Lutheran Carnival V: Sports and More
Introduction
A Web Carnival is a weekly or biweekly collection of articles written by bloggers. In our Lutheran Carnival, a different blogger hosts the carnival each week. Some posts are by pastors, but not the majority in this case. Please visit these sites, and if you have an opinion as to their content, use that particular blog's comment form to give them feedback. If you want to give public feedback about this post itself, feel free to use the comment form at the bottom. Comment Screening for this Lutheran Carnival has been turned completely off, so that people can post conversations without waiting for me to approve each comment. If you aren't a LiveJournal user, please put your name or some pseudonym at the bottom of your comment so that we can reply. If I've made a mistake, click User Info at the top, locate my e-mail address (done this way to reduce spam), and let me know what's wrong.Church Father of the Week
Justus Jonas (1493-1555)
Justus Jonas was one of Martin Luther's dearest friends, present at Luther's funeral and preached Luther's funeral sermon on 1 Thess. 4:13-14. He translated On the Bondage of the Will among many other works. Jonas opposed all doctrinal compromises and concessions.
(Source text: Concordia BoC, p. 717)
(Source picture: Trinity Lutheran Church, Clinton, MA)This Week's Suggested Topic: Sports
On Monday, the legendary NFL wide receiver Jerry Rice retired from football, after piling up 38 NFL records including career receptions, yards receiving, and touchdowns receiving. I'm sure he also has the undocumented record of most highlight-reel footage.
What can the career of Jerry Rice remind us, in this particular forum?
That as your stock broker will also tell you, past performance is not indicative of future results. Despite 22895 yards and 197 touchdowns since 1985, Rice could not make even Denver's 3rd receiver position in 2005.
The maxim is true scripturally for us humans: Adam and Eve were created perfect in God's sight, but disobeyed and fell into sin (Genesis 2-3). David slew Goliath as a boy (1 Samuel 17) but as a king committed one of his generals to die so that David could have his wife (2 Samuel 11). St. Peter in Acts 5:29 gave us "We must obey God rather than man" yet committed hypocrisy in Galatians 2:11-14. Even in the present people who have done great things in nomine Iesu have later committed great sins to their detriment and embarrassment. The mighty fall, and so do we, when we trade hearing the Word for showing up hours early to a game, or when we lust after cheerleaders, or when we covet someone's season tickets near the 50-yard-line.
Thankfully there is Someone who was completely consistent, and His past performance determines future results. Christ takes our failings and nails them to the cross. He has fulfilled the Law in our stead (Romans 8:3-4) and gives this righteousness of His to us as a gift (Romans 3:23-24). To those who believe he gives the right to be sons of God (John 1:12). Christ is assessed the penalties we deserve to suffer. Jerry Rice will be a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame because of his statistics, but because of Christ, we can be shoe-ins for the Book of Life despite our track record.The Articles
Vicar Charles Lehmann at Drowning Myself Whenever I Can contributes his Homily for Trinity 16. Chaz explains, it's "a sermon that emphasizes the fact that we have been raised in baptism and given to our Mother, the Church. She is no widow, and neither are we." His post earns the Safety signal because that aspect of the Gospel comes through.
Bob Waters sends us his watersblogged! post where he states unequivocally: God is a Cubs fan. Towards the end he uses the theology of the Cross to make his point. One gem: "St. Louis was the city where I once observed in a sermon that the Christian life was like a 5-3 putout for the Cubs: it always went from Law to Grace." It's good, even if the Aardvark disagrees with the call. :)
Aardvark Alley compares the epitome of the athletic ideal with the absolute of the divine real, touching on topics of hard work, human excellence, and true peace in Olympic Struggles, Olympic Peace.
In his blog, A Beggar at the Table, Pastor Alex Klages unearths a covert heresy belonging to a well-respected early church writer, one which should draw several penalty flags. Interference is a good penalty for Novatian, but for Novatian's denial of God's grace, he definitely earns the Illegal Block.
