The Fast Ends, The Carnival Begins Anew Welcome to the 47th Lutheran Carnival of Blogs

Dan @ Necessary Roughness broke an internal tie by suggesting that I feature "unknown" Lutheran Rosa Young. She's one of a couple people I'd been wavering among and Dan was so kind as to include an excerpt from Wallace Schulz that I reproduce here in lieu of doing any more original research with a brain still reeling from Holy Week and Paschal preparations and preaching.

Rosa Young

What our LCMS so desperately needs at the moment, both pastors and people, is a decisive dose of humility as shown by the pioneer black woman, Rosa Young. A century ago, in Alabama, Rosa Young sought help from a variety of church and secular groups to establish schools. After being repeatedly turned down, Rosa finally wrote to Booker T. Washington. Washington told Rosa to contact the Lutherans. She wrote to the LCMS mission board. They in turn sent a pastor who instructed Rosa Young in the historic, Bible-based, Christ-centered Lutheran faith.

Thereafter follows the most incredible story ever told in domestic LCMS missions. Rosa's story can be found, in her own words, in the 200-page paperback, Light in the Dark Belt, published first in 1930 and reprinted by CPH in 1950. God led Rosa Young to follow Jesus' Great Commission command to teach, and she built school after school. Through this first step via education, God used Rosa to establish church after church, all across Alabama, and even into other areas of the South. Her work was very, very hard, much harder than mission work is today. In addition to the physical hardships, she was bitterly opposed by other denominational leaders. She was always out of money. Yet, she soldiered on.

The devil might tempt us to believe that Rosa Young had greater and easier opportunity than we do today. This is not the case. Since historic LCMS's middle name is "education," anyone aware of the current desire many U.S. parents—black, white, Asian, and Hispanic—have for good schools knows our church's great potential. We don't have to look for a new missiology. Like Poe's purloined letter, it sits under our nose! Our history reveals effective missiology! We in the LCMS have a long tradition of responding to Jesus' words to go and "teach" as a way of reaching people with His Gospel.

NB: Rosa Young also merited brief mention in the Christian Cyclopedia.

And now, let us proceed with Lutheran Carnival XLVII. This edition's posts are divided into two categories. The first pertains to Lenten, Holy Week, or Easter related blogging, the second incorporates everything else.

A Week Plus of Holy Posting

In this seasonal section, we'll let the Weekend Fisher commence our carnival. Her sparkling Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength post Christ, Our Passover asks, "What's on the doorpost of your home?"

Dan takes note of the hymn Lamb of God Pure and Holy, as found in the Lutheran Service Book's Good Friday Chief Service. He compares the text to the TLH version and suggests it over "Were You There" for a Good Friday hymn.

I tried to do my part during the busy days of Holy Week. I didn't write something for each day but did do a bit on Palm Sunday and then meditated on Holy Saturday with God Rested.

Pastor Paul Siems is Not Alone. Not only is this his blog's title, it's also the knowledge that he's standing among other orthodox theologians in his three part Holy Week series consisting of The Necessity of Good Works and the Athanasian Creed, The Condemnation of the Law, and Thank God It's Friday!

Ranging from pre-Lenten flesh-fests to the Feast of the Lamb at Easter, Pastor Snyder produced a number of posts on feasting, fasting, and practicing the Faith from Ash Wednesday through the Resurrection of Our Lord. We'll note Shrove Tuesday and Jesus' Death for inclusion here but encourage you to read the entire series of articles posted this Holy Week at Ask the Pastor.

It may just be coincidence, but at The Burr in the Burgh, Pastor Stiegemeyer covers much of the same ground as he answers the question, Why Did Jesus Die on the Cross?

Confessing Evangelical John H. uses Luther's words and a high school senior's art as a reminder to Christians that The Cross Is Our Theology.

Good Friday at Cruce Tectum is a brief sermon by Pastor Krenz based on John 19 and Psalm 8:5.

