August 2020
Testing the Church
The famous American evangelist, Billy Sunday (1862–1935), used
to say that being in a garage doesn’t make you a car – and
neither does being in a church building make you a Christian
(Billy Sunday,
The Sawdust Trail,
2005).
That’s because Christian identity comes from within – from the
faith that we have in Christ. It doesn’t come from our
surroundings – for the kingdom of God dwells within us (Luke
17:21). That’s where faith and love generate.
So is it hard on you not going to church? If so, why? Do you
feel like you’re getting short-changed? Is the Word of God
without the many accoutrements found in our buildings, puny and
unable to sustain you (contra
Isaiah 50:4)? Luther believed that what makes Sundays holy is not worshipping in a church building. No, it is only God’s Word that is holy. Therefore “any conduct or work done apart from God’s Word is unholy in the sight of God, no matter how splendid and brilliant it may appear, or even if it be altogether covered with holy relics” (The Book of Concord, ed. Tappert, p. 377).
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PRESIDENT'S REPORT....by
Cary Natiello
Our Midyear Congregational meeting is Sunday
August 2, at 11 a.m. and will be conducted via ZOOM.
By now you should have received the meeting materials
either via email or in the US mail.
If you have not, please contact Sonja, Parish Secretary.
Rather than going over our YTD (Jan – Jun) finances in
this report, please refer to the midyear meeting materials.
Also, please note the Executive Committee statement on
continuing staff salaries.
On NPR Sunday morning (July 12), I listened to Epidemiologist
Alison Galvani of Yale
University talk about her study
'Silent Spreaders'.
Silent spreaders are
asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic people
that may be responsible for half (50%) of U.S. COVID-19 cases.
She explained that most commonly, people with infectious
diseases are most contagious when they show symptoms, but
COVID-19 infected people may not show symptoms for 2-3 days and
yet are very contagious during that time.
Making matters worse, many people never show symptoms at
all, but they can still spread the disease.
New estimates from U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention state at least 40% of people who get the
virus might not show any symptoms, meaning thousands of
Americans could be unknowingly infecting others.
For us, it means a person
showing no symptoms, or who does not have a fever, does little
to identify an infected person who is capable of easily
spreading the disease.
It is important for us to understand how this information
might impact our ability to safely resume indoor worship
services.
In the Midyear Congregation meeting materials we included the
five criteria that must be met before we can resume indoor
services, and I encourage you to review them.
Over the past three meetings, the church council has been
grappling with how and when to resume indoor worship services.
Our conversations have focused primarily on State and
local requirements for safely resuming indoor services, however,
the COVID-19 environment and State and local guidelines continue
to evolve. Due to
this very dynamic and ever-changing environment, it is difficult
for the council to nail down specific policies and/or procedures
because the requirements are likely to change in the future.
Unfortunately, at this time, we are not confident we can
meet any of our five criteria because of recent trends of new
cases in King County, and because of that, it is doubtful we
will be able to resume indoor worship services anytime soon.
Here are some other questions you may be asking yourself
about worship services, and corresponding answers:
1)
Why aren’t we streaming
worship services via the web like other churches?
a.
Streaming a mock service is inconsistent
with our Worship Service guidelines (please see OUR WORSHIP
SERVICES statement below).
When we are able to resume indoor services, our hope is
that we can provide them online.
2)
Why don’t we hold outdoor
services in our parking lot? a. Holding outdoor worship services is inconsistent with our Worship Service guide lines (please see OUR WORSHIP SERVICES
statement below).
1)
Can we at least provide
Holy Communion in the parking lot?
a.
Conducting Holy Communion via the
parking lot is inconsistent with our Worship Service guidelines
(please see OUR WORSHIP SERVICES statement below), however,
Pastor Marshall is providing the Lord’s Supper for us to
administer by ourselves at home as the Reserved Sacrament.
a.
In lieu of our
time together due to the stay-at-home orders issued by our
government, we have put our worshiping, studying and serving in
abeyance. For now,
Pastor Marshall is able to offer written abbreviated online
liturgies. They are not equivalent to, or considered to be, a
normal worship service, but they still have value.
a.
