Jason Kaspar – What Does This Mean?

The Church Year: Epiphany to Ascension

Encore Post: Moving out of the Christmas Season on January sixth, we enter the season of Epiphany. These seasons all adjust around the moveable date of Easter. Epiphany means “revealing.” In this season we celebrate the revealing of Jesus beyond the Christmas activities. The day of Epiphany brings the magi into the picture. This is a kind of Gentile Christmas.

The season then moves through moments where Jesus and His ministry are revealed. It contains several major feasts/festivals. The Epiphany of our Lord, the Baptism of our Lord, the Transfiguration of our Lord, and a handful of minor festivals can all be within the season. Epiphany can be between 13 days, with only one Sunday, and 59 days, with seven Sundays! The common Sundays use green and the festivals use white paraments.

The three “gesima” or pre-Lent Sundays separate Transfiguration from Ash Wednesday. The Sundays are gently moving us from the mountaintop into the penitential season. Their strange names keep us counting towards Easter. Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima simply mean about seventy, sixty, and fifty. Those are the estimations of days until Easter.

There is irregular historical and current practice regarding the paraments and liturgy in the -gesimas. Liturgical practices range from green paraments and unrestricted liturgy to violet paraments and Lenten austerity, and all points in between. At Mt. Calvary, we observe them with green and no restrictions. Other churches may use violet, veiled crucifixes, austere liturgy, and excluded Alleluia. In Christian freedom, all of these things are good practices.

(Using the Vatican II inspired three-year lectionary, The Season of Epiphany keeps the three Sundays of pre-Lent).

“O Lord throughout These Forty (six) Days“

The penitential season of Lent runs from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday, covering six Sundays. Ash Wednesday can fall anywhere between February fifth and March ninth. It is always 46 days before Easter. The color of Ash Wednesday paraments are black or violet.

Generally, we say that the Sundays in Lent are not of Lent. That is to say that pious practice of Lenten fasting may exclude the Sundays. Lent is marked by austerity. The color is violet, which suggests sorrow and royalty. We exclude the Gloria in Excelsis (or hymn of praise) and alleluia throughout the season. Like the third Sunday of Advent, the fourth Sunday of Lent sees a softening of our penitence. It is called Laetare, meaning rejoice. The color may shift to rose, reflecting this lighter mood.

Holy Week begins with Palm or Passion Sunday. The color is Scarlet from Sunday through Maundy or Holy Thursday. Often the altar and sanctuary are stripped at the conclusion of the Thursday service. This prepares the space for the great austerity of Good Friday. The altar remains bare and clergy may wear black. Holy Saturday remains black as well. But, the Saturday Easter Vigil begins with a bare altar and continues with white after the Easter proclamation.

The day of Easter is the moving target around which these other seasons adjust. Easter is fixed to the Sunday, after the first full moon, following the vernal equinox. This means Easter can fall anywhere from March 22^nd to April 25^th. This 33 day window was a solution between dissenting Early Christians celebrating on Passover, regardless of the day of the week, and those celebrating Easter on a fixed Sunday. This moveable schedule keeps us close to Passover and always on a Sunday.

The Easter Season is 40 days long, concluding with The Ascension of our Lord on the 40^th day. It’s always a Thursday. We generally treat the eight days after ascension as part of Easter, though they could also be considered the days of Ascension. White is the parament color and all of our liturgical celebration returns.

The 49^th day is the Eve of Pentecost. That moves us into Trinity, the season of the church.

Let us celebrate with contrition and great joy!

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX

Your Pastors Already Know

Encore Post: The data is out there. The trends are known. We know before we go about our duties. We know who is likely to remain in the church. We know who is likely to return to the church. We already know.

Will the married couple remain in the church after their wedding in our building? Will the family bring their baptized child into the Lord’s house regularly? Will the catechumens remain in the church after they’re admitted to the altar? Will the new visitors become a permanent fixture here after transfer or conversion? Will the family newly invigorated by the death of a closely related blessèd saint of the Lord lose their zeal or keep it? Will the children keep coming when the duties, passions, and hormones of adolescence drag them around wildly in their own minds?

Your pastors pray the data is more dire than reality.

In each case, it boils down to habit and patterns.

Newlyweds: what is their family background? Was the couple from a similar upbringing: LCMS, regularly attending as a child and adolescent, and both parents bringing them to church? It’s the same way that similar ideas about money, number of children, and chiefly if moms and dads were married and remain married, improve the chances of a successful marriage. The commonalities of faith also improve the chances that these kids will be and remain in the church.

Your pastor will coach you concerning the difficulties in your future when the odds are not stacked in your favor. Only in extremely rare circumstances will he refuse marriage. Success is always possible. But, in order for that to blossom, we have to be honest about poor odds. Your pastor prays the Lord will deliver you from misfortune and strife, even the foreseeable kind.

