Connect and reconnect

    "I can get no farther than to men’s ears. Their hearts I cannot reach. And since I cannot pour faith into their hearts, I cannot, nor should I, force any one to have faith. That is God’s work alone, Who causes faith to live in the heart." "For where the heart is not good, I care nothing at all for the work. We must first win the hearts of the people. And that is done when I teach only the Word of God, preach the Gospel and say: “Dear lords or pastors, desist from holding the mass, it is not right, you are sinning when you do it. I cannot refrain from telling you this.” But I would not make it an ordinance for them, nor urge a general law. He who would follow me could do so, and he who refused would remain without. In the latter case the Word would sink into the heart and perform its work. Thus he would become convinced and acknowledge his error." (Martin Luther) https://whatdoesthismean.blog/i-did-nothing-the-word-did-it-all-luthers-second-invocavit-s

The saying goes, " Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary." It comes from a context of motivation to have the Gospel permeating our daily attitudes. However, Luther's sermon helps us to present the Preaching of the Word with words in a better perspective. Dear Friends: You heard yesterday the characteristics of a Christian, how his whole life is faith and love. Faith is directed toward God, love toward man and one’s neighbor, and consists in such love and service for him as we have received from God without our work and merit. Thus there are two things. The one, which is the most necessary, and which must be done in one way and no other, the other, which is a matter of choice and not of necessity, which may be kept or not, without endangering faith or incurring hell. In both, love must deal with our neighbor in the same manner as God has dealt with us. It must walk the straight road, straying neither to the left nor to the right. In the th

The tension between individualism and community can be easily verified in our world, particularly in our Christian world. In one hand, we have the world-making processes of our culture reminding us constantly that we need to cut through our own paths, to focus on self-improvement, and to pursue personal fulfillment. On the other hand, within the church—particularly in the Lutheran congregation— we know that we have a call to live in community with one another. There is an increasing number of authors calling for a return to a more communal sense of the Christian Lutheran congregation, and it is a valid call. From the use of the pronoun You, which tends to be heard more in the singular than in the plural, to the call to congregational worship as opposed to individualistic small (or big) screen. Like any gift, however, this sense of community must be reclaimed with care, for Christians, and especially Lutherans, do not want to carve a path into into legalism or that may stifle and deny i

What if a XVI Century clergyman would have written a criticism about Church, Tradition and Culture that sounded similar to texts written in the XXI century? The content could be similar to this: "Brothers and sisters,  have you noticed how our Church is straying from the path laid down by the holy apostles and the Church Fathers? We see innovations creeping in that obscure the purity of worship, innovations that, dare I say, are affronts to the true spirit of devotion. Take, for instance, the use of instruments in our worship—something entirely foreign to the tradition of the early Church. The saints of old sang with one voice, in simplicity, lifting their souls to God without the distraction of worldly instruments. But now, the sound of the organ and other instruments fills our temples, drawing hearts away and entangling the faithful in worldly sensations. The deafening roar of this instrument, originally from the Roman circus, drowns out the people’s singing, when true worship s

Our Adult Sunday School at Hope is back, and we will be discussing the Sermon of the Day. It will be an invaluable opportunity for me to listen to comments and impressions from participants and their production of meaning.    It reminds me of the experience from 14 years ago, when I worked in my Final paper for the Social Communication School, "The Lutheran Sermon from the receiver's viewpoint". https://connectandreconnect.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-lutheran-sermon-from-receivers.html