The Lutheran Review

Justin, martyr at Rome

About 100 AD on the Island of Patmos off the coast of Ephesus in the southeastern Aegean Sea the apostle John was nearing death.  About the same time in area the New Testament knows as Samaria, about halfway between Nazareth and Jerusalem, a baby was born.  His parents named him Justin, Latin for “just,” or “righteous.”
He was converted to Christianity as an adult.  He described his experience saying, “Straightway a flame was kindled in my soul and a love of the prophets and those who are friends of Christ possessed me.”  He was a teacher of philosophy and engaged in debates about the truth of the Christian faith.He taught for a time in Ephesus and then moved to Rome.  He could see the storm clouds of persecution building across the Roman Empire.  About the year 150 he took up the cause of defending Christianities right to exist.  He became the first Christian apologist.
He is also a source of information about early Christian worship.  In his Apology he describes what happens on Sunday.  “The records of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read for as long as time allows. The presider exhorts and invites us into the pattern of these good things.  Then we all stand and offer prayer.”
After prayer, “bread is set out together with wine…The .presider offers prayer and thanksgiving and the .people sing out their assent, saying ‘Amen.’  There is a distribution of the things over which thanks has been said…and these things are sent to those who are not present.
Those who are prosperous give what they wish according to each one’s own choice and the collection is deposited with the presider, who aids orphans and widows, those in want because of disease, those in prison, and foreigners who are staying there.
We hold this meeting together on Sunday since it is the first day, on which god having transformed darkness and matter, created the world.  On the same day Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead.  On Sunday he appeared to his apostles and disciples and taught them these things which we present to you.”
Justin was arrested and imprisoned for practicing an unauthorized religion.  He and six of his students, including one woman, were beheaded in 165.
His Apology makes a plea that Christians be given fair hearing and be punished only if they are actually guilty of wrong doing.  His writings are worth reading today, since we Christians live in a society in which many are “dechurched” and misunderstand the Christian faith; while making judgments about Christianity based on these preconceived notions.    

Mary Visits Elizabeth

On May 31st, 1532 Martin Luther was in his office at the University of Wittenberg working on a sermon he will preach later that day.  It’s a beautiful last day as he sits before his word processor (pen, paper and ink); his Greek New Testament open to Luke 1:39-56, the gospel for the Day of Mary’s visitation.
Luther writes, “For us, indeed, it is an occasion to thank God for the glorious revelation which occurred on this day, that Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit, and although till now she knows nothing about Christ and his conception, she here declares and openly confesses that Mary is in truth the mother of the Lord, while Mary sings her beautiful song of praise…Our purpose is to praise and thank God, in accordance with the example of the beloved Virgin, so that we celebrate just as she did.”
Luther sees in Mary a great example of the virtue of humility, “She is the mother of God and the greatest of women in heaven and on earth.  She forgets all else, every good thing, and with truly humble heart sets out on her way, not ashamed to wash diapers, gently care for and bathe infant John, and so on.” 
He also finds in Mary a second virtue, “She trudges over the mountainous terrain resolutely, like a faithful servant, not impertinently as on a lark or skipping off to a dance or some religious pageant, chattering along the way from house to house, eyes flitting here and everywhere….she did not go as a busybody, but with the thought of serving her elderly female relative to whom the angel announced that she would bear a son in her old age… Mary’s example, therefore should set a beautiful pattern for us to follow, thought indeed we may be equally beautiful, learned, capable, wealthy, young and strong.”
Luther concludes his sermon, “We thank our Lord God with all our hearts for his blessings, temporal and spiritual, and, especially, for sending us his dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who has redeemed us from sin and death.  To that end may God grant us his grace.  Amen.” Sermons of Martin Luther, The House Postils, Vol 3 published by Baker Books.
Almighty God, You chose the virgin Mary to be the mother of Your Son and made known through her Your gracious regard for the poor and lowly and despised.  Grant that we may receive Your word in humility and faith, and so be made one with Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

May near it's end

 

The Spider Plant and Christmas cactus grow not two feet away outside the window of the sunroom/computer room. Plastic balls and bats and a turtle backed round sandbox await the grandchildren.  Can a box be round?

I bought a new motor for the fountain, in hopes that Lucas won’t wash sandy hands in its waters.

Some Hosta are blooming, too early me thinks.  The butterfly bush blooms before the butterflies fly by.  They hang out their yellow and purple blue blossom clusters waiting for anyone to come fluttering by.