Minister2B at Lutheran Jargon asks, "Have they not read Genesis?" in response to comments that God sent Katrina to destroy New Orleans because of wickedness, sin, and evil. These guys encroach upon the Word of God with the intent to siphon off the Word's credibility onto their own cause.
Pastor David Peterson submits his Trinity 15 Midweek Sermon from his Cyberstones blog. In the sermon the devil would have us believe that God does not provide for us. We read on to find that God provided for his Son through 40 days of hunger, and He will provide for us too.
In Ask the Pastor's commentary on Sports, Prayer, and Religion, Pastor Snyder answers questions about God's involvement in the outcome of sporting events and the content of the participants' prayers. He includes comparison of true religion to superstition and provides visual examples by including the University of Notre Dame's famed "Touchdown Jesus." There are several interference calls in this post.
Taking the previous week's Carnival topic to heart, Polly at Blog from Mossback Meadow uses the doctrine of vocation to explain her preference not to give to the relief efforts in the Southeast. For her non-Lutheran friends, I suggested a more direct approach in the comments to her post, I'm So Unpopular This Week.
Dan the rock hound at Random Thoughts of a Confessional Lutheran highlights the interference of diversity training upon basic corporate economics and decision making. Having looked at some diversity curriculum myself, I can say that the best stuff I've seen does not emphasize what a class/gender/race/whatnot group believes but rather helps managers predict and address resistance to any corporate culture change necessitated by its customers.
On her family's blog, Kiihnworld, Theresa gives us the Sports tip of the year: Civilization has a 24 hour shelf life. Train accordingly. She reviews her family's attempts at earthly emergency preparedness and dovetails into "some mighty defense".
Finally, I kick in my own post critiquing some confirmation material put out by Augsburg Press this year. Augsburg introduced the Winking Luther curriculum with the intent of making confirmation funny and functional. When the Lesson Dwarfs the Content takes a look at examples from "The Lutheran Handbook" and "Here We Stand Confirmation".Next Week
Fellow LiveJournal user chaz_lehmann, the Vicar of Hamel, hosts Lutheran Carnival VI.
A Web Carnival is a weekly or biweekly collection of articles written by bloggers. In our Lutheran Carnival, a different blogger hosts the carnival each week. Some posts are by pastors, but not the majority in this case. Please visit these sites, and if you have an opinion as to their content, use that particular blog's comment form to give them feedback. If you want to give public feedback about this post itself, feel free to use the comment form at the bottom. Comment Screening for this Lutheran Carnival has been turned completely off, so that people can post conversations without waiting for me to approve each comment. If you aren't a LiveJournal user, please put your name or some pseudonym at the bottom of your comment so that we can reply. If I've made a mistake, click User Info at the top, locate my e-mail address (done this way to reduce spam), and let me know what's wrong.Church Father of the Week
Justus Jonas (1493-1555)
Justus Jonas was one of Martin Luther's dearest friends, present at Luther's funeral and preached Luther's funeral sermon on 1 Thess. 4:13-14. He translated On the Bondage of the Will among many other works. Jonas opposed all doctrinal compromises and concessions.
(Source text: Concordia BoC, p. 717)
(Source picture: Trinity Lutheran Church, Clinton, MA)This Week's Suggested Topic: Sports
On Monday, the legendary NFL wide receiver Jerry Rice retired from football, after piling up 38 NFL records including career receptions, yards receiving, and touchdowns receiving. I'm sure he also has the undocumented record of most highlight-reel footage.
What can the career of Jerry Rice remind us, in this particular forum?
That as your stock broker will also tell you, past performance is not indicative of future results. Despite 22895 yards and 197 touchdowns since 1985, Rice could not make even Denver's 3rd receiver position in 2005.
The maxim is true scripturally for us humans: Adam and Eve were created perfect in God's sight, but disobeyed and fell into sin (Genesis 2-3). David slew Goliath as a boy (1 Samuel 17) but as a king committed one of his generals to die so that David could have his wife (2 Samuel 11). St. Peter in Acts 5:29 gave us "We must obey God rather than man" yet committed hypocrisy in Galatians 2:11-14. Even in the present people who have done great things in nomine Iesu have later committed great sins to their detriment and embarrassment. The mighty fall, and so do we, when we trade hearing the Word for showing up hours early to a game, or when we lust after cheerleaders, or when we covet someone's season tickets near the 50-yard-line.
