Initial Thoughts on TDP and schools

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I am been praying the TDP for a couple weeks now.  There are many others (see Stuckwisch & Weedon & Lehmann & Petersen in particular) who have posted and lauded its ease of use, all-in-one nature, and the like.  In my congregation we have sold I think fifteen copies thus far, and I expect that number will go up as we get closer to Christmas.  What I am currently considering and reflecting upon is it’s potential use for Lutheran schools.

My congregation jointly operates a Lutheran dayschool called Chrsit Lutheran Academy.  It is a wonderful school.  We have chapel every day, with learn-by-heart of the catechism, hymn and bible verse each week.  When I get tired or frustrated, all I have to do is think of the faith that these children are having instilled into them each day, and it gives me joy.

A part of our world is that we use Pr. Peter Bender’s Lutheran Catechesis.  There are many elements of it which I like very much, especially the daily emphasis on the Word of God and the catechism.

However.

One of the challenges that Bender’s approach gives is the daily prayer life of the congregation.  Each year you create a schedule with daily readings, and weekly bible verse, catechism and hymn verses.  This is good.  But then the schedule itself is on a sheet of paper each week, to be handed out.  It’s not in any book.  It also means, practically speaking, that parishoners are going to have to juggle 2-3 different books in their daily prayers in their families.  Some are willing to do this.  Most are not willing to do this.  So it creates a disparity between the prayer life of the school and the prayer life of the congregation’s families (be they school or not school).

That’s where the TDP may come in.

What I am looking at is taking portions of the TDP and using them for chapel each day.  I don’t envision each child having a TDP.  Practically speaking, they’re simply too big for k-2 graders to hold and handle comfortably.  But the older kids might, and the teachers certainly would.

As I see it, here are the challenges:

1. Length.  The readings, esp. the OT readings, are long.  Let’s say you use a two year cycle with the readings.  WHen you are in the OT year, you are going to have to either have really long readings, or you will have to cut down on the length of the readings.  I’m concered about it.

2. Readers vs. non-readers.  A part of what we do to engage the non-reading and the learning is that we have a hymn and a psalm for the week.  By Wednesday many of the kids have them memorized, whether they can read or not.  So Im concerned with going to a daily hymn or psalm as compared to the weekly.

3. Divine Service.  On Wednesdays we have the Divine Service.  It’s strikes me as fairly odd to use the daily lectionary readings for the divine service.  But it makes no sense to use the DS readings in chapel and then use the daily lectionary readings the rest of the day.  Less is more.

Those are my initial concerns.  I welcome any thoughts or critiques, especially from those who have schools themselves.

-LL

Trinity 25 – 2008

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Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Messiah Lutheran Church, Kenosha, Wisconsin

Trinity 25 (Nov. 9, 2008)

Matthew 24:15-28

For an audio MP3 of this sermon, CLICK HERE

TITLE: “Finding God where He Truly Is”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for today is from the Gospel lesson just read, with focus on the final words, Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

When God told Noah to build an Ark, it took Noah 120 years to do it. He was six hundred when he started. During that whole period, Noah preached. He was a prophet. He preached repentance and salvation. Come and be saved from the waters! But when the day of destruction came, no one was ready for it. They drowned in their own stubbornness and unbelief.

When the children of Israel fled from the true God and went lusting after false Gods, they were warned that their stubbornness and unbelief could cause their destruction. Jeremiah and Ezekiel especially preached, confessed and lived so that the nation would see their hardheartedness, repent of their sins and live. But they would not.

In Jesus day, the destruction of the nation was coming. Would they reject the Messiah in their midst, or would they repent and live? Jesus warned them. Over and over again Jesus warned them of their coming destruction. Jesus said not long before our text,

““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!” (Matthew 23:37 ESV)

Here in our text today, Jesus warns them of the coming doom as well. He warns of a time when false messiahs will come. He warns of a time when idolatry and unbelief will be at its highest. He warns of a time when people will be looking for answers to their problems, and when they will go to any length to find them.

Sound familiar? He is speaking of today. Now I don’t mean post-2008 presidential election United States of America. I mean He is speaking of the time from His ascension into heaven until His second coming for the final judgment. It is during this time that the Church is constantly under attack. It is in this time, the times of our lives, when God’s kingdom and righteous reign extends throughout the world, but when it is also rejected at almost every hand. The city of Jerusalem was destroyed in 74 A.D., but the whole world is on the path to destruction apart from the mercy of God.

