Last night Hubby and I went to a movie with good friends of hours who we like to do “childless couples” things with. Which movie we went to really isn’t that important, but about halfway through we saw a large full soda being flung over the wall into the theatre. A short while later another large soda was flung into the audience, and shortly after that, a bag of popcorn. While we were sitting far enough up to not be hit, we could see popcorn and soda landing on people several rows in front of us. Our friend went to report it, and apparently three teenagers were upset at being kicked out of the movies and decided to take their “revenge” by throwing food over the wall at people.
After the movie his wife remarked how the first soda being flung over the wall just shocked everyone, and nobody made a move because it didn’t really register what was happening. She mused that if there was ever a terrorist attack would we be so stunned and not really know what’s happening that we wouldn’t move? It was a good question to pose. How ready are we as citizens if something other than a large soda were to fly at us and land close to where we were busy at our everyday activities? Something to think about.
Cross Country Church has been advertised on the local country radio station so much that I thought I’d check out their website. Now, it might just be me, but since when does a church need a “preview service”? Or have to advertise that if you like country music you’d love their worship? Do you see any Law & Gospel in their core beliefs? I didn’t. And check out their strategy. I’m amazed, though, that they have “teaching that could change your life” without Law, Gospel, or the Holy Spirit. How come we Lutherans can’t do that? 
Welcome to Lutheran Carnival LI!! I’m honored to pitch in and help my brother-in-law keep this carnival going, although I must admit that I have not regularly visited the carnivals until recently.
Being a church musician and holding a B.A. in Music from a Lutheran college, I would be remiss in my duties as host if I did not select as my little known Lutheran contributor a church musician. Every “in-tuned” Lutheran knows J.S. Bach, of course, and though at times I will select an organ work by the famous Baroque composer, my favorite organ piece is by another, lesser known Baroque composer.
Meet Dieterich Buxtehude.
Diderich Buxtehude was born about 1637 in his native country of Denmark. He later Germanized his name by signing all documents Dieterich Buxtehude. He served as organist in Helsingborg and Elsinore, but most notably serving over 40 years at St. Mary’s Church in Lübeck. Although much of his music was performed in ordinary Lutheran worship, Buxtehude presented a variety of often-dramatic sacred choral and organ music in his late afternoon Abendmusiken concerts, for which he is most famous. So influential were these concerts to budding composers of his day (including Handel and Telemann), that they would travel hundreds of miles to meet Buxtehude and witness his musical genius. J.S. Bach traveled more than 250 miles on foot to experience these concerts and worship first hand.
Buxtehude’s organ works comprise a central part of the standard organ repertoire and are frequently performed at recitals and church services. His style strongly influenced many composers, including Bach. He is definitely a Lutheran to note!
On with the Carnival…
Jason Evans of Geekspaces.net submitted his post entitled “Contributing to Salvation�: a brief comparison of the Lutheran/Reformed view of who works in salvation and the Armenian view. One of the commenters also points out the difference between these views and the EO view.
Pastor Walter Snyder of Ask the Pastor presents two posts: “The Pastor and Funeral Visitation” in which he responds to the question of a minister from another church body, providing practical advice concerning The Pastor and Funeral Visitation, and “Mental Health Help” in which Ask the Pastor fields another question about generalized anxiety disorder and focuses his reply on the spiritual dimension of Mental Health Help.
Then my dear sister-in-law who is currently “growing” my 14th niece or nephew, writes about “Pregnant Women and Food” on Random Intolerance. She also describes all the neat stuff that can be done in Kansas without driving too far from Wichita in “Things I Want to Do This Summer”. It looks like the combine demolition derby is a winner.
The Aardvark featured several commemorations and celebrations over the past couple weeks. Included among these were “The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary” and the commemoration of “Justin, Martyr”.
Dan at Necessary Roughness submits two posts: “Musical Piety” in which Dan discusses listening in Christian liberty to music that seems to be anti-Christian, and “Pentecost and the Holy Spirit” where Dan offers an anecdote from Pr. Wokoma in Houston, discussing the work of the Holy Spirit.
Theresa of Be Strong in the Grace reflects on the very visual concept of drowning one’s self daily in the water of their baptism in “Drowning Myself Daily…”
Confessing Evangelical submitted “Praying the Catechism”. The Small Catechism has been called “the only catechism that can be prayed”. John H picks up on that suggestion by proposing an office-style form of daily devotion based on the Catechism.
Hummie’s World gives us “I do not like change!” Hummie remarks, “I am always writing about my daily life and how I see God in it…this is my recent writing. If you would like to see others, hit the “God and Me” tab at the top. Also, I would like to highlight my new site of Christian writings ..www.looktolord.blogspot.com…great for church secretaries…I’m still trying to get stuff up there.”
My own contribution is the significance of spiritual adoption in the post “The Best Adoption Ever!!!”
In addition, Dan at Necessary Roughness recommended this post regarding women in today’s society to the carnival.
So that’s it for Carnival LI. Sorry I did not initially get all the submissions due to a filter mix up. Thanks to all the contributers, and thank you for allowing me to host.