The Lutheran Review

Bev's Recipes: Fudge Striped Salad

That is right you can have your salad and fudge too.  Enjoy!

Fudge Stripe Salad

            1 c. buttermilk
            3 oz. instant vanilla pudding (or butter pecan)
            1 large  16 oz. container cool whip
            2 cans mandarin oranges (drained)
            8-10 fudge striped cookies (broken into bite size pieces)

            Mix buttermilk and pudding mix.  Stir in cool whip.  Add
            mandarin oranges and cookie pieces.

            *Buttermilk can be substituted with 4 T. buttermilk mix
            and liquid from mandarin oranges plus enough water
            to make 1 cup.

            *My sister  made this recipe popular.  It is so delicious
            and easy and is also good served on angel food cake
            for a dessert.

Seasons of Refreshment

By. Rev. Ronald Jansen
After a long day of bailing hay, my brothers and I would jump into our old red Ford pickup and drive up to Pipe Lake for a swim.  Pipe Lake was spring fed and thus it didn’t warm up until the end of June.  Even then it was best to just plunge in rather than try to sneak up on the water.  Plunging into its icy waters provided immediate refreshment to a hot and tired body.  As we swam about, the chaff and dust of the day was washed away.  It was a time of refreshing respite from a long day with the hay.

King David knew of such refreshment when he was escaping Jerusalem after his son Absalom had taken over.  II Samuel 16:13-14   “So David and his men went on the road, while Shimei went along the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and flung dust.  And the king and all the people who were with him, arrived weary at the Jordan.  And there he refreshed himself.”

In our first lesson from last Sunday (Acts 3:11-21) Peter preaches in verses 19-20, “Repent therefore, and turn again that your sins may be blotted out, that times (seasons) of refreshing may come from the presence (face) of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus.”

The word “refreshing” used in verse 20 can mean “to cool or refresh with a breath,” such as when a mother blows on a child’s “boo boo.”  Medically, it means to be restored or to regain strength.  Other meanings are respite and relief.

Our life leaves us with the grit of sins and the dust of living wearying us and wearing us down day by day.  God calls us to turn away from sin and take the plunge into waters of baptism daily so that we might wash off the grit and grime of our living.  Through Christ Jesus seasons of refreshment arrived.  In Him we have relief from the anxiety that the world would inflict upon us.  Sunday morning, and hopefully everyday, we find a time of respite from the harassing issues of the day and once again receive refreshment in the news that our Lord governs and directs all things for the good of those who love him.

A Prayer Answered

Last winter when St. Paul, Otto met to issue a call for either a deferred vicar or graduating candidate from the seminary, Jerry Kassel, the president, asked me to open the Voter’s meeting with a prayer.  At that time I said to the assembly, “You realize that you are asking me to pray for somebody to come and take my job.”  Then I dutifully prayed for the guidance and blessing of the Holy Spirit that the congregation be assigned someone from the seminary.

Well, this past Wednesday St. Paul’s was assigned a graduating fourth year student as their pastoral candidate. So on this Sunday morning before I introduced Charles Schultz I reminded them of my comment made earlier in the year.  Then I proceeded to introduce the person who would be taking my job.

One of the challenges of being a vacancy pastor is that one needs to be able to come and do the work of a pastor and then when the new pastor is installed and the vacancy is filled the “vacancy pastor” quietly and quickly fades out of the picture and drives up the highway. 

On an emotional level, this is a difficult thing to do, because along the way one makes attachments as pastoring is done.  However, the vacancy pastor, who is no longer needed because there is no longer a vacancy, must get out of the way so the newly installed pastor can begin to be the congregation’s shepherd.

There is no manual for being a vacancy pastor.  When one steps into a situation where the pastor has taken a call, sometimes the congregation is in mourning.  But I’ve found that if I step in with a uplifted and positive spirit, don’t take myself too seriously, pick up the reins and start doing ministry, soon the congregation is ready to make the transition to their next shepherd.  The Ministry of Word and the Sacraments will continue.

