Pastor Peters Provides The Quote of The Day

 We face constant critics who decry the looming irrelevance of Christianity, its impending death, and the sins, weakness, and ineffectiveness of the Church and her ministers.  It would seem that we must constantly reinvent ourselves merely to survive.  But that is not true.  We have only to wait and we will win.  He has promised to come again, that we will be where He is and we will be with Him.  This is most certainly true.  But He has also promised that the old will pass away and the new will come.  Heaven is not some sanitized version of today in which the horrors of the news are replaced with good and happy stories.  Heaven is the old done and the new begun, the today that becomes the eternal tomorrow, when the victory of Christ brings to culmination all things as He has promised.

 
The rest here.

Pastor Peters Propounds Positively Pursuant To That Old Precious Word: 'NO'

One of Mel Brooks' more inspired films was 'Silent Movie'--not one of his blockbuster pics, by any means, but inspired. One of the great scenes involves the great French mime Marcel Marceau, who, bless him, broke out of his mime role for one magical moment and intoned the word 'NO'. It's the one word spoken in the movie, and it was a moment of genius. Completely unexpected, shocking even, to emerge from the lips of that most famous of all mimes. Brooks, as always, was jabbing the culture in the ribs. We never expect to hear that word, assuming always that whatever we desire should be met with 'YES' instead.

Fast forward almost forty years, to a Lutheran pastor in a Tennessee parish, who takes up the subject again. As always, erudite and reasoned, Pastor Peter shares with us all why 'NO' is such a crucial word, one the culture desperately needs to hear:

It seems that the Church is the lone voice speaking to the culture that "no" is not only within our vocabulary but it is the wisest and most positive path you can take in so many instances. Saying "no" is not all the Church says but it is the beginning of the conversation. You cannot begin to speak of the benefits or morality of self-denial until first you admit that saying no to self is itself a virtue. The Church begins with the proposition that saying no is not only possible but it is beneficial to us and to our culture. Indeed, the rule of desire is not freedom at all but the worst of all possible prisons.

That last line is especially pithy, is it not? 'The rule of desire is not freedom at all...' This idea stands in direct contravention to the entire present culture, which in OS's humble opinion, has turned openly pagan. It worships what it creates, consumes, manipulates, and assumes that this is all the life there is to live--so let's go for the gusto, ya'll!

Pastor Peter's citations of St. Paul ring loudly these days, words written to people living in another pagan culture, long ago and far away.

Now, if some enterprising publisher could only coax a book out of Pastor Peters...

Pastor Peters On Harry Potter

Pastor Peter shares words of wisdom and compassion in this essay about Harry Potter, as the final movie arrives to the screen.

We need to listen to him, and a crucial point he has to make about our culture:

It is not the Harry Potter story I want to talk about but how different this story is from so much that children have around them. Their hunger for the books and the movies only shows what kind of things they lack and their hunger for them.

They live in a world filled with temptation and evil, with short cuts and easy paths. They live in a world filled with disappointments and are easily disillusioned by the failures of those whom they depend upon. They live in a world filled with loneliness and emptiness and their lives are solitary even with all the techno toys that would appear to keep them connected. They live in a world filled with the moment and they feel acutely the pressure to fill that moment, to be doing something all the time, to do several things at the same time, lest the moment pass and they have not used it to the fullest. They live in a world of facts, not fantasy, of play that mirrors real life in often brutal ways (video games). They live in a world of adults and this adulthood is thrust upon them before they have even learned to be a child, to play as a child, to live carefree as a child. They live in a world in which families are broken and wounded and these hurts are passed on to the children and multiplied as families divide.

Is it no wonder they might be captivated by a story of selflessness and sacrifice, of love that is truly willing to bear with and bear for the other?

This is a wonderful essay. Grandparents, pass this to your kids. Parents, pass it along to your fellow parents.

Pastor Peters: The Deconstruction Of Marriage

When is this gent going to write that book that needs to be read by so many?

Today's post is especially poignant, as the Pastor looks at how we have managed to so totally 'deconstruct' our lives and society as to leave both completely fragmented. 'All the king's horses, and all the king's men...' does come to mind when reading these thoughts.

The problem with deconstruction is that when we are left with only the parts, we also leave it to others or to the moment to reconstruct those parts into something (and therefore leave it to another day to be deconstructed over again). The end result of this is that our social institutions and values have broken down, we are even more fragmented as a people, and even more disappointed in what we have and our future. Far from offering us stability or hope, the result of deconstruction is that we have been left divided, bitter, and captive to the prevailing wind of the moment. We have no common morality or values to bind our diverse people together and we have no common vision of what the present or the future should be.

We were not created to live this way. And in saying this, OldSouth asserts that, yes indeed, we are creations, not accidents. We need not live this way, or at least let it dominate everything about our existence.

