C. F. W. Walther, Doctor and Confessor

Today the Church gives thanks for the faithful witness and teaching of CFW Walther.
The following link gives some great information and devotional thoughts on our beloved Dr. Walther.
Aardvark Alley: C. F. W. Walther, Doctor and Confessor

Issues, Etc. also had an interesting piece on Dr. Walther yesterday. Download the audio here: KFUO WMA audio

To read some of Walter's wonderful Law/Gospel works, check out the daily devotional from CPH, God Grant It.

Wisdom: Bound to God in Christ

My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching. Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck. When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.
-Proverbs 6:20-22

Does this Proverb tell us it is enough to learn what our faith means? Is it good enough to know the right answers, or to have Bible passages and the Small Catechism memorized? If we think that is all that needs to be done we mistake the rest stop for the destination. It is important to know the right answers, it is important to commit jewels of God’s Word and the teaching of the Catechism to memory. But these things are only brief stops on the journey of faith.

Wisdom tells us to bind the commandments and teachings of the one true faith to our hearts. When you bind something there is a reason for it, usually to keep it connected or to keep it together. When we bind God’s Word to our hearts we are keeping it together with our hearts, so that every beat is a living reminder of God’s goodness and loving-kindness.

Wisdom tells us to tie God’s teaching around our neck, so that others may see them. We wear God’s Word around our neck like a precious and beautiful necklace. But it is also a sign of our servant hood to Him. In some ancient cultures slaves were forced to where a kind of collar around their neck. It was made of metal and fastened on them when still hot and then welded together so it would never come off. This was a sign to anyone who saw them that they were a slave. So we gladly wear the easy burden and beautiful Word around our necks—that anyone who sees us may know to whom we belong.

The foolish person may see this Proverb and think that he is unjustly bound to a hard and cruel master. It is not attractive in our society to be bound to anything other than our own depraved interests and desires. But those sinful desires do not seek our good. When you are bound to righteousness through Christ Jesus, you will be lead on the right paths, you will be guarded from eternal harm and danger, you will have an Advocate who talks with you and for you.

Wisdom knows this to be true. Holy Wisdom, Christ Himself, was bound for our sakes. He was so bound to the Father’s will that He endured the most severe physical and spiritual punishment and abandonment for us. This is our Wisdom, Christ Himself, the one who makes us wise for salvation unto eternal life.

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I bind unto myself today

The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same

The Three in One and One in Three.
I bind this today to me forever

By power of faith, Christ’s incarnation;

His baptism in Jordan river,

His death on Cross for my salvation;

His bursting from the spicèd tomb,

His riding up the heavenly way,

His coming at the day of doom

I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the Name,

The strong Name of the Trinity,

By invocation of the same,

The Three in One and One in Three.

By Whom all nature hath creation,

Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:

Praise to the Lord of my salvation,

Salvation is of Christ the Lord.*

Amen.

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* Portions of St Patrick's Breastplate

Can you ask too much?

Last night I was watching an episode of the Simpson's. Bart and Lisa wanted to go to an amusement park, but Homer didn't want to take them. So, for the rest of the day, they barraged Homer with the same quesion over and over. "Can we go Dad? Can we go Dad? Can we go Dad?" Over and over they were relentless in their pursuit of getting Homer to take them. Finally, frustrated and ready to go to sleep, Homer explodes "If I take you will you stop asking me?" To which they joyfully reply "YEAH!"

This blitz approach to getting your way is well known to children. I did it when I was a kid, but mine ususally ended up with "If you ask me one more time, I won't take you anywhere!" I thought my Mom was bluffing the first time she employed this counter-attack, but, to my surprise and disappointment, I found she was very serious.

I have been praying a lot lately for the same things. Over and over again throughout the day I turn to God with the same requests. "Help us get everything done! Help us find housing! Help me get through these last few days of class! Help us find someone to take our apartment!" to name just a few of my numerous requests. I'm torn at times though. Will God respond to me like Homer? In anger and frustration, just trying to shut me up? (Their trip to the amusement park did NOT go well!) Will God respond like my Mom? "If you ask me one more time, you get NOTHING!"

My sinful nature and the old evil foe are constantly trying to get me to believe that God will get tired of me. "Why bother asking? God will do what He wants! You don't want to risk making Him mad, do you?" But these are lies. What is so great about Lutheran theology is its three-fold foundation of Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Sola Scriptura. Faith alone, Grace alone, Scripture alone.

Our faith alone, which is a work of the Holy Spirit, tells us that God will not tire of our requests. He has reached out to us first. Had He not been calling us, we would not call to Him!

It is God's grace alone, shown on the cross of Jesus Christ, that gives us proof of that love of God. How could our prayers and requests not be pleasing to the God who gave His only begotten Son in love?

Finally, if these two things don't convince your troubled heart, if you don't "feel" your faith or God's grace in your life, He has given that sure witness to His love. Scripture alone stands outside of us and points us to the truth of our faith and God's grace.

