The Lutheran Review

When Things Work Together

 

As the end of every week nears Becky says something to the effect, “Have you thought about the children’s message.”  My standard answer is, “Not yet.”  The conversation continues, She, “What are your preaching on.”  Preacher, “Well, this week the gospel is on the feeding of the 5,000.  The Old Testament lesson is on not wasting time buy ing food that doesn’t last, but eat what is good, namely the word of the Lord.  The epistle begins Paul’s lament that his fellow Jews haven’t accepted Jesus as the Christ.  That’s probably not good for a children’s message.”

So Becky looked on the internet, thinks about while watching the Cardinals and suddenly says, “Why don’t we get a couple packages of the gold fish crackers and five buns.  You ask the kids if they could feed everyone in the congregation on five buns and two packages of goldfish.  Then tell the story of the feeding of the five thousand.  Then we will have the kids hand out grocery a bag to every family.  Tell the people they can bring the bag back next week and put it under the cross and we will give it to a food pantry.

We were all set.  When we got to church she saw in the bulletin an announcement that next Sunday is food for the needy Sunday.  I said, “Somebody has been brining things together without our knowing it.”  Then a couple who had been trout fishing, brought us a couple of fresh trout on ice.  ”Why don’t you use the trout?” Becky suggested. 

So we had a children’s sermon with five buns, two trout and a bunch of grocery bags that the two kids present handed out.  We also gave the two girls a bag of goldfish crackers.

Sometimes more things work together than you first imagined.

Most everybody has figured out that most of the ideas for the children’s sermon come from Becky.      

Mary, Martha and Lazarus of Bethany

 

This family of two sisters and a brother are so familiar to us that one could well imagine them as neighbors with whom you might converse while standing in the street between your house and theirs.  Such a thing would happen on our street since it’s a dead end street.  They are the kind of family, who when I was growing up we might just drop in on for a visit after chores.

We think of Mary as the one who listened to Jesus.  She aids us in anticipating the Old Testament lesson for Sunday (Isaiah 55:1-5) where God says, “Listen diligently to me…incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live;”  She also anointed Jesus before his crucifixion and was criticized for her devotion.

When Jesus visited the family Martha immediately set to work preparing a meal for our Lord.  To fail to show hospitality was a most serious offense.  Therefore, when Mary doesn’t pitch in a help, Martha indirectly chides Jesus for keeping her out of the kitchen.  There was plenty of time for him to talk during and after dinner.  But in line with the Old Testament lesson Jesus is feeing Mary the wine and milk and bread that will satisfy.

However, in the gospel lesson (Matthew 14:13-21) shows hospitality to the more than 5,000 people who were waiting for him and his disciples when they disembarked from their boat on the other side of the Sea of Galilee.  When they were hungry, he ended up feeding them not only his word, but a fish dinner with plenty of bread on the side.

Lazarus does seem to have been present on Jesus visit.  We hear of Lazarus when he gets sick and dies.  Jesus eventually arrived a couple of days after the funeral.  He raises him from his stinking grave.  It’s the resurrection of Lazarus that is the final straw for Jesus opponents.  Lazarus resurrection seals Jesus death warrant.

One of my favorite pieces of imaginative writing is Stephen Mitchell’s “Lazarus” from Parables and Portraits, Pub. By Harper & Row, 1991.

 He had almost reached the end of the tunnel when he heard his friend’s voice calling him back.  The voice was filled with love, but also with sorrow and pity, and not so much fear of death as resistance to it, as if it were an enemy to be expelled or overcome.  He had realized so much, during the four days’ journey, that these resonances struck him as odd, coming as they did from a man of such insight; struck him as laughable, as almost childish.  All the dramas of his short, intense life were an instant away from being resolved, dissolved, in the light at the end of the tunnel, which was not a physical light-after all, he no longer had physical eyes-but a radiant presence, a sense of completion a million times more blissful than what he had felt even in the company of his beloved friend.  And the sweet, seductive drama of master and disciples, how childish that had been too, as if a candle flame needed to warm itself before a fire.  He thought of his sisters in the old house in Bethany, of Mary anointing their friend’s feet andwip.ing them with her hair: tenderness, the absurdity of that gesture.

