Pops, Uncle Charlie, and myself

The Good Shepherd Institute Conference on J.S. Bach

Last Monday I attended the Good Shepherd Institute’s conference on “Bach in Today’s Parish” at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, IN.  Among the addresses I heard, the one by Dr. Uwe Simeon-Netto stood out as a brilliant and touching account of a life narrated by the Art of Fugue, sacred cantatas and Passion works by Johann Sebastian.  Dr. Uwe Simeon-Netto recounts a childhood memory of Bach between the air raids in wartime Germany:

“From that very moment I heard the Art of Fugue at home, the opening bars of its Contrapunctus One returned to my inner ear virtually every day – while being bombed, while fleeing from Soviet-occupied Leipzig after the War, while sitting exams at school, while feeling lovesick of covering the Vietnam War as a reporter, while suffering from a writer’s block.  O, I sang hymns in my head too, and I still do, none more often than ‘Abide with me.’  But most of all I am fixated by these fugues!  They order my mind and my soul.  In my prayers fugues join the hymns my grandmother sang into my ears during the air raids.  And this has been going on for nearly seventy years now.”

The presentation also highlights Bach as world evangelist, particularly in the East.  Netto tells story of musicologist Keisuke Maruyama who became a Christian by the studying the weekday lectionary readings as they followed Bach’s cantatas.  Maruyama, simply by being acquainted with Bach and the historic lectionary readings said to friend, “It is not enough to read the Christian texts.  I want to be a Christian myself.  Please baptize me!”

You can read the presented paper here, “The Global Importance of Bach Today.”  It is an incredibly insightful look at Bach’s musical confession of Christ crucified, and its impact across the world.  During the presentation itself I remember Dr. Netto going off his script some as relates to the sale of the Lutheran Radio station KFUO in Saint Louis, said something to the effect of “For me, I cannot separate music and my faith!”

Well, neither can I.  As we approach the Advent season of our Lord and reach the end of the church year, I am eagerly awaiting the final Gospel reading of the year, Matthew 25:1-13 (historic one year series) on The Parable of the Ten Virgins.  Sebastian wrote a sacred cantata “Wachet auf ruft uns die stimme” for this eschatological text to be heard, sung, and confessed on the “Ultimate Sunday.”  I have written a detailed analysis on this sacred cantata HERE. 

J.G. Hamann on Divine Service

"The mystery of Christian godliness does not consist of services, sacrifices and vows, which God demands on us, but of promises, fulfillments and sacrifices  which God has made for our benefit.  Again, the mystery of Christian godliness doe snot consist of the finest and greatest commandment that God has imposed, but of the supremem good that he has given us.  Once again, the mystery of Christian godliness does not consist of laws and moral teachings which merely had to do with human dispositions and actions, but of the enactment of divine decrees by means of divine acts, works and measures for the salvation of the whole world."

Johann Georg Hamann, "Golgotha und Scheblimini," in J.G. Hamann 1730-1788: A Study in Christian Existence by Ronald Gregor Smith (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960), pp. 229-230.

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.

G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936), Orthodoxy

Some Thoughts on MTV

Some viewing of MTV is helpful to keep a pulse on culture and the bizarre influences that undergird it.  MTV, however, no longer show music videos or performances, but mostly ‘reality shows’ and sophomoric documentary pieces.  Every show seems to either be about a junkie, a pornography actor, or some other sad situation.  Last week I caught part of a program called “I’m in a polyandrous relationship.”  This chronicles the lives of young people (early 20’s) being sexual with two or three or four other people.  The three people tracked in the program happened to be in homosexual polyandrous arrangements. 

I recently got in a discussion with a friend who is very much in favor of homosexual marriage.  I usually try to listen to the reasoning and justification, usually dealing with “civil rights,” “tolerance,” “discrimination,” and all the other key words.  These are the reasons why homosexual unions are to be legal and celebrated.  Because there are now also certain movements toward polygamous unions, both homosexual and heterosexual, I am curious as whether full legal “civil rights,” “tolerance,” and “understanding” should not be applied to them as well.  If marriage is not grounded in creation, given for a man and woman in holy union, why not extend civil rights to the broader communities of different lifestyles.  The same way that one may articulate and justify homosexual marriage, may as well apply to polygamy or other lifestyle arrangements.  If 3 or 4 people are committed to each other and love each other, who are we to deny them of their “rights” and be so intolerant.  Who says marriage is for a man and woman only?  And furthermore, why does it only have to be two people.  Why not three, or four, or more?  If you ask a proponent of homosexual marriage about polygamous marriage they will be unable to articulate a reason why polygmysts should not be able to enter into marriage.  For the same way to articulate homosexual marriage can easily be opted for polygamy or who knows what else.

It seems that if John Stuart Mill’ harm principle is thoroughly individualized and taken to its ultimate end - that people are sovereign and free to do what they please so long as harm is minimized, and that society must follow.  Mill writes, “That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinion of others, to do so would be wise, or even right... The only part of the conduct of anyone, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.”[1]   

I don’t think Mill ever intended for the harm principle to be so thoroughly individualized and privatized from the rest of community.  Mill, and particularly Locke, as invested in liberal freedom as they were, were still committed to classical republicanism as the vehicle for civil rights.  If we take the principle of utilitarianism, that is “greatest good” for the greatest amount of people, and consider the historical definition of marriage, even the great liberal thinkers would likely NOT be a part of the current sexual revolution (gay marriage, transgender, body mutilation, etc). 

Most all thriving civilizations naturally are governed by the impulse of utilitarianism, long before the Scottish philosopher John Stuart Mill – they didn’t need him to figure this out.  A society that desires to survive, feed their families, and ward of both external and internal threats, knows that individual liberty and survival depends upon the survival of the greater community – that cooperation, good government, and utilitarianism has its place – thus guiding and supporting individual freedom and liberty.  Animal planet on tv is pretty good presentation on all this.

What’s interesting to me however, is this: why have virtually all religions across the globe and all civilizations in one way or another strongly discouraged homosexuality?  Is Islam, Judaism, and Christianity all religions of unenlightened, ignorant, and bigoted people?  Why has marriage always been between a man and woman?  Do the conclusions of the 60’s sexual revolution serve the “greatest good…for the greatest number of people?”      

Sex of course, when exploited apart from marriage (writing on marriage here) holds neither promise nor utilitity for society, family, or self.  Every European country presently has a birthrate well below replacement level.  Generally civilizations very rarely die from war or invasion, but most always from self-suicide in a Freudian death wish - decline of civilization is always self-chosen.  Likewise, the degenerate underbelly of culture in the United States is not so much interested in a culture of health, self-sacrifice, and life.  Abortion en mass, hatred of life, decline of marriage, and birth rate all testify to this.  The increasing welfare state, and the  matriarchal role of the federal government, coupled with deviant sexually will invariably lead to a European-style cultural decline and suffocation.  Hopefully the place of family and sexuality within the order of blessed marriage will continue to the curb the adverse effects of big government and cultural decline.                   

I have written about the Ethics of Marriage and Sexuality Here.

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[1] John Stuart Mill (1859).  On Liberty. Oxford University. pp. 21-22.

Bonhoeffer on Praying the Psalms

"The psalms that will not cross our lips as prayers, those that make us falter and offend us, make us suspect that here someone else is praying, no we- that the one who is here affirming his innocence, who is calling for God's judgment, who has come to such infinite depths of suffering, is none other that Jesus Christ himself.  It is he who is praying here, and not only here, but in the whole Psalter.  The New Testament and the church have always recognized and testified to this truth.  The human Jesus Christ to whom no affliction, no illness, no suffering is unknown, and who yet was the wholly innocent and righteous one, is praying in the Psalter through the mouth of the congregation.  The Psalter is the prayer book of Jesus Christ in the truest sense of the word.  He prayed the Psalter, and now it has become his prayer for all time...Jesus Christ prays the Psalter in his congregation.  His congregation prays too, and even the individual prays.  But they pray only insofar as Christ prays within them; they pray here not in their own name, but in the name of Jesus Christ..."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in "The Day Together"

Pastor Anderson of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church and School of Chicago, pictured with Lutheran comfort dog 'Tilly.'

The Righteousness of God

"But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed" (Romans 3:21a).

Over 500 years ago a young man was on horseback on the German country side.  It was dark and raining heavily, as the horse panted – heavily sloshing through the muddy path.  The young man was seeking to reach his university after a trip home to see his parents. 

This night the darkness loomed and a thunderstorm broke out and the horse began to gallop and splash through the slippery mud.  All of a sudden there was a loud crash and a lightning bolt struck near this traveler, throwing him off of his horse.

 He was so frightened and terrified of the righteous judgment of God who loomed darkly in the night, he cried out, "Help! Saint Anne, I will become a monk!"  He left law school, where he was studying to become a lawyer.  He sold his books, and entered a closed Augustinian monastery in Erfurt, Germany on July 7th 1505. 

This newly robed young monk dedicated himself to monastic life, devoting himself to fasting, long hours in prayer, and frequent confession.  He would later remark, "If anyone could have gained heaven as a monk, then I would indeed have been among them." 