Thankfully there is Someone who was completely consistent, and His past performance determines future results. Christ takes our failings and nails them to the cross. He has fulfilled the Law in our stead (Romans 8:3-4) and gives this righteousness of His to us as a gift (Romans 3:23-24). To those who believe he gives the right to be sons of God (John 1:12). Christ is assessed the penalties we deserve to suffer. Jerry Rice will be a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame because of his statistics, but because of Christ, we can be shoe-ins for the Book of Life despite our track record.The Articles
Vicar Charles Lehmann at Drowning Myself Whenever I Can contributes his Homily for Trinity 16. Chaz explains, it's "a sermon that emphasizes the fact that we have been raised in baptism and given to our Mother, the Church. She is no widow, and neither are we." His post earns the Safety signal because that aspect of the Gospel comes through.
Bob Waters sends us his watersblogged! post where he states unequivocally: God is a Cubs fan. Towards the end he uses the theology of the Cross to make his point. One gem: "St. Louis was the city where I once observed in a sermon that the Christian life was like a 5-3 putout for the Cubs: it always went from Law to Grace." It's good, even if the Aardvark disagrees with the call. :)
Aardvark Alley compares the epitome of the athletic ideal with the absolute of the divine real, touching on topics of hard work, human excellence, and true peace in Olympic Struggles, Olympic Peace.
In his blog, A Beggar at the Table, Pastor Alex Klages unearths a covert heresy belonging to a well-respected early church writer, one which should draw several penalty flags. Interference is a good penalty for Novatian, but for Novatian's denial of God's grace, he definitely earns the Illegal Block.
Minister2B at Lutheran Jargon asks, "Have they not read Genesis?" in response to comments that God sent Katrina to destroy New Orleans because of wickedness, sin, and evil. These guys encroach upon the Word of God with the intent to siphon off the Word's credibility onto their own cause.
Pastor David Peterson submits his Trinity 15 Midweek Sermon from his Cyberstones blog. In the sermon the devil would have us believe that God does not provide for us. We read on to find that God provided for his Son through 40 days of hunger, and He will provide for us too.
In Ask the Pastor's commentary on Sports, Prayer, and Religion, Pastor Snyder answers questions about God's involvement in the outcome of sporting events and the content of the participants' prayers. He includes comparison of true religion to superstition and provides visual examples by including the University of Notre Dame's famed "Touchdown Jesus." There are several interference calls in this post.
Taking the previous week's Carnival topic to heart, Polly at Blog from Mossback Meadow uses the doctrine of vocation to explain her preference not to give to the relief efforts in the Southeast. For her non-Lutheran friends, I suggested a more direct approach in the comments to her post, I'm So Unpopular This Week.
Dan the rock hound at Random Thoughts of a Confessional Lutheran highlights the interference of diversity training upon basic corporate economics and decision making. Having looked at some diversity curriculum myself, I can say that the best stuff I've seen does not emphasize what a class/gender/race/whatnot group believes but rather helps managers predict and address resistance to any corporate culture change necessitated by its customers.
On her family's blog, Kiihnworld, Theresa gives us the Sports tip of the year: Civilization has a 24 hour shelf life. Train accordingly. She reviews her family's attempts at earthly emergency preparedness and dovetails into "some mighty defense".
Finally, I kick in my own post critiquing some confirmation material put out by Augsburg Press this year. Augsburg introduced the Winking Luther curriculum with the intent of making confirmation funny and functional. When the Lesson Dwarfs the Content takes a look at examples from "The Lutheran Handbook" and "Here We Stand Confirmation".Next Week
Fellow LiveJournal user chaz_lehmann, the Vicar of Hamel, hosts Lutheran Carnival VI.