Will Things Ever Be the Same?

I have been seeing lots of articles asking how the Church will look after this pandemic is over. Will it be the same? Will it ever? Or will some things never be the same as they were?

Let me answer that question: We will be the same.

During this time we have adapted, we have adjusted, and we have in some ways expanded. What we have not done is change. Before, during, and after this pandemic, the Church is all about Christ and His gifts. Before, during, and after this pandemic, same Christ, same gifts, same Gospel. As it was before the pandemic, so it is now, and so it will be after.

Perhaps there are some churches which have lost their focus and for which being church meant something else. For them, maybe things will not be the same - and that would be a good thing! A return to a focus - or a re-focus - on Christ and what really matters. And maybe we have learned (or re-learned) this, too. And that’s a good thing.

But as far as delivering the gifts - nothing will change. We will still gather as God’s people. We will still sing. We will still confess and receive the absolution. We will still proclaim Christ and him crucified. We will still have baptisms. We will still give the Lord’s Supper - including using the chalice. We have not stopped, and we will not. For all this is the life of Christ given to us. And there is nothing more important.

So when this is all over, or at least restrictions are eased, and you come back to church, you know what you will find? The same church. You might sit farther apart for a while, maybe some of you will wear masks for a while. But those things aren’t what the church IS. What the church IS will not change. You’ll recognize it. You’ll hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. And you’ll rejoice in His goodness and mercy, that has brought us through this time - and all times - until He brings us home to Him.

Thanks be to God!

No!

No!

No, no, no!

Funerals are not about you. They're about Jesus.

They're not about what you have done, they're about what Jesus has done for you.

When you die, if I do your funeral, I will say what a horrible sinner you were, and that will not be a lie, and nothing you can do can change that.

But then I will also say that Jesus came to die for sinners, that He died for you, and that you are therefore His child, unworthy as you are, and an heir of everlasting life. And that will be the truth.

So I say let's make a t-shirt that says this: Jesus died and rose for you so the preacher won't have to lie at your funeral.

That's better.

And the truth.

Significant Deaths

It is quite easy when a person of significance dies to panic or overstate how critical and dire things now are. Think of what Israel must have experienced and thought when Moses died. How about when Luther died? In my own Church, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, there was the death of our then-president Al Barry. And now Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia. The wages of sin is death and death is going to take all people. The question is: how do we react and respond?

I like what a co-worker of mine said, way back when I worked with computers and before I ever had an inkling of becoming a pastor: The cemetery is filled with people the world couldn't live without!

It seems to me that panic is a rather faithless response. Yes, the death of Scalia is significant, but we were facing difficult moral dilemmas even with him on the bench. And what history has shown us is that God raises up new leaders to take the mantel of the ones who are taken from us. Joshua for Moses, Elisha for Elijah, and Chemnitz, Gerhard, and others after Luther. And we are often the stronger for it. For going through times of uncertainty can strengthen our faith, our resolve, and our prayers. It is not that we do nothing, but that we do what we are given to do, ask what we can do, and trust that God is still on His throne. With Christ and His Spirit, we do, after all, have a peace which passes understanding.

So no matter what happens to the Supreme Court - or the election later this year as well - we will continue to preach and teach the truth in our church, as parents to our children, and speak to friends and neighbors of the confidence that we have. For the one person the world truly couldn't live without? He's not in a cemetery, but risen, alive, and ruling all things for the good of His Church. Even when it might not seem like it. He is.

An Open Letter to Barack Obama

An Open Letter to President Barack Obama from Lutherans For Life In your speech on January 5, you tearfully recalled the children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary. You said, “Every time I think about those kids it gets me mad.” We are glad it makes you mad. It should make us all mad. Murder is horrible. The murder of children, however, touches the very depths of our souls. We have a favor to ask you. The next time you think of those children and it makes you mad, we ask that you take just a minute to try to understand people like us a little better. Please know that we are not radical right-wing extremists. But, it is a matter of fact that since Sandy Hook approximately three million children in this country have lost their lives through abortion. Every time we think about those kids it gets us mad. Millions like us feel the same way. We do not blow up abortion facilities or shoot abortionists. But like you, we feel compelled to do something. Political fears seem to hold Congress hostage on the issue so we do what we can in legal protests, marches, political action, and, most importantly, by reaching out to women in crisis pregnancies and offering them real compassion and help. You correctly noted how gun violence strips its victims of their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Every day, 2,800 innocent and defenseless children are stripped of those same rights as abortion violently rips them from their mothers’ wombs. Mr. President, we hope against hope that your views on abortion change, though we suspect they are very deeply imbued. But we do ask that you use your deep-felt anger over the children of Sandy Hook and other victims of gun violence to strive to have some empathy for ordinary people like us who have the same deep-felt anger over the tragedy of abortion.

