I got the opportunity to read yesterday’s blog post on the air and across the world on Issues, Etc.’s live celebration of their anniversary. For two-thirds of the reading, things were going reasonably well, when Twin #2 came downstairs and wanted to swing. I excused myself from the broadcast, guided her back upstairs, and finished the reading. Such is live radio. This is why Time Out is pre-recorded.

I discussed the incident with a couple of others who had been on the show before. Frank suggested that next time that happens, I should shout, “Go back upstairs, and study your catechism!”

Thanks, Pr. Wilken and Jeff, for having me on. It was a hoot.

The reading came after the first break, at 14:31.

I was first turned on to Issues, Etc., by then-seminarian Steven Parks, back when IRC was the king of social networking and Facebook was limited to Ivy League schools. The show continues to teach that what you believe matters, first and foremost for your salvation but also in your dealings with your neighbor.

Issues, Etc., has had many guests, some of whom I’ve had the pleasure to meet in person in my travels: Sandra Ostapowich and Revs. Borghardt, Cwirla, Lehmann, Reinke, Day, Murray, Zill, Wolfmueller, and others. All of these people are class acts and remind us that we are hardly alone.

Todd Wilken

Wilken articulated some of the instincts I had as a lifelong Lutheran. Things I took for granted in the congregation that I was raised were no longer found in some churches that I had visited. In 2005 I heard an excellent program regarding kids in church, which reassured me that church was also for my daughter with autism. Wilken’s 3-part sermon diagnostic revealed that preaching isn’t just three anecdotes and a punch line: it’s about Jesus, rescuing you from eternal damnation, strengthening your faith through Word and Sacraments.

Chris Rosebrough

Another person who articulated some instincts I had is Chris Rosebrough. I explained what a congregation was doing in adopting seeker-sensitive principles and sacrificing Law and Gospel, and he showed me the end of that road. Chris along with Pr. Craig Donofrio inspired me to do the Time Out podcast, a show I’m happy to report still remains unique and growing in downloads.

Props also to Jeff Schwarz, who reads NR enough to select a sports post for Blog of the Week. Glad to be of service.

Issues, Etc., has helped me to be a better dad, husband, spiritual head of the household, employee, parishioner, citizen, and other vocations I have been called to. If you are able, consider donating to these guys, who spread hope, knowledge, and the Gospel.

Organist: Mrs. Susie Singer, Zion Lutheran Church, Columbus, OH.

Our first Pirate Christian Radio podcaster to be conscripted into the Time Out soundbite is Pr. Bill Cwirla of The God Whisperers. Both Cwirla and Pr. Craig Donofrio do a great job, though once in a while they do earn that iTunes EXPLICIT flag.

In many church sanctuaries, a single candle is constantly lit. I was instructed that the candle served as a reminder of God’s presence in that particular holy place. I was also told recently of a second meaning: that the Lord’s Supper is served there. Both are salutary interpretations.

The Roman Catholic Church, Deacon Gaba tells us, lights the candle when there are consecrated leftovers of the Lord’s Supper and extinguishes it when there are not leftovers. Where there are no consecrated elements, there is no Jesus, the tradition says. Deacon Gaba says we should adopt this interpretation and this practice with the candle. I disagree.

Zion's sanctuary during LSB workshop -- candle at top.

The sanctuary lamp is not the only tradition co-opted from people a church disagrees with to form into a salutary practice. The term Easter comes from the goddess Ēostre of Anglo-Saxon paganism.

The importance of a symbol is not the symbol itself but what you teach with the symbol. Here is where my objection is stronger.

The Roman Catholic Church treasures the unconsumed hosts and wine because they teach that the elements have been transubstantiated, or transformed. The elements are parts of God and should themselves be adored, worshiped, etc.

We Lutherans are very careful to say what the Bible says and to not say what the Bible does not say. Not only does Christ say, “This is my body” and “This is my blood of the new covenant”, he also says “Take, eat”, and “Drink of it, all of you”. He does not say that we should save some back, so that we can parade it around on Corpus Christi Day, use it to fight vampires as some movies suggest, keep it in a monstrance and worship it, or some other activity that has nothing to do with the preaching of the forgiveness of sins.

