St. Paul’s
109 S.
Elm, Kewanee , Illinois 61443
Newsletter
Volume 24 November 2013
No. 11
WHY MARRIAGE IS A BIG DEAL
The historian in me thinks it’s
odd that I should even have to address this question, since no one ever
questioned the sanctity of marriage as the joining of a man to a woman, since
the beginning of the world. To put that
in perspective, we’re talking about thousands of years of human history. Although there have been some changes in what
has been culturally acceptable—most especially the move away from
polygamy—there has never been a hint that marriage ought to be something allowed
between two people of the same sex. Never.
In
Old Testament times, we can see evidence that men sometimes had more than one
wife, even in Israel . Even Jacob had two wives, Leah and Rachel;
King David too, and King Solomon. In
Solomon’s case, the fact that he married some foreign wives got him into some serious trouble, from the
perspective of faith. Polygamy was never
expressly permitted, though; it’s just that God never expressly condemned it
either. It’s in the New Testament that
we see the clearer pattern of one man and one woman emerge, much as all of the
fullness of God’s revelation emerges there, with the coming of Christ. Now we see not only that the ideal is
marriage of one man and one woman, because it is a picture of Christ and His
Church. According to St. Paul , wives are to submit to their
husbands “as to the Lord,” ands husbands are to love their wives, are “as
Christ loved the church and gave himself for her”; we are “members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones” (Ephesians 5:22-32). This passage shows that the Apostle is
drawing his awareness of what marriage is both from the words of
Jesus—particularly his references to the “Bridegroom” in parables—and from the
Genesis account, in which Adam exults in the creation of Eve: “This is now bone
of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was
taken out of Man: (Genesis 2:23). And so
we see that the meaning of the creation of man and woman reaches its pinnacle
in the joining of Christ to his Church.
Now
we face a culture, however, which for the first time in recorded history wants
to destroy the very fabric of our created flesh as male and female, and the
foundational substance upon which our redemption through the Incarnate Lord
rests.
Particularly
in Illinois
the state government will possibly have acted on the matter by the time you
read this; they are in session as of this writing. A number of states have already enacted
same-sex marriage laws. The Supreme Court
struck down the Defense of Marriage law enacted in California , opening the door for more
homosexual activism.
How
the Church responds to this perversion of nature is of critical importance, and
will likely be a very difficult matter to handle. For starters, we must all have some clarity
of understanding about what marriage is and what it is not, and why this is so
very important for Christians to understand.
It’s
all about reality, creation, and Jesus.
+
Pastor Eckardt
November
Anniversaries
11/5 Steve and Berniece Harris
11/10 Gayle and Phil Beauprez
November Birthdays
11/13 Shannon Peart
11/16 Jennifer Madsen
11/19 Steve Kraklow
11/20 Jewneel Walker
11/30 Charlene Sovanski
(Note: Richard Madsen’s
birthday Oct. 16 was missed. Oops!)
Pastor on Vacation
In
consultation with the elders, I have decided to take some vacation time during
November, starting Sunday afternoon November 3rd (after Mass and
Bible Class) until Saturday the 9th.
Much of this week will include a road trip with Carol visit son Johnny
and his wife Alissa at Whiteman AFB in Missouri . I plan to return in time for the following
Sunday (November 10th), so no pulpit supply will be necessary;
however, there will be no midweek activities on that week’s Wednesday, nor any
catechesis on Saturday. Saturday evening
mass is also cancelled for November 9th. Since this involves the
first Tuesday of the month, all first Tuesday meetings are moved to the second
Tuesday.
Shut ins
Mary Hamilton at home; Anna Baker
at home; Mirilda Greiert at Kewanee Care; Emmy Wear at Williamsfield Home in
Williamsfield.
November Ushers Otis Anderson John Ricknell, Bill Thompson, David
Ricknell
October funerals We bid farewell to our dear faithful member Mark Baker and
Ruth Snider who went to their heavenly rest during October.
R. I. P.
In Our Prayers
In addition to our shut-ins, our
current list of prayer intentions at mass includes the names on the lists here
following. Anyone wishing to update the
lest by addition or subtraction, please inform the pastor.
Ann Baker
Sara Bidni
Emilie Ricknell
Linda Rowe
Sharon Hartz
John Sovanski
Jean Russell
And all of our shut-ins.
And also:
David Dakin [re Harris]
Anna Rutowicz [re Harris]
Julie Ross [Svetlana Meaker’s daughter, cancer]
Caleb Cleaver [Ricknell]
Christian Johnson [re Kemerlings]
Madison Lindsay [re Andersons
Tom Fornoff [Jean Russell’s brother-in-law]
Rev. Don Chambers [Manito]
Rev. Brian Feicho [E. St. Louis ]
Stacie Liese [wife of Rev. Michael Liese ]
Michelle Steuber [re Fischer]
Marilyn Johnson [relative of the Kemerlings]
Jill Matchett [re Shreck]
Michele Dador [d’-door] [friend of Kemerlings]
Janice Hart [Judy Thompson’s sister]
Rick Nelson [Ricknells’ son-in-law]
Tammy Johnson [Kemerlings’ daughter]
in the military:
John Eckardt
Brent Matthews [re Fishers]
Michael and Melinda Fisa [re Kemerlings]
Michelle Steuber [re Fishers]
Donny Appleman [re Ricknells]
Thomas Kim [re Shrecks]
Jaclyn Harden Alvarez
Michael Creech [re Murphys]
in trouble:
any unborn children in danger
of abortion
Those suffering persecution in Egypt, Nigeria,
Eritrea, Guinea, Khazakstan, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, China, the Philippines,
Laos, Vietnam, and elsewhere.
