Fellowship

Okay, I admit it: this is a pet peeve. But I justify my peevishness in that this error can sometimes make a big difference in theology. Not always, but often.

Fellowship is not about bowling leagues and throwing darts. Fellowship is not about potlucks and helping with fund-raisers.

Fellowship is something that happens primarily at the altar. We are made one with Christ by eating His body and drinking His blood. In this way we are also united to one another. Fellowship is also seen in our praying together "Our Father" because we are united in the Creed which we confess jointly. Fellowship is when we say "Amen: yes, yes, it shall be so" to the same sermon. Fellowship is when we study the Bible together and pray Matins together.

It really doesn't matter a hill o' beans whether I like you or not. Fellowship isn't about liking each other. Fellowship isn't about doing things together. It is about the love of Christ claiming us, and that we are made one body.

Now, it so happens that when we pray together, sing hymns together, say "amen" to the same doctrine, and (of course!) commune together,

we will grow in affection for each other. We may play even softball together, eat birthday cake together, go to movies together, and visit each other in the hospital. But those things are an outgrowth of true fellowship. They are never the cause of fellowship. If a church wants more of the friendliness and chumminess, it ain't gonna find it by focusing on activities and friendliness. It ain't gonna find fellowship by serving coffee and donuts. When the people are bonded together by the apostles' doctrine and the "fellowship" (that is, the liturgy and the Holy Communion)* then the chumminess and friendliness will follow. And we might even enjoy donuts together on a Sunday morning too.


* See Acts 2:42.

What You Have Commanded

This week's collect is
Almighty and everlasting God, give us an increase of faith, hope, and charity; and that we may obtain what You have promised, make us love what You have commanded; through Jesus Christ,...

I've always heard that in such a works-righteous way. "So that we can get the stuff You promised, make us love to do obey the Ten Commandments and all those other rules."

But what are some of Jesus' commands?
Go and baptize (Mt 28).
Sending out the apostles (Jn 20).
Forgiving the penitent (Mt 18).
Take; eat; this is My body (1 Cor 11).
Feed My lambs (Jn 21).

If He causes us to love these things He has commanded (the call to repentance, the preaching of forgiveness, and the Sacraments), we will most certainly "obtain what He has promised."

"Singing with Devotion" (4)

Gerhardt's hymn show evidence of a sacramental piety. His hymns presuppose that Christians are participating regularly in the Divine Service, receiving the Sacraments. The hymns help catechize on what is going on with the sacraments, teaching about what we receive there.

Not only Kleinig but many of the speakers made reference to the abundance of sacramental references in Gerhardt's hymns that didn't come through in the English translations.
a) "All the best stanzas didn't make it into English."
b) The images and references to the sacraments often do not come through. As Dr Kleinig said, when translators must render concepts into English along with the constraints of the meter and rhyme, there just isn't much ability to set forth the images in the German poetry.
c) He pointed out how sometimes a hymn would talk about the life-giving nature of "Christ's blood," but be translated as the life-giving nature of "Christ's cross." Certainly nothing wrong with extolling Christ's cross. But the benefits of that cross are poured out to us in the blood of the Supper, and we've lost something when that doesn't come through in translation.