1103 out of 1300 tickets required for the car were sold, so the drawing would be for half the proceeds, or around $11,000. The drawing was made Saturday. None of my relatives won.

That may have been a good thing.  Not that we couldn’t use 11 grand, and not that we didn’t earn it by manning the sales booths and canvasing the neighborhoods.

Think about it.  What if someone you knew had won? Would you be keeping them in your sight, being curious as to how they would spend the money? Would you feel a little disgust if they were to treat themselves in one way when they obviously could have spent the money on something they needed?

What if the winner was in a position to support you?  Would you expect something extra, a little more support, because they had the apparent means? Maybe you have a special cause: would you ask the winner for something extra for the cause, and if the person said no, how disappointed would you be?

And what if you won?  Think of all the friends and long-lost family that come out of the woodwork just to get reacquainted!  The causes.  The financial decisions. Kent Babb of the Kansas City Star reported just 2 days ago on my football idol Neil Smith now owes over a half-million dollars in taxes and had his home foreclosed upon 5 years ago after a restaurant chain he invested in collapsed.  Warren Sapp filed for bankruptcy after real estate holdings went south. Chiefs receiver Eddie Kennison is doing better, having invested in a wine store and his wife’s cosmetology business — both profitable businesses. Those first-round NFL Draft picks from last weekend will have more money than they know what to do with: for how long?

For every winner, though, there are plenty who have not hit it big, with all the resentment that comes with seeing their friends do well. We should be able to just smile, congratulate, and carry on, but who can do that, honestly?

It wasn’t my most favorite thing to hear on Sunday morning.  I had sent her upstairs to get something while I was helping her sister.

When she came back down, we had a little chat:

“Let me ask you something. When I do things that your mom asks, do you think I’m doing it because she’s controlling me?”

“Kinda.” Hey, at least she was honest…

“No.  I do things she asks me to do because I love her. That’s why we do things for each other around here.“

I’ve said before that I believe God gave us parenthood to give us an inkling of what it’s like for the Father to have his creation as his children, and I stand by that.

It's a curb. C-1 in Public Works lingo.

We look at the Law, and we say, “God’s trying to control us!” We hate that function of the Law, the “curb.” We hate it so much that either we mollify it, e.g., when our children change our instructions so that it sounds like they did what we wanted, or we argue that it’s not for us at all. In theological terms we call these behaviors legalism and antinomianism, respectively.

We shouldn’t be modifying or avoiding the Law, but rather answer the accusation and turn to the second function of the Law, the “mirror.” Yes, I have sinned.  Yes, I am not the holy creation God expects me to be, and I would not survive were I to stand before him directly and give an account of my deeds. Yes, I confess and repent of my sins. God then gives us his ”yes,” the Son in penal substitutionary atonement for our sins on the cross, the death and resurrection of the God-man Jesus Christ.

A guide.

The Law’s accusation stops there at the cross, and for that we are thankful. The Law doesn’t end there for the Christian, though. The Law is fulfilled (Matthew 5:17), but it is not abolished. It is now the “guide,” the third use of the Law. It is the sum of the good deeds that God prepared for us, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:8-10).

New in Christ, we strive to walk in the Law out of love and thankfulness for the God who died for us. Baptized, we are God’s, no less (it could be argued, more) than my children are their Mom and Dad’s. Sometimes it feels like control, but that’s the old man begging to be drowned again. Do it, daily, knowing that your faith in Christ’s atonement justifies you before God and permits you to thank and praise, serve and obey him. This is the confidence and knowledge which makes 1 John 5:1-5 make sense:

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 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?

Peace, and happy drowning. May we see the law as gift from a loving God and a guide to help our neighbor rather than only the curb and mirror for our own selves.

Today is World Autism Awareness Day as well as Light it Up Blue for Autism Speaks Day. The entire month of April is Autism Awareness month. This all sounds great, right? As the day has gone on, I have grown more angry, frustrated, and sad – the most I have been since April of 2006. Awareness and advocacy are great words, but as CDC released new numbers just days ago, it seems there is NOTHING behind these words. As I sat at advocacy training last week with other parents and professionals, the level of desperation that exuded from these parents and professionals was unbelievable. The fact that ALL of our Ohio legislators were then invited to a cocktail party and approximately 4 or 5 of them even bothered to show up shows a height of APATHY that is extraordinary. The fact that there is no help, no funding, no services, no insurance, and we can’t get more than 4-5 of our legislators to come for free drinks and snacks for 30 minutes to listen to our stories, should tell us all something.

I listen to other autism moms who have had to sue the state in order to get the services they need for their children, the mom in a neighboring school district whose 3.5-year-old’s IEP has just been taken away so the district won’t have to pay for the autism scholarship, the older mom whose 25-year-old is living in a group home and now isn’t sure that the group homes are going to be funded appropriately in Ohio and she can’t DIE because she doesn’t know what will happen to her child. I watch my child take handfuls of pills in the morning and evening and when we go to the doctor, the question is, “What are we missing?” I feel her head press against mine in church and her push my hand over her ear so tightly that it causes pain to my hand and know that she is feeling physical pain from the music and knowing there is nothing I can do to help her. I speak out for her as well as other special needs children and I watch myself get “unfriended” on facebook as these special kids might bother your typical kid from learning. 