Ethical Dilemma?

World Magazine this week has an article provocatively titled: Life after death: Where vaccines saving millions of lives are derived from the tissue of aborted babies, is it ethical to use them? Here's the link to the online article.

This is an issue that I knew absolutely nothing about until it was brought to my attention about a year ago. I tried to find out more information online, but sometimes good information is hard to find! And this, it seems to me, is an important matter to think about, and one that may crop up more and more in the future. Can a Christian, in good conscience, use such vaccines?

I imagine most people are like me and never realize what goes into the making of a vaccine and where they come from. This article does a good job in laying out the history is a pretty short space. I appreciated that. It also laid out the case that such vaccines can also be manufactured by using animal cell lines - the cell lines of aborted babies are not essential. And this, the article concludes, is the direction we should be going. I concur.

Where I was disappointed was in the answer to the question posed in the title: Is is ethical to use them? Actually, I was disappointed that there really wasn't an answer given or any thought process presented to think through the issue. What was cited were opinions put out by the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life, and the Christian Medical and Dental Associations (CMDA), whose conclusion were (1.) that "we should not risk the lives of our children [now] in order to avoid a remote connection that is tangentially related to an evil act" (Baptists); (2.) it is "permissible . . . to use such vaccines "on a temporary basis" if no animal-based alternatives [are] available" (Vatican); and (3.) since the manufacturing of such vaccines does not require ongoing abortions, it's permissible for Christian to use them until alternatives are available" (CMDA).

It's nice to have such opinions to salve the consciences of Christians who may be struck by guilt at having received themselves or had these vaccines given to their children. However, two problems exist here: What was the reasoning used to come to such conclusions? The Baptist answer seems to be pragmatic, the Vatican answer practical, and the CMDA's utilitarian. I would like to know more, especially to think through such problems - and related ones - that will certainly arise in the future, as medical technology grows and becomes able to do many more things. I wish the article would have provided some of that instead of just conclusions, though I understand their space was probably greatly limited. The other problem that exists is a really practical one: how many doctors or nurses are going to know where their vaccines come from and how they were manufactured? I would guess very, very few. So what is a Christian to do in that case?

Part of the problem of being a pastor in the 21st century is trying to stay current on so many ethical issues facing us in our world today. There simply isn't enough time or energy to read up on everything - or even to know about all the dilemmas out there. Which makes it all the more important to know that we live under grace. That we live in the forgiveness earned by Jesus on the cross for us, and that is true for sins of ignorance, sins of weakness, sins committed as the lesser of two evils - all sins. My eternal life does not depend on my doing everything right, but because Jesus did everything right, and then died for my sins and gave me His perfection. That's not a free pass to sin or not care about such matters, but it is the salve this pastor's conscience needs! And it's true for you too.

Another Good Quote

Dr. Gifford Grobien has a good article in the latest Concordia Theological Quarterly entitled "The Christian Voice in the Civil Realm." Worth a read. He talks about a people formed by the church or formed by the state. Here is a good quote to whet your appetite:

The end or purpose of the church militant is to be a people in this world gathered around Word and Sacrament, forgiven of sin, reconciled to God, and sanctified for good works.  . . .  When the church recalls that she is to confess and act faithfully, and not ultimately to bring political change, she will be ready not only for marginalization but for martyrdom. 

Martyrdom signals the impotence, not of the church, but of the state. Whatever it may threaten, in the end, the state can only kill the body. Yet, it cannot even take away the body. The martyred Christian still has his body for the resurrection; he still has life in Christ. Martyrdom reveals the people of the church to be formed differently from the state, in direct opposition to the claim that only the state can form people. Martyrs reveal the empty violence of the state and the people of the eternal kingdom.

