Co-opting Halloween for Reformation Day

Last updated on: October 29, 2013 at 8:39 pm By Gene Veith

Today is Reformation Day. Children will wear masks, symbolizing vocation (as in the princesses, ballerinas, and cowboys) or our sinful nature (as in the witches, zombies, and monsters). We will give them the free gift of candy, symbolizing the Gospel in all of its sweetness.

The pumpkins. . . ummm. . . .When we are connected to the vine of Christ, our faith brings forth fruit. Big fruit. The size of pumpkins. They have faces carved into them to remind us that our good works need to benefit an actual person; that is, be in love and service to our neighbors, whether they are smiling or looking mean.

Help me out here. What other Halloween customs could we co-opt for Reformation Day? Bobbing for apples? Ghosts? Getting scared? What else?

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What the crises in health care and higher education have in common

Last updated on: October 27, 2013 at 9:56 pm By Gene Veith

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Patrick J. Deneen writes about the similarities between the current crises in health care and education. He argues that the solutions put forward by both the left and the right will not work. Since both spheres had their origin in the work of the Church, he calls for a rediscovery of the Christian concept of charity that is grounded in (wait for it) the doctrine of vocation–that is, offices of love and service to one’s neighbor.

The essay after the jump. (more…)

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Hitting retirement age

Last updated on: October 14, 2013 at 9:05 pm By Gene Veith

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When you are young, you want to get older, looking forward to milestone birthdays–16 (I can drive!); 18 (I can vote!); 21 (I can drink!). After that, you don’t particularly want to get older, and the milestones acquire a negative connotation–30 (hippies won’t trust me!); 40 (but what have I accomplished?); 50 (welcome to the middle ages); 60 (I’m old!). But then comes a short span of time in which you want to get older, with retirement-related milestones–62 (I could take early retirement!), 65 (I would qualify for free health insurance with Medicare!), 66 (I could take the full Social Security benefits!). After that, I suppose, is the milestone that we don’t know when it is coming, when we really get to rest from our labors.

So today I am technically old enough to retire! That gives me a strange sense of satisfaction. Not that I am going to retire. That’s not the point. It’s just that I could. After the jump, some retirement-related questions for general discussion. (more…)

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“Missional” churches vs. the church’s mission

Last updated on: October 3, 2013 at 10:01 pm By Gene Veith

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One of my former pastors, Rev. Lucas Woodford, has published a book entitled Great Commission, Great Confusion, or Great Confession?: The Mission of the Holy Christian Church.

It tells the tale of his attempt to be “missional,” buying into all of the church growth principles and techniques, until he discovered what the mission of the church really is. Amazon reviews after the jump. (more…)

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The Protestant work ethic

Last updated on: September 1, 2013 at 8:21 pm By Gene Veith

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Our post in honor of Vocation Day, which used to be called Labor Day. . . .

Max Weber, one of the founders of modern sociology, credited the doctrine of vocation for the rise of the modern economy in his 1920 book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

Now, there are problems with Weber’s thesis and his approach, as scholars have been noting. Theologically, he emphasizes Calvin’s doctrine of vocation, which stresses your job, rather than Luther’s, which includes how you make your living but also covers marriage, parenthood, and citizenship. Weber also says that success at your work was seen as a way to convince yourself of your election (which I’m not sure Calvinists actually believed), while Luther sees the purpose of all vocations as love and service to one’s neighbor. Luther sees vocation in light of the Gospel, so that such love is a fruit of faith. Vocation isn’t about the value of your own works, since God is working through you in your calling.

Anyway, Weber popularized the notion of the “Protestant work ethic.” (more…)

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Evangelizing the Nazis

Last updated on: August 28, 2013 at 7:35 pm By Gene Veith

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Chad Bird tells the story of Henry Gerecke, a pastor of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and a military chaplain assigned to minister to the war criminals at the Nuremberg trials, including walking with ten of them to the gallows. Many of the Nazis clung to their Nietzschean paganism. But some of them Pastor Gerecke led to Christ.

That might bother some of us. Surely, if anyone deserves Hell, these mass-murdering monsters did. We might think that it’s wrong to extend the Gospel to sinners of this magnitude. As if Christ, when He bore the sins of the world on the Cross did not carry what these men had done. That would make the Cross too hideously ugly. But it is. And this is what Christianity is all about, or it is nothing.

After the jump, read about Pastor Gerecke. And follow the link to read him tell his own story, including the names of the Nazis who did and who did not come to Christ. (more…)

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