Clip from the movie Luther (2003)

LEGO version of Solomon's temple

You gotta see the whole thing at http://assemblingthetemple.blogspot.com/. Amazing detail.

Register now for "Your Reformation Walk" Seminar, May 22

Offered by the Confessional Lutherans for Christ's Commission (CLCC) and hosted by Messiah Lutheran Church in Marysville, WA. This 6-hour seminar provides a history of the faith from the days of the early church fathers to recent times. Heavy emphasis is placed on the Reformation period, including a summary of the books and their history making up the Book of Concord. Following comes information of history leading up to the immigration of Lutherans from Saxony to the U.S. Interwoven with the religious events are the significant geo-political events of the time having an impact on the religious history, thus more context is provided. On the lighter side you could say that some travelogue information is also interwoven, all with the intent of encouraging you to think about making a visit to Saxony yourself, to see first hand places where Reformation history was made.

To register, see the insert in the church bulletin, call the church office at 360-659-4112, or see the info at the CLCC website by clicking here.

TriBond: Pretzels, Welch's, and Filet-o-Fish

Ever play TriBond? It's a game where you are given three things, and you have to guess what they have in common. Here's one for you courtesy of Pastor Greg Alms at Incarnatus Est (which he got from Mental Floss).

Q: What do pretzel's, Welch's grape juice, and McDonald's Filet-o-Fish sandwiches have in common?

A: They all have religious origins.

Pretzel Logic: One widely accepted account says pretzels were developed in 610 C.E. by an Italian monk. He baked the confections for children as an incentive to memorize scripture. In fact, the shape of the treats reflects this, since the criss-crossed bits are supposed to depict the folded arms of pious children in prayer.

Turning Water Into Welch’s In 1869, Christian dentist and prude extraordinaire Dr. Thomas Welch invented “unfermented wine.” As the good Doc saw it, drinking in alcohol in church was a bit of a contradiction, so he brewed up a batch of the unfermented stuff to wash down Eucharist. Local pastors weren’t interested, though, and a dejected Thomas was sent back to his teeth pulling. Six years later, his son began marketing the beverage—this time as Welch’s Grape Juice.C

Cod is Good, Cod is Great: The Filet-O-Fish StoryIn the early 1960s, a McDonald’s in Cincinnati was beginning to notice a pattern: Friday sales were always low. The reason? The city’s large Catholic population couldn’t eat meat on Fridays. Taking a little initiative, franchise owner Lou Groen asked chairman Ray Kroc if he could expand his menu. He eventually gave in, though, and sponsored some research. The McDonald’s team came back with a cod sandwich. But because Kroc hated the word “cod” (probably from drinking spoonfuls of cod-liver oil as a kid), it was marketed as Filet-O-Fish, and became a permanent addition to the menu in 1963.

"Repeating the Mistake of Jeroboam" ... from Weedon's Blog

Great insight from Pr. Will Weedon on his blog ...

It occurred to me the other day that when we listen solely to contemporary scholars and theologians, and when we listen exclusively to the demands of the folks around us, we are making the mistake of Rehoboam. You recall how he responded to the demands of the northern tribes and Jeroboam? He rejected the council of the old men who had served under his father and went with the young folks who grew up at court with him. The sad result was that he lost the larger part of his own inheritance. I think we repeat this mistake and lose our inheritance as a Church whenever we fail to attend to our fathers and mothers who lived the faith before us and give heed only to the "latest and greatest" - whose approach has not been shown capable of withstanding the tests of time.

The Halloween and Reformation Connection

Read about it at Past Elder's blog by clicking here. It's a lengthy post but well worth the time.

The real Valentine

Along with sending flowers and chocolates and cute Hallmark cards to our sweethearts today, we also commemorate one of the Church's martyrs.

There is some disagreement about who the real Valentine was as you can see at the Wikipedia entry. However, here's how he is described on the LCMS Commission on Worship webpage:

A physician and priest living in Rome during the rule of the Emperor Claudius, Valentine become one of the noted martyrs of the third century. The commemoration of his death, which occurred in the year 270, became part of the calendar of remembrance in the early church of the West. Tradition suggests that on the day of his execution for his Christian faith, he left a note of encouragement for a child of his jailer written on an irregularly-shaped piece of paper. This greeting became a pattern for millions of written expressions of love and caring that now are the highlight of Valentine's Day in many nations. [From "Commemorations Biographies," Lutheran Service Book LCMS Commission on Worship]

The Smalcald Articles on Repentance

The renewed interest in indulgences in Roman Catholicism is really not all that new nor surprising. Pope John Paul II announced a plenary indulgence back in 2000.

