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Parish Newsletters

Our Saviour Parish News, March/April 2016

Holy Week & Easter Day:

  • Maundy Thursday: Divine Service, 7:30 PM

  • Good Friday: The Liturgy, 7:30 PM

  • Easter Even: The Easter Vigil, 7:30 PM

  • Easter Day: Festival Divine Service, 11:00 AM

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The season of Lent has flown by and we are now about to enter the Holy Week of the Lord’s Passion. Easter Day is almost here. This Lent we restored the old custom of veiling the crosses and crucifix in purple for the last two weeks of Lent which are called Passiontide. The veiling of the crosses is a sign that in His sufferings Christ’s divine glory as the F ather’s eternal Son was hidden. On Good Friday the crosses are veiled in black.

I think we have had a good Lenten season with a number of visitors at the Wednesday Lenten Vespers and soup suppers. Judy Volkman writes:

The Soup Suppers on Wednesdays in Lent were a great success. 100 people attended over 6 suppers and $213.50 was collected for the turkeys at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Many thanks to the cooks who shared their culinary talents: Mary and Paul Techau, Maritza and Trent Demarest, the ushers, Julie Watson and Quilla Downs, Judy Volkman, and Helen Gray.

I must also thank Helen Gray for providing a delicious luncheon for the seminarians from our Fort Wayne Seminary who were here recently to see something of the life of our Baltimore city churches.

As most of you know by now, Maritza Demarest gave birth to a little boy on Thursday March 3rd. And so we congratulate Maritza and Vicar Trent in their happiness. The baby will be baptized on Saturday, March 19th, at noon. Everyone is invited. He will be named John Chrysostom which is the name of one of the great fourth century teachers of the Church who was given the name “Chrysostom” which means “golden mouthed” because of his eloquent preaching. Vicar Trent and Maritza were delighted by the baby shower and luncheon on February 21th.

Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday. It goes without saying that Christians will wish to follow our Lord in His passion. I hope that each one of us will make a sincere effort be in God’s house on Good Friday. If the evening hour is not possible, one can attend some part of the Tre Ore Service which every year is held from 12 noon until three o’clock at Bethlehem Church, 4815 Hamilton Avenue. Although the Easter Vigil is a less familiar service, it is in fact the Church’s oldest celebration of the Lord’s resurrection. In the ancient Church Christians would gather on Easter Eve to hear the story of salvation from Holy Scripture, converts to the faith would in Holy Baptism be made one with the Savior in His death and resurrection, and then receive the Body and Blood of the risen Lord in the Sacrament of the Altar. The whole service begins with the Lighting of the Paschal Candle which then burns at all services during the Easter season until Ascension Day. It is then extinguished following the reading of the Gospel which tells of how the risen Lord in His ascension withdrew His visible presence from His disciples. During the rest of the year the Paschal Candle is placed at the baptismal font as a sign that through Baptism we are joined to Christ’s resurrection. It also stands near the body of departed Christians during the funeral service as a sign of the sure and certain hope of the resurrection.

You may have noticed that the Paschal Candlestick here at Our Saviour is a beautifully carved piece of work. I recently discovered in The Home Visitor of April 22, 1963 that it was in fact given to Our Saviour congregation by Pastor and Mrs. Stiemke:

It was designed and hand carved by Mr. Herbert Read of Exeter, England, who also did the credence shelf and the font cover in our church. Mr. Read is probably best known in America for the beautiful memorial screen found in Washington Cathedral. . .The Candlestick is placed as a humble tribute to all who have found true peace in the Risen Lord and gained joy in serving their Master through love and faithfulness; although the tasks performed seemed almost unnoticed they receive our risen Redeemer’s commendation, ‘Well done!’

As members of Our Saviour we owe an immense debt of gratitude to Pastor Stiemke who took leadership in the building and furnishing of this wonderful church in which we are privileged to worship.

