Pastors' Keystrokes

"Pastors’ Keystrokes” is the title for the St. Paul pastors’ blog. The title is an intentional play on words between the Office of the Holy Ministry being called “the Office of the Keys” and their typing the blog’s content into their computers. Referring to the pastoral Office with the term “keys” has a rich biblical background, such as in Matthew 16:19. (Pictured as they are on this page from the window in St. Paul’s senior pastor’s study, one key usually represents the binding of sins in excommunication, and the other key usually represents the loosing or forgiving of sins in absolution.) Originating in the 20th century, the word “keystrokes” refers to pressing an input device such as on a computer, the word in many ways increasingly replacing words related to “typing” with the rise of the computer and the decline of the typewriter.

Message of Modernism is Murky

Written by Pastor Nuckols Saturday, 21 January 2012 19:31

Christian practice is quite evidently taking on its own peculiar form in contemporary America. Being practical now in the Church substitutes for being theological, because there is little left to her theology except practice. Stripped of doctrinal substance and rendered unreflective about and uncritical of the culture, theology now transforms “virtue” into a set of everyday skills for finding success in a world of technology and affluence. Knowing how to be religious now means knowing how to “make it” in a pragmatic world that is decidedly hostile to absolute principles and transcendent meaning and, in consequence, is driven to seek meaning only in self-fulfillment. It has been said that seminary students are not blind to the fact that the big churches and the big salaries often go to those who are untheological or even anti-theological. They know what kind of training they need: they need to become managers who have the status of professionals, not scholars, thinkers, or theologians.

In a secularized age, with its low cognitive ceilings and lost moorings, to turn in upon one’s self is to be expected. To see one’s access to reality only through the self, having decided that neither God nor His revelation through Word and Sacrament is any longer pertinent. This is to say that when mankind empties his existence of God and of the absolutes that had directed and interpreted his life, he did not open large holes in the architecture of his inner life; rather, he rearranged things to accommodate for these losses. Mankind compensated for all he lost by turning within himself.

On the whole, contemporary individualism is thoroughly emancipated, declining to draw values from the past. But paradoxically, it gives up this emancipation from normative precedents for enslavement to a different sort of external authority—the desire to be like others in the larger culture. This entails more than just peer pressure: the average American is sensitive not only to the values of close friends and admired acquaintances but also the impersonal voice of fashion, a media consensus, the view of a celluloid idol, the message of a rock star, or the most recent proclamation from a “courageous church.” Having turned inward in a search for meaning, we turn outward in a search for direction, scanning others for the social signals they emit regarding what is in and what is out, what is desirable and what is not. This produces a new kind of conformity. At heart, the “conformist” is more interested in attaining the same quality of “inner experience” as others. Outward conformity merely follows because they convey or confess the coded messages that those who wear or do have arrived at the same inner sanctum of experience.

The attraction of evangelical faith, then, has been very intimately tied up with the reshaping of the American character. Evangelicals have always insisted that Christ is a person who can and should be known personally; he is not simply an item on a creed to which assent should be given. But from this point they have drawn conclusions that become increasingly injurious. They have proceeded to seek assurance of faith not in terms of the objective truthfulness of the biblical teaching but in terms of the efficacy of its subjective experience. Testimonies have become indispensable items in the evangelistic fare. Testifying to having experienced Christ personally is peculiarly seductive in the modern context, because it opens up to view an inner experience that responds to the hunger of the “other-directed” individual but often sacrifices its objective truth value in doing so. The question it poses to the outsider is not whether Christ is objectively real but simply whether the experience has been appealing, whether it seems to have worked, whether having it will bring one inside the group, thus, giving one connections to others.

