Baseball and Religion

With the World Series underway, here's a fascinating article over at "Get Religion" on the Christianity and the character of the Colorado Rockies team. I must say that I appreciate this kind of a distinction. The owners are not looking for "Christian baseball players," per se, but rather for players with good character and values (and they just happen to be Christians). In such a setting - a business setting, a secular setting, an entertainment venue etc. (and let's face it, professional sports is all three!) - that's how Christians shine best. Just do the job to the best of one's ability and with character informed and shaped by the Love of God in Christ Jesus, and, hey, some pretty amazing things can happen. Although I do wonder if we'll see similar articles about how the Christian character of a team or its individual players helps them and sustains them during the rough times, such as times of losing the World Series, or being less than successful (or even, as my favorite football team is now experiencing, a winless season)!

Gerhard on Imitation of Christ

At our recent Pastors' Conference in Jefferson City, one brother and I enjoyed some of God's "First Article gift" of really good single malt Scotch and discussed how we need not divorce Jesus' saving work from His example for all of the Christian's life. It would seem that Gerhard can also hold these two Scriptural truths together:

"The holy life of Christ is the most perfect model of virtue we can have; every action of His is rich in instruction for us…. Unless thou are willing to be a disciple of Christ, thou wilt never be a true Christian. Let the passion of Christ be thy merit, but at the same time let His holy life be the model for thine" (Johann Gerhard, Sacred Meditations, Meditation XXX, “The Imitation of Christ,” p. 169).

Homily - 2007 Missouri District Pastors' Conference

I had the distinct honor of officiating and preaching at the Monday Matins Service at our 2007 Missouri District Pastors' Conference (21-23 October, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Jefferson City, MO). The conference theme is "Pastor, Who Do You Think You Are?" and shows the focus of the two main presenters as they present, dialog, and answer questions from brother pastors on the identity and work of the Office of the Ministry. Here's my humble exhortation to tackle the issues of the Pastoral Office with God's gifts of humility and charity. (The clip art shown here is what we on the Planning Committee chose as our "logo" for Conference materials.)

Exhortation to "Calvary Love"
Acts 20:17-18, 28-32

St. Paul sure knew how to plan and conduct a pastors’ conference! Even in the midst of his hurried journey to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost in Jerusalem and deliver famine relief to the saints there, he takes time out to meet with his brothers in Office from Ephesus. And they gladly take time out of their hectic schedules of tending their flocks to meet with the Apostle and chief-missionary to the Gentiles. What a great message we pastors hear from the Apostle! What great love and support among clergy we can see in the Pastors’ Conference at Miletus in AD 56.

But before we unpack the Apostles’ exhortations, let’s back up for some context. It’s his third missionary journey, and St. Paul continues to proclaim Christ crucified and risen for the life of the world to any and all he can. When he arrives in Ephesus, he encounters some who have never heard of the Holy Spirit, and he baptizes them “in the name of the Lord Jesus” (19:5). He then enters the synagogue in Ephesus to speak boldly, “reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God” (19:8). Some gladly hear him and receive the message of Christ crucified and risen for sinners. Others, though, become stubborn and slander “the Way.”

Soon after, St. Paul’s Gospel preaching results in a great disturbance in Ephesus. Those who sell religious goods and services for “the great goddess Artemis” – a grand and successful enterprise, to be sure – fear that she will soon “be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence” (19:27). The Christian message routinely overthrows the gods of the culture. The abundant life in Christ is simply incompatible with – and infinitely better than – commonly accepted spiritualities. So, St. Paul has to leave Ephesus, but only after he trains and appoints presbyters, or pastors, to preach the Christ in Ephesus.

After some time in Macedonia and Greece, St. Paul begins his return journey to Jerusalem. Now we return to our text. St. Paul’s words to his brother clergy gathered in Miletus are sage words for us gathered here in Jefferson City. St. Paul reminds them and us how he had served “with all humility and with tears and with trials.” That’s a universe apart from the triumphalistic, success-driven talk we hear so much today! Let us pray our gracious Lord to give us the same humility that waits upon Him and His gracious working, the same tears of repentance that water the seeds of His Gospel, and the same trials that drive us to rely on Him rather than on ourselves and our strategies.

Then the Apostle gives some necessary exhortation. “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock.” Heed how you live and what you teach, you pastors. Be careful how and what you study and preach, how you live and interact with the flock that God has given you. And, yes, pay careful attention to your flock. You see, that flock is not yours to do with as you please, he says. As he tells the Ephesian pastors and us: “the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.” That congregation, that circuit, that district, is not some grand opportunity for you to put your dashing personality or pious skills on display for all to see and admire. It doesn’t really matter if you think your skills are leadership-driven and “missional,” or if you fancy your leanings to be staunchly conservative and confessional. That flock is God’s flock; those blood-bought sheep belong to Him. He wants you to tend them as He tends them: with humility, with self-sacrificing love. After all, our Savior did not spare His own blood on behalf of the flock, and He poured out His healing blood to reconcile enemies.

Then the Apostle gives a stark warning. “I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.” Yes, watch out for the wolves – wolves from without and wolves from within. St. John Chyrsostom explained it this way: “Look, not only does he mention ‘wolves’ but adds ‘fierce,’ thereby hinting at their excess and recklessness. Even worse, he says that these wolves will arise from among themselves. This is exceedingly difficult to bear, since it is also a civil war” (ACCS, Acts, 254).

And just who are these wolves that arise “from among your own selves”? What is the civil war of which Chrysostom speaks? Just look around here this morning. To paraphrase the 20th century comic strip character Pogo: “We have seen the wolves, and they are us.” How many of us are here to see a “battle royale” between our two presenters? Theological discussion and debate are certainly good, as long as they lead us more and more into the Truth and Love of our Savior God, and into His gift of love for one another. But how many of us have chosen our side and want to “stick it” to the other? How many of us plan to rejoice in points made that resonate with our position, but will certainly stir and grumble with points that don’t?

