The Lutheran Review

St. Peter and St. Paul Apostles

 

St. Peter and St. Paul each have their own day of commemoration. However, remembering the ministry of these two great figures on the same day is one of the oldest of the saints’ days, having been observed at least since 258. Some tradition trace this day back to a remembrance of their being executed on the same day. Paul, according to tradition, was beheaded. Peter, according to tradition was crucified upside down. Their deaths are thought to have occurred during the time of Nero in about 64. However, scripture leaves off with Paul in Rome. There has always been a strong belief that he traveled to Spain after being released from house arrest and then returned to Rome.

The first lesson for the day, Acts 15:1-21, is a record of the Council in Jerusalem where a delegation, including Paul and Barnabas were sent to report on the success of the gospel among the Gentiles and to learn whether Gentiles needed to be circumcised according to the law of Moses. The issue threatened to split the church in Antioch. During the council some believers who were of the party of Pharisees raised the issue again. “After…much debate,” stood and reminded the council that God had chosen him to first preach the gospel to the Gentiles when he met and baptized Cornelius’ household in Caesarea. They received the Holy Spirit and God cleansed their hearts as well as the Jewish believers. There didn’t seem to be any point to laying the yoke of the Moses law on the Gentiles which is a yoke too heavy for the Jews to bear successfully. Peter completed his plea saying, “We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” This silence the group and enabled Paul and Barnabas to relate what god had done through them among the Gentiles.

James, Jesus half brother then gave his judgment that they not lay the requirement of circumcision on the Gentles; nevertheless, he does want the Gentiles to follow a rules of behavior which not hinder the faith of Jewish believers. James opinion seemed good to the council who then sent a delegation, including Paul and Barnabas, back to Antioch bearing a letter. The result was that the congregation, “rejoiced because of its encouragement.”

　

Prayer of the Day: Almighty Father, you gave the apostles Peter and Paul the strength to lay down their lives for the sake of your Son. Give us the same strength, to be ready at any time to lay down our lives for the one who gave his life for us, your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Irenaeus, Bisholp of Lyons

 

The church in the time of Irenaeus (130-170) had not quite settled on what was scripture 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. 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.

 

Sunday Revisited

 

Because of the lateness of Easter, the church year thrust into the lessons for Proper 8, June 26-July 2. We missed out on the lessons for Proper 1-7.  Therefore, we went from Pentecost with the report of the filling of the Holy Spirit and the first part of Peter’s sermon, to the celebration of the Holy Trinity where in the gospel lesson Jesus promises to the worshiping/doubting disciples that as they go he will be with them always.

Suddenly this week we hear Jesus saying that his presence brings conflict and not peace.  I found as I was preparing to preach the gospel lesson for this past weekend that I needed to go back to the context which we missed.  We missed Jesus teaching and proclaiming the kingdom of God.  “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them…they…were like sheep without a shepherd.”  Then he sent the disciples out with his authority to “proclaim as you go…’the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”  That is where I began my sermon this weekend.  In my mind that laid the groundwork for the message.    Now we were prepared to hear the gospel lesson for this Sunday.  The gospel message is the great dividing line for the world, cutting even into families and churches.  When it goes out we might compare it to a warm front moving up from the south encountering a cold front from the north.  We can expect turbulence along that front.  So we can expect turbulence when the gospel meets sin.  We may be tempted to escape the storms by keeping the gospel to our selves.

But the text also ends with promise.  “Whoever receives you (my disciples) receives me (the Messiah.)  Whoever, reaches out to one of his disciples with so much as a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, will not lose his inheritance.  This image ties in with Matthew 25”Come, you blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…I was thirsty and you gave me drink…”

A phrase to remember is Jesus promise, “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me.”

 

  

Presentation of the Augsburg Confession

Celebrating the Augsburg Confession

On June 25^th 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?

　

 

Nativity of John the Baptist

 

“It’s time,” Zech.  “Get Anna the midwife.” 