The end of April brings the Saint Mark’s Conference on April 25th and 26th. April 25th is Saint Mark’s Day in the calendar of the Church Year. Although primarily intended for pastors, anyone may attend. It goes without saying that members of Our Saviour will not be expected to pay the conference fee! I hope members will be here to welcome our guests.st mark conference flier

There will be four speakers. Pastor David Petersen of Redeemer Church in Fort Wayne will speak on Preaching and the Liturgy. Pastor Eric Andrae of First Trinity Church in Pittsburgh will speak on the witness of Bishop Bo Giertz. (During his long life Bishop Giertz (1905-1998) was the leader of faithful Lutherans in the Church of Sweden; he was in fact one of the great leaders of Lutheranism in the last century.) Our good friend Pastor Roy Axel Coats of Redeemer Church in Irvington will speak on the relationship between doctrine and preaching as seen in the work of Johann Gerhard (1582-1637), one of the greatest of Lutheran theologians. Dr. Leo Mackay, who is a member of Immanuel Church in Alexandria, a trustee of the Fort Wayne Seminary, and corporate vice-president of Lockheed Martin, will give a layman’s point of view concerning Liturgy and Preaching. Although the conference will be focused on preaching, it will also be concerned with the Church’s liturgical heritage. Divine Service will be celebrated on both days and Vespers will be sung on the 25th. The services will include some liturgical practices which were once common among Lutherans but were lost as the Church passed through many struggles both in Europe and here in North America. This Conference is an attempt to put together an “east coast” version of the Saint Michael’s Conference which has been meeting for a number of years at Zion Church in Detroit. In the next week or so I will be asking for volunteers to help with various tasks.

Wishing you a blessed Holy Week and joyous Easter, I am

 

Affectionately yours in Christ,

signature

 

 

Pastor McClean

Gate of Heaven, Uncategorized

Oculi (2016)

Audio

Oculi

February 28, 2016 AD

Old Testament: Exodus 8:16-24

Epistle: Ephesians 5:1-9

Gospel: Luke 11:14-28

 

Click here to listen and subscribe to Pastor McClean’s sermons on iTunes.

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

From the Gospel for this Sunday:

“Jesus said, ‘But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.'” – Luke 11:20

When you were baptized, and again when you were confirmed, you were asked, “Do you renounce the Devil and all his works and all his ways?” And you answered— either through your godparents at your baptism, or you yourself answered the question at your confirmation— with the single word “Yes.” “Do you renounce the Devil and all his works and all his ways?” “Yes.” A simple answer to a simple question. But what follows is not simple at all, for by answering that question with a “Yes”, you in fact enlisted as a soldier in the battle against Satan and his legions, a battle which never ends until we leave this present world and, like poor Lazarus, are carried by the holy angels into the paradise of God. “Do you renounce the Devil and all his works and all his ways?” “Yes.”

You may have noticed that Satan appears in the Gospel read here in church on each of these first three Sundays in Lent: on the first Sunday we heard of our Lord’s struggle against Satan in the wilderness; last Sunday we heard of the Canaanite woman whose daughter was “tormented by a demon”; and today we see our Lord’s enemies accusing Him of being in league with Beelzebul, i.e., the Devil. You might well wonder why there is all this emphasis on the Devil during Lent. The reason is that in the ancient Church Lent was the time when adult converts to the faith received their final preparation for baptism during the vigil of the night before Easter, when they would be asked this question, “Do you renounce the Devil and all his works and all his ways?” “Yes.”

Now in our day it isn’t easy to talk about Satan and his legions. Many Christians are reluctant to talk about the subject too much for fear of being laughed at. When demons do get mentioned, we often tend to slide over the matter as if it doesn’t mean much to us or as if it embarrasses us— after all, who still believes in devils in this enlightened age? So many people assume that this is just another outworn superstition for which there is no place in this so-called “modern” world. Today the Devil is much discredited and treated as something of a joke. Just think of the popular picture of the Devil in red tights with horns and a tail and waving a pitchfork! He’s comical, laughable— and the word “devil” has gone all the way from being a word of dread to being in fact a term of endearment, as when a fond father says of his little son, “He’s a little devil, isn’t he?” A devil? No, there’s no such thing.

The irony of all this is that this disbelief in Satan and his legions prevails in an age in which, as much as and perhaps more than any other, there is mountainous evidence of his work!

As some of you know, one of my obsessions is the First World War. The last day of that war was November 11th, which, when I was growing up, we called “Armistice Day” , because it was the day when there was an end to the fighting. For four days before November 11th, representatives of Germany and representatives of the Allied nations were trying to work out the terms of the Armistice. Now you might have thought that they would have then and there, on November 7th, called a halt to the fighting, but no! The fighting and the killing went right on until 10:59 AM on the 11th. (It was in fact an American soldier from Baltimore, Henry Gunther, whose parents lived in Highlandtown, who was the last Allied casualty.) Well in those four days of negotiations six thousand more soldiers were killed; and even after the Armistice was signed at 5 o’clock in the morning on the 11th, the generals ordered their troops to continue killing each other until exactly 11 o’clock! I find it hard to imagine the mindset of generals who would order continued slaughter, even though they knew it was less than six hours till the cease-fire would go into effect.

