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On this Good Friday, Pastor Borghardt is joined by Rev. William Cwirla of Hacienda Heights, CA. Pr. Cwirla goes through St. John’s Passion account and points to Christ Crucified for you!
We are pleased to announce that registration is now open for the Eighth Annual Christ on Campus Conference to be held this coming June 15-17, 2010 at Christ the King Lutheran Chapel in Mt. Pleasant, MI (home of Central Michigan University).
Once again, this year we are encouraging any and all interested college students and seminarians to join us too!
Please check out the detailed conference and registration information for Christ on Campus VIII and we’ll see you this summer in Michigan!
Rev. Marcus Zill, Executive
Higher Things, Christ on Campus
“Confessing Christ on Campus Since 1517”
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In episode 80 of HT-Radio, Pr. Borghardt and Patrick rejoice in the Palm Sunday text. They are then joined by Pr. Heinz to talk about the hit TV show Glee. During the last half hour of the episode Pr. Buetow is called to answer an email from you! Pr. Buetow looks at what scripture has to say about predestination.
We are pleased to announce that the 2010 Easter Reflections are now availble from Higher Things. These Reflections draw our attention to the Risen Christ who has triumphed over death and now delivers His death-defeating salvation to us in the gifts of His holy church.
To download a copy of the Easter Reflections in a printable booklet format, click here.
As always, thank you for your support of Higher Things.
In Christ,
Pastor Mark Buetow, Reflections Editor
Rev. Brent Kuhlman
There he is! He’s just hanging there. He refused to come down. Stayed to the bitter end. Breathed his last and said: “It is finished”(John 19:30). The veil in the temple split in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked. The rocks split. Dead people came out of their tombs (Matthew 27:51-52). Do you see him? Jesus of Nazareth! Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven Jesus of Nazareth! Yes, that’s right, he’s hanging there. His body hangs limp. Dead. Graveyard dead on a Friday afternoon we now call “Good!”
Good for you that is! “Really? Doesn’t look that way! Looks rather grisly and horrible.” Indeed. But dead on the cross Jesus is work that he does for you and for your salvation.
Take another look at him. Hidden in this brutally beaten and nailed to the tree corpse is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Yes, he looks so foolish. But dead on the cross Jesus is God’s highest wisdom. Yes, he looks so weak. But suspended lifeless on the cross Jesus is God’s most magnificent power. All for you!
St. Paul puts it this way: “God made him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin so that we might become the righteousness of God,” (2 Corinthians 5:21). As he hangs on the cross the Father heaps all sin on his Son and says: “Now you be Peter the denier, Paul the persecutor, King David the adulterer and murderer, Adam and Eve who ate the forbidden fruit in Eden, the thief on the cross, and Kuhlman the worst of sinners. Be the one who has committed every sin of every sinner who has ever lived and ever will live. See to it that you make satisfaction and pay for all sin and for every sinner!”
And that’s precisely what Jesus does. He offers himself on the altar of the cross as the sacrifice that atones for all sin. Yours. Mine. The world’s. Despised and forsaken he is for you! He bears your griefs and carries your sorrows. Crushed he is into death and condemnation because he answers for all your sin. In his death on a Friday afternoon Jesus insists on carrying your sin in his body in order to answer for it. On the tree your sin is his. His righteousness is yours. He is damned with your sin. But his sacrificial blood renders you righteous. What a sweet swap! What a blessed exchange!
In the latest Star Trek movie, Kirk’s father sacrifices himself for the entire fleet by steering his ship into the belly of the Romulan enemy Captain Nero. In the movie Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood’s character “Walt” dies in place of his friend Thao as an act of love and sacrifice. Walt’s death is the only solution to an impossible situation. His death provides freedom for Thao and Thao’s life is changed forever as he will live in the shadow of Walt’s death for him. Both James T. Kirk’s father and Clint Eastwood’s “Walt” only hint at the power of Christ’s death for you on the cross.
That Jesus does the salvation job as he dies there on the cross means that you cannot do it! You’re a lost a condemned person. You are a helpless self-centered sinner who deserves God’s temporal and eternal wrath and condemnation. Jesus is not. He is holy and perfect. On the cross he is crucified as the lawbreaker sinner in your place. He dies the death you deserve as a sinner. He receives the damnation you deserve as a sinner. And in his death he satisfies God’s judgment against you. Jesus has redeemed you: “in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins,” (Ephesians 1:7). He has purchased and won you from all sins.