He described this period of his life as one of deep spiritual despair. He said, "I lost touch with Christ the Savior and Comforter, and made of him the jailor and hangman of my poor soul."  He feared the righteous judge.

This man is Martin Luther, the future reformer of the church.  For brother Martin, it was the righteousness of God that completely terrified him to no end.  It is precisely God’s righteousness and holiness that made him so so frightening.  It was for this reason that the young Luther joined the Augustinian order, and entered the monastery. 

He prayed without ceasing with the monks, diligently attended to his duties.  He scrubbed the floors and put all his energy and will into every task, whether great or small.  It was the young Luther’s great hope to seek holiness and righteousness – to dedicate himself to God.  To stand before God as a good monk.  To be holy and righteous in the sight of God through his personal discipline and sheer will.

Yet, the harder he worked and strived for righteousness the worse things became for him.  He felt the burning gaze and hammer of God as the righteous judge, breathing down his back, demanding perfect obedience from him. 

The more Luther sought to attain the righteousness of God – the more he sought to fulfill the law – the condemnation of the righteous judge became louder and louder. By seeking the law he ran headfirst into Satan himself, who accused him day and night, throwing his sins and failures into his face. 

Our Scripture reading for today says, “Because the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.”  That is, the more we know of God’s revelation of the law the more we realize that we are sinners.  When we speak about God’s law, we are not simply talking about the 10 Commandments. 

We experience the law every day when we are pressed in and squeezed by the pressures and powers of this world, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  We are constricted, assaulted, and overwhelmed by the attacks of the law. 

The law says this, “You are a poor mother, and you are a wretched father.  Just look at you.  Look how you have misled your children.  Look at the mess you have made.  And you call yourselves Christians!” 

Or the law may say to the young, “You are a hypocrite, you have strayed from the church.  You have not lived up to the expectations of your parents or God’s expectations!  You have fallen short.  You are a disgrace and unworthy of anything!”  This voice will always tell you that you are insufficient and that grace does not really apply to you.

This is the same voice that terrified the young monk, Martin Luther.  It is the voice that causes endless anxiety, for we experience God as an angry and righteous judge – not as a merciful Father – not as “Our Father.”  We live life and experience it as if we had no loving Father at all.  And when we do consider God’s presence, we see him with all his holiness and all his righteousness.  Then we see ourselves, our sinning selves, and feel that God is forever disappointed in us.

The breakthrough of the Reformation and the brilliance of Martin Luther is that the radical nature of the Gospel was rediscovered; in its truth and purity.  Luther found that God was not angry with him, but rather that He was angry at God! For he discovered in our reading today, that God’s righteousness is made manifest in Jesus Christ alone, as a pure gift, apart from the works and condemnation of the law. 

Hear this Word of comfort.  Peace be to you from Jesus Christ our Lord.  Be comforted and let go of the frivolous anxieties of this earthly life.  Be still and let our Lord remove from you all guilt and shame.  You do not have to “get right with God.”  Rather, “God has gotten it right for you” by becoming the guilty one, bearing your shame to His death.  The righteousness of God through faith means that God gives you righteousness, gives you himself, and gives you the faith to believe. 

Yes, in faith you may claim the righteousness of God as if it were your own.  This is the the breakthrough of Martin Luther and the Reformation - which directs us away from ourselves and toward Jesus Christ, whom releases us from the tyranny and power of the demanding law.   

Dearest Christians, be comforted.  God declares you righteous and blessed as His children.  Cast off your worries and fears.  Be still from the anxieties about what is and what is to come.  Be still and do not worry about all the expectations and demands heaped up upon you.  And do not listen to that angry judge anymore, who accuses you.   Jesus the Son of God, has revealed the Father’s tender and merciful heart.  He has no judgment left for you.  He’s judged, the deed I done.  One little Word can fell him.  Jesus Christ it is.

Rejoicing today on Reformation Weekend does not hearken us back to Martin Luther in 1517 posting the 95 theses to those wooden castle church doors in Wittenberg, Germany.  Reformation Sunday is not about potlucks, green bean casserole, or nostalgic thoughts about the Lutheran church in a prior era.  It is not German heritage day. 

Dr. Luther and the Reformers did not point to themselves but to Christ Jesus alone.  Jesus in preaching - Jesus in the Lord’s Supper - Jesus in the forgiveness of sins, Jesus baptizing his Christian church, and Jesus resurrected our bodies to live in perfect love and harmony. 

And today, Jesus the Son of the living God speaks to us and declares us righteous in His sight.  He speaks the final judgment day today – on this morning.  Forgiveness and eternal life. 

Listen to Him. For this is the God that Luther desired to finally cling to, as does the whole Christian church. The righteousness of faith – the righteousness of God - is received as a precious gift.  Not by your faith, but by the faith given to you, marked on your forehead, and planted in your ears.  It is eaten and drunk at this altar, along with the whole Christian church on earth, and also in the heavenly places. 

The righteousness of God is draped over you, as a Father clothes his child in a warm blanket.  Every sin has been passed over and removed as far as the east is from the west.  He who has ears let him hear.  Open your hand and your mouths and receive Jesus.  He has declared you righteous and holy.  In Jesus+ Name.  Amen.

We need more boys choirs in our churches! This hymn excellent!

Celebration of Reformation Hymn "Dear Christians.." (part I)

       1.  Dear Christians, one and all, rejoice,

           With exultation springing,

           And, with united heart and voice,

           And holy rapture singing,

           Proclaim the wonders God hath done,

           How His right arm the victory won;

           Right dearly it hath cost him.

There is no better way to greet each other than to address one another as “Dear Christian.”  Before I am Michael or “vicar” I am first a Christian.  It is the name that precedes any other name, “But You are He who took Me out of the womb” (Ps. 22:9).  For we bear the name of Christ and in faith are called to be “little Christs” to one another.  To greet one another with the name of Christ is to acknowledge that we exist, move, and have our being in one body.  Christians in the community of church may as well say “bone of my bone” and “flesh of my flesh” for we have our origin in the person and work of Jesus who weds himself to the church. 

The first stanza of this hymn works as a doxological opening to the larger narrative of the hymn.  This follows the common structure of the book of Psalms by opening with a celebration and remembrance of God’s work.  The pleas, petitions, and laments flow forth from the invocation of God’s action in man – the sacrifice and the victory won.  The “cost” and victory of God’s right arm is the Christ event. 

       2.  Fast bound in Satan's chains I lay.

           Death brooded darkly o'er me.

           Sin was my torment night and day.

           In sin my mother bore me.

           Yea, deep and deeper still I fell.

           Life had become a living hell,

           So firmly sin possessed me.

The second stanza plunges headfirst into story of captivity from birth.  This narrative stands in opposition to the broadly held assumption of the Enlightenment led by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whom asserted that man is indeed free from birth so long as he is born in a “state of nature.”  The idea of the noble savage is that man is pure and good in nature, and that the blame for brokenness and war rests only in the dysfunction of society, arising from the less enlightened.  Rousseau, himself a Calvinist, repudiated the idea of original sin, writing in his famous novel Emile, "there is no original perversity in the human heart." 

Luther however, in this hymn of liberation begins from the starting point of bondage, rather than freedom.  After Luther’s doxological praise in the first stanza, he brings the hymn into a confession of the ravages of sin, death, and the devil.  There is no greater image for sin and hell than that of “being curved in on one’s self (incurvatus est).”  This torment, this “deep falling,” and “living hell,” are consequences of the inner dialogue of the law, being about by all sides.  It is the great paradox that the more one tries to become holy apart from God’s gift, the greater one falls into captivity.  The desire to ascend to the holy heights of Zion, when sought apart from God’s complete giving, hurls one into despair and hell.  This was the desire of the fallen angels, Lucifer, the devil himself.  It was the desire of Adam and Eve in the garden.  It is the desire of every human heart and the religious ego to carve out holiness and divinity for himself, to be something more than a child of God – something more than creature – something more than the crown of creation, which of course if absurd.             

       3.  My own good works availed me naught,

           No merit they attaining.

           Free will against God's judgment fought,

           Dead to all good remaining.

           My fears increased till sheer despair

           Left naught but death to be my share.

           The pains of hell I suffered.

One’s “own good works” and free will work in contradiction to the God, whom as Oswald Bayer observes is “categorically the one who gives.”  The good works and free will that proceed as a self-willed anthropocentric salvific activity are themselves damning and oppose the giving God who desires to be the one whom works and wills, “For I will surely save you” (Jer. 39:18).  Nevertheless, human free will, is not only neutral or opposed to God’s lavish giving but fights actively against it.  Certainly we see this most lucidly in the life of the early Luther, whose anfechtung increased in direct relation to his desire to turn God’s wrath away and merit one iota of divine favor and approval. 