This has not been decided, nor is a
vaccine mentioned in our 5 criteria.
a.
Because resuming indoor worship services
may put our staff and our congregational members in harm’s way,
we believe a clear majority of the council is necessary to make
and support that decision.
b.
Ultimately, it is Pastor Marshall’s
responsibility to ensure that resuming indoor services is
consistent with our mission of faith, and that we can adhere to
our church service requirements.
a. Most, if not all, ELCA churches in southwest King County probably will not open until there is a vaccine and/or treatment for COVID-19 (following the national trend, see The Christian Century, July 29, 2020, pp. 15-16).
OUR WORSHIP SERVICES
(Taken from flcws.org, Worship, based on our Mission
Statement.)
We worship in the
ancient, historical patterns that Christians have handed down
through the centuries.
We celebrate the Lord’s Supper at both of our liturgies
on Sunday mornings, and on Wednesdays every week of the year.
This is the way Christ wanted us to remember him on the
Lord’s Day.
Our prayer together is always liturgical, following the
historical forms of the Church.
We read Holy Scriptures as they are appointed in the
Lectionary. The
sermon explains those readings in terms of the Law and Gospel.
In this we rely on Martin Luther's (1483-1546)
understanding of Christ's mission and life.
Our hymns and choral music reinforce the Scriptures read,
proclaimed and prayed in our worship.
This supports the solemnity of our praise to God the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Historical vestments and traditional rituals also
contribute to the richness of worship.
All our corporate worship is offered within the
consecrated walls of our church which is deemed God's holy and
sacred house of prayer.
Please be safe, stay healthy, wear a mask when in public, pray
for each other and pray that soon we will be able to come
together in our beautiful church and worship God together again.
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Luther on Samson
By Pastor Marshall
Judges 15:15 is one of the most famous verses about Samson – “He
found a fresh jawbone of an ass, and put out his hand and seized
it, and with it he killed a thousand Philistine soldiers” –
fierce enemies of Israel. This episode made Martin Luther gasp –
“I often wonder about the example of Samson,” he notes. “Human
strength couldn’t do what he did,” he adds. Plus Samson was
disobedient and didn’t deserve this stunning, barbaric victory.
Therefore Luther concludes that there must have been “a strong
forgiveness of sins in his case” (Luther’s
Works 54:79). Huge power, then, accompanies forgiveness –
something often missed. And Samson believes God gave him this
power – even though he confesses this late (Judges 15:16 vs
Judges 15:18) (David Grossman,
Lion’s Honey: The Myth of
Samson, 2006, p. 99). Even so, I think Luther would agree
that this belated confession shows that “at least a bit of faith
in and respect for God lies buried in Samson’s troubled breast”
(Trent C. Butler, Judges,
2009, p. 344).
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First Time English Translations of
Martin Luther’s Writings
by Pastor Marshall
Volume 73 of
Luther’s Works has
just been published. It contains nine disputations from
1537–1545 – never before translated into English. Topics covered
have to do with the law, the church, repentance, the divinity of
Jesus and the Holy Trinity. Among my favorite selections are the
following: “If there is no sin,… there is also no Christ as
Redeemer from sin” (55); “The Law is never abolished in
eternity” (56); “Christ rightly says to all His own… that their
whole life is one of repentance” (57); “The entire Church… must
continually repent” (58); “The impenitence of the secure is
contempt for God” (60); “Grace and the forgiveness of sin…. make
us more diligent [in our battle against sin]” (62); “The
teaching of the Law is necessary in the churches” (66); “There
are two things that are set before us in God’s Word: God’s wrath
or God’s grace, sin or righteousness, death or life, hell or
heaven. These things are clear and certain” (69); “Human nature
has been so corrupted… that it neither comprehends the magnitude
of sin nor feels and dreads the punishment of sin, God’s wrath
and eternal death” (70); “I do not convert anyone by the power
of my preaching unless God is present” (75); “God turns to
repentance whom He wills, when He wills” (75); “All have the
Gospel, but not all have faith” (75); “The Law [is] the word of
the eternal and omnipotent God who is fire in the conscience”
(76); “The law… reduces human beings to nothing, condemns them,
and drives [impellit] them to seek help from Christ” (77); “When Christ is
present, the Law loses its power” (78); “The Law… is necessary….
