A Funny Thing Happened in the Dark Room

 

I finished the lecture today and set up the YouTube version, which is easy to do, perhaps too easy. All I had to do was load the video/sound file and put some touches on those little things in Zoom and YouTube.

I played the video, which looked OK - but where were the flowers? The brilliant red flowers (Take It Easy) were gone! I went to the chapel - the red roses were still there! Hmmm!?

Maybe I downloaded a previous file and titled it for today, with the Weeds graphic. Aha and Yes! All I had to do is figure out how to remove an earlier file from the Weeds graphic. That was easy to do and worked out well. The flowers were back on the altar and on the mike stand for today.

I am going to maintain this pattern - lectures on Tuesday and Thursday at 11 AM Central, Greek lesson on Wednesday at 11 AM Central. Given that and the Sunday services, our little church can provide over 2,000 YouTube videos a year.

PS - I began photography in a darkroom in Sturgis. It was a lot of fun and educational, black and white, and I learned enough to wave goodbye in favor of digital.

Reformation Seminary - Parable of the Tares - 11 AM Today

YouTube

KJV Matthew 13:24

Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: 25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. 26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. 27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? 28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

[a grain of mustard seed...leaven...teaching in parables]

37 He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; 38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; 39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. 40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. 41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

1. Creation - weeds are guardians of the soil.

2. Weeds prove the soil is good and they also improve the soil. Dandelion is an herb.

3. Wooden shoes were used to trample down growing fields. Sabotage. 

4. The tares are spread in the field to take advantage of believers. Evil ones are acting with their Father Below.

5. Tearing up the weeds can wreck the crop, so they wait for the harvest.

6. The greatest bishops, popes, and theologians can be tares and increase evil over time.

7. The Son of Man will send angels to gather and burn the tares - evil doers.

8. The righteous will shine forth in the Kingdom of their Father.

The View from the Masthead - The Big Five - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic). The Walther Four - LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic)

 

Standing on the masthead, in Moby Dick, was essential for spotting whales.

I missed out on joining the Lutheran Church in America, which began its toxic unification effort with the American Lutheran Church and the Seminex faction. The Michigan Synod of the LCA hosted numerous events for its pastors, leaving behind precious memories.

One event included about 10 pastors and a synod staff member who had been a company executive. 

Everyone was offering a some opinions, so I said, "The Michigan Synod is funded and organized for its own destruction." Everyone went silent at once, then one pastor asked the staffer timidly, "Is Greg correct?"

The staffer said, "Greg is correct." 

My bags were already getting packed to leave the LCA. One pastor was from Gay, Michigan, so I told him what I could do to help him get a position in ELCA, which was being 100% quota (aka DEI) organized. "I can write you in as a Gay pastor from Michigan." Normally jolly, he said, "Don't you dare!" He was serious, and I was not. 

The merger, which they hastened to call A New Church, began its meltdown immediately. I followed the Big Five - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) from that time onward, because I left before the merger and dared to quote the Braaten-Jenson Dogmatics from the pulpit, as a warning unheeded, clearly irritating some members. 

From the masthead, the Big Five were living from the riches of Thrivent Insurance, another merger (AAL, Lutheran Brotherhood) that began its way downward from its association with the Big Five. To be fair, they were working together and dying together.  

The three LCA churches I served no longer exist. Christina's home church in South Bend, Indiana, moved away from their location and are now selling the brick house offered for sale.

Some may ask, as in their wont, about the Big Five and separately the Walther Four. 

The Big Five are all together, no matter how much they strut and preen, as peacocks do. They are too dishonest to admit they teach a weak and conflicted brand of Universalism. God is so gracious that He has forgiven everyone. "Hell is filled with guilt-free saints," although ELCA denies Hell, too. But they all have so much in common that they can work, study, and become bankrupt together.

The Walther Four try to gloat that they are special, unique, far too pure to associate openly with the others, but they feel the darkness.

This is one of many mastheads designed by Norma Boeckler, the term used by journalists long ago.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Trinity 2 - Second Sermon - "The third class say: The Gospel is a doctrine that will not allow covetousness, nor permit us to strive to have sufficient for our bodily needs, but commands us to risk everything, body and life, money and goods, for Christ’s sake."

 

  Luke 14:24 For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.

Complete ->Luther's Sermons - Luke 14:16-24.
Second Sunday, Second Sermon after Trinity

20. For Christ here treats of these three parties. The first says: I want to see my farm. These are the foremost and best among them, among the Jews they were the entire priesthood and the chief rulers. These said: We priests must work, cultivate and harvest the land, that is, we must rule the people, and wait upon the priesthood God has entrusted unto us, as Christ also calls ministers cultivators of the soil who sow the Gospel. But as the teachings of the Apostles are opposed to this, it is wrong, and we are justly excused when we do not accept their doctrine.

21. Thus others also who had offices in the civil government excuse themselves with the oxen. For oxen are called the rulers of the people, Psalm 22:12: “Many bulls have encompassed me; strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.” These also have a fair excuse and say: We have a kingdom and government, instituted and appointed of God, with this we must remain and see to it how we may preserve it.

22. The third class say: The Gospel is a doctrine that will not allow covetousness, nor permit us to strive to have sufficient for our bodily needs, but commands us to risk everything, body and life, money and goods, for Christ’s sake. Therefore we will and cannot come, for we must see how we may keep our own, which God has given us. For to take a wife is not to do or undertake anything dishonorable, but to enter an honorable state, and to be at home and plan how to support yourself, which is everyone’s duty. But all this is just that by which an honest housefather commits sin, when he only thinks of this, how he may become rich, keep house well and prosper. God grant it whether it be done with or against God. For the Jews took into consideration only how Moses had promised them if they would be good and keep God’s commandments, to give temporal blessings, cattle, lands, wife, child, and all things should be blessed and prosper. Therefore they only sought to have their cellars and kitchens full, and to be rich, and then they thought that they were good, and that God had thus blessed them, as the Psalm says, Psalm 144:13-14.

23. Just in this very manner our Papists still excuse themselves and say:

The doctrine is right, of course, but we must still adhere to the Church and her orderly government. Again, we must above all things maintain obedience to the worldly power, so that there may be no disturbance and insurrection. Thus they are troubled just like the Jews. If they would accept the Gospel, they fear they might lose their Church and government, whereas the Gospel alone builds up the true Christian church, and prevents all injustice, violence and insurrection. Besides covetousness is also present; since they see nothing in the Gospel but mere poverty and persecution, so that it goes as it does here, that they simply and without fear refuse to obey the Gospel and say, they have taken wives and cannot come, and still they want to be Christians and claim to have done just right, and want to be regarded as pious bishops, good princes and good citizens.

24. But how will it go with them? Just as it did with the Jews. They held so long to their law, priesthood, kingdom and treasures, until they at last went to destruction, and lost one after the other; so that now they dwell here and there and have their homes under foreign princes as if living in a swing. This is the reward for which they labored. For they desired not this supper, and preferred their kingdom, priesthood and houses, rather than the Gospel. Therefore they lost all three, and received the sentence that none of them should taste of this supper, and thus be deprived of both, of temporal things here on earth, and of the everlasting feast in heaven. The same will also certainly be the fate of our adversaries.

25. Thus Christ our Lord lectured this sharp doctor and his associates at the table, and showed them how they stood before our Lord God, namely, that God was angry at them, and would look out for other guests, as follows: “Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servants, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor, and maimed, and blind, and lame.”