In any genuine knowledge of God, there is an experience of his grace and power, given by the written and proclaimed Scriptures and offered in Baptism, the Eucharist, and in holy Absolution, all mediated by the Holy Spirit and based upon the work of Christ on the Cross and in His resurrection. Nowhere in the Scriptures is this experience ever to become the source of each individuals knowledge of God, or that this experience should be commended to others. Always it has been the objective truth, which is, God revealing Himself in Christ and through those designated means by which Christ personally, and to some extent, experientially comes to man in a salvific manner. Today, Evangelicals are neutered from the objective means of salvation, the preached Word and properly administered Sacraments, thus, they are more concerned with witnessing to their own personal faith and not the objective truth. For when personal faith is affirmed more than objective truth pragmatism becomes the determining factor as to what is truth. Sustaining orthodoxy and framing Christian belief in doctrinal terms requires habits of reflection and judgment that are simply out of place in our culture and increasingly are disappearing from evangelicalism as well. Today’s consumer demands instant access to authentic reality and these “ministries” do indeed offer instant and painless access, the authenticity of which is guaranteed by subjective feeling, reinforced by group-engendered emotions; the televangelists capitalize on the widespread perception that reality is to be felt rather than cognitively realized. Feeling is rapid, but true catechesis is slow and laborious.

On Being In A Communion of Sinner/Saints

Written by Pastor Nuckols Monday, 24 October 2011 11:12

On innumerable occasions a whole Christian community has been shattered because it has lived on the basis of a wishful image. Certainly serious Christians who are put into a communion for the first time will often bring with them a very definite image of what Christian communal life should be, and they will be anxious to realize it. But God’s grace quickly frustrates all such dreams. A great disillusionment with others, and in general with other Christians, not to mention ourselves, is bound to overwhelm us; yet, surely God desires to lead us to an understanding of genuine Christian community. The basis of spiritual community is truth. Those who love such an idea or dream of a Christian community more than the parish family itself become destroyers of that Christian community, even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial. Many persons seek an intimate intertwining of other redeemed sinners because they are afraid of loneliness. And, because they can no longer endure being alone, such people are driven to seek the company of others. However, more often than not, they are disappointed. They then blame the community for what is really their own fault. The Christian community is not a spiritual sanatorium. Those who take refuge in a congregation while fleeing from themselves are misusing it to indulge in empty talk and distraction, no matter how spiritual this idle talk and distraction may appear. In reality they are not seeking a communion at all, but only a thrill that will allow them to forget their isolation for a short time. It is precisely such a misuse of community that creates a deadly isolation of human beings. Such attempts to find healing in a gathering of redeemed sinners result in the undermining of speech and all genuine experience and, finally, resignation and spiritual death. Whoever cannot be alone should beware of a communion. Such people will only do harm to themselves and to the communion. Alone you stood before God when God called you. Alone you have had to obey God’s voice. Alone you have had to take up your cross, struggle, and pray and alone you will die, giving an account to God. But the reverse is also true. Whoever cannot standing being in a communion should beware of being alone. You are called into the community of faith; such an intimate call was not meant for you alone. You carry your cross, you struggle, and your pray in the communion of those other redeemed sinners who have been called. If you neglect the community of these other frail and sinful Christians, you reject the call of Jesus Christ, and thus your being alone can only become harmful for you. Only in a communion do we learn to be properly alone; and only in being alone do we learn to live properly in the communion. It is not as if the one preceded the other; rather both begin at the self same time, namely, with the call of Jesus Christ in our baptism. Every parish family must know that not only do the weak need the strong, but also that the strong cannot exist without the weak. The elimination of the weak is the death of the communion. If my sin appears to me to be in any way smaller or less reprehensible in comparison with the sins of others, then I am not yet recognizing my sin at all and breaking the communion. The weak must guard against pride, the strong against indifference. Neither must seek their own rights. If the strong persons fall, the weak ones must keep their hearts from gloating over the misfortune. If the weak fall, the strong must help them up again in a friendly manner. The one needs as much patience as the other. “Woe to the one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help!” (Eccl. 4:10) Not despising sinners, but being privileged to bear with them means not having to give them up for lost, being able to accept them and able to preserve community with them through forgiveness and grace, which we have tasted and seen. This service of forgiveness is done by one to the other on a daily basis. Many times it occurs without words in intercessory prayer for one another. And all members of the communion who do not grow tired of doing this service can depend on the fact that this service is also being offered for them by other Christians. Those who bear with others know that they themselves are being borne. Beautiful, indeed, is the communion of God’s sinner/saints who gather in parish families and serve one another with the love that they themselves have been served first, in the communion with the Sacrifice and the Host, Jesus Christ.

