Gladness, Hope, and against the Cattle Rustlers

its all spiritual warfare all the time

/ We are glad! (Psalm 126)

/ Hope against deaths of despair

I found this Breakpoint commentary helpful and hopeful:

https://breakpoint.org/suicide-rates-at-all-time-high/

In addition to these structural concerns, we’re also living downstream from particularly destructive ideas. For decades, American society has been steadily stripped of those meaning-making stories that made it, specifically the religious framing that placed our lives as part of something bigger. For even longer, we’ve been telling ourselves that transcendent things like truth, beauty, and goodness are imaginary, and that we are nothing more than matter in motion on a “pale blue dot” adrift in the heavens.

At the end:

To borrow from Thomas Aquinas, an increasingly secular culture removes any real conviction we have that it’s even possible to “share in the goodness of God.” Thus, it’ll take the Church, both as an institution and as individuals, to reach those who are hurting.

/ These are Religious Questions

(HT Carey Best for this quotation, and I think Carey would give a HT to Jordan Cooper, and his video series: Makers of the Modern World:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxaDcwyjYomz_-v55pBIQ2-SpG3HvJPlO)

**Note**: Thank you to Nathan for indicating this quotation as false. His comments:

That Gramsci quote is actually entirely fabricated, and appears earliest in an anti-masonic screed in 1996.

That "capturing the culture" quote from Gramsci is fake

There's plenty to criticize Gramsci for apart from this, and as the article above says, I think it shows the intellectual sloppiness of anticommunism that this fake quote has been repeated dozens of times.

I love your stuff pastor, but you dropped the ball on this one.

/ I Will Rejoice (Original Version) by Nathan Clark George

A few weeks ago I mentioned Habakkuk 3, the warfare of our joy.

Nathan Clark George put those text to music. This is really nice!

/ On the Splendor of Baptism

From Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390), Oration 40.3ff, On Baptism

This is a phenomenal poetic description of the great gift and glory of baptism. (In fact, I’ll format it like a poem.)

III. "Concerning two of these births, the first and the last [natural and resurrection], we have not to speak on the present occasion. Let us discourse upon the second [baptism], which is now necessary for us, and which gives its name to the Feast of the Lights. 

Illumination [baptism] is the splendour of souls, 
the conversion of the life, 
the question put to the Godward conscience. 

It is the aid to our weakness, 
the renunciation of the flesh, 
the following of the Spirit, 
the fellowship of the Word, 
the improvement of the creature, 
the overwhelming of sin, 
the participation of light, 
the dissolution of darkness. 

It is the carriage to God, 
the dying with Christ, 
the perfecting of the mind, 
the bulwark of Faith, 
the key of the Kingdom of heaven, 
the change of life, 
the removal of slavery, 
the loosing of chains, 
the remodelling of the whole man. 

Why should I go into further detail? Illumination is the greatest and most magnificent of the Gifts of God. For just as we speak of the Holy of Holies, and the Song of Songs, as more comprehensive and more excellent than others, so is this called Illumination, as being more holy than any other illumination which we possess. 

IV. And as Christ the Giver of it is called by many various names, so too is this Gift, whether it is from the exceeding gladness of its nature (as those who are very fond of a thing take pleasure in using its name), or that the great variety of its benefits has reacted for us upon its names. 

We call it, 
  the Gift, 
  the Grace, 
  Baptism, 
  Unction, 
  Illumination, 
  the Clothing of Immortality, 
  the Laver of Regeneration, 
  the Seal, 
  and everything that is honourable. 

We call it the Gift, because it is given to us in return for nothing on our part; 
Grace, because it is conferred even on debtors; 
Baptism, because sin is buried with it in the water; 
Unction, as Priestly and Royal, for such were they who were anointed; 
Illumination, because of its splendour; 
Clothing, because it hides our shame; 
the Laver, because it washes us; 
the Seal because it preserves us, and is moreover the indication of Dominion. 

In it the heavens rejoice; 
it is glorified by Angels, because of its kindred splendour. 

It is the image of the heavenly bliss. 

We long indeed to sing out its praises, but we cannot worthily do so." 

(https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/310240.htm)

/ Upcoming Events

October 14: Young Adult Conference, St Paul, Austin
October 23: Theological Work-Day, St Paul, Austin

/ Lord, Teach Us to Pray

Order your copy here: www.wolfueller.co/LTUTP

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Christ is Risen!
Pastor Wolfmueller

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

www.wolfmueller.co

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