The rhubarb may recover with the predicted rain and cool temps.  Tomatoes have tomatoes, and peppers peppers. 

The robins have flown from their nest.  I hope the feral cats haven’t gotten them all.  “People, stop feeding the feral cats, let them feast on the rabbits that barely move before I trip over them.”

We washed out Boomer (Newfoundland –now 11 years old) and a couple of days later I discovered he was covered, crawling with fleas.  They must have leaped on him in force when he lay near the mulch or in the grass. 

So along with battling an onslaught of fleas and wild ginger threatening to overtake the lawn; I miss the killdeer. 

Yes, there are no killdeer skittering in the cemetery among those planted firmly beneath their tombstones, which skitter no more.

Owls hoot, Cardinals sing robins hop about along with the rabbits and the squirrels bound, but there no killdeer.

God,  where are the killdeer?

 

 

Luther of the Slavs

Luther of the Slavs 

 
Jiri Tranovsky, was known as the “Luther of the Slavs” and the father of Slovak hymnody.  He was born in 1591 in Tesin, Silesia and died in 1637.   Silesia has for much of its history belonged to either Germany or Poland.  Since world War II the larger part is Polish.Tyrannously entered Wittenburg University in 1607.  He then traveled and taught in Bohemia, Silesia and Moravia.  He was ordained in 1616.  During a persecution of Lutherans in Bohemia he was forced to flee, he was imprisoned, lost two children in the plague and went into exile in 1625.  After fleeing from his next pastorate he settled in Slovakia in 1631.  There he produced a translation of the Augsburg Confession and published a hymn collection Cithera Sanctorum (Lyre of the Saints) which formed the basis of Slovak Lutheran hymnals.  He wrote 150 hymns himself.

However, none of his hymns are found in LSB.  Lutheran Worship has one, two are in The Lutheran Hymnal and Evangelical Lutheran Worship has one.Hymn 253 in TLH is a paraphrase of the apostles Creed and set to a Bohemian melody.

In one true God we all believe

And to his name all glory give.

Creator of all things is He

In heaven, the earth, the sea

.
Hymn 602 in ELW is entitled Your Heart, O God, is Grieved.  It’s a Trinitarian hymn of confession and forgiveness. Following is Stanza 2,

O Son of God, redeemer of the world,

Have mercy upon us.

Your arms extend, O Christ,

To save from sting of death

And grasp of grave;

your scars before the Father move

His heart to mercy at such love.

His other hymn included in TLH is #82 is a Christmas hymn, “Come Rejoicing, Praises Voicing.”  

 

Danger and Power

Pentecost, 2012 Immanuel Chapel, Ezekiel 37:1-14

Vs1 the hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley, it was full of bones.

Acts 2:21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

            At the beginning of the service I gave you a heads up.  You would be saying something that is both powerful and dangerous.  Do you know the dangerous and powerful thing you said? 

            Yes, “Come, Holy Spirit, Come.”  In connection with the Prayer of the Day, you responded, “Come, Holy Spirit, Come,” we did so repeatedly.  We called for Jesus promised Helper, the Spirit of truth.   It’s a dangerous thing to invite the Holy Spirit to come. We are playing with fire, “and …tongues as of fire appeared to (the disciples) and rested on each of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” Oh, yes, “Come, Holy Spirit, Come,” is a dangerous thing to say, we could be set on fire for the Lord. And we could get carried away.  It’s the Holy Spirit who like the tornado blows where it wishes and catches us in its powerful grip and carries us where it will, not where you and I will, so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.  Remember Philip who was directed to go to the Gaza road, where he met up with a man from Africa and he told the man the good news about Jesus.  The Spirit was present at that scene in the word and in the water in which the Ethiopian was baptized.  “And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away.”  Philip found himself in Azotus. He went about preaching the gospel to all the towns through which he passed.

It’s also a powerful thing to say, “Come, Holy Spirit, Come.”  At his ascension Jesus promised his disciples, “power from on high.”  But this power from on high blew the disciples cover.  It brought thousands of visitors from all over the Mediterranean world to their door step.  The Spirit opened their mouths and they proclaimed with such fervor that some thought them drunk.  But at the end of the day they baptized 3,000.  Filled with the Spirit, look of whom they preached, Jesus that Galilean who had stirred up so much trouble, and who died the cursed death of crucifixion.  Now Jesus is the one to whom Peter pointed, “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Who can forget the angel’s word to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most high will overshadow you.”