What are your sins? What is it that you fear, love and trust above all things? Where do you look for all your good? Behold your idols! The false gods and saviors in your life! Some of the sin and sinning you know. There is a lot that you don’t know (that’s how bad it is with you). Some sin you hate and desperately want to stop. Other sin you love and want to keep on doing. Name the sin. Whatever the sin Jesus shed his blood on that Friday afternoon to cleanse you from it all (1 John 1:7). Yes, all sin! The whole enchilada of your sinning and sin! In thought, word, and deed! Even all the sin that has been committed against you! Imagine that!
So Jesus just goes and does it: a Good Friday just for you! While you were yet a sinner Jesus died for you! (Romans 5:8) Your sins then are forgiven. He left none out of his dying for you! Jesus refuses to hold them against you because he has covered them in his blood!
So, blessed are you! Salvation is yours. The resurrection of the body and life everlasting are yours too. All because of his holy precious blood and his innocent suffering and death on a Friday afternoon that we call good. Good for you! Everything has changed for you as you live in the shadow of His cross. “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” (Romans 8:1).
In the name of Jesus.
Rev. Brent Kuhlman is Pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Murdock, NE. He is also Vice-President of Higher Things and a Regular Guest on HT-Radio.
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In this episode of HT-Radio Pr. Borghardt discusses Gnosticism with Rev. Richard Serina, of Trinity Lutheran Church in Albany,Texas. Then he is joined by Rev. Jeffrey Grams of St. John’s Lutheran Church, Scottsbluff, Nebraska to talk about being ‘politically correct.’ Finally, Pr. Borghardt was able to track down Mr. Chris Loemker to talk about the hymn “A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth.”
In 1998, several LCMS pastors began planning a smaller, more regionally-minded, cost-effective conference for youth, designed to be uniquely Lutheran. A year later, those plans were unveiled for the Dying to Live National Lutheran Youth Conference, held in the summer of 2000 and sponsored by the Wyoming District of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. Over 700 youth and adults from 25 states attended what was, for all intents and purposes, the first Higher Things Conference. Based on the success of that first conference, more plans developed for what would become Higher Things.
The name for the emerging group was chosen just before the first conference, as it had become obvious by then that the event would serve as the impetus for something worth continuing and expanding. The new organization’s theme verse was: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Col. 3:1-2).
Ten years ago, Higher Things was started by a handful of pastors and laypeople who cared very deeply about the young people of the church. Today over 750 LCMS congregations have been impacted by the mission of Higher Things
Today, Higher Things is a lot of things, all of which seek to keep young people focused on Christ and His gifts as they grow and mature in their faith. It is parents teaching their children the Cate- chism. It is youth workers and volunteers reinforcing what is preached from their congregation’s pulpits and confessed in their pews. And it is pastors keeping their young sheep Lutheran as they grow up.
The future of Higher Things is as limitless as the Gospel we proclaim. In a post-modern feel-good age that dismisses truth claims, Higher Things remains unapologetically Lutheran.
Simply put, we believe that authenticity counts! We are proud to be Lutherans, and want to encourage other Lutherans to cultivate their faith, rediscover their roots and seek to embrace their own confession and heritage.
This year at the SOLA conferences, we heard over and over that we are saved by Jesus Christ alone – by His holy life and bitter suffering and death in our place. All that Christ has accomplished for us has been done by grace alone – without any merit or worthiness in us. Faith alone receives His gifts for us with a response of “Amen.” The Good News of Jesus and the salvation He has won for us is sure and certain because it is in Scripture alone.
While Higher Things has engaged in many activities related to youth ministry over the years, its summer conferences have always remained its flagship. To this day, the overwhelming highlight for nearly every one who attends Higher Things conferences is the opportunity to gather to pray the church’s prayer offices, sing her song, and receive Christ’s gifts.
Youth, especially, need solid ground that will nurture lasting Christian faith. Rather than treating youth as an adolescent subculture and subjecting them to experiences that cannot be replicated at home, we believe in challenging youth to learn the pure doctrine of the Christian faith. By teaching them the same message that they hear at home, youth grow in the fullness of the Christian faith as they come to appreciate historic liturgical practice and its unique focus on God’s gifts of forgiveness, life and salvation for us delivered in Word and Sacrament.
by the Rev. Rich Heinz
Warning: Spoilers follow.
