Author: Rob

The more Peter Leithart writes, the more he sounds like a Lutheran. And then he doesn’t. Either way, I can’t get enough of it. The vigor of us confessional Lutherans occasionally has the unfortunate side effect of making everything we tell you about doctrine sound like we’re holding a rod above your heads of all our fellow Christians. Or an axe.

But Leithart. He has the tone of someone who’s diving into scripture feet first. And acknowledging that it’s really, really messy. Scripture’s darker passages, winding stories, and odd comments just don’t wrap up nicely–it’s encouraging to hear someone admit that. And admit that without immediately claiming to have figured it out.

And this isn’t to say that Leithart’s opponents and critics aren’t diving into the pool just as deeply. Plenty of them are, and that’s why they’ve been so impassioned in their critique. As painful as this can be, it is the way of the church. What else do we mean when each Sunday we confess “one holy, catholic, and apostolic church?”

One church from Peter and Paul all the way up until the 34th PCA General Assembly 2007. One church that has trouble building consensus, trouble talking, trouble being polite, trouble even getting an informal show of hands. There’s a reason Jesus didn’t run for election. Jesus is not a member of your congregation. You are a member of His. And although it might surprise some to hear an LCMS Lutheran say it, when we each come to eat and drink, we’re not served with our own personal Jesus, a la (depeche) mod. “Given and shed for you” was not the precedent for “Have it your way.”

Scripture has this way of knocking the wind out of you, kicking your doors clean off their hinges, and sticking around in your craw long after you’ve asked it to take a hike. And just wait until it starts rifling through your desk drawers. Leithart sounds like a guy who’s watching Scripture rearrange his furniture. And knock a hole in the living room wall with the sofa. For the sake of the church. I like that.

I just finished a first listen of Andrew Osenga’s 6-song EP, Letters to the Editor, Vol.1. I don’t think anything’s made me so happy in a while.

Osenga has been one of my favorite songwriters since his old band the Normals put out their first record, Better Than This. Something about that record caught me–I think it was the song “Apron Full of Stains,” and all the stuff that went along with being a confused, Christian teenager–and by the time the band released Coming to Life I was hooked.

Some of my most heartfelt memories are tied to his music. Driving home a van full of sleeping strangers south across Ohio cornfields after a fantastic Normals show in Toledo. Ending my relationship with my first serious girlfriend in the dead of winter and feeling all my own sadness and heartache echo back to me in songs like “Coming to Life.” Listening to “Romeo on the Radio” with Devona, a long time before she was ever my wife. Arguing with Andy that the production on “Black Dress”–well, yeah it’s noisy, but it makes sense.

It’s been years since The Normals split up, but Osenga has kept making excellent records. This latest EP is something competely different. From his blog, where the seed germinated:

Here’s what I’m thinking: I’m going to write and record the songs, that’s my part. What I would love for you guys to do is to inspire me. Send me ideas for songs, whether they’re stories you’ve heard, a word you think sounds cool, an idea you’ve wished somebody had written about. Send me paintings or drawings you’ve made, a photo you took that you can’t stop looking at, whatever you think could inspire a song. I’m going to make my goal for this project to base every song off something from you guys.

The 6-song result is a fine listen. I especially liked “Wanted” and “Swing Wide the Glimmering Gates,” which bookend the collection.

Many are saying that we should expect more artists following Osenga’s approach. Others artists are being similarly inventive. Podington Bear releases three new songs each week. Paleo crossed the nation, recording a song every day for a year, and posting them all on his website.

Andrew takes things a step further, providing instructions on his blog allowing fans to record their own background vocals (or Webground vocals, as he calls them). The chorus of fans ring out the final notes of “Gates”.

These are exciting ideas, and the music is exciting stuff. Give it a listen.

Since the PCA has recently knocked them around a bit, maybe Leithart and the rest of the Federal Vision crowd can just become Lutherans. They like baptism well enough.

I’m not encouraging anyone to ditch their confession. I just find myself nodding along with much of what Leithart and others have to say. Far more than many of the products of my own denomination, the Federal Vision discussion constantly reminds me what is so refreshing about being (in John H’s terms) an Augsburg Evangelical.