The Lutheran Review

Pain and the Tin Man

The Tin Man Cometh and Goeth

I enjoy the Lola cartoon.  This weekend, Lola was standing in line at the airport waiting to pass through the metal detector.  Ahead of her stands the Tin Man, axe in hand.  “Oh, great,” Lola thinks, “This will move things along.”

The Tin Man has been on my mind this week since I had hernia surgery on Tuesday.  “It was a full hernia,” Sylvia Steiling, the surgeon, told Becky, “We had to put in a mesh.”  So now I have twelve heart bypasses, four stents some things akin to pig snout rings holding my chest together and a mesh holding my innards in.  In fact, Dr. Steiling said she did clean up some errant skin growth that resulted from previous cuttings and puncturings.  After one of my bypass surgeries Becky looked at me and said, “You look like you live a violent life.”  Well, being a preacher does have its risks.

  What will I look like in the resurrection?  Will I be able to compare scars with Jesus?

Back to the Tin Man.  Every so many hours, on a decreasing scale as the days progressed, he would take over my body.  I would roll off the couch, get to my feet, take a step and then the pain would seize up my body.  The Tin Man had possessed me again.  “I need a Tylenol,” I would plead.  Becky, my wife and caretaker, would get some water and that white extra strength pill.  Soon my muscles relaxed, the pain eased and I mobilized again.

The Tin Man’s axe did come into play after my first heart bypass. Our family physician stopped by and asked how I was doing.  “Not too bad for someone who just had their chest split open with an axe,” I replied.  That was also the stay during which I had to turn off an Abbott and Costello movie on Sunday morning.  My laughter was killing me.

 This morning I awoke and noticed that the Tin Man had returned to Oz.

The folks at Pinckneyville/Conant are using the Order of Matins this morning.  With them I sing, “Oh, come, let us sing unto the Lord:  let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation.  Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving: …for He is our God: and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of His hand.”

  

Augustine's Mom

Monica

Monica (Monnica) lived with her husband Patricius in a farming village in North Africa. Patricius worked in the Roman Administration of the village. Monica bore with patience his unfaithfulness and temper tantrums. Neighboring wives were instructed by her Christian self-control and forbearance. Her patience bore fruit when Patricius was baptized shortly before his death in 370.

She also prayed for their gifted son, Augustine spent his early life going from one religion and philosophy to another in search of the truth. In his Confessions*, Augustine writes of his mother, “She had mourned me as one dead, but also as one who would be raised to you. She carried me out on the bier of her thoughts, that you might say to the widow’s son, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” Monica followed her son to Rome and then to Milan, Italy

When God brought Augustine to faith in Christ, “she leaped with joy triumphant; and she blessed You, who are ’able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.’”

After his baptism, they were returning to Africa when she fell ill. It was apparent she would not make it back home. Asked if she dreaded being buried so far from her own city. She said, “Nothing is far from God. I do not fear that, at the end of time, he should not know the place whence he is to resurrect me.” She died in 387 at the age of 56.

O Lord, who strengthened Monica in offering her love, prayers and tears for the conversion of her husband and their son. Deepen our devotion, and use us to bring others, even our own family, to acknowledge Jesus Christ, as Savior and Lord. Amen

* an online English translation of Augustine’s Confessions is available at the Projext Gutenberg website, Gutenberg.org.

Augustine

The Man of Hippo

Augustine (354-430) is one of God’s examples of His great grace for those who struggle in their search for the truth.  He was born in North Africa and studied philosophy in Carthage.  Much of his young life was a debauched one.
 Augustine’s life is summed up in his own words, “Our hearts are restless until they find rest in you.”
He writes of his struggles to find a spiritual life in his Confessions, “You, O Lord turned me toward myself…for I was afraid lest you hear me too soon, and too soon cure me of my disease of lust which I desired….Thus I was sick and tormented, reproaching myself more bitterly than ever, rolling and writhing in my chains.”
On the day of his conversion while in Milan in 387, he was in a state of great distress, “when suddenly I heard the voice of a (child)…chanting ’Pick it up, pick it up.’”  He picked up a copy of Romans and read, “Let us walk properly in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.  But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.”  (13:13-14) “Instantly, there was infused in my heart something like the light of full certainty and all gloom of doubt vanished.”

