The Burr in the Burgh

Cute, no?

Sphere: Related Content

Dudes and Dudettes,

Come take a gander at the new Burr in the Burgh store right here. Everything there I designed myself. So if you hate it, send me a nasty-gram. And if you love it, buy, buy, buy! Personally, I think the "I Am Baptized Into Christ" baby wear is quite unique.

Sphere: Related Content

So, I'm thinking of getting a tattoo. Sort of an early stage of my mid-life crisis, no doubt. Am I too young for MAN-o-pause? I'm thinking St. George slaying the dragon. What do you think?

Sphere: Related Content

How heavy is your soul? Well, I guess that depends on what you've been feeding it. Not really.

There was a dark and depressing movie a while back called 21 Grams. The title is supposed to be based on a notion that that is how much lighter weight the human body becomes just after the moment of death. Sound crazy?

Apparently, a scientist once conducted studies to determine if the human soul could be empirically measured. He built a super-sensitive scale and laid a number of dying patient on it until they finally expired. Then he took note of any change in their weight. He supposedly took into account all the different variables and concluded that there is a slight change, though it differed somewhat from person to person. Not uniformly 21 grams, in other words. So I guess some people do have heavier souls than others, eh?

Interestingly, when he performed the same experiment upon dogs, there was no change in weight. That only makes senes because God only breathed the breath (spirit) of life into man.

I am writing this tongue-in-cheek because my Christian understanding of the spiritual nature of man is that the spirit is immaterial, as in, not generally having the characteristics of matter, nor being ordinarily perceptible by the five human senses.

Oh, this scientist's studies have been discredited and rejected but . . . it is interesting.

Sphere: Related Content

Here's a great quote for you:

"Children like to be scared," he said. "It is good for them to be scared, if they are scared of the right things."

And who said that? It was Douglas Gresham, the stepson of C.S. Lewis at a sneak peak of the new film based on Lewis's book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Go here. And all I can say is A-M-E-N. Apparently, some woman in the audience was concerned that children would be upset by the battle scene between the Lion Aslan and the White Witch.

Have you ever noticed that modern editions of classic fairytales often sanitize the stories of the violence and gore? That drives me bonkers. Or what about all those who complained about the violence in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ? Give me a break.

I saw a Precious-Moments-like figurine one time of the crucifixion of Jesus. Now that is what I find terrifying. Let's make the blood sacrifice of God's Son into something cute. If you ask me, cuteness and our love of cuteness is playing a large part in the undermining of the American Church. And we wonder why our pews are filled mostly with women and children. No men. Because it's all just too sweet.

I believe that adults harm their children by shielding them too much from the harsh reality of blood and suffering in the world. Obviously, I don't mean we should be trying to give our toddlers nightmares.

I don't know if Gresham is correct that children like to be scared. But he is dead right that it is good for children to be scared of the right things. Anyone ever hear of stranger danger? Don't take candy from a man in a trenchcoat alone in a playground? Being scared can be a good thing.

St. Peter said, "Be Alert!" He wasn't talking about pedophiles, but something much worse. Because the devil wants nothing more than to gobble you up for lunch.

As a father, I want my son to know that there is danger in the world. But you can bet your petunias that I will all the more vigorously impress upon him that Christ has overcome the world for us. Christus Victor!

Dr. Gene Veith is directing a great discussion over at the Cranach blog on the upcoming Narnia movie.

Sphere: Related Content

The Cranach Institute is an arm of Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, IN. And its mission is to examine how Lutheran theology engages contemporary culture and particularly the contribution of the doctrine of vocation. The next time you have a few extra shekels, consider throwing a donation their way.

I'm delighted to say that Dr. Gene Edward Veith, Cranach's director, now runs a blog.

Sphere: Related Content

Blog Carnivals are a good way to be introduced to lots of interesting sites. This is the first time I've participated in the Lutheran Carnival. Go see Lutheran Carnival VIII at Full Throttle & an Empty Gas Tank.