Well, Satan’s efforts and works are hard to detect. But when I look at something like that, and indeed at what, in my opinion, was a completely tragic and unnecessary war, how can one not see a more-than-human power of evil at work? Or look at our own day, when thousands of people are perfectly willing to blow themselves up to destroy their enemies and in so doing imagine that they are somehow pleasing God!

But it’s not just those poor deluded people in other lands who are Satan’s prey. For if people in our part of the world are convinced that Satan is nothing more than an outmoded superstition— a myth, a fairy-tale— then he can go about his destructive work undetected and unhindered. Then our resistance is down and we are easy prey to all his seductive wiles. I’ll never forget how one my dearest teachers, Dr. Martin Franzmann, put this many years ago. He said: “The trouble with the modern world is that we’ve been the Devil’s funeral— and then we’ve stayed for the refreshments served by his grieving relatives.”

But all of Holy Scripture, together with the faithful and constant teaching of the Church, and also everyday experience, unite in proclaiming the reality of the ancient enemy of God and Man. Of course Holy Scripture tells us not so much what Satan and his legions are as what they do. They are of course by nature fallen angels, invisible spirits, bodiless powers, and their purpose is always to destroy everything good that a truly good and gracious Creator has made. And Christ’s Church and we Christians are especially the target of their evil purpose. It has been often and truly said that “Wherever Christ builds his Church, there the Devil builds a chapel,” and I’ve known some churches in which the Devil had a very fine and large chapel indeed! Two of his favorite tricks are to sow seeds of dissension, and to keep our eyes so focused on problems that we lose sight of all God’s goodness!

And so we are called to prayer, as we pray in the daily morning and evening prayers in the Catechism: “Let your holy angel be with me that the evil foe may have no power over me.” And we are called to watchfulness. This Sunday’s Gospel is in fact a call to watchfulness against all the snares and delusions of Satan.

Now all of this can sound rather gloomy and defeating unless we remember that Holy Scripture never calls our attention to the sad reality of Satan without also drawing our attention to our Lord’s victory over Him! So when in the Holy Gospel for this day Jesus is accused of casting out devils with the help of the devils, He replies: “If I by the finger of God cast out devils, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.” Satan has met his match and more in the incarnate Son of God, God made man, Our Lord Jesus Christ. In His great struggle with Satan in the wilderness, in His life of perfect obedience to the Father’s will— always resisting every Satanic suggestion— and finally in His death of pouring out His life-blood to cleanse us from the stain of all our sins, our Savior has defeated the Devil, the decisive battle has been won. And now we but await the manifestation, the unveiling, of His victory on that Last and Great Day when the world as we now know it will come to its end and the risen Lord of love will make all things new. That new world dawned from the open tomb when the Lord Jesus rose victorious from the dead, the triumph we celebrate every Sunday and which we’ll again celebrate with great joy at Easter.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. +Amen.

Gate of Heaven

Reminiscere (2016)

Audio

Reminiscere

February 21, 2016 AD

Old Testament: Genesis 32:22-32

Epistle: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-7

Gospel: Matthew 15:21-28

Click here to listen and subscribe to Pastor McClean’s sermons on iTunes.

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

From the Gospel for this the second Sunday in Lent:

“But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help!’ And He answered, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.’ She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.’ Then Jesus answered her, “O woman great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.” – Saint Matthew 15:25-28

It’s often been said that we Christians learn more from the hymns we sing than from the sermons we hear. Well that’s of course a humbling thought for preachers like me, but I happen to believe it’s true. We Christians learn more from the hymns we sing than from the sermons we hear. So if you remember nothing else of what I say this morning, remember these words of a hymn which I believe wonderfully expresses the teaching of the Gospel for this second Sunday in the Lent. Speaking of the Savior the hymn-writer says:

When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
   On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
   All other ground is sinking sand.

“When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace.” And you might well say that in the gospel just read darkness does veil Christ’s lovely face; in fact you might say that we see a stern and unfamiliar Jesus.

After a confrontation with the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees— the religious establishment of Jesus’ day— Jesus leaves the familiar neighborhood of Galilee and withdraws to the Gentile territory of Tyre and Sidon. And there a Canaanite woman, not a Jew but a Gentile, comes and pleads for Jesus’ help. To the Jews this Canaanite woman is a nobody and on top of that has a daughter “severely possessed by a demon.”