He was baptized at the Easter vigil in 387.  Augustine was ordained four years later.  He was made bishop of Hippo, North Africa in 396.  He defended the christian faith and argued against the Donatists, that the holiness of the church did not depend on the holiness of its members, particularly the clergy, but that holiness comes from christ, the head of the Church.
Donatists, after their leader, Donatus, were not heretics; however, they caused division in the church.  During the severe persecution of Diocletian, begun in 303, many Christians denied their faith under torture.  The Donatists thought that  the lapsed should not be re-admitted to the Church.  Some Bishops had surrendered their copies of the bible to the government officials who burned the books.  Donatists believed that such bishops were not worthy to administer the sacraments

On October 31, 1517, an Augustinian monk, Martin Luther, nailed 95 points of debate to the church door of Wittenberg, Germany. Augustine had great influence on Luther.  He continues to influence the church to this day.

O Lord, help us so to know You that we may truly love You, and so love You that we may fully serve You, through Jesus Christ our  Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen    

 

Bartholomew

St. Bartholomew, Apostle

What will believers in Christ know about us in 4009?  Unless all our blogs, face books and emails are still available in 200 years believers in christ nor anyone else know of us at all.
I raise the above question, because when you say Bartholomew you’ve said all we know.  2000 years ago he was  among the list of Jesus’ disciples in Matthew, Mark and Luke.  In John the name Nathaniel is listed instead. 

The epistle for his day from 2 Corinthians 4:7-10 begins, “We have this treasure in jars of clay.”  Likely, in less than 100 years few will remember anything of us.  Yet, like Bartholomew (Nathaniel) we carry the treasure of Jesus’ death and resurrection in our mortal bodies.  We know nothing of Bartholomew other than he was a disciple and along with the other disciples proclaimed the power of the Gospel, which lives on far beyond the time when his weak mortal body breathed its last and died.

Bartholomew reminds us that what is important is not how much power I have or how famous I think I am.  What is of the utmost importance is that I show the power of Jesus’ life and his Gospel through my life.
As John the Baptist said in referring to Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Some traditions say Bartholomew preached in India or Armenia following the resurrection.  In art, Bartholomew is pictured holding a flaying knife to indicate the manner in which he was killed.

The hymn, By All Your Saints in Warfare (LSB518) has a stanza dedicated to Bartholomew

Stanza 23
 All praise for him whose candor
Through all his doubt You saw
 When Philip at the fig tree
Disclosed You in the law.
 Discern, beneath our surface,
O Lord, what we can be,
 That by your truth made guileless,
Your glory we may see.

 

A conversation with Psalm 14

Psalm 14

　

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”

Does this mean that I may say with my lips, “I believe in God the Father…”

But in my heart deny that God is?

I wonder, if I am honest with myself and with God, have I been that kind of fool?

If I am honest with myself and with God, then I must admit, I must confess, “I am that kind of fool.”

If such is the case, and honesty would demand that it is, then in verse 2 I need substitute “I” for “they.” Only God gets to point fingers at others.

I am corrupt. I do abominable deeds.

When there is no God for me, in my heart, but only on my lips, then even the good deeds are evil. They are not done for God.

They are done for god, I, me, myself.

To what sort of melody would the choirmaster set those words?

Would the choir sing it to, “What Kind of Fool am I?”

I skip over God looking down and seeing if any understand or seek after God. I don’t want to see what God sees, that all have turned aside and become corrupt with none doing good, no even one.

And I am among the none, not even one.

I rush to the end of Psalm.

“Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of zion! When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.”

Here comes my salvation. My fortunes are restored. I rejoice. I am glad.

Be my refuge, O God, when this fool says, “You are not.”

In Jesus name.

Amen

　

Bernard's Day

Bernard

I had a cousin from my mother’s side of the family, named Bernard. He was born two days before my mother, his aunt, in 1912. He married my aunt Mildred from my father’s side. One day when I went to visit their son, Monte, who was both a first cousin and second cousin, depending on which branch of the family tree you were swinging, my aunt Mildred said, “Monte, I hope you grow up sometime, because your father never will.” That pretty well described my cousin Bernard or “Cy,” as he was known. With good reason we much younger cousins enjoyed being around him.