When the new shepherd comes, I start running around and preaching again while I wait for the phone to ring and for someone to say, “The District President gave us your name.”   Then I know that another prayer has been answered.

"Christianity is not the conclusion..."

By Sarah D.
Currently, I am reading a few books.  One is C.S. Lewis "The Problem of Pain".

"To ask whether the universe as we see it looks more like the work of a wise and good Creator or the work of chance, indifference, or malevolence, is to omit from the outset all the relevant factors in the religious problem.  Christianity is not the conclusion of a philosophical debate on the origins of the universe: it is a catastrophic historical event following on the long spiritual preparation of humanity which I have described. 

It is not a system into which we have to fit the awkward fact of pain: it is itself one of the awkward facts which have to be fitted into any system we make.  In a sense, it creates, rather than solves, the problem of pain, for pain would be not problem unless, side by side with our daily experience of this painful world, we had received what we think of good assurance that ultimate reality is righteous and loving." 

The World Does Not Know Us

By Rev. Ronald Jansen
While driving on Watson Rd in St. Louis County I noticed the bumper of the car ahead of me held two stickers.  One sticker showed a series of religious symbols that spell out “COEXIST.”  I see these stickers not infrequently.  However, in the middle of the bumper another sticker read, “Born Again Pagan.” 

I thought of the words from John 3:19 “and this is judgment: the light has come into the world, and the people loved darkness.”  In the first chapter of John’s Gospel we read, “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world…yet the world did not know him (vs.9 &n 10).” 

The person sporting the bumper stickers knows, that is believes in Christ, as  no more than any other religious figure.  One is a good as another, so lets all just get along while on our way to the grave.  Furthermore, the driver is proud to be a heathen and is a public witness to the wonders of the darkness. A long time ago the prophet Isaiah warned, “woe to those…who put darkness for light and light for darkness (5: 20).”  His or her enlightenment is darkness.

As we consider the epistle for the third Sunday Easter (I John 3:1-7), we note the assurance John gives when he asks us to “See (believe) what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.”  Those are words we do well to hang on to in a world that is increasingly disinterested in and hostile to God’s revelation of salvation in Jesus Christ.  Our society knows less and less of Christ and therefore, knows less and less about what it means to be a believer in Christ. 

John continues addressing us, “Beloved, we are God’s children now.”  Still, there is more to come for us   Right now we can’t see the full outcome for God’s children.  But rest assured when Christ appears again on the last day we “shall be like him” and “we shall see him as he is.”

Thus we look forward to hearing His Word and receiving Christ in the sacrament because  as we say in the Introit, “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are .pleasures forevermore.”

I’m afraid we can’t say as much for born again pagan traveling on Watson Rd..

Milk and Honey

By Rev. Ronald Jansen
This evening I was looking at the material in An Easter Sourcebook from Liturgy Training Publications.  The material for the second week of Easter includes the subject of milk and honey.  The first mention of milk and honey is in Exodus 3:8 where God promises Moses that He “will bring them up out of that land (Egypt) to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”   “A land flowing with milk and honey” is used a total of 20 times in the Old Testament. 

Yet, the coupling of milk and honey is never used in the New Testament.  Peter might well have used the terms to describe God’s new Israel since he calls Christians “elect exiles.”  The Introit for Sunday contained words from I Peter 2:2-3 Like newborn infants, long for pure spiritual milk so that through it you may grow into salvation, for you have tasted that the Lord is good.  However, in verse four Peter changes the metaphor to a “living stone, rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious.”

Nevertheless, the third century church father Hippolytus (150-235, martyr) describes a Communion service including the use of milk and honey.  The bishop gives thanks for the bread - the body of Christ.  He gives thanks with regard to the cup in which the wine is mixed - the blood poured out for all those who believe in him.  Mingled milk and honey recall God’s promise “to our ancestors…and fulfilled in the flesh of Christ which he gives us and by which believers are nourished like little children, for the sweetness of his word changes the bitterness of our hearts into gentleness.”  Finally, the bishop gave thanks for the offering of water that signifies an internal and spiritual purification as well as bodily cleansing.

