06/05/2026
t’s Friday…
So, how do we think of ourselves? As Western Catholics? Yes!
And I am using the term catholic, because we are. Why does Rome get to have it just because they claim it? Are they the universal church? That is what catholic means!
Anyone else is just going to hell? Well, they used to say that. Funny, if not sad, the Eastern Orthodox says the same thing.
But we are part of the Una Sancta! The what? Come on… your Latin teachers will be disappointed…
Una Sancta (Latin for "the one holy [church]") most commonly refers to the "One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church" confessed in the Nicene Creed.
The reformers were not trying to leave the church, but to reform it—to get it back to orthodoxy (small “o”). The western church was in error. It was heterodox. They chose to move away, while we stayed true. At the council of Trent (1545-1563) they made their error into dogma. They left the one true faith behind. They chose man’s traditions over God’s. We must take care that we don’t end up doing the same.
Well, part of us has. Each group of Lutherans that have come together in those mergers that started in the first part of the 20th century and that now forms the ELCA. And all the state Lutheran churches of Europe have also drank of the same poison. Those members of the Lutheran World Federation.
I am always still amazed at how many will point to something we do or say and call it too Catholic. I want to ask how and why? When did you see it done in a RC church? Have you been cheating?
And why would we want to instead mimic those so-called protestant churches? What they do in those places almost point-by-point is opposed to what we believe, teach and confess.
When they say they believe in the Holy Trinity, and we ask them to explain, they will get real weird, but their answers are usually not very Biblical.
When they say they believe in the Bible, and we ask them to explain how they get to their interpretation… well they will tell you many things, but end up, if honest, that it is their own conviction from some inner guide they call the Holy Spirit, or just plain reason. To them, then, that is why Baptism does not save, and Holy Communion cannot be Jesus’ true Body and Blood. It makes no real sense to them, so it must not be the case.
When they say they believe that Jesus saves us from our sin, and when we ask them how one is saved, it ends up, that it is up to us. We have to decide first. We have to break through to God. We have to…
Anyway, we are the original protestant church—within the Catholic Church. Rome left us. We did not leave them. These are our rites and practices. If they do not oppose Scripture and instead teach it, we should do them. Let Rome mimic us and believe superstitious things when saying and doing them.
What do I mean? Rome says (or said) that if you bite the wafer it might bleed! Or that the bread and wine disappear to become Jesus Body and Blood! The priests re-sacrifice Jesus at every consecration of the Bread and Wine! That only the priests are worthy to drink the blood of Christ….
What things do we Lutherans do that we should not—that are too catholic?
Bow to the altar? Why not? Do not the gifts and promises of God come from there? For real? Who comes there in the Bread and Wine? For real and every time we do this…?
Do not Her (His now) subjects bow to the queen (king) when they are present? Who has come among us each Lord’s Day?
Making the sign of the cross? Aside from Luther saying in the Small Catechism that it is a good reminder that you had the VERY NAME OF GOD spoken upon you at your baptism….
As your sins were washed away… as Christ was put on you… as you were made a child of God by water and word… as you were being saved by water as St. Peter states it!
It is also that the great and powerful promises of Baptism are carried in those marks upon your forehead and heart where you bear His name! It is a comfort and assurance to remember them. God does not make mistakes or take back what He has done!
So…
Let us be Catholic, but not Roman Catholic. They have retained their errors. Pray we do not do the same.
Yes, there are Christian believers in the Church of Rome, because they retain Scripture, even if they obscure it with the traditions of men. And they still have true Baptism that saves. They also have the Lord’s Supper, even if their explanation (transubstantiation) for the how it works is taken from an ancient pagan scientist (Aristotle).
Pray for them. Pray for us. Pray for our congregation. Pray for us pastors and your pastor. Pray for each other. Pray for parents and children.
And so… while we are… praying… the days of the week have past… and yes, even though this is Friday, thank God that Sunday is a’coming…
Where we partake of God once again… eternity comes to us and we enter into it as much as we can in this life…but then... then... all the way...
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This coming Sunday - 1st Sunday after Holy Trinity – June 7th 2026
Old Testament - Jeremiah 9:23-24 (Pg 676)
Epistle - 1 John 3:13-18 (Pg 1083)
Gospel - Luke 16:19-31 (Pg 927Old Testament – Ezekial 18:30-32
Sermon – THE STORY, THE POINT - Based on the Gospel reading
Prayer: For a lasting peace that would be established and would remain between the people of Israel and Gaza as well as for the People of Russia and the Ukraine. Between the US and Iran. For our congregation that it would please our Lord that we would increase in numbers and there remain in this place a congregation that calls upon Him rightly, practicing the faith according to the Scriptures. For those who are being persecuted and murdered because they call upon the name of Jesus—especially in Africa. For the end of violence in our cites and that our schools and congregations would be protected from those who wish them harm. For our families that parents would courageously discipline their children and raise them in the fear of the Lord, teaching them about salvation in Jesus alone. Amen.
