For Flag Day

Here is a Gottesblog post from 2013: “On Flags in the Sanctuary.”

Larry BeaneJune 14, 2022 Comment

The 1613 Cantica Sacra contains the services for the entire year in the Lutheran Magdeburg Cathedral. It is by all accounts a rather conservative liturgical work, though it does contain some surprises.

William WeedonJune 13, 2022 Comments

Closed Communion and Racism

In a public YouTube clip, he makes the claim that he has been denied the Lord’s Supper in Lutheran - presumably LCMS - churches, being prohibited from the Eucharist by Lutheran pastors, because he is black, and that this scenario has played out twenty times. He claims to know that this was done because of “racism” on the part of the celebrant in each of these incidents.

Larry BeaneJune 11, 2022 Comments

One Holy Contextual and Apostolic Church?

To put the best construction on this, its context must be presented as an ironic misunderstanding that many people have regarding our Lutheran confession of faith: that it is provincial, it is for rubes in flyover country, and it must be altered to fit a more sophisticated, progressive culture as found on the coasts.

Larry BeaneJune 10, 2022 Comments

On Church and Ministry by the Rev. Sorin Trifa

Note: this beautiful confession of faith was published on Fr. Trifa’s facebook page. He is a Lutheran pastor serving in Romania.

Larry BeaneJune 9, 2022 Comment

WHY I AM A STUBBORN LUTHERAN

(Here is something I wrote back in 2005. I may be even more stubborn and crabby today.)

Karl FabriziusJune 8, 2022 Comments

The Forgotten Day

Remembering that today is Whitsun Tuesday, I opened up The Lutheran Hymnal, and pondered the assigned propers for the day, and one of our forgotten hymns.

William WeedonJune 7, 2022 Comments

The World is Very Evil - Drag Queen Storytime

The world is very evil, The times are waxing late;

Be sober and keep vigil, The Judge is at the gate…

Ben BallJune 6, 2022 Comments

Covid and the Christian Conscience

Recently there has been a refreshing amount of spirited theological reflection about the current Covid pandemic, the vaccines and mandates blossoming forth from the Lutheran Church – Canada

Larry BeaneJune 4, 2022 Comments

We Make Our Beginning? Say What?

A reader recently sent me a note worthy of considering. He wondered whether we have addressed the matter of opening the Divine Service with the words, “Remembering our Baptism, we make our beginning in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Burnell EckardtJune 3, 2022 Comments

An Interesting Assertion…

Johann Gerhard, in his great Locus on the Church (vol. xxv, p. 323), provides a quotation that seems to be attributed both to Polydorus Virgilius and to Platina

William WeedonJune 2, 2022 Comment

The Woke Spirits of the ELCA - Past, Present, and Future

To borrow from Charles Dickens, we can just imagine Jacob Marley warning the LCMS that this is our fate if we don’t crush the nescient woke movement within the LCMS.

Larry BeaneJune 1, 2022 Comments

Chemnitz on Worthy Reception

“This worthy eating does not consist in a man’s purity, holiness, or perfection...”

Fr. Mark BradenMay 29, 2022 Comment

On the Benefits and Significance of Tradition

The important social traditions are not just arbitrary customs, which might or might not have survived into the modern world. They are forms of knowledge. They contain the residues of many trials and errors, as people attempt to adjust their conduct to the conduct of others. They exist because they provide necessary information, without which a society may not be able to reproduce itself. Destroy them heedlessly and you remove the guarantee offered by one generation to the next.

Rick StuckwischMay 27, 2022 Comment

Out of the Barn

Gottesdienst is on its way! The stallion has bolted from the barn, as our quarterly journal hurries on its appointed journey. Here’s what the beauty looks like:

Burnell EckardtMay 26, 2022Comment

John Donne's Ascension Sonnet: From "La Corona"

Lucas Cranach the Elder from Passional Christi und Antichristi (Wittenberg, 1521)

Travis BergMay 25, 2022 Comment

I Couldn't Resist

Normally it’s expected of our friend and compatriot Larry Beane to post on our website examples of outrageous and ridiculous things that provide further evidence of the need for Gottesdienst.

Burnell EckardtMay 25, 2022Comment

Marquart on The Question of Procedure in Theological Controversies

Given the current climate that Christians face in this world—a world that has lost its mind—here is a little sanity. It is a good reminder of what the task of the church in general, and her ministers specifically, are charged, yes, commanded, to be, do, and say. “In the world you will have trouble, but take heart (have courage, be bold, speak plainly and forthrightly), for I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). And “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:4—5)? We have overcome the world. Let us act like it!

Culture, Doctrine & Practice, PreachingJason BraatenMay 20, 2022Kurt Marquart Comments