And what shall we say about the ways in which we act like wolves with our brothers in Office? One hears of pastors asked to resign their calls because they are not “effective leaders,” or merely because some in the congregation may be unrepentantly upset with their pastor. One hears of congregations that do their “mission work” right in the back yard of a sister congregation. One hears of brothers who say, “I cannot commune with Brother ‘So-and-So’; he’s on the ‘other side.’” But then there’s that dirty little secret: we already commune with each other every time we celebrate the Supper in our own congregations. We can also think of how we delight in welcoming members, most likely disgruntled, from a sister flock – whether it’s innovative and “missional” or confessional and traditional. Some of us cause great stumbling by adopting and adapting worship that’s Pentecostal in style and substance. Others of us cause great stumbling by using our Confessions and the Church’s liturgy as a weapon against our brothers, instead of a weapon against the devil, the world, and our own sinful pride. Some of us use our Lord’s “Great Commission” as license to institute various innovations and excitements, as well as a club to use on those who don’t. Others of us grow cold to our Lord’s mission in the name of righteousness by doctrinal purity. Some of us sure seem to worship the mission more than we worship the Holy Trinity, while others of us fiercely defend our own position at the expense of bringing lost sinners into the very life and love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. My brothers, these things should not be. We have met the wolves, and they are us! So, as St. Paul says elsewhere, “if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another” (Gal. 5:15).

Instead of consuming each other, let’s repent, one and all. After all, that is where we will find our comfort, our hope, and our unity as overseers of God’s flock. As St. Paul tells the Ephesian pastors, he also tells us: “Now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” We certainly want to capitalize and personalize that word “Word.” St. Paul commends us to the Word – the Logos – made flesh. Jesus Christ is the “Word of God’s grace.” He poured out His innocent blood to reconcile us who are at enmity with each other. His cosmic victory over sin, death, and Satan, handily overcomes our little civil wars. His humility in death conquers our arrogant pride. His glorious life resuscitates us to love Him and one other. And He – the crucified and risen Shepherd of the sheep – is able to build us up in His eternal love and give us His inheritance of mercy, grace, and mutual love.

In 1945 Pastor Berthold von Schenk called this love of Christ “the Calvary Love.” He also said that we find this love at the Altar. This Altar-centered love is the true source and shape of the Church’s mission. I’ll let Pr. von Schenk have the last word:

At the Altar is the cresset where we get our fire of the Calvary Love. How this love is needed! We have lost much of it. We have to invent all kinds of methods to attract the people. We must advertise, we must entertain. Why? Because the Church has lost its way to the Altar it has also lost its way into the heart of the world. For the pure love of Calvary alone can save the world. It is that love for which the world is aching. But we must first recapture it ourselves.

Let us find the reality of Calvary, of love, by the way of the Altar. There we can again touch the wounds of Christ; and by touching the wounds of Christ, we shall touch the wounds of the world” (The Presence, 91).

Homily - Trinity 20

The Right Clothing
Matthew 22:1-14
(with many thanks to my good friend Pr. Weedon, for most of this!)

What in the world is this parable about? Does it make sense to you? I can understand the King sending out his army to slay those who ruthlessly murdered his servants. After all, his servants only came to bring an invitation. But why does the King get so worked up over the man who shows up without a wedding garment? He did come to the great feast at the King’s own invitation. But to end up bound hand and foot, taken away, and tossed into the outer darkness – all because he wasn’t wearing the right duds? Talk about being superficial! Talk about being super-strict and overbearing! What’s up with that? Does it make sense to you?

Well, this little dilemma does invite us to think about our clothes and what they mean in the Scriptures. So, let’s go back to the very beginning. When Adam and Eve rebelled and broke off ties with God, when they selfishly seized what God had not given them, they lost the clothing of the glory of God. They had been created to wear it for all eternity, but they threw it away like some tattered old rags. Suddenly they realized that they were naked, and they were ashamed of that nakedness.

So how did they deal with their shame? They decided to make their own duds – fig-leaf fashions – as they tried to cover up their nakedness. It didn’t work too well, though, did it? God came into the Garden one day, in the cool of the day, and they played a little hide and seek. Their fig-leaf fashions could not cover up their distrust of the God who loved them. They could not hide their fear and shame. So, Adam and Eve were left naked – exposed, vulnerable, and ashamed. You see, that’s how it always works with the clothes that we design and sew to cover our nakedness and our shame. They never really do the job.

So, what are your fig leaves? What do you use to cover up your nakedness of turning away from God, your shame of being self-centered, self-serving, and just plain self-ish? How do you try to make yourself presentable to others and to God? Do you dress up in money and think that those little pieces of paper, or even smaller pieces of credit card plastic, can cover your nakedness and your shame? Do you dress up in working out so that you can keep a fit, trim, and beautiful body? Do you try to cover over your selfishness and shame by trying to please everyone around you so that they all really like you? Do you don the garments of gossip, thinking that if you invite others to ogle over someone else’s shame and folly, they won’t really notice yours?

Oh, we all play dress up – no question about it. And just like Adam and Eve, when God comes to call, we soon discover that our self-designed duds, our personal line of fig-leaf fashions, just doesn’t cut it. God sees right through the fig leaves. And we are left quite naked, quite exposed, quite vulnerable, quite blushing, and quite ashamed. We know that we are just plain naked, because we routinely live as if God does not matter, and as if we matter most.

But God did not leave Adam and Eve in their nakedness, did He? No, He graciously clothed them. He gave them duds that fit and covered much better than fig leaves. But instead of plucking from a fruit tree, God decided to kill an animal. “And the LORD God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them” (Gen. 3:21). God had told them that the day they ate of the one fruit, they would surely die. But now look what happened. Instead of Adam and Eve dropping dead on the spot, an animal – an innocent victim – was sacrificed in their place. From that death they were given garments to wear – garments bought with the price of blood.

Now we can go back to the parable Jesus tells us today. Now we can properly ponder the wedding garment. If you want to make sense of the King’s anger at the man who comes to the wedding feast without the proper attire, you have to keep the story in the Scriptural pattern of clothing. You see, the King graciously supplied the wedding garment. And that was not an easy task, mind you. That wedding garment was not made from sheepskin or goatskin or cowhide. No death of an animal would do for this luxurious garment. No, the wedding garment was made from the innocent suffering and death of the Son of God.

