A Message in a Coffin

What a hoot! A coffin with the Issues, Etc. logo draped over it. The image sure sums up what the LCMS suits and bureaucrats at the purple palace wanted to happen when they canceled Issues, Etc. and canned Wilken and Schwarz on 18 March 2008. No doubt the "radio silence" effected on Holy Tuesday fulfilled the dream of some who may be, well, uncomfortable with the light of Truth given by the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions.

But now it appears that the coffin of their own making may be their worst nightmare!

With a little help from some computer graphics program (sorry, I'm not up on which one it might be; I consider it a victory just to copy and paste an image from a website to my hard drive and then onto my blog! ;-), the coffin at www.piratechristianradio.com, appears to be opening up with a bright light shining forth. The visual message (very fascinating, coming from a personality in the *radio* medium, btw :-) is quite clear: the phoenix of Issues, Etc. is rising from the ashes of synodical tomfoolery.

It just goes to show that you can't keep a good message - *the* Good Message - down, no matter how "on fire" the LCMS may be or become with Pentecostal ... er, I mean ... "Ablaze!" doctrine and practice.

Now the synodical suits and bureaucrats just might be directly called on the carpet for the various non-Lutheran things they are saying and doing. You see, prior to 18 March, they weren't, on Issues, Etc. anyway. It was only "guilt by association" with the likes of popular American evangelicals such as Rick Warren and Joel Osteen. Now the light of truth will no doubt shine directly on the very "powers that be" that wanted the Christ-centered talk show to just go away.

And we all know what happens when we open the living room drapes or blinds on a nice, sunny day. The light itself exposes all of the unseemly, unwanted dust on the furniture.

So, I hope and pray that the light shining from the Issues, Etc. coffin does not refer to the "brilliant" personalities of Wilken and Schwarz. :-) (Knowing these two men, I'm sure that's not the intended message. Remember, folks, this is not about these two men, but rather it's about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.) Instead, I trust that the new light beaming forth from the synodically imposed coffin refers to the light of God's Truth, the Light of the world Himself, Jesus Christ. He is the truly resurrected one and His light gives the life we need.

"At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you" (Ephesians 5:8-14).