Battle Cry of the Faith

"In the present situation the Christian life emerges as a life under the cross. The struggle for faith does not take place prior to conversion as in much of non-Lutheran Protestantism, it commences with the kindling of faith. And so, in the Lord's Prayer, we pray for faith against unfaith. In this way the Lord's Prayer has a way of bringing a deep comfort to people battling with an abiding sense of their own unbelief. In the Lord's Prayer, the Christian prays for faith to receive the blessings enumerated by the Creed and prays against Satan who would undermine faith by depriving the Christian of Christ's blessings."

Arand, That I May Be His Own, p. 165

Ups and Downs

‎"Lutheran spirituality, properly speaking, is not some static state of bliss, but a dynamic oscillation between lows and highs, knowledge of sin and knowledge of forgiveness, repentance, and assurance. The Gospel is to predominate, however, in the words of C.F.W. Walther, so that the Lutheran Christian lives in a state of grace."

-Veith, Spirituality of the Cross, p.38

Dog Days

Hardly. I've been a busy person this summer, which gives sort of an explanation for the absence of writing on this. I have had the opportunity to preach on a few occasions (Brooklyn, Queens, and my home church this weekend in Islip out on Long Island), I have been leading a bible study based on Luther's Small Catechism with our college aged ministry, and our mens morning bible study group, and now during the jr high/high school's "summer in the Son" pool party/bbq series we've been taking a look at, you guessed it, the catechism.

The catechism as a guide to daily living has been really helpful for me to take in and digest. No doubt this is a result of my studies at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. It's been a blessing, and also somewhat of a burden, to look at everything in terms of the catechism. What I have found is that peering at life through the lens of Luther's Catechism has given me a greater (I think anyway) understanding of the richness, depth, and breadth of scripture. The catechism begins with the 1st Commandment, and that really is the beginning of everything. All of life's problems and blessings hinge on the fact that Yahweh is God. We defy this, yet as the 1st Article shows Yahweh God continues to bless us. We also see the remedy provided for our defiance of that 1st Commandment, and subsequent 9, outlined in the 2nd Article of the Creed. When we see that Christ goes to the cross and redeems us lost and condemned creatures "not with gold or silver, but with his holy and precious blood so that I may be his own" it takes on a personal comfort that could hardly be expressed any better. We then see how this is brought to us directly as the Holy Spirit calls us out of darkness and into that marvelous light as outlined by the 3rd Article of the Creed. And as I am preaching on this weekend, the Lord's Prayer is the beginning of the Christian life. We pray that prayer because we are disciples of Jesus and we pray for his kingdom to come and to come to us directly. Of course the most visible ways we see the reign is in the sacraments and the gathered assembly of believers.

The catechism as daily living is not only helpful, but this summer it is proving to me to be essential. The Christian life is a daily struggle and the catechetical framework affirms this. Yet even over and above that it affirms the One who is the resurrection and the life who overcomes the struggles and crosses we bear. That, to me, is the essential aspect. What we need is Jesus, and living a life struggling and wrestling leads us directly to him.