Progressive Lutheran Feed by IPC

My own blog is "neoorthodoxology." Check it out: http://neoorthodoxology.blogspot.com/

For anyone who is interested, this is what I believe:

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Kids running around the mall food court, kicking and screaming in the grocery store, or running laps in the church hall during coffee hour.  "Kids have no manners today," we say.  Though that statement clearly reflects some selective memory at work - as if kids were entirely well-behaved 30 or 60 years ago - there may be an ounce of truth to it.  Po Bronson, in a recent interview on NPR's Tell Me More, says that the poor behavior of 4-5 year-olds is, for many kids, the expected side effect of a very good parenting strategy that will pay dividends in years to come.

I think there's this fear that kids today have no manners. And I don't know that they understand the scientific context of this, which is that we don't hit kids anymore, and that is great. And we don't demand strict obedience. We reason with our kids. We try to get them to think it through. But when they're 3, and they're 4, and they're 5, and they're 6, they're not really good at that. So the short term is that they maybe are going to be a little more restless around the table at dinnertime.

They might have a little more behavior issues than in - kids in the past, when they're 5 and 6 years old. But the long-term outcomes are clear. Kids are more independent-minded and more autonomous, and handle problems for themselves down the road. But American society is looking at the way our 4- and 5- and 6-year-olds behave and going, oh, my gosh, it's terrible the way that they're behaving - and not realizing this is perhaps the side effect of what is really, fundamentally, a good thing.

Kids running around the mall food court, kicking and screaming in the grocery store, or running laps in the church hall during coffee hour. "Kids have no manners today," we say. Though that statement clearly reflects some selective memory at... Chris

In a letter to his barber, Martin Luther recommends that Christians pray the Ten Commandments, Apostles’ Creed and Lord’s Prayer. Yet beyond reciting these traditional texts, he suggests that after each line or phrase of these texts we meditate upon... Chris

In a letter to his barber, Martin Luther recommends that Christians pray the Ten Commandments, Apostles’ Creed and Lord’s Prayer.  Yet beyond reciting these traditional texts, he suggests that after each line or phrase of these texts we meditate upon them in a “four-fold garland” method of praying:

• Instruction: seek what these words have to teach you;
• Thanksgiving: give thanks for these words and the goodness of God conveyed through them;
• Confession: humbly confess to God your failure to live up to or accept these words;
• Prayer: pray for help and strength to embrace these words.

- See A Simple Way to Pray in Luther’s Works, vol. 43, pg. 200

In his Small Catechism, designed as a family devotional and instructional booklet, Martin Luther gives a simple order of prayer for morning and evening, consisting of invoking God's Trinitarian name, a recitation of the Apostles’ Creed and Lord’s Prayer, and a prayer for morning or evening.

These methods of prayer - the "fourfold garland" and the simple order from the catechism - are wonderful in their simplicity, based on texts that are familiar and easily memorized.  Simplicity is very important for popular prayer practices, as most Christians are not going to consult liturgical books to follow a form of personal daily prayer that was developed in monastaries and intended to be used as corporate prayer.  Yet any prayer that uses any of these texts (Ten Commandments, Apostles' Creed, Lord's Prayer) is deeply connected to the faith communities that use these texts on daily and weekly intervals.

The following order of prayer is based on Luther’s order in the Small Catechism, with slight modification to include a recitation of the Ten Commandments (as Luther recommends in A Simple Way to Pray, and elsewhere), and an opportunity to read Scripture.  Used together with Luther's "fourfold garland" method, this order provides a simple yet powerful pattern for daily prayer.

The Morning and Evening Blessing
Under the care of God the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The Ten Commandments

1. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of bondage.  You shall have no other gods but me.
   
2. You shall not make for yourself any idol.
   
3. You shall not invoke with malice the Name of the Lord your God.
   
4. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
   
5. Honor your father and your mother.
   
6. You shall not commit murder.
   
7. You shall not commit adultery.
   
8. You shall not steal.
   
9. You shall not be a false witness.
10. You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.
    

The Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
    creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord,
    who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
    born of the virgin Mary,
    suffered under Pontius Pilate,
    was crucified, died, and was buried;
    he descended to the dead.
    On the third day he rose again;
    he ascended into heaven,
    he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
    and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
    the holy catholic church,
    the communion of saints,
    the forgiveness of sins,
    the resurrection of the body,
    and the life everlasting. Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven,
    hallowed be your name,
    your kingdom come,
    your will be done,
        on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
    as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
    and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
    and the glory are yours
    now and for ever. Amen.

Scripture may be read.