“You were much more… muchier. You’ve lost your muchness,” laments the Mad Hatter to Alice in the newest version of Lewis Carrol’s “Alice in Wonderland.” The film briefly introduces Alice as a child, then skips over ten years to what is to be her engagement party. Alice once again sees the White Rabbit from her “dreams” and again falls down the hole, drinks the bottle labeled “Drink me” to shrink, and eats the cake to grow large, encounters the “Red Queen” (Queen of Hearts), Knave of Hearts, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, and all the others from her childhood adventure.
However, upon discovering that she will have to take the vorpal sword and slay the Jabberwocky, the grown Alice must dig deep inside and find the child that she was – the little girl who could indeed be muchier and defeat this monster, and therefore defeat the wicked queen.
Once she realizes she is not merely dreaming, the young adult Alice is convinced that killing the Jabberwocky is impossible. “I don’t slay,” she maintains, before the caterpillar points out some obvious wisdom she already had, in her deep, “inner child.”
A realization comes over her: “Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” And with her belief comes the strength, courage, and muchness that she needs to slay the monster.
While the entire film celebrates that people have choices and can choose to believe – choose to be strong and slay their Jabberwockies. Theologically, we call this mistaken notion “decision theology.” This is the idea that you can actually choose to believe, receiving Jesus as your Savior. We know from the Scriptures, that this is not true. He has chosen us! Luther rejoices over this in the Catechism: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to Him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified, and kept me in the true faith” (Small Catechism, Creed, III.)
You have the joy of being in amazing wonder that Jesus does call you to faith. He gives you belief! And not only does He give you faith, but He gives you the faith of a little child! “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it,”says our Savior (Luke 18:17 ESV.)
Through Holy Baptism, His Spirit comes and makes us children of our Heavenly Father. He gifts us with child-like faith and welcomes us into His kingdom. As He plunged us into the mighty waters of the font, Christ Himself brought us into the Wonderland of His Kingdom. Don’t worry that you don’t slay; on the cross He slew the dreaded Jabberwockies of sin and death, and rescued us from the clutches of the devil. At the font, He delivered those gifts to us.
The world thinks that the Bible is full of myths and fairy tales. Many would say we are mad, and that the Scriptures fill our minds with impossible things. To that, we reply with Alice, “Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” Yet we don’t even need six! We have the joy that the Holy Spirit has placed the “impossible thing” of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as the foundation for our faith.
We also have the joy of continually gathering as His children at His Table. But we do not gather for some mad tea party. Instead, our Lord blesses us with the wonders of His Body and Blood, given and shed for us—and that drives the devil mad!
Thanks be to God that He keeps you forever childlike in the faith. Our crucified and risen Savior will preserve you from losing your muchness! You haven’t lost your muchness at all! Jesus gives you muchness in believing the “impossible things” that He has truly done – and given – for you!
The Rev. Rich Heinz is Pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church & School in Chicago, Illinois. Since the Heinz’s are huge Disney fans, he enjoyed going to Navy Pier’s IMAX and seeing “Alice in Wonderland” with his wife for her birthday!
We are pleased to announce the Christ on Campus Volunteer teams for this summer’s GIVEN Conferences. They are listed below.
Thanks to all of our CCV’s (including those who applied but who were not selected to serve this year – we wish we could have picked all of you!), Pastor Jonathon Bakker for his work coordinating these efforts, and Pastors Daniel Burhop and Richard Woelmer for their willingness to serve the rest of the organization in this capacity! You guys are the best!
Rev. Marcus Zill, Executive
Higher Things, Christ on Campus
“Confessing Christ on Campus Since 1517”
GIVEN 2010 CHRIST ON CAMPUS VOLUNTEER TEAM
Coordinator: Rev. Jonathon Bakker, Mt. Pleasant, MI (Central Michigan University)
UTAH CCV’S:
Manager: Rev. Daniel Burhop, Boulder, CO (University of Colorado)
TENNESSEE CCV’S:
Manager: Rev. Richard Woelmer, Bloomington, IN (Indiana University)