This falling, fear, and pains of hell sung and confessed here is not outside of God's work or mercy but is a necessary and proper work that He carries out.  It is in mercy that He hinders and frustrates our heavenly ascent that he may descend in heavenly Word and Supper to raise us to life.  The only true comfort to the terrified conscience is found here, when the human heart as “actor” and “doer” is put to rest that God may work in us, “all you who are weary and heavy and burdened and I will give you rest.”  Our Lord is speaking about the burden of the law, the demonic judgment and oppression of human work and expectation that seeks to procure a peace for itself.  The greatest tragedies, events of human cruelty and holocausts proceed from the desire for a manufactured utopian peace – zealous endevour to bring heaven to earth apart from Christ’s incarnation.  The common phrase, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” is therefore biblically and experientially rich and true. 


I have written about The Distinctive Nature of Lutheran Hymnody Here. 

Reformation Day is Coming

(Doors at Castle Church at Wittenberg where 95 Theses were posted by the blessed Dr. Luther)

When Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the doors at the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, he likely did know that storm that would be released upon the rest of the country and the whole world.  A simple monk refuted the use of indulgences and confessed that Christians are saved and brought into the Gospel through the merits of Jesus Christ alone; apart from works, apart from money in the coffers, apart from the Pope in Rome, and apart from human traditions. 

Luther confessed amidst the threat of death and torture that we are justified freely – that is declared righteous by God in heaven through the mediation and work of Jesus.  We confess that the fullness of God became man to suffer for our sins, to be tortured and die by Roman torture.  He suffers hell for us, drinking the bitter cup of God’s wrath in the wine at the cross.  He rises on the third day and ascends to heaven that he may be with his church in the His continuing ministry.  He gives His gifts to us freely without our work.  That is it. Plain and simple. 

A few years after Luther posted his 95, the reformation claimed it first martyrs, Johann Esch and Henrich Voes.  The two monks were burned at the stake in Brussels for confessing the salvation by grace through faith alone.  They refused to recant the simple and pure Gospel given to them.  Luther wrote a 12 stanza ballad to commemorate the young men, with the title “A New Song Shall Now Be Begun (1523).”  Here is the first stanza:

“A new song now shall be begun,

Lord, help us raise the banner

Of praise for all that God has done,

For which we give Him honor.

At Brussels in the Netherlands

God proved himself most truthful

And poured his gifts from open hands

On two lads, martyrs youthful

Through who He showed His power.”

It is ever so alluring to sit back and insist that the Reformation has been wildly successful and that all is well.  We think of the Lutheran reformation as an old medieval battle, and now that it has taken place we ought to move on to other things.  The empire no longer outright kills those outside of the Roman church, but the devil continues in his assault against the pure and simple truth of the gospel.  He just will not let it be.  The fight continues.

God’s very essence is one of giving.  The Trinitarian relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost exists and works as one that gives, providing with all we need to support this body and life, defending from all danger, guarding and protecting from all evil.  He does all this only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy.

 

All false teaching and heresy proceeds from a depreciated confession of God’s work and an inflated opinion on man’s work.  Calvinists combat synergism by stressing “monergism,” which is quite deficient given the limited atonement.  Lutheran laymen and philosopher, Johann Georg Hamann (1730-1788) preferred working with the theme “divine condescension” contra Immanuel Kant’s autonomy.   

Looking forward to Reformation celebrations…             

The Truth Shall Make You Free

"If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32). 

The starting point of human freedom is to confess that we are in bondage and cannot deliver ourselves.  We do not come to church because we ‘have it all together.’  We come to church because things have ‘fallen apart’ and we are incapable of repairing all that which is fallen and not quite right.  We are a community that laments.  Laments our bondage, and laments our brokenness.  A community that laments wars, and rumors of wars.

We are a community threatened by falsehoods and half truths.  We are a people surrounded by false religions, man-made philosophies, and false messiahs, all delivering their own version of good news - their own gospel. 

In Exodus we read that “The children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.  And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob” (Ex. 2:23-24).

We also sigh and groan in our captivity.   

The bondage of moral relativism says, “Well, truth is subjective! What may be your truth is not my truth…Jesus may work for you but crystals and Buddhist meditation works for me!”       

Therefore truth, for the modern age, is not an objective reality, but rather formed by a single person’s personal taste and desires.  The modern age, opens up the possibility and facilitates the ultimate quest to form our own personal religion, to support our lifestyle, and perceived wants and desires.   

The bondage of the sexual revolution says, “If it feels good, do it.  I need to do what makes me happy.”  We live in a time when marriages are dissolved simply because one party “is no longer happy…and does not feel fulfilled.”  After all, it is “my life” and “my body.”  I can do whatever I like.  These are the lies that threaten to consume us all. 

The greatest truth claim is that we are all autonomous.  That is that we are “a law unto ourselves…a truth unto ourselves.”  That we can determine our own rules, our own truth, and our own religion.  These truths are lies and are destructive of faith. 

But what is truth?  Is it an idea?  A feeling or state of mind?  Is truth a philosophy?  Is the truth a set of teachings?  Is truth mere knowledge?  Is it only that which can be proved scientifically verified, through a careful empirical process? Are there many truths…which are all equally true?

Jesus, speaking to His followers says, “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”  Jesus is talking about himself.  He is the truth - the truth and Word of God made flesh.  Truth is not an abstract principle.  Nor is it an idea or philosophy.  Truth is this and this only:

The fullness of God became man and was born to the Virgin Mary.  God invaded our world to speak mercy and to deliver us from our bondage.  This Jesus, the alpha and omega, the beginning and end, speaks our bodies into existence.  Who preserves us in body and soul to life everlasting.  There is no higher expression of truth that this: “I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” 

Jesus is the truth, and therefore, the truth is a person – a man.  The only truth that truly matters.  For he holds the heavens and the earth together by His very breath.  He is the architect and artist of creation.  All truth consists in and of him.  He is the sum and substance of truth. 

To deny the truth of Jesus is to deny ourselves and to deny the existence of the whole created world.  And we can only understand the modern world when we are sanctified in His truth, enlightened with his gifts, and called by the power of the Gospel. 

He is the truth that breaks free from the tomb and destroys all the power of the great, ancient liar, the old deceiver, and the father of lies.   This truth sets us free.  Frees us from the old lies.  Frees us from willful disobedience.  Frees us from all the deceptions, lies, and promiscuity of the modern age.

Though there may be bondage to sin, God has broken in with his truth and ravaged the powers of sin, death, and the devil.  Though they may afflict us and give us the voice and sigh of lament, they have lost their power.     

He frees us by the power of forgiveness and new life to live in holy obedience.  To live and walk in His truth.  The truth that sets us free is Jesus on the altar.  Jesus in the font.  And Jesus in the pulpit.  We hear the truth in our ears and chew on it with our teeth.  We taste truth in the sweetness of the wine and drink a promise that fulfills itself today.  You are free.

This is the promise that is more real and true than anything else.  It is the truth that dries every tear and heals every broken heart.  To have truth is to hear Jesus and to receive His gifts.  This is it.  This is the foolishness of the Gospel and confuses the world.  It is the truth of Christ and the church throughout all ages.  It is the truth of the Lutheran reformation.  And it is the truth that is confessed as Saint Paul’s in Melrose Park.  We celebrate it today, in the years to come, and will do the same gathered around Christ’s table in heaven.  In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Enjoyed a craw fish boil a couple weeks ago with some fine friends

"The 'I am thine and thou art mine, and the foe shall not part us' must be the basic tone of every evangelical sermon.  Every sermon, if not totally, at least in one place, should contain the total, authentic, and deeply experienced salvation in Christ...the whole soul should be filled with one subject" (The Theology of Facts Versus the Theology of Rhetoric by August Friedrich Christian Vilmar, p. 119).

Pastor Cornwell and I visited nearby grave site of Alphonse Capone

Wilhelm Loehe on Liturgical Freedom

"We must beware of misusing our liturgical freedom to produce new liturgies.  One should rather use the old forms and learn to understand and have a feeling for them before one feels oneself competent to create something new and better.  He who has not tested the old cannot create something new.  It is a shame when everybody presumes to form his own opinions about hymns and liturgy without having thoroughly looked into the matter.  Let a man first learn in silence and not act as if it were a matter of course that he understands everything!  Once a man has learned from the old he can profitably use the developments of recent times (in language and methods of speech) for the benefit of the liturgy" (3 Books on Church 178).

I recently visited Buddy Guys Blues Bar in Chicago.  I took this picture during the drum solo.  Great blues and lots of pool tables.  I liked it and will hopefully go again!

Homily on Mark 10:2-16

""But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Mk. 10:6-9)

In the name of Jesus.  Amen.  When the Pharisees come to Jesus with their vicious and lying lips to trick him, our Lord does not indulge them.  In our own similar debates with God he is infinitely merciful.  He speaks His Gospel, “From the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female…the two shall become one flesh; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.’  

The Pharisees as spiritual deaf, dumb, and blind corpses in an old demonic debate – seek to separate God’s gift from its giver.  To pervert that gift, to hoard it and make the gift into their own fallen image: a scene of adultery, fornication, lies, and excuses.  

