Messages

1

Your Turn / Re: Comments on Luther biography

« on: June 09, 2021, 02:25:22 PM »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_Q8fWJcyyw

Interesting lecture by Lyndal Roper on Lutheran visual propaganda. She discusses 'Living I was your plague...'

See also her lecture on the Peasant War.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuB6mNJEjVc&t=771sWar

Thank you Father Slusser, for bringing this scholar to our attention.

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Your Turn / Re: Pentecost: Feast of Joy

« on: May 23, 2021, 02:22:30 PM »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rETHbd-Vb3k. Bach's Cantata #34 for Pentecost.

See also.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d-B7AS7JhI. for an explanation of the cantata. 

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Your Turn / Re: A Thread for Sniping at Each Other over Gender Issues

« on: May 09, 2021, 03:41:02 AM »

The larger  concerns in this topic of conversation are:  What factors, institutional, cultural, theological have to be dealt with in making sense of this diversity of opinion?  What is meant by teaching?  What is Ordination?  How do larger social understandings fit in?  Is there one way of thinking about these things? Is knowledge on the topic  available and comprehensible to all or is it known only to the initiated?  [ Personal note:  I had never heard of Marva Dawn until her death.  On theological questions I have been told that I do not understand because I have had no formal theological education.]

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Your Turn / Re: National Day of Prayer

« on: May 07, 2021, 10:51:32 AM »

The responses in this thread demonstrate the divisions that exist in this Forum and in the society at large.  I have been trying to understand this for some time.  Here is an idea:  "Belonging is Stronger Than Facts."   See today's NY Times.  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/07/world/asia/misinformation-disinformation-fake-news.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

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Your Turn / The Clergy Novel

« on: May 06, 2021, 06:53:20 PM »

I am a re-subscriber to The Lutheran Forum newsletter.  My first issue, which arrived today,  contained an account of the  editor's cross-country relocation.   Of special intellectual interest was the David Young listing of titles of "The clergy novel."  I will write a note to Pastor Young thanking him for this listing.  As a Minnesotan, I will ask him to consider Garrison Keillor's humorous portrayal of clergy men and women in "A Prairie Home Companion.'   Who of us living here in Minnesota can forget Father Emil and Pastor Engvist?

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Your Turn / Re: Threats To The Christian Church: External & Internal

« on: May 03, 2021, 09:16:28 PM »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S1U3bJakOE

Here is an interesting workshop on Bach's Cantata 86 which is consistent with this thread.  'Truly, truly I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father, in My name, so will it be given to you.'   (Ich will doch wohl Rosen Gretchen....)   "I will yet indeed pluck roses, even if they prick me with thorn.   For I have confidence That my prayers and my pleading go straight to the heart of God, because he gave me His word (Weil es mir sein Wort verspricht.). The beautiful concluding chorale contains the thought that "Hope awaits the right time, which God's word has promised...He knows well when would be best, and uses no cruel tricks on us;  therefore we should trust him.  (Des solln wir ihm vertrauen.)

If you cannot take time for the lesson go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubc2_3mj18U

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Your Turn / Re: Threats To The Christian Church: External & Internal

« on: May 02, 2021, 08:13:40 PM »

Beweis dein Macht, Herr Jesu Christ,
Der du Herr aller Herren bist
(Reveal your strength, Lord Jesus Christ,
You who are Lord of Lords)
Beschirm dein arme Christenheit.
Dass sie dich lob in Ewigkeit.
(protect your poor Christianity,
so that it praises You in eternity.)

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Your Turn / Re: Threats To The Christian Church: External & Internal

« on: May 02, 2021, 06:22:06 PM »

I am reminded of a profound prayer for the church from the work of J.S. Bach.  His cantata for Easter 2 (BWV 6) is based on the interaction between Christ and the disciples on the Road to Emmaus.  "Stay with us, for evening falls, and the day has declined." The German text is"Bleib  bei uns, denn  es  will Abend werden, und Der Tag hat such geneiget."  The imagery of the deepening day is broadened to a consideration of the Last Times.   The prayer is that "Your divine Word, the bright light, let it not be extinguished among us."  "In dieser letzt'n  betrubten Zeit/ Verleih uns, Herr, Bestandigkeit, (In these last troubled times/grant us Lord, perseverance). Dass wir dein Wort und Sakrament/ Rein b'halted bis an Unser End.  (that we may preserve Your word and sacrament pure until our end.)

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Your Turn / Re: Chauvin Trial and verdict

« on: May 02, 2021, 07:21:34 AM »

From the Washington Post:   "If there was a sense of relief after a jury convicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin of the murder of George Floyd, it was short-lived. Seems like every day in this country, there is another new — usually Black — person brutalized by police; another new video showing disturbing and dehumanizing actions by those who have sworn to protect and serve. The legitimacy of policing is being challenged in ways never seen before, and that underscores the urgency of reform. Not only will it better safeguard the public, but it also will help the majority of officers who do their jobs lawfully and conscientiously.
"Much of the work to be done must be done at the local and state levels. But Congress needs to do its part: In his address Wednesday night, President Biden called on Congress to pass a police reform bill no later than May 25, which will mark the one year since the death of Floyd. The House for the second time passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in March, mostly along party lines, but it remains stalled in the Senate, where "Republicans favor a competing plan by Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) that is narrower in scope.

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Your Turn / Re: Chauvin Trial and verdict

« on: April 27, 2021, 01:35:05 PM »

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/25/us/police-use-of-force.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

There is a legal doctrine which is worthy of consideration in this context.  These issues deal with the problem of  'split second decisions.'

11

Your Turn / Re: Coronavirus news

« on: April 25, 2021, 09:40:16 AM »

Well, Pastor E., I am not in a position to advice or even suggest.  I respect your office and your position.  If another member of my church would ask my opinion, I would suggest vaccinations and masking.   From a medical information perspective, it 'pays' or it 'works' to vaccinate and wear a mask.  From a Lutheran-Christian perspective I would advise the reluctant to think of her neighbor, to serve him in love.

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Your Turn / Re: Coronavirus news

« on: April 25, 2021, 07:14:06 AM »

Resistance to vaccinations and the wearing of masks might be labeled as  therapeutic nihilism. It'd hard to overcome.

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Your Turn / Re: Chauvin Trial and verdict

« on: April 21, 2021, 01:11:49 PM »

The Mississippi River is a geographic thread that ties together Dred Scott and George Floyd.  In St. Louis, the United States Supreme Court said that Dred Scott was not a legal person, that as a black man he wasn't entitled to the full protection of law. In Minneapolis,  the Chauvin v. State of Minnesota trial  affirmed that a black man did have importance, that black lives do matter, that George Floyd, as a human being, mattered.

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Your Turn / Chauvin Trial and verdict

« on: April 20, 2021, 05:32:57 PM »

KYRIE ELEISON.  What does it mean?  There are issues here. Lord have mercy.

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Your Turn / Re: America is a Pagan Nation - Now What?

« on: April 19, 2021, 07:24:59 PM »

I would propose that what is now happening in Minneapolis will have a profound effect on the American culture.  This will also have an effect on American religion.