You see, the Son of God clothed Himself in our flesh and blood when He was conceived and born of the pure Virgin. Then, when He went to the cross in our place, He was stripped of His garments of cloth. He hung naked on the cross to provide the pure, seamless garment of His own holiness for you. Why would He do this? Because He loves you with an everlasting love; because He wants to welcome you to His Great Wedding Feast, just as He invites and wants all to come.

So what you wear to the Great Wedding Feast does matter, especially when the King comes to inspect the guests. If you are not wearing the garment and the holiness of the Son of God – the garment and holiness that He bled and died to give you – then watch out! You won’t be able to stand before the King. You won’t be able to stand before Him clothed in your own personal line of duds. That would show the greatest contempt for this priceless gift from the King! And, yes, that would arouse His anger. In fact, that’s the only thing that arouses it – contempt for the priceless garment of holiness given by the Son of God.

So what are you wearing today? When you were baptized the Great King did more than invite you by name to His Great Banquet. He also gave you the perfect wedding garment. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). He dressed you in the holiness of His Son. He wrapped you up in the glory of Jesus’ own perfect life of love. He gave it to you as your very own garment for time and eternity. And He invites you to wear it with joy and gladness all the days of your life.

The Church used to show that glorious new garment by wrapping the newly baptized in a white garment after Baptism. We still show it by clothing our pastors in the alb or surplice. These white garments do not testify to any personal holiness of the pastors, but rather to the holiness of Christ Himself – the very same holiness laid on all of the baptized.

You need to wear something to live in this world; we know that well enough. Well, you’ll also need to wear something when you appear before God on the Last Day. As the hymn says:

Lord, when Your glory I shall see
And taste Your kingdom’s pleasure,
Your blood my royal robe shall be,
My joy beyond all measure!
When I appear before Your throne,
Your righteousness shall be my crown;
With these I need not hide me.
And there, in garments richly wrought,
As Your own bride shall we be brought
To stand in joy beside You. (LSB 438:4)

So, remember and trust that God Himself has clothed you with His Son. He has wrapped you up in His life. Never take Him off; never be found naked without Him. Instead, remain clothed in Him, and come forward to the Foretaste of His Great Wedding Feast. You have a most certain welcome to the Feast in the Kingdom that never ends, and that Feast begins even now at this rail. Come, you who are clothed in the perfect garment of Christ Jesus! Amen.

Playing Tag

Well, apparently I've been tagged by Anastasia, who was first tagged by Pastor Weedon. I'm told that the challenge is to say seven true things about myself, as Anastasia has done (though I don't remember Pastor Weedon doing so before he tagged her! :-)

So, here goes:

1. I grew up in the state of Oregon ("Or'-e-gun" not "O-ree-gone'"!) and lived in that beautiful state until I moved away to go to seminary. Unofficially, I belong to the "Society of Native Oregon Born" (S.N.O.B.)! :-) I sure miss "God's country" (especially during horrendously hot and humid St. Louis summers!), and I hope to get back there someday for more than just a vacation visit.

2. I am the only clergy-type in my family, so that makes me the hands down candidate for "black sheep" of the family! :-) My dad was a civil engineer, and my mom did clerical work for math professors at a university. They're both happily retired now.

3. God has blessed me with a beautiful and gracious wife (she has to be gracious with me around!) and with two bright, intelligent, caring teenage children (okay, sometimes that "caring" part and that "teenage" part don't always appear simultaneously! ;-). I love them all very much.

4. I adore my beagle boys, Porthos and Gimli. They are fitting successors to our former beagle, Shadow (that's a tribute for another blog post someday).

5. My favorite sports teams include the St. Louis Rams (even when they don't do well), and the Portland Trailblazers (ditto!). (Did someone say "theology of the cross"? ... 'cause there sure aint no "theology of glory" with either team!)

6. I love to read and learn and grow, especially in the areas of theology and church history, and always wish I had more time to do all three. Why is it that there are so many good books and so little time?

7. And, saving the best for last, I am incredibly grateful (and often ineffably so) that our gracious God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - has seen fit to rescue the likes of me from sin, death, and the devil through the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I constantly pray that somehow, purely by His merciful working, He will lead us Christians to swallow our sinful pride so that we can mend the rifts in Christendom and present a united witness for the life of the world.

Now that I've been "it" and given my seven truths of life, I'll tag Pastor Christopher Hall and Pastor Tim May. Let's see what seven true things you can tell us about yourselves!

This just in...

...high drama in the St. Louis Domestic Court (we think :-):

A seven-year old boy was at the center of a St Louis County court room drama yesterday when he challenged a court ruling over who should have custody of him. The boy has a history of being beaten by his parents and the judge initially awarded custody to his aunt, in keeping with child custody law and regulation requiring that family unity be maintained to the highest degree possible.

The boy surprised the court when he proclaimed that his aunt beat him more than his parents and he adamantly refused to live with her. When the judge then suggested that he live with his grandparents, the boy cried and said that they also beat him.

After considering the remainder of the immediate family and learning that domestic violence was apparently a way of life among them, the judge took the unprecedented step of allowing the boy to propose who should have custody of him. After two court recesses to check legal references and confer with the child welfare officials, the judge granted temporary custody to the St Louis Rams football team, whom he firmly believes are not capable of beating anyone.

Homily - St. Luke, Evangelist

Here's a little something from last year as today we remember and thank God for St. Luke, the Evangelist, the physician, and the missionary companion of St. Paul.

Physician of the Soul
Luke 10:1-9

On this day the Church commemorates St. Luke the Evangelist. He wrote the Gospel account that carries his name, and he wrote the sequel that we know as the Book of Acts. In his first book St. Luke did his historical research and interviewed eyewitnesses to tell “all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up” (Acts 1:1-2). In his second book St. Luke records how the Holy Spirit began leading the Church into all truth (Jn. 16:13) by making the apostles “witnesses [of Jesus] in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). As St. Luke gives us the life of Jesus and the life of the Church, he shows us that he is God’s gift as a physician of the soul.

We know from the Bible that St. Luke was not a Jew, but a Gentile. He was also a physician, schooled in the medical arts. In the Book of Acts St. Luke shows up as a companion and missionary partner of St. Paul. When others had abandoned St. Paul, St. Luke remained faithful and brought comfort to the apostle.

