The Lutheran Review

Cyril of Alexandria

One brief biography of Cyril (376-444) remembers him “as an outstanding theologian as
well as a contentious personality.  He strenuously defended the faith against Nestorious.  Nestorious taught that Christ human and divine natures were entirely distinct and therefore Mary could not be called the Mother of God.  This caused a huge split in the church, not only because of the doctrinal differences, but also because of rivalry between Constantinople and Alexandria.  Other leaders in Rome, Antioch and Jerusalem and the emperor also became involved.  Finally, Cyril’s interpretation, that Christ’s person included both divine and human natures was affirmed at the Council of Ephesus in 431.

Cyril wrote, “I am amazed that there are some who ere extremely doubtful whether the holy Virgin should be called the Mother of God or no.  For if our Lord Jesus Christ is God, then surely the holy Virgin who gave him birth must be God’s mother”

Cyril compares it to a mother giving birth to an ordinary person.  A mother carries in her womb the flesh of the gradually developing human according to the natural laws of generation and the secret operation of “until it reaches perfection and attains the form of a human being.” God also “endows this living creature with spirit.  Although those mothers are only mothers of bodies belonging to this world, still they are said to give birth, not to a part of a man but to the whole man, consisting of soul and body…I anyone maintained that anyone’s mother was ‘mother of flesh’ and not ‘mother of soul’ he would be talking nonsense.  For what she has produced is one living being, composite to two dissimilar elements, but a single human being, with each element retaining its nature.”

Cyril’s writings about Christ were an important source Lutheran confessional writings.

Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons

One thing that I have noted in my reading; including several novels, is the popularity of the lead character doubting the value of the Scriptures of the Bible.  They are more inclined to give credence to the numerous writings that are not in the Bible and to regard the canonical scriptures as being the result of church politics. 

The church in the time of Irenaeus (130-170) had not quite settled on what scripture was and what wasn’t.  There were numerous writings floating about.  However, we get a hint of how the writings that are in our scriptures came to be there through a letter that Irenaeus wrote to his friend Florinus.  Irenaeus reminded Florinus that when they were children, they had both heard Polycarp.  I wrote of Polycarp back on February 23rd.   Polycarp had known the apostle John.  Thus Polycarp was the link in the chain which through John bound Ienaeus and his friend to Christ.

Irenaeus writes, “I can describe the place where blessed Polycarp sat and talked, his goings and comings in, the character of his life…I remember how he spoke of his intercourse with John and with the others who had seen the Lord; how he repeated their words from memory, and how the things that he had heard them say about the Lord, his miracles and his teachings, things that he had heard direct from the eye-witnesses of the Word of life, were proclaimed by Polycarp in complete harmony with scripture.  To these things I listened eagerly at that time, by the mercy of God shown to me, not committing them to writing but learning them by heart.  By God’s grace, I constantly and conscientiously ruminate on them, and I can bear witness before God that if any suggestion had come to the ears of that blessed apostolic presbyter he would have cried out and stopped his ears.”

Thus when Irenaeus came into contact with the various writings that arose in the second century, he compared them to what he had heard and learned from a disciple of the apostle John.  On that basis he accepted only the four gospels we now have in our bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and no more.  He also recognized Paul’s letters, the first letter of Peter, Acts, Revelation and John’s three epistles.  On the other hand there was still hesitation on such works as Jude, Revelation, and II Peter,

He was also one of the first to use the term, “catholic”, by which he meant that congregations did not exist by themselves but were linked to one another in the whole church.  Furthermore, the message of the church is one that has been passed down from the apostles to him and through him to the next generation.

Celebrating the Augsburg Confession

On June 25th 1530 the Lutherans presented the Augsburg confession to Emperor Charles of the Holy Roman Empire.  Written by Philip Melancthon and endorsed by Martin Luther, the confession is a brief summary of points in which the reformers saw their teaching as either agreeing with the ancient teachings of the church or differing from that of the Roman Catholic Church of the time.

While writing the history of Holy Cross, Collinsville, I found a description of the celebration of the 350th anniversary of the presentation of the Augsburg Confession.

“On Sunday, June 27, 1880, the day before the celebration in St. Louis, Holy Cross, Pleasant Ridge (Maryville) and Troy gathered for a festival at Collinsville Park, formerly Becker’s Grove.  A regular worship service was held in the morning followed by a children’s program in the afternoon.”