Baptized child: what’s the deal with Mom and Dad? If they are or become regular attenders, the kids will probably follow suit. If they are not, their kids will still likely follow suit. Your pastor will often baptize a child whose future in the church is uncertain. He prays that foreseeable apostasy does not befall your house.

Catechumens: Again, what’s the deal with Mom and Dad? Here, there’s more data readily available. Did y’all attend regularly before confirmation was on the horizon? If not, there’s a mighty high chance the catechumens will peter out quickly following confirmation.

Your pastors will desperately attempt to instill new habits in the kids. He’ll impose strict attendance standards or require seemingly endless piles of sermon reports. He’s seen parents drop children off for required church attendance, while driving off themselves. He’s grieved to know the child may be lost already. He prays he’s wrong, keeps up with his efforts, and prays the Holy Spirit defeats those odds. Rarely would he withhold confirmation.

Transfers/Converts/Those motivated by a close death: Where were you before? Are you returning to lifelong patterns of attendance to the Lord’s house? Or are these attempts to develop a new pattern? Those who attended before are more likely to attend again. Those who did not, are not.

Adolescents: This group gets the most attention, the most ink spilt over them, and even individualistic ministerial attention. How often have you heard of a church with a minister of newlywed Christianization, baptismal life, catechetical instruction, or newly returned Christian life instruction? Prob’ly never. But, we’ve all seen churches with a youth minster or a youth ministry team.

Sadly, that’s also an example of the poor return on those efforts. Again, data indicates that strong youth programs don’t predict strong Christian adults from within them. Worse, when those programs look distinctively different from the churches from which they spring, they serve as an offramp directly out of the church. By the time the youth are at that age, the patterns are well-established. It will take an earth-moving effort by their father, dragging to the entire family to church, consistently to develop a new pattern. That effort has a chance. The youth group or activities are woefully unlikely to move the needle.

Can’t we beat the odds? Yes, we can. Your pastor prays you do. He preaches, teaches, and conducts himself towards you, assuming the data is wrong in your case.

As a body of believers, we have data to help direct our efforts. Children follow the patterns established by their fathers regarding church. As we discussed before, the data is stark in this regard. If we want baptized babies in church, children in church following along and learning, catechumens attending to the Lord’s house, youth who remain in or return to church, newlyweds who attend regularly and bring their babies to the font, we must have fathers to build those patterns into their children.

Your pastors already know. We pray every day that the data is wrong in your case.

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX

The posts in What does this Mean? blog are now available in Substack at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Why Do Some Churches Use Blue For Advent Rather Than Violet?

Encore Post: It’s true that some churches use blue for Advent and some use violet. Which one is right, which is better?

First, neither is right and the other wrong. In Christian freedom, we have options of saying the creed before or after the sermon, collecting the offering before or after the prayer of the church, and using blue or violet in advent.

The use of blue for Advent is often attributed to European Marianist cultish worship or pseudo-worship of St. Mary, the Mother of our Lord. To some degree, that may contain truth. But I suspect the source is a little deeper than that. Some will also point to a Byzantine tradition of blue signifying the empress. But, there may be a deeper meaning still.

[Light blue paraments are used Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Rite Catholic, and Russian Orthodox Churches. Their use dates back into antiquity. This significantly precedes the Modern Oxford movement in England, which is sometimes maligned as a Marianist source, or an exclusively medieval Marianist origin to the use of blue in Advent.] (2023 Update)

There’s a specific reference in Numbers to the color of the skins on the Ark of the Covenant as the congregation of Israel carried it from place to place. “When the camp is to set out, Aaron and his sons shall go in and take down the veil of the screen and cover the ark of the testimony with it. Then they shall put on it a covering of goatskin and spread on top of that a cloth all of blue, and shall put in its poles.” (Numbers 4:5-6)

For our benefit, Christian artists will often depict the Ark of the Covenant moving uncovered. They do this so that we can see the gold, the cherubim, and the mercy seat, and know what it is. But, in reality, the ark was always covered from our eyes while in transit. The coverings were of an unclear material (ram, goat, porpoise, or maybe dugong) that was certainly blue in color. Moreover, no one was to touch the ark. The unmitigated holiness of God is dangerous to us in our sinful state and uncleanness.

When King David sought to move the ark back to Jerusalem, he and his men saw the holiness of God in action. Uzzah died when he touched the ark to steady it after the oxen stumbled. “So David was not willing to take the ark of the Lord into the city of David. But David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. And the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household. And it was told King David, ‘The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.’” (2 Samuel 6:10-12)

In his commentary on Luke, Dr. Arthur Just of Concordia Theological Seminary points out the parallel between 2 Samuel and Luke 1. Both show a going up into the hill country. The Israelites greet the ark with shouts of joys as does Elizabeth to Mary. The blessing of the house of Obed-Edom is reflected in Elizabeth’s being filled with the Holy Spirit, implying blessings for her and her home. Both the Ark and Mary remain for three months (Arthur A. Jr Just, Luke, Concordia Commentary (St. Louis: Concordia Pub. House, 1996, 1:72)).