Sphere: Related Content

Touchstone magazine in one of the finer publications I receive. And today, sipping my latte at Caribou Coffee, thumbing through the latest issue, my eyes popped out of my head on springs like in those old Warner Bros. cartoons. That's how surprised and delighted I was to note a fine essay written by P.G. Alms (no relation to P.G. Wodehouse) a fellow LCMS pastor and blogger. I'm not making this up. See here.

Pastor Alms writes an insightful piece about being a pastor in today's context. Ecclesiastical entrepreneurs are always hawking the latest fad, the newest widget, the edgiest program, and the hottest technique to grow the church of Christ.

What about the gospel? Maybe we should consider giving that a try. How about preaching the cross? Baptism? Eucharist? The church may or may not grow numerically relying upon the divinely instituted means of grace, but at least it'll still be the church.



Go visit Pr. Alms's blog "Incarnatus Est." A guy who reads both Rolling Stone magazine and the ancient church fathers is guaranteed to have something interesting to say.

Sphere: Related Content

In the U.K., Muslims complained that an ice-cream cup sold in Burger King had a little swirly symbol on it that resembled the Arabic word for Allah. So Burger King, so as not to offend, pulled the design. Here.

Meanwhile, in Ireland, some bookie has billboards all over Dublin with Leonardo's famous Last Supper, only the ad is altered so that Jesus and the disciples are all playing poker. A fuss was raised, but the ads are not being removed. Here.

We're talking about taking a depiction of the Holy Eucharist and making fun of it. Oh well, I guess that's not as bad as when pastors dress up like clowns or wookies in order to make the Body and Blood of Jesus seem relevant. Personally, I'd be afraid to mock God.

Sphere: Related Content

Y'know, the other day I was walking along the beach and I came across this message scrawled in the sand: Joanie Loves Chachi. It was written in English, Welsh, Arabic, Japanese, Sanskrit and Esperanto. There was even a series of dots that I think was Braille. I was frankly astounded. I mean, can you imagine how long it took for the tide to come in and out, in and out, over and over again until that message was randomly and purposelessly etched into the sand. Oh come on! Who would even dream of that? Of course, someone wrote the message.

Give a roomful of monkeys with word processors enough time and they'll eventually tap out the Babylonian Talmud, right?

Then, looking through a microscope, I noticed a sub-cellular machine known as the bacterial flagellum. Very complex. Irreducibly complex. I wonder how long it took the blind and meaningless forces of nature to come up with that.

In my opinion, the views of microbiologist, Michael Behe, are much more reasonable.

HT: Mere Comments

Sphere: Related Content

Barry Lynn, Director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and a Unitarian minister, is raising a stink in Florida because Gov. Jeb Bush is encouraging children to read C.S. Lewis's classic masterpiece The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Here's the article for a vomit-inducing read.

Lynn's objection is that Lewis's excellent children's book is an allegory of the story of Christ. Those Christian themes, he believes, make it innappropriate for the governor to endorse. By the same reasoning, we'd have to omit:

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare
The Divine Comedy by Dante
Le Morte D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Pilgrim's Progress by Paul Bunyan
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'engle
The poetry of John Dunne
And hundreds, even thousands, of other great workds of Western literature.

And if the concern is that the governor is promoting one religion over others, then we can't promote the reading of:

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse for promoting Buddhism
His Dark Materials (trilogy) by Philip Pullman for promoting atheism
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown for promoting pop-gnosticism
And just about anything recommended by Oprah Winfrey for New Agey-ness

Sphere: Related Content

Our 10 year old son loves Halloween. What American kid does not? I can remember going trick-or-treating with him dressed as a fireman one year and as a lion another. That was so cute. But nowadays, he wants to be scary for Halloween and I have very mixed feelings about it.

Some Christians believe we should have nothing whatsoever to do with Halloween. Or if we do, it should be altered into a fall festival or Reformation celebration. I support those parents wholeheartedly. At the same time, I do not see the harm in allowing our children to dress in costumes and go door to door in the neighborhood for candy. Properly supervised, of course.

