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.

Now THAT is a Processional Cross!!

So beautful and unique is the processional cross at Good Shepherd that it needs it's own post! This cross was made especially for the congregation by a wonderfully talented Lutheran artist in Grand Rapids. It has two sides, our crucified Lord with the four Evangelists on one side and Christ, our Good Shepherd with various symbols on the other side.

This is the Church's emblem, the chi and rho presented as a shepherds staff and the alpha and omega.

It seldom happens...

that something is so much better than you ever thought possible. Many times good things will happen, but it's not often that those good things just keep getting better. For example, it was a good thing that I received a call on Call Day, it was better that it was close to our families, it was better still that they were looking for a traditional, conservative Lutheran pastor, but after our first visit to the village of Middleville this weekend, we just don't know what to think!

We arrived at a beautiful little white church. As you will see in the pictures in the link, it is a charming and reverent place of worship. We were greeted by the vacancy pastor, Rev. Goltz. Entering the church for the first time was a delight, my own words just cannot express it, so look at the pictures in this link!

And the people were wonderfully welcoming to us. Everyone seemed so happy to meet us! They had a cake for us after church (welcoming us, they even spelled Lesa's name right! My Dad doesn't even do that!) The level of education and devotion these people exhibited for the Lutheran faith was a real blessing. It happens much to infrequently these days that Lutherans know what they believe and are not ashamed of what they believe. My first impression of the congregation at Good Shepherd was that they not only know what they believe, they take great delight in the Cross of Christ and the Word and Sacraments.

In short, I could not ask for anything better!

The Lord be with you!

Tonight was the big night, no, not Administrative Professionals Day (although it was). Tonight I learned of the greatness of God's love for His Church as He graciously provided candidates and vicars to serve in our LCMS cogregations. Tonight I learned where I will be blessed to serve God and His Church.

To the Saints at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Middleville, Michigan!
In the name of our Good Shepherd, Grace and peace to you in the name of our Risen Lord Jesus Christ!


I have been waiting for you for 8 years, when I first decided to go to the seminary. I have been praying for you for many months as I pray you have been doing for me. Tonight was one of the happiest of my life! I look so forward to meeting all of you and being for you the best pastor that I can be. I want to serve you in love and patience, in the joy of our mutual forgiveness in Christ and the blessings of our communion in His Word and the Sacraments. This is an informal greeting and I will be getting in touch with you soon, but I wanted to at least say 'hi.'

May our Good Shepherd keep you in love and peace until I am blessed to serve you in the office of the Holy Ministry!

The Lord be with you!

Jim and Lesa Roemke

Our Good Shepherd

***Seeing as how I have been called to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, I thought it appropriate to dig this old post out of obscuity and re-post it (Originally Posted 08/05/05)

This icon presents a radically different view of Christ as the Good Shepherd than any other depiction I have seen. Here we are shown a shepherd that is determined to get His sheep to safety. Notice the look of determination of the face of Christ. This is not the “hippie” looking Jesus portrayed in so many pictures. This Jesus has a firm and steady gaze, He is serious and His stance and appearance give the impression that nothing will come between Him and His precious sheep, not the devil, death or the cross (notice the holes in His hands and the cross behind Him). He went through and overcame all the pain, humiliation and death of the cross. He bore our sins and He is not going to let us go!

Notice now the sheep. It does not look particularly happy. Christ comes to us when we are lost in our sins. He does all the work of getting us out of our sin and then it is Him who holds on tight to us. The sheep may not want to be held on to, but it has no choice because it is not the sheep that is making the choice. This icon is so great because it is all about Christ and Him crucified. It shows the power and glory of the risen Lord.

Now, having said all that, other portrayals of Christ as the Good Shepherd are not bad. They often portray Christ as a loving and gentle shepherd, which He is. I think the danger is when portraying Christ like that we forget about what He went through for us, His lost sheep. The cross was no frolic in the pasture; it was brutal, humiliating, painful, crushing and deadly.

That’s my two cents, for what it's worth. Christian art is an important part of devotional life, along with music. I think it is just as important that we examine and deeply think about what we are looking at as Christians because it will shape and influence how we look at Christ and His work for us.