I would find it interesting to include some of the features the early church used in their services of Holy Communion.

Two hymns in LSB use “milk and honey.”  Both the hymns are about heaven and eternal life.  Jerusalem the golden, with milk and honey blest.  Because our heavenly Jerusalem is the Promised Land blest with milk and honey, therefore, in stanza 4 the author, Bernard of Cluny (12th century) calls it a “sweet and blessed country, the home of God’s elect!”
The other hymn is, “The God of Abraham Praise” where milk and honey are included in St. 6.

We think of the yearning of the Israelites in the wilderness for the fulfillment of the promise of the gift of the land of milk and honey.  The practice of the early church of including milk and honey in Holy Communion was also a symbol of both the yearning for fulfillment of the Christian’s hope for a new land, but also the sweetness of the Word and Sacrament which promises the new land “with milk and honey blest.”

Second Sunday of Easter

By Rev. Ronald Jansen
The second Sunday of Easter is often called Low Sunday and so it was again in 2009.  I would like to think that I preached so powerfully that the people were filled with such joy in the resurrection that it will last them for a whole year, or at least until Christmas.  But I’m afraid such was not the case.  If I had preached so powerfully that the Holy Spirit was able engender such faith in the risen Christ, who would lie in bed the next Sunday morning and watch Meet the Press?

Fleming Rutledge has an interesting take on Low Sunday based on the passage in Acts 10, God raised him on the third day and made him manifest; not to all the people but to us who are chosen by God as witnesses.

“According to the New Testament witnesses, the risen Lord did not make himself known to anyone and everyone.  He appeared only to those who had been his disciples and believed in him risen from the dead.”  The Roman soldiers, Caiaphas and Pontius Pilate did not see him.  “Those who saw him were Peter and James and John and Mary Magdalene and several hundred other disciples…This fact is one of several indications in the New Testament that Jesus’ risen body, though palpably real, was of a different order from his earthly body.  He revealed it to those whom he chose and to no one else.

So it follows that there will be many people who will come to church on Easter morning and see the flowers and hear the music and even receive Communion and still never see the risen Lord.  The Resurrection was not a proof given by God to stun unbelievers into faith.  Rather, it was the vindication of the trust of those who were reeling from the shock of having put their faith in a Messiah who ended up getting himself crucified.  The Resurrection did not create new faith so much as it validated the faith that had already been placed in the One who was hanged on a tree.  That’s why Jesus displayed his wounds to ’doubting Thomas.’  Those who participate in his Resurrection are those who identify with him in his suffering.  Those who will inherit the promise of the Resurrection are those who bear the wounds of Christ.”

Rutledge concludes the sermon telling the congregation that they are chosen witnesses “because you ‘ate and drank with the Lord Jesus after he was raised from the dead.’ Bring the good news especially to those who are suffering, because thereby you will carry his Cross.  I know it isn’t easy, but tell them even if you stumble over the words, because the Holy Spirit will be in your words.  God raised Jesus on the third day.  He is alive. He is here with us at this moment.”

I want to hang onto those words and that encouragement during the Great Fifty Days of Eastertide.     

A Breath of Fresh Air

By Rev. Ronald Jansen
In the gospel lesson for this week (John 20: 19-31) the disciples have spent the Sunday following the initiation of the new age of Resurrection behind locked doors.  They have been living, if that is what you want to it, cooped up the whole day.  Every breath of that stale air is drawn into bodies paralyzed by stomach wrenching fear.

