We’ve been bragging about Lucas Cranach as an artist, but what about a contemporary artist from our very own Cranach community, Sarah Hempel Irani, a.k.a. Sarah from Maryland? She too is a very gifted artist who expresses her faith in her vocation. Check out her website, which includes information on how you or your church could have or even commission some of her portraits or sacred art: hempelstudios.com

Consider this example of her work, a sculpture of Mary at the Annunciation. Note how expressive Sarah has made this block of marble!

Here is a holiday–a holy day–we don’t have to rehabilitate, re-claim, or re-interpret, a holy day that the secular world is oblivious to, the day we commemorate Christ giving us His body and His blood in an ongoing sacrament, so as that “as oft as ye do this,” He is with us, giving the Gospel to us, tangibly and experientially, in bread and wine.

I have always thought that we ought to bring out the more mind-blowing dimensions of our faith in our efforts at evangelism, that instead of downplaying them to the people we expect would have the hardest time with them and saving them for later, we should highlight such things to the secular world, especially now, as postmodernists crave mystery, are actually attracted to things they don’t understand, and in many cases yearn for an authentic reality outside themselves that they have been told does not exist.

How could we lift up the sacraments in evangelism?

So, we have now been in Iraq for five years. Our troops did win the war part, brilliantly, in a short time. But it’s that nation building that keeps bogging us down.

In hindsight, should we have invaded Iraq? And even if we shouldn’t have, wouldn’t it be another kind of disaster if we gave the jihadists a great victory from Allah and just pulled out?

Any suggestions?

I don’t want this to be just a Lutheran blog, so I don’t usually blog about inside-Lutheranism issues. But I appreciated how the recent “Things We Don’t Have Anymore” thread was taken over by laments that we don’t have the radio program “Issues, Etc.” anymore! So “Issues” is a valid issue. That hard-hitting interview show, led by Todd Wilken and produced by Jeff Schwartz, would host people like Bishop Spong (that Christianity-denying Episcopal Bishop who would then be taken apart) and, well, me (treating me always very kindly), always making a strong case for Biblical truth and Reformational Christianity, relating them to the cultural “issues” of our day. It was one of the few places where Missouri Synod Lutherans DID interact with outsiders, with Christendom as a whole, and with the secular marketplace of ideas.

Then, suddenly and with no warning, the synod cancelled the program. One of the few outreach vehicles amidst an emphasis on outreach that was working! Untold numbers of people (as has been testified on this blog) have come to our church and even to Christianity because of the influence of this program! Then it gets killed.

I don’t know anything about why, nor does anyone else I’ve communicated with. It’s a mystery. Did it get too controversial in its criticism of, say, Islam or American evangelicalism for our church hierarchy? What did the show air that was the catalyst for this sudden decision? Is this action a sign that the hierarchy is cracking down on its conservative and confessional voices in favor of some new and more liberal direction? I don’t want to believe that, I’m just saying, especially for those of you who wonder what the fuss is about, that this is one reason many people think this is a big deal. If I learn more, I’ll let you know, but I will not pass along rumors, only things I can verify.