Our son knows that anything overtly satanic or occult is off the table for discussion entirely. No devil costumes or ghosts or witches. And no chainsaw murderers or bloody vampires. Ain't gonna happen. He agrees and that's not a problem.

But he does still want to be something scary. Which is weird, because he doesn't like scary stuff normally. Our attempts to dissuade him have not been too successful thus far. I said he should just go as himself. No costume. Or we suggested he go as his best friend and his best friend go as him. He could be Adam (go commando). Nah. My wife thinks he should be a bar of soap or a fork or something.

We did see a Napolean Dynamite mask. We almost had him with that one. I'm thinking of buying it for myself.

Over at The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, I read this post about Halloween costumes from one of her guest contributors.

What are your thoughts on the whole Halloween thing?

Sphere: Related Content

What is the deal with these people? The Culture of Death on steroids. Go here and here. Now they want to euthanize sick babies. Well, only those who are terminally ill. Why stop there? Let's euthanize all the terminally ill. No, let's euthanize everyone who gets sick because they'll be terminal someday. Ah shucks, let's just kill everyone.

Sphere: Related Content

As soon as I get myself in gear, I'll add these fine blogs to my blogroll:

• Pr. Scot Kinnaman has entered the fray with Blog My Soul. Good stuff, even if he does spell his name wrong.

• Pr. Bill Cwirla's creatively named Rev. Cwirla's Blogosphere. (His name is pronounced Kwirla. . . not really. It's Swirla.) Not only are his sermons top-notch, but he's a great resource for apologetics. Not for the faint of heart.

• For the Lutheran deaconess perspective, go to Quicunque vult. Anyone cool enough to name her blog from the Latin of the Athanasian Creed is going to be worth your attention.
  

Sphere: Related Content

Headline: Water is Wet or Heat is Hot. That's kind of how I feel about this MSNBC headline: TV in Child's Room May Hinder Learning. Naw, y'think?

A small child's brain is still developing and forming connections. Studies show that viewing the 2-dimensional screen with flashing images of light retards the development of verbal abilities.

Now some pediatricians are saying that when a small child watches a lot of television he is more likely to grow into a bully. See this article. TV watching is being linked to increased aggression. And I don't think it's just the watching of violent programming that does it. If your ability to think clearly and express yourself verbally is impaired, aggression is the next resort toward making your will known.

In my opinion, the less TV a child watches, the better. That goes for adults too. READ A BOOK.

Sphere: Related Content

One of my goodest friends and compadres, the Rev. Todd Peperkorn, of Kenosha, WI wrote this very honest post in his blog, The Lutheran Logomaniac. He talks of being in a sermon funk, or being tired of preaching.

As another youngish preacher, I know what he's talking about. On the one hand, I enjoy preaching. It is rewarding to craft sermons on the holy texts of our faith. But I also find it very difficult at times.

I think that Pr. Peperkorn has some insightful responses to his own predicament. One being, "Receive." He says a pastor needs to hear preaching himself. Absolutively. Although the logistics of that are not easy. And while most pastors really like to talk, they don't always know how to hear. Gotta work on that. In our office, we give God's gifts to people. As sinners, we need those same gifts. A lot of us Lutheran-types are good at preaching the gospel of forgiveness to others, but not so great at grasping it for ourselves. It's hard to preach to yourself.

I'd add a couple of reflections to Pr. Peperkorn's.

Things that impair my ability to preach and what to do about them:

• Flutter. The dictionary defines "flutter" this way: To move quickly in a nervous, restless, or excited fashion; flit. Yep. Been there; done that. This is one way to derail preaching.

Being pulled in a hundred directions at once. Running around without taking time to smell the roses and re-fuel. This is true spiritually. But also physically, emotionally and intellectually. If I don't adequately recharge, I run out of juice.

(Qualification: This is not alwasy the case. Sometimes, ironically, I have found that being insanely busy can cause me to focus. But usually, at least for me, it has the opposite effect.)

Clutter. By this I mean mental clutter. I am easily distracted. I also have a wide variety of interests. So I usually am in the middle of three or four books, a half dozen journals, plus all the cares and concerns of church and family.

