Revelation Bible Study Podcast: the beast from the land, 666, the sign of the beast

To listen, click here.

Reformation Sunday Sermon Podcast

Nothing in the Bible will really make sense until you see Christ at the center of it all. When Christ is the center, faith has its object, grace is revealed and scripture is set free to work God's gracious will in the world.

Happy Reformation! Listen here.

Pastoral approach, Law and Gospel, Afflicting the confortable and comforting the afflicted

Paul Beisel's blog entry about failing to confront the impious with the full weight of the law caused me to re-think my own approach, especially to those who are withering on the vine. He writes:

My biggest weakness as a pastor, I think, is the fact that I let people off the hook too quickly, too easily. I don’t like to make people feel uncomfortable or uneasy. So I give them an escape route and of course they take it. The result, however, is that when I am done visiting with the person he or she leaves with no fear of God in their hearts, and no intention of amending their ways. The problem is, in order to do the work of the Ministry faithfully, one must overcome such fears, and not be afraid to instill the fear of God’s wrath in people who willfully sin and show no sign or effort to change. Today I was thumbing through Martin Chemnitz’ Ministry, Word, and Sacraments: an Enchiridion again and reading about what is required of a faithful minister, and came across this nugget:

Fourth, Let a faithful minister of the Word consider that he has been set by God as a watchman and lookout of the church, so that, when he notices that some of his sheep have gone aside from the way of the righteous and have turned aside into the way of sinners, he be neither a sleeping and blind watchman nor a dumb dog. Is. 56:10. Nor ought he provide soft pillows for the impious. Eze. 13:18. But let him cry out against sins with a loud voice. Is. 58:1. And let him be instant in prayer and exhortations, threats and rebukes in all patience and teaching, both in season and in a spirit of gentleness and also out of season with severe rebukes. For through these means God recalls the erring and raises the fallen (p. 47).

It also caused me to think of the promo for Pirate Christian Radio in which a Purpose-Driven Preacher is put into the boo box.

Contrast these two approaches to pastoral ministry. I do not recommend either. Chemnitz has the far better approach.

Physician Assisted Suicide in Washington State

Washington voters this year will approve or reject a ballot initiative to legalize physician assisted suicide. The so-called death with dignity act is similar to the Oregon bill. There are many problems with the bill that are nicely enumerated in this article by medical student Taryn Clark. She does a good job of explaining about how this initiative opens the door for abuse by the state, insurance companies, hospitals and greedy family members to pressure people to kill themselves, rather than continue treatment.

The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod has always stood strongly against suicide. Dr. James Lamb, in an LCMS resouce article states,

A national organization called Compassion in Dying recently announced plans to expand its mission to make assisted suicide available beyond those with terminal disease. Meanwhile, the Hemlock Society, an organization that supports so-called mercy killing, caused a stir with a statement suggesting a need for assisted suicide for people with dementia and chronic diseases. All of this in the name of “compassion.”
As tempting as it is to buy into this lie, the heart of the matter of assisted suicide is not compassion but idolatry. In his Large Catechism, Martin Luther asks: “Does your heart cling to something else, from which it hopes to receive more good and help than from God, and does it flee not to Him but from Him when things go wrong? Then you have an idol, another god.”
When we flee to assisted suicide, even in the name of compassion, we are fleeing from God to an idol. It is not the absence of suffering we should seek as our god, but the presence of God in our suffering.

Christians should recognize God's authority over life and death and vote no on Initiative 1000.

Hymns for All Saints' Sunday, November 2, 2008

Behold a Host, Arrayed in White TLH 656

For all the saints who from their labors rest TLH 463 (Sermon)

The Church’s One Foundation TLH 473 (Distribution)

Jerusalem the golden TLH 613

The Bridegroom Soon Will Call Us TLH 67

Rejoice, Rejoice, Believers TLH 72

Sleepers Awake (Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme)

My favorite (or second favorite) Bach organ prelude, performed creatively on 2 guitars. Guitar music for my grandfather's church.

Who are These People?

