With college football over and the NFL heading towards Super Bowl XLI it was only fitting that the confessional zebra take Lutheran Carnival XLI.

Nobody took my topic suggestion, so I won’t take it seriously. Off the cuff though, I’d say hockey, since I’ve seen several players almost give their lives to win the game. :)

A Lutheran Worth Knowing: Philipp Nicolai

If you read Aardvark Alley last October, you were already exposed to Nicolai, along with Johann Herrmann and Paul Gerhardt.

Philipp was a second-generation pastor in Germany, born in 1556 and died in 1608. He preached during a time when both Roman Catholics and Calvinists were making life difficult to be a Lutheran: he had to flee several times or preach in house meetings. In 1601 he was elected chief pastor of Saint Katherine’s in Hamburg, finishing out his life in 1608 with a violent fever.

Nicolai is best remembered for two of my favorite hymns/chorales: “Wake, Awake, For Night is Flying” (LSB 516, TLH 609) and “O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright” (LSB 395, TLH 343). It seems the Morning Star hymn has been translated a couple of times. The hymn’s tune, Wir Schön Leuchtet, has been appropriated for five hymns in LSB, a testimony to its versatility and popularity. It’s beautiful stuff; I’ll be happy to play it for the locals.

The Carnival

Lutheran Carnival XLI is divided into the three phases of game play in American football: Offense, Defense, and Special Teams. Offense will carry posts that address thinking outside the Christian faith. Defense will carry those posts that defend the faith. Special Teams are posts either by teams or that require special treatment.

Offense

Die Schreiben von Schreiber scores first with Dead Presidents. He mentions the death of President Ford but focuses on the death of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. He cautions us not to be gleeful in the carriage of justice.

New Lutheran blogger Ed Reiss, the Upstate Lutheran provides a nice, succinct appreciation of the Word Made Flesh as he offers Some More Thoughts on the Incarnation. This continues an idea he first expressed in his maiden post, wherein he offered this quote from a Luther hymn: “He whom the world could not enclose doth in Mary’s lap repose.”

A well-known principle of identity formation is that we only know ourselves in dialogue with the Other. In the past, confessional Lutherans have defined themselves against either Roman Catholics or Methodists and Baptists. In Can You Be (Augsburg) Evangelical without Being (Culturally) Lutheran CPA at Three Hierarchies speculates about how dialogue with Anglicans might reveal something about the interrelations of our confessional doctrine and historic past and culture. I also recommend CPA’s article on Why Two Common Biblical Arguments against the Death Penalty Don’t Work.

Convergence! What used to be happiness for mathematicians is now the buzzword for technological advances. Apple’s new iPhone is all the rage in the tech sector, overshadowing even the tech at CES 2007. This be-all communications device undoubtedly has implications for our understandings of communication, personal contact, and community. Seminarian Gillespie from Outer Rim Territories tries to highlight some of these implications with a bit of heavy-handed Apple, Inc. promotion thrown in for good measure.

Bob Waters at watersblogged! is one of the more political bloggers in the Lutheran blogosphere. He discusses embryonic stem cell research and its recently discovered alternative, amniotic SCR. Perhaps even more on the offensive, he also reminds us of what the Koran says regarding the treatment of women.

Be Strong in the Grace is the blog of a Minnesota mom. With two posts, Theresa examines the recent revelation of Jay Bakker that God has told him that homosexuality is not a sin. She also reflects on the reality of today’s confessional Lutherans who live in less-than-perfect synods and in the midst of synods which aren’t in fellowship with each other.

Carol Rutz clues us in on child paralytics who are being surgically altered not to grow up. It is a sad but necessary read.

Defense

Pastor Alex Klages is always defending us from heretics. He points out the theological failings of the Arian Eunomius on his blog, A Beggar at the Table.

Kelly, Pastor Klages’ wife. operates her own blog and discussions four views of election and salvation.

Orycteropus Afer of Aardvark Alley diverted a few moments away from keeping his claws on the pulse of Lutheran blogging to keep up with the liturgical calendar during the Twelve Days of Christmas and the beginning of the Epiphany season. As part of these efforts, he provided a fairly detailed account of the life of Wilhelm Loehe, who sponsored and encouraged a growing Lutheran mission and pastoral presence in the United States and began his observation of Christ’s time of manifestation with a summary on The Epiphany of Our Lord.

Pastor Paul Siems on Not Alone waxes homiletical upon seeing the 2006 Rocky Balboa. The new movie gives us pause think about why the beloved apostle Paul teaches us to understand that we are “more than conquerors.”

On his blog, Hoc est verum, Der Bettler challenges the thinking behind a common phrase regarding missions: “Jesus told us to be fishers of men, not keepers of the aquarium.” In Keeping the Aquarium, we are reminded that Lutherans do not believe in the “once saved, always saved” that the aquarium analogy implies.

Pastor Snyder seems to have made a slow start on this fortnight’s output at Ask the Pastor, since his first three posts following the previous carnival dealt with his wife’s broken leg and subsequent surgery. However, he hit his stride with four responses on widely varied topics. One of these, Honoring the Saints, compares the ongoing practice of naming congregations after deceased believers with what the Smalcald Articles say about undue honor and worship being given to anyone but God. In Can Bad People Go to Heaven?, he turns his attention to a man whose grandson asked him, “Can I get to heaven if I’m bad?”

The Luther Library group had been taking a couple of months off, but this week a book report on Werner Elert’s Eucharist and Church Fellowship in the First Four Centuries was submitted. Even then, there were factions in the Christian church, and this is a good history of those and early church practices.

Yours truly submits Prayers at Close of the Day, which has been a good discussion on Compline, the LSB’s Compline service, and Luther’s evening prayer from the Catechism. The interchurch basketball league that I referee for also offers the opportunity to give a five minute speech at halftime. I offer Halftime Message: This Man Receives Sinners! in an effort to discuss Christ, what he has done, and why.

Given my recent reading of Elert and the “communion of saints”, this post, It’s Greek to Me and that’s OK, by the Northwoods Seelsorger, scored some points defensively.

Special Teams

A group of Lutheran artists get together to produce a number of traditional liturgical artworks to donate to churches who wouldn’t be able to afford them otherwise. Could this crazy idea work? CLEAR continues to explore ways of promoting expressions of historical beauty in our houses of worship.

One of the first submissions to hit the Lutheran Carnival mailbox was I Believe in Independence by the Long Eye Moose. The Moose has a 14-year-old child that began suffering autistic symptoms after taking a hepatitis shot when he was five. This first post, written in October of last year, had some lingering guilt. I asked him if he had more to say three months after that post, and he has written a much better post: Confirmation for the Disabled. It is still very personal, but the subject is thorny and worth discussion. To the Moose: Continue to improve your writing. You are not alone. There are other bloggers even in just the Lutheran blogosphere (besides me) who are dealing with these kind of things. Keep the posts coming.

Overtime

These two posts were submitted past the deadline, but what postseason would be complete without overtime? Kelly Klages recommends two posts:

On the Wittenburg Trail digs into the Westminster Confession and considers the Calvinistic concept of the pre-fall relationship of God and man being a “covenant of works” in Regarding the Fall.

At Extra Nos, a video clip is posted of a song that would seem to suggest that human will is ultimately stronger than God’s when it comes to salvation. L. P. Cruz discusses the anxiety that comes from such a statement.

Closing

I would like to thank those who submitted their articles, and those 150+ confessionals who put their thoughts to electrons and photons. Don’t forget to link the Carnival in your own blog. You never know when something you write strikes a chord in someone else, and it’s fun to hear back in the comments. If you’re one of these bloggers, I suggest taking a look around in the blogrolls, and lay down a comment or two on your favorite subjects. Comment on a blog you’ve never commented in before, by a person you’ve never met before. It’s fun!

The host for Lutheran Carnival XLII will be House, M. Div. Guaranteed to have more pretty pictures that my carnival. Thank you for your time. :)