Whose Grandpa are we talking about?

There has been a lot of talk about our Synod "not being your grandfather's church." Many people find this offensive and a sign of bad things to come. I, on the other hand, being a youngster and a new pastor, am greatly releaved that this is not my grandfather's church. My grandfather is the age of the men saying this is not "their grandfather's church." But do they not realize that they themselves are now grandfathers? I joyfully reject the church of these grandfathers. I give thanks that God in His infinite wisdom has given every man a brief season and I am hopeful that these grandfather's season is coming to a close. May it come quickly!

What would you do...

if our Synod, suddenly and without explanation fired a pastor who had faithfully taught the Lutheran faith to one of the largest parishes in the synod on Holy Week? What would you do if the synod suddenly and without explanation went to the hospital and kicked out the wife of one of its faithful employees? What would you do if the synod suddenly and without explanation bull-dozed one of the most confessional and largest churches in the synod on Holy Week? What would you do if the synod suddenly and without explanation went to every Concordia, both seminaries, the Historical Institute and your own church library and systematically took out all the books and burned them in front of the Purple Palace on Holy Week? What would you do if the synod suddenly and without explanation took our beloved symbols and Holy Scripture and tossed them in the trash?

Whatever you would do, do it! Our Synod has done all of this and more with the cancellation of Issues, etc and the termination of Rev. Todd Wilken and Jeff Schwarz. As if this act were not dispicalbe enought, all was done in the most holy week of the Church's calendar, the day on which we hear the word of Christ:

"Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me."

New Joys

There is no greater joy that I have ever known in my life to this point than that of sharing the holy Christian faith with my daughter. I take her with me when I pray Matins, Vespers and Compline (not every time, but often). The beauty of sharing that with her is beyond words. I know she doesn't understand it yet, but she really seems to love my singing and the candles and the different atmosphere.

The week after Easter we will take our little one to be drowned and reborn in the waters of Holy Baptism. It will be my first baptism. I'm sure that will be another inexpressible source of joy as well. Despite all the late and sleepless nights, the poopy diapers, the spit-up, the crying, and general high demand of having a child, it is the most wonderful thing ever. I thank God for the gifts of wife and child! Blessed be the name of the Lord, for His mercies are from generation to generation!

What a week!!

Ok, I have never had a more stressful, exhilarating, terrifying, happy, exhausting, fill in adjective of your choice kind of week. Last Thursday I was on my way home from a hospital visit. I stopped into a coffee shop to get a little pick-me-up and Lesa calls, absolutely hysterical and weeping, "MY WATER BROKE!!" (She did NOT want to have a leap day baby and this was about 12:30 pm on the 28th). So I hurry out to my car amdist strange looks (it's not everyday that a man in a clerical collar starts yelling out in joy that his wife's water just broke). I get home and load up the soggy mama and we head over to the hospital. We get through OB Triage and into a labor and delivery room and the nurse and doctor are monitoring everything. You know how doctors have that way of talking really quietly and intensely, so as to not "disturb" the patient with the potential of bad news? That's what they were doing. The doc was concerned about the baby's heart-rate being too high for the stage of labor Lesa was in. So they inform us that they have decided to do a c-section. They whisk Lesa out of the room and hand me a pair of scrubs, face-mask, hair-net and little paper booties. 15 minutes later I am in the OR sitting next to my wife's head while two doctors, an anesthesiologist and several nurses work on getting our baby out. Another 15 minutes pass and we hear the doctor say "It's a girl, she's adorable and she's pooping!"

Unfortunately, our little Lena had aspirated some of the poo-poo and also had a fever. She was whisked away into the special care nursery while mommy was being sewn back up and taken to recovery.

To make a long story short, our little girl, Carolena Reve Roemke was born wieghing 8 lbs. 3 oz. and 19 inches long. She was in an oxygen tent for the first 20 hours of her life. We got to leave the hospital on Monday, March 3. She has her last dose of antibiotics (due to the aspiration) this evening (a nurse comes to our house and gives it via IV). Our first few days have been so hectic, but a real joy.

I have learned in these few days a whole new depth and intimacy in prayer. What a wonderful thing! Here is a link to several pictures of our little Lena.

Thank you for your continued prayers. Thankfully, Grandma Sheryl is coming tonight to spend the weekend with us, hopefully we will get things a little more stabilized and get some sleep.

Our Baby

NO...she has not come out yet! But the doc was a little concerned that she was not moving enough (even though my wife was very clear that little Baby Girl moves plenty!), so we had an ultrasound today. The technician was kind enough to get some views of our Baby's precious face to motivate us and lift our morale in these last days. Here is the link to our family blog: http://roemkefamily.blogspot.com/

It will hopefully happen any day now! Pray for mother and baby.

Burdening God

No one ever wants to be a burden to their loved ones. We want to be the ones who help, who comfort, who bear the burdens of others. I have been a pastor for a short time, but already, that has been one of the biggest fears I have encountered, "I just don't want to be a burden."

And yet, we are a burden to God. We burdened Him on the cross, we burden Him with our sinful pride, we burden Him by refusing to let ourselves recognize that we are a burden.