St. Luke reports, “In those days, Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.’” (Luke 1:39-45)

In the Western Christian tradition, we call St. Mary “the mother of our Lord.” The Eastern Christian church uses the term: “Theotokos.” Theotokos is a Greek term meaning: “God-bearer.” The Greek term is also a spectacular image for us to have in our minds. It pictures something like the Ark of the Covenant.

The ark was nothing but an acacia wood box, covered in gold and finely decorated. The presence of God upon the ark made it unique. The virgin Mary also had no special attributes compared with other Israelite women. Yet, the presence of the Lord within her caused great joy for Elizabeth and her unborn son, John.

The presence of God in the ark looked to the ecclesia of Israel like a clump of blue animal skins skewered on a pair of poles, and carried about. Artists have depicted Mary in a blue mantle. The blue doesn’t show her specialty. The blue shows us what’s in there: Christ the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. Advent blue shows us what’s coming.

[While violet and blue are certainly both acceptable, I think blue better serves our Christology in Advent. The two penitential seasons, Advent and Lent, are not the same. We treat them differently in our liturgy and hymnody. Lent is more austere. In it we put away our alleluias. This is not the case for Advent. A variation in the colors can reinforce the distinction between the penitence of Advent and the penitence of Lent.] (2022 update)

Blue serves to show us a new thing. While we prepare our hearts in the penitential season of Advent, God is delivering His Son. The Son of Man is born to die for our sins. Unlike the unmitigated holiness of God in the ark, God in human flesh is fully like us in flesh. He has the power to heal, even by the hem of His garment. But His touch does not strike down sinners. This blue points us not to Mary, the God-bearer, but to the God she bore.

Let the blue of Advent fill us with hope.

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX

It’s Not Almost Christmas

Encore Post: I’ve been reading articles and watching spots most of my life, lamenting the earliness of Christmas-ish stuff every year. It doesn’t just seem as if the pre-Christmas shopping season has gobbled up all dates and times preceding it. The shopping season has done exactly that.

In the foggy early reaches of my growing memory, I recall days before there was a Black Friday shopping spree (the week of Black Friday, Cyber Monday/Weekend, Giving Tuesday…). The phenomenon appeared in the 1980s. I’m quite certain there was consternation in the decades before 1980 over the encroaching commercialization of Christmas. Those earlier and earlier mercantile sales dates scheduled on their way toward Black Friday weren’t welcome then either.

We, Christians, habitually grouse about symptoms. It’s as if symptomatic abatement cures the underlying illness. See my articles about fathers and the children’s future attendance here, here, here, and here. Christmas cheer getting sucked up before “the holidays” is a symptom, not the illness.

The illness is this: we are seeing civic festivals and pagan consumerism crossing the boundaries into the life of the church. Instead, let’s reset those boundaries and get our minds around the days of the church. Dear Christians, we are to be in the world, but not of it.

Halloween and Thanksgiving are not church festivals.

Halloween falls on the official church day of All Hallows Eve, October thirty-first. Lutherans more commonly celebrate Reformation Day on the same day, commemorating Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg castle church, sparking the reformation.

All Saints’ Day is November First. Christians will often observe All Hallows Eve/Reformation and All Saints’ Day by shifting the former back and/or the latter forward to the nearest Sunday. Both days fall within the season of Trinity (Pentecost in the three-year lectionary) just ahead of the end of the church year.

Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November and can fall between November twenty-second and twenty-eighth. That makes for seven variable relationships between Thanksgiving and Christmas being twenty-seven and thirty-three days apart. 2023 was an infrequent occasion, with Thanksgiving falling before the last Sunday of the church year. Thanksgiving is still always before the beginning of the new church year.

The pagan world would have us believe all of those holidays are part of the Christmas season. They are not. Those days and commemorations are not even in the same church year as the seasons of Advent or Christmas.

The church year ends with the last Sunday of the church year and the week following it. The day can also be called Ultima Sunday, after the last syllable of a Koine Greek word, or Christ the King Sunday, commemorating Jesus’s second Advent at the end of days. The last Sunday of the church year is always the fifth Sunday before Christmas Day.

After the first two civic holidays, the church year begins on the first Sunday of Advent, always the fourth Sunday before Christmas. Advent can consist of between twenty-two and twenty-eight days. It begins between November twenty-seventh and December third, always containing four Sundays. Advent contains three or four Wednesdays. The three Wednesdays are slightly more common, occurring in four of the seven variations, excluding Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve is a day of Advent. It is not typically celebrated as a Wednesday of Advent, when falling on Wednesday. When the fourth Sunday of Advent is December 24^th, like in 2023, we observe Memento Nostri/Rorate Coeli (Advent 4) in the morning and Christmas Eve in the evening.

This means that those cute, pre-made, every-year advent calendars are seldom actually right. It’s a lot of fun to open the doors for the little prizes. But, Advent rarely has exactly 24 days. 2019, 2024, & 2030 are years in which Advent does have exactly 24 days.