The voice was still calling.  He didn’t have the heart to refuse.  He knew that, for his friend’s sake, he would have to postpone his disappearance, to hurry back down the tunnel and return to his body, left behind so gratefully, which had already begun to stink.  Grater love has no man.

 

 

Chosen

 

Yesterday afternoon after I walked at the mall, I stopped at Schnuck’s to buy makings for white chili with some leftover chicken breasts.  But to find the white beans and corn I wanted from the vast array of choices was the challenge.  Incidentally, the chili was great and hot.  It will be even hotter today.  Of course, why I am choosing to eat chili that makes me sweat on a day that will be in upper 90’s is another question.

Choosing, God choosing, is the subject of the lessons for last Sunday.  In the LCMS OT lesson (Deut. 7:6-9) God tells Israel, “Yahweh, your God has chosen you to be a people to him…from all the peoples on the face of the earth.”  Yahweh chose Israel because he had set his love upon them.  He had to have them as his own prized possession even though they were slaves in Egypt and had nothing attractive about them.

The epistle, (Romans 8:28-39), tells us that we were predestined (chosen) to be “conformed to the image of his Son.”  Again, his choosing us had nothing to do with any deep down goodness in us.  He called us, we didn’t call him.  He justified us, we did not nor could not do anything to atone for the sin that dwells in us.  He glorified us who nothing within us to create glory.  All this came to us through Christ Jesus who died, was raised and sits at the right hand of God in glory.

The alternative OT lesson, Genesis 29: 15-28, is the story of Jacob of how the trickster was tricked.  Jacob, who with the complicity of his mother Rebecca, tricks his brother Esau and his father Isaac.  Jacob has to flee Esau’s’, wrath. And where does Rebecca send him?  To her brother Laban who is even more double dealing than Jacob.  What irony.  What a dysfunctional family.  Laban tricks Jacob into marrying the older daughter, Leah.  Then Laban offers a deal to Jacob.  For seven years work he can marry, the daughter he loves, Rachel.

A commentary sums is up as follows, “And thus the one who had created so much anger and mistrust at home by his cunning and deception is himself deceived.  Yet in the end he prevails because his persistence is as great as his perfidy. Subtly woven in as a subtext to this story is the crucial realization that Jacob also prevails because god has chosen him.”

 St. Paul writes at the end of the epistle lesson, “nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  For that we return to the opening verse of Romans 8, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Johann Sebastian Bach

 

Some years ago I was at a conference at Valparaiso University during which an organist played a work by Bach with seventeen variations on a theme. After the organist got through about nine of them, I thought, “Okay Johann, you’re just showing off now.”

During the last week in July the church commemorates J. S. Bach who lived in Germany from 1685 to 1750. Though I thought nine variations on a theme would have been plenty, his music conveys to us the heart and core of the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Here is how he begins his St. Matthew Passion. A chorus calls our attention to Jesus walking toward the cross.

Come you daughter, share my mourning.

See Him! - Whom? - The Bridegroom Christ.

See Him! - How? - A spotless Lamb.

See it! - What? - His patient love.

Look! - Look where? - On our guilt.

Look on Him. For love of us

He Himself His Cross is bearing.

Those simple words remind me of the Dick and Jane books from which I learned to read in First grade. Yet, in Bach’s hand the simple words have all the depth of meaning of God’s love for us in Christ Jesus.

　

　

 

James the Elder, Apostle

 

Today is the day to remember the disciple James, sometimes known as the “Elder” to distinguish him from James the Less whom we remember on May 1 and James of Jerusalem whose day is October 23. It’s as confusing for me to keep the James boys straight as it is to keep track of the several women named Mary.