The Bernard the church remembers today is not my cousin, at least that I know of, and he died in 1153. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux was a man of great spiritual depth. He was born in 1090 to an affluent Burgundy family. At age 22 he entered the monastery at Citeaux and two years later started a new monastery at Clairvaux. He was known for his charity work and political ability. But his preaching and hymn writing are what make him particularly memorable.

Two hymns in LSB are attributed to him, “O Jesus King Most Wonderful” and “O Sacred Head Now Wounded,” are attributed to him. ”Jesus, the very thought of Thee,” possibly another of his hymns is found in TLH.

He devoted much of his writing to the humanity of Christ. His sermon on the Song of Solomon treats that Old Testament book as an allegory of Christ’s love for humanity. (Personally, I think Song of Solomon is about what it is about.)

This coming Sunday I’m preaching on Ephesians 5:7-14.

Two stanzas of “O Jesus, King Most Wonderful” are fitting for this text.

When once You visit darkened hearts,

Then truth begins to shine,

Then earthly vanity departs,

Then kindles love divine.

O Jesus light of all below,

The fount of life and fire,

Surpassing all the joys we know,

All that we can desire.

John 6

Jesus Flesh and Blood

When I was growing up the Polk Burnett Counties REA (Rural Electrical Administration ) would hold a mass meeting in Centuria, a small village in the center of Polk County. My parents usually took us along, I think, because the REA served a free box lunch. Otherwise it was a pretty boring day, save for the demonstration of the dangers of messing around with power lines. A hot dog was placed against a live power line and burst into flame.. Otherwise, it was all about the free lunch.

During the past three weeks the gospel lesson have come from John 6. Each week Jesus upped the ante until it got to be too much for many of his disciples and they bailed out and went home.

After Jesus fed the 5,000, a crowd followed him to the other side of the sea of Galilee. They wanted more of the free lunch he had provided. Jesus led the ensuring discussion to the point where he told them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” People seemed to deal with that. The OT prophet Jeremiah spoke of the sweetness of the word of god which he ate. Jesus may have been pressing the envelope a bit when he declared “I am the Bread of Life,” but they could live with that.

The next Sunday some in the crowd grumbled about this son of “son of Joseph” could say, he was the bread sent by the Father from heaven. Again, they knew him when he as kid in Nazareth. They knew his father and mother. Furthermore, there was that suspicion that Joe really wasn’t his old man. But Jesus doesn’t back down. That Gospel lesson ends with Jesus declaring, (remember they didn’t have a preacher to preach on the text nor a whole week to absorb it) “and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Now this past Sunday Jesus pressed the issue even farther. In answer to the question, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus answers “Unless you eat the flesh of the son of Man and drink his blood (he has added something new here) you have no life in you.” Indeed, whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood has eternal life and “I will raise him up on the last day.”

If we stop and consider Jesus’ words, they are abhorrent. In the post flood days God gave permission to eat the flesh of animals, “But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.” Furthermore, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” Now Jesus, who claimed to come from the Father in heaven, was proposing that God was about to break His own laws.

When I read these passages in John I try to put myself in the crowd. Would I have been one of those disciples who went away shaking me head? Would I have hung around long enough to hear Jesus ask, “Do you want to go away as well?” Would I have been able to ask Jesus, as Simon Peter did, “Lord, to whom shall we go?”

I’m thankful I can read this story and write about from the perspective of 2,000 years. Next Sunday I can be in church handing out and receiving Jesus free lunch of his body and blood, which cost him dearly.