~ CTQ 78:3-4, p. 129 (emphases mine)

Some Good Luther

More from Luther in his "Great Galatians:"

"But the Law is good, righteous, and holy." Very well! But when we are involved in a discussion of justification, there is no room for speaking about the Law.  . . .  This Bridegroom, Christ, must be alone with His bride in His private chamber, and all the family and household must be shunted away. But later on, when the Bridegroom opens the door and comes out, then let the servants return to take care of them and serve them food and drink. Then let works and love begin.

~ Luther's Works, Vol. 26, p 137-38.

Who Is Really Doing the Accepting and Receiving?

As I was reading Luther on Galatians this afternoon, a thought occurred to me:

You will often hear folks saying "You have to accept Christ" or "You have to receive Christ." Yet with those phrases, it always seemed to me that the emphasis is on us and what we are doing. And the words "have to" always make me uncomfortable when talking about Christ because they are law words.

So maybe this is a better way to say it: Christ died for your sins. He became man to take your sins upon Himself on the cross that you be forgiven your sins. He said He would do it and He did it. When you believe that, take hold of that (faith), then the Father accepts you, forgives you, and receives you as His child for the sake of Christ. This emphasizes the work of God and Christ for us and seems a better direction that the first.

What do you think?

What If . . . (Part 2)

The bakery that refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple has been in the news a lot recently. But what if a person who did not support gay marriage asked for a cake to be made that stated that view from a baker that did support gay marriage? Would his rights be upheld?

Evidently, that very experiment was tried, and the outcome predictable. HERE is a link to the story about it. I'm not sure I would have been as over-the-top as this gentleman was, but this is becoming the new normal in our country . . . fast. It's amazing how quickly things are changing. It's not going to be easy to be a Christian in the future, perhaps even now.

Do We Still Need the Reformation?

You be the judge. This was taken off a Roman Catholic blog I sometimes read:

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From the Handbook of Indulgences

Visiting a Church or an Oratory on All Souls Day

A plenary (“full”) indulgence, which is applicable only to the souls in Purgatory is granted to the Christian faithful who devoutly visit a church or an oratory on (November 2nd,) All Souls Day.

Will you not, for love, try to gain these indulgences?  Make a plan.

Requirements for Obtaining a Plenary Indulgence on All Souls Day (2 Nov)

• Visit a church and pray for souls in Purgatory
• Say one “Our Father” and the “Apostles Creed” in the visit to the church
• Say one “Our Father” and one “Hail Mary” for the Holy Father’s intentions (that is, the intentions designated by the Holy Father each month)
• Worthily receive Holy Communion (ideally on the same day if you can get to Mass)
• Make a sacramental confession within 20 days of All Souls Day
• For a plenary indulgence be  free from all attachment to sin, even venial sin (otherwise, the indulgence is partial, not plenary, “full”).

You can acquire one plenary indulgence a day.

A partial indulgence can be obtained by visiting a cemetery and praying for the departed.  You can gain a plenary indulgence visiting a cemetery each day between 1 November and 8 November. These indulgences are applicable only to the Souls in Purgatory.

A plenary indulgence, applicable only the Souls in Purgatory, is also granted when you visit a church or a public oratory on 2 November. While visiting the church or oratory say one Our Father and the Apostles Creed.

A partial indulgence, applicable only to the Souls in Purgatory, can be obtained when saying the “Eternal rest … Requiem aeternam…” prayer.

Two Things

Two rather eyebrow raising things for you this morning . . .

#1: The front page, front and center, above the fold, prime location, lead story of the Washington Post Sunday paper yesterday: "When No Gender Fits." Really? With all that's going on in our country and world, that's the story you lead with? C'mon!

#2: In our study of the book of Romans (chapter 1) last week, we came across this passage:

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

What surprised us in that right in the midst of that lengthy list of sins was "disobedient to parents!" How lightly we take that in our day and age. It's almost seen as natural. Teenage angst. Part of growing up. No it's not! God includes it here as part of this list of serious sins. Maybe we should think about that a little more . . .

An Early Description of Christian Life

In reading for my exams I came across this quote, an early description of Christians living in this world in "an amazing and unexpected" character and paradox (a kind of "being in the world but not of the world"):

"They are at home in their own countries, but as sojourners. They participate in all things as citizens and they endure all things as foreigners. Every foreign country is their homeland and every homeland is a foreign country."  (Epistle to Diognetus 5:4-5)

For You

Jesus died. That's history.
Jesus died for our sins. That's doctrine.
Jesus died for ME. That's the Gospel.