So instead of just being AWARE, we NEED to take the next step. I don’t know yet what it is, but we have to come up with something more. Something for the 1 in 88 across the nation, the 1 in 32 boys in Utah, the 1 of 2 at the house.

Not that anything needs to be added to the better half’s remarks, but I would like to add that there have been successes here at the house just from watching one kid when she’s healthy or sick, when she’s having a terrible day or a great day at school, etc., that there have been successes in our kid’s IEP (Mom’s a good fighter), that the other day she asked me if I was OK and offered to rub my back when it popped heinously…and if this family can have some level of success just by reacting, how much success can the right company with the right study have?

Surely there has to be people smarter than we are who with the right salary, motivation, etc., can put the two-and-twos together to break the mysteries that are the Autism Spectrum Disorder wide open, if one mom’s vigilance can put a significant dent in a child’s autism.

Think how much money could be made by a company whose customers are no longer forking money out for supplements, occupational therapists, speech therapists, tutors, special education teachers, guardians, homes, etc., etc., etc., and buying their beneficial treatment that works with a demonstrable pathology. The people that find the cure(s) will put Apple and Pfizer to shame, and they would have the undying gratitude of millions. Do it for the money. Do it for the gratitude. Do it because finding answers is what we human beings do. But do it. Please.

As much as we would like to be able to wave a magic wand and have government fully fund any and all autism research, common sense and history tells us this cannot happen. Money is getting tighter as Congress overspends its revenues and spends 3x more money on debt interest than it does on Afghanistan and Iraq. And we don’t want to get into whether the government has been an honest broker with respect to vaccine research…

We need you. Look at your talents and help someone. Maybe you have money. Maybe you have time. Maybe you have compassion. Maybe you have an ear. Maybe you have prayers. Maybe you have a combination. This is your neighbor, your kid’s classmate at school, a kid in your congregation, on your kid’s sports team, in your kid’s scout troop, somewhere. If you have the means but not the target, then go to autismspeaks.org and see what you can do there. Please.

When my back popped, I winced, because it was a little bit painful. Twin 2 saw it, and asked, “Are you hurt, Dad?”

I said, “Yes, my back popped.”

She touched my back. “It will be OK, Dad.” That was very cool, and it almost took the pain away. Facial recognition, attributing it to pain, to being hurt, to showing concern whether someone is OK, trying to do something about it…these things are treasured when someone you love has autism.

Later on, we were working on a math worksheet, and she figured out on her own from a word problem that she needed to do “5 x 6″. She didn’t know it was 30 until we drew rows and columns, but she got the hard part done, as far as I was concerned.

A couple of weeks ago, my mother-in-law had a birthday party at a great restaurant that served gluten-free pita bread as an appetizer. My girl said loudly enough for everyone to hear, “I love this unleavened bread.” I’m still curious where she picked that up. We haven’t discussed the Lord’s Supper recently…

Recently she has also picked the concept of harmony, and while Dad is still not allowed to sing harmony in church, she can pick out a harmony in a song and sing it on pitch.

In school she isn’t the best test taker and doesn’t do her work as fast as the others. Sometimes we wonder whether she is learning the information and just not getting the information back out, or whether she isn’t learning at all. Behaviors like the above, though, give us an indication that maybe she really is taking in the world around her, and maybe it’s more of a question of her acquiring sufficient focus to get a task done in the expected amount of time.

I don’t have the answers, but some progress indicators can’t be measured in standardized testing. Your continued prayers are appreciated.

Time Out is a podcast of scripture, hymns, and orthodox Lutheran Bible commentary that lasts about 15 minutes. The idea for Time Out first started when I was between churches and yet wanted to hear the hymns that I had heard in church as a kid. I had bought several CDs, but the performances embellished the hymns to the point where I could only listen and not sing along. That was frustrating.

In 2008, podcasts were starting up:
June – Table Talk Radio
July  - God Whisperers began. Radical Grace Radio published podcasts. Fighting for the Faith became more frequent.
September – Higher Things Radio
And of course, there was the Issues, Etc., reboot.

I had already been blogging for three years, so it wasn’t much of a leap to go from posting written updates to audio files. Pr. Craig Donofrio of the God Whisperers suggested a good microphone and a change in the show’s format, both of which I still use today. I registered lutherantimeout.org for my site name, and off I went, beginning in January, 2009.

The first four shows, I played the piano and sang. I wasn’t very good. I spent a lot of time just playing the hymns and piecing them together with audio editing software. As I traveled for business, I was able to enlist some church organists to do some recordings for me:

• Dale Stanton, Our Savior Lutheran Church in Morristown, TN
• Dcs. Sara Lemon, playing at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Oakmont, PA
• Bruce Ahlich, Trinity Lutheran in Traverse City, MI
• Susie Singer, Zion, Columbus

When August rolled around, I was out of accompaniments, and I didn’t want to go back to piano playing. I put out a message on Facebook: Need an organist with a Lutheran Service Book and a recorder.  Cantor Nathan Beethe of Grace Lutheran Church in Little Rock, AR, said, “I’m your man.”  He recorded 119 different accompaniments for me through December, 2011. Jacob Weber of Emmanuel – Dearborn is second with 15.