In one respect, this can be good as it actually feeds my preaching. I read widely, in part, because it helps me have a clearer perspective on the world and our place in it. Being well-read and well-informed is also useful for illustrative purposes in sermon writing.

Yet, as both a reader and a writer, I am coming to value simplicity more and more. Not simple in the sense of easy, but in the sense of being unpretentious. A sermon may be brilliant and poetic, but if it is too self-conscious the sermon can interfere with the whole purpose of preaching.



• Sputter. The dictionary definition is: To spit out words or sounds in an excited or confused manner. By this, I mean the inability to write clear articulate prose that faithfully expounds the Biblical text while simultaneously addressing both the general and specific needs of the congregation.

I think we preachers need to recognize that a sermon must be written for the ear, not the eye. To be heard, not primarily to be read. When you are reading text on a page, you can pause, consider, reread words and phrases, something you cannot do sitting in the pew listening to me talk. It is much more important to be clear than to be clever. It is much more important to be understood than to be sophisticated. Of course, those are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but it is pointless to sacrifice being understood by your average hearer for literary excellence or oratorical profundity.

Having said all that, neither am I in favor of “dumbing down” the message. Why does every John Doe think he should be able to enter a church service for the first time in eons and find everything instantly 100% comprehensible?

The gospel is so simple, even a small child can understand it. And yet, the Scriptures are so wise, an entire lifetime is not long enough.

I am not old enough or wise enough to counsel any other preachers about the craft. I've got enough to tend to with Scott Stiegemeyer. I may judge what you say, but I will be quite hesitant to criticize how you say it. While substance is central, style is not irrelevant. The pendulum must not swing too far in either direction. Your style may not work for me with my congregation and mine may flop in yours.

Boring Preaching or Bored OF Preaching. The hardest thing, next to properly unwrapping the gospel in the text, is being . . . interesting. Week after week. Interesting but not cliche.

Once in a while, some humble parish pastor's preaching will be compared to the dynamic radio guy. Doctrine aside, people have to keep in mind that a lot of those celebrity preachers do little else. Does anyone really think that Dr. Charles Stanley still visits shut-ins? Or that D. James Kennedy has to put aside his sermon composition because he's got 3 unexpected hospital visits to make, two out-of-the-blue counseling sessions and a funeral?

I'm not complaining. Preaching is a strange vocation. It is holy, challenging, rewarding and unrewarding. It is a burden and a joy.

Sphere: Related Content

The Roman Catholic Church, patricularly in the United States, is suffering from a shortage of clergy. In Pittsburgh, for instance, the pastors are aging and their replacements are too few. One solution has been to import priests from other countries, areas where there is an abundance of vocations.

The local news agencies are reporting that a controversial group is advocating two additional responses to the lack of priests:

1) Making priestly celibacy optional and
2) Ordaining women

This has generated quite a bit of interesting discussion on local Catholic blogs. See this from Ales Rarus.

My response. First, if people think that allowing clergy to marry and/or ordaining women will solve the Catholic priest shortage, the experience of other church bodies would seem to indicate otherwise. Many denominations have trouble recruiting and maintaining qualified clergy, even in spite of allowing married clergy and, in many cases, ordaining women. Certainly, these factors would make a difference, but at the same time we need to recognize that there are others factors at play.

On priestly celibacy. It should be obvious that I do not favor enforcing this discipline upon all the clergy. I, myself, am happily married (15 years of bliss) and have a child. And I am an ordained Lutheran pastor.

On the one hand, I can see the argument for having a celibate clergy. There is apostolic precedent in the Apostle Paul. And, of course, Jesus Himself (ridiculous novels aside). Being celibate gives a man freedom to devote himself more fully to his ministry. He is freed from the obligations and responsibilities of caring and providing for a family. From a more theological perspective, I admire the imagery of the pastor as a reflection of Christ, whose bride is the Church.

