4th Commandment

4^th Commandment - July 6, 2016

Honor thy father and thy mother that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God that we may not despise our parents and masters, nor provoke them to anger, but give them honor, serve and obey them, and hold them in love and esteem.

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As we see in the 10 Commandments, God’s law is divided into two tables.  The first table teaches us our duty to love God.  The second table teaches us our duty to love our neighbor.  To love God requires that we fear him and trust him.  To fear him is to acknowledge that he made us and that he is right to hold us to his holy standards.  To trust him is to have confidence toward him that he will deal with us as he has promised in his word.  This is what it means to love God.  It is both to fear and to trust him so that we have no other god, so that we call upon him in all trouble, and so that we gladly hear his word. 

Trinity 5

Luke 5:1-11 - Trinity Five - June 26, 2016
At Your Word

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At your word.  This is the Christian response to Jesus.  The crowds gathered to hear him.  His word is truth.  That is why we respond as we do.

Peter believed what we do about the words that Jesus preached.  What he spoke was God’s word.  What he taught was true and reliable.  Peter knew this.  So he listened to Jesus.  Peter knew furthermore that it was good also for the people to hear what Jesus had to say.  So there was no question about what to do when Jesus asked him to push out his boat a little so he might more effectively preach to the large crowd gathered at the edge of the lake.  Peter gladly supported the Lord in his preaching of the kingdom of God.  He did this by contributing what he had – much as we do when we give our offerings. 

Augustana

Nehemiah 8:1-2, 5-6, 9-13, 1 Timothy 6:11-16, Matthew 10:26-33

Augustana Service - St. Paul Lutheran Church, Bennett, IA - June 25, 2016

The Joy that Is Set before You

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The joy of the Lord is your strength.  These words from Nehemiah 8 are one of those beautiful Bible passages that are very easily marketed.  So much can be said in such a short pithy statement.  Years ago, I was given a coffee mug with this verse on it.  I still like it.  What a wonderful thing to read or hear – that even when you are weak, your strength is found in the joy you have in the Lord who saves you!  There is no other strength you need. 

But like with many one-liner Bible passages, if it can fit on a coffee mug or a bumper sticker, it is liable to be taken way out of context.  As you no doubt heard last Sunday, the words of Jesus, “Judge not, and you will not be judged,” have a wildly different meaning than what most people assume.  We should beware of when Bible passages are used as clichés in order to contradict what the Bible actually teaches us, “for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain”  (Ex. 20:7). 

Trinity 3

Luke 15:1-10 - Trinity Three - June 12, 2016
 Heavenly joy

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“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.”  (Hebrews 12:1-3)

We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.  These witnesses are those who in Old Testament times were saved from sin and divine judgment by grace alone through faith in Christ.  Like us they never saw Jesus.  But they waited for him.  In him they found their joy in the midst of trials, and their confidence in the midst of spiritual conflict and failure, because in him was their redemption, their forgiveness, their righteousness, and their eternal life.  By faith in God’s promise they received Jesus even before he was born, because by the faithfulness of God’s promise Jesus received them. 

Trinity Sunday

John 3:1-15 - Trinity - May 22, 2016
Confronting God

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Today is Trinity Sunday.  The word Trinity is not found in the Bible.  It’s a word that was created by Christians in order to express what the Bible teaches about God.  The Bible teaches clearly that God is three distinct Persons in one divine Essence: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  That’s what Trinity means: tri + unity = Trinity.  The only true God is the Triune God.  All true Christians believe this.  Every true Church confesses this.  The Christian Church has learned to articulate her faith in the three ecumenical creeds – the Apostles, the Nicene, and the Athanasian – not by thinking really hard about God – not by sitting down and figuring out his mind – no, but by learning from Holy Scripture who God is and what God does, and by defending the doctrine they learned when controversy arose.  Our creeds are not extra words that we impose upon the word of God.  They are concise expressions of the holy Faith that God’s word teaches us. 

Easter 7

John 15:26–16:4 - Exaudi (Confirmation) Sunday - May 8, 2016
Remember That I Told You So

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Jesus does not want you to stumble.  He wants you to stand firm.  That is why he has spoken to you in the Holy Scriptures, in the preaching and teaching of the gospel, and in the simple instruction of the Catechism.  This is what he intended when he commanded that his saving grace be preached to all creatures.  He teaches you where you may stand and walk secure, and follow him without tripping and falling.  The prophet Isaiah prophesied that Christ the Lord “will make each of [His] mountains a road, and [His] highways shall be elevated” (Isaiah 49:11).  This is his way of promising that your pilgrimage will be safe and your path will be level as you follow him through life, death, and into heaven.  He makes your journey safe and your path level, however, not by making life easy, though, or even by removing the great dangers that threaten you and your faith along the way.  Oh, no!  They will be plenty, as we sing:

I walk in danger all the way.
The thought shall never leave me
That Satan, who has marked his prey,
Is plotting to deceive me.
This foe with hidden snares
May seize me unawares
If ever I fail to watch and pray.
I walk in danger all the way.

Easter 6

John 16:23-30 - Rogate Sunday - May 1, 2016
Scattered Prayers

If there is something important that you don’t know, but that you need to know, you should ask someone, right?  More specifically, you should ask someone who knows the answer.  It won’t do any good just to think about it until you suddenly come to know what you previously did not.  That’s simply not how it works; that’s not how knowledge is gained.  To ask a question is to make a request for information from someone who has it.  It’s to pray for knowledge, so to speak.   And that is why to seek instruction from God is really the highest form of prayer.  In fact, one cannot pray at all unless he first learns from God who God is, and why it is that He listens to our prayers.  This is how God’s name is hallowed.