Early on I added a scripture reading, reading large chunks at a time to be sure I wasn’t taking anything out of context. Cantor Philip Magness suggested I added a collect, and I use the collects from sanctus.org. Pr. William Weedon suggested Paul E. Kretzmann’s Popular Commentary for a bonus feature, the first Lutheran Bible commentary written in English.

Originally I had planned to do an episode every two weeks, but when the show got on Pirate Christian Radio, it was necessary to make a new show every week.

Time Out has expanded its list of Accompanists and Guests, and we have even played a couple of hymns from the French hymnal put out by the Lutheran Church-Canada. Since YouTube has made sharing music very easy, we’ve made hymn videos for Christmas and Easter.

The latest project by Time Out has been a collaboration with the host of another podcast, Matthew Pancake of Radical Grace Radio. We are producing a limited set of hymns that are still singable by everyone but using more digital music to give the hymns a more orchestral feel. We are looking to put a set of these on iTunes.  We’ve done, “Savior, When in Dust to Thee,” and we are looking to do hymns for Easter and beyond.

Time Out is looking for still more accompanists and guests. There have been suggestions to use professional singers for the hymns, but that would take money for travel, equipment, and stipends. I would also like to see videos that are done more professionally, because it is much easier to share videos on YouTube than just podcast audio. We don’t sell advertisements, and we don’t have a “schwag” store. We do have PayPal if people are interested in donating.

I think we as a church body suffer when we see the liturgy as some sort of impediment to the Gospel — I wish that were a straw man, but it isn’t. We should look at it not as law but as gift, as structure to make sure that our well-meaning pastors do have the bases covered.

The liturgy is safety. Pastors have rewritten creeds trying to make them more relevant only to introduce modalism. The confession of sins morphs into apologizing only for not taking care of the earth or other social ills. The absolution turns into a statement that God loves us as we sinners are (so why did Jesus die?).

I don’t think pastors are trying to be unfaithful. It just happens a lot when they try to roll their own worship practices. Can there be variety? Sure, and there will be. But newness, freshness, and relevance do not make the change beneficial.

I responded with:

When you take a look at the names of many hospitals in this country: Riverside Methodist in Columbus, St. Luke’s and Trinity Lutheran in Kansas City, for starters, and when you see the endless amount of soup kitchens, retirement communities, and missions for the blind, the deaf, the homeless, etc., you see that church hasn’t been and can’t be constrained to what we do for a few hours on Sunday morning. The Christian church receives the forgiveness of sins in worship and then goes out and serves its neighbor with acts of mercy. It would stop being church if in fact there were no service to our neighbor.

The Church drips with acts of mercy: first, from God from the baptismal font and the chalice of blood, and second, from each other, as we serve each other in our vocations and realize what we can do to serve our neighbor.

Savior When in Dust to Thee

Sadly we regard this gift as law. We don’t like law; we like license. We want to plug our ears, cover our eyes, and shout down the consequences of our actions, and therefore because we perceive no consequences, it doesn’t matter to us what we do.

There is no situation, though, in which there are no consequences. Even when there’s no kid, there’s still consequence. We become loving tools for each other to relieve the needs our bodies tell us we have, or worse, we seek our needs elsewhere or deny those needs altogether. With the snip, the ligation, or the Pill, sex is just sex, and we’re accustomed to think the denial of gift is good just because we have control of it.

In assuming this control, then, we condition ourselves to view the highest purpose of the gift as something that must be governed or restricted. We delay it, willing that we’re going to spend some time together alone before the kids come along, and then when we decide kids are actually a good thing, we’re too old to have sufficient energy to be good fathers and mothers. Worse, we look at the family with four or more kids and joke, “You know what causes those kids, right?” We look at mom or dad changing diapers, cooking, cleaning, and doing ten-plus loads of laundry, and we see a hassle.

So we delay it, or abdicate it all together. What wants that nonsense?

Yet we were born for it. Seriously. We were born to have kids and train them so that they can have kids, et cetera. Don’t believe me? Ask your body. It’s a good thing. It’s a natural vocation that stops when your body is good and ready to stop. It’s a gift.

If your body or your spouse doesn’t have this gift, whether or not by choice, know that there is mercy. We have all sinned terribly. We all deserve damnation, but we have a Savior who provides sufficient atonement and justice to cover everyone, no matter what the sin and its effects. There is forgiveness of sins in the Word, in baptism, and in the Lord’s Supper for you and for me. This forgiveness frees us to deal with the matters of this temporal world.

Declaration of Independence

The war on religious liberty is very clear. With the ObamaCare mandate that religious institutions provide a service that goes against their religious tenets, whether paying for it themselves or paying for insurance that provides it, we are traveling into unprecedented invasion of the state into the behavior of the church. Jehovah’s Witnesses, their doctors, and their insurance aren’t mandated to provide transfusions, because transfusions are a violation of that religion. The courts have ruled that some religious sects have rights to use drugs otherwise considered illegal because those drugs are integral to their religion. We do not force conscientious objectors to go to war, even when they are drafted. The state shall not violate people’s consciences. We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. The ObamaCare mandate goes against all the freedom we have fought for since the Revolutionary War.

