Thank a Theologian Today

Members of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod remember C.F.W. Walther as one of its founding fathers every May 7^th. The devotional, Portals of Prayer, states that Walther was a champion of the chief scriptural teaching that we are saved by faith, not works (Romans 3:28).

In preparation for my Colloquy examination, I read and discussed Walther’s two seminal works, Law and Gospel and Church and Ministry with then-Vicar Justin Smith. It was not until I read President Matthew Harrison’s At Home in the House of My Fathers that I got a glimpse at the more human side of Walther. In addition to chronicling Walther’s life through his writings, Harrison presents the reader with the reasons why our founder wrote his sermons, essays and letters . He also offers insight into Walther’s personal preferences and habits, such as good cigars.

Often, we take for granted the life and worship of Church and forget the important work that theologians offer. People like Walther and his successor, Francis Pieper, need to be remembered in the same vein as Saints Paul and Peter, whose writings kept the early Church members from the dangers of false teachings.  As I continue to preach and teach, I will be indebted to such theologians who offer insight and creativity into why we live and worship as Missouri Synod Lutherans. Today, thank the theologians not only for studying God’s Word, but also for correctly and creatively presenting it to us.

It Was Better When It Was Worse

God’s grace, peace and mercy to you. My theme for today’s sermon is Moses. My text, Hebrews 11:23-25. “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.”

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’”[1] Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

“It was better when it was worse,” was my father’s favorite expression. It was better when it was worse. Politicians and pundits think this way when addressing good old days. Democrats remember the Clinton or Kennedy years, and Republicans recall Reagan and Ike. Football purists reminisce about real men like Jack Lambert and Ray Nitschke and music lovers long for the days when Judy Garland and Nat King Cole topped the charts. Nostalgia gets the best of us. When dissatisfied with life, heed the words of Dante, “There is no greater sorrow than to recall a happy time when miserable.”

Hebrews recounted Moses for those Christians who longed to return to Jerusalem and the splendor of Temple where they once worshipped. The author knew their faith was not strong. He saw them persecuted to the point that they were tempted to go back[2] to their Jewish beliefs and practices.[3] He needed to encourage them to remain steadfast in their faith. That is why he cited Moses.

Moses faced a tough audience who longed for the good old days. He too had to dispel the thought that it was better when it was worse. Moses chose mistreatment with the people of God over the fleeting pleasures of sin.

Hebrews 11 transitions from the heroes found in the Book of Genesis to those listed in Exodus. I find an interesting parallel between Exodus and Hebrews. While Hebrews 11 cites heroes, Exodus opens with the names of the 12 sons of Jacob who went down to Egypt. “These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household …” After listing the sons, the story continues, “Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly…”[4]

What happens is that after being in Egypt for 400 years, no one remembers Joseph and his brothers as particular tribes, but simply as Israelites or Hebrews. Why is that important?

It is important for Israelites, Jewish Christians and us, because remembering our past – without longing to return to the past – shapes our identity. I was raised by two first generation Polish Americans in a blue collar, Roman Catholic household in rural western Pennsylvania. That shapes my identity, but I don’t long for yesterday.

It was important for first century Christians and Jews enslaved in Egypt to remember their history, but it was equally important for them to remember that the good old days were not always so good. In the case of Jewish Christians living outside of Jerusalem and the descendants of Jacob living outside of their homeland, it was important to remember that outsiders were not always welcome, and insiders preferred assimilation to distinction. Pagans of the first century would have been kinder to these foreigners if they would have forsaken their new religion, Christianity, and assimilated into their new culture.

Think how we treat outsiders and we have an inkling of what the people of Israel faced in Egypt or what 1^st century Jewish Christians faced living in a strange new world. Good-hearted Americans want immigrants and refugees to assimilate into our society so they can survive, but total assimilation robs a people of their extraordinary distinction. Part of Israel’s story is that when they went down to Egypt, they lost their distinctness, their individuality. They assimilated into Egyptian culture and lost their tribal and familial differences. Yet, they remained outsiders, and gradually, new regulations reduced them from honored guest workers to slaves, from Joseph’s people to persona non grata.

Into this antagonistic world Moses is born. By the hand of God, his mother saves him from death by floating him down river. Midwives and mothers who could not bear suffocating newborn boys may have chosen the humane approach of floating them down river where the basket would eventually sink. A waterproof basket, however, could save a child. This is what Amram and Jochebed chose to do with their second son.

