Midweek Advent Service, 7 PM.

 

Tonight's Zoom Link Will Be Here

Midweek Lenten Service, 

7 PM Central Standard Time

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

The Hymn #479          Zion Rise                                 
The Order of Vespers                                             p. 41

The Psalmody                   
The Lection                            The Passion History

The Sermon Hymn # 657            Beautiful Savior                      

What Does Beautiful Savior Mean?

 
The Prayers

The Lord’s Prayer

The Collect for Grace                                            p. 45

The Hymn #49        Almighty God Thy Word Is Cast

What Does Beautiful Savior Mean?

A trio finished My Good Shepherd, which is already on Kindle - Norma Boeckler, Janie Sullivan, and I. The titles of Jesus are many, and so I took one list from someone wise enough to use the KJV. Norma put her graphics to work on each and every one, and Janie (long-time helper in completing books) worked on the delicate act of pleasing MS Word. One could list 50 or even 100, because there are so  many references and descriptions of divinity throughout the Bible. When the book comes out, it will sent to everyone, with extra copies for those who need them.

     Beautiful Savior is a wonderful, all-inclusive description of Jesus, because He went through the worst turmoil, torture, and death to give us the knowledge and the path of forgiveness of sin. Out of His torment came our salvation. 

    This is essential in knowing and revering Jesus the Son of God. Those who reject this simple statement of truth are busy hardening themselves against the greatest gift to mankind. The basics are clear - He was born of a Virgin, as predicted in Isaiah 7. He healed many different people and raised the dead. He did nothing wrong at all, but that made the works peddlers angry and the Romans afraid. In fact, one of the key passages in John is about the Jewish clergy afraid of losing everything if the Romans chose to march in and end what was left of Judaism. Their fear became a reality only 40 years after the death and resurrection of Christ,

    I think many of the self-appointed intellectuals are very much like the establishment 2,000 years ago - afraid and trying to cover their fears with arrogance and abuse. We can expect that to grow, because the Christian denominations are far away from the most basic tenets of our Faith. They want to be broad-minded, open to all ideas and all religions, free of any declarations of truth in the Bible, and that after study their unfocused, edited down, paraphrases. 

    So it is very important to maintain the sovereign nature of Jesus Christ, His miracles, His teaching, and His suffering for us. That is central to the Faith. Explaining away what makes them uncomfortable is a repudiation, not a wise and understanding position.

    This is very important - to recognize that Jesus is all-forgiveness, all-love, all-understanding. The Middle Ages loved to portray Jesus as the angry judge and Mary as the comforting, gentle intermediary. But that is a horrible distortion of the Scriptures and the source of many donations and gifts to honor the mother while neglecting the Son.

    Forgiveness of sin is central. My sales partner said that when he got in fights with pals at his Catholic school, the nuns told him to slug the brick wall of the school. "Harder, harder!" they said. He told me, "Those nuns were really mean." I am sure it greatly affected his life, because when people think they can do nothing good, they tend to go the wrong way in life. That is a message of never-good-enough, not one of compassion and forgiveness, love and grace.

    By now, the readers of the blog know the central message of the Scriptures - faith in Jesus Christ as the source of all things good, blessed, and fruitful. Luther's Sermons never vary from this and always present the truth in the best way. Someone recently said, "Calvin never laughed, and Luther's humor always comes out in his writing." That is difference between Law dominance and Gospel foundations.

    There is no law that will every satisfy  or appease wrong-doing. Lawyers will even say, "The Law is a jackass." What some wise men put down as the rules for everyone will always fall short, because wise men (solons) fail, even with the best of intentions. 

    We have access to the grace of Jesus Christ through faith in Him. No faith means no access, no grace, no matter how often they sing Amazing Grace. God gives us in the Holy Scriptures a thousand examples of faith, grace, forgiveness, and bearing spiritual fruit.

    Jesus even promised His disciples that He would send the Spirit to guide them in giving us the truth about all He did and said. And it is all in harmony, not only within the New Testament but the Old Testament as well. 

    We have many sorrows and tragedies, but the Beautiful Savior shows us how it all works and where we are going in faith. My neighbor saw me in the grocery store, and showed me her youngest baby, full of smiles and even laughing. The baby already knew she was the beloved, with two sisters, a mom and dad. 

    Everything in our world is Law, but everything about the Savior is grace, love, comfort, and forgiveness. 

    

1. Beautiful Savior, King of Creation,
Son of God and Son of Man!
Truly I'd love Thee,
Truly I'd serve Thee,
Light of my soul, my Joy, my Crown.