    This powerful and dangerous Spirit was poured out on us, giving us Christ’s cross - won salvation.  Washing us clean of the dirt and dross of sin; rebirthing us by his grace making us inheritors of the hope of eternal life. But to be washed with the Spirit of Christ, has consequences.  It puts us at odds with an increasing portion of our society. After Jesus baptism, the Holy Spirit drove him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. When he came out declared that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him.  He preached the Good News of the kingdom, to repent and believe in the Gospel.  As thanks for his gospel message; as thanks for a life devoted to healing the sin and diseases of his countrymen, they put him on a cross, to die as an accursed criminal.

 Therefore to call on the Spirit to come is both dangerous and powerful. In baptism we were drowned unto death in its waters.  We have been resuscitated to a new life in which we are dead to sin and alive to the promptings of God in Christ Jesus, making the Spirit a power unequaled in our life.  Our life was destroyed that the Lord might give us new life.

 The Lord promised in Ezekiel 36 to give Israel a new heart and to put within them a new spirit.  Then (you) will know that I am the Lord.”  Their old heart needed to be destroyed in order that they restored to life with a new spirit. 

So did we mean it when we invited, “Come, Holy Spirit, Come?”   For when, the word of the Lord is unleashed, things can never be as they were, business as usual is not the order of the day. In the Sound of Music, Maria sang of a few of her favorite things.  We all have our favorite things in the church. We expect the word of the Lord to commend and continue us in these favorite and familiar things.

Listen to Martin Luther, “In reality, the Word of God comes in opposition to our thinking and wishing.  It does not let our thinking prevail, even in what is most sacred to us, but it destroys and uproots and scatters everything.” The word of God is in opposition to our thinking and wishes.  Even that most sacred to us may  be destroyed, uprooted and scattered.   Those are powerful and dangerous words.  They are the kind of words that could get a preacher in trouble.  They could get a person declared an outlaw.  They are the kinds of words which got our Lord crucified nearly 2,000 years ago.  Walter Brueggeman preached a sermon called, “The threat of Life.”  “The people in the gospel story could smell the danger in Jesus.  They needed only sniff the air around him or notice the people who traveled with him to sense the threat.  They had life arranged about the best way it could be.  Jesus came into their midst as a threat of newness and deep change.  He caused old things to drop off and die.  He even dismissed some of what people most treasured.” Christ’s Spirit must destroy before it can bring new life.

 When I read the opening words of the story of Ezekiel in the valley of the dry bones I had a sense of their power and danger.  “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley,” I thought, that’s me.  I have a deep sense of the presence of the hand and Spirit of the Lord upon me.  And I believe that it was the Spirit of the Lord who set me down in the middle Immanuel Lutheran Chapel.  Now he is asking you and me, “Can Immanuel Lutheran Chapel live?”  And I can only give Ezekiel’s answer, “Lord God, you know.”   Will we listen to the Word of the Lord as the dry bones did?  Will we be open to the leading of the Spirit which may ask us to give up a few of our favorite things?  Are we willing to follow our Lord even if it means that we must abandon that which we most treasure or hold sacred?

People of Immanuel Chapel we have serious matters to discuss in the months ahead.  How can we get out from under our debt?  How can we manage to have a full time ministry when we can barely afford the one we have now?  What will we look like in a year or two years?  But we are Immanuel, whose name confesses that “God is with us.”  Hear the word of the Lord that concludes our Old Testament lesson,   “And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live…Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”

What was that dangerous and powerful thing we said earlier?  “Come, Holy Spirit, Come.”    

 

 

 

 

Forty Five Years

 

Forty five years ago on a Friday evening I walked into the quad among my fellow graduates from Concordia Seminary.  I don’t remember much about the ceremony other than my younger brother fainting as he sat in his chair.  Consequently, I left my place and took him off to a door leading into one of the surrounding dorms.  It wasn’t the first time nor would it be the last that his tendency to faint took center stage.  He lengthened his wedding in Rost Township by fainting, leaving Bev standing alone at the altar while the rest of our family was in a side room trying to revive Wayne.

Forty five years ago tomorrow, Becky and I met at the altar of Redeemer Lutheran Church in DeSoto, Mo where David Ylvisaker performed the wedding rite.  For once Wayne didn’t steal the show.

I tried to find a card at Walgreens for forty five years.  One year yes, 25 years yes, 30 years yes, 40 years yes, and the same with 50 and 60.  But no forty five.