Mary, Mother of Jesus

Mary, Mother of Our Lord

 On August 15, the church remembers Mary, mother of Jesus.  St. Paul writes in the epistle for the day, Gal. 4:4-7, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman.”
 “The fullness of time,” was the time in the history of the world and the history of God’s plan for redeeming the world from sin that He said to the Son, “Okay, now go!”
 For Mary, “the fullness of time” came nine months after the angel Gabriel told her that she had found favor with God.   She would conceive in her womb and bear a son whom she would name Jesus.  In “the fullness of time” when her womb was filled with God she sent forth her and God’s Son.  God, born into human flesh was completely obedient to God’s demands in His commands.  He suffered death on the cross as the price for buying us back from captivity to our disobedience of the demands of His commands.
 God honored us, adopting us as his children thus making us heirs of eternal life.
 We remember Mary, the girl from Nazareth, who had the singular privilege of giving birth to God’s Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord.  No wonder Elizabeth loudly exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”
Because of that “blessed event” we too are among the blessed.

We sing of Mary, mother,
Fair maiden, full of grace.
She bore the Christ, our brother,
Who came to save our race.
May we, with her, surrender
Ourselves to Your command
And lay upon Your altar
Our gifts of heart and hand.
    LSB855 st. 8  For all the Faithful Women 

Maximilian Kolbe and Kaj Munk

Two World War II Martyrs

Most of us are familiar with Dietrich Bonheoffer who died at the hands of the Nazis even as the war was coming to a close.  However, today we remember two others who also were martyred by the Nazis.

Father Maximilian Kolbe was a Franciscan priest.  After spending some time working in Asia, he returned tin 1936 to Poland, where he supervised a friary that came to house thousands of Polish war refugees, mostly Jews.  The Nazis were watching, however, and he was arrested.  Confined in Auschwitz, Kolbe gave generously of his meager resources, and finally volunteered to be starved to death in place of another man who was a husband and father.  After two weeks, he was executed by a lethal injection in 1941.

Kaj Munk, a Danish Lutheran pastor and playwright, was an outspoken critic of the Nazis, who occupied Denmark during the Second World War.  His plays frequently highlighted the eventual victory of the Christian faith despite the church’s weak and ineffective witness.  The Nazis feared Munk because his sermons and articles helped to strengthen the Danish resistance movement.  He was executed by the Gestapo on January 5, 1944.

(Based on information in Sundays and Seasons, Augsburg/fortress Press, 2009)  

 

Angels Camping

 Angels Encamped

Psalm 34:7

The angel of the Lord encamps

Around those who fear him,

And delivers them.

Luther writes regarding this verse, “This is the first psalm that speaks about angels, that they attend the righteous and wait on us.  They are not simply with or around us.  The angels are like an army-armed soldiers encamped around us, pitching their tents, keeping watch, and fighting for us against the devil and all his minions.  This is a great and excellent comfort for all who believe…” (Reading the Psalms with Luther, CPH, 2007)

In his preface on psalm 34 Luther mentions Elisha in 2 Kings 6:17.  The king of Syria was warring against Israel.  However, he thinks there is a spy among his advisors.  His Counsel says that there are no traitors among them, nevertheless, “Elisha the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.  Obviously, there is a leak somewhere.  So the Syrian king sent “horses and chariots and a great army.”  They arrived at night and surrounded the city of Dothan where Elisha lived.

Thus when Elisha arose early the next morning, “behold, an army…was all around the city.”  His servant exclaimed, “What shall we do?”  Elisha reassured him saying that those who were with them were more than those who were with the Syrian army.  He prayed asking God to open the eyes of his servant.  The Lord answered Elisha’s prayer and the young man saw the nearby mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire “all around Elisha.”

Of course, Elijah, Elisha’s predecessor also had an encounter with an angel when he was on the run from Jezebel.  (I Kings 19:1-8) We read of the angel who served as his personal  valet waking him in the morning and urging him to eat.   

Luther also points to Genesis 32:1-2, “Jacob went on his way and the angels of god met him.  And when Jacob saw them he said, “This is God’s camp.”

Why then do churches call their small child singing groups, “cherub choirs?” 

Angels are known to break people out of prison, roll stones from the entrance to tombs, fill a temple with a temple with such sound that the hearer declares “Woe is me.  I am lost.”

Children’s choirs should be encouraged to sing praises to God often.  But they shouldn’t be mistaken for the “angels, archangels and all the company of heaven” we invite to join us as we take Holy Communion.