Holy Week with the Apostolic Fathers

"Let us look stedfastly to the blood of Christ, and see how precious that blood is to God, which, having been shed for our salvation, has set the grace of repentance before the world"
-The First Epistle of Clement 90 AD

oh rick...

once again he beats me to the punch...
http://www.ocregister.com/news/church-237227-easter-saddleback.html

Enjoy The Weather

Yesterday I came across this cool quote from Luther concerning the beauty of God's creation.  He writes that creation is:

our Bible in the fullest sense, this our house, home, field, garden, and all things, where God does not only preach by using his wonderful works, but also taps on our eyes, stirs up our senses, and enlightens our heart at the same time...  Learn to strengthen your belief in the resurrection of the dead by means of the work that God exercises daily toward his creatures through his omnipotence.
-Sermon of May 25, 1544 on 1 Cor. 15:66

I thought this was an inspiring sentiment to reflect on as the sun finally begins to poke through the winter sky!

Luther Quote!

Here's an awesome snipped from Luther that I came across in Walther's "Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel." Luther writes:

Thou, my Lord Jesus art my Righteousness; I am Thy sin. Thou hast taken from what is mine and hast given me what is Thine. Thou didst become what Thou wert not and madest me to be what I was not. Beware of your ceaseless striving after a righteousness so great that you no longer appear as a sinner in your own eye and do not want to be a sinner. For Christ dwells only in sinners. He came down from heaven, where He dwelt in the righteous, for the very purpose of dwelling in sinners also. Ponder this love of His, and you will realize His sweetest consolation.
-Martin Luther's Letter to Spalatin

Peace,
Shawn

The godforsaken God...

In his book, "The Crucified God," Jurgen Moltmann unpacks Jesus' terrifying cry from the cross, "Mark 15:34 'Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?' which means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'" For Moltmann this passage is the keystone to everything that is Christian. He writes:

All Christian Theology and Christian life is basically an answer to the question which Jesus asked as he died... Either Jesus who was abandoned by God is the end of all theology or he is the beginning of a specifically Christian, and therefore critical and liberating, theology of life. (4)

Luther's "Agonizing Struggle"

I hope you're all doing well in the blogosphere. Sorry it's been so long since my last post. As I've said before, this whole having a baby thing is really a time and brain power suck. WHO KNEW!?! This said I'm just going to offer you some thoughts inspired by Martin Luther today.

The inspiration came from thinking about what Luther calls the "Agonizing Struggle."

The Core Issue of the ELCA Decision & Saint Paul’s Response

Let me start this post by saying that I really didn't want to devote another post to the conflict at Saint Paul's regarding the ELCA's decision. My two previous ones concerning it have dealt extensively with all that is involved.
This said, the other day I came across an old article in the Anglican Theological Review written by my former professor Paul Zahl that pointedly expresses just what is at stake in the blessing of unrepentant "publicly accountable life-long, monogamous, same-gender relationships." This being the case, I felt compelled to share it with you.