because of the stubborn and callous so that they can be coerced”
(79); “The Law…. makes human beings humble” (82); “We must… be
most diligent in impressing on people that God is angry with sin
and punishes it with the greatest severity” (86); “Those who
believe… begin to hate sin sincerely; to recognize this immense,
incomprehensible, and ineffable gift [of Christ’s sacrifice for
sin]; to give thanks for it; to love, worship, and call on God;
and to expect everything from Him” (86); “The Law kills through
its impossibility” (87); “The great majority of people do not
accept [Christ’s] authority” (88); “We... are laggards [who
persecute Christ, the] sweetest Fulfiller of the Law” (89);
“Christ… makes the Law… delightful and sweet” (90); “The Law
does not reprove sins without the Holy Spirit” (90); “It is
perilous… to search out… the naked divinity by means of reason,
without Christ the Mediator” (91); “The delusions of Satan… so
fascinate the minds of human beings that they embrace [these]
lies as… supreme wisdom” (92); “We die to sin through Christ,
who was made a sacrifice for sin and thereby killed sin so that
it is no longer able to rule in us” (94); “[Our] nature, having
been… depraved by original sin, is already on its own more than
disposed toward sinning” (99); “Because there [are] hard and
impenitent people in the churches, we must repeatedly and
diligently drive home…. God’s wrath threatening the destruction
of the whole world” (100); “There is no greater sin than
unbelief” (101); “[If threats fail], we should see whether we
can bend [the hardened] by means of God’s promises and gifts”
(102); “We [are] commanded to teach that all are transgressors
of the Law and under sin and that those who want to be freed…
should believe in Christ” (104); “Only a few are struck by the
Law… and obey the Gospel” (105); “The Law… deals with us very
harshly” (106); “[The words in John 16:33 are the] sweetest
words in the Gospel” (110); “We should run to Christ in faith [ad
Christum fide]” (110);
“The Decalogue is [noble] because it drew down Christ from
heaven” (112); “The true knowledge of God and… eternal salvation
[are not] easily recovered things” (117); “Exercise yourselves
in the Holy Scriptures… so that [you] may abide firm and
tranquil” (118); “God is angry with all human beings because no
one offers to God that obedience which He requires” (119); “We
are not all called to Christ in the same way” (120); “God…
humbles human beings with the Law and drives them to despair,
not in order to destroy them but so that He may kill their
presumption and then console and restore them again. A preacher
may also do the same” (121); “Christ… shouts out: ‘I’m death’s
death, hell’s hell, and the devil’s devil…. Do not be afraid, My
son, I have conquered’” (122); “It is… extremely difficult to
act as a pastor and… to exercise the care of souls” (124);
“Christ swallows up our sin in His body and removes the rod of
the exactor” (125); “[We are] headstrong, proud, ignorant, and
deceitful, unbridled, and haughty” (126); “Christ has taken our
place, and He makes good what we lack and by His blood erases
the… decree that stood against us, until finally the Law has
been satisfied by one in the place of us all” (127); “The Law
does not make me a better person; it does not make me loving or
hopeful or obedient. Indeed, it cannot. For by itself it cannot
do anything but afflict, ruin, and alarm consciences” (134);
“The Gospel… makes a robber a pedagogue [LW 37:101] and carries
off those killed by the Law and leads them back to Christ”
(135); “On the Last Day…. Christ, the Lord, will transport us to
heaven; we will not do it ourselves” (136); “No one gives
thanks; no one becomes better because of God’s great goodness.
If anything, they become worse…. We have become foolish through
our own wisdom…. Our nature is evil and corrupt” (137); “The Law
[leaves you not knowing] where to turn…. ‘I’m done for! I’m
lost! I’m finished! God doesn’t want me!... He hates me!’”
