Saint Matthew's

Late this afternoon, I had a long discussion with a recently married man who is having a wee-bit of trouble getting into the “marriage” thing he signed up for in July. He and his bride did not go through traditional marriage counseling classes before walking down the aisle. While their description of their wedding was something out of a fairy tale, they seem to have a misunderstanding about what a marriage really is and what it is based upon.

Marriage is not the wedding day. Mouthing vows is the easy part. Living them is an entirely different bucket of fish. The wedding day is the party. The honeymoon is an extension of the party atmosphere. When the plane arrives at the airport and the honeymoon is over, real life begins and the marriage starts. All those issues of living together, combining stuff, moving to a new home, figuring out how work schedules and private time can somehow mingle, paying the bills, walking the dog, making dinner, planning for children and where to raise them, talking about life, etc. should have at least been mentioned prior to the “I do’s.”

Too many times the emotional physicality plays the primary impetus for any couple thinking about getting married. Emotional couples who want to get married usually base their decision on a never ending “love” that they share, that the time they spend between the sheets is earth moving, that the bars they frequented as a couple will always play a major part in their continued relationship, that their individual lives won’t change much, etc. That is why marriage counseling is oh, so important. Couples have the opportunity to reflect, talk about, and understand that marriage in the church is about more than the human reflection on a couple living together in order to get health benefits. For at the heart of any marriage is God.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Genesis 2:24

Two becoming one. Not in some metaphysical or psychological way, but in a deeply spiritual manner where God brings them out of their individual lives and makes them one till death do them part.

Newly married couples who are having a challenge “getting into married life” need to take serious time to reflect on why they got married in the first place. Life for them changed dramatically when they said their “I do’s.” On their wedding day when their dog walked down the aisle wearing a suit – that was for show, for fun. Now that they are together as one flesh, they have to realize that now someone has to actually walk Fido.

(The following is my article written for our weekly parish notes bulletin insert.)

This past Thursday, the Samaritans of Saint Matthew’s served a dinner at the Walk In Kitchen in Hackensack like they have so many times before. Long hours of planning, cooking, preparing, and serving historically have been the norm, and this week, nothing changed. Thankful hearts at the Kitchen were met with hearty plates of pot roast and the various fixings, and no one was turned away. Even when we were down to the final bits of roast in the pan, we tried earnestly to serve the more than 130 hungry men, women, and children who came for a hot meal.

It continues to amaze me that in the county such as Bergen, where wealth is no object for many residents, we have members of our society who struggle to find food. People come from all around—some by foot, others by bus– just to get any sort of nourishment after a long day. And at the end of each month, when small personal budget dollars cannot be stretched far enough, these numbers swell at the Walk In Kitchen.

On Friday, I spent time thinking about this specific human care ministry of Saint Matthew’s and mentally compared it to evangelism. Human care ministries are less about evangelizing and more about fulfilling the loving words of our Lord Jesus Christ to love and care for our neighbors. It is less about preaching the Gospel and more about showing the Gospel in action. And that is what makes human care ministries different from evangelism programs.

Human care ministries focus on helping the neighbor living in this world. Evangelism focuses on proclaiming the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of souls. Many times, we can wrongly blend the two specific ministries of the church together, missing the great point of either one. But when we have a deep understanding of human care (showing love for neighbor) and evangelism (showing God’s love through Jesus Christ), you find Christ in action.

That is why the Samaritans, in their work this week, showed what helping your neighbor is all about. Their work was not about accolades or receiving thanks, but about loving our neighbor as God has loved each one us through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Just two dates to put on your calendar:

- I will be attending a wedding out in Minnesota on the evening of August 31st. A local New Jersey family who is also attending the wedding has invited me to join them on their private jet to attend the festivities. I will be leaving on the morning of the 31st and returning on the morning of September 1st.

- In September, Saint Matthew’s will be holding their first-ever Town Wide Garage Sale on Saturday, the 25th. It is not the 18th, as it has been printed in the Twin Boro News.

Also over at my non-church blog (I don’t know why I keep calling it a “private” blog since everyone can read it), I discuss an article found in this morning’s Wall Street Journal written by author Brian McCracken concerning “cool Christianity.” My post narrows his thought specifically to the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod and how it has been dealing with modern evangelism issues through the “Ablaze!” program.

As I wrote:

The challenge for a church that has reached the fork in the road is to decide which road to take. Even though many people like the idea of a church being “cool” and hip, the fact is that without Jesus Christ at the core of the entire life of a church, the church is merely a social club that does a lot of cool things. The question of why the church is needed is not answered in this modern idealistic social club view; instead of being embraced by our Lord in Word and Sacrament, church becomes a place to see people, to work on projects, and to hear the pastor talk about his new tattoo.

No, I do not have a tattoo.

I didn’t want to re-post that blog here, so here’s the link to go over and read it.

Over at my private blog, I pulled back on my anger regarding my Wednesday rant over Logos 4 and Logos.com. After cooling off, settling down, and organizing my thoughts, I punching out a post giving more explanation on why I am frustrated with them. Read it here.

I’ve invested thousands of dollars on my pastor’s library, a major chunk of it at Logos.com that offers electronic versions of theological books including Luther’s Works, various CPH tomes, and terrific Greek and Hebrew language resources. For pastors, their library is their professional life.

For me, having a vast amount of my library in electronic form is a blessing. The time-saving researching capabilities alone make having an electronic library a must nowadays.