See how Christ Himself instructs us about our persistence in prayer:

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.'" And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:1-8)

And St. Paul tells us:

"do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." (Eph. 1:6)

So I will continue to pray to my gracious Father in heaven. I will continue to trust His loving-kindness to hear my prayers. I will give thanks for the good work of the Holy Spirit in calling me to prayer. And I will ignore the foolishness of my own flesh, the world and Satan who tell me to give up.

Wisdom: Innocently Wise

For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol; she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it…and you say, "How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.”
For a man's ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths.
-Proverbs 5:3-6, 12-14, 21

This Proverb gives important insight into the ways and means of the enemy, here presented as the “forbidden woman.” Everything said about this forbidden woman applies to our old evil foe, Satan. Certainly, it is not wise or healthy to give too much thought to Satan and his ways. There is a danger in that, he likes to be thought about, it gives him an opportunity to take hostage our thoughts and turn them from Christ. However, it is also unwise to be ignorant of him.

Christ tells His disciples in Matthew 10:16, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” In this Proverb, Christ, the wisdom and power of God, is instructing us so that we may be innocently wise of evil.

What does He say in this Proverb? The words and enticements of the forbidden woman appear to be sweet and even right. This is how she will trap you. Like a Venus Flytrap that offers some bit of sweet bait to attract its prey. Be on guard against this! Test all things against God’s Word. Take Esau as an example of what not to do. He traded everything for some bread and lentil stew. He took the sweet bait, thinking it was what he needed, thinking it would keep him alive, but in doing so he lost everything. This is how the forbidden woman works. She calls with lips dripping honey and smooth words, then, once the bait has been taken, she attacks. Once the words have been swallowed it becomes bitter. The sword cuts both ways.

We are also made innocently wise by the understanding that this forbidden woman does not even realize the danger of her own ways. She desires that you listen to her and come with her, but she herself does not know the end of her path. Satan is the same way. He wants us to follow after him, thinking he will somehow still win the victory. He is ignorant of his own doom. Christ does not do this. He has blazed a trail for us through life and death into eternal life. He is our Good Shepherd who will not lead His sheep astray. He knows His ways and has revealed them to us in Holy Scripture.

Christ teaches us the folly of the ways of wickedness in a clear and understandable way. He also sheds light onto the future of the man who follows the forbidden woman. The only future for such a man is regret, anxiety, fear and destruction. Why does our good Father reveal this to us? To teach us wisdom, to spare us the pain and heartache of turning from His ways. We can know from this Proverb that the ways of the forbidden woman end in ignorant death. The ways of the man who follows her ends in ignorant regret and ruin. We can also be certain from this Proverb that God knows all of our ways. In this Proverb, the only one who is not ignorant is God, and He desires to give us wisdom, so that we may be wise as serpents and innocent as doves in the midst of wolves.

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O Holy Wisdom of God, our blessed Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ, turn us from the ignorance and foolishness of the wicked and direct us in your knowledge and instruction on the paths of righteousness. Make us innocently wise in the face of the evil foe, that we may remain blameless before You. Hear us, Good Lord, as we come before You at Your bidding.

Amen.

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Ordination Announcement

For all my readers:

I will be Ordained into the Holy Ministry on June 3rd, +AD+ 2007 at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Ft. Wayne Indiana at 3:00 pm. Any rostered LCMS clergy who would like to participate are asked to wear clerical collars, alb or cassock and surplice and red stole.

I will then be installed as the third pastor at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Middleville Michigan on June 10th, +AD+ 2007 at 4:00 pm. Again, any clergy who would like to participate are asked to follow the same instructions above.

I have waited a long time for this and have done a lot to prepare myself to be a worthy candidate. Yet, all my preparation has been worthless had God not called me through the work of the Holy Spirit to serve His Church with faithful Word and Sacrament ministry. If you are not able to come to either service or participate, please pray for me and Good Shepherd as we enter into a partnership of faithful Gospel ministry.

Wisdom: The Narrow Path

Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

-Proverbs 4:25-27

There is a line from the first Lord of the Rings movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, in which Galadriel, the elf queen, tells Frodo, the ring bearer, that the mission he and his fellowship are on balances on the edge of a knife. She warns him that any straying from that mission, either to the right or the left, will not only end their mission, but effectively bring about the end of Middle Earth.

In her warning, the Lady Galadriel echoes the words of Christ to His followers.
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” –Matthew 7:13-14

The life of a Christian is not easy, if it were easy we would have no need for God and the work of Christ. The gate is narrow. In fact, there is only one way to the gate of Eternal Life. Take your eyes off of Christ and you will fall. Keep your eyes fixed on Christ in faith, and He will keep you on the straight and narrow path.

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Lord, keep us steadfast in Your Word;

Curb those who by deceit or sword

Would wrest the kingdom from Your Son

And bring to naught all He has done.

Lord Jesus Christ, Your power make known,

For You are Lord of lords alone;

Defend Your holy Church that we

May sing Your praise eternally.

O Comforter of priceless worth,

Send peace and unity on earth;

Support us in our final strife

And lead us out of death to life.*

Amen.

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*"Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Your Word," LSB 655

Wisdom: From Our Father

My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.
-Proverbs 3:11-12

What on earth does this mean to Christians today? In my home congregation, the music director was fond of saying to the day school students “God’s gonna get ya!” when he saw them doing something wrong.

