Living Lutheran magazine: Meditate on a mantra for Lent

1/25/2021

(The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and Twitter - here.)

Living Lutheran, the national magazine of the liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, has an article giving advice on how to observe lent. It starts with this "Deep breaths.… Remember to breathe deeply. While doing so, perhaps you can meditate on a mantra such as "I breathe in peace. I exhale worry.” A mantra is the Hindu practice of repeating a phrase over and over to achieve magical and spiritual results. The article also recommends reading a “centering poem” each day and “Light a candle. Sit by its glow. Watch the flame and smell the scent. Repeat as often as needed, whether aloud or silently: “Jesus is the light of our world.”

This incorporating of non-Christian religious practices reflects what the ELCA did at its last national assembly in affirming that we do not know what God thinks of non-Christian religions. One delegate tried to amend that saying, yes, we do know since Jesus said He is the only way of salvation (John 14:6). The delegate was voted down by 97 percent.

Sincerely in Christ,

Pastor Tom Brock

(See article on page 9 here)

5 Comments

Bryan

1/25/2021 05:30:09 pm

Lent suggestions for the ELCA:

Try this Centering Poem:
Light a candle. Quickly blow it out. Then say, "There goes the church without Christ." Repeat indefinitely...

OR

Try this Mantra.
Breath deeply. Say to yourself, "I breath in Jesus. I exhale social justice crapola."

OR

Just light a candle AND READ YOUR NEW TESTAMENT. Then compare the ELCA to what you hear described therein. Run quickly away from any incongruity and return to the old paths (Jeremiah 6:16).

Rebecca

1/26/2021 03:29:46 pm

Why oh why would any Lutheran pastors who read and BELIEVE and stand for what the Bible says would even allow their people to see this publication?? It was obvious through the years that more and more anti biblical untruths were being added each time. There are good and faithful believers in elca who have no clue what their tithes and offerings are supporting. The people do not know because their leaders are not telling them. I fear that too many pastors agree.....

Jerrry

1/27/2021 04:05:56 pm

What ever happened to
"Lord , have mercy upon us;
Christ, have mercy upon us;
Lord, have mercy upon us."?

Or better still for Lent:
"Christ hath humbled Himself,
And become obedient unto death:
Even the death of the cross."?

Didaskalos link

1/29/2021 02:46:16 pm

Jesus' death on the cross doesn't mean for the ELCA what it means for confessional Lutherans and Christians. The ELCA views their "Jesus" not as mankind's only Savior but as the Great Example, whose death shows us how to stand up bravely to the Establishment.

ELCA pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber's heresy is rife in the everyone-goes-to-heaven ELCA: "And just to be clear: The cross is not about God as divine child abuser sadly sending his little boy off to be killed because we were bad and well, somebody had to pay."
-- http://goingtodamasc.us/our-father-who-art-the-cosmic-child-punisher/

Martin Luther, as he does on almost every point of ELCA theology, differs: (on Galatians 2:21) —“The apostle [Paul] clearly says that there is no other righteousness than through faith in Jesus Christ…Our sins are so great and so far away from righteousness that it was necessary for the Son of God to die so that righteousness could be given to us. When discussing theology, don’t call anything righteousness that is apart from faith in Christ.”(LW, 27:240)

David Guzik articulates in his commentary on Psalm 22 what the Bible and the Christian Church have said throughout history:
"On the cross at that moment, a holy transaction took place. God the Father regarded God the Son as if He were a sinner. As the Apostle Paul would later write, 'God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.' (2 Corinthians 5:21)
..."Horrible as this was, it fulfilled God's good and loving plan of redemption. Therefore Isaiah could say 'Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him' (Isaiah 53:10).
"At the same time, we cannot say that the separation between the Father and the Son at the cross was complete. Paul made this clear in 2 Corinthians 5:19: 'God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself at the cross.'"

Jerry link

2/9/2021 04:32:57 pm

It sure doesn't, and neither does much of the rest of Scripture. That is why, though I was confirmed in the ALC in 1982, I left the ELCA in 1995 and, after spending some years exploring other church bodies and, occasionally, even other denominations, I have been in the Church of the Lutheran Confession for 17 years.

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Living Lutheran magazine: Meditate on a mantra for Lent

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