So, a better Advent calendar would have 28 days, with six indicated as days that may not be in Advent (2023 & 2028), or may be in Advent (2022 & 2033). The same calendar could include the twelve days of Christmas, making an even 40 days, encouraging us to celebrate Christmas in its time. Perhaps something like this:

Like the Advent Calendars, Christians used to decorate progressively. By adding a bit each week heading into Christmas it adds to the excitement of preparation. This is opposite of the Christmas fatigue caused by all decorations going up the day after Halloween or Thanksgiving, before Advent even started.

The twelve days of the Christmas feast begin on December 25. They can contain two Sundays, but more commonly just one. The days of Christmas are December 25th through January 5th. On December 26th, we also celebrate the feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr. We celebrate the feast of St. John, the only apostle to die a natural death, on December 27th. December 28th marks the feast of the Holy Innocents, killed by Herod upon the magi’s visit to Bethlehem. The celebration of the Circumcision and Naming of Jesus on January first is also a named feast within the twelve days. Christmas ends on Twelfth Night/the Vigil of Epiphany, preceding the Epiphany of Our Lord, which is celebrated on January 6th.

It is suitable for Christians to decorate and sing seasonal hymns beginning on Christmas Eve. In decades past, we would have it no other way. Now, it may be impossible to forego all of the civic festivities around us. We should at least save the bulk of our revelry for the actual celebration of the incarnation of our Lord. We should not allow the pagan world to suck all of our Christmas cheer before we’ve even begun the Christmas feast.

The exceptionally short Advent of 2023 gave us a great example of our modern distortion of the Christmas season. In trying to cram all of the programs, “family Christmases,” professional parties, and church social activities into the Advent weeks preceding Christmas, how many of us considered for even a moment displacing the festivities into the eleven days of Christmas following Christmas day? Probably very few did. I’m also guilty of missing this consideration.

This year and in years to come, spend some time in thought and prayer concerning the harrowing of the End of Days, the preparation of our hearts in Advent, and the joyous gift of Christmas (the whole season of Christmas). There’s more to it than the Christmas shopping season. Beyond just thought and prayer, avail yourself of the Lord’s house, receiving His gifts for you.

Blessèd Advent preparation!

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX

Church Words #9b: Orthodox

Encore Post: Orthodox is a term that is a bit like catholic in the minds of casual Christians. We hear these terms as they are applied to identifiable sects. That identification can cause us to assume that the word itself must mean the sect.

Catholic simply means universal or whole. So, in the Sunday morning prayers, when we pray for “the whole Christian Church on earth,” we could just as well say the “Catholic Church” on earth. Our friends in the Roman Catholic sect are the most significant association with that term, applying to a specific denomination within Christianity. There are also other non-Roman Catholic denominations that identify themselves as Catholic. Rome neither holds nor exercises exclusive rights to that term, though the pope may want us to think that.

Orthodox rings similarly in our ears. For those who’ve heard of the Eastern Orthodox Church, we assume those terms synonymously mean the Eastern Christian sect. That’s not exactly so.

The Eastern and Western Christians split in 1054 AD. The patriarchs of Rome and of Constantinople had a falling-out, which resulted in the split. The patriarchs of the Eastern churches sided with the patriarch of Constantinople. The Roman patriarch found himself alone, heading a large portion of Christianity. The churches we call Orthodox are from the Eastern side and those patriarchs. That time deserves its own treatment in another article or articles.

Ὀρθόδοξος (Orthodox) simply means straight teaching, opinion, or belief. For those of an etymological inclination, ὀρθῶς (orthōs) means straight, unbent, or unwavering. And, δόξα (doksa) means teaching, opinion, or belief. It is the foil of heterodoxy, which is mingled or combined teaching.

There’s more here than simply lexical understandings. Orthodoxy in Christianity is normed by the scriptures and our teaching drawn from it. The Bible is the norm which norms our teaching. Our teaching is the norm, which is normed by the Word of God, the Bible.

There are also orthodox teachers of non-christian religions. Orthodox adherents of Judaism, who may or may not be Orthodox Jews, will want to destroy the Dome of the Rock, rebuild the Jewish Temple, and resume the O.T. sacrificial system. Orthodox Muslims are politely called “extremists.” It is orthodoxy in Islam to desire and seek the death of the infidel, all non-Muslims. Orthodoxy in the Latter-Day Saints requires plural marriage and the rejection of all unbelievers (Christians outside the LDS). Former mormons receive the worst fate among orthodox LDS. They are the only ones who can go to “outer darkness.”

There is also an orthodoxy in all sects of Christianity. Orthodox Lutherans, Anglicans, Baptists, and Methodists seek to maintain adherence to the teachings as we have received them. In a seeming incongruity, orthodox teachers of heterodox churches teach contrary to Christian orthodoxy and the Word of God from which it springs.