And yet this Canaanite woman comes to Jesus, no doubt having heard of Him through the crowds which not only heard Him but also witnessed His healing of those who were sick and troubled. She addresses Him as “Lord,” and “Son of David,” as the long-awaited Messiah and Savior. “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou Son of David; my daughter is severely possessed by a demon.”

But Jesus doesn’t say anything in response to her plea, and His disciples urge Him to get rid of this nuisance! Jesus says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But the Gentile woman doesn’t give up but comes and kneels at Jesus’ feet saying, “Lord, help me!” And Jesus replies: “It is not fair to take the children’s bread”— meaning the Jews’ bread— “and throw it to the dogs”— meaning the Gentiles, like this Canaanite woman. But the woman still doesn’t give up! “When darkness veils His lovely face I rest on His unchanging grace…” She speaks words of astonishing faith and humility: She replies, “Yes, Lord”— she doesn’t contradict Jesus— “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” As if to say, “Well as a Canaanite and not a Jew, I’m not much, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Such humility. Such faith in Jesus. And Jesus replies, “O woman, great is your faith!” and her daughter was instantly.

So what is Jesus teaching us here?

First of all, we learn that we must expect times in our lives when God seems strange, distant, when He seems to be indifferent to our plight and our cries for help. So it was with this Canaanite woman and such is the experience of every Christian. In such times God is teaching us to trust Him— no matter what! One thinks of the words of the much-afflicted Job: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”

The second thing we learn here is that God never fails to answer our prayers in His time and in His way, even when we seem to be waiting for an answer for months and even years on end. He alone knows what is best for you and for me, and He also knows that at times carefree, happy days can be the greatest danger of all, as we then so often forget Him. And that is why in the ancient Litany, which Dr. Luther held to be the best prayer on earth after the Lord’s Prayer, the Church prays that God would deliver us not only “in all time of our tribulation” but also “in all time of our prosperity.”

Finally, the sufferings we Christians in fact endure are not punishment, because Jesus on the cross bore all the punishment we by our sins have deserved. Yes, we do indeed experience the painful consequences of our sins, but this is not punishment but rather a way in which a merciful Lord permits us to experience sin’s painful consequences so that we may turn from them and live.

“When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace.” Even when the face of Jesus seems stern and strange, it is still always the face once crowned with thorns out of love for you and for me and for every child of Adam’s lost and fallen race. No one could see God’s love in that crucified body, that thorn-crowned face, but there most clearly God’s heart of love is revealed. And there can be no greater proof of His forgiving love than the gift He now gives us at this altar— the truly present body which once hung on Calvary’s cross, and the out-poured blood received under the outward appearances of the consecrated bread and wine. Here truly we taste the goodness of the Lord!

When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
   On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
   All other ground is sinking sand.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. +Amen.

Announcements

St. Mark’s Conference Update #1

Planning and preparations are afoot here at Our Saviour Lutheran Church as we are now only two months away from the first annual St. Mark’s Conference. With that in mind, please take note of the following updates… but before you do, please take a moment now to register for the conference if you are planning on attending. Follow this link and scroll down to the registration information at the bottom of page.

We look forward to seeing you in April. A blessed Lententide to you and yours!

Conference presenters finalized

We are most pleased to announce that St. Mark’s Conference attendees will have the privilege of hearing two more presentations in addition to the keynote addresses delivered by Pastor Petersen and Dr. Mackay.

The Rev’d Eric R. Andrae of First Trinity Lutheran Church (LCMS) in Pittsburgh will be speaking on the evangelical and catholic witness of the sainted Swedish Lutheran bishop, the Rt. Rev’d Bo Giertz; and the Rev’d Roy Axel Coats, pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer (LCMS) in Baltimore will present on the relationship between dogmatics and preaching in the work of the great seventeenth-century Lutheran theologian Johann Gerhard.

Clockwise from top left: Pr. Eric Andrae, Pr. Roy Coats, Dr. Leo Mackay, Pr. David Petersen.
Clockwise from top left: Pr. Eric Andrae, Pr. Roy Coats, Dr. Leo Mackay, Pr. David Petersen.