Raised in Pharaoh’s palace as a prince, Moses’ background is quite complex. Is he Hebrew, Israelite, Levite or Egyptian? A Hebrew living in the house of the man oppressing Hebrews. … Then one day Moses goes out, and notices for the first time the suffering of his brothers and identifies with them as his brothers. Scripture records, “One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.”[5]

The phrase “had grown up” or “grew up” chronicles a significant moment. Moses begins to realize how much these people are suffering, and that they are his brothers. He intervenes by killing one of the Egyptian perpetrators, and rather than sticking around to discuss the morality of his deed, he flees.

He flees. We know the story continues. Moses encounters God in the burning bush. He debates the worthiness of his people’s redemption and refuses to take on the mission. God gets angry. Moses reluctantly agrees and leads his people out of Egypt. They wander around Sinai for forty years before Joshua finally leads the Israelites into the land of milk and honey.

At times, God’s people, centuries before Christ, longed nostalgically for the bread and meat they enjoyed in Egypt. At times, less than a century after Christ, Christians longed nostalgically for the beliefs and practices they enjoyed in Jerusalem’s Temple. That is why Hebrews cites Moses. Earlier in Hebrews we read, “Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. We are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.”[6]

The takeaway for us is that when we long for glory days, pray that someone comes along and whacks us across the head with a Bible to gently remind us that it was never better when it was worse, and that God’s own Son and Moses chose to be mistreated with God’s suffering people over the fleeting pleasures of sin. Next, read one of the Passion Narratives and pray for God’s grace to live more faithfully today than you did in the past. When you do, may the peace of Christ, which surpasses all human understanding, keep our minds and hearts in Christ Jesus. Amen.

---

[1] Psalm 122

[2] Jerusalem Bible, Introduction to Saint Paul, p.265.

[3] The New Oxford Annotated Bible, p. 1455.

[4] Exodus 1:1-7

[5] Exodus 2;11

[6] Hebrews 3:5-6

My Dad - A Virtuous Life

10 years ago, on Wednesday of Holy Week, April 16, 2003, my father dropped dead of a massive heart attack. The medical examiner said he was dead before he hit the floor. That very night God demanded his life from him.

Fortunately, my father did not spend his life chasing after the wind or storing up an abundance of possessions. In fact, it was almost as if he prepared for that moment. On Tuesday evening, he and my mother attended a reconciliation service at a local church. On Wednesday morning, they drove to their home church where he received communion. He spent the day with my mother, took her grocery shopping and hung out at home. … Unusual for my 77-year old father who spent most days working outside, in the garage or at a local machine shop. … That evening my parents ate dinner with my dad’s only surviving brother. They returned home, he went into his room, and prayed. His virtuous life came to a sudden end.

His last two days were no anomaly. My father, married for 53 years and the father of 3 sons, was a veteran of the Second World War and the Korean War. Like St. Paul, he too labored, not as a tentmaker but as a machinist in an Aliquippa steel mill for 46 years. He didn’t smoke or drink. He didn’t swear or trash talk our mother. He did not tolerate such talk among men. In fact, when we were visiting an uncle, who did all of those things, my dad said, “Szwagier (Polish for brother-in-law). Szwagier, if you’re going to talk like that, we’re leaving.” Our uncle responded in words that were not socially acceptable, and we left. Like the father of our country, my father detested swearing.

He talked the good talk, and he walked the good walk. He evangelized as a catechist, but his medium for teaching children and teens how to avoid vice and embrace virtue extended beyond the classroom onto the baseball field.

He evangelized on baseball fields throughout Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and his “Pep” Young glove was his instrument of communicating Law and Gospel, vices to avoid and virtues to embrace.

I tell you about my father not to aggrandize him, but to offer some advice for virtuous living today. Take time today and reflect upon Colossians 3.

Our Lutheran Tradition reminds us that we teach the Bible truth that by faith alone we obtain the forgiveness of sins. Ask yourself, is that teaching rooted deeply in my heart? Christ’s resurrection proves all His promises will be fulfilled. Think about this – Do I sincerely trust that God indeed fulfills all His promises? Or like the greedy man, do I ensure for my own security by building up riches on earth?