The war on women is a lot murkier, and that’s desirable by some.

It starts with vocabulary. The “contraception” that is most controversial is not contraception at all. Those drugs work not by preventing conception but by preventing implantation.

Religion aside, there are two logical points where one may consider whether someone is a person: when they have a full set of DNA, and when they can fend for themselves. Everything else is just a matter of location, whether inside or outside of a womb. Thankfully today only the most extremely poor ethicists consider that someone can be terminated when they are not currently providing a service to the community. We are left with the other logical point that once there is a full set of DNA, there is life. There’s a person there, no matter how small.  If we prevent implantation, we have to consider the fact that we are killing an existing person.

Granted, there are extraordinary circumstances where we do this already, when the child develops in a place or in a way that risks the life of the mother. Those are not good situations, but it’s better to save one than to lose both.

The next post is related…

We should steadfastly direct our thoughts to the saving truth of God against every attack on the part of Satan, the world, and our own flesh, lest doubts become manifest within us and take the trusting watchfulness out of our hearts. It is self-evident, finally, that we combine thanksgiving with our prayer, even in advance, for we know that God hears every cry of His children, in His own way and at His own time, but always for our benefit.

It takes a great deal of tact and wisdom on the part of the Christians to live so that their entire behavior toward the non-members of the Church will redound to the benefit of the Gospel and to the praise of God. Their conduct at all times must be of a nature to advertise the Church and its blessings. One thing is sure, namely, that the children of the world are watching the Christians at all times for any evidence of a behavior at variance with Scriptural injunctions. Therefore the Christians should make the best use of every opportunity, when they are thrown together with unbelievers, to forestall and quiet unjust criticism, and thus to promote the spread of the Gospel by removing some of the commonest obstructions.

At all times and under all circumstances the intercourse of Christians with unbelievers should be characterized by pleasant courtesy, kindly, simple, straightforward, without affectation. That does not exclude its being seasoned with the salt of energetic, but beneficial confession; it should be apt, striking, interesting, with a wholesome point and pertinency. Particularly if some enemy of the Church intends to strike at some doctrine or custom, all Christians should be ready with the proper defense, not, as a rule, with biting irony and harshness, but with engaging frankness and a convincing willingness to give an answer to every man that asks them a reason of the hope that is in them.

Only through the fullness of the assurance from on high are Christians enabled to stand perfected in the will of God, in everything that God wills. The will of God finds its expression in the life of the Christians, and that the more and more perfectly as they grow in its knowledge and in the willingness to perform such things as are well-pleasing to their heavenly Father.

For those times I haven’t been courteous, kind, and without affectation, and for those times I haven’t been striking, interesting, and pertinent, I ask for your forgiveness.

It took me a while to figure out why, but here goes:

Take your normal Department of Motor Vehicles building. Put the building in a downtown neighborhood where there are no banks, restaurants, or other open businesses for several blocks. Divide the parking into three cramped areas with different sets of parking rules.

Paint the inside of the building a yellow from 30 years prior, and scrape the drywall at table height.

Make your service request at one window, pay for the service at another window for the cashier, then come back to the first window to receive the document. Encase both windows in 1″ (I assume bulletproof) glass.

Do not allow the use of credit or debit cards. Do not provide an ATM. Post a sign that says, “EXACT CHANGE REQUIRED,” for a document that costs $21.50, and do not have that information posted on your web site.

Worst of all, though, add the realization that it would be entirely uncouth to talk to anyone next to you in the crowded waiting room, who could be awaiting a copy of a certificate of still birth or a certificate of death. No, it’s better to just sit rather than risk being the trigger of an emotional response.

Thankfully, the employees were professional, and the cashier took my two $20s and gave me change. I was very happy not to need to leave and come back.

• Martin Luther was a 33^rd order Freemason.
• The Book of Concord is to be rejected because it came after Revelation.
• The sacraments were not instituted by God but were invented by Roman Catholics hundreds of years later, thus they, too, should be rejected.
• The Bible is true because he felt it was true.
• We don’t need religion.
• He has never doubted the faith nor ever felt that he wasn’t forgiven.

So, that was an interesting conversation. Among my better comments were:

The author of major portions of the Book of Concord, a Freemason? That seems highly unlikely.

[The Book of Concord came from the Bible, that is] The faith once for all delivered to the saints, of course.

The great thing about the Gospel is that you don’t have to feel it in order to be true.

We do not hold the Book of Concord to be scripture itself, but, like the Apostolic, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds, a summary and exposition of the Bible.

I seriously doubt, given Martin Luther’s confession of faith, that he was a Freemason. You have the burden of proof in showing how Martin Luther could be a member of a Scottish unionistic society.

[Reading the Book of Concord] would help because it would put the focus of your theology on Jesus Christ, the Son of God who died on the cross to pay for your, my, and the rest of the world’s sins.

The Book of Concord adds no new theology that isn’t drawn somewhere from the Bible. It was a group of writings written in part to refute the errors of Roman Catholicism and also in part to teach a summary of the faith to people, since most people do not have the time to memorize Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, and to memorize the scriptures.

