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This is a 29 minute interview on Christian Nationalism. It was very good. I think Todd is an excellent interviewer with good questions. The guest is a professor at Southern Baptist Seminary. It was a good interview.

https://issuesetc.org/2022/11/01/3054-christian-nationalism-andrew-walker-11-1-22/

Jeremy

Pres. Benke, contact Tyler Arnold at Village in Ladue MO. He spoke on this topic in a fine fashion at the 2021 MO Dist pastor's conference.

Jeremy

You'll have to search the archives at issueseetc.org to find an interview about the 2019 conference that called for an amicable divorce. One thing that surprised me, but then made sense, was that the conservative Methodists who were leaving wanted nothing to do with the existing schools/seminaries. This is the conversation I recall: "Wouldn't it be cheaper to take an existing school then start a new one?" "Yes, but we'd have to deal with the existing faculty too, many of whom are tenured. They'd stay and continue teaching what they have always taught and this new Methodist church would still be the old Methodist church."

It was an informative interview.

Jeremy

The press release mentions that he is pursuing ordination into pastoral ministry. Would someone share the route he is taking? Is it SMP? Alternate Route?

Evan, I'm not sure which route, but I know it's not SMP. I believe he does some work at St. John, Wheaton IL. (This is like playing Seven Degrees of Erik Ankerberg.)

Jeremy

Here's a bit about Dr. Ankerberg:

https://leadandgovern.com/bio/dr-erik-ankerberg/

That's a good bio but it fails to mention his love of poetry, his euchre skills, and that he sang bass in the Kapelle at CURF. I believe he is a Bears fan too.

Jeremy (just trying to give a fuller picture of a wonderful man.)

//

My wife and I just got booster #3 and a flue shot. Sore arms and a bit of a headache the next morning, but that was about it.

I would have thought the flue shot would be given in the ash.

I hate to inform you of this, but you thought wrong. (Perhaps because it was given by a pharmacist at a Walmart, rather than in a doctor's office. Who wants to pull down their pants at a Walmart?)

Chim chiminee chim chim cheroo
There are none so dense as you.

Chim chiminee chim chim cheree
The flue is part of a house's chimney.

Jeremy, aka Bert

Do either of you, Scott or Matt, have connections at CPH?  I was pointed to a new volume by someone unknown to me, Molly Lackey, who has written "Confession Jesus:  The Heart of Being a Lutheran."  Aspects of the book and its thematic remind me about old friend and golf buddy Don Matzat and his book (also, I think, for CPH) titled "Christ Identity."

Very timely, and from what I've seen, very Lutheran.  Then this morning I received a tweet link on my email to a discussion on another site basically pushing the book, CPH and Ms. Lackey under the bridge.  Reason?  A woman wrote the book; CPH published it; there is theological teaching in it.  Ergo wrong, wrong, wrong.  Of course, the bridge-pushers were LCMS clergy. 

Anyway, my aim is to check the book out, on a timely topic, and use it for teaching purposes, maybe in an adult class.  So if you (especially Scott) know folks at CPH, I'd like to reach out to them and to the author.

Dave Benke

The book you write about is the Book of the Month at Issues Etc. and was reviewed very favorably by them. The author was interviewed on one of the segments.

Jeremy

Lol! Gabbard would be worth considering. But I suppose right now I am hoping for Desantis to get the nomination.

And unfortunately I don't think there is a Democrat that would garner much interest from me.

Jeremy

The problem with adjustments for cost of living is that you're still getting the value of the house you buy. Someone who takes a call to Martha's Vineyard, "needs" a a half million dollar housing allowance and an exorbitant salary just to make ends meet, and then retires now has a giant bank account upon the sale of his house as well as a retirement income based on that high cost of living regardless of where he lives for the rest of his life.

But let's set aside adjustments. Your buddy, again, sem grad with ten years experience, takes a call to a congregation in a town that happens to be perfectly average in terms of cost of living. The benefits are also average but there is no parsonage, so the salary plus housing allowance is the compensation. The congregation has, say 400 members with weekly attendance of 150 or so. The pastor has no doctorate, nor is the call to be senior of a pastoral staff. Tell me what you think is too low a salary and too high a salary in 2022.

40000 is too low, 60000 is too high.

Jeremy

Thankfully, there are signs that the future of the LCMS, though smaller, will indeed be characterized by the willingness to be unapologetically and energetically counter-cultural and Gospel/mission/vocation centered again.