In Matthew chapter 4, Jesus is walking by the Sea of Galilee when he calls two brothers, Simon (Peter) and Andrew to “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.“ Jesus continued on down the shore and finds two more fishing brothers, Andrew and James. Jesus called them and “Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.” I know this is an example of the power and urgency of Christ’s call to discipleship and the need for our immediate response. However, Jesus call that day must have seriously affected the fishing industry along the Sea of Galilee.

James and his brother John were known as “sons of thunder.” On one occasion they asked Jesus for permission to call down lightning on a Samaritan village that had refused to welcome Jesus. Another time James and John requested that they be given the most important cabinet posts in Jesus administration when he finally got around to running the Romans out of the country.

James was the first of the disciples to be martyred. His is the only martyrdom of a disciple recorded in the New Testament. He is frequently pictured with a scallop shell. It recalls his life as a fisherman, his call to fish people, and the gift of our baptism into Christ.

In the hymn, “By All Your Saints in Warfare” we sing of James the Elder,

O Lord, for James we praise you,

Who fell to Herod’s sword;

He drank the cup of suff’ring

And thus fulfilled your word.

Lord, curb our vain impatience

For glory and for fame,

Equip us for such suff’rings

As glorify your name.

LSB 518, St. 20

God talks Himself

God Interceding with God

In Romans chapter eight, St. Paul writes that God talks to himself.  When one looks at the world and see what a mess we have made of it, we who are created a little lower than the angels (Heb. 2:7),  who could blame a three in one God from being driven to distraction.

Of course, God is not so easily sidetracked, as to be driven to muttering to himself.  Well, there was that occasion back in the time of Noah when God was fed up with the whole thing, and decided to wash mankind out of his hair.  But even then he left the Noah loop hole in his decree of mass destruction.

Now I’m not sure about the theological correctness of what I’m going to write next, but bear with me. I’m going to invoke my favorite Bible passage, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1).”   In Romans eight, Paul writes that the Spirit helps us in our weakness interceding for us according to the will of God (v. 27). A little later, (v. 34) Paul adds that “Christ Jesus…who is at the right hand of God…is interceding for us?”  It looks to me that two thirds of the Trinity is pleading with the other one third of the Trinity to not bring charges against the people whom He has chosen and justified.  Of course the Father really doesn’t need much persuading, because it was out of his gracious will that he sent the Son to die for us and rise again.  He sent the Holy Spirit to work faith in the gospel in us.

  Since the holy Trinity can never be divided against itself, therefore we, with Paul can say, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

LSB hymn 573 st. 3 “Lord, ‘Tis Not That I did Choose Thee” is a fitting response.

Praise the God of all creation;

Praise the Father’s boundless love,

Praise the Lamb, our expiation,

Priest and King enthroned above.

Praise the Spirit of salvation,

Him by whom our spirits live.

Undivided adoration

To the great Jehovah give.    

       

Mary Magdalene

 

From ancient times Mary Magdalene has been thought to be the sinful woman who repented and anointed Jesus’ feet. However, there has been long standing debate over whether the repentant prostitute is Mary Magdalene.

Valerius Herberger writes, “We do not want to grow grey hairs over this debate…” Neither do I, since mine are already grey.

An examination of Luke 7:36-50 provides no biblical basis for Mary Magdalene being the repentant prostitute.

What we do know for sure is that she saw Jesus die. She also witnessed his burial. And most important of all, she was the first to see Him alive after His resurrection (John 20:11-18). Bernard of Clairveux calls her “the apostle to the apostles.” For as we read in John 20:18, she “announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’ - and that he had said these things to her.”

Because John’s gospel reports her as weeping at the tomb, she is often portrayed with red eyes. Icons depict her standing by the tomb holding a red egg.

We sing Your praise for Mary,

Who came at Easter dawn

To look for Jesus’ body

And found her Lord was gone.

But, as with joy she saw Him

In resurrection light,

May we by faith behold Him,

The Day who ends our night!

LSB 855 st. 11, For All the Faithful Women

　

　

My Portion

 

Whenever parents divvy out some dessert for their children they need to keep the portions equal.  No one wants to be slighted when it comes to ice cream or a piece of cake.  Of course, that can work in reverse when it comes to broccoli.