Scripture makes me feel different things. Sometimes it makes me mad, sometimes it makes me broken and contrite, sometimes it makes me relieved, and sometimes it makes me overjoyed. But it’s truth no matter what feelings it invokes in me.

Scripture makes me mad when I think about the Fall. It makes me broken and contrite when I find out how much of a sinner I really am. It makes me relieved when God promises me that I am not going to Hell.

Sometimes I don’t feel God. This is why he gives us his Word and Sacraments, very concrete things that I can hear, touch, even eat.

I think if you were to truly understand what the sacraments were, you would see that they were given for you, and that you would desire them.

Anything you believe about God is a religion. Whether you need a religion or not, you have one. The question is whether your religion matches that which is found in the Scriptures.

The Sacraments are promises of God. God has promised to forgive sins in baptism. The body of Christ is broken for us. The blood of Christ is shed for us, poured for us for the forgiveness of sins, so that even if we don’t feel forgiven, we have his forgiveness.

If the body of Christ is not broken for me and his blood is not shed for me, then I am rejecting his atonement on the cross, and I am going to Hell. I’ll take his gifts, thanks.

People don’t feel forgiven because they are human. They sin. Even the saved still sin. If you have never doubted, you’ve never been tested. Or, you’re in denial.

The God-given faith IN the death and resurrection of Christ saves us. And you can strengthen that faith by reading the Word, by hearing the Word preached, and by participating in the Sacraments. God is that good, that he gives us such things.

Could one, possibly, get into heaven without participation in the Lord’s Supper? Yes. But God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows what we need, and he has given it to us.

Of course, like most Facebook arguments, nobody won the other over. We do have to be ready to give an answer for our faith. Since our discussion concluded it has been evident that he hasn’t listened, but this hasn’t been a failure. A confession was made. I only hope that it hits him before it’s too late.

Apple may be a hardware business, but in my opinion this is a purely software issue. BlackBerry developers are in a bit of a mess. Current phones are running a Java-based operating system that is on its last legs. The new BlackBerry 10 QNX-based operating system is coming late, and more importantly, it will not support applications written for the current BlackBerry operating system. Who would want to contribute resources to developing programs that will go away in a year or so?  Not Big Red, apparently. I understand the move.

It will be interesting next year as the move is made. QNX is an awesome real-time operating system on its own, and it looks pretty good on the BlackBerry Playbook that already exists. It multitasks wonderfully, much better than Apple’s multitasking currently. Should Research in Motion get their act together with their new CEO, they will have a serious mobile computing solution that has all the advantages of their current enterprise security and services model.

But Apple will get better, and they will do so without cutting off their older applications.

I’ll have my Torch 9810 for just under another year, and then I’ll get one of those infernal Apple devices. When that time comes, I’ll probably need a sliding keyboard case. I hate typing on perfectly flat surfaces.

You’re seated. The manager comes out and starts telling you how awesome this restaurant is that you so often frequent. He tells you that the kids not only enjoy the food but have a hand in making it. He brags on the fact that the portions are so large–not only are you fed but that they give food to people who don’t have any.  And, not only is there so much food, he tells you, but the food is of a quality beyond comparison with everyone else’s. You are doing yourselves right just by coming here. He goes on to talk about the food itself, how it will satisfy you, how it will build you up and make you strong, and how you are going to enjoy it. Finishing his speech, he announces the service is concluded.

Something's missing.

You’re left with the bill.

Needless to say, we wouldn’t tolerate this behavior from any restaurant.

Yet we will from a church.

We hear how wonderful the church is. We learn that the kids that we send off to church camp or mission trips increase their faith by writing their own confessions and making their own skits. We hear how the church delivers the word of God and temporal gifts to shut-ins. We hear how the Gospel changes lives, how the Gospel makes you strong, how it makes you happy. Our church is a good place to be because we do so much to spread the Gospel.

All this is done without delivering the Law and Gospel itself.

You’re left with the stewardship emphasis.

But, we’re not really hungry, right? We know the Law already, right? We’ve had the Ten Commandments and their meanings drilled into us from childhood. Some of us have the Table of Duties from Luther’s Small Catechism memorized. We know we need to be baptized and take the Lord’s Supper frequently.  And that Gospel thing: How many times do we need to hear Christ crucified preached for sinners?  How often do we need to be reminded that we have love for our neighbor because Christ loved us, died for us, gave himself for us, and washed us with water and the Word? That we await the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come? If the preacher fails to mention it for a week or two, it’s okay, because we still remember all that and can fill in the blanks. No problem, right?

Who hears about food without wanting to eat it?

Yet we hear about the Gospel without wanting to hear the Gospel.

Good thing we have the liturgy, but some of us no longer have even that.

A sermon about your church or about the Gospel doesn’t feed your soul.  A sermon like this, written on John 1 by Martin Luther, does:

This is an extraordinarily free and comforting sermon on Christ, our Savior.  Neither our thoughts nor our words can do the subject full justice, but in the life beyond it will redound to our eternal joy and bless that the Son of God abased Himself so and burdened Himself with my sins. Yes, He assumes not only my sins but also those of the whole world, from Adam down to the very last mortal. These sins He takes upon Himself; for these He is willing to suffer and die that our sins may be expunged and we may attain eternal life and blessedness…Anyone who wishes to be saved must know that all his sins have been placed on the back of this Lamb! Therefore John points this Lamb out to his disciples, saying: “Do you want to know where the sins of the world are placed for forgiveness?…[I]f you really want to find a place where the sins of the world are exterminated and deleted, then cast your gaze upon the cross. The Lord placed our sins on the back of this Lamb.”

