Month: May 2019

Sola Fide
by Rev. E.B. Holschuh

Aunt Thede’s Good Book & The Marriage Covenant

            I remember that my grandmother never missed an episode of the old western tv series “Gunsmoke.” As an adult, I, too, became a fan of the show—in fact, Marshall Matt Dillon is one my heroes, along with Captain Kirk and “The Rifleman” Lucas McCain, guys with morals and courage who never left a call to do what’s right unanswered (unlike so many in the real world). The other day I caught a “Gunsmoke” episode about a wayward aunt of Festus Haggen (Dillon’s right-hand man) who rides into Dodge City looking for a husband. Aunt Theodore is a self-proclaimed preacher down from the hills who wasted no time putting up a still since, as she chides Festus over his concern about illegal moonshine, “Wine and nectar, it’s in the book, and you know that!”

The “book” Aunt Thede is talking about, of course is the Bible (and I’ll look again, but I’m quite certain there’s no provision for moonshine in it); however, the book she has in her hand is “Little Women,” popular in the post-Civil War setting of the show. It turns out that most of the Haggen clan, including Festus and Theodore, can’t read. Aunt Thede journeyed from Missouri to Kansas with a couple of “reedy” folks (meaning they could read) who gave her a parting gift of the book. Festus took it to the General Store to find out the name and when the storekeeper saw the title, he told Festus that he was surprised to find his aunt with “a good book.” Festus thanked him then left without learning the true title…

Aunt Thede, mountain preacher and purveyor of firewater, believes she’s been given God’s Word and that it must be a sign. Toward the end of the episode, she tells a young couple she’s about to marry that “the Lord gave us a sign and we know ain’t none of us complete all of ourselves…it takes two to make one and that’s the Lord’s way, because he’s been blessing marriages since the first of things.” After inquiring whether they are truly in love, she tells them to “set your hands on the Good Book gentle-like,” then to pray silently that the Lord would know “we mean right and proper in all this and we swear it on His Book.” Aunt Thede is certain that she’s married them.

In the May 3 issue of The Week magazine, I read an opinion piece entitled “What’s the Point of Marriage?”, in which the author, a woman, about a quarter of the way into the article asks a pair of ladies-and-gentlemen-of-the-jury style rhetorical questions: “Isn’t it reasonable to question the value of a legal contract, written in ink, on paper, that involves disastrously punitive terms of dissolution? What kind of an old-fashioned mutant could crave such a primitive trap, particularly when it’s paired with an enormously expensive ceremony that often includes allusions to obedience and lifelong mutual suffering and death, of all things?”

Marriage is a covenant, a sacred bond between a man and a woman instituted by and publicly entered into before God, according to Whom marriage is fundamentally a matter of a man and a woman becoming one flesh (Genesis 2:24). Marriage is a three-way covenant between husband, wife, and God, a permanent contract between a man and a woman established before God as a witness. It’s not necessary to swear on a Bible (or a copy of “Little Women”), but a public ceremony is meant as a proclamation of faith and celebration of commitment. Marriage is meant to be a blessing to all parties involved, husband, wife, and children—a divine gift that’s not disposable. Sex equals marriage in God’s eyes…promiscuity, then, becomes the sin of adultery.

Though God is never mentioned in the 1,700-word article in The Week, the last word is, somewhat ironically, “grace” and answers the title question (What’s the point of marriage?). The marriage covenant, consummated with solemn vows and sexual union, is sealed with God’s grace. Aunt Thede was right…

“It takes two to make one and that’s the Lord’s way.”

Pastor E.B. Holschuh serves at Zion Lutheran Church (LCMS) in Alamo. He is a retired Navy Senior Chief and former English and Russian teacher. 

Sola Fide
by Rev. E.B. Holschuh

The Calibration Prayer

“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:7-16 ESV)

Jesus tells us “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them…”

My father was an alcoholic and during my childhood I can remember hearing the Lord’s Prayer at the close of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings—in fact, that’s where I learned to recite it by heart as a little kid. AA members—in a very Christian vein, though obviously not in the soteriological sense—are reminded to admit daily that they cannot help themselves, but to “Let go and Let God.” In my entire life I cannot think of a time that I did not believe in a God who was responsible for everything in my world, but it was not until my adult life that I began to converse with him. My personal prayer time occurs every morning before my feet hit the floor, in the quiet of the new day.

Martin Luther believed that all Christians to some extent are theologians. In 1539 he wrote about “the way taught by King David (and doubtlessly by all the patriarchs and prophets) in the one-hundred-nineteenth Psalm. There you will find three rules, simply presented throughout the whole Psalm. They are Oratio, Meditatio, Tentatio.” (that is, prayer, meditation, and trial). In Psalm 119, David cries out to God for understanding of his Word (prayer); he himself tries to understand God’s Word (meditation); and he is faced with repeated difficulty (trial). Today’s Christian and the Christian of Luther’s day are really no different. God knows who we are and what we go through, which is why He provided us a simple and straightforward means of communication with Him through Christ in the Lord’s Prayer.

I have taught the Lord’s Prayer in Sunday school class and I am fond of referring to it as the “calibration” prayer—when not recited rotely, it truly can help the helpless (i.e. us sinners) not just dialogue with God, but refocus and re-center the relationship between us (God as Creator, Benefactor, and Protector—we as self-centered, disobedient, and undeserving of even a glance from God in our direction), as well as strengthen our resolve to endure life’s trials knowing that through faith in Christ God has our back.

The Lord’s Prayer as we recite it in the Lutheran Church (as in many other Protestant churches) has the added conclusion: “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.” This “doxology” appeared in the 17^th century King James version (once the “standard” Protestant Bible).

Additionally, many folks don’t know how to pray, not to mention why to pray and for what. The Lord’s Prayer is a great place to start a conversation with God in repentance, gratitude, and exaltation!

Pastor E.B. Holschuh serves at Zion Lutheran Church (LCMS) in Alamo. He is a retired Navy Senior Chief and former English and Russian teacher.