God is a man who does not divorce His bride.  Though he becomes flesh and blood like us…tempted and afflicted like us – suffers like us – he does not once entertain the idea of divorce or separating from us.  He is incapable of it.  In this way He is not like us.  He is bound up in His promise…I do…unto death…

In the sleep of crucifixion death, God forms His bride from the new Adam who never took his eyes off of his beloved.  And from his pierced side He spills out the heavenly flood of water and the drink of immortal life in his blood.  He covers the lying and deceitful lips of the Pharisees.  He covers our shame from the sins of our youth.  He quiets our troubled hearts and reclaims them by showing the loving heart of the Father, who sends the son, “Go bright Jewel of My crown…from sin and sorrow set them free”  

   

He cannot take his eyes off of you.  He says “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh!”  Now His love is not like ours.  He does not choose you as His beloved because of your faith or religious convictions.  He does not find those whom are pleasing to him.  He creates them.  He forms His beloved church – covers your imperfections with his holy perfection.  

He does not call it quits when the times get tough – in the bitter agony of death. He rebukes the devil, for a divorce certificate, “Father deliver us from evil…your will be done..forgive them Father”  Our Lord’s will is to suffer for your sins and shame…He marries His bride at the moment of the cross in which mercy flows through all eternity.  What God has joined together let not man separate. 

In this Holy Supper, Jesus Christ speaks the Last Day today, and in His body joyfully presides at the wedding banquet - distributing and lavishing His gifts on us saying “Take eat…take drink…all this is for you…for the forgiveness of sins…let nothing separate us.”      

As Ezekiel recounts the Lord's love toward Israel...we see the new promise in Christ opened up to us...              

  

And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' I said to you in your blood, 'Live!'  I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare. When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine. (Ez 16:6-8)

In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

Wilhelm Loehe on Doctrine in the Life of the Church

Concerning the Lutheran Confessions in the life of the Church, Wilhelm Loehe (1808-1872) writes:




Perhaps one could also say that the reformation of doctrine has taken place; but the church still does not rejoice in the riches of her pure doctrine as she should, and does not sense the significance which this gives her.  She still feels as if she were only tolerated, as if she lived by the grace of men.  She does not know that she has a letter of emancipation from God to live openly and freely by His grace and her faith and to make the whole world happy through her riches.  She does not recognize that, after she became the pure church, she became preeminently heir of all divine promises.  She still think of herself too much as mere dogma, too little as a person; she is too little conscious of herself, her grace, her worth, her powers.  In ecclesiastical consciousness, life, and work she is a long way from being again what the pure church of the first centuries was!  Here a reformation if still needed! (Carl S. Meyer, Moving Frontiers: Readings in the History of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, 70).   

Follow me to Jerusalem

Mark 10:17-22
“And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and  knelt before him and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him,"Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.  You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.'" And he said to him, "Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth." And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions” (Mark 10:17-22)


We know these commandments.  We have heard them many times.  You know the commandments.  Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do no bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.  It sounds easy.  It sounds like a manageable set of instructions.  We’ve heard them in catechism class.  And we do ok.  We are decent enough people. 


We’re probably doing fine.  We’re not murderers or adulterers.  We’re not thieves who steal.  We are not frauds.  And we treat our parents all right.  Good enough anyways.  We are church go-ers – the moral majority – we have it together.  We are good people.   


The rich young man says “but teacher all these commandments I have kept from my youth.”  He has done well enough.  This rich young man is good person.  He is a moral person.  He has a good reputation.  He’s well respected and professional.  He’s kind to his parents.  Doesn’t murder.  Doesn’t steal.  He probably supports or votes for the right political party.  He has everything right.      


The rich young man is looking for self-affirmation.  He is looking for a self help and positive thinking.  Likewise, we want to worship in a way that makes us feel like we are doing ok.  We want to worship so that we may be self-affirmed and self-justified.  We want approval from God about our lifestyle, and spiritual progress.  Like the rich man I may want God to say, “Yes Vicar Larson, you have done well enough, job well done, you’re a good fellow…”


Even if I somehow deceive myself to think this.  I am lying to myself.  We know the commandments.  Do not murder is the first one mentioned here by our Lord.  Goodness gracious, how often have we neglected those calling out in the darkness, all around us, even family even friends?  Failed to support them in every physical need?  Neglected praying for them, asking that God deliver them from whatever ails them?  How many times have we turned from the oppressed and the needy?  How many times have our hearts been hardened toward a fellow Christian, or any person for that matter?  How many times have we murdered in our hearts?  If we could see the carnage it would shock us.  Bodies strewn about as far as the eye can see.  
  
How many times have we closed our eyes or ears to silent pleas for mercy all around us?  Small, barely audible calls for help we have failed to hear or anticipate.  And failed to meet them in their deep and desperate need.  How many times have we crucified a neighbor, by violently lacerating them with our tongues, hurting their reputation, refusing to the put the best construction on things?  As Pastor Johnson preached a few weeks ago, our tongues start blazing fires of destruction and slaughter.    

Yet the law condemns. It does not comfort, or confirm any semblance of peace. These commandments break us.  And this is only one of the commands.  And we know from the Word of our Lord that if we break one we have violated and rebelled against them all.  They dash us to pieces.  They are not encouraging or inspiring, or helpful suggestions to live a better life.  They do not help the rich young man.    

The tablets of Moses will not save us.  They expose us and shame us.  They strip us naked before God.  They expose the Rich Young Man.  They expose his obsession with his personal possessions and his misplaced trust in his own self-righteousness.  He is left naked with his sin.     

Even in our self-righteousness when we cover ourselves up with the fig leaves, Jesus does not scoff at us or become frustrated.  He is deeply moved in his very body to call us to repentance and to spill out mercy.  

In our text for today, after the rich young man insists on his obedience to the Ten Commandments, we read that “Jesus looked at him, and loved him.”  The Greek word in the text for love is “agape.”  This word would does not suggest the mere feeling of love but an action – an event – an exchange of love completely consuming – a love withholding nothing – a love that is poured out – for all – especially for this young rich man.   


Jesus looking at His Church desiring her says, “leave these things that you cling to and cling to me alone.  I am the Good Shepherd.”  Jesus has one message for the self-righteous young rich man.  Leave your idols and FOLLOW ME.  Often times in the church this passage has been used to support a radical sort of discipleship.  A sort of false discipleship that suggests we go on some sort of super religious quest, in turn leaving our vocations, our callings, and abandoning our station in life to run after some spiritual quest or cause.  However, Jesus asks none of this.


He calls us to be near, saying “follow me.” In Mark’s Gospel Jesus is constantly moving, casting out demons, healing diseases, teaching among the people, praying and singing psalms.  But he is moving.  Constantly moving. And he is asking all of creation to follow him.  Jesus is moving in one direction to fulfill the scriptures.  He is moving toward Jerusalem.    

And by the sending of the Holy Spirit he takes us along for the journey.  He carries us to the waters of heaven in the arms of family or friends.  We are dipped in the promise of holy baptism. "Follow me," he says.  Go to where I am going.  I am going to make all things new. Our Lord invites us into a precious death.  He desires that we follow him.  That is, be present at the places where he promises to be.  Through the new life of baptism, through the hearing of His Word, through the singing of His hymns, and the feasting on the Supper of immortal life. 


The old world of disobedience is drowned to death.  The self-righteous old adam and old eve is put to death.  The self-righteous rich man in all of us is put to death and is buried in the crucifixion of Jesus.  This Jesus who became a curse for us, though it was He who was the only obedient one.  And he loved His heavenly father and loved his creation with a perfect love.  He was the obedient one unto death.



And in His gift to us we receive all that is his.  His holiness and righteousness is given to us as a gift.  So that when we are resurrected and are dressed and clothed in His holy gospel, God our Father says to you, “You are my dear son…You are my dear daughter with whom I am well pleased.”  

He does not see our self-righteousness, or arrogance, or adultery and sexual sin.  He does not see our drunkenness.  He does not hear the lies we told, nor does he hear our slandering lips laying waste to our neighbor.  He does not see our worst sins the plague off day and night.  Even those horrible ones that we think have cast him off forever.  He cannot leave you.  He has bound himself to you, as we heard in last weeks sermon.  For he says “at last bone of by bone and flesh of my flesh!”  

He sees that Jesus has made a follower of you.  Not by what you have done, but because who you are.  You are a follower because you have been shepherded by the Good Teacher, who fulfilled the commandments which we did not.

You have followed because Jesus has looked at you and loved you.  A perfect disciple before God in heaven because each and every sin is blotted out by the blood of his son.  And he sees Jesus in you and for you…and sees your good deeds and holy obedience for which you will be greatly rewarded in this life and in the life to come.  In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

Hilarious

Sermon for St. Michael's and All Angels

29 September 2009 – Holy Mass 7pm – Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church

Fr. Gary W. Schultz

Only do not Thou forsake me, for if I am left to myself, I will surely bring it all to destruction.