For we Lutherans, that means that we hold to our doctrines and remain in the Word of God, always ready to be corrected by the scriptures in our understanding and teachings. The five solas of the reformation (grace alone, faith alone, scripture alone, Christ alone, to the glory of God alone) constantly direct us back to the Word of God and conform our straight teaching to it.

By our Orthodoxy, we preach Christ and Him crucified.

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX

It’s barely past Halloween—Why the Christmas decorations and music?

Encore Post: We’ve been reading articles and watching spots most of my life lamenting the earliness of Christmas-ish stuff every year. It doesn’t just seem as if the pre-Christmas shopping season has gobbled-up all dates and times preceding it. The shopping season has done exactly that.

In the foggy early reaches of my growing memory, I recall days before there was a Black Friday shopping spree. The phenomenon appeared in the 1980s. I’m quite certain there was consternation in the decades before 1980 over the encroaching commercialization of Christmas. Those earlier and earlier mercantile sales dates scheduled on their way toward Black Friday weren’t welcome then either.

We Christians habitually grouse about symptoms. It’s as if symptomatic abatement cures the underlying illness. See my articles about fathers and the children’s future attendance here, here, here, and here. Christmas cheer getting sucked up before “the holidays” is a symptom, not the illness.

The illness is this: we are seeing civic festivals and pagan consumerism crossing the boundaries into the life of the church. Instead, let’s reset those boundaries and get our minds around the days of the church. Dear Christians, we are to be in the world, but not of it.

Halloween, Thanksgiving, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day are not church festivals.

Halloween falls on the official church day of All Hallows Eve, October thirty-first. Lutherans more commonly celebrate Reformation Day on the same day, commemorating Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg castle church, sparking the reformation.

All Saints’ Day is November First. Christians will often observe All Hallows Eve/Reformation and All Saints’ Day by shifting the former back and/or the latter forward to the nearest Sunday. Both days fall within the season of Trinity (Pentecost on the Pope’s lectionary) just ahead of the end of the church year.

Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November and can fall between November twenty-second and twenty-eighth. That makes for seven variable relationships between Thanksgiving and Christmas, between twenty-seven and thirty-three days apart. 2023 will be an infrequent occasion, with Thanksgiving falling before the last Sunday of the church year. However, Thanksgiving is still always before the beginning of the new church year.

The pagan world would have us believe all of those holidays are part of the Christmas season. They are not. Those days and commemorations are not even in the same church year as the seasons of Advent of Christmas, which follow them.

The church year ends with the last Sunday of the church year and the week following it. The day can also be called Ultima Sunday, after the last syllable of a Koine Greek word, or Christ the King Sunday, commemorating Jesus’s second Advent at the end of days. The last Sunday of the church year is always the fifth Sunday before Christmas Day.

After the first two civic holidays, the church year begins on the first Sunday of Advent, always the fourth Sunday before Christmas. Advent can consist of between twenty-two and twenty-eight days. It begins between November twenty-seventh and December third. And, Advent contains three or four Wednesdays. The three Wednesdays are slightly more common, occurring in four of the seven variations, excluding Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve is a day of Advent. It is not typically celebrated as a Wednesday of Advent, when falling on Wednesday.

This means that those cute, pre-made, every-year advent calendars are seldom actually right. It’s a lot of fun to open the doors for the little prizes. But, Advent rarely has exactly twenty-four days.

Like the Advent Calendars, Christians used to decorate progressively. By adding a bit each week heading into Christmas it adds to the excitement of preparation for the incarnation of Our Lord. This is the opposite of the Christmas fatigue caused by all decorations going up the day after Halloween or Thanksgiving, before Advent even started.

The twelve days of the Christmas feast begin on December 25. They can contain two Sundays, but more commonly just one. The days of Christmas are December twenty-fifth through January fifth. On December twenty-sixth, we also celebrate the feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr. We celebrate the feast of St. John, the only apostle to die a natural death, on December twenty-seventh. December twenty-eighth marks the feast of the Holy Innocents, killed by Herod upon the magi’s visit to Bethlehem. The celebration of the Circumcision and Naming of Jesus on January first is also a named feast within the twelve days. Christmas ends on Twelfth Night, preceding the Epiphany of Our Lord. The latter of which is celebrated on January 6.

It is suitable for Christians to decorate and sing seasonal hymns beginning on Christmas Eve. In decades past, we would have it no other way. Now, it may be impossible to forego all of the civic festivities around us. But, we should at least save the bulk of our revelry for the actual celebration of the incarnation of our Lord. We should not allow the pagan world to suck all of our Christmas cheer before we’ve even begun the Christmas feast.

This year and in years to come, spend some time in thought and prayer concerning the harrowing of the End of Days, preparing our hearts in Advent, and the joyous gift of Christmas (the entire season of Christmas). There’s more to it than the Christmas shopping season. Our Lord took on human flesh, being born in the lowliest state to bear our sins and be our Savior! Beyond just thought and prayer, avail yourself of the Lord’s house, receiving His gifts of the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation for you.