What noun comes to mind for a group of people described like this: divided and divisive, foolish, trouble-making, jealous, immature and infantile, fleshly, arrogant, tolerant of unthinkable immorality, boastful, undiscerning, wronging and defrauding their own brothers.

Perhaps we would call them trash or scum or worse. Paul calls them saints.

These are the people that Paul writes to in Corinth. They are certainly not a wise or discerning people. They are not mature in their faith. They tolerate unspeakable evil in their midst. Their communion practice is so repugnant to the Lord that some of them are sick and some have even died, yet Paul calls them saint.

We often think of saints by the other definition, those who are perfected in glory. They are truly saints, because saint means holy or sinless. Those who rest in Christ have been cleansed of their sins and sin no more. Their wills are at complete peace and harmony with God. They are the holy ones gathered around the throne of the Lamb singing his praises.

But what about the Corinthians? Certainly we would be loathe to call them “holy ones.” When we examine ourselves against the law’s demands we would not call ourselves holy ones. They why would Paul call them (and us) saints?

He calls us saints because Jesus does. We are saints because God has held court and has declared us “not guilty,” because of Jesus. We are not innocent, nor have we merited the title ‘saint’ because of what we have done. God has given us this title because Jesus took our unholiness on himself. He bore it to the cross and buried it in His grave. Then he gave us his holiness as a white robe that we received in our baptism. We have righteousness, but it is not our own – it is alien to us. It belongs properly to Christ, but we receive it as a gift.

If God himself has declared us clean and cleansed us from all our sin, who can call us anything less than saints? In Acts 9:15, God declares, “What God has cleansed you must not call unclean.”

We are still sinners, and can never be really free from it so long as we live in our sin corrupted flesh, but we dare not refuse the title saints or holy ones, because these are titles give to us by God. That we sin daily is not a contradiction to God’s cleansing of us, but a paradox. We are at the same time, saint and sinner. Simul justus et peccator.

Rejoice with me, you saints of God, for God Himself has made you holy!

Pastor JPalm+

When did Abraham see Jesus

(John 8:58 KJV) Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

I was a thirty year old Mormon when I first heard this verse. It made me set bolt upright in the pew of a Lutheran church that a fellow worker had invited me to. I knew that no mere man could make this kind of a statement. God used this verse to draw me to His Son. This verse made me see Jesus for what he really was, God incarnate.

The other day I was reading a few verses before this verse (John 8:56 KJV) Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Thus I found that there was another man who also saw this same Jesus but 2000 years before Jesus walked this earth.

When did Abraham see Jesus? An exhaustive search of Genesis for “Jesus” will come up with no match. But what about other names for Jesus in the book of John? Could they lead to when Abraham saw Jesus?.

John refers to Jesus as the Word in chapter one. There are 64 uses of “I am” in John and 52 are associated with Jesus. A word search for the very first use of “I am and word” used in the Bible is in Genesis. But here is the strange thing, they both are in the same verse! (Gen 15:1 KJV) After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.

Can this be the account of Jesus showing Himself to Abraham 4000 years ago? The same Jesus that showed Himself to me when I was 30 years old. I think it is.

Hymns for Reformation Sunday, 26 October 2008

TLH 262 A Mighty Fortress is our God

TLH 6 Kyrie, God Father in Heaven above (In place of the Kyrie)

TLH 238 All Glory be to God alone (In place of the Gloria in Excelsis)

TLH 251 We All Believe in One True God (In place of Creed)

TLH 261 Lord Keep Us Steadfast In Thy Word (AFTER Sermon)

Omit Offertory

TLH 50 Lord Dismiss Us with Thy Blessing

Gottesblog: Stewardship?

From: Gottesblog: Stewardship?

Pastor Eckardt does a great job of explaining why stewardship campaigns are not only unnecessary, but are usually an impediment to the Gospel.

So this stewardship guy gets up and chides the seminaries for not teaching stewardship, suggesting that this is the reason our offerings are low. I'm sitting in the back of the room thinking, Nope.

