Necessary Roughness

Spencer

Michael Spencer, author of the insanely popular Internet Monk blog and co-founder of the Boar’s Head Tavern team blog, has been given six months to a year to live by his oncologist. He is 53.

I first came upon his writings at the Boar’s Head Tavern and later subscribed to his Internet Monk podcast. I was always a “lurker”, letting John H and the Fearsome Pirate/Comrade/Tycoon represent Lutheranism at the BHT. Spencer, a “post-evangelical,” treated the “This is most certainly true!” crowd with class and dignity. He wrote a positive review for The Lutheran Study Bible, including a profound critique of Lutheranism as he sees it: Continue reading →

I’m a little concerned about our use of the word “witness” in religion talk, whether we are “witnessing” or getting a “witness.”  Even the LCMS has a magazine titled, The Lutheran Witness. A witness is someone who has firsthand testimony of an event. The apostles were witnesses. We are confessors.

We give thanks about the things we are truly witness to, but we should be careful not to imply that they will happen to the next person who becomes a Christian.

I believe in the existence of the miraculous, both providential (orchestrated ultimately by God that happens in the normal context of our lives) and supernatural, but Christ tells us not everything supernatural is of God. See Matthew 24:23-24. If any religious claims are made based on the immediate event, they have to be checked against the Word and against the faith once delivered to the saints.

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

– Hebrews 1:1-2

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. — Genesis 3:19

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. My church will be imposing ashes this evening, but unfortunately we won’t get to go. Going “off schedule” has always come with unwelcome consequences for us.

Lent comes with significant changes in the rituals of some: forgoing meat on Fridays, imposition, not singing Alleluia in the liturgy or the hymns during worship.

The temptation exists that such behaviors should be enforced upon Christians for their own good. That would be the easy way to encourage such behaviors, but that’s the way of the curse. It’s like telling kids that they have to eat their meal, not because doing so will help them stay alert or grow properly, but because you told them to eat.

Continue reading →