August 17th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
I was supposed to teach this morning, but my class got delayed a day at the last minute. I was then invited to the Lemons’ church, Redeemer Lutheran in Oakmont, PA. Redeemer’s pastor is the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Naumann, who is originally from Great Britain and was ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of England.
I got there a little early, and that allowed me to take some pictures of the exterior and sanctuary.
To start things off, Stan led the group in the sanctuary with the LSB Service of Daily Prayer for Individuals and Families. We sang the last three verses of LSB 766, “Our Father Who from Heaven Above.”
Redeemer Sign and Cross
For it is of the greatest importance that we esteem Baptism excellent, glorious, and exalted, for which we contend and fight chiefly, because the world is now so full of sects clamoring that Baptism is an external thing, and that external things are of no benefit. But let it be ever so much an external thing, here stand God’s Word and command which institute, establish, and confirm Baptism.
This is an interesting turn of phrase. Some Christians want to call Baptism “external” and thus discard it, but Luther uses “external” to mean objective, and thus integral to Christianity. Also quoting from the Large Catechism:
But insane reason will not regard this, and because Baptism does not shine like the works which we do, it is to be esteemed as nothing.
We cannot see with our eyes what Baptism works, and so it is easy to discount.
Next Pr. Naumann did something that I thought was quite cool. He took the pericopes (bible readings) for today and read through them, pointing out additional things to the class. Today’s readings were Isaiah 56:1, 6-8 and Romans 11:1-2a, 13-15, 28-32.
Redeemer Chancel
Isaiah 56:1 - About the forgiveness of sins.
56:7 - “I will bring to my holy mountain” God is bringing people to where he is. This has New Testament overtones in Hebrews 12. Today God brings to his people in the Divine Service the application of Christ’s sacrifice for us.
56:8 - “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.” Cross-reference with Jesus’s statement in John 10:16: “I have other sheep not of this fold.”
The Romans pericope is also about grafting Gentiles into the kingdom of God. Verse 32 is quite interesting: “For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.” For me this is an interesting explanation of why the justified still sin.
Divine Service I out of the LSB was used for worship. The audio of Pastor Naumann’s sermon can be found on Redeemer’s sermon audio site. Give it a listen, enjoy his British accent, and hear the Gospel.
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August 18th, 2008 at 6:22 am
Heh. Second time I’ve heard Jonathan Naumann’s name mentioned by someone over there in the past couple of weeks (Rob Brazier mentioned him on Twitter).
His son is our curate (British for “vicar”) at the moment. Small world.
August 19th, 2008 at 9:33 am
It was good to meet you Dan! I hope your time in PA is enjoyable. Interesting thought about the Epistle we discussed in Bible class, the passage reads in the ESV: “For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.” The NKJV uses “committed” in place of consigned. The Greek word there is συνέκλεισεν which I would have been more inclined to translate as “imprison” or “close up”, or something a little more definitive. You know, we break commitments all the time and consign has the ring of custodial rights to it, which again seem to change with the wind. The Lord here is pretty definitive, we are locked down, imprisoned and unable to escape disobedience, and of all things the Lord is the author of such a lock down! All though, for the Glory of God and that He might be merciful to poor sinful man. Thanks be to God.
Pax,
SL