Do I trust that God will forgive me of my sins … my vices? Do I trust that God’s Holy Spirit will guide me to live as a Christian … virtuously? Will someone be citing me as a Christian example ten years after I am dead? If so, or if not, we should ask ourselves as we listen to Jesus if we are ready to walk the walk? As we walk with our Savior, may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:7). Amen.

Christ Blessing the Children

“Christ Blessing the Children” hangs on my office wall. The painting depicts the scene found in Mark 10:13-16, which concludes, “Then Jesus took the children in his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them.”

It reminds me that a multitude of people answered Jesus’ call to rest in Him. Jesus desires to hold all people in His heart. Looking at each individual as uniquely created for fellowship with his or her Creator for all eternity, He is not willing to lose one.

Jesus looked past the color of people’s skin and the number of their years. He took no notice of the wealth or poverty expressed in their clothing. Instead, He gazed lovingly into the very soul of each person that came to Him. His presence seemed to reach past the crowd and draw the skeptics who curiously watched at the sea wall. His intense love for them penetrated their souls.

The painting shows Peter and John exhausted from having tended the needs of the masses for weeks. They assumed Jesus too would be weary, and commanded the children to leave Him alone. They had more important matters to attend than to deal with children. But Jesus said, “Let the children come to Me.”

The people of Capernaum, for the most part, welcomed Christ and parents brought their children to Him to be blessed.  As these parents brought their children to Jesus, we are to bring our children, our friends, and our neighbors to Christ to be blessed with a touch of God’s love and with the gift of eternal salvation.

As we celebrate Easter, allow yourself, your children and grandchildren to be drawn closer to our Lord’s heart and rest. Happy Easter, little ones.

We're Debt Free!!!

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … He came, He saw, He conquered. … God visits His people with Victory.

My focus is the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, with an emphasis on verses 6-8: “’He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.’ And they remembered his words.”

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’”[1] Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

Chris and Dana step to the microphone. Four years after incurring $80,000 of debt from student loans, credit cards, two cars and the birth of two kids, they are ready for this moment. In unison, they shout at the top of their lungs, “We’re debt free!” … On the heels of their debt free scream, a line from Braveheart – “Freeeee…dooommm!!!”

Daily, dozens of couples and individuals echo these screams. Relieved that they are debt free, these people tell the world their stories of incurring debt and paying it off by heeding the advice of one man, Dave Ramsey.

Dave Ramsey fans travel to Nashville to tell their story and scream on his syndicated radio show because they are relieved they worked diligently, budgeted income and expenses, ate beans and rice, and lived like no one else. They proudly paid their debt.

We too are debt free. After incurring the debt of our sins and our parents’ sins – Adam and Eve – our debt is paid. The difference between the debt paid by Chris and Dana and ours is that Jesus Christ our Risen Lord paid our debt. Christ was payer and pay, propitiator and propitiation, and His payment warrants a debt free scream from each of us.

Our freedom from debt involved no effort on our part. We did not budget income and expenses, work two jobs, use the envelope system, or eat beans and rice for two years. All we did was believe. Believe.

Luke recorded the disciples of Jesus did not run from the cave screaming, “We’re debt free!” Rather, when they left the tomb, they remembered his words and “went home marveling at what had happened.”[2]

The thought of Jesus rising from the dead did not occur to them because they did not expect a resurrection. … Think of it. Until this moment, the Bible recounts 6 people raised from the dead – 3 by prophets and 3 by Jesus.[3] Why would resurrection enter the disciples’ minds? That is why Luke recorded that the disciples left the empty tomb marveling at what had happened.

What about Mary Magdalene and the other women who told these things to the apostles? … We know they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. They entered but did not find Jesus’ body. Perplexed, when two men in dazzling apparel appeared, they buried their faces in the ground in fright. After the men delivered their message, the women returned to the disciples and told them what happened, but their “words seemed to [be] an idle tale, and they did not believe them.”[4]

Resurrection from the dead … furthest thing from their minds. God’s victory over Satan, sin and death … furthest thing from their minds. A debt-free scream … furthest thing from their minds. In other words, Luke pointed out that the disciples realized God’s victory comes not from an experience of an empty tomb, but from an experience of the Risen Lord.

