who toys with my soul into terrible ecstasy yet bitter pain! Fulfill what you inspire! Lord how I long, I I yearn. As a deer pants for water in a dry weary land, so my soul pants for you. Lord hear my cry! Fill me! save me from this bitter torment!

Creation Story

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word proceeded from the One eternal deity and produced others, finite others. The Word created the finite, who would always be infinitely other than the deity. Even without the Fall of man we were other to God. O fortunate fall! Oh happy fault! For the Word became flesh and dwellt among us, and his was the glory of the eternal Father. His was an infinite majesty, and endless glory. Yet despite his infinite deity he humbled himself and became finite. The infinite Other became finite and dwellt with us, and in that dwelling we entered into the infinite majesty, the infinite Glory. We are ontologically incapable of uniting with the absolute Other as it is an infinite divide between creator and created. Only the infinite deity could cross the infinite gap predicated by mere existence. And so the infinite became finite, and in becoming finite bridged the infinite gap and now we can have union with the infinite God.

How to live in darkness

What is the point of life? Why do we live? why do we suffer? why do we continually go day by day suffering infirmities, suffering scorn, suffering pain, loss, anger, sorrow and death? There is only one reason why we live, there is only one reason that we can claim to carry us through the tempestuous sea of life. We live to bring Glory to God.
I recently had a dream in which two friends died within a few days of each other, and in it I screamed and raged, I felt such anger, such disgust with life. I turned to a mentor and shared such thoughts, such pain over death, and his response was not words, or advice. He merely joined in a song that rose from the sullen earth, the land of the shadow of death. To remember that glad strain! that brilliant report! But alas I can only remember a little

Praise be to God the Father,
creator of Earth and Heaven above.
Praise be to the resurrected son,
ever living sacrifice of love,
Praise be to the sustaining Spirit,
immediate baptismal dove.

At which point I stopped thinking of the song and thought instead of how long it has been since I bowed down giving honor and praise to the Triune Deity, how long its been since I ceased my ever present selfish thoughts and focused on the brilliant Glory of the uncreated ineffable light.
We were created to glorify God. To rest in mystic sweet communion gazing in all encompassing love upon the brilliant Glory of God. I have failed to live a proper life, I have been caught up in the waves and tides of the world, thrown about by the tempest of a sinful existence, lost in terrible self love. Lord be thou my vision and thou alone, let none else enter my gaze and let me fall in abject praise of thy eternal uncreated Glory! May my life be filled with thou and thou alone!

Hopeful Sonnet

Wert I to be thine alone, and thou mine,
ne'er lost to sinful and idle yearning,
Oh to be thine and thine beyond all time!
Mine heart in hopeful agony burning.
But soft, what wretch'd grief within at my sin,
Saint and sinner together juxtaposed,
wayward passions a cacaphonus din!
Oh beaut'ful Christ, thy blood mine guilt enclos'd.
Oh may I, may I hope in thy coming.
Conformed to thy bright ineffabel will,
my heart shine thy glory ever stunning,
may earths pleasures my hunger ne'er fill.
Glory to the Father, Son, and Spirit,
All praise and honor to thee I commit.

Thoughts for the Triduum

Recently I was told by a professor that "the world doesn't stop just because its Holy Week". But why not? Why shouldn't we set aside everything, stop everything and focus on the greatest mystery of our faith?
Almighty God, creator of the universe, founder of all things, mover of all things in whom and with whom all things have their being, and without whom nothing would be, sent his one and only Son, into frail flesh! A great mystery in itself....but now, this week...God dies. The Father forsakes the Son, the Son descends to Hell. What great wonder! What amazing mystery! Should we not stop everything and think on this Holy wonder?
The Holy wonder of our sin, of our failure piercing the spotless lamb. Our neglect, our brokenness shattering the Holy Son. We all should say: "I nailed Christ to the cross! I was the one who betrayed him!" What wretches we all are! And yet God sent his one and only Son....Despite all our failures, despite all our bitter hatred of God, and all are wrathful vengeance upon the lamb; we are forgiven, we are redeemed by the blood that pours from the side that we pierced!
Glory be to the Father. Glory be to the Spirit. And Glory be to the most precious Son, who for our sake took on frail flesh, bore the weight of all our sin and died. These three most Holy Days let us in reverence and awe contemplate on this most amazing love, this most Holy Mystery, and let us sing with the whole universe throughout all time the most joyous songs to the risen King on Easter morn. Amen