Now there, of course, lies the rub. We remember our Lord’s return and coming for the final judgment, but how do we look at it? Are we impatient for His return? Do we hope he’ll wait until there is a more convenient time for us? Remember again Jesus’ words from our text,

“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” (Matthew 24:23-28 ESV)

Our impatience and unbelief work against us all the time. Christians get impatient with God. We don’t want Him to come in His time. We want Him to come in our time and in our way. Think of the people in Noah’s day, who couldn’t sense the rising water. Thing of the people in Ezekiel’s day, who couldn’t tell that their refusal to trust in the God of Israel alone would be their end. So the question of when He comes and where He comes and maybe even why He comes are all wrapped together in our text. Jesus gives us the answer to these things in verse 28, Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

It’s a very ugly picture, and I think one of the most perplexing statements in the book of Matthew. The vulture is a carnivore and a scavenger. It lives off of death. It is through death that the vulture sustains it’s own life. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

Now let’s think about this in another way: where Jesus is, there his Church will gather. You are the vultures, and Jesus is the one who died to feed you and make you live. And where is Jesus? Jesus is to be found in the pure preaching of His Word and the right administration of His Sacraments. In other words, Jesus is here. Right here. Right now. You don’t need signs and wonders and miracles to encounter God. You need Jesus. And here He is.

But Satan knows this. He knows that our sinful nature makes us impatient and weary of waiting for God. So what Satan does is He tries to put up false christs and false messiahs to get in the way. Anyone who claims to have a handle on God apart from Jesus and His death is not from God. And in the same way, anyone who claims to know the will of God apart from the Scriptures is not from God.

You and I seek God in our own ways and in our own times, when it is convenient for us. But God does not work that way. He has a better way. While you and I would hunt and search for God in the strangest of places, He promises to you that you will find Him in His death and resurrection. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. That is to say, you and I, His Church, gather around His death. As St. Paul said, as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord’s Death until he comes.

So while you and I face uncertainty and questions about the end times, wars and rumors of wars, cling to Christ. The fads and fashions of this world come and go, but the Rock of our Salvation is certain and sure. You know where to find him. He’s right here, where He promised to you that He would always be. He is here. He is coming again soon. And His return will be the greatest day ever. On that day all of your hopes are fulfilled, death will be destroyed once and for all, and you will live and be with the Lord forever. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.

In Mourning

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I had a friend remind me that God is in control, the sun still came up this morning, and that Christ is still Lord of the Church.  All of which is true, and for which I am deeply thankful.

But I am still in mourning.  I have friends and classmates who are excited about Senator Obama’s election.  I am confident that I have parishioners who feel the same way.  There is a lot of talk about healing divisions.  I am certainly in favor of that, and will continue to pray for the blessing and well-being of our country.

But the facts still remain that Senator Obama is pro-abortion.  I don’t think that any amount of spinning and finessing can really get around that simple fact.  He is in favor of a woman’s right to choose to end the life of her unborn child.  My friend Pr. Esget brought up this salient quotation from the late Pope John Paul II:

When a parliamentary or social majority decrees that it is legal, at least under certain conditions, to kill unborn human life, is it not really making a “tyrannical” decision with regard to the weakest and most defenseless of human beings? … In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is terefore never licit to obey it, or to take part in a a propaganda campaign in favour of such a law, or vote for it…. The moral gravity of procured abortion is apparent in all its truth if we recognize we are dealing with murder.

-John Paul II, The Gospel of Life

It is for that reason that I am in mourning.  Maybe things will be better in our nation.  Maybe divisions will be healed, the economy will improve, and the blessings that God has given us will continue unabated.  But I fear that they will do so on the rotting corpses of the most helpless in our society, our children.

A culture that thrives and expands while it murders it’s own children is corrupt and evil.

So don’t try and steal my mourning because God is in control.  I know he is in control, but it is good and right to mourn over the deaths of our children.  Furthermore, I think I would say it is sick and wrong not to mourn the death of our children.

God have mercy on us all.

-LL