Zech trotted as best an old man could to the house of Simon and Anna.  He pounded on the door because he could do no more.  When at last Simon opened it, he knew why the old priest was there even before Zechariah pointed into the house and mouthed, “Anna, come,” making a rounding motion over his stomach.  “Simon called back into the house, “its Zech.  It’s time.”

“Be right there,” Anna called.  “Zech, you go back and stay with her.”  Zechariah may not have been able to speak but he could hear. In fact for the last nine months he couldn’t do anything else but listen.  As Zechariah shuffled back home, Anna commented to her husband, “Simon, I’m afraid of this one.  Elizabeth is so old.  Giving birth is hard enough on the young.  How will she do it?”

The women and men also, had talked much about this day since Elizabeth came out of seclusion four months ago.  They were glad for the old priest and his wife, but…

Simon went along with Anna to the priest’s house.  Simon’s job was to take keep Zech out of the way.  Giving birth was women’s work.  The men were of no use.  It was the women who would finish what the man had started.  There were few secrets in the little Judean village tucked away in the hill country.  The area around the priest’s home was soon crowded with women.  The men knew their place.  They gathered out by the town entrance, where they met every day to discuss the affairs of the world.  Like today and every age, numerous problems were cited, many solutions offered, none of the solutions were ever applied to the corresponding problem.  Thus they would distract Zechariah to the struggle for life that went on in his house.

So passed the day.  The men talked.  The women talked. Elizabeth pushed and groaned.  Anna the midwife guided her.  Until, a child was born. 

“It’s a boy,” Anna called out from the house.  “Elizabeth is fine so far.”

“Thanks be to God,” the women chorused.  Then Rebekah went to tell Zechariah, “You have a son.”

Today is the commemoration of the birth of John the Baptist.  His birth is placed six months before Christmas Eve. 

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.        

     

 

Onesimus Nesib

Onesimus Nesib, translator, evangelist,1856-1931

He was born in Ethiopia among the Oromo people.  His original name was Hika, “translator.” Soon after his father died, he was stolen from his mother and sold into slavery.  Renamed Nesib, he was resold four more time before being liberated on the Red Sea coast.  He was placed as a servant to a teacher and a student at the Swedish Evangelical Mission School.  On Easter Sunday, March 31^st 1870 he was given the name Onesimus “useful” at his baptism.

He hoped to evangelize the Oromo people; therefore, he prayed, “How long, O Lord, before you send a preacher of the gospel there.”  It would be a long time indeed, Onesimus and his wife and other missionaries from the Swedish church met political obstacles, nearly getting buried by a sandstorm while crossing the Nubian Desert by camel, opposition from the Orthodox archbishop, illness and death among those who accompanied him etc.

A lengthy and detailed account is posted by the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Makeme Yesus on the website for the Dictionary of African Christian Biography.  The account of his life and trials would make a good basis for an Elizabeth Peters novel.

He wrote a hymnbook “100 songs and Psalms,” translated hymns, Luther’s Small Catechism and eventually translated the entire bible.

It wasn’t until after 1900 that he was able to return to his homeland

He died at the age of 75.   Jeremiah 22:29, “O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord!” is inscribed on his tombstone.

A good prayer for us is Psalm 25:4 “Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.”          

Incomplete Disciples

 

“They worshipped him, but some doubted.”  Matthew 28:17

Dare we allow doubt mix with our faith?  Have we ever wondered in the middle of a service or the middle of the day, “Is this really true?”  Dare we allow ourselves to wonder or need we tamp down any doubt in order to be sure our faith is secure?  If we do need to trample doubt, then in whom have we placed our faith if not ourselves?

Usually, when we read Matthew 28:16-20, we concentrate on his “Authority in heaven and earth,” by which he sends out his disciples for the purpose of making more disciples among all the nations.  That sending comes with a strategy to baptize and teach.  It’s accompanied with a promised that he is Immanuel, god with us, to the end of this earthly age.