John writes “Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ’Peace be with you.’”  Showing them his hands and side he said to them again “Peace be with you.”  The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 

Then, into that stale air Jesus breathed on them and gave them a mission and a .purpose.  He breathed on them the Holy Spirit, the Breath of God, while commissioning them with the power to forgive sins or to withhold forgiveness.  They were glad they had seen the Lord.  However, a week later when they were again together they still locked the doors.  Again, Jesus came and alleviated Thomas’ doubt about the resurrection.

However, the scene with Thomas was a lesson for the disciples how to carry out their newly given power to forgive the wayward ways of humanity.  Jesus not only showed his scars to Thomas, but invited him to poke and feel as well as see his wounds.  With the demonstration came an invitation or maybe a command to believe. 

Forgiveness need not only just be words spoken by the pastor on Sunday morning.  As Jesus did in the case of Thomas, forgiveness can and should be a time of “show and tell.”

Forgiveness is one of those signs that Jesus does through us, not written in the bible, but demonstrated in our words and life that is done for the benefit of another person so that they “may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you (and they) may have life in his name.”

A Simple Message

By Rev. Ronald Jansen

On my way down to St. Paul’s, Otto I pass by 9 churches. There are three Lutheran churches, a LCMS, a Wisconsin Synod and a Free Lutheran that meets in a school. That puts the Lutherans in a tie with Baptist churches I pass while on the way. There is also an Assembly of God and a Methodist church. A Roman Catholic Church is also along the route. The list is completed with what I believe is a non denominational congregation.

Every church has a church sign, a couple with an electronic message board. But it’s the Catholic Church sign that caught my eye with its simple message.

“The Tomb is Empty. Alleluia!” read the sign at the RC congregation. What a bold statement to make in our age when so many, even Christian churches are too timid, too embarrassed to come right out and say that Jesus tomb is empty. To declare that Jesus tomb is empty is to admit, confess, and proclaim that “He is risen.”

Whether it’s the 1st century or the 21st century it takes some audacity to claim in the face of having no evidence whatsoever, other than the bible, that Jesus rose again, really rose, scarred body and all his members. Just as there was in the 1st century so there is in the 21st Gnostic types who would grant a spiritual resurrection. It seems to me these sorts are okay with saying that the disciples came to believe that Jesus lived on in their hearts and in his good teaching, come on now, really.

I have believed for sometime that our times are growing more and more like the world into which those 1st century Christians went out proclaiming, not that they had come to believe that Jesus left the tomb empty, but that he actually did abandon the tomb by rising from it. That is the simple message that will save the world from its own wisdom, which is actually a stubborn stupidity that will lead to its own destruction.

Books Read During Lent

By Rev. Ronald Jansen

At the beginning of Lent I wrote about my Lenten fast. My fast had nothing to do with eating, but with giving up playing games like solitaire, and pinball and hearts on the computer. I found that it was eating up an enormous amount of time. Thus my best pinball total remains at 8,800, 000. At first my Lenten fast proved difficult. I always wanted to click over on a game, which would have led to another etc. However, the fast did have a continuing salutary affect. I have no desire to play now that lent is over. I found I was able to get some reading done.

I suppose I am guilty of not doing my fast in secret. Nevertheless, I do thank God for aiding in my determination to keep at least some sort of Lenten fast.

Listed below is what I read. I love to read but I’m kind of a plodder.

Red Knife by William Kent Krueger. Krueger sets his mysteries near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota. Think of Ely, MN.

The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indridason A mystery set in Iceland. The novel was written in Icelandic and then translated into English. It takes us from modern Iceland back into the East Germany of the 1960’s.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. An excellent novel that takes place near and in the Chequamegon National Forest in northern Wisconsin.

Why Men Hate Going to Church by David Murrow. A though provoking book that provides analysis of why men hate going to church.

The Undoing of Death by Fleming Rutledge. An excellent set of sermons for Holy Week and the first week of Easter. Fleming is an Episcopalian priest who writes Law and Gospel centered sermons.

Winter Study by Nevada Barr. I’m currently reading this book about a study of wolves on Isle Royale, Michigan. The Island is located in the southwestern portion of Lake Superior.