Some speculate when the bread and wine is first to be understood as body and blood and if/when after the Lord’s Supper should it be considered no longer bread and wine. The Bible offers no answer. Jesus just says, “is”. Not “has become.” Not “is now“. And not in a metaphysical Calvinist/Zwinglian way either. That much I think the Deacon and I can agree on.

I am not a big fan of reserving some of the host after a Lord’s Supper because it introduces a whole set of Law that’s not Biblically founded: how we treat the Lord’s body and blood after a meal. Should we throw it away or burn it? Shall we pour it down the sink or on the ground? Christians, set yourselves free from this law — Eat it! Drink it! Was communion made for man, or was man for communion?

I know some pastors who keep some back and serve it to hospital patients. They want their parishioners to take part in the communion of the congregation. I appreciate that sentiment. If I’m in a hospital, though, I want the Words of Institution said, even if the host was used in Divine Service. Please, Pastor, tell me that body was given for me and that blood was shed for me, for the forgiveness of sins. I don’t think Jesus would mind.

If you have leftovers, give me a call. I can help fix that.

He is trying to sell his house, and some people who were interesting in his house had looked over at our yard and thought we were being foreclosed on. We have a small front yard, easily buzzable in 15 minutes, so he thought it less trouble that dealing with questions. He said he had knocked on the front door first.

The relevance of our “foreclosure” to who could be our future neighbors was strange in itself, but here’s where it gets crazier. He had mowed our yard an inch shorter than his. When I asked why the difference in height, he said, “because if I mowed my yard at that level, the grass would cook.”

But that height (or lack thereof) was good enough for my yard?

I just may need a sign. Or one of those real estate displays with the little cards that explain what is going on, so that my neighbor would not need to.

The homeowners association sent a newsletter to us wanting us to get out more and meet more of the people in my neighborhood. That might be a fine idea, if we were all normal! Peace.

Twitter has a “reply” feature, and the temptation is there to carry on a conversation in Twitter. I’m guilty, and I need to stop. Twitter isn’t the best place to have a conversation: the 140-character limit is too small, and it’s too easy to come in to the middle of a conversation.

Blogs aren’t going away just yet. Perhaps we ought to revive such things to bring conversations out of the Twitter firehose. Don’t use facebook; that gets blocked by corporate firewalls.

I don’t know whether it’s funny or sad to think that someone feels so strongly that my lawn ought to be 2″ tall (we prefer 3½”) that they have mowed my front lawn while we were gone. But it’s been done, twice as of today. Apparently we do have our share of obsessives in the neighborhood: the homeowners association has threatened to revoke the membership of people who have painted their mailboxes the wrong color.

It’s a very strange deal. My lawn would not violate any civil codes. I was even going to mow it two days ago, but it rained. Yesterday, the brother-in-law wanted to use the mower. When I get it back, I’ll mow the backyard.

Nobody fesses up. One person at one time had offered to mow my lawn at the same time he mowed his. We thanked him and refused, and we explained what was going on. Our lawn isn’t mowed by the mystery lawn mower at the same height as his. Is he changing his mower height to cover his tracks? Who knows?

I could decide to be annoyed at the deal. A “No Trespassing” sign seems a bit rude. A sign: “please give me a call if you’re the lawnmower man” would be kind of funny. A security camera is expensive. On the other hand, I could just say, they are using their lawn mower and their gas to do what they think is a good deed. I hope they at least knock on the door to see if we’re home before they get started.

Sound bite: Steely Dan, “Time Out of Mind”.

This is one of my favorite hymns. I confess I enjoyed enough while Bruce was playing that I failed to consider whether I could sing it as fast as he played it.

1. You don’t have to reach first base to get the job done.
2. Your absolutely best effort is not the only thing people remember about you.
3. It can be way more fun to lose the game and let kids play who wouldn’t normally get to play, especially when they enjoy themselves in the process.

This coming from someone competitive to a fault. My poor nephew dropped and doubled back to a base, into a ball meant for his waist/backside, and he took it in the face and shoulder. Good thing the ball was relatively pliable.

The stuff I said in May about parenthood still stands.

Secondly, thanks to everyone who has been praying for the health of my own dad. In late March he went in for surgery to reduce a series of heart attack risks, and he fell into a series of medical complications that I wouldn’t wish upon anyone. Friday he was finally released from round-the-clock medical care to go home. He still has a lot to recuperate from, with a lot of help, but he has proven himself to be a brave man. We appreciate continued prayers for healing and thankfulness for what has already been accomplished.

