Contempt of the divine service

It has become more and more apparent that people do not like what the Divine Service has to offer. That's right offer. After all it is God giving us his grace not our trying to make him feel good through our praise.

I think the thing that bothers me the most is that the reason that most people do not like the Divine Service and would prefer a contemporary one is due to the fact that they do not understand it. I recently finished the Fire and the Staff and Klemet Preus has a great description of how when one does not understand what is going on they will not appreciate it.

This begs another question though. How come we are not teaching people what the Divine Service is all about? I contend that if people did not think it was just the same old thing and actually understood the reason behind the parts of the service that they would come to know and love the grace offered in it so much more.

It's just that all of the praise songs that I have run into lately have been very empty. Not to mention that they are often in a very high key and since I have a very low voice I get left out. The hymns from the hymnals tend to be able to include me since they are focused more in the middle ranges. Could this be a reason that we do not see men singing in church? The praise songs were simply not made for them to sing. I guess that is because we know that all men hate singing and are almost never capable of it. Anyways those are my thoughts on the subject for the time being.

With Great Care

Today, I began really packing stuff up to head home for the summer as college students do. In the process I found that I took great care in packing my books. I like them and they are mine so they deserve proper care. I made sure that I placed them all in the box in a fashion so that they did not bend one another's cover or any of the pages. Stay with me here I'm getting somewhere. It doesn't matter that when they were shipped to the bookstore or put on the racks they may not have received the best of care. Now that they are mine it is my responsibility to watch over them.

After packing all of my books away I thought of the care that we should take care of the Gospel of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. It is after all the Good News which was shared for us. It is now ours and it is our responsibility to watch over it. Without it we are lost as it is the only assurance that we are forgiven of all of our sins. We are given the command to share it with others and be sure that it remains pure in its teaching. Since we have received the Gospel so graciously as a gift from God it is our job to take care of it in the ways God expects us to. It is important to remember to keep it in a form so that "none of the pages get bent". Once we receive something it is our job to take care of it.

I urge everyone to take care of the gracious gift that our Lord has bestowed upon us and watch over it with the utmost of attention.