You Know You Are a Liturgical Nut....

...when you look at your computer's desktop and say, "Goodness! It's Christmas... I need to change my window color to liturgical white!"

Merry Christmas

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
and passing over transgression
for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in steadfast love.
He will again have compassion on us;
he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins
into the depths of the sea.
You will show faithfulness to Jacob
and steadfast love to Abraham,
as you have sworn to our fathers
from the days of old.

-Micah 7:18-20 [ESV]

Jumping Up and Down Like a Kid

After a beautiful morning mass, we went to my parent's house to continue the celebration of Christmas. I pulled open a box that my parents had given to me and found three CDs in it:

"O Sing Unto the Lord"
"Te Deum"
"Through the Church Year"

I have been completely blessed by a Kantorei Christmas. What a wonderful morning!

Many thanks to our beloved Pastor McCain for telling us about these treasures.

The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us!

Oh sing to the LORD a new song, for He has done marvelous things!
His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.

The LORD has made known his salvation;
He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. [Psalm 98:1-3]

Hail the Incarnate Deity!

All glory and honor and power and might be unto Almighty God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Let His Triune name resound for the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us!

Merry Christmas to all for we are blessed beyond all imagination!

Christ's Nativity: Word and Sacrament

Location is important. Lots of people this time of year draw meaning from the lowly birthplace of Jesus: the eating trough in a stable. This low beginning is used to underline the fact that the King of the Universe humbled Himself and descended to man.

Our fathers agreed, but also saw a sacramental character in the nativity of Our Lord. They looked at the event and location of Christ's birth as typological references to the Sacraments of the Altar and Baptism.

Here is a baptismal expression of the nativity:

"Although, therefore, that infancy, which the majesty of God's Son did not disdain, reached mature manhood by the growth of years and, when the triumph of His passion and resurrection was completed, all the actions of humility which were undertaken for us ceased, yet to-day's festival renews for us the holy childhood of Jesus born of the Virgin Mary; and in adoring the birth of our Saviour, we find we are celebrating the commencement of our own life. For the birth of Christ is the source of life for Christian folk, and the birthday of the Head is the birthday of the body."

"Although every individual that is called has his own order, and all the sons of the Church are separated from one another by intervals of time, yet as the entire body of the faithful being born in the font of baptism is crucified with Christ in His passion, raised again in His resurrection, and placed at the Father's right hand in His ascension, so with Him are they born in this nativity." -St. Leo the Great

Here is a eucharistic expression of the nativity:

"He found that man had become a beast in his soul and so He is placed in the manger, in the place of fodder, that we, changing our animal way of living, may be led back to wisdom that becomes humanity stretching out not towards animal fodder but to the heavenly bread for the life of this body." -St. Cyril of Alexandria

HT: Our beloved Pastor Paul Alms at Incarnatus Est

What a Child Taught Me About the Nativity

It always amazes me how the tiniest children seem to have a greater understanding of Christianity than I do. I have read many books and listened to many sermons. Despite my efforts, my friend's three year old continues to humble me with her simple faith and deep theological understanding.

I have talked about this little girl before. This particular story stems from our attempts to set up a nativity set together. Everyone knows how a nativity set is supposed to look. Here is a diagram of how I have always done it:


Mary is the red figure and Joseph is the blue figure. The Baby Jesus faces out so that we can see his face. The shepherds and magi flank the scene as if they are coming to see the Christ. The angel is usually over the manger scene or off to the side. The goal is to make the presentation as cinimatic as possible for those who come to look at it. That is how I have always done it. Looking back on it now, this way seems pretty staged and unrealistic.

What a simple lesson I have been taught by a mere child! When I let this little girl set up my nativity set, this is how she decided that it should be arranged:
Mary stays put, but Jesus is turned around so that the two figures are looking at each other and making eye contact. Doesn't this make sense that Mary and her child would be so intimate on that first Christmas Eve? Showing the connection between the Theotokos and her Child had never occurred to me. I do not know if she did this on purpose, but Joseph does not stand next to Mary. He is on the opposite side as if to be apart from the union between mother and Child.

Most importantly, she put all of the other visitors (to include the angel) right next to the manager. This looked horrible artistically, but it was theologically perfect! They were all crowded around tightly and she spent considerable time and effort in getting each of them as close to Christ as possible. No one faced out like the way that I have always done it. They all faced inward; pointed at the Baby.

Her reasoning for bunching them up was simple. She told me, "You can't see Jesus when you are so far away from Him."

My Favorite Advent Hymn

This year, I heard a beautiful hymn for the first time. It is now my favorite for Advent. The words are wonderful. The tune is haunting and well suited for the flow of each verse. At first, I wondered why this carol was not more popular. As a musician and singer, you would think that I would have heard this ancient song before. This song is superior in every way to many of the more popular Christmas carols. I couldn't figure out why this one fell into relative obscurity for those who are outside of the practices of the traditional western rite church.

