respublica

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world

Palm Sunday, lamb at our door.

They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!" "Blessed is the king of Israel!"

Good idea

One of our pastors suggested that on Palm Sunday (this coming Sunday) we all put palm branches on our front door or front windows in order for us to be connected while apart. Any branch will do if no palm branches are available.

Lamb at the door

Today being Sunday I placed a small sheep at our front door. We're all listening for our Shepherd's voice today and listening more intently than ever before. Praise God for promising to hear us. And, living in times like this we are thankful for the technology which allows us to be part of our churches' worship services online. In our case, Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Collinsville.

 

Last Sunday a large number of people came to Holy Cross in Collinsville for a concert by Concordia Seminary's special choir, Laudamus. Yesterday a big crowd filled the seminary chapel to listen to the Concordia University Nebraska's A Cappella Choir. Beautiful music both Sundays.

Holy Cross

Concordia Nebraska

Acolyting

This past Sunday our family had a milestone in church. The two oldest grandsons acolyted together for the first time. This was Connor's debut and he was all smiles. There is something so wonderful about this.

Today is St. Joseph's Day

Growing up on the south side of Chicago, we were Lutheran, but in our Roseland neighborhood we had many friends who were Catholic and there were several huge Catholic churches in that area. So we heard a lot about saints from the neighorhood kids. My dad was adamant that we do not pray to saints, but we pray directly to God the heavenly Father through his Son Jesus Christ. In any event, hearing that today is St. Joseph's Day I decided to see what this is all about.

This day always falls two days after St. Patrick's Day and the color is not green, but red. It is a feast day in commemoration of Joseph, husband of Mary, who tradition has it was prayed to during a horrible famine in Sicily during the middle ages and he answered their prayers and the famine ended. "With the ending of the dreadful famine, a special feast of thanksgiving was held in commemoration of the Saint. This celebration became tradition. Wealth families prepared huge buffets. They then invited the less fortunate people of the village, especially the homeless and sick."

Much symbolism is in the food prepared and the feasts goes on all day and all night. People can come and go. Dan Bovino, a former Roseland native who grew up there sort during my time, posted a photo today of a fairly typical St. Joseph's Day feast. It must still be tradition in many Catholic churches and homes, although we don't hear as much about it.

I find this rather fascinating and if you'd like to read more about today's St. Joseph Day, here is a link with much more information.

 

A family church service

Dale preached at The Lutheran Church of Webster Gardens this morning, the church our kids attend. As it happened, grandson Christian acolyted and Lizzie was a reader.

A couple of weeks ago I posted a picture I love of Christian sitting with his St. Louis pastor just talking and discussing things. Now a picture I also love of Drew getting hugged by his Maryland pastor after Christmas Eve worship. Two wonderful pastors and the kids are so blessed to have them in their lives.

This is the church you go to if...

This is an interesting Twitter thread in which readers were asked to put up a photo of unusual church architecture and explain what would make you go there. The pictures are interesting. But most of the responses weren't funny as they should have been. Some actually make no sense. However, this entry did make me laugh.

"This is the church you go to if you were a cool Lutheran in the seventies and never got over it."

The Fifth is a tough one

The Lord's Prayer is prayed at every worship service or mass. We communally pray often just by rote, it is so familiar. But recently I've been stopped by the Fifth Petition and have spent a lot of time pondering this. "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." Or, Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."

When I really think about this I realize this is a very difficult thing to do and the seriousness of what I'm praying either with the rest of the congregation or privately hits me hard.

"Inasmuch as we sin greatly against God every day and yet He forgives it all through grace, we must always forgive our neighbor who does us harm, violence, and injustice [and] bears malice toward us.... If you do not forgive, do not think that God forgives you" (Large Catechism III:94-95)."

"Matt. 6:14-15 If you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins."

How hard it is to forgive and mean it. How awful it is to realize that by not forgiving, we aren't forgiven.