What Some Pastors Have Taught Me About Evangelism

As some of you may know, there are two lectionaries (scheduled assignments of Scripture to be read in church through the church year) in use in the church today: a three year series of readings and a one year series. The three year series is newer (in use for approximately the last 50 years or so). The one year series is more historic and been in use for a much longer time. The majority of churches (that I know of) use the three year lectionary, though the minority that uses the one year is very dedicated to it and very vocal about it. Recently I read another blog post written by someone who “converted” from the three year to the one year series. I skimmed through the article and heard pretty much the same arguments I had heard before. (Note: I am not married to or devoted to either one.)

But a thought came to me this time: if they want me to care (much less convert!), they have to come up with better arguments and show me why it matters. This is NOT an invitation to do that here, in the comments! Here’s the point: this is what I think is the reaction of many people to the efforts of the church at outreach and evangelism. They listen to what we have to say, maybe what they’ve already heard before, but remain unconvinced. Why? Because we haven’t convinced them why it matters. I am happy for those who have switched from the three year to the one year, and glad they have come to that conclusion. And maybe unbelievers are happy for those who have become Christians and glad that they have come to that conclusion. But for those who remain unbelievers, it doesn’t matter. For them, they need a better reason to “convert.”

Now, this isn’t a perfect analogy because when we’re talking about faith, that is the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of those who hear the Word. But this was the first time I think I understood where those folks we reach out to are and what (perhaps) many of them think. Some are hostile to Christianity, yes, but for many, it just doesn’t matter. We need to show them it does.

A Scriptural Feast of Law and Gospel

There are verses in the Bible that sometimes seem to contradict each other. For example, verses that say we are saved by grace through faith alone, and then other verses which say that faith without works is dead. Of course, these are not really contradictions, though they may seem that way to us. I believe it was Normal Nagel who had some good advice about these, and why having both is helpful. He said that if you have a Christian who is in despair about his faith and Christian life, then send them to Paul and the assurance that we are saved by grace through faith alone. Jesus has done it! On the other hand, if you have a Christian who is secure in her sin, thinking that a life of faith is a life where we don’t do anything, send her to James to realize that faith is always working, living and active in good works.

I think there are other sets of verses like this. For example, we read in the Scriptures of those who once believed but have fallen away, yet also verses like in John 10 where Jesus says “no one can snatch them out of my hand.” So which is it? Well, following the above advice, for that Christian who is in despair and doubting whether they will make it to the end in faith, send them to Jesus and assure her of His promise there. On the other hand, if a Christian is secure in his faith and thinks he can sin as much as he wants, send him to those verses of warning to Christians, to beware lest we fall away in sin. Sin is dangerous.

I also think this same can be applied to the last day and the final judgment. That day, we read, all will give an account of what they have done, but it is also described as the Bridegroom coming for His Bride. So which is it? Should we be fearful of that day or look forward to it like our wedding day? Yes. For those Christians fearful because they just don’t measure up (and none of us do!), point them to the joy of the last day! Jesus is coming in great love for you! However, for those (again) who think but lightly of the life they live by faith here and now, perhaps they need to hear those words of Jesus that speak of giving an account.

All this is really nothing more than the proper application of Law and Gospel. Which often sounds easy, but as Luther knew is often very difficult. My point here is simply to point out the feast we have in the Scriptures, and that all of it is needful for us.

How True . . .

Showing Mercy

I want to be compassionate and help those in need. To this end my church has funds set aside to use at my discretion - not a lot, but we want to do what we can. Usually, in this area, that means helping folks with lodging. But that can be a very frustrating enterprise. First, because as soon as I help one person, the floodgates open and I can get several calls from the same location. Word gets around. I wish the Gospel spread like that! But are these people truly in need? Or just know a good thing when they hear it? I get suspicious, which I suppose I should, but I don't want to be. Just this week I helped a man on Monday and then on Wednesday I get a call from a woman staying in the room right next door to him. "Oh, so Bob (made up name) told you about us?" I said. "Bob?" she asked, feigning ignorance. Just tell me the truth please! I still helped her. I don't believe she was being completely honest with me, and I told her so, but I helped anyway and gave her some things to read. I hope she reads them. I also will pray for her and "Bob."