One of the most memorable 'deconstruction' moments in OS's inglorious life occurred about fifteen years ago, at Harvey Brown Presbyterian Church in Louisville. OS and his lovely bride were visiting on a Sunday morning, only to find that the service was being led by seminarians from Louisville Presbyterian Seminary. (Fair enough, gotta let the kids get some experience under the belt.) The brave young boys and girls decided to take the venerable Geneva order of service, and rewrite the liturgy based upon Dr. Seuss's environmentalist tome, The Lorax.

The service was, well, nonsense. Mr. and Mrs. OS sat in the pew, amazed, suppressing their laughter, when the best moment of all occurred: One dear old saint, eighty years old at least, stood up and walked out down the center aisle, deliberately striking her cane loudly upon the hard tile floor. Each impact reverberated through the church, like a hammer striking a nail. It was wonderful.

OS wishes he had followed her, but he was too polite. Or too timid. He prays for the good sense and character to follow her example in the days ahead.

Pastor Peters Supplies The Closing Soliloquy For Weinergate: 'The first casualty of our vanity is usually our conscience.'

His entire thoughts are here, and well worth the time spent to read and consider.

Amongst the best moments of the essay is this one, a form of elegaic postlude to the disaster that Anthony Weiner made of his life.

You're so vain... she sang. I am so vain... The world is so vain... Our vanity is not a simple affront to God but our ultimate undoing. Only rightly ordered relationships can begin to hold this vanity in check... parent and child, husband and wife, citizen and neighbor. . . creature to Creator. Christ did not come to do away with these relationships or to set us from from their limitations but to restore to us the right relationship which sin had stolen from us. For it is only in light of these relationships that we know who we are. Sin steals away this identity. Rep. Weiner, Gov. Terminator, Sen./former Presidental Candidate Edwards.... not only forgot who they were but lost their identity in a sea of mirrors which inflated their egos and deflated their wisdom. In the end, we found out that they were not exceptional, like they wanted us to believe, but so full of themselves they thought they were above the Law (God's). The first casualty of our vanity is usually our conscience. The only treatment for this is Law and Gospel. The only medicine is grace. The only therapy is death and resurrection through the waters of baptism (and its daily dying and rising).

OS hopes his readers take time to read, and share with their friends and loved ones.

Pastor Peters' Pithy, Profound Thanksgiving Message

OS scribbles.

Pastor Peters writes, ya'll! That's why OS keeps him linked on the right side of his page. He takes Reformation orthodoxy and makes it sing.

This latest offering is one of his best, and OS encourages one and all, from all points of the compass, to take the time to read and digest his thoughts.

He reminds us of the things that truly constitute The Good Life, and ends with a profound few lines about the proper role of earthly government in that scheme of things.

The worst in us is the selfishness that thinks of me before others and before God. What is in our interest is not what defines the Christian life but what is good and right and true, what glorifies God and is true to His grace, and what promotes and extends His gracious reign of love and compassion.

What is the best in us is nothing less than faith that hears and responds, that receives and rejoices in all that God's mercy provides us. What is best in us is nothing less than a grateful heart which overflows with thanksgiving that we get not what we deserve but grace upon grace and mercy new each and every morning. What is best in us is nothing more and nothing less than living in faithfulness to Christ even when this path is unpopular, misunderstood, and causes us to be persecuted for His name's sake.

So what is the role of government except to provide us a free arena in which we have the liberty to live out this peaceful, quiet, godly and dignified life of faith? This is why God has given the sword of His authority to the leaders of the nations – not to bring His kingdom on the earth by human might but to provide the freedom and opportunity for us to live unhindered and unconstrained, the good, the peaceful, the quiet, the godly and the dignified life that Christ has made possible by His dying for sin and His rising to everlasting life. Such a government not only protects the weak and the vulnerable, seeks justice and equity, and encourages virtue, it allows us the freedom to be the people God has called us to be in our baptism. This is the government for which we give thanks tonight and for which we pray daily.

The Toothless Lion: Pastor Peters

OS contends that the culture started wandering off some time ago, when the American church decided that it was crucial to look/feel/smell like the rest of the culture. Well, it succeeded in that quest, and the results have not been pretty.

There are a few souls who continue to stand up and question the wisdom of that approach.

Pastor Peters has the wordsmith's gift of putting his finger directly upon the raw nerve that we generally wish left alone.

It is the greatest sadness that we pawn off the Church (and therefore Christ) as a toothless lion who can really do no harm but which is really kind of nice once you get used to it... It is to our poverty that we offer the world only a pale imitation of what they already have instead of the radical difference of the Incarnate God who has borne the fullness of our sin and all its grief in order to place upon us the easy yoke of grace and mercy... It is our weakness that we would rather be seen as ordinary than the extra-ordinary among whom God is present and faith apprehends and responds to this presence in the means of grace...

Pastor Peters Perpetually Provides Pertinent Perspectives

Today's post is perhaps his best ever.