In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
See that you do not despise one of these little ones.  For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.
      We confess in the Nicene Creed that we believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible.  In the Church, we recognize many days throughout the year for the work of the saints.  Not all saints are human.  We are surrounded by a great invisible host of Our Lord’s creation in the order of angels, His holy messengers.  This day is set aside in the church to commemorate the work of angels and especially of St. Michael the Archangel.
      There are lots of false teachings concerning angels.  Some are so obsessed with angels that they make them into something that they’re not.  You don’t become an angel in heaven, nor are our loved ones departed in the Faith floating around as angels.  Angels are not bare-bottomed babies or feminine fairies.  Angels are described as mighty warriors who serve Our Lord and protect and defend His church.
      There is also the tendency to dismiss the work of angels altogether, to think that educated and sophisticated people in the twenty-first century are above such silly myths.
      Angels, however, are throughout the Scriptures and are present throughout the events of Christ’s life.  It was the Angel Gabriel who brought the message of the Holy Ghost to the Blessed Virgin Mary that conceived Our Lord in her womb.  The host of angels sang praises at Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem: Glory be to God on high, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.  Angels attended Our Lord after His temptation in the wilderness.  At the resurrection, angels were present at the tomb.
      Today’s Gospel tells us of our need for the ministry of angels.  Jesus said, Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”  Angels defend God’s “little ones,” His Christians, like you.
      The Christian Faith is a child-like trust in Jesus and His work.  It is not naive or uninformed.  But it is a Faith that believes because Jesus says so.  It is faith that forgets human reason, our desire for control and power, and forgets about how things “seem” in the world.
      See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.  We are the little ones, who are protected by Our Lord’s angels.
      The Christian life is not easy.  The devil, the world, and our own flesh promise to make it difficult.  Life for a Christian in this world is a battlefield.  Satan and his demons work with all their might to attack Christians, to drive them away from the Faith.  It always is his aim and pride, Thy Christian people to divide.  Satan prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking whom He may devour.  He seeks to destroy your Faith, the Holy Christian Church, and this parish.
      The reality of the battle is taught by Luther.  In the catechism, the core of the Christian Faith, he teaches that we are to pray each morning and each evening: Let Thy holy angels be with me, that the wicked foe may have no power over me.  Or as the Church prays at bedtime prayer: Visit, we beseech Thee, O Lord, this habitation, and drive far from it all snares of the enemy.  Let Thy holy angels dwell herein to preserve it in peace and let Thy blessing be always upon us.
      But watchful is the angel band / That follows Christ on every hand / To guard His people where they go / And break the council of the foe. (TLH 254:7)
      What are the weapons in this battle? Satan and his demons fight with words – lies, half-truths, and deception.  They speak words of accusation: “How could you be forgiven after what you’ve done?  Do you think God could forgive you?”  Or words of temptation: “Did God really say, You may not eat from any tree in the garden.  You will not surely die.  Doesn’t God want you to be happy?  Why don’t you just do whatever would give you pleasure, and get whatever your flesh desires, and put yourself ahead for once.”
      What do the angels fight with?  As we sang in the Introit: Bless the Lord, ye His angels, that excel in strength: that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His Word.  They fight with the Word of truth – not just any true statements, but with Jesus Himself – the Word of God in the flesh, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  They fight with the Word of God, who created them.  The Word knit together in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Word who was tempted by Satan for us, the Word who touched death to defeat it, the Word who went to the cross for the payment for sin, the Word who rose from the tomb to crush the ancient serpent’s head.
      They fight with the Word, who comes to us this day in His Holy Body and Blood.  We join in this saving meal with the angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven, singingHoly, Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth, that is, Lord God of angel armies!


      Dear Christian, God hath given His angels charge over thee: to keep thee in all thy ways 
      For this, now and in days to be, / Our praise shall rise, O Lord, to Thee, / Whom all the angel hosts adore, / With grateful songs forevermore. (TLH 254:8)


In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

is Christianity a Western Religion?

Bonhoeffer on Suffering

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in "The Cost of Discipleship..."

“The cross…is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ…The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die…It is the same death every time – death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man…Only the man who is dead to his own will can follow Christ. In fact, every command of Jesus is a call to die, with all our affections and lusts. But we do not want to die, and therefore Jesus Christ and…the baptism in the name of Christ means both death and life…Baptism sets the Christian in the middle of the daily arena against sin and the devil…The wounds and scars he receives in the fray are living tokens of this participation in the cross of his Lord…While it is true that only the sufferings of Christ are a means of atonement, yet since has suffered for and borne the sins of the whole world and shares with his disciples the fruits of his passion, the Christian also has to bear the sins of others…but he would certainly break down under this burden, but for the support of him who bore the sins of all. The passion of Christ strengthens him to overcome the sins of others buy forgiving them. He becomes the bearer of other men’s burdens – “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2). As Christ bears our burdens, so ought we to bear the burdens of our fellow-men. The law of Christ…is the bearing of the cross. My brother’s burden which I must bear is not only his outward lot, his natural characteristics and gifts, but quite literally his sin. And the only way to bear that sin is by forgiving it in the power of the cross of Christ in which I now share…Forgiveness is the Christlike suffering which it is the Christian’s duty to bear.”

Something to consider when looking for a church

I am sometimes asked questions concerning how one finds a ‘good’ church.  I will of course do some quick research and point them to the closest confessional Lutheran parish near them in which the Gospel is purely taught and the Sacraments correctly administered.  Furthermore, I would hope to find the availability of private confession and absolution which lies at the very heart and center of pastoral care.  Among the Lutherans, “The Mass is held among us and celebrated with the highest reverence (AC XXIV).” 

One thought I often hear is “I want a church where I feel comfortable,” or more specifically “I want a church that fits my lifestyle.”  I suppose I can agree that it is right and good to have a comfortable church, especially for family, children and so forth.  A church family ought to be friendly, hospitable, and loving.  However, I do wonder how this squares away theologically if we make “comfort” a fixed and primary principle when it comes to prayerfully finding a church and desiring membership.   

Being in a Christian community however, is not so much “comfortable” in the sense that we desire.  It is not “self-affirming.”  True preaching of the Gospel does not build up my “self-esteem.”  The preaching of God’s law doesn’t not support my “lifestyle” in any way whatsoever.  I am not “accepted” the “way I am.” 

True preaching breaks us.  It exposes and shames us.  It is devastating.  Self-righteousness, self-esteem, my lifestyle, and the flesh are crushed.  The Christian life is not especially comfortable.         

In Peter’s first sermon when he preaches Christ crucified we find that those listening, “were cut to the heart.”  Then those hearing desperately cried out to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself" (Acts 2:37-39).


The act of preaching and hearing of the Gospel involves a crucifixion of Christ.  Those hearing are “cut to the heart.”  Preaching lacerates the human heart which is a factory of idols.  It exposes shameful sins, and vice, and brings them to the light of Christ’s cross.  This is not comfortable.  In holy baptism the old adam, the old sinful being, who desires self righteous comfort and inner security “should be daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” 


That we are to be drowned and killed is not a metaphor for some new-age spiritual quest.  Saint Paul writes, “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:4).


We ought to desperately approach a faithful church community that confesses the work of Christ and disperses his Holy gifts in Holy Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, Preaching, along with God’s Word of Absolution – that is Jesus.  The flesh wants none of these things however.  The old man does not want to be crucified.  He does not want to be exposed.  He does not want to be shamed.  He does not want to risk “being cut to the heart.”  He was to be “accepted as he is” and this old man goes to great lengths to find or develop a church community that reflects his own image rather than God’s. 


One of my favorite theologians of the church Hans Iwand (1899-1960) provides an excellent commentary on Luther’s theology on faith as relates to the first commandment.  Iwand’s very insightful reflection here may be a helpful consideration when considering where to worship and receive the gifts of Christ.   


“True faith has to do with being confronted with Another who makes us relinquish our own calculations and thoughts, wishes and hopes, and who breaks into our lives as a foreign reality, insisting that we recognize him as such.  God judges over the world and over all people and faith means to make this judgment one’s own.  But the judgment of God over people and their, their will, and their inner life is diametrically opposed to what people want to believe about themselves.  Thus whenever God’s Word meets us, it meets us as the enemy.  For, wherever God’s Word is portrayed so as to be in accord with people’s hopes and desires and wherever it is accepted as a truth that corresponds with their preconceptions, then we know right away that is not God’s Word we are dealing with.

The adjusting of the Word to man and to his preferences Luther sees as an immediate and general sign of heresy.  To the degree that men align God’s will with their own and his revelation with their own wishes and desires, they cancel out the concrete reality of God and make him into their own likeness or what they’d like him to be.  Luther calls this the annihilation Dei, or the annihilation of God.”[1]    

---

[1] Hans J. Iwand, . The Righteousness of Faith According to Luther. Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2008, p. 22.
(I took the picture at the top somewhere near Armitage and Hoyne in Chicago - I cannot remember the name of the church)

J.S. Bach's Coffee Cantata

Thou naughty child, thou wanton hussy,

Ah, when will I achieve my way?

For me, off coffee lay!

Dear Father, do not be so strict!

For if I may not thrice each day

My little cup of coffee drink,

I'll turn indeed to my distress

Into a dried-up goat for roasting.