An account in the St. Louis times (CHIQ Vol. 3, 1930 pp33-40) describes the events of the next day when all the churches met in St. Louis.  The headline read, “Miles of Men - Procession five miles long from (Soulard, where Old Trinity, the original LCMS church in St. Louis is located) to the Fairgrounds.”  (The fairgrounds were located in what is now north St. Louis)
A unit of mounted .police cleared the way.  They were followed by the Arsenal band. “Following the marshals came the visitors.  More than 600 visitors participated, including seminary students and the St. Louis Young Men’s Association.  These were followed by another band (in those days each congregation had a band) and the St. Louis Orchestra.  Next came the men of the St. Louis congregations. Fifty one wagons filled with school children followed the men and the bands.  Each wagon was decorated with evergreens and flags.  Banners on the wagons contained mottoes such as “Das Wort Sie Sollen Lassen Stahn,” The Word they still shall let remain.  Behind the children came the seminary .professors and pastors likely riding in carriages.  Then 276 carriages carrying young lades, almost all dressed in white, as well as their mothers and other relatives.  The procession was completed by a two-mile train of wagons with members from area congregations.  The parade started at 8:30 a.m. and the ended at 1:30 p.m.

After two hours of rest, the program began.  It consisted mainly of singing led by a 1,000 voice choir and 200 musicians.  Speeches were few and brief.  The paper commented the next day, “The Germans as a class are not a speechmaking people…Had the celebration been an Irish or an American one, there would have been at least two hours of speeches, to which no one would care to listen.”

Given all that was done in 1880, how did you celebrate the presentation of the Augsburg Confession?

John, The Baptist

Last Saturday Sarah’s air conditioner went down.  So she and Abby and Lucas spent the weekend with us.  On Sunday evening she noted that it was the longest day of the year.  “We are on our way to Christmas,” she said.  Well, when its one is in a midst of a string of 90 degree plus days it can seem a long way from Christmas.

Indeed,” we are on the far side of sun from Christmas and the celebration of Jesus’ birth,” as the article in Sundays and Seasons put it.

June 24th is the day set aside to remember Jesus’ forerunner, John the Baptist.  However, what gifts does one give for Forerunnermas?  Could we buy a box of chocolate covered grasshoppers at the Chocolate Factory?  Might one purchase the latest in sackcloth, fit for the repentance he demanded, from Sacks and More at the Galleria? What is the current rage in camel’s hair and leather belts?  Perhaps we could go to Ace hardware and pick up an axe or a winnowing fork.

However, John would not want such attention called to himself.  He came announcing, “Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.”  He said of his cousin Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”  When Jesus came to be baptized, he called out, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” 

John was all about preparing the way for the coming of the Christ.  The question for us as we swelter here in St. Louis is, “How are we able to be a path that leads others straight the Christ?

Prayer: Almighty God, through John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, You once proclaimed salvation.  Now grant that we may know this salvation and serve You in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life; through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Shouting into the Wind

For a number of years I have loved the scenes in chapters 4, 5 & 6 of Mark in which Jesus has the disciples going back and forth across the Sea of Galilee at least three times.
In the gospel lesson for this past Sunday, Mark 4:35-41, Jesus is sleeping in the stern of one of the boats in their flotilla.  So when the windstorm arose it wasn’t only the boat in which Jesus and the disciples were crossing that was in jeopardy but a number of other vessels as well.  Furthermore they were crossing in the evening thus visibility was poor.  The boats were being swamped by the waves.  But there was Jesus still asleep, though he must have been soaking wet as well.

Have you ever tried communicating in a strong wind when the words are blown away before they reach the other person’s ear?  You can picture them shaking him as they try to wake him up, and then shouting into his ear, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are perishing?”  Perishing is a good word there.  It also carries the idea of not just drowning, but of eternal destruction.

I see Jesus then waking up and jumping to his feet as he shouts into the wind “Shut up!  Quiet down.”  Not only does the wind suddenly drop off, but the waves are smothered as well.  Then Jesus poses his question, not just to the disciples, but to us as well, “Why are you so afraid?  Have you still no faith?”  Jesus question and statement can lead us to raise a number of other questions for ourselves.  How long has it been since I was received into Christ’s care in baptism?  How many crises have I been through in life?  How many storms have threatened to swamp me?  And still I have no faith?

We might view that boat on the Sea of Galilee as the church in which Jesus asks us to trust God amid life’s turbulence.

