123 Meme « Esgetology

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My friend Christopher Esget tagged me on this a while back, so I’ll show it to you:

Turn to page 123 of the book nearest to you.

Count the first five sentences.

Post the next three.

The book is Pastors in Transition: Why Clergy Leave Local Church Ministry, by Dean R. Hoge and Jacqueline E. Wenger. The sentences are from a paragraph about how a pastor (named Andrew) regrets the pain his wife felt during his time as a parish pastor:

I mean, I will filling the pastorate role, and everybody seemed satisfied about that. But they expected her to be as big a pastor as me, and be a preaching and everything. And that’s not my wife.

There you have it. A little glimpse into the inner workings of being a pastor’s wife.

-LL

I’ll tag my buddies Dave Juhl and Scott Stiegemeyer.

123 Meme « Esgetology

Anglican church in America?

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My friend Gene Veith commented below on the formation of a new Anglican church body.

So what should the Lutheran response be to this? I have never really understood the “conservative” movements that really are motivated by social, 2nd Table of the Law type issues. The ELCA has its share of these as well.

But why is it that when it comes to the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins, nobody cares?

-LL

A new American Anglican church

Various conservative Episcopalians have come together to form a new Anglican church body, one that will vie with the Episcopal Church in America as the true representative of this country in the world Anglican communion:

How conservative than the new Anglican church be if it communes the unbaptized and is open to the ordination of women? Surely opposition to homosexuality can’t be the basis of a church’s existence. Nor can agreement on a common liturgy. There needs to be agreement in theology. Doesn’t there?

”

(Via Cranach: The Blog of Veith.)

The Way of the Lord (Advent 1, 2008)

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Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Messiah Lutheran Church

Kenosha, Wisconsin

Ad Te Levavi (Advent 1), November 30, 2008

Matthew 21:1-11

For an audio MP3 of this sermon, CLICK HERE

TITLE: “The Way of the Lord”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is the Gospel lesson just read, with focus on the words from Zechariah, Behold, your King is coming to you. He is just and having salvation.

In Psalm 24, which we prayed after the Old Testament reading, we hear the following:

“Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” (Psalms 24:3-5 ESV)

Who indeed? Who can come into God’s presence? God’s holiness, His mighty presence in the world isn’t worshipped much today. In our world today, God is analyzed, critiqued, discussed in court, put on bumper stickers or coffee table books, and generally kept some place private and out of the way, like those pictures from when you are a kid. You’re glad you have them still, but you don’t really want people knowing about them all that much. But worshipped? No. That’s not what we do today. We don’t worship. We play. We worry. We work. We get stressed. But we don’t worship.

But our God reminds us through the Psalmist that only those with clean hands and a clean heart are able to stand in His holy presence. We sort of assume that God will always be there when we get around to him. I’ll come back to him later, when I’m done living my life. I’ll come back another time, when I’m not so busy. I’ll come back when I’m good and ready. And he’ll be waiting for me, like the girlfriend left behind while her man goes off to war. He’ll be waiting. Won’t he? St. Paul, however, tells us this:

“Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” (Romans 13:11-12 ESV)

God knows that your heart isn’t pure. God knows that you will never come to Him on your own. He knows your weaknesses. He knows your rebellion. He knows the anger in your heart, the bitterness, the shame, the sorrow, the hurt, the fear that is within you. He knows these things better than you know them yourself. He knows that you cannot go to Him. You are dead in sins. You are blind to the light of His truth, deaf to His Word, and that you cannot sing or speak His praises.

God knows all these things and more. So He comes to you, lowly and riding a donkey. He comes to you, just and having salvation. He comes to you humble, riding only His Holy Word. He comes to you know meek and mild, not arrogant and proud. He comes to you as the God who loves you with every fiber of His being. He comes to you know in peace, bringing healing in His wings, and having the mighty gift of salvation upon His holy lips.

He comes to you now, and what does He want? One church father put it this way:

Let us spread before the Lord’s feet, not garments or soulless olive branches, which delight the eye for a few hours and then wither, but ourselves, clothed in His grace, or rather, clothed completely in Him. We who have been baptized into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before Him. Let us show him honor, not with olive branches but with the splendor of merciful deeds to one another. Let us spread the thoughts and desires of our hearts under his feet like garments, so that entering us with the whole of His being, He may draw the whole of our being into Himself and place the whole of His in us. (St. Andrew of Crete)

Now that’s a lot of beautiful language and fancy words, but what he is getting at is this. Jesus does not want your money. He doesn’t want your house. He doesn’t want your job. He wants you. All of you. This is essentially the theme of Advent. Our King is coming. He is just and having salvation. He is coming, and He is coming for you. He comes to reign in your heart, not by fear and trembling. He comes to give you Himself. He comes so that He may use you to show His love to a dying world.