Dad has not been recovering in a vacuum. His wife of over 35 years has ridden the gamut of emotions between relief and futility, navigating the paperwork between the hospital and the recovery facility, staying with him as his advocate while he was under the knife and all sorts of medications. My brother who lives near Mom and Dad has stayed overnight with him continually. My aunt, Mom’s sister, stayed with Mom and stayed with him. There’s the supporting casts: the teams of doctors and therapists, that faithful LCMS congregation who set up a mowing schedule and replaced a broken clothes dryer in addition to meeting spiritual needs, other family who are gently modifying the house so Dad can get around, et cetera. Thank you, all of you.

This Father’s Day for me isn’t about how a person fulfills fatherly duties but how that person touches so many people, much more than Dad’s two kids. Your vocation is to serve, and when you can’t serve, your vocation is to be served. That’s going to rankle Dad’s patience and humility, and it will be his vocation to work through it and get better.

Happy Father’s Day.

Mrs. Singer recalled the following story for us: April 1 happened to fall on a Wednesday Lent service, and the pastor took suggestions for hymns. One man thought he’d be smart and pick a hymn past the end of the hymnal, which lists hymns up to 966. What he didn’t know was that the Accompaniment for the Hymns goes up to 986. She played #967 as directed, but of course, nobody sang.

We also recorded seven hymns for the Time Out podcast. We didn’t record any singing, because I overlay singing later and because it gives me the opportunity to get guest vocalists. The microphone captured a lot of bass off of the organ, certainly more than one would expect from what one could see.

It’s nice to get audio from the “home office.” If you want a tease, here’s the list: 655, 670, 672, 677, 696, 743, and 895.

Organist: Bruce Ahlich, Trinity Lutheran Church, Traverse City, MI.

I have never heard 607 sung in Divine Service. I think the title scares people. The five stanzas are a cool framing of Law and Gospel, the first two being Law and the last three Gospel. Walther would be pleased.

Previously, when someone asked me if it was OK to deliberately sin because it was all going to be forgiven anyway, I used to use Romans 6:1-4 for an answer. Hebrews 10:26-34 hits the point harder, including a consequence.

The hotel is well maintained, but there are signs of age. My room had an outlet in the floor covered by a plate. The three elevators had control panels that numbered floors 2-12 and had a big button at the bottom called “Lobby.”

The king-size bed was quite comfortable, having a soft pillow-top mattress and pillows of varying firmness. The bedside alarm was nice and loud, and one could hook up an MP3/iPod.

The desk had good room, but I only had two outlets within reach, integrated into the lamp. Wireless internet access worked, but I had to login specifically with Internet Explorer. I got free access as part of the negotiated deal with Halliburton, but Boingo would charge $7.95 for other access.

The room had a minibar, but no refrigerator or microwave. I probably could have gotten them on request, but my stay was short. TV was light on the channels, about 15 or so. ESPN/2 and Discovery were included.

The bathroom was cramped, but the towels were high quality and the shower worked with good heat and water pressure.

When I checked in, the front desk told me that HAL had a 20% discount on all meals, and I was invited to the “wine dinner” on Wednesday night. The price: $55. Even with the discount, it was too rich for my taste. That scared me off of room service and eating at the restaurant, the Rio Ranch.

The fitness room was roomy and very nice. There were a full set of dumbells. The two treadmills, two ellipticals, and two recombinant bikes were each integrated with a flat-screen TV. Headphones were provided, but I could plug in my own.

The restaurant didn’t officially have a continental breakfast, but Wednesday and Thursday they had bananas, banana nut bread and coffee out. Good stuff.

The staff was very friendly and professional. Walking out of the hotel on the last day, a staffer asked me how well I slept. A computer glitch caused my first bill not to show the first night, so I got an updated bill.

Access to the hotel is more difficult at night. The Rio Ranch has its own parking lot. During the day one can drive to the hotel, but at night they bar all the entrances but one. As a result, one has to turn south onto Briarpark from Westheimer first and then enter the hotel from the back.

All in all, a fairly nice stay. I like the Houston Marriott Westchase slightly better, but I’m a big fan of the HHonors program.