According to Church Tradition St. Luke was born in the town of Antioch in the country of Syria. This is also the city where the followers of Christ were first called “Christians” (Acts 11:26), and there were probably quite a few Christians there at that time. Church Tradition also says that Doctor Luke heard about Christ and traveled to hear the message of salvation from the lips of the Savior. And while Holy Scripture doesn’t name the 72 preachers whom Jesus sent out, Tradition says that Dr. Luke may have been one of them. And it may very well be that Dr. Luke was also one of the two disciples whom Jesus met on the road to Emmaus and taught after His resurrection. At that point Dr. Luke certainly would have learned that it was “necessary that the Christ should suffer [death and resurrection] and enter into his glory” (Lk. 24:26).

When it came to writing his Gospel account, many in the Church have held that St. Luke learned the details of Christ’s life and saving work from St. Paul and even from the Virgin Mary. And in addition to writing the Gospel and the Book of Acts, St. Luke is said to have preached the Gospel in various countries and suffered martyrdom in the city of Thebes.

So while we do not gather to worship St. Luke, we do thank God for this great physician of the soul. We do honor him for faithfully proclaiming the Great Physician, Jesus Christ Himself. It’s because of St. Luke that we have the beloved account of the Holy Spirit coming to the Virgin Mary to announce the Birth of the Savior. It’s because of St. Luke that we get to hear the Christmas story every year and learn how the Son of God became Man to restore us to God’s image. It’s because of St. Luke that we learn many parables of Jesus and how He, the Lord of Life is the Good Samaritan who rescues us from our death of sin on the side of the road. It’s because of St. Luke that we learn to trust God our Father who welcomes us prodigal sinners back into His family and puts on us the robe of Christ’s righteousness. It’s because of St. Luke that we can rejoice in Jesus as our atoning sacrifice, saying “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.” And it’s because of St. Luke that our hearts can burn within us as we know and receive the risen Lord “in the breaking of the bread.” These things that Jesus began to do and to teach are the healing medicine for our souls, and St. Luke, the doctor of the Gospel, delivers the soothing balm.

It’s also because of St. Luke that we can rejoice in the Church and the Holy Spirit coming to give us Life with God. Just as the Spirit breathed life into the Apostles to proclaim the forgiveness of Christ, even in the face of opposition and persecution, He also breathes life into us to “repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of [our] sins” and to “receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

The Higher Things devotion for today invites us to thank the Lord for St. Luke. Here’s how it reads:

“Thank the Lord for St. Luke! He is one of the men that the Holy Spirit used to publish the Good News of Jesus to the ends of the earth. St. Luke carefully listens to the eyewitnesses of Jesus birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension. St. Luke is used by the Holy Spirit to write down for us the Good News of Jesus' life and death in our place. He records Jesus' words and work, which the Lord spoke and did for our salvation. St. Luke, in the Gospel that bears his name, has given us a record of the salvation accomplished by Jesus for us.

“Thank the Lord for St. Luke! He didn't just stop at the cross or grave. He didn't end his writing with salvation accomplished. He also recorded salvation delivered! St. Luke also wrote the Acts of the Apostles. In this book, he records the preaching of Jesus by the apostles, the conversions of Jews and Gentiles, and the ministry of St. Paul, who brought the Gospel of Christ to the very heart of the Roman Empire. In the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit, through the writing of St. Luke, teaches us God's grace in saving us through the preaching of the Holy Gospel, through Holy Baptism, and through the Lord's Supper. The Holy Spirit teaches us what the church is and how He has founded it: upon the preaching and teaching of Christ by the apostles.

“Thank the Lord for St. Luke! The Gospel that bears his name and the Book of the Acts of the Apostles are the Lord's gifts to us so that we may hear the Good News of salvation in Jesus and be pointed to where that salvation is given to us in His holy, Christian Church. Thank the Lord for St. Luke! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.”

St. Ignatius of Antioch, Pastor and Martyr

Today the Lutheran Service Book calendar commemorates Ignatius of Antioch, as does the Roman calendar. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church gives Ignatius’ dates as c. 35-c. 107. According to Origen, Ignatius was the second Bishop of Antioch, succeeding St. Peter, but according to Eusebius, Ignatius was the third Bishop of Antioch, succeeding Peter’s successor, Euodius, c. 69.

St. Ignatius is best known for his seven letters written to various churches and for his journey to Rome to be executed for confessing Christ Jesus. In his letters he gives wonderful testimony to the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the blessings of harmony and unity in the Church. In fact, in the mind of St. Ignatius, these two things – living in the grace of Christ and living united and harmoniously in the Church – go hand in glove. Here are some selected snippets as we remember St. Ignatius this day:

Glorifying Christ by being united

“It is proper, therefore, in every way to glorify Jesus Christ, who has glorified you, so that you, joined together in a united obedience and subject to the bishop and the presbytery, may be sanctified in every respect” (To the Ephesians, 2).

“For Jesus Christ, our inseparable life, is the mind of the Father, just as the bishops appointed throughout the world are the mind of Christ” (To the Ephesians, 3).

“Thus it is proper for you to act together in harmony with the mind of the bishop, as you are in fact doing. For your presbytery, which is worthy of its name and worthy of God, is attuned to the bishop as strings to a lyre. Therefore in your unanimity and harmonious love Jesus Christ is sung. You must join this chorus, every one of you, so that by being harmonious in unanimity and taking your pitch from God you may sing in unison with one voice through Jesus Christ to the Father, in order that he may both hear you and, on the basis of what you do well, acknowledge that you are members of his Son. It is, therefore advantageous for you to be in perfect unity, in order that you may always have a share in God” (To the Ephesians, 4).

“I was doing my part, therefore, as a man set on unity. But God does not dwell where there is division and anger. The Lord, however, forgives all who repent, if in repenting they return to the unity of God and the council of the bishop. I believe in the grace of Jesus Christ, who will free you from every bond. Moreover, I urge you to do nothing in a spirit of contentiousness, but in accordance with the teaching of Christ” (To the Philadelphians, 7-8).

