Year End Predictions

One of our anti-traditional baby-boomer LCMS pastors posted one of those "Ten Ways Church Services Will Soon Change" (yawn) blogs from a fellow-traveler.

Larry BeaneDecember 8, 2020 Comments

Singing the Priestly Song of Christ with St. Ambrose

Whether you are a pastor or a parishioner, a priest or a bishop, a deacon or an acolyte, or a member of the choir; whether you are male or female, young or old, rich or poor, married or unmarried, you also sing the Church’s song. With King David and the Levites, with St. Mary and St. Elizabeth, with St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, Dr. Luther, and all the faithful who have gone before us in the Word and faith of the Holy Trinity, you also sing and confess the Lord Jesus in His Holy Church.

Advent, Music, SaintsRick StuckwischDecember 7, 2020Sermon, Advent, Ambrose, Visitation, SingingComment

On Charity that Increases and Overcomes the Unreal

December 6 is the day of St. Nicholas of Myra, that saint of great charity who, at the 325 A.D. Council of Nicaea, slapped the heretic Arius for preaching the unreal to steal from the children right faith, hope, and love in Christ.

Jonathan ShawDecember 6, 2020Comment

Thy truth repeated o’er and o’er

I just discovered this wonderful little hymn for the beginning of a new church year. And it’s a defense for the Historic Lectionary!

Anthony DodgersDecember 5, 2020 Comments

Restoration of the Latin Mass!

Latin Masses have become exceedingly popular among younger Roman Catholics, and the Extraordinary Form is popping up in RC dioceses everywhere, even as gray-haired boomer pastors and lay people continue trying to reach “the youth” with acoustic guitars and St. Louis Jesuits songs from the Woodstock era.

Larry BeaneDecember 4, 2020 Comments

The Damascene

On Dec. 4th, the holy Church rejoices to commemorate St. John of Damascus. There is no question that Martin Chemnitz relied heavily on this last of the great eastern dogmaticians in his Two Natures in Christ.

Guest AuthorDecember 3, 2020Comment

Advent and the Christmas Surprise

The four Sundays of Advent feature readings that exhort us to a spirit of repentance in awareness of the imminence of Christ’s return.

Burnell EckardtDecember 3, 2020Comment

Here It Comes!

For our PDF subscribers, the Christmas issue of Gottesdienst is already out of the barn, and the hard copy is soon to follow, within a couple of weeks, for the rest of our subscribers. It’s coming, if you are a subscriber, to an email box or a mailbox near you. If you are not one, now would be a good time to rectify that. And here, to pique your interest, is a peek at the Table of Contents:

Burnell EckardtDecember 1, 2020Comment

Advent Fasting

Advent, like Lent, is traditionally a time of increased prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and Bible reading. The Church doesn’t do these things because we need to prove anything to God or get His attention. We do these things because we need to train both our minds and our flesh.

David PetersenNovember 30, 2020Fasting, Advent, Apology to the Augsburg Confession, Advent 2, Populus Zion Comment

The Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle & Martyr

The Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle & Martyr – is celebrated each year on this day, the 30th of November. It is the Feast of St. Andrew that determines the first day of the liturgical year, God’s year of grace, as the Sunday closest to St. Andrew is the First Sunday of Advent.

Fr. Mark BradenNovember 29, 2020Comment

O Lord, Open My Lips, that My Mouth May Declare Your Praise

It is by the Sacrifice of His Cross that Jesus the Christ, the Lamb of God, bears in His body and takes away the sins of the whole world, as St. John preaches, and as St. John inaugurates by means of his Baptism of repentance. So is the Lamb first offered up in the waters of the Jordan, unto His innocent suffering and death on Good Friday. So does He make full Atonement for all your sins. And it is by virtue of His Sacrifice that you are able to draw near and enter into the Holy Place, and that your prayers are heard and answered by God the Father in heaven. Indeed, your prayers rise before Him as a sweet-smelling incense, because He delights in you in Christ Jesus.

Advent, SermonRick StuckwischNovember 28, 2020Advent, Annunciation of St. John the Baptist, Incense Offering, ZachariasComment

Wachet Auf

Yesterday morning in the vestry, Pastor Weedon and I were discussing with one of our fieldworkers the life story of Philipp Nicolai, author and composer of both the King and Queen of the Lutheran Chorales.

Ben BallNovember 23, 2020 Comments

Cultural Marxism

Thank you to Gottesdienst reader “Taylor” for writing to us about Cultural Marxism and providing a helpful link that digs deeper than my latest interview on The Gottesdiest Crowd on this very topic.

Larry BeaneNovember 21, 2020 Comments

The Lord's Prayer and Heaven's Pattern on Earth

On earth as it is in heaven. It seems like a small, almost insignificant phrase in a prayer full of such magnificent petitions. But a closer look reveals a whole new way of seeing, not only this prayer our Lord taught us, but His entire work.

Anthony DodgersNovember 20, 2020 Comments

St. Elizabeth of Hungary

After the death of Jesus, His friends and family had to find a place for His burial. A wealthy benefactor, a member of the Sanhedrin (the ruling council of the Jews), took a risk and officially asked for custody of our Lord’s body (which had been hastily removed from the cross with the approach of the extra special Passover Sabbath approaching at sundown).

Larry BeaneNovember 19, 2020 Comment

Gottesdiensters on Concord Matters

KFUO’s Concord Matters, hosted by the Rev. Sean Smith, had a series of programs on worship that featured our blogger the Rev. Sean Daenzer

Larry BeaneNovember 18, 2020Comment

Work and Home While Working from Home

LifehacksJason BraatenNovember 16, 2020Working from Home Comments

God Still Ordains Men

“God ordains men; be one,” as the sainted Rev. Dr. Kenneth Korby famously exhorted us pastors. And indeed, there is nothing more pathetic than men - ordained men - behaving like 13-year old girls.

Larry BeaneNovember 15, 2020 Comments

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