If the guy was, then one of two scenarios would be in play. First, having just gone through confirmation, he was aware of the sinful behavior, repented, and received forgiveness. Or secondly and much more unthinkable, the pastor flubbed his job and allowed the man to think his behavior was acceptable.

photo credit: Michael_Lehet

It’s easy (for me, too) to rail on people who commit a sin we find ourselves unthinkable of commiting, as if our behavior was some high holy standard everyone else ought to hold to. As if some sins are more deserving of hell than others. As if you avoided breaking even one of the Ten Commandments today.

There is no one righteous. All of us sin, and all of us die. The Proverbs 31 woman. The 1 Corinthians 11 woman who covers her head. The Ephesians 5 man who continuously reads holy scripture to his bride. The children who honor their parents.  Dead, dead, dead, and dead. Deserving not of eulogy and doves but of hellfire and damnation.

Our God does not desire the fires of Hell for us.  He offers mercy at the cross. He offers confession, forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, through means: hearing the Word of God, baptism, and holy communion. These means are meant for sinners; otherwise, no one should go to the communion rail!

We don’t look at our sin (whatever that sin is) as proof that God is not working in us. We look at it as proof that we still need Him. If we don’t confess our sins, we are saying that we don’t need God. We can imagine what God would think of that.

The Church takes gays. She takes mothers who have had an abortion. She takes idolators, practitioners of witchcraft, haters of the Word, disobedient children, murderers, adulterers, thieves, liars, and coveters, and she forgives us. She teaches us that these are not behaviors which benefit us as God’s children, and that we should not do them.

None of us ever stop sinning. Don’t move the goal posts and kid yourself by saying you haven’t commited any major sins today. Remember Romans 3, and have mercy for your fellow sinner, not by denying what he has done is sin, but walking with him to the sanctuary, where you confess your sins and receive forgiveness.

Organist: Bruce Ahlich, Trinity Lutheran Church, Traverse City, MI.

Opening sound bite: Iron Chef America, Michael Symon and Alton Brown.

An oyster makes a pearl by heaping layers of calcium carbonate over a foreign stimulus. The Athanasian Creed in a similar manner was responding to several foreign doctrines:

• Sabellianism, or modalism, which says that God switches among the persons of the Trinity. This carried the implication that God the Father and God the Holy Spirit died on the cross with the Christ. It’s refuted by Christ asking why God had forsaken him on the cross, by the voice and the dove at Jesus’s baptism, etc.
• Arianism, which says that Jesus was a created being and thus not God. This is refuted by John 1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” as well as Jesus’ own claims of divinity.
• Nestorianism, which says that Jesus had two uncombined natures of God and man and that Christ was God’s son only by adoption.
• Eutychianism, which says that Christ’s divine nature overcame his human nature or that Christ’s human nature wasn’t the same as humanity’s.

When you have a lot of things to refute, you come up with a big creed. There is no getting around the penal substitutionary atonement, the death of the Christ on the cross to pay for our sins. Anything less would render us ineligible for salvation.

If all you hear in an abortion debate are “pro-life” people, one is bound to hear the sides as being “pro-life” and “pro-death”. If all you hear are pro-choice people, the sides are characterized as “pro-choice” and “anti-choice.” Both sides’ classifications are incredibly simplistic and ignore any sort of nuance, for example: the pro-lifer’s concession to terminate an ectopic pregnancy that really does put the mother at risk.

Another example of re-framing a debate concerns the people who say that focusing on doctrine divides Christians. Doctrine divides, so let’s just not talk about doctrine and just work with each other. In reality, there is just one Lord, one faith, one baptism (Eph 4:1-6). Those who point out errors are not causing division: those who get the Word wrong are the instigators of the division.

Within the discussions I read about the LCMS proposals for restructuring and its initiatives to transform/revitalize congregations, one side clearly has a sense of urgency. The books they read, such as Paul Borden’s Direct Hit, stress that church change is a war that must be won at all costs, or else the congregations will be inoculated against any change for an entire generation.

When any new idea is presented, it is common sense to ask, “Why?” “What problem does this solve?” “What are the consequences to this new action?” To read the material being published by proponents of changes in the constitution of the LCMS and in church constitutions, those who question these proposals are caricaturized as inward-focused, unloving, and failing the Great Commission.

This debate needs to be re-framed.