Prayers for the church, the world, those in need, may be offered, concluding with the appropriate prayer:

For Mornings
We give thanks to you, heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ your dear Son, that you have protected us through the night from all harm and danger. We ask that you would also protect us today from sin and all evil, so that our life and actions may please you. Into your hands we commend ourselves: our bodies, our souls, and all that is ours. Let your holy angels be with us, so that the wicked foe may have no power over us.  Amen.

For Evenings
We give thanks to you, heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ your dear Son, that you have graciously protected us today. We ask you to forgive us all our sins, where we have done wrong, and graciously to protect us tonight. Into your hands we commend ourselves: our bodies, our souls, and all that is ours. Let your holy angels be with us, so that the wicked foe may have no power over us.  Amen.

You may conclude with a hymn or another form that would serve your devotion.

Notes:
The translation for the Ten Commandments comes from the Book of Common Prayer, Holy Eucharist, Rite Two, where the decalogue is sometimes said immediately prior to the confession of sins.  Each commandment can be followed by a response, such as "Amen. Lord have mercy," (from BCP Rite Two) or "Lord have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law" (from BCP Rite One).  www.bcponline.org

English translations of The Apostles Creed and The Lord's Prayer (c) 1998 English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC).  www.englishtexts.org  Used by permission.

Translations of the morning and evening prayers, written by Martin Luther and found in his Small Catechism, are from Evangelical Lutheran Worship, pew edition, pgs. 305, 318.

A few weeks ago President Obama had a health care reform conference with Democrats and Republicans to try to reach a bipartisan consensus on a health care reform bill.

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My adventures in lay ministry are about to take a new and more intensive turn.

Our pastor is on the docket for open-heart surgery in less than two weeks. He had been experiencing fatigue and shortness of breath during his volunteer first-responder runs that were worrisome to him, more than something attributable to simply physical exertion or stress, so his doctor put him through some diagnostic tests...and found that he has a severely blocked artery needing a double bypass.  This appears to have been  a shock for all concerned.

So we've been given ten days to get a contingency plan together for how our church is going to run during the almost three months that we can reasonably expect our pastor to need for convalescence.

We had a meeting last night -- the pastor, the lay ministry team, the church council -- and we came up with a plan. What's good is that it's not going to rock the world of our congregation more than it has to be. After some pow-wowing with our synod, our pastor is going to invite his clergy colleague -- someone with expertise in interim ministry who's also comfortable working with lay ministers and who, through our pastor, is very much in tune to how things work in our parish -- to supervise and mentor us lay ministers for the months to come. We envision a weekly staff meeting. This pastor will also be available to do the sort of heavy-lifting pastoral duties that we are not authorized or trained to perform. But weekly worship and the everyday chaplaincy and visitation tasks of the parish, as well as the sort of drop-in/call-in support and referral work that goes on during the week, are all going to be our lay-ministry dog, Charlie Brown, as much as possible. We are also serving the secondary but important function of running interference for our pastor and his wife, who are already getting fatigue by the constant stream of well-wishers coming to the parsonage door, and who will really need their private, recuperative time after the surgery.

As you  might recall, our pastor went on sabbatical last summer, an experience that gave us all a taste of how to "do church" in his absence. So we aren't deer-in-the-headlights here. In fact, after our meeting-of-the-whole, we lay ministers stayed afterward and hammered out a pretty comprehensive schedule for Sunday and Wednesday worship.

But it is a sobering situation, and a sobering responsibility. We hope we're up to it, and can invest the entire congregation in the process of keeping things going smoothly into the summer.

If you have a moment, send up a prayer for our pastor and his wife, and for our ministerial team.

My adventures in lay ministry are about to take a new and more intensive turn.

Our pastor is on the docket for open-heart surgery in less than two weeks. He had been experiencing fatigue and shortness of breath during his volunteer first-responder runs that were worrisome to him, more than something attributable to simply physical exertion or stress, so his doctor put him through some diagnostic tests...and found that he has a severely blocked artery needing a double bypass.  This appears to have been  a shock for all concerned.

So we've been given ten days to get a contingency plan together for how our church is going to run during the almost three months that we can reasonably expect our pastor to need for convalescence.

We had a meeting last night -- the pastor, the lay ministry team, the church council -- and we came up with a plan. What's good is that it's not going to rock the world of our congregation more than it has to be. After some pow-wowing with our synod, our pastor is going to invite his clergy colleague -- someone with expertise in interim ministry who's also comfortable working with lay ministers and who, through our pastor, is very much in tune to how things work in our parish -- to supervise and mentor us lay ministers for the months to come. We envision a weekly staff meeting. This pastor will also be available to do the sort of heavy-lifting pastoral duties that we are not authorized or trained to perform. But weekly worship and the everyday chaplaincy and visitation tasks of the parish, as well as the sort of drop-in/call-in support and referral work that goes on during the week, are all going to be our lay-ministry dog, Charlie Brown, as much as possible. We are also serving the secondary but important function of running interference for our pastor and his wife, who are already getting fatigue by the constant stream of well-wishers coming to the parsonage door, and who will really need their private, recuperative time after the surgery.

