Anniversary

Picnic in the park last week:

Our dear Frederick the Wise (aka Ed Suelflow):

After we heard a firm admonition from Pastor that it is not HIS anniversary but OUR anniversary, I will not label this picture "the honoree." But in some of the pictures you can see some members of the congregation, so that makes the whole "pair" for the anniversary.

John 3:16

Begotten of the Father from eternity,
God of God,
Light of Light,
very God of very God,
begotten, not made,
being of one substance with the Father,
by whom all things were made. (Nicene Creed)


Pastor Bender comments
(in Lutheran Catechesis -- Catechist Edition)
on John 3:16 --

Since God the Father so loved the world,
then the only begotten Son so loved the world
because the Son is one with the Father
in His nature
and will to save.

What Scumbags

"There is absolutely nothing in us that should cause God to forgive."

What do you think of that? It's a sentence from the new Lutheran Catechesis -- Catechist Edition, as Pastor Bender discusses Psalm 130. We might think that sentence is a downer. But it's not!!! It is good news!

If there is nothing in me that causes God to forgive, if all His forgiveness comes because of His decision, His will, His suffering, His promise, His plan, His love, His mercy, then ... well, think what that means. I don't chase Him off because of my failings. I don't undo His promise because I was weak yet again. I don't have to worry that I didn't do enough to stay in His good graces. Because it's all GRACE.

Nothing --nothing nothing nothing-- in me to make God be favorable to me. But He still is.

Gosh, that's worth some Tigger-ish bouncing and a HappyDance of Joy!

Lutheran Catechesis -- Catechist Edition

We finished our work two weeks ago. The manuscript was delivered to the printer/binder; they've told us when they'll have the book ready. If you'd like to pre-order, click here.

I loved reading the new material!!!!!




Those who are interested in reading about Christian vocation will find the section on the Table of Duties helpful. Also, the paragraphs on "Bible Verses for Meditation" persistently and sweetly remind us of what Christ has done, and that it is His work alone (through the Word!!) that draws us to Him and keeps us.

CCA Symposium Registration

The registration form for this June's symposium in Sussex/Waukesha has been uploaded to the church's website.

New Altar

These were taken on the Thursday that the new furnishings arrived and on Saturday after the introductory meeting.

New Altar Arriving

Do you remember what it was like when you were little and just couldn't wait for Christmas to arrive so you could open your wonderful, awesome, totally great, beautiful, fantastic presents?

Like Pastor said Wednesday night at choir practice, it felt like Christmas Eve. The new chancel furnishings were due to arrive Thursday morning after Bible class.



Mark and Jim putting the new cabinet into place under the old altar, which stands against the back wall.


Jim, who did a lot of the work on the chancel renovations last spring. (Maybe his wife or daughters will provide some input as to what he helped with on the furnishings.)

The new pulpit.


Mark and Jim carry in the base of the new altar.

Al, Pastor, Mark, and Jim putting the altar into place.

Quite the crowd stayed to watch after Bible class. The excitement and the awe was sure something! Here we have Judy and Bonnie (with Ralph, Kurt, and Frederick the Wise in the background).


And here we have Judy, Erma, Guenther, Shirley, Luise, Bernice, Jim, and Ed.


By the way, just for the record, I'd like to point out something. All y'all who buy CCA materials, take a look at these pictures. These are the folks who collate and bind your books. Some publishing houses have machines to assemble their materials. But we have this crew of saints who do an awful lot of the work by hand, fueled by coffee and laughter and Marcie's baked goods.




Adjusting something for leveling.

Janelle and Marcie. (Aren't they just SO darn cute??)

Andrew, Leah, Maggie, and Bryce.

Kara, looking more serious and ponderous than you normally see her. Maybe it's time for a serious caption, like "Jesus, I will ponder now on Thy holy passion... Grant that I in love and faith may the image cherish of Thy suffering, pain, and death, that I may not perish."

Kara, Kathy, and Jeannine.

And, for the craftsmen...
applause and thanks and
awe-struck dropped jaws and gratitude
(and whatever other words a thesaurus might supply for "thanks") ...
Allan the master, and Mark who helped.

Done

Tonight I finished an editing project that I've been working on since August 2004. Well, I'll still have to take a peek at it after Pastor finishes up the part I leave in his hands, but that's speedy stuff. I wonder what I'll do in my free time now?

To the Fort

Finished up the bulk of the work on my current editing project. The last steps can be accomplished while I'm out of town this week.

Van is packed full of CCA material. I'm off to symposia to fill in for the deacon for the week ... and to see old friends! The hard part is always the self-discipline -- making ourselves sleep at night instead of trying to squeeze in every last minute of visiting we can.

With hopes of coming home at the end of the week both
-- satiated with the joy of being with buddies, and
-- not drop-dead exhausted.
This is my goal! (And it would be all the cheerier if I hit good traffic through Chicago. But I don't want to wish for too much and push my luck....)

Grown-Up Work

Two weeks ago, when I was in Fort Wayne, I spent several hours per day for four days at the sem library. Katie was doing fine with nursing Alia, and I didn't need to be in the new family's hair all the time -- just at mealtime and cleaning time ... and a little bit of cooing-at-Alia time.

There is a CCA project that got stalled. Some grad assistants at the sem were working on the project. But then they had the audacity to graduate [can you believe it?!?!] and get ordained and go out there in the world to take care of the sheep entrusted to them by the Shepherd. And so, the project languished temporarily for want of attention.