Ah! How sweet the coffee's taste is,

Sweeter than a thousand kisses,

Milder than sweet muscatel.

Coffee, coffee, I must have it, 

And if someone wants to treat me, 

Ah, my cup with coffee fill!

Get plenty to eat and drink

Table Talk recorded by John Schlaginhaufen.  Spring, 1532.

Those who are assailed by doubts should be given plenty to eat and drink.  Early this morning the devil was disputing with me concerning Zwingli, and I discovered that a person who is well-fed is better fitted for disputation with the devil than a person who is fasting.  Think, for example, of the bishop who, when his sister came to him troubled with such great thoughts that she could not free herself from them, have her plenty to eat and drink.  Three days later he asked her how she felt.


'Very well,' she replied.
'What has happened to the thoughts that before troubled you?'
'I have quite forgotten them,' she answered.


Accordingly you should eat and drink and enjoy yourself.  Those who are afflicted with spiritual temptations should be given plenty to eat and drink, but whoremongers and those assailed by lust should fast.

(From Luther: Letters of Spiritual Counsel.  Translated and edited by Theodore G. Tappert)
(painting from Pieter Bruegel the Elder, a detail of 'Peasant Wedding' 1568)

I have been enjoying Bach’s Brandenburg concertos this week. J.S. Bach presented them in 1721 while “Kapellmeister,” the music director in the small town of Coethen. I have the recording from the English Chamber Orchestra - Benjamin Britten. I think I have neglected Bach's "secular works," - though I am sure he saw all his music as reflecting the glory of God and Christ's incarnation - so am looking forward to exploring more.

The Loving Practice of Closed Communion

The confessional Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, as well as the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian communities all practice the historic practice of “closed communion.” This means that Pastors in the church are to catechize and shepherd Christians to the altar by lovingly examining and hearing the confessions of members who desire the precious gift of the Lord’s Supper. The Lutheran church believes, teaches, and confesses that the Lord’s Supper is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in the bread and wine given for us to eat and drink.

“Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to the disciples and said: ‘Take, eat, this is My body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way also He took the cup after supper, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying: ‘Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

Everything about the early church we know is that “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). We must know that eating and drinking of the body and blood of Christ is not “metaphorical” of some alternative activity. Jesus is the sacrifice to be eaten and drank. He says, “This IS my body…This IS my blood…eat…drink…for you.”

“Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drink without the recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself” (1 Corinthians 11:26-29).

The admonition from the apostolic teaching is that we drink “worthily” when we confess what this precious gift truly is along with our desire to receive it for the forgiveness of sins. It is the loving pastoral practice of the church to examine or ascertain that a Christian desires this promise, along with the bodily eating and drinking of the sacrament. If we approach the altar and reject the Lord’s real physical presence , “without recognizing the body of the Lord” we eat and drink judgment against ourselves. That is the sacrament can be harmful to our faith if we partake of it in unbelief. This is why pastors, for love of the people, so desperately desire their people to know what a holy and precious gift this is.

The practice of “closed communion” does not mean that the orthodox church is sectarian or exclusionary. The loving practice of closed communion is precisely because we believe in fellowship – that we gather around the risen Lord Christ and receive His gifts. We all have a common confess, we confess the same faith, the same baptism – we believe in the one holy Christian and apostolic church. If we admit everybody and anyone who randomly walks into church to the Lord’s Supper, we are neither treasuring the precious sacrament, nor are we loving those people receiving the sacrament.

If a Muslim, Buddhist, or atheist walks in off the street and we immediately bring them to the altar we are breaking the fellowship of that particular congregation and the larger Christian community. Those who gather around this Holy Supper find their unity and fellowship precisely because they confess the same Lord who lavishes upon us forgiveness, peace, and the resurrection of the dead. The Lord’s Supper is for baptized Christians who desire the bodily eating and drinking of heavenly food and drink, along with the heavenly promise that comes along with it. For in the Lord’s Supper we ENTER HEAVEN ITSELF through Jesus our high priest (Hebrews 10:20-22).

As Martin Luther keenly observed, “the altar rail is the pulpit of the laity,” meaning, that this is where the Christian community preaches to one another – confessing to God and before the whole world the faith in which we shall live and die and live again. Kneeling at the altar in anticipation of the heavenly feast is where we confess and preach that which we will be doing in eternity. If we take this precious gift seriously and truly believe what our Lord says about it, it would be foolish to treat it just as if we were getting together to have a little “spiritual love fest” – a “feel-good” spiritual snack.

As Dr. Edward Veith writes, “Not only is Christ present at the altar, He gives Himself to us. As we eat the bread, we are receiving, in an intimate and personal way, His body that was broken on the cross. When we sip the wine, we are receiving His blood that sealed the covenant, assuring the forgiveness of sin. We are literally united with Christ – Christ crucified, resurrected, ascended – bridging the gap between here and Golgotha, now and eternity.”[1]

It comes as a necessity that the church must identify heresy and false teaching regarding the sacrament, that we may truly have “fellowship.” and "unity." The church cannot be ecumenical if she does not reject, correct, and rebuke false confessions of the faith out of love for the purity of the Gospel.

---

[1] Veith, Edward, Spirituality of the Cross, 51.

A Sermon by Pastor Gary Schultz

15th Sunday after Trinity (Matthew 6:24-34)

The Rev. Gary W. Schultz, Pastor
Mount Calvary Ev. Lutheran Church - Eagle Grove, IA
Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church - Rowan, IA

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

We have a lot of things that we think we need. We cling to things that it seems we can’t live without. For example, probably all of us have some savings or investments set aside somewhere. This is really a remarkable thing in the history of the world: for regular, common people like ourselves to have extra money – money that we really don’t need right now. And so, we set it aside. And we watch it. And we become anxious over it. When the stock market falls, or interest rates go down, we become very anxious.

It’s true of other things, too. We all – children and adults – have toys. We have collections of things and possessions that are our pride and joy. If they are taken away, we feel we’ve lost something great. Yet, life still goes on.

Jesus says in today’s Gospel: “No one can serve two masters, for wither he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” It’s a matter of what our god is. It’s a matter of what we look to the most for peace of mind and comfort.

Jesus does not say that we have to get rid of all of our stuff. But we do have to get rid of our trust in those things. We have all learned the first commandment: “You shall have no other gods,” and that we are to fear, love, and trust in God above all things. This is commanded for our own good. Our wrong trust in other things actually causes our anxiety.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Jesus knows that anxiety plagues us. He uses the word “anxious” six times in this short section. Although we believe that God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayer, even to all evil people, we pray that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. We still doubt. That’s the work of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature. We always think “Oh, if I could just do it myself, If I could just have this one more thing I want, just a little more money,” I would not be anxious.

There is a lot of doubt about these words of Jesus: Do not be anxious. “Oh, sure, Jesus, that’s easy for you to say. You have connections. Oh, sure, Jesus, that’s easy for you to say, you don’t know about my bills, my credit card statements, my doctor visits and medical problems, the bullies I deal with at school, the jerks that I work with, how difficult my life is at home or with members of my family. God, you really have no business telling me not to worry.”

And that’s where we go wrong. For Jesus does know how things are here.

There is a big error out there that says the Gospel, the good news of the church, is basically that God is nice, like a kindly old grandfatherly person smiling down from the clouds. There is a big error out there that says that the Gospel, the good news of the church, is that the Gospel is about warm and fuzzy things, pleasant things, or witty sayings like in Reader’s Digest.

I often receive these calendars in the mail, with nice pictures and Bible verses on them, like this stream and beautiful white rocks and the fall leaves beginning to change. And at the bottom it says, “The Lord showed miraculous signs and wonders – Deuteronomy 6:22." But if you look up Deuteronomy 6:22, it is talking about the miraculous signs our Lord did when He delivered the Israelites from bondage and slavery to the unbelieving heathen Egyptians.

We do not look to nature to find God, like this beautiful picture from New Hampshire, or in sunsets, or the Grand Canyon. Those are wonderful things, but they are not the Gospel.

We can’t say “God, you don’t know about my life, You have no business telling me not to be anxious.” Who for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost by the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, He suffered and was buried. The third day He rose again from the dead.

The Gospel is not separated from Body and Blood. God became Body and Blood in the womb of the Virgin Mary. This is the incarnation: God became man. The Gospel is not separated from Body and Blood. This is why Jesus offered up His Body on the cross, for the atonement – the payment for sins. As the Israelites were delivered by the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their homes so that death would pass over, so Jesus’ Blood is painted on the doorpost of your heart, that death passed over you. This is why the crucifix is such a wonderful Christian symbol, the center of all Christian art and images.

The Gospel is not separated from Body and Blood. The night before He was betrayed, our Lord said: “This is My Body, this is My Blood, shed for you for the remission of sins.” His Supper is the Gospel delivered to you. “This Sacrament is the Gospel” (Luther). Jesus’ words: “This is My Body, This is My Blood” are the sum and substance of the Gospel (Luther).