The Gospel never sends the faith away hungry, and the only thing you exchange for it is your sin.

You’re left with the assurance of forgiveness and the liberty that makes it possible to serve your neighbor.

Desire the Gospel.

The hotel packed a large curved desk, a TV stand with three ample drawers, a luggage stand, and a cabinet with a half-height refrigerator and microwave along with two queen beds in my room.  There wasn’t much room for exercising. The walls seemed pretty thin; conversations from the next room could be heard.

The beds were nearly perfect in firmness, and I woke up just before my alarm on most days. Each bed had three pillows that varied in their firmness.

Outlets were in good supply. Four were available at the desk, and another four were in reach of a bed. Internet service was provided by Ethernet and strong wireless, though at times download speed suffered. YouTube buffered way too frequently. The code they gave me didn’t work, but the system also takes one’s HHonors username and password.

Television was divided into three sets of channels: a local set, a cable set, and a digital cable set. This made changing channels by number a bit of a pain. Picture quality was good on all stations, which included HBO, ESPN, several public television stations, and Cartoon Network.

The room had a thermostat on the wall, but heat was provided by a window heater/air-conditioner, which worked well.

The bathroom was efficient but not cramped. Water had good heat and pressure, but it took a little time to warm up.

The large fitness room had three ellipticals, three treadmills, a nautilus, and medicine balls of different sizes. There was also a large flat-panel TV mounted on the wall. There was an indoor pool and hot tub.

I didn’t stay long enough to try the laundry service.  The continental breakfast had two hot dishes in hotel trays, prepared oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, six choices of boxed cereal, and the standard bagel / english muffin / toast trays. During one evening chocolate cookies were set out, but they were brought out of the oven a little too early. They were mushy, and they fused together on the plate.

All of the staff was friendly and professional. The housekeeping even wrote a note when the sheets were changed.

$93 is a little higher than the Holiday Inn in the area, but the breakfast was free and the hotel is less than four years old. The Holiday Inn was seriously showing its age the last time I was in town, but it looks like it has had some remodeling.

Hampton Inn is a member of the Hilton family of hotels, and HHonors is a good frequent stay program.

A hammer has good uses and bad uses; yet we should not ban hammers. Likewise, hydraulic fracturing.

I was a fracturing engineer for about a year and a half, and I continue to teach job design software that involves hydraulic fracturing. There are situations where I would not recommend hydraulic fracturing:

• Pay zone — where the hydrocarbons are — is close to ground water
• Pay zone is near hazardous zones or salt domes which are great natural storage facilities for gas
• Nearby area has been fractured before — I’ve been on a job where we fractured into a nearby well.
• Nearby area is naturally fractured
• We have no idea of the lithology, or rock properties, in the area

Fracturing has risk, as does everything else we do. My company, Halliburton, has had a good track record of fracturing wells safely. I’ve never been in a situation where we fractured into somebody’s water supply. When that happens it needs to be investigated, and the cause needs to be determined so that it doesn’t happen again. If there’s liability to be assessed, then it needs to be assessed. If an operator damages somebody’s water supply, then it needs to be fixed if possible and the affected people need to be compensated. That’s the economics of petroleum production.

When somebody says we need a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, replace the words “hydraulic fracturing” with “hammers.” Hydraulic fracturing is indeed using a water hammer to break up rock under the surface of the either. Much more often than not (which is why fracturing is done), hydraulic fracturing is a safe and efficient way to extend the life of the well, reducing the number of wells that need to be drilled in an oil field.

Some people have questions about the safety of the chemicals we use in fracturing. They are fair questions, but they are questions with answers. Halliburton’s research has led it to develop the CleanSuite^TM technologies that use chemicals sourced from the food industry, ultraviolet light, and water-reduction techniques to reduce our environmental impact. This is the way the industry needs to go.

Don’t freak out about fracturing. We need it. Smart and effective use of this tool increases oil and gas supply and reduces your costs of gasoline, natural gas, plastics, and everything that uses hydrocarbons in their production or manufacture.

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper aren’t mere ordinances, and this is a good thing. When we are honest with ourselves, we recognize that there is nothing inside us that assures us we are headed for any salvation. We can have faith, but even that is given to us.

Font at Trinity-Traverse City

In the typical online Christian discussion each side brings its own proof-texts, but I want to go beyond what is merely “right” to the hope and the comfort that we are given when we let God do the talking. Listen to the promises. Listen to how awesome Baptism and the Lord’s Supper truly are:

1 Peter 3:18-22: Baptism now saves you…as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ…

Titus 3:5-8: He saved us…by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit…[that] we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Mark 16:14-16: Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved…

John 6:41-59: Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day…As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.

Matthew 26:26-29: This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Luke 22:14-20 and 1 Corinthians 11:23-26: This is my body which is given for you.

If one is to call baptism and the Lord’s Supper merely symbols, I don’t know of any hermeneutic gymnastics that can be done to maintain that assertion without doing damage to the gifts he has given us.