For Luke, the empty tomb in itself is not proof of the resurrection, but simply a source of wonderment. Faith in the resurrection springs from the actual experience of the risen Lord.[5] Only then did the first Christians understand what the empty tomb meant – that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

Peter’s experience of the risen Lord occurred 22 verses after he returned home marveling at what he saw in the tomb. When the disciples on the road to Emmaus returned, Luke recorded the apostles’ statement, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!”[6]

The Lord has risen indeed! God indeed has visited us with victory over Satan, sin and death. Christ has paid our debt. We are indeed debt free. Alleluia! Amen!

Unchecked excitement ran through the disciples’ veins and down their spines when the risen Lord appeared to them. They saw Him die. They saw His empty tomb. Now, they witnessed Him alive. The unparalleled experience of witnessing Christ alive impelled them to tell the world of the great Paschal Mystery – Christ’s willful suffering, death and resurrection, and what He taught throughout His life on earth. Peter and the disciples remembered and shared their experiences of Jesus the Christ with greater zeal and zest than any Dave Ramsey disciple.

Today, more than 2 billion Christians around the world celebrate Easter. More than 2 billion people share their own experiences of the risen Lord. More than 2 billion people share their debt free screams with others. More than 2 billion witnesses.

Are we among them? When did we last witness? When did we last share our debt free screams? When did we last share our experiences of the risen Lord with zest and zeal? Or are we still silently wondering what happened?

Is it because we have not pondered how the risen Lord has appeared to us? Is it because it is more difficult to believe God is present in bread and wine, in baptism and confession, in the Word proclaimed and preached by ordinary human beings than it is to believe Jesus rose from the dead? Indeed, God is present to us today, at this moment, but we do not always feel it or cannot articulate what we feel.

Let me share the brief articulated expression of a woman named Sally who became a baptized Christian more than 20 years ago. During the Easter Vigil 1989, Sally – then 62, frail and legally blind – was baptized and received into the Church. Several days later, when asked to share her experience of Christ’s death and resurrection symbolized in baptism, Sally, whose facial expressions and voice reminded one of Carol Channing, exclaimed, “WOW!”

Wow! Wow, Christ is risen and is present to us right now. Does the wow of that experience impel us into the streets like apostles with tongues of fire to proclaim the Gospel in word and deed? Does the wow of Christ Risen sustain me when I return to the humdrum of life’s work? Does the wow of Easter stay with me at home or hospital, in classroom or lunchroom, at the office or the in-laws? Do I feel the freedom of being debt free? Do I feel Victory even when I feel like a loser?

The wow of Easter should take all of us into the world because the world, America, Oklahoma needs Christians who know Christ’s Victory and the deeper meaning of being debt free. John’s Gospel says that the truth will make us free[7] - not comfortable and not respected, but free in the real sense of the word: able to see and do what is right.

In the Christian tradition, freedom is to be used in the service of others. Working to defend the dignity of human persons and the dignity of the human family is an obligation of our freedom. As debt free Christians we are obliged, are we not, to protect the unborn child, the immigrant, the disabled, the elderly. If Christians are not involved in ensuring the dignity and rights of others, then we risk living in a state governed not by justice but by thieves.[8] Bi-partisan thieves at that.

Let me close by asking a question that I pray you ponder as you, like Peter, make your way home this evening. As church, can we remain silent in public and be faithful to Christ at the same time? Working respectfully and firmly to form the public conscience violates no one’s free will. Actively witnessing to our convictions and advancing what we believe about Christian morality in the public life is not coercion. It’s truth-telling.

Let’s tell the world the truth about our faith, about what we believe. Let’s witness to the point that when new neighbors see us walking up their driveway, they will no longer say, “Here come those Holy Rollers,” but, “Here come those Missouri Synod Lutherans.” And when we share with them the good news that we are debt free because Jesus Christ rose to free us from our sins, may we be overwhelmed by the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, and may it keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:7). Amen.

---

[1] Psalm 122

[2] Luke 24:12

[3] 1 Kings 17:17-22; 2 Kings 4:30-37; 2 Kings 13:21;  John 11:38-44; Luke 7:11-17; Matt. 8:28-43 (Mark 5:1-20,

Luke 8:26-39)

[4] Luke 24:11

[5] Eugene LaVerdiere, Luke. Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, Inc. 1986. p. 282.

[6] Luke 24:34

[7] John 8:32

[8] Attributed to St. Augustine