Did you mean to say, Peter, that the LCMS lost its Gospel/mission/vocation center at some point? And if so, when and how?

A sense I had of change was visiting the CPH bookstore in the 80s or 90s. The store was filled with all sorts of Precious Moments, picture books, toys, stuffed animals, Noah's Ark playsets. As a kid, I thought, "This is just like the Jesus bookstore back in MD." As a teenager, I thought, "This is just like the Jesus bookstore back in VA." (We'd moved by that time." My teenage thoughts were more disappointed. The doctrinal books were in the back, seemingly an afterthought. Mugs, jewelry, tee shirts, that was what sold I guess. Books about the Formula of Concord, hymn histories, catechism texts for teachers...let's put that in the back lest anyone think we're serious about this stuff.

By the time I reached college and seminary in the 90s, CPH's store had changed. Much more emphasis on Lutheran books, church supply stuff.

I have no idea about bottom line matters but I believe they turned a profit.

Jeremy

Jim, Charles only knows what the DNC allows him to know.

Jeremy

And glad that you noticed Delaware's voting laws. So fair and equitable.

My first congregation was Concordia in Lincoln Village on the far west side of Columbus.  It began on the Hilltop but moved west when Nationwide Insurance offered some land to congregations that would move into the then new Lincoln Village.  The congregation jumped at the chance.  The Hilltop is a nice neighborhood but it has some rough elements for sure.  I'm sorry to see that happen.  In the early 2000s we still had several families who lived in the Hilltop, all of them going to West HS.  I do wonder about the training the pastor had in deescalation.  I don't have that training, or the little that I do may not be enough. 

Jeremy

Agreed.  There were disciples present, but at the beginning of Luke 15 there were religious leaders criticizing Jesus for eating with sinners and tax collectors. 

Jeremy

I watched/listened to Chad Bird's video on 1517.org through Facebook.  Chad is scholar in residence with that organization.  Chad is of the opinion that this is a parable because it follows the pattern of a parable and is found in a string of parables told by Jesus beginning in Luke 15. 

He does acknowledge that Lazarus being named is an oddity, so he says this is unusual and that people don't think this is a parable, but Chad does think that it is. 

He mentioned the clothing of the rich man.  Purple was his outer garment signifying that he was wealthy and that feasting was his daily routine.  He ate sumptuously every day.  He also wore fancy, silky undergarments.  This is where the naming of Lazarus may play a role in the story.  The fancy, silky undergarments are similar to what the high priests wore, with expensive outer coverings and robes.  A few theologians wonder if this rich man is Caiaphas the high priest.  The rich man had brothers, Caiaphas had family. 

The name of Lazarus is a shortened form of the Hebrew name Eliezer.  And Eliezer was the "son" of Abraham until Isaac was born.  That was something I hadn't considered before.  So when each man dies, there is Eliezer with Abraham in heaven.  (Hades/Sheol is viewed simply as heaven, for it fits the context of the lesson.) 

Lazarus was ignored in life.  And in death, the rich man (Caiaphas?) tells Abraham, "Use that servant Lazarus to bring me relief."  But the chasm is too great.  The rich man saw Abraham and Lazarus from a far distance, from a great way off. 

Bring in John 11 and the raising of Lazarus.  After this event the Jews plotted even more fervently how to kill Jesus.  Jesus was preaching against the Pharisees, priests, teachers of the Law, etc.  This parable may have been pointed against Caiaphas for the way they ignored their fellow brothers and sisters, for the way they ignored the other children of Abraham. 

Lazarus went to heaven because he was a child of Abraham, he believed, not because he was poor.  The rich man went to hell because he did not believe, because he hated the word of God/the Word of God.  There are also overtones of the Magnificat from Luke 2. 

It was an enlightening 15 minute video.  I watched it on Facebook.  You can probably search 1517.org on YouTube or something.  The part about the rich man being equated with Caiaphas and Lazarus being a form of Eliezer was most intriguing.  And Chad brings in the hymn "Lord, Let at last thine angels come" which was just delightful- to Abra'm's bosom bear me home that I may die unfearing.

Jeremy   

Thoughts of Martha's Vineyard and being voted off the island come to mind.

In an amazing feat of engineering and construction, a border wall has already been erected on Martha's Vineyard, funded by Pres. Obama, which means it was actually funded by Tony Rezko. ;-)

Jeremy