I don't preach stewardship sermons. Ever. ...
Once long ago, a fellow pastor, on hearing me say this, complained, "Well, what are you going to replace them with?!" To which I, having just seen the old black-and-white Luther film with a similar scene, replied, "Christ!"

But to return to the point, there was a false premise in this guy's question. I don't know about you, but our offerings are not low. I mean, overall they're not anything great, because our parish is rather small, but when that factor is taken into account, our people do quite well, I'd say. And why? Because they love their parish. They rejoice over the preaching of Christ in their church. They want to see their church thrive and the Gospel to be given free course, to the joy and edifying of Christ's holy people.

Eat your heart out, stewardship guy. I don't preach stewardship sermons. And my people are really exemplary in their offerings. Can you explain that? I can.

Free Intelligent Design Video

Intelligent Design - Unlocking The Mysteries Of Life is an hour long look at Darwin's theory of evolution and how new, advanced scientific tools and models present a view of biology that undermine the Darwinian model. Evolution, as it has been taught for almost 150 years, is not scientifically possible. Scientific fields explored include microbiology, biochemistry, and information theory.

Getting ready for Reformation Sunday

Timely Sermon Prep UPDATED: now with Sermon Podcast

Uwe has written an article for the Lutheran Witness, that was nicely summarized by Gene Veith at Cranach. Sunday's Gospel reading includes Jesus comment, render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. Render unto the Lord that which is the Lord's.

This text laid next to our context of being less than three weeks from an important election leads me to take up the question of the relationship of the Christian and Government. I do not do it with joy -- even though I enjoy talking about politics.

The real challenge here is that discussing the relationship of the Christian and the Government comes nowhere close to preaching the Gospel. Nonetheless, a few points can be assembled to hopefully make a Christ-centered, gospel rich sermon.

1. Government is a gift from God. Without government we would be like the beasts, always needing to be paranoid about who is waiting around the corner to devour us. Luther brings this up very well in one of sermons, saying that the animals envy us and marvel that we do not appreciate this blessing from God.

2. Government is an extension of God's order set in the world when he created the first family.

3. Like everything in creation, government is corrupted by human sin. Since all who govern are sinners, it is impossible to have a government that is pure.

4. Christ is the giver of government as he stated to Pilate, you would have no authority if it were not given to you from above.

5. Yet this same government was the means by which wicked men killed their creator.

6. Is government the enemy? No, sin is. Christ, however, in perfectly submitting himself to the government (as in all other things) kept the law perfectly. By doing so, he has conquered sin -- the same sin that infects every corner of the world -- even (and especially) government.

7. (I know. A seven+ point sermon outline brings me eerily close to those old Walter A. Maier sermon outlines.) In conquering sin and sanctifying us as his Holy People, Jesus sanctifies our daily actions and tasks.

8. Hence, the vocation of voter is a holy vocation. Christians as citizen-rulers in our American form of government, can and should vote for the good of their neighbor and the Glory of God (see Uwe Siemon Netto's article here.)
________________________

UPDATE:

Here is the Sermon Podcast. I don't think it came off as well as I had hoped and planned. I tried to use a law handle of how we learn to despise the corruption of government and elections, but that spite is caused by sin. It is our corrupting sin that makes government and all human endeavors tainted. I do not think that this was a sufficiently personal application of the law to make the gospel come across in its fullness. Nevertheless, it is here for your listening.

Hymns for the 22nd SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, October 19, 2008 (Proper 24)

Holy God, We Praise Your Name LBW 535

Praise the Almighty   LBW 539

We Give Thee But Your Own      LBW 410 (In place of the Offeratory)

Sing Praise to God, the Highest Good    LBW 542

I am Trusting You, Lord Jesus    LBW 460

Eternal Father, Strong to Save     LBW 467

Children of the Heavenly Father       LBW474

 

Sermon Podcast October 12, 2008

Jesus apparently "reworked" two Jewish parables to His own purposes -- and in distinct contrast to the rabbis' use. Jesus shows in His reworking His longsuffering and patient pleading with the Israelites and His fervent desire that the wedding feast would be filled.