I found it serendipitous, then, that this week's Treasury of Daily Prayer's assigned readings from the Lutheran Confessions are from the Smalcald Articles, specifically the parts dealing with repentance in contrast to the false idea of repentance in the papal church.

Click here to read an introduction to this portion of the Smalcald Articles at Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions blog.

Then click here to read Article III, Part III of the Smalcald Articles.

Saxon Lutheran Memorial

I ran across this when I was surfing around on the internet the other day. Looks like an interesting place to visit, if you're in to history and American Lutheran history in particular. Click here to view the website for the Saxon Lutheran Memorial. Here's how the website describes the memorial...

The Saxon Lutheran Memorial is an outdoor history museum in the setting of a log cabin village commemorating the establishment of the East Perry County community by the courageous, dedicated and devout Saxon Lutheran immigrants from Germany in 1839. Our site is dedicated to their pioneering spirit, the early lifestyles of homesteading and the beginning of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod which is all displayed throughout the various exhibits in our museum and log cabins on the property.

Denominational Differences for Dummies

People often ask their pastors, "What's the difference between all the different denominations?" This is not an easy task, when you consider the plethora of church bodies out there. Wikipedia lists 80 different Baptist bodies in North America alone (and you thought the Lutherans couldn't get their act together)!

On a recent Issues, Etc. broadcast, Pastor Erik Rottmann did a nice job of answering this question by giving five different categories in which we can generally place all the assorted denominations. They are 1) Ancient churches (in which he includes confessional Lutherans), 2) Calvinist, 3) Arminian, 4) Anabaptist, and 5) Late-arrivals. To hear more about which churches he would place in each of these categories and how they are described, listen to the podcast by clicking the media player below.

Wondering how to break the news to your kids about Santa?

Click here to read "Yes, Virginia, There is a St. Nicholas" at Rev. Cwirla's Blogosphere.

Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, October 7 ... and a visit to one of his congregations

Today Henry Melchior Muhlenberg is commemorated on our church calendar. He was an influential German Lutheran pastor during the colonial era in America. You can read more about him by clicking here. His son, Peter, by the way, was a pastor, later a major general in the Continental Army, and also served in the U.S. Congress.

This last summer, 8 youth and 3 adults attended the Higher Things youth conference in Scranton, PA. After the conference, we drove down to Philadelphia to see the sights there. On Sunday morning, we attended the Divine Service at Old Zion Lutheran Church, a congregation that was once served by H.M. Muhlenberg.

The people of Old Zion were very warm and welcoming. They invited us to stay for a time of refreshments after the service and shared some of the history of the church. They still have many German speaking people attend from various parts of the city. One of the hymns we sang alternated stanzas in English and German, and during the speaking of the creed and the praying of the Lord's Prayer, you could hear others around you saying them in German.

Below are some pictures taken when we were there. Thanks to Ron Pratt for the great shots.

This last one is not a statue of Muhlenberg. It's Rocky Balboa, situated outside of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and yours truly at his feet. Now, I know what you're thinking: "Is Sylvester Stallone on our church calendar?" No. I threw this one in just to prove I was really in Philadelphia since I'm not in any of the other pictures above. But I did run up the steps of the museum like Rocky did in the movie (actually, on our tour of Philly we learned it was a stunt double).

Here's how I felt afterward ... and that's not my stunt double.

Book of Concord Videos

Recently Added Resources

I've been reading the blog "What is Christianity?" on my Google Reader for some time now. It elaborates on the questions in the explanation portion of Luther's Small Catechism (CPH 1991 ed.). I've added it to the Lutheran blog list in the sidebar. This would be a great blog to direct your friends who ask you, "What does it mean to be a Lutheran?"

Early in January, author Ed Engelbrecht posted a link to a timeline of Luther's life. You can find it by clicking here.

The Reformation Polka

Saw this on Gene Veith's blog this morning, and knew it was something I had to share.

Reformation Resources

Check out this nice little site at reformation.cph.org. It has a beautiful collection of pictures from the "Luther Lands" in Germany, along with books and gifts available from Concordia Publishing House relating to Luther and the Reformation.

Building Committee, Anyone?

Check out these beautiful pictures of the Torgau Castle chapel at Torgau, Germany. Click here or go to Paul McCain's Cyberbrethren blog at

http://cyberbrethren.typepad.com/cyberbrethren/2007/04/torgau_castle_c.html