2. Fair are the meadows,
Fair are the woodlands,
Robed in flowers of blooming spring;
Jesus is fairer,
Jesus is purer;
He makes our sorrowing spirit sing.

3. Fair is the sunshine,

Fair is the moonlight,
Bright the sparkling stars on high;
Jesus shines brighter,
Jesus shines purer,
Than all the angels in the sky.

4. Beautiful Savior,
Lord of the nations,
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor,
Praise, adoration,
Now and forevermore be Thine!

England Fears the Canary in the Coalmine Effect. No Wait, They Are Deliberately Closing Their Congregations.

The Archbishop of Canterbury's fish-hat adds a touch of irony in ecclesiatical plumage.

Archbishop Heiser's Almy couture is a bit odd, suggesting they hide themselves behind the superfluous masks, as if no one would notice the pot-bellies.

Church Mouse asks the pertinent questions:

What’s on Anglican priests’ minds: Church of England attendance rates in ‘doom spiral’

February 20, 2024 in Anglican, clergy, Protestant, surveys | Tags: 2024, Anglican, Anglican priests, clergy, England, priests, Protestant, Revd Marcus Walker, survey, UK

Well, well, well.

Who would have been surprised to discover that Church of England rates are still on the decline post-pandemic? Remember how the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, was so quick to shut churches during lockdown back in the Spring of 2020?

I will get to the statistics in a second, but they brought quite a reaction from the Revd Marcus Walker, Rector at St Bartholomew the Great in the City of London, who is also the chairman of the Anglican campaign group, Save the Parish.

He had this to say:

As sure as night follows day if you close parishes and reduce clergy, the number of people who are able to turn up to church will fall.

This is a doom spiral of the church’s own choosing. It has the money to turn this around, the question is: does it have the will?

The Telegraph published the quote as well as the statistics on Saturday, February 17, 2024, ‘Clergy warn of “doom spiral” as church attendance drops off at record rate’ (emphases mine below):

Sunday church attendance is just 80 per cent of what it was in 2019, Telegraph analysis has revealed, despite the Church of England claiming that it has “bounced back” after the pandemic …‌

‌In 2023, The Telegraph published an investigation which revealed that parishes are closing at a record rate, prompting fears that the Church had been “dealt a death knell”.

‌The investigation found that almost 300 parishes have disappeared in the past five years alone – the fastest rate since records began in 1960. 

The figures came against the backdrop of claims that senior bishops and clergy were “putting a gun to people’s heads” to drive through controversial plans to cut costs, merge parishes and cut vicars.

They also came amid declining congregation numbers, leaving many clergy afraid to speak out for fear of losing their jobs.

The Telegraph has analysed new data from the Church of England’s latest Statistics for Mission 2022 report, and has found that across the country, usual Sunday church attendance sits at 81 per cent of 2019 levels, meaning that 133,200 regular parishioners had not returned to the Church despite the end of Covid restrictions.

The Telegraph said that the CofE criticised the paper’s previous reporting, but the reporters stand by the numbers:

The Telegraph’s previous reporting on the fall in regular parishioners in 2021 had been described as “misleading” by the Church, as some Covid restrictions were still in place at the time the 2021 report was compiled.

‌However, the latest figures suggest that this is not the case.‌

Furthermore, the data show that a further 28 parishes were closed or merged in the past year, which has been controversial among churchgoers.

This, however, is below the record-breaking rate of reductions seen in the preceding five years when an average of 56 parishes ceased a year.

‌Across the country, 41 churches were closed, meaning 641 churches have been closed since 2000 or 4 per cent.

Despite some recovery in post-pandemic attendance, overall, the big picture does not look good:

… year on year, average attendance has increased by seven per cent.

‌This means that since 1987, usual Sunday church attendance has more than halved (-52.8 per cent), declining from 1.2 million to 556,800.‌

The peaks and troughs vary across England:

In Durham, just three-quarters (73 per cent) of usual congregants have returned, whilst in St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, it is 89 per cent, the highest in the country …‌

‌Furthermore, over the past six years, usual Sunday church attendees have declined at a record rate with an average 32,616 fewer attendees per year.‌

The CofE put its own spin on the figures:

According to the Church of England’s most recent data, contained in its Statistics for Mission, it claimed that nearly a million people were regular worshippers in 2023 as the Church “continued its post-pandemic bounce back” …

Responding to The Telegraph’s latest analysis, a Church spokesman said: “The Church of England’s 2022 Statistics for Mission – the latest available – showed a welcome rise in attendance for the second year in a row with nearly a million regular worshippers in Church of England churches …

“There is unprecedented investment in mission and ministry taking place in the Church of England of £3.6 billion up to 2031.”