This king of ours is not like the kings of this world. His motivation is not fear, but love. Paul Gerhardt put it this way:

Love caused your incarnation; Love brought you down to me

Your thirst for my salvation, Procured my liberty.

Oh, love beyond all telling! That led you to embrace

In love all love excelling, Our lost and fallen race. (LSB 334: 4)

Our God is always coming. He is coming to you even now, in Word and Meal. He comes again and again with words of forgiveness, love and hope. When things are dark, when your future is unsure, when you don’t know what is coming next this you can know: God is here for you. God’s thirst for your salvation will not be slaked by anything less than your peace and joy in Him. He enters into Jerusalem on a donkey, He goes to the cross in sorrow, and He comes forth out of the empty tomb in light eternal. All for you. All for you. All for you.

So rejoice this day, as we await the coming King! Rejoice and remember His mercy. It is everlasting. It is rich and deep. And it is for you. Let us pray:

Stir up your power, O Lord, and come to rescue us from the threatening perils of our sins, and save us by Your promised deliverance; for You now live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.

Rich Towards God (Thanksgiving Eve 2008)

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Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Messiah Lutheran Church

Kenosha, Wisconsin

Thanksgiving Eve (November 27, 2008)

Luke 12:15-21

For an audio MP3 of this sermon, CLICK HERE

TITLE: “Rich Towards God”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this Thanksgiving is from Luke 12 as we heard a few moments ago. We especially look at the following verse: “And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”” (Luke 12:15 ESV)

Isn’t it incredible when it seems like God’s Word is speaking directly to the situation at hand? Our country is faced with two different and maybe opposing viewpoints right now. On the one hand we have a new president coming into office in just a couple months, and we pray God’s blessings upon him and hope that his time of service will be good for our nation. But on the other hand, we have a serious recession going on, and many people are talking about financial depression. Our church has felt the crunch, the holidays are coming up, and money is just in the air. So all of it really begs the question: What really is life all about?

That’s a good question. Jesus says in our text that one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And yet in some ways, it seems as though that is exactly what we do this time of year. We gather around the dinner table, hold hands, and give thanks to God for all of the stuff that we have. We give thanks for clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals and all I have, as the catechism would put it.

But Jesus in our text seeks to draw us away from the things of this world and into Himself. And to do so He gives a parable. The parable of a rich man who is getting richer. The rich man, in fact, is so rich that he has to make more barns to house all of his riches. And because he is so very rich, because he has been blessed so abundantly, the man says to himself, take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.

In other words, the man looks at his possessions and sees in them the point, the purpose to his life. His life was all about stuff. More stuff, so that he could eat, drink and be merry. The man’s life was good. He was happy and well provided for. Those who are happy want more money, because they believe it will make them happier. Those who are unhappy believe that money will solve all their problems.

But the rich man could not see the truth. His world was not what it seemed, and so his life was actually a waste and he never even knew it.

Now there is for us tonight both a warning in this and hope for the future. The warning from God is obvious: don’t let the things of this world define you. Your life does not consist in the things of this world. They come and go. Houses, cars, food, drink, the toys of the day, these things do not make you who you are, and if you seek to find happiness and joy in them, it is fleeting and will soon be gone. Don’t be trapped by the devil into thinking that these things are the point. They are not.

That’s the Law. Here’s the Gospel. Jesus talks about how the rich man laid up treasures for himself but was not rich toward God. What does it mean to be rich toward God? Being rich toward God has everything to do with faith, for it is by faith that you receive the God things which God gives you this day and every day.

That, dear friends, is what Thanksgiving for the Christian is all about. It’s all about faith in the one who gave up everything. Christ our Lord became poor so that you might be rich toward God. He cried out from the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That is the ultimate in poor. He was forsaken by all, doomed and left to die alone, a poor beggar with nothing but vinegar on a sponge for his food and drink. And yet through His death and resurrection, you are now rich beyond measure. When you look at your life, the thing that makes you who you are, it is Christ’s work that makes you rich.

Really if you think about it, the gifts and things of this world are almost icing on the cake for the baptized. When God gave you His Son in your Baptism, he gave you everything you would ever truly need. But the reality is that He continues to give to you, over and over again. He provides for your soul and your body. He gives out of the abundance of His mercy, so that even in tough times, you are fed and clothed, your family is safe, and you look forward to an eternity together with Him.

So this thanksgiving, as we remember all of the blessings God has given us, let us remember first of all the great gift He gives us by forgiving our sins and drawing us into His holy presence. You are truly rich toward God, and because of that, you may receive the things of this life with thanksgiving. What makes you rich is not your hard work, our great nation, or the ups and downs of the economy. What makes you rich toward God is that God in His riches delivers it all to you for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.