(142); “Your heart seethes with countless horrible passions…
against God. [So even though you] do splendid works, which are
great and useful,… since you do them with an impure heart and
spirit,… out of self-love and fear of punishment, you have not
satisfied [God]” (145); “Christ cannot be understood apart from
sin” (147); “We are unable to reach life [by keeping the
commandments]” (150); “God turns all things into nothing, and
out of nothing He makes all things [ex nihilo facere omnia et omnibus nihil]” (151); “The Law should not
be removed from the churches” (153); “Faith alone does
everything” (159); “God wants us to be strong soldiers against
the sin that… clings to our flesh” (165); “The Church in this
life is called militant, not triumphant” (168); “The Church
needs the Law… to restrain the ungodly, as if by chains, but
also to… reprove the godly” (171); “The one who fights and does
not allow himself to be conquered or ruled by sin is and is
called a Christian because of faith in Christ…. I implore you to
learn this well” (175); “Here we do indeed begin to die, but
only in the grave is it completed, and sin does not cease
without natural death. The ungodly, however, are not troubled by
this,… they continue doing what they do without taking any
thought for sin. Therefore, they die only to nature, and then in
an eternal death” (177); “A Christian is not in this present
age; he does not live; he has died, and he dwells in another
life, a heavenly life, far above this one” (183); “The Christian
is free by faith, but as far as the flesh is concerned, he is a
slave of sin. Yet these things, though contraries, are
nevertheless reconciled in the Christian because the same
Christian is saint and sinner, dead and alive, all sin and no
sin; hell and heaven are correlatives.” (185); “It is such a
great sin that I have not acknowledged [the] great blessings of
Christ, who suffered for me! Alas! Poor me!” (193); “If the Law
is removed, sin is also removed, and if sin is removed, Christ
is removed” (197); “Christ is the workman [operarium]
for our sins” (199); “Our nature is totally corrupt” (204);
“Faith… must be certain” (204); “The point of making death and
wrath manifest is… that… you might flee to Christ [ad
Christum confugias]” (207); “There are two kinds of people
in the world: the poor, weak, and godly (or those who desire to
be godly); and the rich or healthy (that is, the ungodly and
secure scoundrels)” (211); “What sin is greater than
ingratitude, especially toward God?” (215); “We are always
sleeping…. Therefore, we must be roused by the Law” (223); “A
command of God should take precedence… over the law of nature”
(225); “God’s Law cannot be silenced. [It would be] the same as
telling fire not to burn” (229); “The Law should still be
preached to [those who have a good conscience] and trouble them,
though [they’re] in Christ” (231); “A heretic [is] one who
understands the Scriptures otherwise than the Holy Spirit
demands” (259); “[May we] learn the substance and manner of
speaking of Scripture (LW 25:261]” (261); “The Church exists in
the world but is not the world itself, nor does she live
according to the world” (302); “Against doubt, the Holy Spirit
works certainty in us through the Gospel…. Faith has doubt
opposing and rebelling against it” (304); “God did not make
doubt. Doubt was not created but comes with our corrupted
nature” (312); “Where the Word is, there is the Church” (316);
“The Church never has and never will exist except under
adversaries” (321); “No human mind understands how great an evil
sin is” (332); “If a human being were to feel the magnitude of
sin, he would not survive for one moment, so great is the power
that sin has” (337); “To love God and the neighbor freely and
steadfastly is equivalent to raising the dead” (377); “We do not
understand how Christ deals with infants” (384); “A Christian….
must fight against doubt” (392); “There is nothing accidental in
God” (411); “Faith is not knowledge of the sort that also exists
in the devils” (429); “Death [has] been abolished… from us,
although we still are stuck in this flesh” (443); “The term
‘Trinity’ provokes strange thoughts” (489); “One must not charge
right in like a pig in the mud, inventing opinions with
obstinacy and rashness” (525); “God does not shove the soul into
the body the way farmers put grain into a sack. Instead, He
breathes internally, and when the soul is in the body, the hand,
foot, and mouth move” (528); “No living thing has as much horror
toward death as man has” (533); “God created man upright so that
he would live forever, but he fell from this blessedness through
sin” (533); “The devil… is prince of this world. Therefore, must
he be obeyed? A fine conclusion!” (539).