In those forty five years we spent 3 in Winona, Mn, 8 in Albert Lea, 11 in Marshfield, Wi. and 13 in Collinsville, Il.  Now going on 9 in Sunset Hills, Mo.

I won’t even attempt to summarize memories that came with three sons and one daughter.

At the end of the day, I can only say, Thank you Lord, for our partnership.  I couldn’t imagine life without my partner, Becky. 

All of it began at a square dance at the field house at Concordia Seminary in the fall of 1964.

Thank you Lord.  Thank you, Becky

 

 

Helena, mother of Constantine

 

Helena was the wife of Constantius, co-regent of the West in the Roman Empire.  She was born about 255.  Her father appears to have been an inn keeper.  She bore one son, Constantine.  Her husband abandoned her for a more politically advantageous marriage.  However, when Constantine became emperor in 306 he promoted his mother, Helena to the status of Augusta.   He minted coins bearing her image.   Under the influence of her son she became a Christian.  She is best remembered for traveling to Palestine and identifying biblical locations in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and elsewhere.  With the financial backing of Constantine she built churches on the sites where she believed Jesus was born, where he was buried and from which he ascended.  These places of worship are still maintained today.  Helena is thought to have died in 329 or 330.  

 

The Reflecting Face

 

For some time I’ve been fascinated by 2 Corinthians 4:6, For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The whole point of our existence is to know, to see, to be in the presence of God’s glory.  God’s glory is the purpose of evangelizing, “so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.” (2 Cor. 4:15) God’s purpose in sending His Son is that we get to do give thanksgiving to God’s glory in the eternity of heaven is a nice by product.

We tend to emphasize the benefits of Jesus death and resurrection in terms of what “I” get out of it.  That’s why Jesus died and rose again, to remove our tendency to make everything about “me,” in all humility, of course.  It’s not about us, it’s about God’s glory, God’s presence and living in the light of God.

Could it be that it was the loss of God’s glory that caused Adam and Eve to hide from God?  To lose God’s glory and replace it with our own glory is to die.  We have no choice but to hide from God’s glory lest we die immediately; instead of slowly losing the light of our life.  In other words, in order to live, we must hide in the shadows or behind a bush and eventually die anyway.

Therefore, when Moses came down from the mountain even though his face was like the moon, it was only a reflection of God’s glory, the people couldn’t stand it.  He had to wear a veil.

In Jesus we are able to see God’s glory now even as we are being “transformed into the same image” as Christ; therefore restored to the same image in which God created humanity (2 Cor. 3:18).

However, having seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, we are called to reflect that glory in our lives.  Jesus said, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”  Why give to the needs of others?  That in supplying the needs of others it will result in “overflowing thanksgivings to God.”

Thus through our life and our words we become the face of God in the world.       

 

 

He has Mastered Death

 

From an anonymous fourth century homily:

Join, then, all of you, join in our Master’s rejoicing,

You who were the first to come, you who have came after,

Come and collect now your wages.

The rich and the poor, sing and dance together.

You that are hard on yourselves, you that are easy,

 honor this day.

You that have fasted and you that have not,

 make merry today.

The meal is ready: come and enjoy it.

The calf is a fat one: you will not go hungry away.

There’s kindness for all to partake of and kindness to spare.

Away with pleading of poverty:

The kingdom belongs to us all.

Away with bewailing of failings:

Forgiveness has come from the grave.

Away with your fears of dying:

The death of our Savior has freed us from fear.

Death played the master: He has mastered death.

 

 

 

Love makes us His Friends

    Easter 6, 2012, Immanuel Lutheran Chapel  John 15:9-17

Lisa was talking with her pastor about her grandmothers.  “When my sisters and I were growing up we always enjoyed visiting grandma Grace.  Grandma Grace was so gracious and kind.”  The pastor agreed with Lisa..  He remembered that she lived up to her name even after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.  Lisa continued, “But that wasn’t the case with grandma Nellie.  We didn’t like to go see her.  She could be mean sometimes.  She wasn‘t very lovable at all.  But she was my grandmother too.”  The Pastor replied, “I’ll tell you what I did in terms of my own mother.  Often she wasn’t very nice either and could be mean and vindictive toward people.  I made a decision.   Since I couldn’t love my mother because she was lovable or even a likeable at times, I decided that I would love her simply because she was my mother.”