Listen here.

Good news: McDonalds repents and AFA lifts their boycott

The American Family Association has ended their boycott of McDonalds saying:

McDonald's has told AFA they will remain neutral in the culture war regarding homosexual marriage. AFA is ending the boycott of McDonald's. As you know, AFA called for the boycott in May after McDonald's joined the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC). McDonald's said McDonald's Vice President Richard Ellis has resigned his position on the board of NGLCC and that his seat on the board will not be replaced. McDonald's also said that the company has no plans to renew their membership in NGLCC when it expires in December. In an e-mail to McDonald's franchised owners the company said, "It is our policy to not be involved in political and social issues. McDonald's remains neutral on same sex marriage or any 'homosexual agenda' as defined by the American Family Association." We appreciate the decision by McDonald's to no longer support political activity by homosexual activist organizations. You might want to thank your local McDonald's manager.

I do not know if the boycott caused a noticeable dent in sales or not, but I can tell you that we refused to eat at McDonald's on our recent trip to California. When fast food was expedient, we visited anyone but McDonald's. In the past the playlands have been important stops for us on road trips. I would like to think that many like-minded people really did make a difference and cause this dramatic turn around.

Hymns for 12 October 2008

Awake, my heart, with gladness        LBW 129

Rejoice, O Pilgrim Throng      LBW 553 (hymn of praise)

A Multitude Comes from the East and the West     LBW 313

Who is this host arrayed in white     LBW314

 

A difficult application of Law and Gospel (sermon podcast)

Isaiah rails against the sour grapes produced by the vineyard the Lord has planted. Jesus condemns the wicked tenants who beat and kill the servants and desire to kill the heir. We are guilty of producing sour fruits and keeping our works back for ourselves in self-righteousness. How are we freed from this condemnation? The Lord prunes and disciplines us to produce fruit -- not for ourselves -- but for the glory of His name. This fruit we render to Him in due season, not because we are so good, but because it was His all along. Listen here (Sermon 20081005.mp3).

And also a sermon podcast from two weeks ago before I had to leave town for a wedding.

Hymns for 5 October 2008, 20th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 22)

Wake, Awake, for Night is flying      TLH 609

Christ Is Our Cornerstone      TLH 465

Now I have found the firm foundation   TLH 385

God So Loved the World       TLH 245

I am trusting Thee, Lord Jesus    TLH 428

 

Bats show unique hanging system that displays design elements

Oftentimes, the amazing echolocation ability of bats is used to either bolster the case for evolution or for design. A clearer picture may develop to show that bats are intelligently designed starting from the other end.

Bats spend most of their lives hanging upside down. They do not have to exert any energy to stay in the hanging position because of their unique talon design. While human hands must use muscle power to close and grip, a unique design element in the bat foot allows it to keep its grip by using gravity alone. The system is so efficient that if a bat dies while roosting, it will remain hanging there until it is jostled free.

The system involves a special tendon that attaches the foot directly to the upper body. When a bat roosts, he opens his claw and finds the spot to grab. When he stops flying, his weight pulls the claw shut, locking him into place until he chooses to let go. The system works like ice tongs that were used to carry ice blocks for the pre-refrigeration icebox days. More weight closes the grip tighter.

Philosophy of pre-school Chapel

Having just completed a pre-school chapel session, I was reflecting on the purpose and benefit of having the children come to chapel. Our pre-school teachers are excellent. In addition to teaching letters, numbers and colors, our teachers do an excellent job of teaching Bible stories, prayers and songs. In chapel we also learn God's word, sing and pray. What is the difference? Why have chapel when they are already doing those things in their class? There is one aspect of chapel that is quite different: worship. Chapel time offers the opportunity to expose the children to what worship is like.

We start our worship service with these words:

O Lord, open my lips
and my mouth will decare your praise.

With these words we ask the Lord to teach us to worship Him. With his loving, teaching, and guiding, we learn to sing our "Alleluia" -- "Praise the Lord."