I think that is why Jesus emphasized child-like faith. Children are fist and foremost a burden. This is not a criticism of children, it is just the truth. I can see the burden our child puts on my wife's body. I can see the burden I put on my parents as a child. I do not feel bad about that. Children never do feel bad about burdening their parents. It was what we must do. In order to survive childhood, we must be a burden at some point.

This is why a child-like faith is so important. It is not that it is innocent, on the contrary, a child-like faith is one that happily burdens our Lord. A child-like faith is one that looks at the burden of Christ crucified and says, "Thanks, daddy!" A child-like faith lives in the simplicity and peace of depending on another so completely that every thing it does is borne by the love of another. This is the faith we are called to have. In reality, we can have no other faith. Faith that does not burden God is no faith at all. Hence our Lord's words, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (St. Matthew 11:28-30)

And maybe this being a burden is why some find the crucified Lord so disturbing. The thought of burdening another is so utterly repellant to them that they run the risk of missing the beauty of the Gospel. It is always important to remember that Christ Crucified is both Law and Gospel. And this is what we preach.

Isn't it annoying when...

you realize you are one of the biggest perpetrators of your own pet peeve?

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people say "That's ok" in response to an apology. I think this is especially damaging in the communion of saints. It's not "ok" when someone sins against you. It is bad, so bad that God Himself is the only one who could make it "ok." He did this through the blood of Christ Jesus. And we so casually say "That's ok."

And I do this just as much as anyone. But I am going to make a conscious effort to stop. When someone asks me to forgive them, I am going to tell them that I forgive them. I'm not going to shrug it off and just say "That's ok."

I'm sure many people will be uncomfortable by this practice. Ultimately, I don't think people really want to be forgiven. They just want to have their sins and tresspasses overlooked. God does not overlook our tresspasses, He overwhelms them with His mercy and loving-kindness and He tells us to do the same..."forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who tresspass against us."

Where you find vigilantes...

You often find a society, institutions, justice system that is either totally corrupt, useless or ineffective(or all of the above!)

I bring this up because some have said my e-mail from the previous post is vigilantism. It may be.

Think about what kind of institution would breed vigilantism. Is that necessarily a bad thing? If things are not getting done, if rules are blatantly being broken or just flat out ignored with absoltely no consequence, what is the responsibilty of the individual? Should we sit around and wait for the proper authorities to do their job? If the proper authorities refuse to do their job, are they still proper authorities?

The Joys of E-mail...

The following is an e-mail correspondence I had with a fellow pastor in the Missouri Synod. It is regards to my concerns about a video he had posted on YouTube of a woman preaching. To be fair, she was not preaching from a pulpit or to a congregation. However, this pastor teaches a homiletics class at his church and this was her final exam. At best, this kind of thing is confusing and borders on false-teaching and a vast misunderstanding of AC XIV, at worst, this is a denial of what Scripture teaches regarding the role of women, our Confessional Documents and the doctrine our church body holds to.

I admit that I was a bit over-zealous and have called him to apologize for being so harsh. I have left two messages with my brother in the hopes that we can work this out.

As you will see in his response, he was not interested in explaining himself or his actions. He was condescending, trite, and arrogant in his response to me. I am a new pastor and I do strive for integrity to the Holy Scriptures and the Confession of Christ's Church. I encourage all Lutherans to strive for the same integrity, however, learn from my example. Don't be jerky in defense of your beliefs.

Also, do not assume new, young pastors are somehow fundamentally lacking because they have not been infected with "life-experience" (i.e., blatant liberalism and a compromising attitude toward all doctrine). If someone asks you a question, even if it is a bit (or a lot) snarky, you can't automatically play the "Pharisee" card. We are supposed to be in communion with one another. I still am waiting for a defense of his practice.

__________________________________________
I saw a video on YouTube of a woman preaching and it claims she is studying homiletics under your supervision. Is this the actual case? If it is, as a brother pastor in the Missouri Synod, I am very disappointed and disturbed by this disdain for Scripture, the Confessions and our own church's
teaching on the role of women in the Church. I can certainly understand if you
do not agree with the teachings of Holy Scripture, the Confessions, or our
church body, but if you do not agree, why would you so blatantly scandalize and your brothers and sisters? Why not leave? Do you want there to be a rift? Are you trying to cause problems, to offend your weaker brother?
Please clarify this for me, as your dear brother. I will await your reply
while putting the best construction on what I hope is an innocent mistake.

Response:

I read your email and couldn't help but think of how Jesus continually attacked the Pharisees. The Pharisees were white washed tombs. The outside of their cups were clean but the insides were dirty. Jim, you are a modern day Pharisee.

In your email you call me brother. I can assure you that you are not a brother in any sense of the term. You are self righteous, proud and arrogant. I checked and I see that you are a recent sem graduate. Now your email makes sense.

You are young and in need of a mentor. I suggest you find a pastor who has life experience to take you under their wing. You and any ministry you are involved in need that help.

I will not read any further correspondences from you. I will delete them immediately. If you want to give me a call and apologize I will be happy to discuss any and all issues you would like.

"We upped ours..."

Both the LCMS and the ELCA have recently come out with new hymnals. Our hymnal price will soon be going up, but still is reasonably priced. I can just hear the heads of CPH and Augsburg Fortress now. (CPH Guy to AF Guy) "Hey, we just upped our price, up yours!!"

I know, its corny and tacky, but it makes me laugh every time I think about it.