When Jesus sent out those disciples he sent out incomplete followers, who were still learning how to follow him.  Their number is incomplete, eleven not twelve, and their faith is incomplete.  Though they/we are assigned to teach all that Jesus has commanded, those newly made disciples will also be incomplete.

I’m a bit suspicious of someone who is absolutely sure of everything.  I’ve heard people say that they have never had a doubt about their salvation.  I put that in the same category as a person saying they never had a disagreement in their marriage.  I doubt it.

If doubt is present at the end of Matthew it is also present in the beginning.  Remember Joseph?  Nice guy, just and upright, moral and compassionate and a doubter.  From beginning to the end of Matthew doubt is part of faith.  Notice who else is present.  “They shall call his name Immanuel (God with us).”

Whether one has the faith to move mountains or doubt looms like a mountain, the one who was named Jesus lived up to his name, “for he will save his people from their sins.”  He is there even when the sin of doubt nags at our trust, for he has been given all authority in heaven and earth over all the ways we miss being a complete disciple.  He completes what is lacking in us to that in end we will hear him say, “Come…inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”  Meanwhile as you are going make more followers of Jesus.  Let him make these new ones complete so that the kingdom is filled to overflowing.    

  

 

Differently Gifted

Differently Gifted

Looking at the construction scene outside my hospital window reminded my wife and I of an ant hill.  Green or orange shirted helmeted laborers clustered the site each doing seemingly unconnected work.  An elongated flatbed slowly backed a large I beam down an incline to a space between two emerging buildings.  A multicabled crane swung its boom over the beam and lowered two giant blue claws, that reminded me of the hayforks we used to lift hay off the wagon bed into the hayloft of the barn.  Two men climbed on the beam via a ladder.  After a lengthy process of setting the jaws in place, the craned lifted the beam and the truck drove out from under it.  The next morning as rollers completed rolling the parking lot, black top was brought in and spread, while another crew worked on what looks like it might become a doorway.  A hundred yards away dump trucks hauled in dirt and gravel filling a space between a steel plated wall and one of concrete.

I wondered at the planning and coordination to finally bring this whole project to completion.  Perhaps next year differently gifted men and women will be performing surgeries in what is now a bare system of girders and concrete.  When I got home I learned from the newspaper that this same company was engaged in building a large dormitory at the University of Illinois.

When God created us in his own image, part of that image is the intelligence, talent, and personality to engage in a vast array of activities.  To paraphrase Paul, “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given us, let us use them (Rom. 12:6).”  Paul is writing of spiritual gifts, However, the same words can be applied to the variety of gifts God gives, when we confess in the creed, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.”   Luther writes in his explanation, “He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them…out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me.”

As a confirmation lesson once put it, “If we STOP and think, then we will gladly “Thank and Praise, Serve and Obey Him.”  Luther concludes, “This is most certainly true.”

Psalm 139:14 “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

 

Two Resorts

Two Resorts

I had overnight stays at two resorts in the last week.  One is called St. Anthony’s and the other Missouri Baptist.

My transportation to St. Anthony’s resort was provided by special coach with the springs of a hay wagon traveling a farm field road.  My first resort visit was initiated with a no. 10 chest pain that led Becky to call 911.  At the moment I was kneeling on the bedroom floor as if I was bowing to Mecca, except I was facing southwest.  My entourage arrived with flashing lights, accompanied by a fire engine and the city police car.  Soon five or six coachmen were in our living room.  By then I was sitting on the couch with no pain.  I felt like Cinderella.  Hurriedly they stuck stickers to my body, did an EKG and soon I was on my first rough ride of the morning, on a gurney across our mole ridden lawn.  Once in my coach one of the coachmen applied tha stickiest of tape as he put in an IV drip.

At resort St. Anthony all my tests proved negative, except a sonar test which revealed a few gall stones.  Eventually, I was on the cardiac floor where poking, drawing of blood, taking of vitals etc. continued throughout the day and night.  Do any of the resort personnel realize there are people going about drawing blood in the middle of the night?  It’s enough to lead one to think one is in an Anne Rice or Laurel K. Hamilton novel.