Necessity of being in the House of God

“Let no one be misled: if anyone is not within the sanctuary, he lacks the bread of God. For if the prayer of one or two has such power, how much more that of the bishop together with the whole church! Therefore whoever does not meet with the congregation thereby demonstrates his arrogance and has separated himself…” (To the Ephesians, 5).

“Therefore make every effort to come together more frequently to give thanks and glory to God. For when you meet together frequently, the powers of Satan are overthrown and his destructiveness is nullified by the unanimity of your faith” (To the Ephesians, 13).

“Continue to gather together, each and every one of you, collectively and individually by name, in grace, in one faith and one Jesus Christ, who physically was a descendant of David, who is Son of man and Son of God, in order that you may obey the bishop and the presbytery with an undisturbed mind, breaking one bread, which is the medicine of immortality, the antidote we take in order not to die but to live forever in Jesus Christ” (To the Ephesians, 20).

The Gospel of Life

“Be deaf, therefore, whenever anyone speaks to you apart from Jesus Christ, who was of the family of David, who was the son of Mary; who really was born, who both ate and drank; who really was persecuted under Pontius Pilate, who really was crucified and died while those in heaven and on earth and under the earth looked on; who, moreover, really was raised from the dead when his Father raised him up—his Father, that is—in the same way will likewise also raise us up in Christ Jesus who believe in him, apart from whom we have no true life” (To the Trallians, 9).

Hunger and Thirst for Christ and His Meal

“I take no pleasure in corruptible food or the pleasures of this life. I want the bread of God, which is the flesh of Christ who is of the seed of David; and for drink I want his blood, which is incorruptible love” (To the Romans, 7).

“Take care, therefore, to participate in one Eucharist (for there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup which leads to unity through his blood; there is one altar, just as there is one bishop, together with the presbytery and the deacons, my fellow servants), in order that whatever you do, you do in accordance with God” (To the Philadelphians, 4).

(All quotes taken from The Apostolic Fathers, Second Edition, translated by J. B. Lightfoot and J. R. Harmer, Baker, 1989.)

And let me properly introduce...

...Gimli (left, with blue collar) and Porthos (right, with red collar), as they patiently wait for their favorite time of day: meal time.

Doggedly Determined

So last week I was playing around with my two favorite Beagles (okay, they were playing and I decided to butt in on their fun :-).

Just for the record, their names are Porthos (red collar) and Gimli (blue collar), and, yes, they are actual brothers, or litter mates. The name "Porthos," of course, comes from the Three Musketeers (but I must admit that we stole the idea from Star Trek: Enterprise, in which Captain Jonathan Archer's beagle is named Porthos). The name "Gimli," of course, comes from the entertaining dwarf in Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" Trilogy. (Hey, we wanted to be original! :-)

So, I joined my dogs at play, when they were wrestling each other and chasing each other over a milk jug. (Recyclables are great...and inexpensive...toys! A bit like the hours of fun my brothers and I had with the cardboard box that the new refrigerator came in, I suppose.) Well, Porthos and Gimli weren't just going to let me take their new favorite toy away! And they kind of add new meaning to "doggedly determined," as you can see here (yes, they are hanging about 8-9 inches off the floor!).

Luther on Becoming and Healing

This is one of my absolute favorite quotes from Martin Luther:

“This life is not godliness, but growth in godliness; not health, but healing; not being, but becoming; not rest, but exercise. We are not now what we shall be, but we are on the way; the process is not yet finished, but it has begun; this is not the goal, but it is road; at present all does not gleam and glitter, but everything is being purified.”

Martin Luther,
“A Defense and Explanation of All Articles”
(AE 32:24).

Homily - Trinity 19

(A little "sanitive lingo" for Pastor Weedon! :-)

Healing by Forgiving
Matthew 9:1-8

The Bible commentator F. Dale Brunner summed up our Gospel reading quite well. He said, “To forgive a person is to enable a person to move.” Today Jesus shows us how He forgives us and heals us from our paralysis of sin. That authority to forgive sins is given by God to His Son, and by Christ Jesus to His Church on earth. Yes, forgiveness of sins happens right here on earth, and God has given such authority to men.

As Jesus sits in a house teaching God’s Word, the crowd around Him packs the house, eagerly hearing His words. When four friends bring their paralyzed pal to hear Jesus and be healed by Him, they cannot get in to see Jesus. So they go up to the roof, tear a hole in the roof, and lower their friend on his cot right in front of Jesus. Remember, the paralyzed man cannot move. He cannot by his own reason or strength come to Jesus Christ.

But Jesus does notice the faith of the man’s four friends. They are the Church. They know that Jesus heals by forgiving, and they want Jesus to grant His forgiving healing to their friend. Now, that’s true evangelism! They bring another person paralyzed by sin into the presence of Jesus to be healed by His forgiveness. And Jesus does just that. He heals the man by saying, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” That’s it.

That’s it?! Where’s the actual healing? Doesn’t Jesus know that first you take care of the physical problem, and then, only after that, can you address the spiritual problem? Doesn’t He know that you can’t get too spiritual with people too quickly? Doesn’t He know that you have to lure people in by some other enticement, and then, only then, can you give them the real stuff about Jesus and His Gospel?

Actually, here’s what Jesus knows. He knows that any physical problem, any mental problem, any psychological, emotional, or social problems, are merely the symptoms. The real root disease is the paralysis of sin and death, the paralysis of being separated from God. Jesus also knows that His forgiveness is the only real cure for that paralysis. “To forgive a person is to enable a person to move.” Jesus knows that when you start with and focus on forgiving sins, that’s the best way to help and heal other people.

When Jesus freely and fully forgives the paralyzed man, the religious people have a fit. They grumble among themselves. “This man is blaspheming,” they say. “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mk. 2:7). You see, all they could detect in Jesus was a mere Man. Oh, they were fine with God forgiving sins up in heaven. But here on earth? A human being actually forgiving and absolving another human being? Well, that was just out of the question! “Only God can forgive sins!” they would say.