As you  might recall, our pastor went on sabbatical last summer, an experience that gave us all a taste of how to "do church" in his absence. So we aren't deer-in-the-headlights here. In fact, after our meeting-of-the-whole, we lay ministers stayed afterward and hammered out a pretty comprehensive schedule for Sunday and Wednesday worship.

But it is a sobering situation, and a sobering responsibility. We hope we're up to it, and can invest the entire congregation in the process of keeping things going smoothly into the summer.

If you have a moment, send up a prayer for our pastor and his wife, and for our ministerial team.

There are murmurings around our church that Rachel Kurtz, one of the singers/songwriters on the Lutheran youth/campus ministry circuit, might be coming to our area this summer and stop by for a gig.

This would be great.

It's got me to thinking , though: Where are the rest of the women in Lutheran contemporary music?

Is it because contemporary Christian music is in general an unfriendly place for a non-Evangelical female Christian? Is it because male musicians have more appeal for high school and campus ministry types?

I don't have a theory. Just askin'.

Well, not quite. But this week's Friday Five , inspired by Diana Butler Bass' thoughts on this issue, asks us to list five things we would classify as "religious," and five as "spiritual."I've never really gotten a lot of the negative animus toward the word "religion," or the idea that there is a strong demarcation between "religion" and "spirituality." Etymologically, the word "religion's" Latin roots have the connotation of restraint, tying back, reliance; which I think is unconsciously reflected in society's current negative reaction to the word vis-a-vis "spirituality" -- that religion artificially restrains our natural urge for spiritual meaning and connection.
But anyway...to comply with this week's challenge, I will attempt to tease out five things I would, if I had to, consign to separate "religion" and "spirituality" columns. It's not necessarily a value judgment, although in some cases I suppose it is; just sayin'.
Religion
1. Polity. How people who share a common faith organize themselves in terms of authority and function.
2. Church membership: Defining the boundaries of what makes someone part of, or not part of, a particular belief system or faith tradition within a belief system.
3. Creeds: Criteria of #2, as well as a response to threats to #1 or 2.
4. Church discipline: Not in terms of personal disciplines, or even the sort of mutual accountability that's part of a monastic community, but the general exercise of power by a religious group/leaders in that group to ensure conformity of behavior or punish members for perceived misbehavior.
5. Theology: The comprehenive system of belief and thought that holds a belief system together; the skeleton that gives form to the spiritual experience of a collective body of faith.

Spirituality
1. Spiritual experience: How we perceive the Divine in our lives and in the life of the world.
2. Prayer: Personal engagement with God , whether by oneself or as part of a group.
3. Spiritual discipline: The organized ways in which we both nourish and respond to the sense of the Divine in our lives: daily worship and prayer practice; meditation; devotional reading; almsgiving; and so on and so on.
4. Sacraments. Another intersection between the Divine and ourselves, through the agency of the simple stuff of everyday life: water, bread, wine.
5. Worship: How we create sacred space, as a faith community or as individuals, for God to move in, touch us, send us back out into the world.
I see a bit of overlap in some of these. Theology, for instance can be -- at least it is for me -- a means of engaging God in a personal way via my brain; spending quality time thinking about God.
And then there's a topic like evangelism -- something that my Good Do-Bee would say is a function of spirituality because at its best it's an outpouring of our own transformative experience with God, but that my cynical self says falls more into the category of religion because it usually degenerates into mere group dynamics -- trying to "win"; trying to get more members on the "team."
My guess is that my responses, as a church geek, look quite different than those of someone who isn't in the church. That would be an interesting study.

Two years ago I was denied permission to publish an edited version of Responsive Prayer from Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW) on my blog, and was forced to take down the order of prayer that I had been posting for several months (see past post, Daily Prayer Permission Denied - note that some links in that two year-old post are now broken). 

I chose to use Responsive Prayer, with slight amending, because that order of prayer largely follows Martin Luther's instructions for morning and evening blessing in the Small Catechism.  I amended that order to include a recitation of the Ten Commandments, in order to conform to Luther's instructions in the Large Catechism drill oneself in the catechism daily (an instruction echoed elsewhere, including in his letter to Peter the barber, A Simple Way to Pray). The form I used for the Ten Commandments came from the Book of Common Prayer, which has no copyright protections and thus is free for any to use and publish online.  The order that I posted at the time included attributions and links to sources.