As One Goes, So Goes the Other

Written by Pastor Nuckols Monday, 19 September 2011 13:16

For us, as Lutheran, the struggle to preserve the Sacrament of the Altar as Christ instituted it and the struggle to preserve the pure doctrine of the Gospel are one and the same struggle. The Word of God cannot be rightly understood when the Sacraments are not understood.

One who does not know that the Sacraments are more than sighs--and who does not believe that God does something in Baptism and that something happens in the Holy Supper--will never understand that the Word of Holy Scripture and scriptural preaching are, in every instance, God's Word. The benefit of the teaching of the Sacraments for the understanding of the Word of God is that they are the way we learn the unconditional validity of God's promise and the objective nature of divine grace and the means of grace--completely independent of all human activity.

If there should be any misunderstanding in the case of the Word of God--whether man through his hearing, obeying, willing, or doing can and must cooperate with God--where the Sacraments are concerned there can be no shred of doubt that God is the sole willing agent and that man is the sole recipient. The blessing of the Sacrament is indeed dependent on faith, but its efficacy is not. Nor is there any doubt that this efficacy goes deep into the realm of the unconscious and even of the body itself.

From the Sacraments of Baptism and the Supper we learn what it means that Christ is present, that Christ is active, that Christ is at work in our life even before we know of Him at the cognitive level. Where Christ is, there is the Church. People can be saved, though even when they have had to be without the Supper. This does not mean that the Sacrament of the Altar possesses a lesser dignity than the other means of grace, but simply that it has a different place in the life of the church. The Supper is necessary for the life of the church, in the celebration of this Sacrament the church keeps on becoming what, according to God's will, she is mean to be. Here she becomes a visible church to the world in a totally unique way.

On Daily Prayer

Written by Pastor Nuckols Wednesday, 20 July 2011 11:58

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” Hebrews 12:1

The discipline of daily prayer is as old as Scripture itself. The Old Testament gives witness to God’s people at prayer in the morning and the evening (Psalm 55:17). The earliest Christian communities inherited the daily prayer patterns of ancient Judaism (Acts 1:14; 2:42; 3:1). Over the centuries, the specific patterns of Christian daily prayer varied among community, region, and era, but that Christians were praying daily and in an ordered fashion was virtually a constant.

At the time of the Reformation, the monastic prayer offices of Matins and Vespers were retained in Lutheran lands. In larger cities, clergy and parish school students continued to pray these offices and observe the festivals and saints’ days as part of their daily routine. At home, Lutheran families were directed to their Bibles, catechisms, and hymnals for daily spiritual nourishment. Publications of Luther’s “House Sermons,” as well as martyrologies (“lives of the martyrs”) by Georg Major and other reformers, provided additional devotional material for the faithful. Thus, in stereo, the voice of Lutherans at daily prayer was carried in church and school through the use of Matins and Vespers, as well as at home through the use of various devotional resources.

In the nineteenth century, a resurgence of interest in Housandacht (“home devotions”) among Lutherans promoted a wealth of additional devotional publications from pastors and editors such as C.F.W. Walther, J.K.W. Loehe, August Crull, Georg Link, and many others. In the Missouri Synod, such a piety for daily devotions continued into the twentieth century with the advent of Portals of Prayer in 1937. And from 1870 until as late as 1940, even the calendar in front of the Lutheran Annual and its parallel German editions carried on a rich commemoration of Old Testament, Early Church, medieval, and Lutheran saints.

Throughout the length and breadth of the Lutheran tradition, Scripture, psalmody, and hymnody have provided a core diet for Christ’s holy people—all within a Church Year calendar that observes the life and teachings of Christ, as well as remembers and gives thanks for the lives of faithful Christians who have gone before us and are now in the midst of that “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1; Apology to the Augsburg Confession XXI 4-7). In this way, an observance of daily prayer finds itself integrally connected with the prayer life of the Church catholic—both in time and throughout the world today.

Oh, how different are my days when I begin with reading Scripture, meditating upon it, singing a hymn, and praying. Yet I let Satan nudge me away from my intentions. Like you, I know and appreciate the value that a regular time of devotion can bring to my life as a Christian. Yet I let the world encroach through the pressures of schedules and perceived priorities to rob me of this sacred time. Yes, most of us have a sense that our prayer life is not what it ought to be.