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Job 21.15
Monthly Home Bible Study,
August 2020, Number 330
The Reverend Ronald F. Marshall
Along with our other regular study of
Scripture, let us join as a congregation in this home study. We
will study alone then
talk informally about the assigned verses together as we have
opportunity. In this way we can “gather
together around the
Word” even though physically we will not be getting together
(Acts 13.44). (This study uses the RSV translation.)
We need to support each other in this difficult project. In 1851
Kierkegaard wrote that the Bible is “an extremely dangerous
book.... [because] it is an imperious book... – it takes the
whole man and may suddenly and radically change... life on a
prodigious scale” (For
Self-Examination). And in 1967 Thomas Merton wrote that “we
all instinctively know that it is dangerous to become involved
in the Bible” (Opening
the Bible). Indeed this word “kills” us (Hosea 6.5) because
we are “a rebellious people” (Isaiah 30.9)! As Lutherans,
however, we are still to “abide in the womb of the Word” (Luther's
Works 17.93) by constantly “ruminating on the Word” (LW
30.219) so that we may “become like the Word” (LW
29.155) by thinking “in the way Scripture does” (LW
25.261). Before you study then, pray: “Blessed Lord, who caused
all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so
to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, that
we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of
everlasting life, which you have given us in Our Savior Jesus
Christ. Amen” (quoted in R. F. Marshall,
Making A New World: How
Lutherans Read the Bible, 2003, p. 12). And don’t give up,
for as Luther said, we “have in Scripture enough to study for
all eternity” (LW
75:422)!
Week I.
Read Job 21.15 noting the words
serve and profit.
Why does Job ask these loaded, cynical questions about God? On
this read Job 3.26 noting the phrase
but trouble comes.
Why is this a problem? Check out Job 9.11 noting the words
passes and
see, and Job 10.12–13 noting the words
care and
yet. Has God dropped
the ball and failed to deliver the help he has promised? Read
also Job 16.9 noting the word
hated rather than
helped. Note also the word
wrath against Job in
Job 19.11. Job wishes he could get God to change his ways and
help him out again – but Job 23.13 says that’s impossible –
noting the words
unchangeable and turn.
Is Job then stuck with no divine help? On this read Job 24.12
noting the line the
wounded cries for help; yet God pays no attention to their
prayer. What then? Read Job 26.14 noting the phrase
the outskirts of his ways.
What does that mean? Check out Job 26.7–13 noting the verbs
stretches,
hangs,
binds,
covers,
spreads,
rebuke,
stilled,
smote and
pierced. If God can
do all of this, can’t he also help out Job? If so, why doesn’t
he? Do the words
disciplines and
chastises in Hebrews 12.6 help?
Week II.
Read again Job 21.15 noting the same two words
serve and
profit. Does God
reward our service with profit? On this read John 16.33 noting
the word tribulation.
Does that mean that God won’t get us out of messes? On this read
Romans 8.18 noting the contrast between
sufferings now and
the glories to come
in heaven. Why draw this contrast? Check on 2 Corinthians
4.17–18 noting the words
beyond and transient.
Why are our troubles in this life trivialized like this? On this
note the better country
in Hebrews 11.16, and the
lasting city in Hebrews 13.14. What makes them so much
better? On this read Revelation 21.4 noting the absence of
tears,
death and
pain. How is heaven
free of these troubles? On this note the line
destroy… the power of
death in Hebrews 2.14. Why is that earthly victory over
death reversed for those in heaven only? On this read Luke 16.26
noting the great chasm
between heaven and hell. That divide protects heaven from any
contamination from hell. That makes it a safe place for
deathlessness to abide in glory. 2 Corinthians 4.4 says that in
this world the devil
is God. That makes
this place crooked
and perverse
according to Philippians 2.15.
Week III.
Reread Job 21.15 noting the word
Almighty. What is the
answer to Job’s question? On this read Ezekiel 36.22 noting the
line it is not for your
sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act. Why does
God help us but not for our advantage? Read Isaiah 55.9 noting
the word higher. That
vast difference between God and creation minimizes creation. Is
that why we are compared to
worms in Psalm 22.6
and a sparrow in
Matthew 10.31? Why aren’t we compared to a mighty
bear or a fierce
lion? God is in Amos
5.19 and Hosea 13.8. Can’t we be too if we are created in his
image according
Genesis l.26? But do we still have it? On this read Ephesians
2.3 noting the line by
nature children of wrath. Note also
Seth being born in
the image and likeness of
Adam, not God, in Genesis 5.3. Is it because of this loss
that the distance is now so extreme between the
Creator and the
creatures in Romans
1:25?