The irony is, many of those accusing congregations of not fulfilling the Great Commission propose solutions that don’t keep the entirety of the Great Commission. They don’t count infant baptisms as growing the church. Reducing the amount of scripture in worship or denying certain Biblical teachings in order to meet the demands of the culture is not “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

But saying the opposition is doing what they are accusing you of, however true that may be, removes the focus from what you’re doing. It makes you look defensive and childish to people who haven’t followed what’s going on. He said, she said, doesn’t convince anyone your argument is important. Always refute the idea, while trying as much as possible not to attack the man.

The debate needs to be framed in ways that refute criticism and are directly understandable to people who haven’t been following along. A positive case needs to be made: this is who we are and what we do.

We should not accept accusations right away. Is your church baptizing and teaching the full counsel of God? Then you’re fulfilling the Great Commission. Are you calling out sin and evil, so that people will repent of ungodly behavior and trust in Christ’s merit, not theirs? Then you are more loving than anyone who will give you a hug on every Sunday, but will stay silent as you abort babies, engage in prostitution, or otherwise perform your vocation in a sinful manner.

As sinners we are the first to admit that we aren’t perfect, but our sins in being the Lutheran church have been misidentified. Bad cures result from bad diagnoses. We may be doing something in a way that can be improved, but that doesn’t mean we have to adopt a Day of Repentance, as the Revitalization agents propose, or demand affirming as truth a changing LCMS constitution, as the Blue Ribbon Task Force proposes. We should allow the “change or die” attitude of these proponents to warn us that what is being proposed isn’t the best thing for Christianity.

Organist: Bruce Ahlich, Trinity Lutheran Church, Traverse City, MI.

Sound bite is from New York City Councilman David Yassky, at a rally protesting a developer seeking land through eminent domain so he can build a basketball arena and high-rise buildings.

Jeff read the post on the air and added:

I agree 100%. It’s why I like high school basketball. There’s still some finesse in the game; however, it’s all trickling down. The game of basketball is becoming so physical, the Superintendent of the school board of the greatest school district in America, Edwardsville School District 7, Dr. Ed Hightower, who’s probably the most well-known college basketball official, I talked to him a couple of months ago at a basketball game. He said eventually high school and everybody’s going to have to go to international lanes because the players are getting too big and the game is getting too physical. He said he could call a foul in the paint virtually every possession at the NCAA Division I level.

Thanks, Jeff! It’s an honor! It’s also an honor that Dr. Hightower had the same feeling I do about the frequency of fouls in the big leagues.

Vigilantism has to be condemned in the strongest of terms. If the government decides that it is going to try and convict doctors for the murder of unborn children, that is completely different from someone taking the law into their own hands and murdering someone, no matter who the target.

The City of Wichita as much as it can needs to douse the public statements of the killer. If he were to claim the act as some sort of religious justice, everyone ought to be ready to repudiate him with Romans 12, Romans 13, Hebrews 10, and Deuteronomy 32. Vengeance is not a Jewish or Christian behavior. Murder cannot be the tool of those who seek to end abortion — it is the simplest of inconsistencies!

Who knows whether Tiller’s pastor would have gotten to him today, or the next Sunday, finally convincing him that Tiller’s practice was not only against his vocation and his Hippocratic oath to do no harm but against God’s Law. Tiller could have repented. He could have turned his talents to godly service.  But no.

The Devil has more ammunition now, to cloud the minds of those who support grisly acts of violence in the womb and to steel those remaining abortionists from seeking forgiveness at the cross.

There is forgiveness to be had, for murderers, for abortionists, for the mother who terminates her pregnancy, for those who take RU-486 and “Plan B” in a deliberate attempt to miscarry, and for everyone else. No sin is too great or too many. The cross is bigger than your guilt. Repent, be forgiven, and be free to turn away from such behavior.

The king-size bed was the most remarkable part of the hotel room. It was quite comfortable for not being a pillow top.

Even though the hotel underwent a fairly successful renovation, there were little annoyances when it came to technology. The power outlets were behind the TV, in the corner near the window, and behind the bed — none near the desk. Two six-way power strips hid at the corners between the bed and the wall, and they didn’t accommodate a cell phone charger.

The wireless internet didn’t connect. The wired Ethernet was handled by a black box that sat next to the phone. While the Ethernet cable from the box to the laptop was provided, a phone cable between the phone and the black box was missing, and I had to provide my own. While it worked, the speed was great, but it was out for long periods of time three out of the four nights I stayed.

