Jenson again: Western history teaches that “the experience of beauty does not survive the cessation of worship. Precisely those who thematically dedicate themselves to beauty, and who within the modern Western tradition regularly just so abandon worship, are in wave after wave driven at last . . . . Continue Reading »
Malachi 1:6-7: A son honors his father, and a servant his master Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, How have we despised Your name? You are presenting defiled food upon My . . . . Continue Reading »
In his social history of Christian Worship, Frank Senn summarizes the developments of the medieval period with regard to the Eucharist. He begins by challenging the assumption that medieval society was held together by “the church.” He notes that the church was often divided and . . . . Continue Reading »
Eucharistic prayers were eventually removed almost entirely from the Eucharistic celebration, so that the church ended up, as Louis Bouyer has provocatively put it, “a eucharist in which there is no longer and eucharist at all properly speaking.” To grasp what Bouyer is saying, it is . . . . Continue Reading »
In his social history of Christian liturgy, Lutheran liturgist Frank Senn describes the invention of the pax board in England during the 13th century: “This popular practice was welcomed by the clergy and disseminated throughout Christendom by the Franciscans. The pax board was a cross or . . . . Continue Reading »
In his Schmalkald Articles (1538), Luther begins with a brief statement about justification through Christ by faith. Later in the articles he returns to the issue of the gospel, and intriguingly introduces the sacraments as one of the “helps” that God provides against sin: “We now . . . . Continue Reading »
1 Corinthians 10:16: Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? As Pastor Smith has explained to us this morning, in prayer we seek communion with the Triune God. As we pray in Christ to the Father in . . . . Continue Reading »
Matthew 28: Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all things, whatever I have commanded you. We heard in the sermon this morning about the Name that we invoke in our prayers, the powerful . . . . Continue Reading »
Matthew 7:9-11: Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to . . . . Continue Reading »
Matthew 7:7: Ask and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened. In this final section of the sermon, Jesus warns us not to give holy things or precious . . . . Continue Reading »
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