This is one of my favorite pictures from college, when I was on choir tour with the A Cappella Choir of Concorda University, Seward, Nebraska. Enjoy!
Retinenda – The Lutheran Latin Podcast
I love Latin. I won’t make any claims to be good at it. I’ve had a year of Latin, where we went through Wheelock and then read the Augustana. I’ve worked at it off and on the past fifteen years. But the relationship between Latin and western culture is such that any student of the West simply must know it. This only begins to speak to it’s benefit to Christianity. It is hard to imagine there being Christianity apart from Latin. Maybe that’s why I’m fairly immune to the Eastern Orthodox bug.
Anyway, a friend recently pointed this GREAT site out to me:
Retinenda – The Lutheran Latin Podcast
Basically the author of the site is providing audio of Lutheran works in Latin. He is currently working on Meditationes Sacrae, by Johann Gerhard. I love the idea. He provides the text on the web site, then also does a podcast of hearing it in audio.
Bravo! I look forward to making use of this regularly
Gloria Rushing Funeral 2008
Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
June 19, 2008
Funeral Homily for Gloria Marie Rushing
John 14:1-6
For an audio MP3 of this sermon, CLICK HERE
TITLE: “The Way, the Truth and the Lifeâ€
Family and friends of Gloria, grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Our text for today is from the Gospel of St. John chapter fourteen as follows, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.†(John 14:6 ESV)
Gloria Marie Ricchio Rushing was born on September 12, 1932. She was baptized into the Holy Christian Church at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Union Grove. She was confirmed in that same Christian faith here at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church on February 28, 1965. She joined Messiah Lutheran Church in 1969, where she remained a member until after her daughter, Debra, was confirmed. Gloria died in Christ on June 13, 2008.
Sometimes it’s hard to remember the way things ought to be. How does God intend the world to be? No sin, no sickness, no disease, no family fighting, no Alzheimer’s or dementia. No  untimely deaths. No divorce. No pain. But God’s intention isn’t that we just be without things. No, our heavenly Father wants our joy to be full in Him. He wants us to be in Him, and to live and rejoice in the salvation that God’s Son, Jesus, won for us on the cross and in the empty tomb.  God wants you to live and to rejoice in Him forever.
But of course, that isn’t life, is it? Gloria had her fair share of trials in her life. Sickness, especially a dreadful disease like Alzheimer’s, sucked much of the life out of her. I won’t claim that I knew her well. Most of the visits I had with Gloria over the years were, um, colorful. Some were civil, but some were a lot darker than that. Most people who knew Gloria over the past ten or more years would have said she was crabby at best, bitter and difficult to be around. I can understand not wanting to go see her in the various nursing homes she resided in over the years.
Now I don’t bring this up to paint a dark and dreadful picture of Gloria. I bring this up because we need to know who it is that Christ redeemed. With some funerals, it is easy to get the impression that the person worked themselves into heaven. They are in heaven, because they were so nice, did so many good deeds, or were always so kind and caring to everyone around them. Thankfully, we have been spared any kind of false impressions or hopes today.
So how is a sinner like Gloria saved. How is a sinner like you or I saved? If we are honest, we a little better than her. Where Gloria was crabby, we ignored her. When she was sick, it was oh too easy to look the other way. When she was dying, praying with her or for her seemed like too much work. So when we ask the question, how could God save her, we are asking ourselves the same question: How can God save me?
So how does God save you? He saves you through His Son. When Jesus was preparing for His death on the cross, His disciples didn’t understand that He would die and rise again from the dead. They were afraid that He was leaving them for good. It is then that our Lord said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.â€Â (John 14:6 ESV)
Jesus is the road to heaven. He is the truth, reality as God sees it. He is life, real, eternal life. Gloria is saved through Him, and only through Him. She was baptized. She confessed the Holy Christian faith at her confirmation in 1965. While I wish that she had been more faithful in coming to God’s house to receive His gifts, God does not abandon His children. I visited with her. My elders visited with her. Our choir sang to her. I believe she put her faith and trust in our Lord, Jesus Christ. That is how she is saved. That is how you are saved.
There are no doubts that her life has been rough, and that it has been complicated and messy. Life is like that. But God’s love shines through. When God looks at her, He sees Jesus. She is holy, perfect, at peace in His holy presence. She is not simply in a better place. She is with Jesus, and at the Last Day, our Lord will raise up her and all the dead, and give eternal life to her and all believers in Christ.
This is our hope. We grieve at her loss, but look forward to the day of resurrection. Trust that the promises our Lord made at her Baptism are true. I will never leave you nor forsake you, He says. That is true for Gloria, and it is true for you.
So rest well, sister Gloria. Rest well until we meet again in the arms of our Savior, even Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Believe it for the sake of Him who died and rose again, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Announcement to congregation regarding call to Virginia
This past weekend I had my head elder read the following letter to the congregation:
June 17, 2008
Dear friends and fellow redeemed at Messiah Lutheran Church,
This past week at their voters’ assembly service, I received a divine call to serve as associate pastor and principal of Immanuel Lutheran Church and School in Alexandria, Virginia. Alexandria is a suburb of Washington, D.C. The duties are evenly split between administration of their classical Lutheran academy and serving as associate pastor of the congregation.