Vespers on Sunday night, January 5th, then
Epiphany Day of Reflection on Monday
Tentatively, our annual winter Vespers is scheduled for
Sunday night, January 5th, 2013, at 7 pm. This is the night of
Epiphany Day. The size of our choir is
rather depleted, so we do not know how much of a contribution it can make.
Nevertheless we hope to have it followed by our traditional
wine-and-cheese reception, another annual tradition. Then on Monday January 6th, we’ll
have an Epiphany Day of Theological
Reflection, beginning with Holy Mass at 9:00 and going until 3:00 in the
afternoon.
The next day’s fifteenth retreat in the Theological
Reflection series is entitled,
“st. luke’s subtle confessions of
Jesus’ divinity”
This retreat (January 6th) will focus on several
passages in the Gospel according to
St. Luke that subtly show the divinity of Jesus. While the overt references to Jesus in this
Gospel are hard to miss, the subtle ones provide further insight into this
evangelist’s keen awareness of who Jesus is.
If there is
inclement weather, a snow date for Vespers is scheduled for Wednesday night
(January 8th) at 7 pm.
First Tuesday
Novembers First Tuesday events are moved to second Tuesday due to Pastor’s
vacation. Altar Guild and Elders
meetings will be held on November 12th. Altar Guild at 6 p.m. Vespers
is at 6:45, and Elders meet at 7:15.
Daily Prayer
For daily prayer in the homes of members,
the following helps are offered:
As a minimum, when you rise in the
morning and go to bed at night, follow the catechism. That is, repeat the invocation (In the name
of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen), say the Apostles’
Creed, and Say the Our Father. If you
wish, you may add Luther’s morning or evening prayer.
You are encouraged to use your hymnal for
a richer daily prayer. The oder of
matins (morning) or vespers (evening) is easily adoptable for personal use.
The hymnal is also a good resource for a
schedule of daily readings. See page
161. These readings correspond with the material in Every Day Will I Bless Thee: Meditations for the Daily Office, my
book of meditations for daily use, available at the church office for $16.00.
The
Lighter Side
The pastor went
bear hunting, but when a big black bear was in his sights, he suddenly fell off
a cliff and broke both his legs.
Meanwhile the bear began to lumber down the hill towards him. So he prayed, “Lord, let this be a religious
bear!” When the bear arrived, he said
grace. Hat tip – Carol Kegebein
Altar Guild News
Notes for November:
All the Sundays in November are
green. Last Sunday of the church year is
the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving
is observed Wednesday night, November 27th. Color is White.
Our
November meeting will be the second Tuesday
of the month (November 12th), because Pastor will be on vacation the
first Monday.
The New Testament in His Blood
This series contains brief
liturgical explanations which appear in Pastor Eckardt’s book The New Testament in His
Blood (Gottesdienst, 2010).
Preface and Sanctus
The Preface opens with a
Salutation, in which the celebrant says “The Lord be with you” and the people
respond, “And with thy spirit.” This is the final preparation for the greatest
event of the day, and indeed the greatest thing in all of life, the giving and
receiving of the Blessed Sacrament. By this prayer, the celebrant petitions the
Lord to be in the hearts and minds of the people who are about to receive this great
Gift, that is, that He may grant them abundant faith. Their response, “And with
thy spirit,” here as well as in other places, is a petition that the spirit of
the celebrant and the Holy Spirit would be the same, that is, that the
celebrant would be entirely faithful and true, by the Holy Spirit’s power
(which incidentally is why the more recent “and also with you” is unfortunate,
to say the least).
Next, a verse is said responsively,
the celebrant intoning, “Lift up your hearts,” and the people replying, “We
lift them up unto the Lord,” calling to mind a penitential section from the
book of Lamentations: “Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. Let us lift up our heart with our hands
unto God in the heavens. We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not
pardoned” (Lamentations 3:40-42). That is, we lift up our hearts for cleansing here,
begging for mercy, in a brief word reminiscent of the Kyrie we had uttered earlier.
And then, as if in immediate
response, our faith rises in remembrance of the Lord’s mercy, and gives thanks.
In fact, the thanks we give for His mercy is not merely in the next words, the
celebrant’s invitation, “Let us give thanks unto the Lord our God,” and the
reply, “it is meet and right so to do,” but more robustly in the great Sanctus,
which is itself the actual giving of thanks prescribed in the
Preface.