Blessèd Advent preparation!

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX

Pastors Can’t Opine Politically?

Yes, we certainly can. This incenses the enemies of the church, who find their god in the authority of the state instead. Sadly, every election season, this comes up. There are precious few limitations on how or when pastors may exercise our liberties both within and outside the pastoral office. (“Office” here means vocation, job, or duty, rather than the place where my books live).

Rev. Dr. Christopher Thoma, senior pastor of Our Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church, Hartland, Michigan holds an annual conference called the Body of Christ in the Public Square. He’s hosted speakers in the ten or so years he’s been holding the conference at Our Savior including: Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Candace Owens, Riley Gaines, Ben Carson, Jack Phillips, and Rev. Dr. Jamison Hardy (fmr. President of the English District – LCMS, and current president of the LCMS Concordia University System). That’s not exactly a balanced list of speakers.

Rev. Thoma recently posted this in public (published with permission):

“Considering a particular jab following worship today — one suggesting my political preferences “might be too visible to the public” — I’m just going to put this image right here. [the image: Rev. Thoma with a political yard sign] Let there be no “might be” regarding my predilections. [He doesn’t conceal his political opinions]. In addition to the image, I’ll share a summary of the Johnson Amendment (since it was mentioned in passing) that I wrote a few years ago. I share it not necessarily to claim my rights above the need for expressing Christian love in such conversations (which I certainly attempt to do), but rather so that others are not confused with regard to a clergyman-citizen’s actual freedoms. Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod leadership, pastors, and parishioners would do well to take note.”

Rev. Thoma’s post from a few years ago (ibid):

“Of course as a Lutheran pastor, I’m probably not going to say from the pulpit, “Vote for so-and-so!” At its heart, that’s not the task of preaching. Although I’ll admit that in this day and age, it’s becoming more and more likely that such a phrase might actually be necessary homiletically.

Babies are being murdered. The freedom to preach and proclaim the Gospel is being smothered. The twisting of Natural Law in ways that disintegrate the family while adulterating God’s design in holy marriage are actual planks in political party platforms. Too many Christians sitting in the pews are choosing to elect leaders who support these diabolical things, even as the Word of God speaks against them.

[We can certainly now add to this list: Critical Race Theory, distorting God’s forgiveness; and trans ideology, distorting God’s gift of gender.]

With this, it should be no surprise if a pastor does what he can from the pulpit to aim his flock toward candidates who are most aligned with the will of God and not the will of devilry. But either way, whether saying “Vote for so-and-so” seems appropriate or not, if a pastor wanted to say it from the pulpit, according to the law he could. He is free to preach and teach as he chooses, even if particular parties or candidates are promoted. Admittedly, as the efforts of a pastor and church (a non-profit religious organization) might meet with the Johnson Amendment’s particulars, there are certain things they cannot do. For the sake of clarity, here’s the best summary I can offer of the law in this regard.

Firstly, the Amendment states that a non-profit religious organization may not endorse or oppose a particular candidate in a way that results in the imposition of punitive action against members of the organization who endorse or oppose a different candidate, contribute to or use a church’s resources for the benefit of one candidate over another. This typically happens when one particular candidate or party is granted open access to a church’s membership roster. [(RR 2007-41, p. 11, Situation 18)]

Secondly, a non-profit religious organization may perform such activities as register their members as voters, distribute non-partisan voting guides, invite candidates to speak, directly address issues and legislation (abortion, marriage, and the like), even employing the church’s resources to move for or against these issues. Preaching is not excluded. [(RR 2007-41, p. 3-4, Situations 1-2)]

Thirdly, as an individual, the pastor or religious leader of a non-profit religious organization may do whatever he or she feels led to do within his or her station —which includes but is not limited to publicly endorsing a candidate, supporting (or encouraging support toward) a party or campaign, and the like, as long as the efforts are not done using the church’s material resources. There are no limitations on the pastors as individuals serving in their offices. The few limitations above that do exist are only for the religious entity as a whole and only if the religious entity is a non-profit organization.” [(RR 2007-41, p. 10-11)]

Rev. Thoma didn’t and the IRS barely addresses the parsonage. So, I’ll add for your benefit:

Fourthly, the pastor’s home, a parsonage, is in his possession and not a material asset of the church, as explained by the Treasurer’s office of the Texas District – LCMS. The parsonage is a taxable portion of the pastor’s pay. The benefit is limited in scope. Pastor only has exclusive use of it, while he is serving. But, during the term of the benefit, the church does not have possession of it. The church may not place signage at the parsonage, nor use it uninvited.

“Charities, including churches, placing signs on their property that show they support a particular candidate.” (IR-2006-36) Without access to do so, neither the church nor her agents acting in their office, have placed nor can place anything on the parsonage yard. The pastor is a resident, when he is at home, and not acting from his office.