It is our intention right now for Kathryn and I to try and go visit sometime in the next few weeks. We hope to have a decision made within a month, perhaps less. I will probably have an information session and bible study after church next week on June 22nd, so that we can discuss this together and come to a common understanding of the Lord’s will.
Please keep Messiah and Immanuel in your prayers, as well as Kathryn and I, as we seek to make the best decision for everyone involved. I remain
Yours in Christ,
Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Pastor, Messiah Lutheran ChurchCC: Rev. Christopher Esget, Senior Pastor, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Alexandria, VA
Mr. Wayne Schroeder, Congregational Pres., Immanuel Lutheran Church, Alexandria, VA
Rev. John Wille, President of the South Wisconsin District LCMS
Rev. James Keuch, Circuit Counselor, South Wisconsin District LCMS
The Full Flock – Trinity 03
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Trinity 3 (June 8, 2008)
Luke 15:1-10
Rev. Todd Peperkorn
For an audio MP3 of this sermon, CLICK HERE (I missed the first 20 seconds or so)
TITLE: “The Full Flockâ€
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep, as well as the epistle from St. Peter chapter five.
Jesus had a way of attracting people. It wasn’t his charisma or his ability to sell a good idea. It wasn’t his good looks or his lovely baritone voice. No, Jesus attracted people to him because He showed hospitality. When He was invited to someone’s home, He went. It didn’t matter if the person was rich or poor, prominent or at the bottom of the social ladder. Jesus went and ate with tax collectors, sinners, Pharisees, leaders and losers. One and all. That’s who Jesus is, both then and now.
But like most people who seem to attract others, jealousy was always afoot. The prominent leaders didn’t want Jesus associating with the losers. The Pharisees didn’t want Him with the Sadducees. The Sadducees didn’t want Him with the scribes, and so forth. Yet somehow in the midst of all of the shuffling and positioning and the like, the basic reality that Jesus receives sinners and eats with them was often lost, both then and now.
So it should not surprise us that the Pharisees aren’t happy with Jesus’ choice of dinner company. “This man receives sinners and eats with them.†Jesus then uses a series of three parables to make His point of how God does receive sinners and eat with them. We hear about two in our text for this morning.
The first is the parable of the lost sheep. It’s familiar territory. The shepherd who leaves the ninety nine to go after the one. A couple thoughts on this parable really stand out, though. First of all, no shepherd in his right mind risks losing the whole flock for the sake of one sheep. Yet that is what Jesus tells us this shepherd is. This has to do with God’s sense of unity and completeness. When you and I hear numbers like ninety nine or a hundred, we just hear numbers. But that’s not what Jesus’ hearers would have heard. Ninety nine for the Jew in our Lord’s Day would have been almost unbearable. So close to perfection! So close to a complete and holy number. But not quite. So when we hear about this shepherd going after the one, it shows us first of all the depth of God’s love. God will go after the one no matter what. But it also shows us something else. It shows us that God wants heaven filled. He wants it complete, a full quiver, the whole set. He is not satisfied with close enough or almost there.
Think of it like this. It’s a family reunion. Every family has the one cousin that no one really knows what to do with. He’s odd. He doesn’t fit in with the rest of the family. Maybe he’s had troubles in his life that everyone else wishes would just go away. But grandma just won’t be satisfied for the reunion unless he’s there. There would be an empty space, and things just wouldn’t be whole without him. You can’t pick your family, and so you simply have to go with what God has given you.
When it comes to heaven and the Gospel, you are that odd cousin. You are the lost sheep or the lost coin in our next parable. The Pharisees wanted everything to look right. Jesus wants everything to BE right. And in order for everything to be right, God needs all of us at the table.
Dearly baptized, you have a place in God’s kingdom. It may not make sense. It may not be fair. It certainly isn’t reasonable in the eyes of the world. But our Lord knows those that are His. He won’t be satisfied until the banquet is full, like last week, or under the flock is complete, like this morning. That is God’s love for you. Micah perhaps said it best:
“Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.†(Micah 7:18 ESV)
God delights in this deep and abiding love. Like the grandma at the reunion, like the shepherd who must have the full complement of his flock, and like the housewife who turns the house upside down to make sure her change box is full, God wants you there. Period. There is no God like Him, feeding you with Himself, washing you and making you a fit partaker in His holy family.
God wants you here, a part of His family, forgiven and at peace. Jesus does sit and receive sinners. That means you. That means me. As we pray in the hymn:
Jesus sinners doth receive;
Also I have been forgiven;
And when I this earth must leave,
I shall find an open heaven.
Dying, still to Him I cleave:
Jesus sinners doth receive. (LSB 609:7)
Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
And now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith unto life everlasting. Amen.