Rev. Cwirla's Blogosphere brings Holy Thursday into remarkable focus, distilling the day's events down to its essentials, the very body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Euchrestos blesses us with homilies for the earlier days of Holy Week through his Sermon for Holy Monday and Sermon for Holy Tuesday.

Chris Rosebrough of Extreme Theology paid close attention to A Good Friday Sermon Preached by a Man with Downs Syndrome and took his words to heart.

Father Hollywood used a fair number of the appointed texts for the evening in Sermon: Easter Vigil and Baptism of Heather and Samantha Imbraguglio. He also does a good job of applying the "mandate" of our Lord to Christians living in the freedom of the Gospel through Sermon: Maundy Thursday.

Yes, Barabbas, You Are Free. So says Pastor Cornelius at Garden of Gethsemane.

Father Eckardt's Gottesblog is a sort of Miss Manners for the liturgy, yet it's also so much more. We see this clearly in the successive Easter posts Training for the Great Vigil and The Third Day.

Following on the heels of a Maundy Thursday discussion on the Lord's Supper at Issues, Etc., Der Bettler of Hoc Est Verum asked (and then answered) himself Who Receives the Body and Blood?

Pastor Alms of incarnatus est reveals just how alive our liturgical traditions are when we continue to practice them in Palm Sunday Is a Wonderful Day.

Pastor Brent Kuhlman offers all his preachments, including those from Palm Sunday through Easter Main Service.

Sweet Jesus! sums up the response at Madre's Missives to Cosimo Cavallaro's 200 pound chocolate sculpture of the crucified Christ that was set up in a gallery window for Holy Week.

Holy Baptism's intimate connection with The Easter Vigil anchors this post from Pastor Engebretson, the Northwoods Seelsorger.

Pastor Beisel (One Lutheran ... Ablog) wrote something that resonates with this Aardvark and probably a number of other Christians, clergy and laity alike Why I Hate Holy Week and Why I Love It.

"Preachrboy" Chryst of Preachrblog deconstructs a Typical Easter Hit Piece on Jesus from a USA Today article featuring prominent heretic Marcus Borg.

Seminarist Gillespie of the Outer Rim Territories confesses his Palm Sunday Confusion, an affliction I'm sure he shares with many others.

The Unknown Lutheran rambles long and hard, telling us More about Holy Thursday and Another Year of Good Friday Blues.

Pastor Christopher Esget, a new (and it's about time!) Lutheran blogger (Esgetology), exclaims of the Great Vigil, How Holy Is This Night!

Bob Waters' watersblogged! keeps me informed and entertained no matter the topic. Although religion is only a small part about which he writes, Bob always seems to put his best efforts into the theological topics, including Good Friday: The Most Important Day of the Church Year.

I imagine that Pastor Watt's Festival of the Resurrection sermon was even more powerful and compelling as he preached it than it is in written form at Watt's What.

Ryan Schroeder of What Did Jesus Do provided a great intro to Holy Week in his post Palm Sunday.

My good friend Pastor GeRue has taken to blogging. Among his initial posts we find this sermon, "The Gardener" John 20:10-18.

The Rest of the Best

Besides her seasonal thoughts, Weekend Fisher contributes another piece. Marius Victorinus and the Teachings of James introduces someone who was a respected figure in the early church who openly suggested that James' teachings on works might be heretical.

Deus Absconditus in Employment has Dan @ Necessary Roughness refuting Chuck Colson's argument that layoffs are non-Christian. He goes on to suggest that employment fluctuations can be the hidden God at work. He also discusses this proposition: Violence Exacerbated by "God Said So." Here, he takes to task a University of Michigan psychology study trying to prove Christians are more violent than non-Christians.

Random Intolerance ... Random Thoughts Dan shares some random stuff going through his mind, ranging from pop culture to sacramental theology and practice.

Random Dan also suggested that we include Most Hated Song from G. E. Veith's Cranach. As of the time I posted the carnival, this brief condemnation of Our God is an Awesome God had garnered 83 comments. After Dr. Veith's appetizer, I suggest that you dine on Sean Daenzer's meaty post A Response to a Friend's Class Discussion of Various Music Styles in the Church at Hot Lutheran on Lutheran Action.