Take comfort in knowing that we have an Advocate who sits at the right hand of the Father and speaks on our behalf (1 John 2:1-3). Be assured that when you and I neglect our prayers, the Holy Spirit Himself helps us in our weakness and intercedes with groans that even our words cannot express (Romans 8:26). Christians live their lives from Sunday to Sunday. In the Divine Service, you hear God speak, announcing again His judgment against sin and proclaiming the propitiation made for sin and judgment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. In the assembly of Christ’s Church, you hear the announcement that you have forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation in Jesus Christ, and that reality is manifested not only in your ear but in your mouth as you receive His true body and blood in the bread and wine of the Sacrament of the Altar. Strengthened in faith and prepared by means of God’s holy gifts, we leave the Divine Service to live out our daily lives, our vocations, in relationship to God and to our neighbor. Our daily prayer, our daily devotions, are filled with the echo of what we received in the Divine Service.

Our daily prayer prepares us for the coming Sunday when we will again be in the presence of God in the Divine Service. In this way we live out our lives between Sundays, thirsting and hungering after our Lord’s righteousness (Mt. 5:6). The prayers we pray, we pray with one another—with those pilgrims who have gone before us and with those with whom we travel in this life to the next. And ahead of us all goes Jesus—the “founder and perfecter of our faith” and our Great High Priest who continues to intercede on our behalf (Hebrews 12:2; Romans 8:34). And His Spirit intercedes for us when we are not able to pray (Romans 8:26). Thus we sing with Luther:

To God the Holy Spirit let us pray

For the true faith needed on our way

That He may defend us when life is ending

And from exile home we are wending.

Lord, have mercy!

(LSB 768:1)

Our Purpose as a Parish Family at St. Paul

Written by Pastor Nuckols Wednesday, 06 July 2011 14:44

For the majority of us, here at St. Paul, we have to travel several miles to be an active part of this communion of saints. But it is sooo worth it, isn’t it?

As fellow members of this wonderful parish family, we have been blessed with the fruits of labor lived out by the faithful who have gone before us. The benefits of their hard work in providing this worship space, our beloved school, and all of our assets are to be commended by us. Most importantly, have they passed on to us their faithfulness to the Scriptures and to the Lutheran Confessions, which we continue to uphold with joy and conviction. The fruits of their time and money have sustained our mission here and have given us more outreach opportunities overseas. Through all of their faithfulness, by God’s grace, have we been brought to where we are today. Such faithful serving and giving should also be practiced by us.

As St. Paul Parish Family, we have a distinct purpose here in the heart of Austin, which is bringing Christ to others. We will continue to do so by being a loving, liturgical, and confessional parish with an outstanding school. That is why we travel so far to come here. That is why we desire to invest ourselves here---with all that we have been given---out of the abundance of our Lord’s goodness.

But Satan will not let such goodness continue for long. He has challenged all of our faiths individually, and he has also challenged our faith as a parish family. Our loving Father has allowed our old evil foe to pinch us, to unravel us, and to rough us up a bit. But for what purpose? Only one purpose has been revealed to us in His holy Word and that is---that we would repent, daily—so that daily we would acknowledge our great need for His mercy, and for His forgiveness. His loving will toward us is to draw us unto our Good Shepherd, who alone will lead us through these present challenges, and through every time of financial and emotional burdens.

This mercy, this forgiveness, this peace and joy which sustains us during such trials is only given to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. And His Son has chosen to bestow Himself and His good gifts to us only through His Word and His holy Sacraments.

Twice a week, on Sunday mornings and on Wednesday evenings, our parish family is invited to gather, in order to be spiritually fed—in order to pray to Him who has commanded us to do so, promising to hear. Three times a week, on Sunday mornings, Monday evenings, and Wednesday evenings we are invited to read, mark and learn from the Scriptures in our parish’s Bible Studies.

Thanks be to God that we have not been limited in being offered our Lord in His Word and in His Sacraments. Truly, we are blessed with so many opportunities to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Lord God proclaims in the Psalms, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt (for us, up out of bondage to sin, death and the power of the devil). He goes on to say, “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”

Dear brothers and sisters--be fed and produce fruit in keeping with repentance.