After singing this hymn a few times, I realized the reason. There is pesky Real Presence language in verse 2 that would have make it unsuitable for memorialist Christians. They don't like to sing songs that remind them that they do not follow ancient teachings of the church. This would explain why my fundamentalist background never brought me near this piece.

If you have not heard someone sing this hymn, you have missed out on one of the treasures of Christianity. Here are the lyrics. You need to hear someone sing this hymn if you have never heard it!

Σιγησάτο παρα σαρξ βροτεία
[Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence]
Text: Liturgy of St James, 4th Century
Translated from Greek to English by Gerard Moultrie, 1864
Tune: 17th Century French Carol

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.

King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food.

Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.

At His feet the six wingèd seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia
Alleluia, Lord Most High!

Happy Holidays

Get ready... I'm about to make some people irritated. It is time for everyone to take a moment to read my content warning. If your ego is a delicate lily, you might want to skip this one.

I prefer to say, "Happy Holidays" throughout December. I say "Merry Christmas" on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I guess that makes me a horrible Christian.

Before irate readers Google my home address to come drag me out for a public flogging, let me explain:

The word "Holiday" comes from the Middle English word holidai. It means "Holy Day". When you say "Happy Holidays" you are saying "Happy Holy Days". I refuse to surrender this pious greeting to a bunch of atheists and pagans just so that they can have free ammunition to further subvert Christ and His church. There are many Christian "Holy Days" through December and January ...like today: The Second Sunday in Advent. Are they not worth fighting for? For most Christians, they are not even worth learning about. We don't celebrate. We don't fast. We don't attend church services. What do we do? We shop and visit relatives.

The entire season of Advent is one of holy preparation, but who cares about that? The argument should not be over the syntax of a particular greeting, but what constitutes a "holy day". So when I say "Happy Holidays" you assume that I am talking about Kwanza and the like? That just proves my point. "Holy Day" no longer means a thing to anyone. I am talking about the feast and fast days of Advent. We are the ones being secular.

Now there are Christians today who hate the phrase "Happy Holidays" because it is being perverted by the spirit of antichrist to take away Christmas. I think that we have played right into the trap. We don't defend the meaning of the word "holiday". We just abandon it and retreat. Instead of preserving Christmas as the DAY of Christ's birth, we diluted the entire season by focusing an entire month on only one aspect of the season: the actual nativity. Saying "Merry Christmas" on December 1st makes about as much sense as saying "Happy Easter" on March 4th. Part of the impact of Easter is the Lent that precedes it. Part of the impact of Christmas is the Advent that precedes it. Apparently, we are just going to give that up to preserve the "important" days. It is obvious to me that Christianity is in full surrender mode.

To be honest, this blame game of silly word play is becoming quite tiresome. American Protestants created this problem when they threw out the church year and made the public Christian life about two days [Christmas & Easter] instead of a cycle of 365 days of Christianity. If we had preserved the feasts and festivals of Advent properly, we might still have "Happy Holidays" and the atheists would have to contest against a solid month filled with many Christian festivals and observances. We handed victory over to the atheists and the pagans when we decided that the Christmas season was only about the historic birth of Jesus. We gave them Santa Claus when we stopped preserving the true Feast of St Nicholas. We gave them the word "Holidays" when we stopped informing people that the word is a religious term. We gave them a foothold to celebrate other festivals when we surrendered all of our feasts in favor of only one: Christmas Day. Then we took that day and cheapened it with all of the secular behavior and traditions that we participate in.

This isn't about the secular trend of the holiday season. This is about the secular trend of Christians. As the church becomes more and more like the world, the world will find it easier and easier to marginalize the impact of the church. The fall of Christmas is not a problem of the weakening culture but a symptom of the disease of secularism in the church. Every year I hear people desperately calling out that we need to put the Christ back in Christmas. How about also putting the mass back in Christmas?

"Christmas" is also a Middle English word: Christemasse. It is a contraction of the phrase "Christ's Mass" or "The Mass of Christ". How many churches today actually celebrate mass on Christmas Day? Ask around: How many churches in your town will have services on the 25th of December? Most Christians do not go to church on Christ's Mass Day... because the day that they spend a whole month defending with shrill voices and patronizing arrogance is not really about Jesus to them. It is about spending time with food, family, friends, and gifts. Now who is being secular?!?

For all of their barking and whimpering about people not knowing "the reason for the season", most Christians today have no clue that "Christ's Mass Day" is not just a family day. It is a celebration of the church. Where and how you spend the 25th is a hint at what you really think the day is about. If you are one of the ones who makes it a point to publically state how much you hate how secular Christmas has become, you should take your own advice and celebrate it as a Christian should. If you do not even care enough to celebrate Christ's Mass with His church, then you are part of the problem.

It almost seems like Christians these days just want to shout and blame instead of think and work. We need to change that. So when someone wishes you "Happy Holidays", might I suggest a different approach? Instead of angrily pointing a judgemental finger and shouting "It's MERRY CHRISTMAS!", try bringing up what the word "Holiday" really means. Why not teach them about Advent, Christmas, and the future coming of Christ? It is a teaching moment, not a fighting moment. Too often, we fight when we should love and preach the Gospel.

Happy holidais and have a merry Christemasse!

Pastor Claus...

...okay ...Bishop Claus would be more accurate and descriptive. If you have not learned about the real St. Nicholas, Pastor Weedon has a wonderful post about him. It is located here.

Every Christmas season, starting on his feast day (December 6th), Lutherans begin to talk about the real Santa Claus. Even churches who didn't give a moment's thought about saints or church fathers during the previous 11 months start talking about the mythology that surrounds this relatively obscure Myrian bishop.

Typically, you never hear a thing about theological titans like Augustine, Irenaeus, Clement, Polycarp, Athanasius, John Chrysostom, Ambrose, Tertullian, Jerome, Thomas Aquinas, or Cyprian... but they were not graced with the marketing boon of becoming the icon of a holiday season that tempts us with sloth, greed and gluttony. Stores like Hallmark make loads of money each year selling sets of figurines of Santa Claus as he appears in the native garb of the various countries who venerate him. He is obviously an important political football all across the cultural community. December is his 15 minutes of fame and we fight over him with a bold zeal for history that is almost unmatched in the areas of perceptiveness and dedication. (For example: I remember the deafening silence on the part of most Christians who barely noticed this horrible rewrite of the Pelagian heresy.)

I guess that it must be all a part of that yearly battle to preserve Christmas from secular commercialism. You cannot open a Christian magazine or hang around after church without hearing about the truth of St. Nicholas, the truth of Christmas in general, and the importance of giving our kids the proper perspective. It is all one ideological package and Santa is usually the linchpin of the discussion. I wish that the modern church cared about presenting the rest of her rich history as much as she does about defending Bishop Claus.

So, I'm not going to talk about him here. People have presented much better posts about St. Nicholas than I ever could. Before you get engrossed in the story of a man that we unfortunately know very little about, might I suggest that you consider my alternative point:

Bishop Claus is not the only pastor who bears gifts this season. As he does every month in the year by virtue of his divine call, your own pastor offers the two greatest gifts that you can ever receive: God's Holy Word rightly preached and the Holy Sacraments properly administered. While you are out amassing and hoarding earthly treasures, do not forget the priceless gifts from heaven that are freely offered to you in the Divine Service. Do not be so busy that you neglect church this advent.

Do not cheat your soul in favor of something as worthless and ephemeral as shopping or a social function. Every year we must turn down social engagements when they conflict with the schedule of our church. Lest one assume that I am suggesting something that I do not do myself; I will tell you all that, this year, I declined my invitation to see the Secretary of the Army in favor of a Wednesday night advent service. I say that not to get credit for my feeble dedication, but as evidence to support my effort to turn the tide of absolute apathy regarding what the priority of a Christian should be.

A dedicated Christian loves and cherishes the church and seeks her out at every available opportunity. A dedicated Christian will pay any price and travel any distance to hear the Word of God every single time that it is preached. This is not to merit favor from God by your attendence, but to protect you from the filthy desires of your sinful flesh and the deadly lies of the devil.

Listen to beloved Pastor Luther:

"Likewise those fastidious spirits are to be reproved who, when they have heard a sermon or two, find it tedious and dull, thinking that they know all that well enough, and need no more instruction. For just that is the sin which has been hitherto reckoned among mortal sins, and is called ajkhdia, i.e., torpor or satiety, a malignant, dangerous plague with which the devil bewitches and deceives the hearts of many, that he may surprise us and secretly withdraw God’s Word from us.

For let me tell you this, even though you know it perfectly and be already master in all things, still you are daily in the dominion of the devil, who ceases neither day nor night to steal unawares upon you, to kindle in your heart unbelief and wicked thoughts against the foregoing and all the commandments. Therefore you must always have God’s Word in your heart, upon your lips, and in your ears. But where the heart is idle, and the Word does not sound, he breaks in and has done the damage before we are aware." [Large Catechism 1:99-100]

Saying that you are a dedicated Christian and being a dedicated Christian are two different things. Your faith is not another errand that is added to your "To Do" list and prioritized. Your entire life is to be one of repentance and slavery to Almighty God. The treasure that you eagerly seek is Christ and His eternal gifts which are freely given to you without price or merit. Everything else is done in view of that fact.

That is just my opinion as a simple layman, but I'll bet you a candy cane that Bishop Claus would agree with me.