A fitting prayer is: O God of creation, eternal majesty, you preside over land and sea, sunshine and storm.  By your great strength pilot us, by your power preserve us, by your wisdom instruct us, and by your hand protect us, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

David, a Type of Christ

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was on of the great preachers of the 19th century.  Much of his preaching was done at the Metropolitan tabernacle in London.  Furthermore, much of his preaching has stood the test of time.  His volume of sermons entitled, Types and Emblems, contains a sermon in which he demonstrates how David was a type of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In his first two sentences he identifies the challenge of preaching on the entirety of chapter seventeen of I Samuel which tells the story of David’s victory over Goliath.  “A careful, perusal of the whole chapter will well repay your pains.  I have selected a verse for convenience, but I want the entire narrative for a text.”

I wanted the entire narrative for my text too for the sermon I’m preaching this weekend.  However, I discovered that there is so much in the entire chapter that I couldn’t get everything into my sermon without going into extra innings.  Since it also happens that when I am writing, the sermon sometimes goes in a different direction than I had originally intended.  Therefore, a part of Spurgeon’s sermon I intended to include was left by the wayside.  So I thought I would include some of those comparisons that Spurgeon saw between David and Christ in this article for The Lutheran Review.

“As David was sent by Jesse to his brethren with suitable presents and comfortable words…even so in the fullness of time was our Lord commissioned to visit his brethren… We read how David was treated.  His brethren did not receive him lovingly.  They answered his unaffected kindness with unprovoked rudeness: bitter things did they lay to his charge.  How truly does this answer to the manner in which our Lord, the Son of David, was abused.  He came unto his own, and his own received him not.  Though he came to them with words of tenderness, they replied to him with words of scorn.  For his blessings they gave him curses; for the bread of heaven they gave him stones; for the benedictions of heaven they gave him the spite of earth, the maledictions of hell!”

Spurgeon sees a comparison between Christ’s victory over death and David’s cutting off Goliath’s head with his own sword.  Goliath’s sword was intended to kill David.  “The cross that was meant to be the death of the Savior was the death of sin.  The crucifixion of Jesus, which was supposed to be the victory of Satan, was the consummation of his victory over Satan.”

P.S.  This Spring I talked the congregation at Otto into having an outdoor service in their new pavilion before the heat of July set in.  We are having that service this coming Sunday.  However, someone forgot to inform me that He was sending the heat of July on June 18 before either July or summer arrived.

  

The Cappadocian Fathers

By Rev. Ronald Jansen

Cappadocia was an area in what is now central turkey.   In the later 300’s two brothers, a sister and a friend came out this area to become among the most influential Christian teachers and theologians of their time.
They were the brothers Basil the Great of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa and their sister Macrina.  Their friend’s name was Gregory of Nazianzus.  The three men influenced the theology of the Nicene Creed that was ratified by the Council of Constantinople in 381.
They defended the doctrines of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Trinity and contributed to the liturgy of the Orthodox church.
All four individuals took different paths in their lives.  Basil was influenced by his sister Macrina to live a monastic life.  His longer and Shorter Rule are the basis for Eastern monasticism to this day.  They emphasize the communal life as opposed to that of a life as a hermit.
Basil’s younger brother Gregory of Nyssa is remembered for his writings on spiritual living and contemplating God in worship and sacraments.
Their sister Macrina received an excellent bible centered education.  When her fiance died she devoted herself to pursuing Christian perfection in her life. She led a community based on the family estate near Caesarea that was dedicated to ascetic meditation and prayer.
The final member of the Cappadocians was Gregory of Nazianzus. He was sent to Constantinople to preach on behalf of the Orthodox faith.  Despite the Council of Nicea in 325, Arian teachings were still prevalent in many places.  Simply put, Arius proposed that the Son of God was not quite equal to the Father.  However, Gregory succeeded in winning over the city to the Orthodox teaching on the Trinity and Christ.

Prayer of the Day
Almighty God, You revealed to Your Church Your eternal being of glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in a Trinity of persons.  May Your church, with leaders like the Cappadocians, receive grace to continue steadfast in the confession of the true faith and constant in our worship of You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who live and reign, one God, now and forever.

David and Goliath in a bit of Eden

By Rev. Ronald Jansen

I was sitting on the backyard patio last night after supper.  The St. Cardinals were on TV and Becky makes poor company when the Cards are losing.  Since my Brewers had already lost I would have been left with little other choice than to root for the Indians to beat the Cardinals.  You can see that the backyard was the best place to be.  Cardinal fans take their baseball even more seriously than we Packer fans take our beloved green and gold.

So I took along some books on I Samuel and worked on the sermon text for next Sunday, the story of David and Goliath.  I read whatever insights others had on this well known story of David slaying the giant.  If you haven’t read the story since your days in Sunday school, I would encourage you to do so, read it thoroughly and slowly.  The story contains humor, cowardice, sibling conflict and the ridiculous prospect of a teenager with a sling shot going up against a giant monster protected by the latest in body armor and high tech weaponry.