Recently I wrote back to Augsburg Fortress Publishers, who administers the copyright for the materials in ELW (copyright is actually held by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, however), asking them under which circumstances liturgical material from ELW could be published online.

Are there any circumstances under which the text of a liturgy (not the music) from ELW could be posted online, such as Responsive Prayer or Morning Prayer?  To what extent can collects or litanies be posted online (with attribution, of course)?  Would it make a difference if these texts were posted on a personal blog or on a congregational website?  We have such liturgical riches, and it is a shame that they stay under copyrighted lock and key rather than be freely shared via Facebook, email and blogs in a congregation's ministry.

I received a quick response, saying that my questions have been forwarded to their worship team for discussion.  So, we'll see, I guess.

However, there are some things I can post online, thanks to the less restrictive copyrights of the daily lectionary (held by the Consultation on Common Texts) and the copyright-free material found within the Book of Common Prayer.  In the coming week or so I will repost an order of prayer, based on Luther's instructions, and including readings from the daily lectionary and liturgical texts borrowed from the Book of Common Prayer.

Two years ago I was denied permission to publish an edited version of Responsive Prayer from Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW) on my blog, and was forced to take down the order of prayer that I had been posting for several... Chris

Now this is more like it. This is the Walmisley chant that I yammer on about on this blog and so adore - S7 in the 1982. (The Psalm is sung approximately 2.24 times on this video, for some strange reason. I guess they just wanted all their film of the buildings in the clip.)



Psalm 148

1 O praise the Lord of heaven *
praise him in the height.
2 Praise him, all ye angels of his *
praise him, all his host.
3 Praise him, sun and moon *
praise him, all ye stars and light.
4 Praise him, all ye heavens *
and ye waters that are above the heavens.
5 Let them praise the Name of the Lord *
for he spake the word, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created.
6 He hath made them fast for ever and ever *
he hath given them a law which shall not be broken.
7 Praise the Lord upon earth *
ye dragons, and all deeps;
8 Fire and hail, snow and vapours *
wind and storm, fulfilling his word;
9 Mountains and all hills *
fruitful trees and all cedars;
10 Beasts and all cattle *
worms and feathered fowls;
11 Kings of the earth and all people *
princes and all judges of the world;
12 Young men and maidens, old men and children, praise the Name of the Lord *
for his Name only is excellent, and his praise above heaven and earth.
13 He shall exalt the horn of his people; all his saints shall praise him *
even the children of Israel, even the people that serveth him.

This is the Tract for the Third Sunday in Lent, from Psalm 123 (one of the "Songs of Ascents"). Here's an mp3 from JoguesChant.


The King James Version is this:
1 Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.

2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us.

3 Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.

4 Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud.
Here's something at YouTube labeled "Mogens Pedersøn: Ad te levavi oculos meos." Not sure who Mogens Pedersøn is, but it's a pretty thing:



That one includes another phrase at the end, I think taken from Verse 4 of Psalm 123, which is not in the Tract itself.

Ad te levavi oculos meos,
qui habitas in coelis.
Ecce sicut oculi servorum
in manibus dominorum suorum,
sicut oculi ancillae
in manibus dominae suae,
ita oculi nostri
ad Dominum Deum nostrum,
donec misereatur nostri.
Miserere nostri, Domine
quia multum repleti sumus despectione.
Palestrina wrote a setting of this, too, which you can see and listen to here.

Interesting, again, I think, that Lent and Advent sort of "speak to" one another in their music. The Introit at Advent 1 is another Psalmic Ad te levavi.

About Tracts, from Wikipedia:
The tract (Latin: tractus) is part of the proper of the Roman Mass, which is used instead of the Alleluia during Lenten or pre-Lenten seasons, and a few other penitential occasions, when the joyousness of an Alleluia is deemed inappropriate. Tracts are not, however, necessarily sorrowful.

The name apparently derives from either the drawn-out style of singing or the continuous structure without a refrain. There is evidence, however, that the earliest performances were sung responsorially, and it is probable that these were dropped at an early age.

In their final form, tracts are a series of psalm verses; rarely a complete psalm, but all of the verses from the same psalm. They are restricted to only two modes, the second and the eighth. The melodies follow centonization patterns more strongly than anywhere else in the repertoire; a typical tract is almost exclusively a succession of such formulas. The cadences are nearly always elaborate melismas. Tracts with multiple verses are some of the longest chants in the Liber Usualis. The Lutheran Church also makes use of a tract during Lent in their Divine Service.