The TV had surprisingly few channels: ABCCBSNBCFOX, TBSTNT, CNN, CNBC/MSNBC, PBS, HBO, ESPN/2/CL/NEWS, TWC, Discovery, Disney, and Cartoon Network. That was it. The TV also promised the ability to view my account, but that feature didn’t work.

The bathroom was quite cramped, nearly not allowing enough room to get around the door to close it. The shower had very good heat and pressure, despite my staying on the 11^the floor.

The restaurant and room service furnished decent food. I wanted to order fish and chips, but the menu said there was only one fillet in the fish and chips. They had cut down the number of fillets (2) but kept the price at $13.95. Ouch.

While most Holiday Inns make one go into the restaurant for breakfast, this hotel had a small plate of fruit danishes one could grab and go.

The room literature advertised a free membership to Capitol Fitness. Most hotels only have such an arrangement when they don’t have a fitness room. I suited up to go to Capitol, but on the way out I walked right by…the fitness room. The elliptical functioned perfectly. The fitness room also had a bike, a treadmill, free weights, and two TVs.

Access to the hotel is a bit tricky. The front of the hotel is on a one-way street, Kanawha Blvd, and there’s not much parking there. The hotel does have a parking garage with an entrance on Laidley Street, and you’re likely better off parking in the garage.

The staff was friendly and professional, and they would occasionally leave trinkets such as candles or honey because I’m a Priority Club member. $85 isn’t a bad price for a downtown hotel stay, but I would be open to checking out other hotels in the area.

I don’t watch a lot of college and pro ball. It is a wholly different game than at the kids’ level, and it’s not just because the people are bigger and more athletic. Except perhaps the first five yards off the line of scrimmage in the National Football League, I can’t think of another sport where the coach actively teaches the players to break the rules and commit fouls. Professional wrestling doesn’t count.

Imagine what baseball would be like if a second basemen was allowed to trip the runner going to second six times. No manager would coach a pitcher to balk six times.

Hockey fans are free to weigh in: does the coach tell the players to deliberately board? Or is that just individuals looking for what they can get away with?

Organist: Bruce Ahlich, Trinity Lutheran Church, Traverse City, MI.

Pr. Craig Donofrio of The God Whisperers got me started on the way to make the Time Out podcast, and this is one of his favorite hymns.

Think about it. An American citizen with everything to live for vs. an top-ranked Al Qaeda operative seeking favor with his god with plans to ram a plane into Los Angeles. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in a month before giving up the goods. KSM had sufficiently more incentive to resist. He was told that he wasn’t going to die.

These videos trivialize what is going on, when the “victims” come up with their wet shirts and say, “it’s torture, it’s torture.” We American softies really have no clue unless we go through SEAL training or something similar. I dare say that we should be thankful that waterboarding works so that we don’t have to treat the enemy like North Korea treated Senator John McCain.

We don’t waterboard to take pleasure in being cruel. We don’t go around waterboarding everybody. There are people hostile to freedom and our way of life who been condemned by their own documents as having information about future attacks on us.

Protecting citizens is a messy business. That doesn’t make waterboarding right, but saving lives makes it slightly less wrong. Weigh it in your head: thousands of people cooked in jet fuel and crushed in collapsing buildings, or making a person think he’s drowning. Picture yourself telling someone that they lost a loved one in a terrorist attack that you failed to prevent because a terrorist leader, captured and hostile, can’t be afforded the illusion that he’s drowning.

The question is not whether waterboarding is evil but whether it is more humane that other techniques of the same effectiveness (by a mile). Soldiers use guns in the service of our citizens. I’m sure they’d rather use less violent means if it got the job done.

That said, I do think these extreme measures should be done as sparingly as possible, for ticking time bomb scenarios only. These guys, captured in the battlefield or at a terrorist outpost, have the opportunity to avoid waterboarding even while they are in our custody. We’d rather take a simple deposition and move on.

It’s easy to criticize the mom on a couple of levels.  First, breaking the law in running away and negligence is a bad thing.

Secondly, her religious convictions are wrong. While I don’t doubt the existence of miracles, betting on them rather than God-given doctors in the service of their vocation is a losing wager, especially when dealing with a highly curable condition.

I do sympathize on a certain level, though. A judge is issuing a court order to medically treat a child at the objection of a parent. This is a messy deal. I can only hope this stays within the realm of life-saving care without wandering into less extreme issues such as forcing kids to vaccinate. Those decisions need to stay with the parent, unless the parent is legally deemed to be unfit.

