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Up one levelThe First Reorganization of the Missouri Synod, 1839
I have always believed in the priority of the Christian congregation. Someone put it well in saying that the Church cannot be any more the essence of the Church than when it is celebrating the Eucharist. At the same time I don’t find that bishops are necessarily in opposition to that foundational Eucharistic assembly. I am one who hopes that the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod will seriously consider an episcopacy as part of the reorganization of 2010...
Embarrasing Mormonism
I was embarrassed for them. In this equatorial country where the only time neck-ties are worn is when you are in court as a defendant, the Mormon missionaries stood out painfully with their long pants, long shirts, ties and name tags. It was almost as if they went out of their way to not fit in. At present there are about 51,000 Mormon missionaries around the world. They are volunteers working without pay and traveling at their own family’s expense in a place they have not chosen. They simply submit their names to the church and then the leadership of the church sends them out. They have no say, they simply obey...
A Field Guide to the Missouri Synod
At the 2007 LCMS convention a resolution entitled “To Keep Unity of Spirit in Bond of Peace” passed with nearly 90% in favor. It rather innocuously directed circuits of the synod to share in a common Bible and study of the Lutheran Confessions called “Faithful and Afire” prepared by various leaders within synod. Not terribly newsworthy. In the course of the debate over the resolution, however, an amendment was proposed to “acknowledge theological differences.” That amendment failed with 49% of the vote. All of which led one commentator to observe that, since the vote to show our unity was split nearly 50/50, the disunity at the very least is a divide between those who think we are unified and those who do not...
The Epistle of Eutyche
It is with greatest pleasure that LF presents the world premiere publication of the recently discovered Epistle of Eutyche, dug from the ruins of the Abbey of Three Marys (mosaic fragments on the site suggest Jesus’ mother, Mary Magdalene, and Mary of Bethany) in southern Croatia. Internal evidence suggests that Theophila was the abbess of the house and received the letter from a fellow abbess by the name of Eutyche in response to an earlier letter from Theophila. Theophila’s original letter so far has not been discovered, though its contents is summarized at some length in the present epistle...
Sermon of Straw #5
Several years ago the Sacramento Bee told a story about Marvin, a homeless man who lived wherever he could along the Sacramento River. He was about 45 at the time, an alcoholic, dirty, destitute—not exactly, he would admit, a model citizen. One afternoon he was hanging around the edges of a street fair downtown when he noticed a young boy sitting alone on the grass. He was about four years old, and Marvin thought he looked a little overwhelmed. Marvin watched him for a long time, and gradually came to the realization that this boy didn’t seem to have any adult connected to him...