Week IV.
Read Job 21.15 one last time noting the word
pray. Is prayer a
means by which we get whatever we want from God? On this read
Matthew 6.10 noting the line
thy will be done. Why
would we say that when we are asking for what we want? Read in
this regard Hebrews 12.11 noting the phrase
seems painful.
Because of our perceptual limitations, we can’t see the value in
suffering the way God can – which makes his choices for us
better. Read also Proverbs 19.21 noting the contract between our
plans and God’s
purposes. His
purposes take into account more than our plans do, so God’s will
is again to be preferred. Also check out Isaiah 5.20 about how
we mix up good and
evil, unlike God who,
according to James 1.17 is
perfectly good.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Please note…
The church council has decided that this year’s Mid-Year
Congregational meeting will be conducted online via ZOOM
MEETINGS. The
meeting will be at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, August 2, 2020.
Meeting materials will be sent via email to those that
have email, and for those who do not, the materials will be
mailed through the US Mail.
With the materials, we will include the meeting invite
link, and the meeting ID and password.
Instructions for how to dial in to the meeting will be
provided.
Pastor Marshall’s
Bible Studies
on Thursday evenings at 7:00 pm are well attended.
“WITH THE MIND” book club
(Black
Like Me
by John Griffin, 1962) is planned for Sunday, August 23rd, 3:30
pm, and the
KORAN Class
($20) will start on Wednesdays from 6:30-8:30 pm on the 5th of
August, through the 26th.
All of these classes are via ZOOM, please contact him so
he can send you a link, so you can get in on them.
Lillian Schneider (1918-2020) with Pastor Marshall
in a Zoom photo 10 days before she died on July 9.
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Philippians
The Apostle Saint Paul
“Complete my joy by being of the same
mind,… being in full accord and of one mind”
(2:2)
by Pastor Marshall
Martin
Luther believed that this verse was “the sum and substance of
the kind of outward life” that all Christians should live –
sharing in the “unity of spirit,” and being of “one conviction.”
He was convinced that this was “a powerful, noteworthy word,”
and that all Christians “should understand it well” (Luther’s
Works 30:94) – for “this equality of heart and mind can
unite all external inequality in the world” (LW
78:189). Not surprisingly, then, Luther extends his concern to
corporate worship, believing that “as far as possible we should
observe the same rites and ceremonies, just as all Christians
have the same baptism and the same sacrament of the altar” (LW
53:61). This teaching was central to him because he believed
that it was “directed against opinionated, hard-headed,
stiff-necked people, whom in popular language we call
blockheads….. We all are strongly inclined to this fault with a
strange propensity, and most rare is the man who does not
possess it. [Due to this fault, we] yield to the advice of no
one, even though we are convinced by the reasoning. And even if
one uses the opposite method, they still remain adamant and wait
for the chance to rejoice and laugh if the advice of others
proves wrong. These people are the authors of contention and the
most effective disturbers of the peace and the destroyers of
spiritual unity” (LW
25:464). “Each one seeks his own honor, glory, and advantage,
and wants to be seen as soaring over others…. That is why the
world is full of… schismatic spirits, and there is no one who
does not want to be master of all others” (LW 76:339). As a result, even Christians “are embittered by this
quarreling… and are bitten and eaten up with hatred, envy, and
other vices, so that love grows cold and faith is extinguished”
(LW 79:151). So the stakes are very high!
What defiles the body of Christ – robbing it of its desired
unity – is “the selfish eye, the pompous mind, the ear hungry
for compliments and the mouth that [speaks] none, the heart that
[has] little room for others, and the hand that serves only the
self” (Fred Craddock,
Philippians, 1987, p. 38). No wonder the unity sought here
seems to have “sublime ambiguity,” for it can mean “be
like-minded, but also, poetically, have one focus, that is,
Christ” (Bonnie B. Thurston,
Philippians, 2009, p.