Returning to the idea introduced
above (page 48), that the Preface and Sanctus are said in response to Jesus’
own command and rubric, it is worthy of emphasis that the Sanctus is also said
in response to the holy words of our Lord. His institution of His Supper
contains the command, This do. What does He mean by “do”? He did not
merely command, “This say,” which in fact would have left us without a Sacrament.
Dutiful obedience to “This say” would have resulted in the mere repetition of
the words and nothing necessarily more. “This do,” by contrast, pertains to the
continuation of the Sacrament and its
distribution into perpetuity.
“This do,” taken simply, is a
command to participate in what Jesus was doing here. What was He doing?
Certainly He spoke His words over the elements and distributed them, but first
He gave thanks, a detail we should not overlook.
In the first place, the fact that
Jesus would give thanks, who is Himself Maker of all things, is a marvel. This
should not be construed as a denial of His divinity, but rather, as an
affirmation of His humanity. He gives thanks as man, and actually in the stead
of all men. Not merely to set an example does He give thanks here; rather, He
gives perfect thanks, as He is perfect man. But what is it to give perfect thanks?
It is not merely saying thanks, but submitting oneself, offering oneself,
in thankfulness to the giver. Here Jesus does just that. He offers Himself. For
this, as the very Words of Institution tell us first of all, took place “on the
night when He was betrayed.” His giving of thanks is His humble and free
offering of Himself to the Father, in order that the Father may do with Him
what He will. And as the Father wills that the Son suffer crucifixion for the
sin of the world, so the Son suffers. The self-sacrifice of the Son of God is
the very means whereby the world is restored to God. Earth’s curse is lifted
from the ground and placed, in thorns, on the bloody head of Christ. All this
is encompassed in Jesus’ giving of perfect thanks, His perfect presenting of
Himself to the Father here, in the stead of all humanity, and because of it all
humanity is reconciled to God.
Historically the Church has not
overlooked this detail, for in fact it is the foundational rationale for our
saying of the Sanctus. In short, since Jesus said, “This do,” it is right for
us as well, in the administration of the Holy Sacrament, to give thanks. Thus
the proper preface contains the words, “It is truly meet, right, and salutary that we should at all times
and in all places give thanks unto Thee, O Lord,” etc. This is said first of
all in response to Jesus’ command.
The less informed might wonder why
we say “all times” and “all places,” when at the Sacrament we are especially
concerned with this time and this place. But here we recognize
that all times and all places have been renewed and restored, as far as God is
concerned, to the status once known to Eden .
Thus the Supper has sometimes been called Eucharist (literally,
“Thanksgiving”), which is certainly fitting, provided we understand that it is
Jesus’ thanksgiving and not ours that makes this Sacrament what it is. With
this awareness, however, we are given great cause “at all times and in all
places” to give thanks, even for the continued existence of all times and all
places. By Christ’s atonement the cloud of God’s wrath has passed over and left
the world intact. Most importantly therefore ought we to sing the great Sanctus
here, at the Supper, for here are the very elements by which this atonement was
wrought, and they are given us to eat and drink. Every table prayer is but a dim reflection of
the Sanctus, which is the Great Thanksgiving of faith, sung simultaneously on
earth and in heaven, or, in the words of the Proper Preface, “with angels and archangels,
and with all the company of heaven.” Thus we sing “Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord God
of Sabaoth!” For not only were these words first chanted by the seraphim in
Isaiah’s vision, and not only does “Sabaoth” (literally, “hosts”) refer to the
heavenly hosts, the armies of God’s angels, but most importantly, all redeemed
and restored creation in heaven and on earth sing this together in gratitude to
the Christ who has wrought so wondrous a salvation for us. All creation bends,
as it were, toward the altar on which Christ sits, to acknowledge its
restoration in Him.
It is worth noting as well that the way in which this
thanksgiving is said does not even give reference to the ones saying it. For
while the words “we give thanks” are certainly an acceptable and even Biblical
way to express gratitude to God, any time the giving of thanks removes
altogether the first person (“I” or “we”) from the utterance, there is less
opportunity for the speaker to take any credit for the fact that he is the one
giving thanks, and consequently more glory implicitly expressed to God who is
being thanked. This is the intentional basis for the common expression Deo
gracias (Thanks be to God), or, again, in the words soli Deo gloria (to
God alone be the glory). The speaker does not even appear in the expression, so
fully is all glory directed to the One being thanked. So also throughout the
Sanctus: “Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord God of Sabaoth! Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory! Hosanna in the Highest! Blessed is He
that cometh in the name of the Lord!” These words, which combine Isaiah’s vision
with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem ,
provide us with two captivating images which, taken together, declare Jesus as
Lord of Hosts coming to bring salvation to His people.
After the Preface, when the
celebrant turns toward the altar for the Sanctus, the Mass re-presents the
Passion of our Lord and His resurrection. The celebrant does not turn
again to the faithful until after the
Verba are said. He now enters, as it were, into the secret of the sanctuary,
there to treat alone with God, much as Moses did on the mountain, or as the
high priest would do in the temple, or ultimately, as those instances foretell,
as Jesus did in His Passion. The celebrant now says the Secret, a
private prayer, so-called because he says it in a low voice, in imitation of
Jesus in the Garden
of Olives
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