Nevertheless, requiring a man to be celibate is placing a tremendous burden on his back, one that our Lord did not require of his own 12 disciples. There is every reason to believe that most of them had families. Certainly we know from the Gospels that Peter was married.

The ability to lead a chaste celibate life is a gift. Only a very select few can successfully lead such a life. Even the Roman Church does not teach that this is a divine command, but an honored tradition.

The Creator has instilled in every man a natural desire to marry a woman and procreate. God commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. If a person chooses to remain celibate so that he can labor in the Lord's vineyard more completely, that is a wonderful thing. In this respect, St. Paul said that he wished everyone was like him - for the sake of extending the kingdom and edifying the church. But even he, a celibate himself, acknowledges that it is better to marry than to burn (with passion/lust).

I have often said that being married and having a family has made me a much better pastor than I would be otherwise. The love, support and joy I receive from my wife and son is beyond measure and significantly counter-balances the loneliness, suffering and burden of the ministry. I am honest enought to admit that I would be a far less effective person - in every way - were I still single.

On Women's Ordination. In this respect, I completely agree and support the position of Rome. I belong to one of the branches of Lutheranism which still does not ordain women. Of course, this is not in any way a comment on the capability of women to serve effectively in the church. There are numerous avenues for godly and scholarly women to do Kingdom work. But the explicit teaching of Scripture is that the pastoral office is restricted to males only (1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Timothy 2).

Beyond the passages one could cite, I find the example of our Lord to be quite convincing. Had Christ wanted there to be women pastors in His church, it seems likely that He would have had a more diverse collection of disciples. As it is, He chose 12 men. One cannot argue that He was only following the social conventions of His time, for on other occasions, He had no difficulty shattering such conventions to smithereens (i.e. John 4) . And in addition, if Jesus had intended for there to be women pastors, the most excellent candidate would have surely been His blessed mother.

Sphere: Related Content

Did you know that in some parts of the United States, your 14-year-old daughter can get an abortion - not only without her parent's permission, but even without their knowledge!? But, she can't get her ears pierced or lie for 30 minutes in a tanning salon without a parent's Okie Dokie. Check this out.

I say, if tanning booths (vanity!) are dangerous for young skin, then it shouldn't matter if mom says it's alright. It should be banned.

We say we want to protect our children. A woman in a NY City park was given a ticket by police because she was in a playground area at a public park without a child of her own. Apparantly, you are not allowed to just hang around kids in a playground unless one of them is yours. I'm OK with that. Personally, I think all convicted pedophiles should be electrocuted to death.

Many conservative types, like myself, prefer fewer laws, less regulation. The Libertarians, for instance. I agree to a certain extent. But personal liberty and small government only work when you have population that is guided by an internal moral compass. And that we do not have. The less our population is formed by the teachings of Holy Writ so that they may exercise self-restraint, the more it become necessary for the external restraints of civil government. Personally, if I had to choose, I'd rather live under tyranny and martial law than anarchy.

So, I'm a defender of enacting onerous laws and regulations to protect children. That's why I think all abortions should be made a felony. Why are we selective about which children we protect?

Sphere: Related Content

Raging Rabbits has posted a link to one laugh out loud funny song. But then, I have a pretty silly sense of humor sometimes.

Sphere: Related Content

With the recent film, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, the topics of exorcism and demonic possession have been getting renewed attention. It seems clear to me that there are some not-so-good risks about stirring up too much interest in Satan and his demons. We don't want to do or say anything which might cause impressionable people to develop an unhealthy fascination with the occult. However, I think that it is equally dangerous to speak of the devil too little. The New Testament does not allow us that option. St. Peter wrote: "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith. . . (1 Peter 5:8-9a)."

The Christian can be confident that Satan is a defeated enemy. But he and his minions can still cause great harm and mischief in our lives. Demons certainly are behind many of the messes in the lives of the people we seek to minister to. So be sober and watchful.

I just discovered an interesting new blog called One True God Blog. Its contributors are theologians and writers who represent Evangelicalism, Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Here is their discussion on demons.

Sphere: Related Content