Ritewinger, the Canadian owner of TheoCon, casts a jaundiced eye on Internet Rhetoric, decrying the degeneration of dialogue into religious flame wars when posters and commenters pile on the pejorative buzzwords.

She's not a Lutheran but has become a friend and fan of several Lutheran bloggers (and will be added to the BBOV's "Other Blogs" category in my next update). She's the Educational Tour Marm and she wrote the lights-out commentary on historical accuracy and revisionism The Baptism of Pocahontas: Capitol Offense Get It Right!

What do you do when your imaginary flight is pretend delayed for 4 hours? If you're the chaplain at Living Sermons, you seize the opportunity to discuss the practical application of Prayer Cards in ministry. In a much more lighthearted vein, he plugs the Lutheran Devotional Corner, discusses Flash video for sermons, and then introduces us to Mr. Soapy commercials.

How well Motivational Speaker Craig Harper sums up modern Excess: "When will we realise that we don't need 1,200 TV channels ... perhaps 600 is enough."

Pastor Klages contemplates burying the dead with a hand from everyone's favourite metaphysical poet in John Donne and Funerals at A Beggar at the Table.

If Jesus was Jewish, It Follows That ... CPA of Three Hierarchies picks up on counter-Christian revisionism and makes the case that He would definitely condemn homosexuality and other sinful sexual perversions.

We're not sure of the confession to which she belongs, but Weekend Fisher suggested and I concurred that Melinda's musings from Intellectuelle belong in the carnival. A Practical Guide to Prayer emphasizes Martin Luther's message to Peter the Barber on A Simple Way to Pray.

Some time ago, I took it upon myself to start regular commemorations of noted believers here at the Alley, paying special attention to the sanctorial calendar of the LCMS. Occasionally I step outside the boundaries of this rather exclusive list but never have I ranged farther than in my special April 1st pseudohagiography of Saint Fere Verus.

Ask the Pastor's only recent post not involving Holy Week concerns a basic question on Bible interpretation and exegetical theology. See how he responds to the query Old Testament: Mythical or Literal?

At Balaam's Ass, Timotheos discusses The Issue, Part II, an essay on the Law-Gospel polarity and the degraded and devalued use of the Law in current theological discussions.

J. Hansen decided to spend some of his time Cleaving the Darkness by commenting on Bumper Stickers.

Does God Disco? See what The Crazy Lutheran says about yet another hymn from the new ELCA hymnal.

Rick Ritchie of Daylight went to the movies and came back with the essay Spartans and Christians, inspired by the 300.

Luther at the Movies marvels in finding at least one instance of A Pro-Life House.

Christopher Heren opens Mother Hubbard's Cupboard to us On the Eve of Brother Tagge's Chrismation and examines the faults and weaknesses in Eastern Orthodoxy and Missouri Synod Lutheranism.

Old School Confessional plants his tongue in his cheek (or, perhaps, his keyboard) before going off on his rant, Sin. It's Not the Problem it Used to Be.

Pastor Petersen of CyberStones wrote a thoughtful column on Infant Communion that attracted a wide range of comments.

With Goodbye to Girlhood, Father Hollywood studies how "cable TV, the internet, absentee parenthood ... and peer pressure" force young people to "grow up" before they are truly mature.

Give Me That Ol' Time Religion may be a "sappy, simplistic" song but it provided St. James the Hoosier ample fodder for confessing the Christian faith.

As part of an ongoing discussion with people holding different confessions, Edward Reiss, the Upstate Lutheran, ponders the question, Justification, Is It Just Forensic?

Several bloggers have recently linked to or quoted Wallace Schulz's essay The LCMS Its Past and Future. However, few have added more than their own "Amen" to his words. The best brief analysis and commentary I've seen so far comes from watersblogged!, where Bob Waters writes The LCMS Past, Present, and Possibly Future in a Nutshell.

Finally, thanks again to Jay Winters for hosting the previous carnival and thanks to all who visit the Alley and go forth to read the offerings of the current carny.

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