Reformation Bloodshed

Last night, a couple of us were at a Mission Festival in Greenfield. Pr Fehrmann preached. I did listen to the sermon; really, I did. But one comment caught and diverted my attention for a while. He mentioned what happens when the Church's message begins to shift back to where it's supposed to be. When the Church gets away from preaching repentance and the forgiveness of sins, when the Church toddles into other areas like preaching morality instead of forgiveness, a return to the message of forgiveness of sins is always accompanied by bloodshed. Think of what's happened throughout history. As long as the Church focuses on morality, the persecution is not strong. But when the focus returns to forgiving sinners, things get uncomfortable in the Church; there are arguments and fighting; yes, even bloodshed.

It makes me realize that what's happening among American Lutherans today is minor. Pastors may not be getting paid all the time. Pastors may be getting fired. Pastors may be getting in trouble with the church bureaucracy. But people aren't going to jail or getting killed. We really have it pretty easy.



Suddenly today, my computer righted itself with regard to posting on blogger. My icons for the bolding and italics and hyperlinks magically returned. I suppose that means I should try again to figure out how to post pictures. But first I would need to figure out how to look at digital pictures on the computer. One step at a time....

And taking that cliche and making it literal... it really is necessary to take one step at a time -- broom in hand -- in the basement these days. The centipede infestation continues. Every time I change a load of laundry I have to sweep the floor. Then an hour later, when I head back to the laundry room again, the floor is littered with centipedes. If I don't sweep them up before I fold each load, I crunch every time I move my feet. A couple of days of this is one thing, but it's starting to get a little gross.

And on a more serious and ponderous note, I'm putting a post on the Mouthhouse Moms blog regarding kids growing up. Katie's car accident and Jane's recent blog post and the arrival of Saranita got me to thinking.