If the authorities don’t find this mother and child, and the child dies, the story gets sadder still, ending in charges of negligent homicide. It would be interesting from a dramatic legal standpoint to see if a jury would nullify it.

Organist: Bruce Ahlich, Trinity Lutheran Church, Traverse City, MI.

I had the opportunity to record nine hymns Saturday afternoon with Trinity’s organist, Bruce Ahlich. Bruce also played some preludes, but if you want to hear that copyrighted material you’ll have to find me in person.

Forget the dating or any metaphysical implications for a moment. One animal makes a missing link? Where is this monkey’s parents? Where is its offspring, or its mate? Don’t two genomes have to be closely compatible to produce offspring that also reproduce?

Too much joy here.

This new blog look handles threaded comments, which is one of the reasons why I chose it. Enjoy.

I liked the new characters and the Enterprise: high-tech bridge and turbolift, engineering section that looked like it came out of a refinery. The action elements were quite good.

Unlike Lemon who found little fault with the movie and gave it a perfect 0 out of 4 lemons (lemons being bad), I found some sourness. Spoilers after the jump:

First, I feel like I missed something. The Romulans bring a bad, bad ship from the future, encounter the Federation ship Kelvin, destroy it, and then they wait 25 years for Old Spock to come through the wormhole without doing anything else. I understand they take damage from the Kelvin’s suicide run, but are we to assume repairs took 25 years?

Second, while there was decent situational humor, there wasn’t much drama at all. There could have been something that endeared Spock to Kirk other than Old Spock telling him he needed to be friends with Kirk. There could have been some relationship drama between Uhura and Spock; Spock should have shunned her with the potential of getting together later.

I did like Spock telling the Vulcan High Council to stick it, as well as the scene where he was bullied for the Nth time. I also liked the part where Kirk thinks Sulu’s fencing training isn’t going to be useful, then it turns out to be useful on the drill over Vulcan.

There is going to be interesting speculation among fans in comparing how the crew of the old timeline would have handled situations in this series going forth.

The movie was visually quite good, and I do look forward to the next line of sequels.  It was a successful reboot to the franchise, and I do hope they find some way to tell a real story, being optimistic without being preachy. It’s a hard line to toe; I wish them well.

Small Catechism, The Lord’s Prayer, The Introduction:

Our Father who art in heaven.

What does this mean?
With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.

Let’s turn this around. God could have spoken, and there would have been billions of people on the earth. They would only see the relationship of being the created and the follower.

He didn’t do it that way. By giving us parenthood, he gave us a perspective and a vested interest in caring about people. What your children do is a reflection of what you have given them, and there is personal joy in seeing them do what you want them to do or create something you hadn’t thought of. This child came forth from you. This is partly why parents never stop being parents, even when you’re nearing 35.

In parenthood He also gives us a love you don’t see from a co-worker or best friend, even better than the love from a loyal canine. When you fix spaghetti or goulash for dinner, they smell it, they eat it, and they look up from their sauce-lined mouths and say, “Mmmmmmm!” Or if there’s an accident and they call for help, you’re there with a new change of clothes and a wipe to clean them up and make them feel better. Or you’ve just come home from a 3-week stay in Alaska and come through the door to find a couple of 5-year-olds hugging your legs until the blood flow stops.

Parenthood does have its sting: when one child hits another, or they do something you know you didn’t teach them (really? ), or when they move away and they’re not there to give you a hug or to help you out when you need it. It’s reasonable to think that the Holy One feels it a lot worse when His children do heinous things:

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” — Matthew 23:37-39

How do you suppose it felt, that moment in Genesis the Father knew the Son would have to be humiliated, crucified, dead, and buried? Or when Jesus prays to “let this cup pass from me,” and the Father has to say, “No”? It would be a little more significant than me telling the older daughter she can’t have chocolate before bedtime.

I don’t have any direct scriptural reference for this, but I think God gave us parenthood so that we could have some natural clue of how he thinks about us and deals with us.

If blessed is the man who fills his quiver with children (Psalm 127:5), how blessed is God with us and the redeemed in his quiver? The quiver, formerly empty, the arrows robbed because of sin, now is filling again, because the Son obeyed his Father’s will, obedient to death on a cross.