Dear Christians, do not be anxious. Jesus took all anxiety and the sin that causes it into Himself. It was crucified with Him on the cross and buried with Him in the tomb. He takes your anxiety and gives you His perfection. Jesus walks with you through this life. That’s why we pray in the Introit: Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for I cry unto Thee daily.

As He sent miraculous signs and wonders to deliver His people Israel from slavery and bondage to the unbelieving heathen Egyptians, so He sends miraculous signs and wonders to you, in His Word and Supper, to deliver you, the true Israel of the Church from slavery and bondage to the Egypt of the devil, the world, and the sinful nature.

Jesus delivers His Church – His Israel. You are in His church. As we prayed: O Lord, we beseech Thee, let Thy continual pity cleanse and defend Thy Church; Jesus gives His help and goodness to you.

You are in the church. Saved. Worry-free. Amen.

Michael Jackson and Cult of Youth

I have been grappling to understand the obsession over Michael Jackson. I am fairly certain there is a general consensus that he was an extremely talented performer. Nobody could captivate an audience like him. I have a vivid memory of watching a Michael Jackson concert on television with my parents and sister as a young child. At one point in the show he was propelled by a zip line with a rocket pack strapped to his back, emitting a flame, as if he was blasting into outer space. I am not convinced however that his extraordinary talent can fully account for the praise and ecstasy over the last months - the bizarre workings of a messianic deification directed toward the person of Michael Jackson.

It is not that we "looked past" his bizarre lifestyle - pedophilia, mutilation of the body, the Peter Pan obsession, and were enraptured purely by his music and dance. No, it was his androgynous sexual ambiguity, his test tube designer brave new world children, his bodily disfigurement, and his Neverland quest that embodies and highlights a dark psychological and spiritual trauma in our culture. Secretly, under the radar, the Jackson obsession reflects a bizarre attraction - a celebration - a peculiar admiration for the freak show drama of launching into outer space to transcend race, gender, sexuality, age, and death itself by any means necessary: bleach, mutilation, and constructing a city called Neverland.

A wicked current of American culture has a religious devotion to what Michael Jackson represents: a refusal to grow up, an insecurity and hatred of the human body, a death denying hatred of the human life cycle. Cosmetic surgeries, face lifts, nose jobs, lips, and virtually every part of the human body can now be altered to fit with ones questing for youth, 'beauty,' or a shifting along the 'gender continuum.' These sorts of cosmetic surgeries are increasing exponentially for those who have the means and wealth to further a neverland fantasy, worshipping at the fount of youth.

Brooke Shields in the memorial for Jackson with tears flowing said "we need to look up where he is undoubtedly perched in a crescent moon, and we need to smile." The mystic projection that Michael Jackson is perched like a bird on a "crescent moon...smiling" taps into this infantile, perverted and depressingly comical world view that is so devastatingly twisted and confused to posit such a bizarre metaphysical contemplation of life after death.

In the Neverland desire to stay young we have cast off childbearing, and now desire a greater Matriarchal role of the federal government. We desire a youthful community organizer to the run the show and create a nanny government to suckle at the teet, as infants. The hope of using human embryos for research is that we might dissect the great riddle of everlasting life, to skirt by death, and stay in Neverland forever. The living memory of Michael Jackson serves as a sacramental image of the death denying, cult of youth.

Jackson's life is tragic, equal to the greatest of mythological tragedies. The cost of feverishly trying to escape our own bodies, transcend creation and life itself, is a route filled with such pain and spiritual affliction that it takes a cocktail of opiates just to temporarily numb the pain. The cult of perennial youth is itself a lie, and will run headfirst into death with a less than beatific conclusion.

Rev. Dr. John Kleinig on Spiritual Warfare

Yesterday evening I had the honor and privilege of attending a presentation by the Reverend Dr. John Kleinig on the much misunderstood topic “Spiritual Warfare.” If you are not familiar with Kleinig, he is the author of Leviticus (Concordia Commentary), as well as the more recent book, Grace Upon Grace: Spirituality for Today. Dr. Kleinig has served as lecturer and Dean of Chapel at Australian Lutheran College in North Adelaide, South Australia.


The presentation yesterday was at St. John’s in Wheaton, Illinois. The following are notes that I scribbled down...


Christians by the very nature of baptism are enlisted on the front lines of spiritual battle. Though it is commonly thought spiritual warfare is waged outside the boundaries of the Christian community, it is more so within the Christian community. Spiritual affliction (tentatio) is not just for new converts coming to spiritual truths but is more so for those maturing in age and faith. Temptation and affliction gets worse.


Neglect of the elderly who are at forefront of spiritual battle is troubling. In the church we are often obsessed with meeting the desires of the youth at the expense of the elderly.


“Fighting the Good Fight,” in reference to the words of St. Paul is not “out there” but is local – holding on to faith itself. The battleground takes place in the conscience of every Christian. Who rules the conscience – Satan or Christ? Satan hurls condemnation at us for a bad conscience.


In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus prays “Deliver us from the evil one.” However, Jesus, has no sin, therefore he has no need for this petition in and of himself. Jesus, however, identifies himself with us, “Deliver us(in union with church)” from the evil one. Jesus condescends to do our bidding and fight and win the battle “for us.”


In reference to Revelation 12: The woman (church) is unassailable by Satan. The man child born of the woman (Christ) “Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night” (v. 10). The accuser is always Satan, who targets the church and always accuses.


The church however, is unassailable, and Satan goes after Christians – to isolate them – and separate them from their faith. He attacks those first who are faithful and confessing. “We are under enormous spiritual attack for being a faithful Christian congregation” – Dr. Kleinig.


Satan disorders all things – creates disunity – chaos – enmity – aims to deceive us. Satan knows Scriptures inside out and makes them a lie to us. Satan even uses the great Reformation breakthrough, “Justification by grace through faith in Christ alone,” twisting it to mean, “Do not do good works!” “Satan” comes from the Hebrew word, meaning someone who prosecutes. Devil from Greek “Diabolos” means “slanderer.” Satan slanders – lies – twists – Christ and the truth in order to destroy and separate us from faith.

For unbelievers Satan “excuses sin.” For believers he condemns/accuses us of sin, “You are guilty, not saved, and you are a fraud.” He gets us in our vocations, “You are awful sinning vicar (my modification from Kleinig’s example), son, student, worker, etc.”


Based upon Rev. 12 the two weapons by which the church “overcomes” Satan – by the Blood of the Lamb and holding to the testimony of Jesus (v. 11).

Satan uses guilt to attack the conscience and anger to destroy faith. Anger creates “collateral damage.” We reply offenses in our heads – I think of offenses of another – and we makes enemies of one another – hate each other.

I sit in God’s seat and pronounce judgment on others by slandering and condemning person – and I murder them in my heart – I execute with my tongue – condemn to death. When we hold to anger we cannot act lovingly but lash out indiscriminately. Satan is behind these reverberations and behind all fallout.

Satan loves isolating us from Christ and other Christians. We are easy to pick off. Dr. Kleinig makes observation from personal pastoral care that most Christians leaves church based upon what Pastor/or other Christian says or does – some sort of offense, however petty it may be. Therefore, we are capable of actually destroying peoples faith (though Satan is behind this).


Saint Paul makes an allowance for anger, “Be angry and do not sin” (Eph. 4:26). We sin when we “hang on” to anger. “Do not let the sun go down on your anger” – do not carry anger day to day. Anger is the “root cause” of depression. Anger rots the inside. When we hold on to our anger we say “Come on in devil, make a home in my heart.” Satan feeds on anger – don’t let anger live and Satan has nothing to feed on.


Satan digs up the dirt on us, exposes it, magnifies it, and throws it at us. 10 Commandments serve as spiritual examination/diagnostic tool to confess sins I commit, also with an awareness of sins committed against me. Take that which is in the dark and bring it to light of Gospel.


Concerning spiritual warfare, “We are not involved in a search and destroy mission.” We do not need to go out on a spiritual crusade but rather “man our post.” We are to take up our post as “sentry guard.” We guard our post, the holy plot of territory already won for us by Christ. We protect the place where God has “put us” (vicar, son, student, friend, member of congregation – my insert here). I do sentry duty here.


Satan tempts us to go out and fight elsewhere and neglect our post/station. We need to attend to our posts and stay awake spiritually in them – attending to spiritual concerns of those around us: guilt, shame, anger etc. And we attend not with Bible bashing but with prayer in daily life and prayer at the altar when we receive the Lord’s Supper.


In reference to Ephesians 6, we “borrow” all weaponry from Christ. Spiritual warfare and sentry duty are done through prayer, praying for those around us. We are not called to battle the enemy – Jesus Christ does our fighting for us – we plead that Christians may be called to repentance and preserved in the Church.


Spiritual warfare is not “out there” in politics, society, etc but close. First enemy that Satan seeks are pastors, followed by teachers and leader in the church. With sentry duty we pray for family and friends and bring their names to the altar and communion rail – into holy space.