That’s the way we work too, isn’t it? We look at our brothers and sisters in the Roman Catholic Church, and they practice that thing called “going to Confession.” We squirm at the notion of confessing our sins to another human being. We revolt at the notion of another human being saying, “I forgive you your sins,” especially in a private, person-to-person setting. But when we squirm and revolt, remember that we squirm and revolt against Jesus and His healing of forgiveness. When we squirm and revolt, we merely show our paralysis—our paralysis of sin, our paralysis of pride. We are so paralyzed by being curved in on ourselves that confessing our sins seems so repulsive.

When St. Augustine was near death, he begged one of his friends to paint on the wall opposite his bed the words of Psalm 32: “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit” (Ps. 32:1-2). Ah, there’s nothing more precious than clinging to God’s forgiveness in Christ Jesus! Augustine knew it. The paralyzed man knew it too.

When Jesus forgives and heals the paralyzed man, His healing also sends a message. If the Son of Man can heal – and people knew He could – then it proves that He can also forgive sins on earth. God truly has given such authority to the Man Christ Jesus!

So Jesus asks the religious types: “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? At first we might say that saying “Your sins are forgiven” is easier. After all, when we hear those words we don’t see any physical or social change. Perhaps we get used to hearing them, and we don’t treasure them. Perhaps we tune them out because we hear them so often. Truth be told, we’d rather see that other person shape up his/her act before we forgive yet again. That’s our paralysis. At least if someone says, “Rise and walk,” we can see if it works. If the man gets up and walks, then we know we have a great healer in our midst. If nothing happens, then we know we have a quack.

But is forgiveness really that easy? We might want to say, “Pastor, Jesus is God, and God can forgive.” But the religious types only saw a Man. Besides that, what really brings our forgiveness? Is it the fact that Jesus is true God? If so, then why did He choose to suffer and die such a bloody death? No, forgiveness is very hard! It comes at a great price. It cost Jesus His very life. He suffered rejection and torture. He suffered the paralysis of hanging lifeless on the Cross and lying dead in the tomb. That’s what brings forgiveness. God in Christ loved you, His neighbor, by dying for you to forgive you. And then, on the third day, He rose again to bring His life, His healing, His immortality to light.

That forgiveness heals your paralysis. And now Jesus gives you, His Church, that authority to forgive sins. “To forgive a person is to enable a person to move.” Jesus authorizes you, His healed, forgiven people, to heal others by proclaiming Christ’s forgiveness to them.

And just how does Jesus dispense His cross-won forgiveness? The same way He did for the paralyzed man. He speaks His words of Absolution. Many people think that Lutherans don’t “believe in” Confession and Absolution. Actually, I say it’s the best-kept secret among Lutherans. Yes, we Lutherans actually do teach and prize “going to Confession.” You see, when you go to Confession, you receive the precious treasure and healing of Jesus’ cross-won forgiveness.

The Small Catechism (V:1) says it this way: “What is Confession? Confession has two parts. First, that we confess our sins, and second, that we receive absolution, that is, forgiveness, from the pastor as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that by it our sins are forgiven before God in heaven.” Our Augsburg Confession (XI:1) says it this way: “It is taught among us that private absolution should be retained and not allowed to fall into disuse.”

So, when was the last time you went to Confession? When was the last time you sought out your pastor to hear your confession and to pronounce Christ’s forgiveness to you? I know, you can certainly confess your sins privately at home. That’s true, but what do you hear in response? Remember, “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). The paralyzed man did not just imagine himself healed. He heard the words of Jesus. Those words forgave and healed him. Such is the authority that Jesus gives to His Church and her ministers. As the hymn says,

“The words which absolution give
Are His who died that we might live;
The minister whom Christ has sent
Is but His humble instrument.

"When ministers lay on their hands
Absolved by Christ the sinner stands;
He who by grace the Word believes
The purchase of His blood receives.” (LSB 614:5-6). Amen.

Theology of i-Fruit

Apple Computer is certainly making a mint as it sells us those ever-present and oh-so-popular "i"-gadgets - i-Macs, i-Pods, and most recently i-Phones. And once a person heeds the call of wisdom and switches to using a Macintosh computer (as I recently have :-), Apple's "i"-centered world expands greatly in the software - iTunes, iCal, iChat, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iLife, and iWeb.

Could there be a theological point hiding in these "i"-gadgets and "i"-programs?

The comic strip "Mother Goose and Grimm" may very well have hit upon a theological message. Whether it intended to or not, I don't know, but I can't resist pointing it out. You can see the MGG strip from 9/7/07 at the archive section of the MGG website - www.grimmy.com. (Click here and select the strip for 09/07/07.)

The strip shows Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Eve hands an apple to a puzzled-looking Adam and says, "It's the latest thing from Apple...it's called an i-Fruit."

Now I never would have seen this, had not a former member sent it in her regular mailing of comic strips to our church office. I probably wouldn't have thought much of it, had not I just taken the plunge into the new, invigorating world of Apple's gadgets and software. And I certainly would never put down the way cool computers, gadgets, and software of Apple!

However, "i-Fruit" most certainly captures the ego-centered seeds and self-serving fruits of the Garden of Eden! Once Adam and Eve took their bites from the forbidden fruit, their eyes were opened to see themselves in the place of God - to be "like God." Instead of focusing their fear, love, and trust - as they were created to do - on the blessed Holy Trinity, human beings would instead focus their lives on a not-so-holy trinity - Me, Myself, and I. The seeds of "i-Fruit."

From those first bites of that single forbidden fruit have come bushels and bushels of pains, illnesses, hurts, broken relationships, diseases, disappointments, destruction, devastated lives, and even death itself. All because human beings - Adam, Eve, and we ourselves - are so focused on "Me, Myself, and I." As Luther expressed it, sin is being "curved in on oneself." "i-Fruit."

For this reason, I thank God that He did not leave us to wallow in the fruits of our "i-Fruit"! When the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, took on our human flesh and blood, He was certainly not curved in on Himself. No, He directed His full attention to His Father and His equally full attention to us - to healing us from the poisons of our "i-Fruit", to "un-curving" us so that we can love the God who first loves us.