74). This ambiguity serves the solution by allowing for some
variations. So Christian unity is not about having “the same
opinion on every subject. Life would be very flat and dull
without the give-and-take practiced when variety of opinion and
viewpoint provides scope for friendly discussion and debate” (F.
F. Bruce, Philippians,
1989, p. 62). But this latitude cannot jeopardize the core of
our faith. Then it would be going beyond the “scope for friendly
discussion and debate.” Then it would be disrupting “good
works,… faith and Baptism,… Sacrament, Christ, grace, and
salvation,… preaching [and] absolution” (LW 78:188–89). Those all have to stand – regardless of how they’re
understood. Luther had no problem with debating meaning.
Disputations help Christians “learn how to give answer, to teach
others, and to pass God’s doctrine on to our descendants in
truth” (LW 73:431). We
“must learn to give an account for our faith,… to stand [our]
ground and give a reason…. If people refuse to believe, you
should keep silence; for you have no obligation to force them to
regard Scripture as God’s Book or Word. It is sufficient for you
to base your proof on Scripture. This you must do” (LW
30:107).
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“I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
(Psalm 139:14)
“You don’t know how the
body is formed in the mother’s womb.”
(Ecclesiastes 11:5)
Eyes
“The eye is a thing of wonder…. About a third of your entire
cerebral cortex is engaged with vision…. If you held a human
eyeball in your hand, you might be surprised by its size because
we only see about one-sixth of it when it is embedded in the eye
socket…. The cornea… deserves a moment’s thanks…. This modest,
dome-shaped goggle not only protects the eye from worldly
assaults but actually does two-thirds of the eyeball’s focusing.
The lens, which gets all the credit in the popular mind, does
only about a third…. The cornea could hardly be less imposing.
[It fits] on the tip of your finger…. It has five layers…. In
order to be transparent, it has a very modest blood supply –
indeed, practically none…. To keep all of this working
smoothly,… we produce tears constantly…. You produce about five
to ten ounces of tears a day…. The human eye can distinguish
somewhere between 2 million and 7.5 million colors…. Even at the
lower level of estimates, that is a lot…. The movements of the
eye are called saccades… and you have about a quarter of a
million of them every day without ever being aware of it…. All
the never fibers leave the eye via a single channel at the back,
resulting in a blind spot about fifteen degrees off center in
our field of vision…. You don’t normally experience the blind
spot, because your brain continually fills in the void for you.
The process is called perceptual interpolation. The blind spot,
it is worth noting, is much more than just a spot; it’s a
substantial portion of your central field of vision. That’s
quite remarkable – that a significant part of everything you
‘see’ is actually imagined. Victorian naturalists sometimes
cited this as additional proof of God’s beneficence.”
[Bill Bryson, The Body: A
Guide to Occupants (2019) pp. 80, 81, 82, 83, 84.]
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Remember in prayer before God those whom He has made your
brothers and sisters through baptism.
Pray for our professional Health Care Providers:
Gina Allen, Janine Douglass, David Juhl, Dana Kahn, Dean Riskedahl
and all those
suffering from the coronavirus pandemic. Also, pray for
unbelievers, the addicted, the sexually abused, harassed, and
unemployed.
Pray for the shut-ins that the light of Christ may give them
joy: Bob & Mona
Ayer, Bob & Barbara Schorn, Joan Olson, Doris Prescott, C. J.
Christian, Dorothy Ryder, Crystal Tudor, Nora Vanhala, Martin
Nygaard, Gregg & Jeannine Lingle, Anelma Meeks. Pray for those who have suffered the death of a loved one: Pray that God will bear their grief and lift their hearts: Pray for the family and friends of Lillian Schneider who died on July 9th in Mountlake Terrace, WA, a couple of weeks after her 102nd birthday.
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Treasury
of Prayer
Heavenly Father, teach me day by day to do your will. Give me
that purity of conscience which alone can receive and build upon
your revelation. My ears are dull, and so I don’t hear your
Word. My eyes are dim, and so I miss your blessings. In your
mercy quicken my hearing, purge my sight, and cleanse and renew
my heart. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen. [For All the Saints IV:1005, altered] |