OS keeps pounding at his contention that we have a much deeper cultural problem than an economic problem--that the economy is the symptom, not the disease.

One big part of the disease is our insistence that we feel good--happy, content, satisfied, untroubled--all the time. That's 24/7/365, ya'll.

It's really taken root in our churches here, which is tragic, because if that lie becomes part of the ecclesiastical culture, who will resist it in the popular culture?

In many respects this is the problem with contemporary worship and evangelistic zeal -- they are raised up to become the high altars of what Christianity is really about and the water of baptism, the bread and wine of the Eucharist, the gift of absolution, the Pastoral Office conferred by ordination, and the unchanging message of Scripture become less important than what we do in worship. We have to have music that appeals to the modern soul with a good dance beat, songs that say more about me than God, counters that keep a record of our witness like conquering armies record their kills on the battlefield, and Pastors who are pastors -- nobody special doing nothing any of us couldn't do if we wanted to... So we end up with a gospel that tells us we should be happy and that the purpose of sex, marriage, kids, and work is to make us happy -- oh, yeah, not to mention church.

Even for those who are more Protestant in orientation (like OS) he hits the nail on the head.

Something to think about when the ol' PrazeBand cranks it up this Sunday morning.

Best Suggestion Of The Year: Pastor Peters--A Hymnbook In Every Home

OS continues to maintain that our woes are cultural, and that the cure has to address the culture.

Pastor Peters hits the ball out of the cultural park when he reminds us of the obvious: Every home should have a good hymnal, in use, not on the back shelf.

And, the best 'accessory' for your hymnal is a piano. Lots of them on the market now, at bargain prices.

He is heartened to hear the news that this particular Lutheran hymnal has sold over a million copies since 2006.

Enjoy Pastor Peter's thoughts in the meantime, ya'll.

Pastor Peters: Not Happiness, But Its Source

This man is brilliant.

In Remembrance Of J.S. Bach: July 28, 1750

Pastor Peters, a fabulous Lutheran pastor and writer in Clarksville, Tennessee, shares words of wisdom about our culture, especially the culture of the American church in our day.

Soli Deo Gloria... It was not a slogan for Bach. It was his lifeblood. If we would honor Bach and glory in the fact that such musical genius, rich spiritual life, and dedication to his craft were formed in a Lutheran piety steeped in Word, Sacrament, and worthy music... then let us work to make sure that we are working to implement these in our parish life today... Whether the music comes from the 17th or 18th centuries or the 21st century, it needs to be our best, it needs to speak the Word and serve as musical handmaid to that Word, and it needs to glorify God and not entertain the human heart... or our remembrance of Bach will be like the uncovering of a footnote in history instead of a light that shines throughout the generations....

The entire article linked above is well worth the time invested.

OS concurs wholeheartedly. The music of Bach is a gift of divine grace to our weary world. Here's hoping OS's readership will take a moment to listen to a bit of Bach's music, and give thanks.

Holding Our Own In The Great Conversation

Pastor Peters is one of a lonely breed, pastoring a Lutheran congregation in Tennessee.

This state is wall-to-wall Baptists of some description:  Southern Baptists, Free-Will Baptists, Missionary Baptists, Bible Baptists, Independent Baptists, Regular Baptists, Seventh-Day Baptists, Cooperative Fellowship Baptists, on it goes.  Then there are all the groups that somewhere along the way used to be Baptists...

In the flood of 'I'm-right-by-golly-and-you're-a-heathen' verbiage that floods us all, Pastor Peters is a calm and wisome conservative voice, who keeps his sense of humor in this complicated age.

His February 9 post contains some real wisdom, and OS shares it, not the least to remind himself to calm down a bit...

I believe that we can engage and hold our own in the great conversation with those around us. I believe that we are called to apologia -- to the great defense of Christian truth and faith not by condemnation but by raising up the Gospel and speaking it clearly and plainly. I believe that the Church need not be embarrassed by or apologize for our way of worship, for the painful truth of the Law, for the comforting words of the Gospel, for historicity of the Scriptures and its accounts of what actually took place, and for the exclusive path of redemption that is inclusive for all people, everywhere, who will hear and believe.

It's tempting to always try to win arguments, when maybe what we need to be doing is winning hearts.
How to engage in apologia?

Hmm...OS must retreat to his corner and think this one over.

Pastor Peters Ponders Pope's Perspicacity

Forgive me. It's been a long few weeks.

Actually, a great part of the formation of culture, both here in the US and elsewhere, has been the practice of Christianity, in its many forms. It really matters, and if the churches can 'find their mojo' again, we'll all benefit.

Pastor Peters does a great job as a highly literate Lutheran minister pondering these questions. He feeds my poor brain weekly, and I recommend him to you.

You can find his latest musings, about Rome's new 'open door policy' to the Anglicans.

I must say, it is a lot more thoughtful than my rant of a few days ago.