As we trust and rest in the forgiveness that our Lord Christ has won on the Cross and gives in His Gospel and Sacraments, we are given a new fruit - the juicy, sweet fruit of His eternal life. That fruit and that life help us take our eyes off of ourselves and put them on God and on our neighbor. As our Lord teaches us in Matthew 22, our lives are best lived - indeed, designed to be lived - as we love God above all things and love our neighbor as ourselves. No mention of loving self. No mention of "i-Fruit." Now that is a different, more salutary kind of fruit!

So, one way to enjoy these wonderful gadgets and programs from Apple may be to just ignore that little "i" in front of them. Certainly the best way to enjoy the life that our God gives us is to ignore that little "i" in ourselves - at least as much as God in His grace and forgiveness enables and strengthens us to do so. Life is best lived with faith in God and in love toward those around us.

As for truly enjoying my Apple gadgets and programs, well, I'll just keep in mind that the Bible doesn't say that the fruit in the Garden was an apple - it just says, "fruit." And as for the bite taken out of the apple in the Apple logo? Well, let's just remember that both Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden fruit - and that means at least two bites. :-)

Homily - Trinity 18

Loving our Loving God
Matthew 22:34-46

“What does the LORD your God require of you?” That was Moses’ question to the ancient Israelites, in our First Reading. And what a relevant question it still is! What does God require of us? As Moses asks God’s people, both then and now, to ponder this, notice the list that he gives: “Fear the LORD your God…walk in all his ways…love him…serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and…keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD.”

It’s a pretty short list, when you just read through it. Sounds simple enough, when you merely recite the words. But that is one gigantic, horrendous, burdensome “to-do” list, if you really think about it! Fear the LORD your God? We don’t want to be afraid of anything! Walk in all his ways? What about having life our way and walking in our own ways, at least a little bit? Love him? Well, that sounds nice, but how does that mesh with fearing Him? Serve the LORD…with all your heart and…soul? We liberty-loving Americans really don’t like being servants of anyone, now, do we? And keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD? Well, that would be nice, but there are just so many – even counting only 10! – and they sure do seem to take the “fun” out of life!

And if that weren’t fearsome enough, Moses talks about circumcising the foreskin of our heart? Sounds painful. And he gives reason to fear God. After all, God is great and mighty and awesome. He takes no bribe – sorry, we cannot butter Him up! – and He executes justice – ooh, sounds harsh!

What does the LORD God require? It sounds like a lot! It sounds like everything! And that, dear friends, is the correct answer. God requires our all – not a partial commitment, not a marriage of convenience, not a social engagement once a week or every now and again. God wants us completely. God wants us all the way, with every fiber of our being, every thought in our brain, every feeling in our heart, every word we utter, and every little thing we do. What does God require of us? Simply everything.

You see, that shows us just how much He loves us. He’s not a burdensome taskmaster or a cruel slave driver. He does not require everything of us so as to watch us squirm in discomfort as we make futile attempts to measure up. It’s not like we must try to live our lives as square pegs vainly trying to fit ourselves into the round holes of His favor. Not at all! Rather, as Scripture also says, “God is love” (1 Jn. 4:7). He truly is our all-loving, jealous God who wants us all to Himself. After all, we were created to love Him above all things. He is our heavenly Father who first loved us by creating us to live exactly as He requires, not as robots, but as living, breathing human beings who joyfully love Him in return. As Moses also says today, “Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heavens of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples.” That’s just how much your LORD God loves you.

We can see that same love in Jesus, the Son of God, as He teaches in our Gospel reading. When a law expert from the Pharisees comes to test Jesus, God’s requirements again take center stage. The law expert says, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus recalls what Moses had said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.” Again, God wants you to love Him with every fiber of your being, because He has already loved you with every fiber of His infinite, eternal being.

Then Jesus goes one step further than citing the one great commandment in God’s Law. He cites a second one…and He joins it with the first one in a most healthy and heavenly marriage. “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Ah, what God has joined together, let us not separate! If we love God, we will also love our neighbor. And how we treat our neighbor proves and shows how we love God. St. John, one of Jesus’ apostles learned this point quite well. He wrote the same thing: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 Jn. 4:20-21).

You see, it’s not enough just to think or say we love God. It’s much more than a mental head trip in which we can picture God the way we want Him to look and act, and then claim we love Him. Loving God involves much more than sticky, sweet feelings for the Savior. When Jesus marries love for God with love for neighbor, He pretty much gives this message: “So, you say you want to love God? Well, show your love for God by loving the people whom God puts around you in life.”

Ouch! That’s almost as painful as that circumcise the foreskin of your heart thing. Or maybe it’s exactly the same! The proof for our love for God rests in how we love our neighbor. How do we love the neighbor who treats us rudely? How do we love the person who seems so cruel and spiteful toward us? How do you love the friend who puts you off or won’t answer your calls or emails? How do you love the co-worker who is such a jerk and treats you like dirt? How do you love the family member who seems either insensitive or just plain vindictive? How do you treat the person – whoever it may be – who is unkind, vicious, and hate-filled toward you? How do you respond? That shows how well you really love God.

To be honest, we don’t do very well, do we? Can we truly love our rude, cruel, or insensitive neighbor with every fiber of our being? Nope. Here’s where we falter and fall. Here’s where we inject ourselves with the poisons of bitterness, anger, hatred and malice – things that come from Satan, not from God. And what untold damage these poisons do! They certainly weaken us even more and prohibit us from truly loving the God who loves us.

So, our only hope and help come from the One Man who truly does love those who hate and reject Him – our Lord Jesus Christ. In Him we see the perfect marriage of loving God and loving neighbor. He loves God and thus comes to seek and save us who are lost in our lack of love. And He loves us even though we human beings treat Him shamefully by putting Him on a cross. This Man who is both David’s son and David’s Lord, takes on our human flesh and blood to heal us from being so loveless. This Lord from eternity and David’s descendant suffers the nails in His wrists, the crown of thorns, the blood pouring out, the agony of suffocation on the cross – all out of love for the likes us of! This same Jesus, Son of God and son of David, rose again to usher us into the life of loving God and loving our neighbor for all eternity. You see, it’s how we were created to live, and it’s how He restores us to live in His life, death, and resurrection.