The room was spacious, the hallway wide overlooking a courtyard containing trees and shrubbery.

My resort stay ended the next day.  As often happens when one goes on vacation, I was wiped out and needed to rest.  I did visit my cardiologist on Monday.

Wednesday morning I discovered I had chest pressure and shortness of breath.  After three nitro’s and a call to the cardiologist, Becky chauffeured me in our Honda Element to Missouri Baptist resort.  The ride was smoother, though our arrival was not nearly so spectacular, having no red flashing lights.  Instead of attendants wheeling me into ER, I walked in.

Here followed much of the same registration routine, chest Ex-Ray, EKG. Etc.  Then up to the cardiac floor.  At Missouri Baptist resort the room, personnel, and food were better than St. Anthony’s.  We did have some difficulty getting food.  “There goes the cart,” I said.  Another time a person stepped in the door with a tray tantalizing me with gourmet prospects, only to step back out into the hall and go elsewhere.  Over all Missouri Baptist resort provided a dining experience of the highest quality.  That is, once we chased down the personnel from the dietary area and pleaded our case.

The resort provided a room with an interesting view.  The construction of a new medical tower and parking lot was underway.  Like viewing an ant hill, clusters of men worked here and there.  Large I beams were moved by a huge red crane, trucks brought in dirt and gravel, graders graded and rollers rolled the parking lot area.  When I left this morning they were blacktopping the parking lot.  Resort people who worked at a lower level stopped in to take in the view.

Yesterday my cardiologist did a catherization to see what she could see.  What she saw was that I only have one by-pass supplying blood to the heart.  So now we are reassessing what I can do.  I have this weekend off; Becky and I were supposed to be in Maryland this weekend.  Next Sunday, I may try doing the service sitting on a stool.

In speaking with our neighbor Bill, Becky summed up the situation.  If he sees me laying in the yard, just walk over.  If I’m sitting in the yard, hurry over, because I may still be able to be helped.

There is mercy.  A book was overdue at the seminary library.  When I got home I called to renew it so the charges would not continue to mount.  They not only renewed it, but forgave the debt.  There is forgiveness for the sinner.

There is much for which to be thankful.  The two Christian based “resorts,” the personnel, Becky who once again sat by my side and made numerous trips to home and back, to God for loaning me extra time on this mortal coil.  All of this, that thanksgiving to God might overflow.

 I will ask him to extend the loan according to His will.         

               

The Scattered Scatter the Gospel

 

Saul, soon to be Paul, was ravaging the church barging into homes and dragging believers, men and women alike, off to prison.  As the followers of Christ scattered they scattered the gospel.  Among them was Philip who went down (remember north is down in Israel) to Samaria proclaiming Christ.  With one accord the crowds paid attention to his preaching accompanied by signs of healing, both physical and spiritual.  “So there was much joy in that city.”  Acts 8:8.

The first reading for Pentecost Tuesday is Acts 8:14-17.  One can read verse 14 with a bit of incredulity, “You mean the Samaritans have received the word of God?  Jesus had predicted as much at his ascension.  What’s next?”  The apostles sent Peter and John.  During their time with Jesus, it was John along with his brother James, who had asked Jesus if they might call down a bit of fire and brimstone on an unwelcoming village.   Rocky and one of the “sons of thunder” are delegated to check things out.  Peter and John prayed with the newly coined believers that the Holy Spirit might fall on them, which happened.

The believers in Samaria had been baptized by Philip thus placing them under the Lordship of Christ.  In what most commentators view as an anomaly, the Holy Spirit had not fallen on them.  The situation in Samaria is not setting up a principal of separating baptism from the Holy Spirit.  The important event is that the gospel had been brought to and received by the Samaritans.  This must have been as surprising to the apostles and believers in Jerusalem as the Holy Spirit coming upon the Gentile Cornelius as described in chapter 10.

The question we do well to ask ourselves is, “What sort of opportunities is the Spirit providing us in our church for the Gospel to be proclaimed and wholeness restored to those sick in body and spirit?”