"My beloved is unto me as a bundle of myrrh." Song of Solomon 1:13
Wednesday, November 12th, 2014
Per typical I’m late posting on what we do here at the parsonage! We celebrated All Saints Day a couple weekends ago. We did this over two days. I’m finding that with the bigger feasts of the Church Year spreading out the lessons or activities or meals I have planned makes for way less stress.
Friday, October 31st, 2014
“God’s Word is our great heritage,
and shall be our forever.
To spread its light from age to age,
Shall be our chief endeavor.
Through life it guides our way,
In death it is our stay.
Lord, grant while worlds endure,
we keep its teaching pure
throughout all generations.”
God’s Word is Our Great Heritage, Nicolai F.S. Grundtvig
“The soul can live without all things except the Word of God; without the Word of God nothing can help us. But when we have the Word we need nothing else, for in the Word we have enough food, joy, peace, light, art, justice, truth, wisdom, and all good things in abundance.
What then is this Word that bestows such high grace, and how shall I use it? It is nothing other than the actual preaching of Christ as it is contained in the gospel. The purpose of the preaching is that you should hear your God speaking to you, telling how all your life and works are nothing before God and how you and all that is in you would perish eternally. If you truly believe how sinful you are, you will despair of yourself entirely. But in order that you man be saved from yourself and out of yourself-that is, out of ruin-God presents to you his dearly beloved Son, Jesus, and bids you, through his living and comforting Word, to yield yourself to him with a cheerful heart. For the sake of such faith all your sins will be forgiven, your ruin overcome, and you will be just and true, content and devout, fulfilling all his commandments, and set free from all things.” Martin Luther
Now, go Trick-Or-Treat!
Monday, October 27th, 2014
Monday, October 6th, 2014
September 29th, we celebrate the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, this is also known as Michaelmas. I read from Revelation chapter 12 where Michael and his angels fight the dragon Satan:
“And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”
“Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”
Traditionally I think you’re supposed to eat Blackberries on Michaelmas using them all up, since as stories for children go, when the devil was cast out of Heaven he landed in a bramble patch. I didn’t have blackberries, so raspberries it was, raspberry cobbler for dessert, unfortunately there was no ice cream to go with it either! Yes, very very sad.
This Feast is a great occasion to teach children about what God’s Word says about angels and about the devil. We also talked about Gabriel, how he came to Mary to announce the coming of Jesus. For Gabriel we listened to one of my favorite Christmas songs:
“Everlasting God, You have ordained and constituted
the service of angels and men in a wonderful order.
Mercifully grant that, as Your holy angels
always serve and worship You in heaven,
so by Your appointment they may also
help and defend us here on earth.”
