Men and Women Zealous for Good Works (Advent 1 Midweek Evening Prayer)

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The first thing to note about tonight’s Epistle is that men and women are addressed differently. Men and women are equal in dignity and worth. Men and women are not the same in terms of callings and duties, temperaments and responsibilities. First, the older men are called to actions befitting their station, to love as they lead, and to be patient with those who are led.

The older women are called away from gossip and wine toward the teaching of the younger women. The woman is to be, the NKJ says, a “homemaker.” I don’t think it means a woman cannot have a job; the term literally means “busy at home” or “energetic at home.” The idea is that she is not lazy but working, within her own sphere, for the good of the family. And this is done under the leadership of the man….

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Homily for Matins, Teacher Work Week 2023

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Today is the commemoration of St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, and one of the greatest minds of the western church. It is fitting for us this morning to look to him to guide us on our task of forming minds in the classical Christian tradition.

Augustine teaches us that true education is listening to the Word of God, even—especially—when it tells us what we do not want to hear.

Your best servant is he who looks not so much to hear from you what he wants to hear, but rather to want what he hears from you….

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(DIS)ORDERED Now Available

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My book (Dis)Ordered: Lies about Human Nature and the Truth That Sets Us Free is now in stock at Concordia Publishing House. It’s also available to pre-order (paperback or Kindle) at Amazon.

Here’s the opening of the first chapter, entitled “The Authentic Self”:

Underlying the rapid changes in today’s society—particularly the acceptance of homosexual “marriage” and the celebration of transgenderism—is a more fundamental question: What does it mean to be human? Descartes’s famous dictum cogito ergo sum (“I think, therefore I am”) began a philosophical cascade of rooting man’s identity within his own mind: my cogitation defines me. Our society is in the process of replacing truth with feelings, and unmooring sex from marriage. This is a central cause of the profound instability we all feel in Western culture. It is unlike anything we have experienced in living memory. Today, our society seems to be focusing more on feelings than thoughts. This is resulting in instability in established institutions like marriage and human sexuality.

People are searching for authenticity, but that search is only leading them away from the Author. We are disconnected and discontent, and someone must bear the blame. Into this void, a doctrine of demons is becoming the state religion. The catechists of this religion have doctrines of sin that obscenely reverse the Ten Commandments. At the core of this new religion is the rejection of a God who creates and a mankind who receives life from the One who made them. This chapter will examine how the doctrines of this new religion have developed, and will also set forth man’s true nature, purpose, and destiny.

You can learn more about the book, and download the first chapter for free, by clicking here.

Ash Wednesday 2023

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The ashes show us the end. The end of the gods we serve.

The gods of pride, power, pleasure. You serve them with prurience, preening, pouting. You prate and prattle, but do you repent? Do you change? What has your service to the gods of this age really achieved? Where will it get you? Dust and ashes, nothing but….

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