I requested the job and was given permission to tackle it. When I started in on the project, I realized that I had a lot to figure out. I (the techno-phobe who took three weeks to learn how to operate the email, and that only after repeated and explicit instructions from my children, and copious note-taking on my part) figured out the sem's computer catalog of books and articles. The librarians showed me how to work the funky copier that's specially for books, and I did it. The librarians and I managed to get photocopies off both the microfiche and the microfilm. I found articles tucked away in odd places. DoRena's Sam even told me how I could get a hold of as-yet-uncatalogued books. I puzzled out things that I honestly thought my brain was no longer capable of.

It was exhilarating!

I was a little afraid of coming home and rebelling against the daily housewife routine that doesn't require such stretches of problem-solving in unfamiliar territory (and enticing peeks into articles and lectures that looked quite intriguing). But it's been okay. I haven't been pining to do that out-of-the-home grown-up work. There's just something wonderful about knowing that I haven't lost so many brain cells that my work at the sem library was completely beyond me.

So wonderful, in fact, that it was [amazingly enough!] as good as Baby Watching.

Bender Binder

Look -- no longer a binder!
The second edition -- which has been edited to go with LSB -- is now available.

From Symposium (4)

Bender's catechesis was entitled Cain and Abel and the "Murder of God." Call me biased, but I thought it was the best presentation of the symposium. There's too much to summarize it here. Besides, a lot of what was presented is already in the catechist volume of Old Testament Catechesis.

There was one thing I made particular note of from his presentation. Sinning is always self-serving. It is turned inward. It is designed to satisfy ME. The problem, though, is that sinning doesN'T satisfy. It cannot. Satisfaction and joy can come only through sacrificial love. (Maybe that's part of "being made in the image of God"?) We think, "I'll be happy if I..." have this, or do that, or whatever. But when we sin and get what we wanted, we are still unsatisfied.

(For some reason, this reminds me of the insatiable greed for Legos that I see in little boys, or for Barbie clothes that I see in little girls. Of course, these are shallow examples. And of course the Barbies and Legos are not sins. And of course it's easier to see this insatiability in children than it is in myself. Wait... did I get off topic?....)

In the topic of life issues, when we're talking about starving an aged or disabled person, or aborting a baby, these things promise ease to the people who remain. But these sins have results that were unexpected, and the sinner remains discontented, unhappy, and looking for bigger fixes of making his own comfort. The sin did not give what it promised. True joy comes only by giving and sacrificing.

Scaer's "In Christ: Volume 2"

The book is published and ready for sale. It will be available next week in Fort Wayne at the symposium. Visit the CCA booth. (There will be a signing party at one point during the week, for those who'd like their copies autographed.)

I had assumed that, after the sermon volume, the rest of the volumes would be a little more "difficult," deeper theology, bigger words, longer sentences, etc. But this volume is definitely accessible to laymen. It is the "popular articles" of David Scaer: articles that have appeared in Lutheran Witness and For the Life of the World and Christianity Today, among others. There are [very readable] articles on abortion and the American Revolution and the end of the world and the centrality of the doctrine of justification. My only regret as I made one super-fast editing pass through this book last fall was that I couldn't lollygag and revel in it. Because it's good (!) and worth being soaked up instead of skimmed through.

Suggestion: this would make one doozy of a book for youth or adult Bible study or book-discussion club.

Thinking Like a Scanner

With the editing I'm doing right now, most of the articles have been previously published. So there's not as much stress on the brain to sort through commas and dangling modifiers and subordinate clauses. However, there are some amusing spots. Because some of the articles have been scanned into the computer, the computer didn't always translate the "picture" of the words on the page into the correct electronic bits.

There are easy mistakes. "Not" for "nor." "Or" in the place of "of." "Tlie" instead of "the." A couple of places it said "all then are" instead of "all men are."

But there was "come to teens with" which should've been "come to terms with."

"We are entitled to Hip blessings" instead of "His blessings."

So sometimes I have to think about how a scanner might "see" the letters in a word, particularly if there might be a stray spot on the paper, or a place where the ink wasn't fully laid down on the original page. The one that confused me was "one-tittle justification." I didn't know what "one-tittle justification" was. I figured I was just dumb, and it was some theological phrase I was unaware of. But then Pastor asked me what "one-tittle justification was." Hey! Not fair! He's supposed to know these theological terms! Huh? Maybe it's not a theological phrase? Hmmmm. Now what? Thinking like a scanner, though, I finally figured out it was "one-time justification." Suddenly, the whole sentence made sense. And I'm still laughin' over that one! (Although "Hip" blessings from God is worth a giggle too!)

Bubbly, Bouncy Joy

I had been told that I wasn't going to be working on the second volume of CCA's Scaer book because I had my hands full of other projects. After a little moping last month over missing out on the fun, I resigned myself to reading the book when it's all finished and done and published. But because of pressing deadlines, on Thursday I got told that I get to look part of it over. Yeehaw! This weekend I had plans that pretty much got overridden for editing reasons, but oh, the articles are so great!!

Just in what I've looked at so far, there's one article on the ascension that's presented in a way that I hadn't previously thought of. There's an article on the problem with women's ordination, but without simply resorting to "the law says it's wrong, so we can't do it." There's an article on using masculine names for God. There's an article on the differences between the Protestants and the Lutherans, and how it's not "just about the Sacraments" but how the differences reveal what we think about God and who He is and what He has done. One article delves into what confirmation is and why we have it. I noticed one article is entitled "Preaching Sanctification" and that should prove intriguing, to be sure!

Now I should get off the computer, and grab my red pen and my dictionary again, and get back to my playtime. Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy!

CCA

The dates for next year's catechetical symposium are June 18-20. Put it on your calendar now. It really doesn't matter what the topic is, because you need to come regardless of the topic, as my dear friend makes clear. But for those whose curiosity overwhelms, the topic will be catechesis under the fifth commandment, particularly on "life issues."