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Michaelmas
By Amanda Markel The Lutheran church has quite a few feast days and commemorations. One of my favorite of these days is the feast of St. Michael and All Angels (also know as St. Michael’s Day or Michaelmas). It falls on September 29 every year, and it’s not just a commemoration day…it’s one of the Principal Feasts of Christ! Here is what the Treasury of Daily Prayer has to say about this feast day: “The name of the archangel St. Michael means “Who is like God?” Michael is mentioned in the Book of Daniel (12:), as well as in Jude (v. 9) and Revelation (12:7). Daniel portrays Michael…
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Travel and Church
By Holly Scheer Whatever the reason for the travel– for work, to see family, vacation, ect, travel that stretches past Sunday brings with with it the need to consider what to do about church. My family was on vacation this last Sunday– a vacation that included my parents. This meant that Sunday morning when we visited a church there were two pastors sitting in the pew, and that they spent time researching where we should visit. How many families spend time online researching hotels but don’t think to apply some of the same time and effort to looking for a church to attend? If looking for another church to visit…
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It’s Quiet Here
By Holly Scheer There’s a few days without posts. Sorry! I’m on vacation– that is, staying with my parents. Sometimes as adults and parents of our own families we still need OUR parents– some extra love and comfort. My husband and I and our kids are staying with my parents for a too brief time of family joy. I’ll try to get posts up as I can. Photo Credit to PapaPiper. Some rights reserved.
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Missing Your Church Home
By Holly Scheer I share something in common with many of you– the church I attend now is not the church I grew up in. Our society is increasingly mobile. We move for jobs, for college, when we get married. Sometimes we move so far away that going “home” is hard. And for those of us reared in the church this means that not only are we apart from childhood friends and family we are apart from the church of our youth. New churches come with new experiences. New meals at potlucks, new holiday traditions. New hymns the congregation prefers. I grew up with the liturgy. I can close my…
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Thoughts on the Giving and Taking of Offense, and the Waxing Old of Bones
By Mary Abrahamson To most things in life there are two sides. So too with the issue of offense. Is it given or taken? (As a little disclaimer, I’m not talking here about Biblical giving of offense, as in causing another to sin or to stumble in his or her faith.) I’m writing here about the word offense as we use it today, in regular English. Most often when we say, “I’m offended,” we mean, “Someone made me mad or uncomfortable.” Mostly when we say, “I don’t want to cause offense,” we mean, “I don’t want anyone to be mad at me or uncomfortable because of what we say.” If…
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Sexual Abuse and Marriage
I am a new “convert” to the LCMS because of my marriage. I was raised Baptist, in a very strict home. My parents seemed intent on keeping ALL things sexual in nature from our home. Not a mention of it, not in movies, music, nothing. I rebelled a ton as a teenager and wound up being sexually abused by a couple of men, one of whom was double my age, when I was only 15. My husband, likewise, had several one night stands during a short phase in college. We never realized how these things affected our marriage until recently. Neither of us feels any palpable jealousy or upset over…
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Christ the Life of All the Living
By Holly Scheer Christ, the Life of all the living, Christ, the Death of death, our foe, Who, Thyself for me once giving To the darkest depths of woe,– Through thy sufferings, death, and merit I eternal life inherit: Thousand, thousand thanks shall be, Dearest Jesus, unto Thee. Ernst C. Homburg, the author of this popular hymn, is credited as a popular author and poet of his time– and that initially he started out writing secular works and drinking songs. Hard times in his life and that of his wife brought him closer to the church and church music and he then became a prolific hymn writer. Many of these…
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On Contention, Love, and Feelings
By Holly Scheer Have you ever found yourself in a discussion that, when it turns heated, becomes more about feelings than facts? If so, you may have found it to be a frustrating experience. I know that I do. Most people don’t want to proceed when someone says that a certain line of argumentation is upsetting to them or is hurting their feelings. Our natural care for each other can cause us to pause and reflect at this moment. It’s never, ever a bad thing to think through thoroughly whether what you are saying in the moment is true, needful, and appropriate. Sisters, sometimes we have to speak hard words…
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Article XXII: Of Both Kinds in the Sacrament
Article XXII: Of Both Kinds in the Sacrament. 1] To the laity are given Both Kinds in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, because this usage has the commandment of the Lord in Matt. 26:27: Drink ye all of it, 2] where Christ has manifestly commanded concerning the cup that all should drink. 3] And lest any man should craftily say that this refers only to priests, Paul in 1 Cor. 11:27 recites an example from which it appears that the whole congregation did use both kinds. 4] And this usage has long remained in the Church, nor is it known when, or by whose authority, it was changed; although…
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Luther’s Preface to the Small Catechism
Martin Luther to All Faithful and Godly Pastors and Preachers: Grace, Mercy, and Peace in Jesus Christ, our Lord. The deplorable, miserable condition which I discovered lately when I, too, was a visitor, has forced and urged me to prepare [publish] this Catechism, or Christian doctrine, in this small, plain, simple form. Mercy! Good God! what manifold misery I beheld! The common people, especially in the villages, have no knowledge whatever of Christian doctrine, and, alas! many pastors are altogether incapable and incompetent to teach [so much so, that one is ashamed to speak of it]. Nevertheless, all maintain that they are Christians, have been baptized and receive the [common]…