Every once in a while I would look up toward the north end of our yard where I have a shade garden of numerous hostas, impatiens, geraniums, a dogwood, day lilies and more.  This garden grows in the shade of oak trees, one in my yard and others in the neighbors’ yards. 

Vigen Guroian, in Inheriting Paradise, quotes Henry Mitchell, who wrote in his book One Man’s Garden, “It is extremely important for the gardener to think it is a fair substitute for Eden.”  I’m not sure I agree with Mitchell.  I would rather express it that the gardener strive for and once in a while attains a bit of a preview of paradise.  It can never be a substitute for Eden because I’m also contending with wild ginger, honey suckle sprouts and a variety of other unwanted flora.

Then I noticed a sound, not the traffic on Lindberg only a block away, but the hooting of an owl.  Squirrels darted about. Other birds flitted through the air.  Our house and yard was a microcosm of our life in Christ here on earth.  The peacefulness and beauty of a garden and God’s creation gives us a preview of the hope we have in Christ that is ours and yet is awaiting us in the heavenly places.  In the meantime we do battle, the Cardinals against the Indians, David versus Goliath, and the gardener striving against the weeds.  However, in the midst of the battle we have the peace of Christ that passes all understanding in which we trust for our salvation.

One day all the David versus Goliath battles will be over.  We will no more strive against the weeds.  As for the Cardinals, I suspect their fans will always go from elation to devastation with little help in sight. 

 

Confessing the Faith

By Rev. Ronald Jansen

Last Sunday we confessed our faith in the annual trek through the Athanasian Creed.  Some churches bail out on this ancient creed because it’s too long or convoluted or people don’t like it.  I ask what does any of that have to do with anything?

We begin the creed by declaring that, “Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic faith.”  In other words, what the creed says about the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the birth of the Son into the flesh is the catholic faith.  This is the truth that the true church confesses in all times and in all places.

We not only confess, but we do it in the setting of worship, “we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity.”  We do not mix together the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  On the other hand we do not divide God into three parts either.  “So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God; and yet, (that “and yet” is critical) there are not three Gods, but one God.”

We only had one confirmand at St. Paul’s, Otto this year.  I sat across the conference table from Ben.  There were a total of 11 people present, including his family.  One of the questions I asked was to fully explain the Trinity.  There was a period of silence as we all waited.  Then Ben said, almost under his breath, “I don’t know.”  I said, “That’s right.”  It was the best answer he gave all evening.

Thus the creed ends not with an intellectual statement but with a faith statement, “This is the catholic faith; whoever does not BELIEVE it faithfully and firmly cannot be saved.”

I should add that Athanasius did not write the creed named after him.  He lived in the fourth century and spoke Greek and lived in Egypt.  The creed was written in the fifth century in Latin most likely in the south of France.  But it does reflect the importance Athanasius .put on the mystery of the Trinity

When Division Results in Addition

By Rev. Ronald Jansen
Math was never my top subject.  However, I believe I am correct in my title statement that in the case of the Apostle Barnabas his division from Paul resulted in addition.

We first meet Barnabas in Acts 4, when we acted on his name, which means encouragement, by selling a field he owned and gave the money to the apostles as a concrete example of the oneness in heart and soul that the believers practiced.  Although residing in Jerusalem, he was originally a Levite from the Island of Cyprus.  He was also a cousin of John Mark. 
Barnabas was sent to oversee the fledgling church in Antioch.  While there he traveled to Tarsus to bring Paul back to assist him in Antioch.  Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit the church in Antioch sent Barnabas and Paul Cyprus where they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogue.  John Mark was assisting them. 

However, when it came to start the second missionary journey Paul did not think it a good idea to take John Mark along because he had bailed out of their previous missionary trip.   15:39, “And there arose a sharp disagreement, so they separated from each other.”  Bad business?  Yes and no.  Now there were two teams going out.  Barnabas and Mark went to Cyprus.  Paul took Silas, “and having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord,” traveled north on land from Jerusalem and eventually went into what is now southern Turkey.

We don’t know anymore about Barnabas’ activities.  However, he seems to have been known by the Corinthians in Greece. (I Cor. 9:6)

Prayer for the Day of Barnabas
Almighty God, Your faithful servant Barnabas sought not his own renown but gave generously of his life and substance for the encouragement of the apostles and their ministry.  Grant that we may follow his example in lives given to charity and proclamation of the Gospel,; through Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.