Now that’s what I call loving our loving God! As St. John says, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 Jn. 4:10-11). Remember that as you come to the Lord’s Table today. Here, your living and loving Lord Jesus Christ gives you His medicine of immortality – His very Body and Blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. It’s the medicine that overcomes the poisons of bitterness, anger, hatred, and malice. It’s the medicine that heals you, so that you can love the God who loves you and the neighbor whom He gives you. It’s the medicine that sustains you to eternal life. And there our whole life, for all eternity, will be loving our loving God. Amen.

From Teenage Girl to Bride of Christ

Pastor Weedon has posted a very fine banquet address delivered by another friend, Pr. Todd Wilken (of Issues, Etc. fame). In this address Pr. Wilken first discusses how the LCMS has long been looking longingly (lustingly?) at American Evangelicalism, because folks there have supposedly had the coveted cutting edge methods in evangelism. Next Wilken explores the great folly of trying to distance ourselves from our "grandfather's church." He recalls the ad campaign of Oldsmobile that backfired when they tried to distance themselves from "your father's Oldsmobile." How does such distancing from our fathers and grandfathers in the Church pan out? Hmmm. Good food for thought.

Wilken's third main section, though, really grabbed my attention. Here Wilken compares the LCMS to a teenage girl who longs to sit at that other lunch table - you know, the one where all the hip, popular, attractive kids sit.

Pastor Wilken summed it up this way:

If the LC-MS is that teenaged girl, staring longingly at the evangelicals, then what? We see them. They’re hip, they’re attractive, and everyone wants into their circle. Are we going to let them tell us who we are supposed to be and forget who we are?

Such churches seldom end well. They end up desperate, sad, even promiscuous —with no idea of who they are or who they are supposed to be.

I only have one criticism of Pr. Wilken's address - and it's really not a criticism per se, just a wish that I could have imbibed more thoughtful insights. I wish he could have and would have filled in the sketch with more color and detail.

How like a teenage girl might the LCMS be? I think it's a wonderful comparison...and spot on! We in the LCMS sure do seem to live, act, work, and play under a certain "peer pressure" and with the base urge to be liked by the people around us. (And remember what happened in 1 Samuel 8, when Israel wanted a king for the express purpose of being "like all the nations" [verse 5]?)

I wonder what Pr. Wilken would say about the recent Lutheran Witness article that trumpets "Groups Ablaze!" and highlights a congregation's "commitment to outreach" that "extends naturally to social gatherings and recreational activities such as motorcycle-riding." Motorcycle outreach? (And what's with the picture of the wife apparently grasping her husband's belt buckle, which lies hidden by his T-shirt, as they stand behind their motorcycle?! See it online here, at the bottom of the page.) I don't have anything against motorcycle riding at all. But this is outreach?

Ah, how like a teenage girl, looking for approval by pushing the envelope.

And what's up with the ad for "Cafe Sola" on the opposite page in the print edition of the Witness? Is this some new kind of Reformation flavored coffee? (Okay, the ad says nothing about "Reformation flavored"; that's my phrase to express my incredulity. You can see what "Cafe Sola" is about here.)

I truly like the Luther quote that is used in the online information, but does this project really fit with what Luther says? The Luther quote reads: "Faith belongs to heaven above; works must be related to earth. Faith is directed to God, works to the neighbor." It would appear that we can now outdo the Reformer's wisdom. Not only can we direct our works to our neighbor, but we can also serve our neighbor while pleasing our tum-tums with a piping hot cup of java.

Ah, how like a teenage girl, willing to serve her neighbor, but only if she can benefit by it herself somehow.

(And, sorry, but I just can't resist this comment. Were the four Reformation "solas" - grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone, and Christ alone - no longer enough? Now we must add "coffee alone"? Pretty soon that will rank right up there with the age-old debate about how many Sacraments Lutherans have. Is it two: Baptism and Lord's Supper, or is it three: Baptism, Lord's Supper, and coffee and donuts after church? Now we can debate how many "solas" we'll hold on to? Is it four or, now, five? Enquiring minds want to know! :-)

Have we lost who we are? Are we constantly struggling to "fit in" and "be accepted"? Perhaps we need to give serious thought and discussion to these questions. As one friend also said, after he looked at the motorcycle picture and saw the "Cafe Sola" ad: "Why can't we just be authentic? Why can't we just be the Church?"

If we seek to serve our neighbor, then let's just serve our neighbor, even if it might mean a little more inconvenience to us personally, a little more sacrifice to our personal comfort and pocketbook...and, yes, a little less coffee for our day. Why don't we just stop ourselves from buying that extra DVD for entertainment and instead donate the money directly to LCMS World Relief and Human Care, or some other charitable organization...and without the thought that says, "What can I get out of it"?

If we seek to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus, then why don't we speak and print more about Jesus Himself and what He has done, and less about our human ingenuity at speaking of Jesus even as we enjoy riding motorcycles or whatever our hobby may be? (Although, I must now wonder if I can arrange a picture and a write up if I get the chance to speak about Jesus while I'm out walking my two beagles.)

If we seek to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus and promote outreach, why don't we focus on folks like the two Philips from Holy Scripture. In John 1 the soon-to-be Apostle Philip met and heard Jesus, and then he went to tell Nathanael. All it took was a simple, "Come and see" (John 1:46), and Philip had reached out to Nathanael and invited him to come and see the Savior. In Acts 8, the recently-appointed Deacon Philip (different from the first Philip) was instructed to meet with an Ethiopian eunuch. The eunuch happened to be reading the book of Isaiah, then Philip helped him understand it correctly by teaching him the good news about Jesus, and then the Ethiopian requested to baptized.

It would seem that outreach is really quite simple - a matter of an invitation from someone who is convinced that Jesus is worth meeting - and that it leads into the life of the Church - the real life, that is, of hearing the good news of Jesus and His forgiveness and of receiving His real gifts in the Sacraments of Baptism, Absolution, and the Lord's Supper.

So, instead of acting so much like a teenage girl (and a most insecure one at that!), let's be who we are called to be: the Church, the Bride of Christ, with all of the proper dignity and healthy security that that means. As the hymn says, "Church of God, elect and glorious... Know the purpose of your calling, Show to all His mighty deeds; Tell of love that knows no limits, Grace that meets all human needs" (LSB 646:1).