Despite their volumes of guidance, the IRS rarely, if ever enforces their rules concerning the unclear letter of the law in the Johnson Amendment. It is impossible to prove a negative. As such, in the absence of a clear directive defining the situation of a parsonage, none of the other criteria apply.

Concerning the Johnson Amendment on it’s own merits, the law is probably on thin ice. It was introduced in retribution against two Texas non-profits that supported LBJ’s primary opponent. The Johnson Amendment stands contrary to the free exercise clause of the first amendment (American Center for Law and Justice). “Congress shall make no law”… except the Johnson Amendment.

Dear Christians, exercise your 4^th Commandment duty — register & vote!

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX

Last Things #9d: Writing Through Tears: Christian Obituary, pt. 3

Encore Post: It begins and ends with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The funeral service starts with a baptismal remembrance. At the graveside, we pray and rejoice in the resurrection promised to our deceased loved ones in their baptism. The obituary should be no different.

“Jason Matthew Kaspar, a baptized child of God, died (situation may be included) on Blurnsday, Septober 32, 20xx, (location), having lived [x] years upon the earth (sometimes years, months, days, and hours are calculated).”

Use Baptismal names up front. Short forms and nicknames are suitable in the body that follows. We ought to use baptismal names at the start and in the funeral, as a reflection of the name used in God’s claiming of us. He knows the day He called you by name, forgave your sins, and placed faith in your heart. He knows the name by which you were called.

“Jason was born on [date, location], baptized in the Name of the Triune God on [date, congregation], confirmed in the Christian faith on [date, congregation], graduated from [name of high school, college, technical school, or such institution] on [date], was married to Mandy on [date, congregation] enjoying and toiling [x] years as husband and wife together. [They were blessed in their union by the birth(s) of [x] child(ren)]. He was ordained into the office of Holy Ministry on [date], serving the people of God [x] years in full-time ministry and [x] years of pulpit supply in retirement.”

A listing of significant dates shall include the most important ones: those involving the Christian life in faith. This is also a good spot for a military service record and/or other public service like law enforcement, elected office, service organizations, term as king or queen, and the like. It makes for better reading to list activities dryly here and expound on them in the following section.

“‘Pacco Kappa’ as he was called by little ones struggling to learn their intervocalic ‘s’es and terminal ‘r’s…” [Fluffy details and glowing remembrances go here. Please avoid making the deceased sound like a flawlessly angelic figure in need of no savior. Definitely avoid saying they deserve admission into the heavens by dint of their deeds or character.]

In my case, this will be a short section. The life and times bit is very important to the surviving family. It will likely be the hardest part to write. No one is likely to get all the things they want into the obituary. Space limitations and memory-blurring power of immediate grief are certain to truncate that data contained herein. Survivors, don’t beat yourselves up about a perfect remembrance. The years to come and your memories will serve far better than these paragraphs.

“He was preceded in death by [expand or abridge this section as desired], and all the host of those have died in the faith.

He is survived by [living relative and descendants are listed here, close/beloved acquaintances are also appropriate].

We, the surviving family, with certain confidence, entrust our son, brother, grandson, friend, pastor, (list exhaustively), into the arms of Jesus Christ, who called him by name on [baptismal date], and who is the Resurrection and the Life.”

The conclusion should absolutely recapitulate our only true hope and promise. There is no comfort outside of Jesus and his work for our loved ones, which has now been delivered! Double down on the thing that gives a lasting comfort: the deceased was promised salvation in their baptism. And they have it today!

Details for visitation, funeral service, interment, and memorials may follow. These announcements aren’t exactly “part” of the obituary. They’re more like obituary-istic adjacent material. Do your survivors a solid. Start working on your own obituary today. Even just a collection of dates and basic details will help them immensely.

Let us confess Jesus Christ, certain of the resurrection.

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX

Last Things #9c: It Has Pleased Almighty God: Christian Obituary, pt. 2

Encore Post: The death announcement is as much a part of an obituary as it can be without being in it. The announcement quickly indicates who the deceased is and where they currently reside. The hopelessness and unmitigated grief in death for unbelievers is the opposite of what we get to confess as Christians. Here is a great standardized format of how we ought to speak of our loved ones in death commonly used by many pastors in the LCMS. I learned it from my vicarage supervisor, Rev. Robert Smith formerly of the CTSFW Library.

“It has pleased Almighty God on September 8th, 2022 to call into His presence Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms, who, baptized in the name of the Triune God, trusted in Christ, whose tears are gone and whose sorrows have been turned into joy. We pray that God will comfort those who mourn her death with the sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the dead. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord!”

“It Has Pleased Almighty God to call into His presence…” Our temporal death is a release from our bondage to the sin that remains in this flesh before the resurrection of all flesh on the last day. Our Lord loves us and is pleased to see us delivered from this veil of tears. Our Heavenly Father sent His Son to die for your sins. It shouldn’t surprise us to hear that our death and deliverance into His presence is His will and our blessing.