Psalm 119:57, declares, “The Lord is my portion…”

When Israel took over the Promised Land, the 12 tribes were given a portion.  11 of the tribes received a portion of the land.  However, for the Levites their portion was the Lord.  The land would provide a place to live and a means of support for the other 11 tribes, but for the Levites, the Lord was their home and sustenance.

The Psalmist was not necessarily a Levite.  However, in the end our life and well-being does not depend on where we live or on how well we have done in life.  Asaph, a tabernacle song leader appointed by David, is credited with authoring Psalm 73.  As the people or choir sang his psalm they were reminded in verse 26, “My flesh and my heart may fail, (How well I know) but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”  We know that our strength and heart will fail one day.  As the Lutheran Study Bible comments, “This life will end; the life to come when Christ returns will never end.”

In these July days of triple digit temperatures I am drawn to compare the Lord’s portion to a chocolate fudge ice cream cone filled, packed down and piled high.  But of course, even a large portion ice cream will only satisfy for a while.

With the Lord as my portion I am able make my pleas to the Lord for his favor and grace counting on his promises that he has and will “be gracious” Ps. 119:58.  While others suffer nightmares or anxiously toss and turn during a sleepless night, he uses the darkness as a time to sing a song of praise because of the Lord’s “righteous rules” v. 62.  He remembers that “even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day…,” psalm 139:12.  The Lord is watching over his own night and day.  He does not slumber or sleep.

God’s steadfast love fills the world v. 64.  There is no place or time or situation where his own can go and He is not there.  In God’s mercy shown in Jesus life death and resurrection an echo of Eden still sounds on the earth, “And behold it was very good.”  

Groaning Together

 

Paul writes in the epistle lesson for this week, Romans 8:18-27, “that who whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.”  Two verbs describe what the creation is going through.  The first verb, sustenazw, is usually translated, “groans together” or “laments.” It would appear to me that our word “sustain” could be traced back to the Greek.  I say this despite the fact that the dictionaries only take it back to Latin and old French.

I think adding the idea of something be sustained adds to the meaning of groaning together.  The creation is issuing a sustained and constant groaning.  This is directly opposite of Psalm 19:1-3, “the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.  Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.  There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.”  Just as we do not hear the heavens declaring God’s glory, we do not hear the groaning of creation.  But god does, just as he hears our songs of praise and our groaning.

The second verb in Rom. 8:22 is sunwdinw, meaning, “Be in travail” or “suffer agony together.”  The word is used elsewhere in connection with the birth pangs prior to giving birth.  The groaning and suffering of agony will issue forth in our adoption as the children of God.  For the time being there is the pain of waiting for new birth.  But the age in which we live is pregnant with salvation.  Like mothers waiting for the birth to occur, the creation and we ourselves waiting with patience.

In the meantime the pain may become so great that we can’t even put our prayers into words, but simply groans.  Even here is hope and help.  The Holy Spirit carries our groans to God and shapes them into prayers to which God listens and responds with grace in Jesus Christ.        

Joe Berg

 

Joe Berg died on Thursday.  His funeral was on Saturday.  I wasn’t able to attend the funeral at Holy Cross in Collinsville because we had family in from Maryland.

Twenty years ago we needed a lay leader to come forward at Holy Cross.  The Lord provided Joe Berg.  I really didn’t know him well before that.  But he took hold of the situation as president of the congregation and led us through a difficult time.  We had some difficult decisions to make and he made them.  They weren’t always popular decisions.  We spent many a breakfast at Bob Evans hashing through what needed to be done next.  These meetings ensured that we were always on the same page.

I will always be thankful for Joe.  Jesus words in Matthew 25:21 certainly apply to Joe, “Well done, good and faithful servant.  You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much.  Enter into the joy of your Master.”  Because Christ was crowned with thorns in his suffering, Joe has now received the crown of life.  When Christ returns to raise his people from the dead Joe will be among the righteous who will “shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”