Four key points: 1) Satan keeps us away from church. 2) Satan aims to separate us from the Word and prayer. Prayer is supernatural power which routes satan – we cannot by our own faculties/cleverness outsmart satan. 3) Satan seeks us in the bed room – in marriage – by getting between spouses – thereby hampering faith. 4) Pastors often loose footing through Satan’s attacks in and among their family.


Closing Luther idea/quote “The devil is the comforter of the faithful.” Luther struggled with believing sins were forgiven. Temptation is comfort because it is proof that I am saved and brought into Christ. That is why Satan sets to work so hard on us.


The devil is comforter of the faithful.
The worst temptation is no temptation.

Rob, Ben, and myself at Central Park

Ephphatha, Be Opened!

“Taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak" (Mark 7:31-37)

Be opened. Hear the Word of God. He has done all things well. As Isaiah prophesized "In that day the deaf shall hear" and "the eyes of the blind shall be opened" and "The captives will be set free" and "those who sit in darkness will be released into a glorious light." Amen.

Like the deaf man my hearing is not so great. Now don't get me wrong I can hear noises just fine. When my alarm clock blasts off in the morning it pierces my ear with a terrible beeping that pounds my eardrums. When I pray a morning prayer and psalm I can hear the words that I am speaking. I can hear the cascading water in the shower and I can hear my cereal being poured. I can hear my coffee brewing - the hot steam, the sound of baking roasted Columbian beans, and the dripping into the pot.

As much as I hear however, my ears are closed. And my heart turned inward. I am not open to God’s creation with a thankful heart. I am concerned about my reputation, my own self preservation, my own desires and personal plans.

I need help to hear God calling into being each new day. I need eyes to see the sunrise and hear the breaking of the morning light. I cannot hear, nor see, nor feel, nor smell if he does not first come to me. I need him to move me out of my own self interest. Cut me down in my personal ambitions and free me to live among the people of God. I cannot truly see and hear the students of Saint Paul’s filing into their classes without God’s help. I need the fingers of our Lord, His touch, and his speaking to set me free.

Like the deaf man, man we need to be brought to Jesus and rescued. This rescuing, however, I think, hardly comes in the way we think it does. While we may expect a spiritual experience or awakening, or maybe a reconversion, or a flash of lighting...he comes quite unexpectedly in another way.

God does not just sit up in heaven and look down on us and think that we are special. He loves us in a completely different way. In Mark's Gospel Jesus receives this deaf man that is brought to him by the crowd. He gently takes him aside and plunges his fingers into the man's dirty ears, spits, and touches the mans tongue.

Now this is actually pretty darn gross and just plain strange. God is supposed to be holy and the king of the universe. He is supposed to be sitting on a throne in heaven with armies of angels. He is supposed to be commanding the winds and the seas in his glorious splender. Spitting and puting fingers in the ears of a deaf man does not really seem like something the mighty God we imagine might do.

Though he is certainy these things - holy and powerful - we must know that his holiness and glory is not about being in far places in the lofty heights of heaven. His holiness is not because his sovereign might and omnipotence. He does not look at us from a distance and play with us as if we were his mere play things for leisure.

His holiness and comfort for us is that he is a man. He makes himself accessible - to be heard, seen, tasted, and felt. He approaches his church on earth - approaches the deaf man - approaches us - He comes as our Lord who is so comfortable in His creation. He comes as the Lord who walks with us in the noisiness and cool of the day. Our Lord is actually one who spits.

As a baseball player confidently steps toward the plate to bat, he spits in the dust, readying his arms and hands for working a miracle. All is being made ready by his moving toward Calvary. Carrying the cross he moistens the the dusty path with tears and blood. Arms and hands are stretched out to part the red sea and his opened side floods pharoah and all his armies.

On Christ's Holy Cross He lays hold of us. Lays hold of our ears and eyes. Lays holds of our mouths so that we may glorify him by hearing and speaking forgiveness and love to one another. He puts himself right in between us. In the dirt and muck of our lives he attends to us. In the brokenness of our relationships, in the depression in our families, even in the horrifying stories on the nighttime news He makes a home for himself and sets to work by opening us all up.

And he is not afraid to get down and dirty. Our Lord is not a germophobe. He comes as one who washes dirty and calloused feet. The Lord makes Peter blush as he stoops down low to unbuckle dusty sandals. He does not ask that we clean up our act before we can stand before him. He does not ask the deaf man to clean out his own ears. He does not ask him to dedicate himself to any political or spiritual cause. Jesus simply grabs the man without any proper introduction. He spits – touches the man’s tongue – and says “Efeta – be opened!”

He speaks the very first words of creation again, "You are free to eat from any tree of the garden..Take eat...take drink."

Our Lord descends into the river Jordan not to be cleansed but rather to bathe himself in the brokenness of the world - its cursed stains - to take our brokenness into his own body - which shall not be broken on the cross - but resurrected and ascended into heaven. He carries us to church, opens our ears and hands that we may lay hold of him and one another. He comes as a servant, who sets the table, folds the napkins, arranging a spot for us. He prepares the meal and fills the glasses which runneth over.

At this place, our Lord is actively at work here. He opens himself up on the cross, pours himself out for the redemption of the world. In the Holy Gospel we read "And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly." To be freed and to speak plainly means to speak back to God what he speaks to us. To have our tongues loosed from bondage means that we speak truth. The truth which sings of our faith together, thus saying "Lord have mercy....we confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves....we have sinned in thought word and deed...please hurry and help us."

He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and ears of the deaf unstopped; the shall the lame man leap like a dear, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

My Bishop instructing me in the fine art of brewing beer. Adding hops to a double IPA.

Taking Down Walls

"For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2:14)

As people of sin, building up walls comes naturally to us. And we are good at it. We have been building walls for a long, long time. When our first parents Adam and Eve first sinned they feverishly set forth building a wall - a dividing wall of fig leaves, and of trees. After turning away from the gracious address of their Lord, they set to work on the greatest wall ever erected. A wall to hide from God.


They take the lovely trees of the garden and build up walls for a fortress to hide from God and to prepare for war against their neighbors. The history of all humankind generation after generation has set about on the same work - building walls - separating themselves from one another by fleeing from the voice of God.


We all know from the news, or history, or economics class all the walls that have been erected. The Israelites have built walls to separate themselves from Palestinians - due to rocket attacks. The Berlin Wall was erected by the communists to wage war against their own people by keeping them captive - as if it were a jail. There is the Great Wall of China that protected the empire for hundreds of year, which happens to stretch out over the Mongolian border for 5500 miles.


No wall however, is more destructive is more wretched than being walled up against our Lord and against the needs of our neighbor. We build up walls by withholding our love from all those around us. Often times we retreat inward and build walls up against our dear parents and withhold the honor that Christ has given them.


As students we have walls against even our teachers. I am a student as well. Where we ought to respect and cherish our teachers and professors always and make their work pleasureable, we often make it toilsome through laziness or gossip. Furthermore, we may be tempted to build walls against God by fleeing from His tender care, by not receiving his gifts of heavenly communion and life in the midst of the congregation. When all is said and done walls cannot save us or protect us and meet our fundamental needs.

After Jesus is arrested, mocked, tortured, and crucified, and killed, the disciples in fear - flee to a locked room - a barrier - the greatest wall - to hide from God and hide from their family and neighbor. But our Lord in heaven says to Adam in paradise and to us today "Where are you?...do not be afraid...come out from your hiding place...come out from behind that wall...I will lift your veil so that you may see me."


Fresh from the grave, the resurrected Jesus enters the locked room of the disciples and graciously breaks down our own walls that we have fearfully made. And he enters into our lives speaking to us - continually inviting us - saying "peace be with you." And this is not the sort of peace that we announce to each other on facebook. It is not the sort of peace that we send a friend after a conversation in an instant message. Nor is this a peace like the hippies thought it in the 1960's with flowers and free love.


No this peace is very different. This is the peace that God brings. The dividing wall of hostility has been broken down and ended in the peace of Jesus. This is a word of peace that dries every tear from every cheek. It is the peace that breaks down the hostile walls between us and those around us. This is the peace the answers all that which has gone wrong in our lives. It is the peace, a heavenly word, the voice of the living God that speaks to you, "Dearest student of Walther Lutheran High School...dearest son...dearest daughter I am well pleased with you...because your sins are forgiven...I have paid for them in full..I have borne your sin and agony - your humiliation, your depression in your home. I have destroyed the walls that enclosed you from family and friends, from teachers and parents."


In this heavenly word of promise we are called to freedom to be students, and sons, and daughters, and teachers, and workers...to build one another up in love and charity and seek after the good for one another.


You have peace because God became peace and is peace. We have mercy and show mercy to one another because Christ is mercy and brings us mercy. Our Lord has broken down in his very flesh the dividing wall of hostility by reconciling us to God and to one another through the cross. All things are new. In the peace of Jesus which passes all understanding. Amen.

(painting above by J.M.W. Turner "The Angel, Standing in the Sun" 1846).

Christian Vocation

Professor John T. Pless of Concordia Theological Seminary has an excellent short discussion on the Lutheran understanding of vocation - click HERE to view short video.