But …

Ever since Logos upgraded their program engine to “Logos 4,” the ability to use my electronic resources has become impossible. When they introduced their Logos 4 product, they introduced a full-featured Windows version that had all the bells and whistles that they promised. To Mac users, they promised that one day in the future, they would come out with some product that may equal the Windows version. For Mac users, they’ve rolled out useless and buggy Mac test programs that, to be honest, are worthless.

I’ve given up using my electronic library for that reason — Logos’ Mac products stink. I don’t own a Windows’ computer. While the rest of the universe is able to produce compatible Mac programs, Logos can’t. Instead, they take our money and hand us electronic junk as we Mac users hope for one day to have a product that is workable.

I am not the only one who feels this way — their own forum on Logos 4 is filled with complaints. Even my friends who have Macs and have used the Mac test programs Logos sends out are equally angry and dismayed that they have been ignored for so long.

This afternoon, just for fun, I opened up the Logos 4 application on my iMac and was prompted to download an update. Great. Another junky beta product that will constant crash. For fun, I downloaded it. After opening it up, it looked the same as before. But there was one major difference — nearly my entire electronic library was missing.

Everything except the Septuagint (the Old Testament written in Greek).

Luther’s Works. Gone. The various commentaries and language resources I purchased. Gone. Even the latest Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, gone.

So basically I’ve been duped by this company. They’ve taken my money with a smile and handed me junk and now they’ve have taken my library because their product doesn’t work.

I really am not happy.

See, it is not odd for a writer/reporter to enter the Office of the Holy Ministry, though this one is not entering Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

John Wilson, a columnist and editorial writer for the New York Post, is hanging up his pen and pad for some priestly vestments.

The 25-year-old worked his last day at the News Corp offices on Friday, after a send-off party at the Blarney Stone. He will be entering a seminary in Yonkers in two weeks.

And that Roman Catholic seminary is Saint Joseph’s in the Dunwoodie section of my hometown.

(via PolitickerNY – New York Observer)

No, the title is not the start of a bad joke. It was happened in Wyoming.

The Rev. Ron Kingston thought Tracy Province was just a down-on-his luck soul when he welcomed him into his church in Meeteetse, Wyoming, on Sunday morning.

He would later be surprised to learn Province was a prison escapee and convicted murderer.

Province, 10 days after he and two other inmates escaped from an Arizona prison, walked into Meeteetse Community Church wearing blue jeans and a flannel shirt. He stayed for the 9:30 a.m. worship service, sang songs like “Your Grace is Enough,” and shook hands with some of the 50 or so attendees, the pastor says.

A church goer recognized the escaped Province and called the cops; he was arrested and is back in custody.

This story leads one to ponder the forgiveness of God and how we Christians live as forgiven, but have a hard time doing the same thing. The escapee, no doubt, broke the law several times and was indeed in jail paying society back for his failures. But if we really think about the forgiveness of God and how we Lutherans view it, it is so much different that how the world views repentance and forgiveness.

See, when we do something wrong, we throw ourselves on the mercy of God’s court. We repent of our failures and sins and plead for the forgiveness of God. Instead of punishing us for our sins, God reminds us that He’s already punished someone for them — namely His Son, Jesus Christ. God then removes the stain of failure and sin from us as He forgives us. And in God-speak, the forgiveness is not just for a little while, but it is forever. He forgives. He forgets our sins.

Society doesn’t believe in forgiveness the same way. If someone sins against us, we’ll end up reminding them every chance he get that they hurt us. I don’t know how many couples I’ve counseled who keep bringing up past “marital failures” years after they forgave their spouses for them.

We don’t forgive like God does.

We forgive like we do.

Society never preaches the heart of forgiveness — that is the forgetting. When we forgive someone, it is like that person never failed us, never sinned against us. But how many of us can do just that?

Now, this escapee sinned against society and society threw him in jail to pay off his debt. Escaping from prison to go against society’s justice is not good. Province will probably face a little more time behind bars. And as a society, we will all say that an extended stay in prison would be just and right.

Thanks be to God that our Father in heaven doesn’t do the same thing.

It is he who remembered us in our low estate, for his steadfast love endures forever; and rescued us from our foes, for his steadfast love endures forever; he who gives food to all flesh, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Psalm 136:23-25
English Standard Version

Picking the newspapers up this morning, someone in the neighborhood asked me if everything was OK since I haven’t posted in a week. Assuring her that I’ve been battling a bout with summer writing laziness, I thought it was time I wrestled with this demon of laziness.

So, I have.

The LORD has made proclamation to the ends of the earth: ”Say to the Daughter of Zion, ’See, your Savior comes! See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.’ ”

Isaiah 62:11
New International Version (NIV)

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1
English Standard Version (ESV)

OK – quickly. Yes, parts of the site haven’t been updated in a while. That changes this morning, including this blog.

Yes, we have Divine Service this evening at 7:00pm. You’re invited.

Yes, we will continue our study of the Lutheran Confessions tonight, hopefully finishing up a look at the Creeds of the Church.

Yes, my schedule has been, and will continue to be, a roller coaster over the next couple of days. This morning, working in the home office followed by work in the church office and a visit at midday (brings me to noon). This afternoon, a conference call at 2, a telephone counseling session, and time set aside to prepare for tonight (sermons and studies don’t write themselves).

That’s it for a now – heading into church for Morning Prayer.