Updated Conference Schedule

Monday, April 25 (St. Mark’s Day)

  • 11:00 AM – Divine Service of St. Mark’s Day
  • 12:30 PM – Lunch
  • 2:00 PM – Opening remarks
  • 2:30 PM – The Rev’d Eric R. Andrae – “‘Awake, O sleeper’: Bo Giertz Proclaims the Word”
  • 3:45 PM – The Rev’d Roy Axel Coats – “Dogmatics and Preaching in the Theology of Johann Gerhard”
  • 5:00 PM – Solemn Vespers followed by Gemütlichkeit in church undercroft

Tuesday, April 26

  • 9:00 AM – Matins
  • 9:30 AM – The Rev’d David H. Petersen – “Preaching and the Liturgy”
  • 11:00 PM – Divine Service
  • 12:30 PM – Lunch
  • 2:00 PM – Dr. Leo S. Mackay, Jr. – “Preaching and the Liturgy— A Layman’s Perspective”
  • 3:00 PM – Panel Discussion
  • 4:00 PM – Closing remarks and Itinerarium

 

+IHS+

Gate of Heaven, Uncategorized

Invocavit (2016)

Audio

Invocavit

February 14, 2016 AD

Old Testament: 1 Samuel 17:40-51

Epistle: Hebrews 4:14-16

Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11
 
 
 
Click here to listen and subscribe to Pastor McClean’s sermons on iTunes.

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our text for this day is from the third and fourth chapters of St. Matthew’s Gospel:

And when Jesus was baptized, He went up immediately from the water, and, behold, the heavens were opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him; and, lo, a voice from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son, with Whom I am well pleased.” Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

It was of course C. S. Lewis who said that Satan’s greatest success in modern times is his success in persuading countless souls that he is a harmless myth— despite the fact that the last century saw evil perhaps unparalleled in human history. And what shall we say of this new century, now halfway through its second decade? Well, C. S. Lewis was right! Satan’s greatest success is his success in persuading countless souls that he is a harmless myth, a joke.

Not so St. Paul who wrote of Satan, “We are not ignorant of his devices.”

The gospel writers Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell us that immediately after Jesus’ baptism He was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil.

Now there is a great deal which can be said about this deeply mysterious story of God-Incarnate’s battle with the Prince of Darkness, but for today let’s focus on just one aspect of that battle. At Jesus’ baptism, just before His fasting and temptation, Jesus hears the voice of God the Father proclaim: “This is My Beloved Son.” But what then does Satan do? He tries to sow seeds of doubt in our Lord’s mind and heart. God the Father says, “This is My beloved Son!” Satan whispers, “If you are the Son of God…”— if you are the Son of God— “command that these stones be made bread… if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple…,” as if to say, “God the Father’s word is not enough. ‘This is My beloved Son’? Let’s have some proof here.” Satan says, “If you are the Son of God,” echoing his words to Eve at the very beginning of the human story: “Did God say? Did God really say?” No wonder we call Satan “The Old Evil Foe”— up to the same old tricks he’s been up to since the beginning.

Now at your baptism, you didn’t literally hear God the Father say, “This is my beloved Child,” but you were through the waters of that heavenly washing truly made “the child of God, a member of Christ, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.” But just as Satan tried to sow seeds of doubt in the mind and heart of our Lord, just so he tries the very same thing with us. He tries to bring about doubt as to what and who by God’s tender mercies we truly are.

Sinners, yes! But sinners forgiven and cleansed through Jesus’ precious blood: as our baptism assures us, as the word of absolution assures us, and as Christ’s truly present-in-the-Sacrament Body and Blood assure us. More than anything else Satan wants you to forget, to forget all that. He wants to sow seeds of doubt in your mind and heart: “You? You as you are!— a child of God?” Satan whispers, “How can that be? Just look at all your troubles and difficulties. Yes, look at your sins!” And Satan is past master at bringing to life the memory of sins long ago repented of, forgiven, but which still come back to trouble our conscience. “You, you as you are, a child of God?”

Our Lord held fast to the word His Father spoke at His baptism: “This is My Beloved Son”; just so we cling to God’s word of tender mercy put upon us with the water of our baptism whose power is the Blood of Jesus. Just listen to some wonderful words of that splendid preacher John Donne. Donne says:

Against this [accusation of the devil] there is no other medicine but the blood of Christ. And therefore, whensoever this apprehension of God’s future judgment bites on you, be sure to present to it the blood of your Savior. Never consider God’s judgement for sin alone but rather in company with the blood of Christ. It is but the hissing of the Serpent, the whispering of Satan when he surprises you in a melancholy midnight of dejection of spirit and lays your sins before you. Look not on your sins so inseparably that you cannot see Christ, too! Come not to Confession to God without consideration of the promises of the Gospel.

In the words of John Newton:

How sweet the name of JESUS sounds
In a believer’s car!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.

By Him my prayers acceptance gain,
Although with sin defiled;—
Satan accuses me in vain
And I am owned a child.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus to life everlasting. +Amen.