Loving someone not on the basis of what they do but on the basis of a decision to love them is at the heart of the statement “God is love.”    God who is love decided to create the universe.  God who is love decided to create human beings in his own image.   God who is love chose not to destroy his creation when its human inhabitants rebelled.   God chose to show Noah favor.  God chose Abraham to be the Father of Israel. God chose Moses to lead His people out of slavery into a promised land. Out of this same love God implemented a plan for the salvation of the world.  Out of love God sent the Son to take on human flesh and dwell in the world.  Out of love God remained united with Jesus Christ His own Beloved Son with whom he was well pleased.

As the love between the Father and Son is perfect so is the love that Jesus has shown to his disciples, that is, you and me.  Out of love Jesus brought us into a relationship of friendship with himself and thus also with God our heavenly Father.  As his beloved ones we are the beneficiaries of the Father’s love that flows through his Son to us.  We had no quality that would recommend us as friends of Jesus.  Being chosen as Jesus’ friends changes our status.  We are not simply servants ordered to obey his commandments without thought or consideration, just do your job.  That would never work because as you and I know we can’t perfectly keep God’s commands even though we may want to and strive to do so.

Being Jesus’ friends doesn’t mean that Jesus is our buddy. Friendship with Jesus doesn’t put us on equal terms with Jesus.  What friendship with Jesus means is that in Jesus we now know what God intends for us.  God had friends before he chose the disciples, before he chose you and me. Abraham was his friend.  God revealed to him that God would bless all the nations of the earth through him and his offspring.  Moses was named a friend of God.  God told Moses that he intended to save his people from slavery and to fulfill the promise of a new land.  Both saw God face to face.  Now we, Jesus’ disciples have also seen God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Out of love for his Father’s commands and out of love for you and me Jesus stooped down to serve you and me.  There could be no greater or more unexpected love than Jesus has shown to us.  He laid aside his own life.  We see a picture of this in the hours before his arrest, trial and crucifixion.  In the upper room he laid aside his garments and proceeded to wash his disciples feet.  And after he washed their feet he took up his clothes again.  “I have the power to lay down my life and I have the power to take it up again.“  Then he said to them, “A new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you.”  The hour had come for him to depart out of this world to the Father. Faithful to his Father’s command he loved them to the end announcing from the cross “It is finished.”  That was why the Father loved him.  For the joy set before him he endured the cross bringing the joy of eternal life to the entire world.  Now having accomplished what the Father had sent him to do his joy was complete. Notice something about this love rooted in God the Father and carried through Jesus to you and me, his friends.  This is a love that is carried out in action.

 In the order of baptism the pastor tells the baptized, “We receive you in Jesus’ name as our brother/sister in Christ.  The congregation adds their agreement.  “Amen. We welcome you in the name of the Lord.”    “Together we might hear His word, receive his gifts, and proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.”  Having received such love we are called to put it into action.  Acting in love is a priority in our lives.  Jesus commands it.  Jesus is also the measure of love put into action.

We see love put into action in our first lesson when the Christians in Antioch (incidentally did you notice that this was the first time people were called Christians?) sent relief to the Christians in Jerusalem and Judea because of a famine due to a drought.

In an imaginative story writer Stephen Mitchell tells the miracle of Lazarus resurrection from Lazarus’ point of view.  Lazarus had already reached end of the tunnel leading to the white light when he heard his friends voice calling him back.  The voice was filled with love, but also with sorrow and pity, and not so much for fear of death as resistance to it, as if it were an enemy to be expelled or overcome.  Yet all the dramas of his short life were about to be resolved, dissolved, in the light at the end of the tunnel, which was not a physical light- but a radiant presence, a sense of completion and joy a million times more blissful than anything he had felt before.  The voice kept on calling.  He didn’t want to return.  But he knew that, for his friend’s sake he would have to postpone his eternal life and hurry back down the tunnel to return to his body, which had already begun to stink.  Greater love has no man than that he would lay aside his own life, eternal life for the sake of his friend. In Mitchell’s telling of Lazarus’ resurrection, Lazarus is responding to the One who told his sister Martha, “I am the resurrection and the Life.”  Lazarus is implementing John’s words from our epistle lesson, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

  Fellow friends of Jesus, I want to ask you to take those words of Jesus out of the church and into your week.  I’d like you to do three things.  1. Look for occasions when people are showing love toward one another.  2. Look for opportunities that the Lord gives you to show love to another.  3. Then email me or call.  My email address and home and office telephone numbers are in front of the bulletin.  One last reminder, “Beloved if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

After all, "They'll know we are christians by our Love."