“…Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor …who, baptized in the name of the Triune God…” The pagan world has convinced us that we can only find comfort in memory. In Christ, that’s not so. In the announcement, we say why we should take comfort. Memory can help us. But the only certain comfort, the only true comfort, comes from the knowledge that God has kept His word. He has saved the Queen, Aunt Hildegard, and Uncle Fritz. He saved them through their baptism, preserved them in the Christian faith, and delivered them to Himself.

In the case of the death announcement and the obituary, it is good to use their full baptismal name. Nicknames and/or titles may follow. Your Baptismal name is the name God used, when He called you His own and put faith into your heart. This is also true of Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor.

“Who… trusted in Christ, whose tears are gone and whose sorrows have been turned into joy.” Everyone who lives a Christian life has lived from their baptism in faith. They are forgiven and renewed in that same faith by the continued blessings of the Lord in His absolution and His Eucharist for the forgiveness of sins. In that promise, Jesus has brought her from this vale of tears into heavenly joy.

“We pray that God will comfort those who mourn her death with the sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the dead.” We’ve developed a lazy habit through social media of saying, “prayers.” It’s hollow, keeping up an appearance of faith. Christians and non-Christians alike share the sentiment, revealing the emptiness in it. Dear Christians, we pray in specificity. In death, we pray for comfort to the survivors. Their comfort comes from the Lord. It flows from the knowledge of God’s faithfulness to us.

“Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord!” He has delivered Elizabeth from death into eternal life. He will do it for you, too. That’s the comfort of the resurrection. This separation through death is temporary. We will see it brought to resolution in Christ with our own eyes on the last day.

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds.” (Psalm 116:15-16)

Let us confess Jesus Christ, especially in death.

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX

Last Things #9b: Christians Don’t “Pass Away:” Christian Obituary, pt. 1

Encore Post: The expression “pass away” is a ubiquitous term among English speakers. It’s a euphemism intended, in kindness, to soften the blow of death. I’m certain. No one uses “pass away” to mislead anyone. But the term conceals reality. And, it fails to confess the great news for Christians in the bitterness of death.

A euphemism is simply a good sounding word to use in place of a term that may be profane, uncomfortable, hurtful, or off-putting. The Greek rooting of “euphemism” means nearly the same: good speaking. The good speaking serves to conceal or soften uncomfortable things.

I can’t speak to the origin of “pass away” in common parlance for death. The funeral industry has certainly embraced the use of it. Again, this isn’t a malicious use of the euphemism. They are likely trying to protect people’s feelings. But, there may have been a theological driver here too.

For some folks, we may not be able to speak well confidently about their state after death. With no evidence of Christianity, there’s no hope of salvation or resurrection to eternal life. We should and do hope that something is hidden from us. But some dwell in sin and separation from God by their own doing.

Other Christian traditions place great importance on our actions regarding God. A Baptist may be disinclined to trust in infant baptism. They believe that, contrary to the scriptures, a person must make a public confession as an adult and be baptized for the first time, or again, as an outward sign of the internal decision to accept Jesus. When a Romanist or a Lutheran dies, the Baptist may not have a full-throated confidence in their rest in Christ. This finds confidence in the works and words of man, not God.

We begin the funeral service with a remembrance of baptism. That’s the key fact for Christianity. Pastor starts, “In Holy Baptism [the deceased] was clothed with the robe of Christ’s righteousness that covered all his or her sin. St. Paul says: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” (Romans 6:3) The congregation speaks along, “We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.” (Roman 6:4)

But I digress. Let’s get back to the euphemistic “passing away” as a term for death. Do the scriptures speak about passing away? Yup, they sure do.

“Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.” (Job 30:15) This is negative. For Job, all the good things of his life, before his affliction, have passed away.

“I have seen a wicked, ruthless man spreading himself like a green laurel tree. But he passed away, and behold, he was no more; though I sought him, he could not be found.” (Psalm 37:35-36) This is negative. In the Psalms, wicked things, wicked people, and the brokenness of a fallen creation pass away.

“'[The Assyrian’s] rock shall pass away in terror, and his officers desert the standard in panic,’ declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 31:9) This is negative. The power of Israel’s oppressor is the thing passing away.

“Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches… Therefore they shall now be the first of those who go into exile, and the revelry of those who stretch themselves out shall pass away.” (Amos 6:4a, 7) This is negative. In the minor prophets, things that pass away are wicked or sinful.

(See also – Job 6:14-16; Job 11:16; Job 34:18-20; Psalm 90:7-9; Psalm 102:3-5; Psalm 148:5-6; Isaiah 2:17-18; Jeremiah 8:14; Daniel 7:13-14; Nahum 1:12-13; Zephaniah 2:1-2)

Speaking the way the scriptures speak, we are saying that those things which pass away are wicked, evil, sinful, oppressive, or in need of destruction. We ought to speak well of those who have died, even in our simple expressions.

They who rest in Christ have not passed away.

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX