Monday Morning Music Ministry

6-2-25

What were the holy days – holidays – of Christians in years past? It seems odd today, perhaps, but Christmas was not a major day during much of the Church’s history. Yes, the birth of the Savior was commemorated, but not in the manner of Easter, Christ’s Resurrection. As the Church became set in its ways (that the Protestant revolt eventually challenged) days devoted to Mary and various saints became Feast Days and specially marked days on the calendar.

This past week has seen – or scarcely has seen – perhaps the most theologically significant holiday of all holy days. Ascension Day. I will suggest some of the church holidays that pertain to Jesus… seen, for a moment’s point, in a “different” light.

• Jesus was born of a virgin. Fulfilled prophecy aside, that did not prove He was the Savior.
• He performed miracles, but that “merely” affirmed His powers.
• He made claims as to His Messianic mission, and yes… they were claims; disputed.
• He suffered and died as foretold in Scripture. Jesus was obedient.
• He rose from the dead, widely recognized as a man who indeed came back to life…

All these things were miraculous evidence of an exceptional Man, indeed the Son of God – matters, still, of faith: “the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen.” Supernatural and miraculous as Jesus’s life and ministry were, He was only proven, legitimized, authorized, genuine, accepted, acknowledged, settled, fixed, rooted, set, and confirmed as the Incarnation of God Himself on the Day we call Ascension Day.

Forty days after He overcame death, Jesus bodily rose to the heavens in the presence of Old Testament saints and certain Disciples. On the Day of Ascension He “graduated” from being the Suffering Servant, the Lamb of God, the Son of David… to be, again, one with the Father. A Holy Day! This momentous day should be paramount in a believer’s heart; if any day is worthy of commemoration, contemplation, spiritual devotion, it should be Ascension Day!

Except in traditional,conservative, orthodox churches, however, the Ascension of our Lord is hardly mentioned nor celebrated in America. Perhaps this is a result – certainly a reflection – of the general diminution of regard for the holiness of Jesus. Indeed the decreasing acknowledgement of the Deity of Christ. Bad enough in general society, a scandal within the Church; His church.

A college friend of mine, John Siegmund, moved to Germany after graduation and has served as a Lutheran pastor all his life. He too laments the shrinking reverence for Christian doctrine, and recently reported:

You could be quite shocked, if you would experience how Ascension Day has been totally disgraced in civil life. In Germany, anyway, it also falls on [the secular] Father’s Day, and it is a legal holiday, therefore work and school-free. Many people try to create a long weekend with it, taking off on Friday, because schools are also closed. Here and there you can witness more or less younger fathers riding together in open wagons or pickups, drinking beer and schnapps together, just whooping it up. There are even some Protestant parishes that have no worship services on the Feast of the Ascension, offering maybe concerts, instead.

What is the reason for this degradation? The generally weakened Christian faith due to the increased secularization, and the surge of doubting the Bible within the organized Protestant church, provide the roots. It is a crisis of faith at the basic level.

When I was in active parish ministry, we celebrated the triumphal enthroning of our Lord Jesus Christ in Heaven at the right hand of the Father. Yes, we celebrated the sealing of Christ’s divinity and our hope of being fulfilled in His heavenly kingdom. We celebrated a God the Father’s Day, rejoicing in the fulfillment of all divine promises in Christ. Sure, we had much beautiful music and a heartily celebrated festival Eucharist. We wouldn’t miss this festival of culmination at all!

The further line [next Holy Days] are Christ’s sending us the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, so that we may believe and testify to His divine power. The final Festival is the Feast of the Holy Trinity, proclaiming the onetime eternal, all-consuming greatness and holiness of Almighty God.

That’s why the celebration of the Church Year for confessing Christians is so important and a reason to come together ecumenically on these high Festivals.

Pastor Siegmund shared the words of an old hymn of Swedish Lutheran tradition that expresses in a beautiful manner the meaning of the Ascension of Christ for us.

In realms of glory I behold My risen Lord returning; While I, a stranger on the earth, For heaven still am yearning. Far from my heav’nly Father’s home, ‘Mid toil and sorrow here I roam.

Far from my home — how long, dear Lord, Before my exile endeth? But far beyond the realms of sense, My fervent prayer ascendeth: My prayer, unuttered, but a groan, Shall rend the skies and reach Thy throne.

Then visions of the goodly land By faith my soul obtaineth; There I shall dwell for evermore Where Christ in glory reigneth – In mansions of that best abode, The city of the living God.

In that fair city is no night, Nor any pain or weeping; There is my treasure, there my heart, Safe in my Savior’s keeping; In Heav’n, my blessed Lord, with Thee May all my conversation be.

In glory He shall come again To earth as He ascended; So let me wait and watch and pray, Until my day is ended. That day, O Lord, is hid from me, But daily do I wait for Thee.

And blessed shall that servant be. O Lord, at Thy returning, Whose lamp, Lord, for Thee, Whose lamp is trimmed and burning; Him wilt Thou take to dwell with Thee In joy and peace eternally.

The Word, written by Johan O Wallin, from John W. Siegmund, Pastor Em., Ev.-Lutheran Church in North Germany. Think all year ‘round about the Ascended Lord – not only a miracle-man, an obedient servant, a wise teacher, a sacrificial lamb, but the Savior of humankind, being of one substance with the Father.

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Click: Rise Again

5-26-25

On Memorial Day we think back – or we should, among other impulses – on the words of Abraham Lincoln when he dedicated the military cemetery at Gettysburg:

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.

Dying can be horrible enough – or noble enough – but dying in vain is an awful thing. “Life is real; life is earnest,” in the words of the poet Longfellow in A Psalm of Life. “The grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul.”

Another president, Theodore Roosevelt, addressed the subject of battlefield death when he learned that his youngest son was killed in aerial combat during World War I: “Quentin’s mother and I are very glad that he got to the front and had the chance to render some service to his country and to show the stuff there was in him before his fate befell him.”

Can that sound cold? Was a war in faraway France “service to his country,” as many disputed at the time? Did such a death actually advance or delay the cause of either combatant? Was it Lieutenant Roosevelt’s “fate” to die in uniform? Well, in TR’s reference to “stuff that was in him” we find the essence of Memorial Day’s significance.

One of life’s most consequential qualities is standing for something. We should believe in certain things; we must be guided by principles we cherish. Of course matters of family, of faith, of nation, are paramount. We must discern and embrace the noble qualities, but in an abstract sense we are ennobled by ideals we adopt. We are motivated, we share, we are willing to sacrifice.

Beyond the prosaic “life and death” concerns we contemplate on Memorial Day (for it is not Veterans’ Day, honoring those who have served; but those who died during their military service) there is the factor of being motivated by the “stuff there was in” those who died in uniform. That is what we honor. It is my contention that the vast majority of men and women who die in combat are not haters, but lovers. Some soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines hate their enemy counterparts, sure. But I believe that most of them are motivated rather by love: love of their homelands; love of families they desire to protect; love of values they grew up with. There is a big difference, and the gruesome aspects of war do not harden the tender essence within the occasional brutality and the necessity to fight and even kill… or be killed.

In these contemporary times I increasingly wonder about the “stuff” that is in the country of the United States. Once upon a time, those who died in uniform lept to serve. They sometimes lied about their ages in order to enlist. Soldiers at Valley Forge went without pay, and without boots in the snow, in order to establish and protect a country that did not yet exist. Whites from the North, many who never had even seen a Black person, sacrificed and died in order to eliminate slavery. And so forth.

These days, however and despite those who volunteer and sacrifice comforts of home and family and safety and physical harm and their very lives, servicemen still are asked to sacrifice for the “stuff” of the nation, flag, and homes.

Would those men and women of the past, especially, have risen to arms in order to defend a nation that has lost its essential Christian moorings? Would they unhesitatingly defend a flag that now often stands for suppressing free speech, encouraging sexual perversion, allowing rampant drug use? Would they preserve a system where illegal migrants have been invited to distort the society, where sexual abuse, child abuse, and human trafficking are common? Can they be forgiven if they wonder What this flag represents any more???

… because I sometimes wonder about these things myself.

This is a changing country. Yes, all societies and nations evolve. But sometimes they devolve. Eventually they might dissolve. It is one of the prime commissions of men and women in uniform to preserve, protect, and defend their homelands. Whether America, having become an empire and not a republic, is correct to order our military to have footprints in 140 countries, and to require the consequent sacrifices, is almost immaterial on Memorial Day.

Rather we must honor the “stuff” that Theodore Roosevelt talked about; the resistance to “dying in vain” in Lincoln’s phrase. We cannot avoid being awestruck, and therefore must honor, the impulse to serve and to sacrifice that men and women in uniform practice. It is not a human impulse to act this way. Or is it?

Yes, it is – among the finest humans among us, anyway. The heroes we honor on Memorial Day. Take a moment to pray thanks, to remember, to honor, perhaps at a military grave, those who had that “stuff” in them. Maybe at a gravesite of someone you didn’t know.

But they knew you. Probably they never met you. But they knew you just the same. They gave their lives for you.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

This weekend, Mickey and I visited the Great Lakes National Cemetery in our town of Holly MI. We laid flowers at the grave of a friend of hers who died in service; and we found a random gravestone at which to lay flowers in tribute to the Many.

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Click: Gone Home

05/18/2025

Some readers know that among the hats I have worn in the past are writer, editor, and cartoonist. Last summer, the folks at Comic-Con International in San Diego remembered this juggling act, and presented me with a lifetime “Inkpot” Award, of which I am still proud and will always be. Those three disciplines came together when I was Editor at Marvel Comics.

When I worked there – back when I was different, and the comics business was a little different too – the editorial meetings and bullpen sessions often centered on the powers and superpowers of the characters. The spinoff movies of Marvel and DC are constructed in similar ways, little different than fanboys’ chatter: “What If…?” and “Why Not?” and “How about…?”

Characters defy gravity; shift shapes; exert mind-control. “If you can imagine it, it is plausible in the (ever-expanding) Marvel Universe.” Characters come to earth from the heavens and have super powers. The greatest heroes have even died… and come back to life.

Well, it’s all fiction, of course; and every fan knows that. Or most of them do.

Stan Lee, whom I knew before my Marvel tenure and worked with afterward, used the phrase about the appeal of comic-book stories: The Suspension of Disbelief. Clever and correct, but I have met many fans who live on the edge of that line between Reality and Possibility. Movies employing CGI (computer-generated imagery) and the visual miracles wrought by AI make that easy. Our imaginations foster reality, either virtual or actual. Life, having become cheap and virtually without standards anymore, has to be, at least, fun. Right?

Back on Memory Lane, it always was amazing to me that creators could discuss the plausibility of characters being able to see through walls, and transcend space and time, and traverse the universe – granting fictional characters physical feats – yet when Jesus was raised, hoots of “impossible!” and “how could that BE?” and “Who believes THAT?” were raised too.

Yet Jesus brought the dead back to life; He was, Himself, raised from the dead; He walked on water and through locked doors; He read peoples’ minds. 

Especially on the days we think about right now, post-Easter, Jesus went into hyper-mode, a comic caption might say. It is recorded in the Book of Acts, and the Gospels, and in secular, historical accounts by Jewish and Roman writers, that His appearances included, in order, His Resurrection after three days dead; Appearing to Mary Magdalene; Appearing to the other women; Walking with two believers on the Road to Emmaus. Jesus appeared to Peter; He appeared to the Apostles behind locked doors; He appeared to the Apostles including doubting Thomas; He again provided a miraculous catch of fish. He reconciled with Peter and counseled him; He commissioned His Disciples to teach and baptize all nations; He appeared to more than 500 people at the same time; He  appeared to His brother James. Jesus ascended bodily into Heaven before witnesses.

For all of Jesus’s great acts – confirming to the public that He was alive; instructing His Disciples how to spread the Gospel; preaching and revealing that the Holy Spirit would succeed Him on earth and in the hearts of believers – what else did He do all those long 40 days? 

I have shared my opinion (inspired speculation is all I can claim) that Jesus walked and talked and ate and preached, this we know. But I believe it possible too that Jesus roamed back roads during those days. Likely on dark, quiet nights. He could have visited shores of the lakes and seas. He would have encountered the lonely and lost. He would have befriended strangers. He would have comforted the sick and the hurting. No fanfares. No rallies. No crowds.

Well, Jesus still is doing that. He loves you and me. Of course He still is doing that.

Comic-book gods who do supernatural feats are cool. Yet a True God who did (and does) supernatural feats is… what? We are told by many that the Son of God is a myth, impossible, a collection of fables, ignorant superstitions… and that self-delusion somehow soothes a lot of minds. 

“Somehow” is easily explained. Fictional gods are mutable. They can change. They can be superseded. You can close the comic book, or go to the next movie. The real God, however, does not go away. He always has been, is now, and ever shall be. How supernatural! He knows your mind, supernaturally. He created the universe (the real universe) yet loves you to the last atom of your being. 

Supernatural acts? I know one: he loved me, a sinner; sacrificed His Son to atone for my sins; and counts me as one of His children. A miracle right there – supernatural. Does He meet you in the midst of a flash of lightning, like St Paul or Martin Luther? Sure. Can He meet you on a dark highway or bi-way? Or near the sea billows? Sure. He owns them all, and He meets you when you are ready. Or not. (Yes, Jesus plays “Ready Or Not, Here I Come!”) You can ignore Him or even reject Him… but He still seeks you Out.

He loved us while we were yet in rebellion. He forgives us of everything when we believe in Him. Such a Savior is, literally, super-natural.

It takes belief, not suspension of disbelief. POW! 

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Click: God Walks the Dark Hills 

5-12-25

The Roman Catholics have elected a new pope. It is interesting to see the adulation of that election, or selection, or elevation, even from corners of the denomination who recently regretted – and in some cases despised and rejected – the late pope, Francis.

Pope Leo XIV could have taken the name of Pope Hope because, at least in these first days, many people are grafting their own views onto the largely unknown pontiff.

I think it is fair to say that Leo’s relative obscurity is somewhat responsible for the cardinals’ choice. In a sense, “central casting” would have presaged a pope from South of the Equator – not a transplanted European or American – and perhaps, finally, from Africa or Asia, where the Church’s center of gravity has shifted. But worldly concerns perhaps dominated as an American cardinal was chosen at a time when the Vatican is facing economic distress; someone who has been posted south of the Equator; a recently appointed cardinal whose main identification was as administrative arm of Francis.

(During the College of Cardinals’ conclave I was reminded of the 1963 novel Shoes Of the Fisherman, about the death of a pope and intrigue surrounding the choice of a Ukrainian as successor. Suddenly plausible in the year of our Lord, 2025…)

Oddly, because the Order has many friars, Leo might be the first Augustinian, just as Francis was the first Jesuit, pope. After all these years. But popes have been elevated from many places. Adrian IV, for instance, was born in England. During the Western Schism, there were two popes, Urban V and Clement VII. At times popes dictated their successors, often their relatives. Speaking of relatives, some popes had mistresses and illegitimate children. Because the Vatican was nearly bankrupt, Leo X devised a scheme whereby people were told they could buy their way out of hell – their dead relatives too.

Self-evidently, tradition counts for much in the Catholic hierarchy. By doctrine it is sometimes held virtually as sacred as Revealed Truth from Scripture. When God is seen as speaking through the church and councils, this is reasonable. As a Pentecostal, I believe that God can and does speak to us today. Whether as canonicity or edification is a point we debate. Luther even doubted whether certain books, for instance James, were appropriate canonical books.

Such debates will go on. Especially with the advent of Protestantism’s hundreds of branches, we need modern-day Councils, and need to be wary of heresies. But – to return to the “elevation” of Robert Prevost – it was interesting to hear commentators after the death of Francis talk about Christ being the “head of the Church” and “the Holy Spirit guiding the cardinals,” but after the White Smoke, the same people discussed factions and internal politics and ideological horse-trading.

Who guides us? The Holy Spirit, or our informed intellects, or a mystical combination?

I suggest that we can’t have it three ways. Or, we shouldn’t. I attended a church in Connecticut years ago that operated on the basis of the Holy Spirit’s guidance: all decisions that were addressed by councils, committees, and boards agreed to agree on all matters unanimously. It was on this basis – the Lord had intentions for the church; the Holy Spirit works in our lives, as God’s agent of sorts; and Heaven does not operate according to democratic votes.

If God Almighty created the universe as He desired, He surely would have intentions about how His children should reach the community with His message. And everything in between. Like choosing the CEO of a large church organization. The “Holy” “Father.” As I said, repeated votes for factional favorites seems contrary to “being led by the Spirit.”

I recall in the days after the Resurrection of Jesus, history that comports with my feelings here. The “Twelve,” the Apostles, were down to 11 in number after the disgrace and suicide of Judas, betrayer of Christ. Despite the fact that the Lord had instructed them to remain in Jerusalem and “wait,” they felt the need, as a virtual church committee, to choose a new member. They debated, cast lots and drew straws, and recruited a certain Matthias.

The “round number” of 12 was restored, but nothing at all is known in Scripture or without, about Matthias.

Democracy was superfluous. The disciples should have waited, obeyed Jesus, and had their guidance. Paul was the missing piece of the Apostolic movement, the founding of the Church.

No fancy costumes… no extended votes… no black and white smoke signals. Just yielding to the Holy Spirit. What a concept.

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Click: The Church’s One Foundation

5-5-25

Is there anything more embarrassing than running into somebody, or being introduced, and… it is someone who knows you already? Who picks up a previous conversation? But you don’t recognize the person? Before you know it, it’s too late to ask, “Excuse me, but who are you???” And nobody comes to your rescue…!

We have all been there.

One of my own solutions is quickly to ask if the person ever returned the hundred dollars I loaned. Of course I am informed that I have him or her confused with someone else; and I am told, emphatically, who this person is, after all. A good idea, and some day it even might earn me a C-note.

Seriously, we do go through life occasionally forgetting names, faces, mutual friends, and so forth. We are all busy, and, after all, there are more than 7-billion people in this world. Among the nuances in memory-functions, there is the “photographic memory,” a long-term phenomenon where facts and visual details are recalled to a great degree. It can be a blessing or curse; my father’s cousin had this ability, and was able, despite herself, to recite pages of books she had not seen, nor cared about, since years earlier. An “eidetic memory” is similar but involves the ability to recall penumbrances – not only a face and a person’s name, but when and where the parties met; what aromas were in the air; what music was played in the distance; what someone wore; and so forth to other irrelevancies. Theodore Roosevelt was graced with both gifts, enabling him to read and successfully be quizzed on a book he rapidly scanned; and to recall minute details about folks he met in a crowd decades previous.

So who can expect us to recall everybody, every name, every event, every detail…? Is there anyone who can remember, and know, everything about you, down to the last detail? Things you don’t even know about yourself?

Well, God can.

Don’t dismiss that with a “Oh, sure. God can do anything.” There are implications we ought to… remember. The Bible provides prompts and memory-jogs, in case you forgot:

He knows us so well that He counts the hairs on our heads. Is that even useful? God thinks so; but anyway it is something that God does because He can.

He knows our innermost thoughts. No, you don’t have to talk in your sleep. It is something that God does because He can.

He knew us from the moment we were conceived; He knew us in our mothers’ wombs; He loved us, loves us, and will love us all the days He has called us to, going forward. It is something that God does because He can. (And something to remember when abortions are discussed…)

I invite you to reverse the course of such things in your mind. No, we are not God so we cannot exercise such miraculous powers of recollection. But how often do you remember God… how well do you know Him?… how close is He to you?

“A constant Friend is He” – is that the God you know? Continuously at your side?

Is He an ever-present help in times of trouble… or do you tend to turn to Him only when you have troubles?

Do you have communication with God throughout the day? Do you remember that He yearns to know not only the burdens of our hearts, but He delights in our joys too? You can have earnest, formal prayers… but you also can just-plain chat with Him!

When you see someone who is hurting or alone or suffering or needs spiritual sympathy, aid, and nurture… do you remember that you should see God in that person – or a “God hole” that needs to be filled?

Is God someone you only occasionally remember? Do you recall that Jesus wants to be your Savior… but also your Friend? Have you remembered that the job description of the Holy Spirit is not only to empower you, but to… comfort you, as only a true Friend can do?

This God we are discussing loves you so much He sacrificed His Son to cover the debt of your sins. Yet… we are told that if we treat Him like a stranger, He will say, “Away! I never knew you!”

What a Friend we have in Jesus. “He stands at the door and knocks” – we don’t even have to beg at His door to enter into communion. Let Him in… and don’t let Him out!

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Click: What a Friend We Have in Jesus