We do participate in the sacraments in remembrance of Christ. We proclaim his death until he comes. If you struggle with Jesus saying that the bread is his body even as he is breaking it and the wine is his blood even while he is pouring it…let God be God and his gifts, his. The promises are just too great. They also happen to be true.

So far this year the company looks to send me back to Alberta. Halliburton has camps in Medicine Hat, Red Deer, and Grande Prairie. Grande Prairie is out there; we may wander over into British Columbia.

Last year I dropped 40 lbs. through a food diary and 45 mins. of exercise a day; I won’t be dropping another 40 this year. It sounds kind of cool to say I dropped almost three stones. I switched from the Lose It! app on iOS to LiveStrong on the BlackBerry, primarily because the kids now monopolize the iPods.

The podcast has been doing well. After our second pass through the Popular Commentary of Dr. Paul E. Kretzmann, I’m thinking about discussing the background of the hymns we sing: the scripture they reference and the conditions they were written in. Wouldn’t it be sweet if I could get an interview with the likes of LSB composers Pr. Stephen P. Starke or Stephen R. Johnson?

We made two hymn videos. I wish I could have synchronized the video of me singing with the audio a bit better on “What Child is This,” but CyberLink’s PowerDirector was very erratic with that. Video shooting and editing is a process where experience is a slow and demanding teacher, and I would really like to work with someone more experienced on any future projects.

I am quite excited that we are getting new accompaniment from Sam Mussman of Champaign, IL, and the notorious organist of Higher Things, Chris Loemker. Sam will kick off the new year of Time Out on Thursday with CL taking the next three. Jake Weber should also be with us in February. Our frequent guest vocalist Anna Baseley will be more involved when I work out the schedule for the next three months. We are still looking for more; we have no max on our guest list.

The house is now pretty much gluten-free. The market is starting to produce better gluten-free substitutes for normal bread goods, and while they continue to be more expensive, the prices are coming down. Udi’s loaves regularly can be found for under $5. Celebrate Local at the Easton Towne Center has had some good GF cookies that would be hard to discern from typical.

Wishing you and yours a prosperous 2012; keep working hard and forgiving others, as in Christ you are forgiven. Peace.

I humbly submit to you Time Out’s second hymn video, “What Child is This.” Available in HD.

http://lutherantimeout.org/370video

What do you think?

As it stands, we don’t have enough video and pictures submitted yet. I’m going to do some shooting Tuesday and fill in some gaps. We do have some good stuff from Detroit, St. Louis, Columbus, and the Czech Republic, of all places. I’m quite thankful for Jen B., D. Meyer, and Dr. A. Collver.

Many churches are doing their Christmas programs today; photos or videos of such would be cool.

If you have been waiting to send in footage of your church because it has been decked out in Advent blue/purple, and you’d like to show it in white, or if you’d like to send in your completed Advent wreath, I’ll take footage up through Christmas Eve. If you have something really cool planned for Christmas Day morning, let me know in advance, and I’ll save a spot for you.

You can either leave a note for me here or find me on Google Plus / Facebook / Twitter.

I couldn’t stay an evening in the first room because the steam heating had a nasty water hammer. They assigned me to another room, but I couldn’t keep the king-size bed.

Both beds were too soft for my taste. The pillow-top mattresses had so much give that it was impossible to lay on the front. There were plenty of pillows. Turndown service gave two chocolate mints each evening.

The desk had good room and provided 3 AC outlets. There was another set on each side of the bed, but one was too far away for the phone charger, and the other outlet was right behind the mattress. The 36” diagonal flat-screen HDTV had about 25 channels available, including Encore and one French channel.

The room had steam heating on the window side of the room, and there was no air-conditioner. An oscillating fan was provided in each room, and one could sufficiently cool the room by opening the 1’ portal in the window to the winter air.

The bathroom’s tub had fairly low walls, and the hot water was almost dangerous. Only when shaving did I have the temperature control set more than half-way hot. Pressure was very good.

The fitness room had two ellipticals, two exercise bikes, a treadmill, a small nautilus, and free weights. It was located near their Grand Ballroom, so it seemed inappropriate to arrive in workout gear during a Christmas party. The pool on the 3^rd floor was closed for the season; it was outdoors on the roof of a small section.

Laundry service was competent, returning on the same day and obeying all instructions regarding folding and starch. The front desk exchanged my $20 American for $18 Canadian, which is a horrible rate no matter what the times are. One clerk did go beyond her call of duty in helping me, getting directions and also calling to see whether my destination was open.

Internet access was pretty weak. Wireless only, the signal at the end of the hall was sufficient only half of the nights. At least it was free.

Breakfast in the morning consisted of a continental buffet or items off a menu, neither of which were free. The omelets got good reviews from my coworkers, who did not give good reviews for room service. The hotel bar had good Indian butter chicken, and the waitress suggested a decent local beer.

Entrance and egress are on different sides of the building, with the exit on a one-way away from the hotel, making it difficult to pick up friends at the front.

$108 Canadian is fairly reasonable for a downtown hotel. That and the proximity to the corporate office make the Ramada a place I’d stay at again on business.