So, is this what the Proverb is saying? When you do bad things, God will cause bad things to happen to you? If that is the case, why do evil people seem to prosper? There is an important distinction to be made in the explanation of this Proverb. What is the difference between punishment and discipline? Between divine retribution and fatherly reproof? This is what the Proverb is presenting us with. There is a huge difference between the divine boogey man who is “gonna get ya” and the loving Father who desires to lead his beloved son in the ways of right living.

And this is where the Gospel is in theis Proverb. It would be easy to focus in on the Law. God will reprove, He will discipline according to His Holy Law. For those whom He loves, who have been called according to His purposes, there is no condemnation in that reproof. There is love abounding in that Fatherly discipline. We are children in whom our Father delights. We are children through Christ Jesus and His work for us on the cross. For this reason, we who are children, do not despise our dear Father for loving us. It is in His love for us that we find our love for Him. All good things, including Fatherly reproof and discipline, come from God.

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OUR FATHER, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever.
Amen.

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Wisdom: Two Paths

Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech, who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways.

-Proverbs 2:9-15

A common theme in Scripture depicts life as two paths: the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. I have always found this interesting for two reasons: despite "conventional wisdom," that teaches there are many paths, all equal and all leading to the same place, the True Wisdom of God in Christ teaches that there are only two paths-righteous and wicked.

One is good, the other evil. One leads to the knowledge of God, the other leads to the perversion of wickedness. One leads to eternal life and salvation, the other to eternal damnation and death.

But these two paths are not equal. One is Truth, absolutely and completely, the other is all falsehood and lies. There are basically two religions on earth, that of Christ and that of man. Anything that points to the cross of Christ for the total and complete forgiveness of sins is right. Anything that points to what man must do or can do will only lead to bitter slavery and eventual death.

The other reason I find this imagery of the paths or ways of life interesting is that it implies that we who are on certain path will walk in a certain way. This speaks to how we live our lives. If we, through the grace and mercy of God in Christ, are on the path of righteousness, then we will "walk the walk," so to speak, in Christ. If we are following our own perverse plans on the way of the wicked, we will also "walk the walk" to our own damnation.

God not only provides the Way, the Truth and the Life, He prepares us to walk in the Way, to learn and be instructed in the Truth, and to live that new Life in Christ.

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-Psalm 1-

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Amen.

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Wisdom: Christ and Him Crucified

Christ- Messenger (angel) of Holy Wisdom Icon

Have you ever read the Proverbs? What are they for? Are they just home-spun advice or clever sayings, or are they something more?

Proverbs 1:2-6 gives good introduction to what the Proverbs are meant for:

To know wisdom and instruction,

to understand words of insight,

to receive instruction in wise dealing,

in righteousness,

justice,

and equity;

to give prudence to the simple,

knowledge and discretion to the youth--

Let the wise hear and increase in learning,

and the one who understands obtain guidance,

to understand a proverb and a saying,

the words of the wise and their riddles.

These are all desirable things. The Apostle Paul himself gives sage advice to the young pastor Timothy:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching,

for reproof,

for correction,

and for training in righteousness,

that the man of God may be competent,

equipped for every good work.

It is 31 days until I am Ordained into the Office of the Holy Ministry. There are 31 Proverbs. I want to know wisdom and instruction and be equipped for every good work. So, as part of my devotions and as means to "count down" the days until Ordination, I will be reading a Proverb a day.

If I have some thought about a Proverb, I may post a devotion from time to time on it.

For Proverb 1 the main idea that I get is that wisdom does not come to those who think they have already obtained it. As Pr. Goltz said in his sermon at Good Shepherd on Sunday, a glass full of water can't hold anymore. To obtain and receive true Wisdom, one must be willing to be a fool so-to-speak.

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. I Corinthians 1:21-25

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Lord Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, come to us in our foolishness and fill us with your wisdom, that we may know Your divine wisdom and instruction. Prepare us, unworthy vessels that we are, to be filled with the true and life-giving Wisdom of Your cross. Prepare especially all men who are preparing to serve You in Your Holy Church with Your Living Word and the blessed Sacraments, that they may not seek their own wisdom, but that they may preach Christ crucified, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Amen.

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A Good Analogy

You remember in those standardized tests the questions that went something like this:

Hard is to Soft as Cold is to Hot.

Common questions used to test a persons ability to make analogies and to understand the levels on which two different things are being compared.

A few weeks ago after one of my classes, one of the new fathers in my class said that he has seen devices for fathers to breast feed their babies. I was totally grossed out! Now, if there is some extraordinary reason that this needs to be done to keep the baby alive, that is one thing. But for men to "breast feed" their babies just because? That is just weird!

But it got me thinking about an analogy to male breast feeding. So, here goes:

Male breast feeding is like

Female Ordination.

Both go against some of the fundamentals of the order of creation. There was a time when both grossed people out and were laughable if not completely unthinkable.

I think this is a good analogy. Some people will not see anything wrong with males breast feeding, but I think everyone knows that it is fundamentally wrong. And the reasons it is fundamentally wrong are the same reasons it is fundamentally wrong for women to be pastors.