Why did I help? Well, I believe we should. I am disappointed that more churches around here do not. Times are tough, I know. But this seems like a basic human thing to do. I also like helping people in need. I don't like sending them away. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I have to. I wish we had more funds to do so. By helping, I get to put a compassionate and merciful face on the church and I hope that makes a difference.

I also always remember these words from Luther's explanation to the Fifth Commandment in the Large Catechism:

Second, a person who does evil to his neighbor is not the only one guilty under this commandment. It also applies to anyone who can do his neighbor good, prevent or resist evil, defend, and save his neighbor so that no bodily harm or hurt happen to him—yet does not do this [James 2:15–16]. If, therefore, you send away someone who is naked when you could clothe him, you have caused him to freeze to death. If you see someone suffer hunger and do not give him food, you have caused him to starve. So also, if you see anyone innocently sentenced to death or in similar distress, and do not save him, although you know ways and means to do so, you have killed him. It will not work for you to make the excuse that you did not provide any help, counsel, or aid to harm him. For you have withheld your love from him and deprived him of the benefit by which his life would have been saved. [From Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions. 2005 (P. T. McCain, Ed.) (380). St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.]

So, do I get taken advantage of? Probably. Do I help people in real need? I know I do. No one said it was gonna be easy.

Interesting Luther Quote

In teaching about Leah and Rachel speaking against Laban, their father (LW vol. 6, p. 17), Luther says the following:

Here, indeed, the Fourth Commandment could cease to apply. For what paternal quality does Laban have that is worthy of honor? He is a beast and a monster! But how will you honor him as a parent who does not want to be a father and who disdains to regard you as a son but has stripped off all paternal feeling and affection and has degenerated into a tyrant?

This seems to contradict what Luther wrote in the Large Catechism when he said:

. . . however lowly, poor, frail, and strange their parents may be, nevertheless, they are the father and the mother given to them by God. Parents are not to be deprived of their honor because of their conduct or their failings. Therefore, we are not to consider who they are or how they may be, but the will of God, who has created and ordained parenthood.

Perhaps the difference is between the office of parent and the person. Parents as sinners will always fail in their conduct but are still due the honor of their office as parent. However, if the man or woman abdicates the office through abandonment or abuse, then (as Luther said above) the Fourth Commandment could cease to apply?

Interesting also is the use of the word "could." It need not necessarily cease - the child in love could continue to honor such parents with an extraordinary, divine love. But the honoring could cease without sinning because the office has been abandoned. Do you think this is a right understanding?

In this regard, then, we could also apply this reasoning to the "other authorities" included in the Fourth Commandment, including government.

A Good Quote

"When human affairs are so ordered that there is no recognition of God, there is a belittling of man."

(Joseph Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy, 19)

Boy, isn't that what we see happening in our world today! As our culture speeds ever faster toward a humanistic secularism, an ordering with no recognition of God, more and more people are being shoved out of the way, off to the side, and belittled. Whether it's the unborn, the elderly, the handicapped, the sick, in religion or in politics, dialogue and respect are out and belittling is in. So what is done to elevate man by getting rid of God actually does the very opposite.

Is Today THE Day?

This is a little thought I sent out yesterday to one of my e-lists. I thought I would post it here also:

Well, if the Mayans are correct, tomorrow - December 21st - is the end of the world. As Christians, we believe that means that would be the day Christ returns and takes His own to their heavenly home. What a great day that would then be!

As I was thinking about that, I thought of words the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippian Christians:

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

~ Philippians 1:21

I think that reflects the proper attitude of Christians toward any predictions of the end of the world, whether it be of the Mayans, or Harold Camping, or whoever else will be next. If the end does come, it is gain for me! I will be in heaven with my Saviour and receive the goal of my faith. But if the end does not come, then I live on in my earthly vocations, as Christ to my neighbor, loving, forgiving, serving. 

Either way, I am under His love and care each and every day. 

Either way, I am safe and secure in His forgiveness. 

Either way, I need not fear, for Christ has taken care of my past, my present, and my future.

So don't worry about tomorrow! But today, there is much to do. Proclaim the message of Christmas, hug your children, forgive those who sin against you, be God's blessing to others. And rejoice! Rejoice in your Saviour, who we will celebrate this Christmas - either as the babe in the manger, or as the Lamb on the throne in heaven. Either way, it will be a Merry Christmas!