Both services were led by Pr. Markus Zeuch, who speaks German, English, Portuguese, and Spanish. Pr. Zeuch is from Brazil.

Portion of German order of service

The Gesangbuch surprised me; there’s no music to go with the hymns. The old-world typography was another challenge. The two orders of service were in the back of the hymnal. Some parts of the service were similar musically to LSB Divine Service 3/TLH p.15, such as the Sanctus, the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer, and the Agnus Dei. Unlike LSB, the German hymnal doesn’t write out the “Vaterunser” (the Lord’s Prayer) in the order of service; I had to find that elsewhere. The Apostles’ Creed is used instead of the Nicene Creed, which we normally use in our services of Holy Communion.

If you visit the Google+ album, you’ll see a picture of the organ, which is known throughout town as “The Beast.” Jenny Jordan, all I was told was that it had a tracker action.

I also attended the English service afterwards, Divine Service 3 out of LSB.

Fernando the Columbian had relatives in Calgary, and they took us to three places with beautiful scenery. More photos can be found here on my Google Plus account.

Our first stop was Lake Des Arcs.

We spent most of our time on Sulphur Mountain, above the resort town of Banff. We rode the gondola to and from the top of the mountain.

Lunch was to be had at Eddie’s in Banff. I tried poutine for the first time. Gravy and melted mozzarella over french fries is a good thing.

Just before dusk we made it over to Lake Louise. Part of the lake was completely frozen and turned into an ice skating rink. The temperature dropped to about -12 deg C ( 10.4 deg F ), and that was my limit. We went inside the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise for warmth and beverages.

I’m very sorry to report that I had taken some great video with my phone, but between an incomplete movie backup and a hasty delete, I lost most of my video footage. Lesson learned the hard way, but we had a lot of fun.

I think it took me about 30 takes to get the words right.  Next time, I’ll use a script.

The last two years Time Out has had an extra Advent Bonus Edition and a Christmas Bonus Edition.  We’re not going to do those this year in lieu of a new project.

We’re making another hymn video, to be released Christmas Day, featuring my favorite Christmas hymn, LSB 370, “What Child Is This.” Rather than focus the video on the performers this time, we need footage from you.

We are looking for stills and video (that you have permission to submit ) that match well with the lyrics of the hymn.  The literal sense is good, but there is plenty of opportunity to be creative. Think of what you can do for, “Joy, joy, for Christ is born,” for example.

This is a great opportunity to show off your church, your community, and your own creativity. We will give you full credit in the credits and in the YouTube notes for what you send us. Free advertising is good, right?

We would like your submissions by December 18, but we would greatly appreciate it if you could send it in earlier. If you want to submit stills of your sanctuary decorated for Christmas, we can be a little more flexible with that. If you have Christmas footage from last year’s services, that would be good, too.

Let us know if you are interested and if you have any questions: talkback@lutherantimeout.org.

⁷For we are brought to an end by your anger;
by your wrath we are dismayed.
⁸You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.
⁹For all our days pass away under your wrath;
we bring our years to and end like a sigh.

Psalm 19:12 :

Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults.

Secret sins. Hidden faults, hidden even from ourselves.

If we are responsible for saving ourselves from eternal damnation, or even partially responsible, be it through a decision, an indulgence, a commitment, an act of penance, or reaching a certain age of accountability, we are done for. We can confess all our sins, and still there is even more.

As angry as someone can get at me if and when I mess up, that’s just a breeze compared to the deserved wrath from the eternal God who is just and holy. Whether you’ve angered your friends, your parents, your employer, your children, or your spouse — righteous anger that may be when you’ve harmed them — it is infinitely worse from the Creator.  Your and my heavenly Father, who created us for good works, and we have let Him down aplenty.

We have no clue how much we have let him down and how damaged we are, until He tells us with His law.  Some look at the law, don’t like what they see, and refuse to acknowledge it.  Others look at the law and delude themselves into thinking either that they can keep it, or that they can sufficiently keep a part of it. We should look at the law and despair, knowing that the sum of it is meant to be kept and something we would actually be able to do without being told, were it not for the Fall.

We can’t even pray.

Thus in all honesty we have no hope of contributing even the least little bit to our salvation. No indulgence, no decision, no act of penance, no act of will on our part brings us closer to being justified by God. Peyton Manning has more ability to win the rest of the season for the Colts than we do contributing to our salvation.

Our salvation must be given.

This gift is not given to us because though we are sinners, “God loves us anyway.” No, God loves us one way. God loves us in this way, that he gave His Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

This way. Only this way. Not this way and something else. Not 99% Jesus and 1% you. This is something to be thankful for. Your temporal deeds have plenty of good use serving your neighbor. The deeds that you need for salvation are performed by Jesus and counted to you. Thank God that you believe, however weakly, that the Christ was made man, suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, died, and was buried; descended into Hell, rose again from the dead and ascended to heaven for your and my justification.  All of it. There is no stink of sin in His work.

You can’t wash off dirt with dirty water. You wash off sin with water and the Word. He that believes and is baptized will be saved. There are no qualifiers: no “sincerely,” no “mostly,” no “as soon as a coin in the coffer rings,” and no “enough.”  Jesus is our enough. It is finished.