However, that ‘unprecedented investment in mission and ministry’ does not mean that Anglican churches are likely to stay open. The reality, as those involved with Save the Parish will testify, actually means that many are vulnerable to closure. As it is, clergy in some parts of England, particularly Cornwall, are spread thinly on the ground over large benefices.

The Revd Mr Walker is right: the Church has the money, but does it have the will? That is the question.

Photoshop fitted these two clowns with the low church couture befitting WELS pastors. With little Latin and less Greek, they entertain their flocks instead of leading them. Do not question them - they will take a church member to court for telling the truth.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Lent 2 - "For here you see, though Christ appears to be even hardhearted, yet he gives no final decision by saying “No.” All his answers indeed sound like no, but they are not no, they remain undecided and pending."

 

10,606,666 total views on February 21, 2024

Complete Sermon Here - Reminiscere. Second Sunday in Lent. Matthew 15:21-28. The Faith of the Syrophoenician Woman

What will she say to this! Here he presents her in a bad light, she is a condemned and an outcast person, who is not to be reckoned among God’s chosen ones.

9. That is an eternally unanswerable reply, to which no one can give a satisfactory answer. Yet she does not despair, but agrees with his judgment and concedes she is a dog, and desires also no more than a dog is entitled to, namely, that she may eat the crumbs that fall from the table of the Lord.

Is not that a masterly stroke as a reply? She catches Christ with his own words. He compares her to a dog, she concedes it, and asks nothing more than that he let her be a dog, as he himself judged her to be. Where will Christ now take refuge? He is caught. Truly, people let the dog have the crumbs under the table; it is entitled to that. Therefore Christ now completely opens his heart to her and yields to her will, so that she is now no dog, but even a child of Israel.

10. All this, however, is written for our comfort and instruction, that we may know how deeply God conceals his grace before our face, and that we may not estimate him according to our feelings and thinking, but strictly according to his Word. For here you see, though Christ appears to be even hardhearted, yet he gives no final decision by saying “No.” All his answers indeed sound like no, but they are not no, they remain undecided and pending. For he does not say: I will not hear thee; but is silent and passive, and says neither yes nor no. In like manner he does not say she is not of the house of Israel; but he is sent only to the house of Israel; he leaves it undecided and pending between yes and no. So he does not say, Thou art a dog, one should not give thee of the children’s bread; but it is not meet to take the children’s bread and cast it to the dogs; leaving it undecided whether she is a dog or not. Yet all those trials of her faith sounded more like no than yes; but there was more yea in them than nay; ay, there is only yes in them, but it is very deep and very concealed, while there appears to be nothing but no.

11. By this is set forth the condition of our heart in times of temptation; Christ here represents how it feels. It thinks there is nothing but no and yet that is not true. Therefore it must turn from this feeling and lay hold of and retain the deep spiritual yes under and above the no with a firm faith in God’s Word, as this poor woman does, and say God is right in his judgment which he visits upon us; then we have triumphed and caught Christ in his own words. As for example when we feel in our conscience that God rebukes us as sinners and judges us unworthy of the kingdom of heaven, then we experience hell, and we think we are lost forever. Now whoever understands here the actions of this poor woman and catches God in his own judgment, and says: Lord, it is true, I am a sinner and not worthy of thy grace; but still thou hast promised sinners forgiveness, and thou art come not to call the righteous, but, as St. Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:15, “to save sinners.” Behold, then must God according to his own judgment have mercy upon us.

12. King Manasseh did likewise in his penitence as his prayer proves; he conceded that God was right in his judgment and accused himself as a great sinner and yet he laid hold of the promised forgiveness of sins. David also does likewise in Psalm 51:4 and says: “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight; that thou mayest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.” For God’s disfavor in every way visits us when we cannot agree with his judgment nor say yea and amen, when he considers and judges us to be sinners. If the condemned could do this, they would that very moment be saved. We say indeed with our mouth that we are sinners; but when God himself says it in our hearts, then we are not sinners, and eagerly wish to be considered pious and free from that judgment. But it must be so; if God is to be righteous in his words that teach you are a sinner, then you may claim the rights of all sinners that God has given them, namely, the forgiveness of sins. Then you eat not only the crumbs under the table as the little dogs do; but you are also a child and have God as your portion according to the pleasure of your will.