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Our Spring 2007 issue of our newsletter is now online! The Spring issue includes information on conferences, retreats, Christ on Campus, an article by our President, Rev. Klemet Preus, and introductions to the new editors of HT magazine, myHT, and Reflections. Look for the summer issue after the “For You” conferences.
In Christ,
Erika Gehrke
Development Coordinator
Higher Things, Inc.
by The Rev. Mark Buetow
St. Luke 1:57-80
Today we celebrate the Nativity, the birth, of St. John the Baptist. Throughout the year, the Church has marked dates upon which we remember the work of the Lord through particular people: Apostles and Prophets and pastors and missionaries and many other holy men and women of God through whom the Lord has proclaimed His saving Gospel and shown us His gracious good works. So today we remember and give thanks for the birth of St. John the Baptist.
St. John the Baptist was a unique man. He is rightly called the last of the Old Testament prophets. He is the last one to preach the Gospel before the Savior came. John is also the first of the New Testament preachers. His calling was to point out Christ for the world and to identify, for the people, the man who is God in the Flesh, Jesus, the Son of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Some people would like to remember John simply because of the strange circumstances surrounding his birth: the angel’s announcing his coming to his father, Zechariah, and striking him unable to speak until his birth; the birth of John to Elisabeth, who was well beyond her childbearing years. Some think John should be remembered for the kind of life he lived: a harsh and strange life dressed in camel’s hair, eating locusts and wild honey. Some remember John for his harsh preaching against the self-righteous Pharisees. Many would say that John’s death by beheading by King Herod was what made John most famous.
We are going to cast all of these aside today and remember St. John the Baptist for his finger. That’s right, his finger. Because of all the things that John the Baptist did, the most important was what he did with his finger: he pointed to Christ. He pointed to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He did this in fulfillment of his father’s words: “You, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His way; to give His people knowledge of salvation, in the forgiveness of their sins,” (St. Luke 1:76-77).
John’s finger pointed to Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And that is salvation for you and I, who are also finger-pointers. But when you and I “point the finger” we don’t point to Jesus. When you and I point fingers we are pointing them at each other. From the highest levels of scandal in world government and big corporations to kids running around outdoors and getting into trouble, “finger-pointing” is our thing.
Our finger-pointing even does double duty! When we point the finger at someone to blame them, we are making them the one responsible for whatever problems there are, while at the same time trying to escape our own responsibility and blame! Adam, when he was caught in sin pointed his finger at Eve, and even at God Himself. “The woman YOU gave me made me eat the fruit,” (Gen. 3:12). The woman pointed her finger at the serpent. It was his fault. And ever since that day, we have loved ourselves rather than our neighbor by using our fingers to identify the people around us who ought to get in trouble so that we don’t.
Oh yes, the way in which we love to point the finger, lay the blame, and try to save ourselves is the way of people in this fallen world. And it’s a damnable way. For such finger-pointing leads to death and hell. After all, what use does God have for those who are only worried about themselves and would abandon their neighbor the instant they can save their own skins?
For a world full of such finger-pointing people comes the finger of John the Baptist, pointing not to the sins of others but to the Lamb of God. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” (St. John 1:29). Zechariah knew that, beginning with John, the days of salvation were about to be accomplished. By the Holy Spirit, John’s dad prophesied of his son’s place in the world: to be the guy who points us all to the Savior, to Jesus, to the Lamb who takes away all our sins.
John came into this world for this purpose: to point to Christ. To call God’s people away from their sins in repentance and to faith in the One to whom he pointed. John baptized in the Jordan River for the forgiveness of sins and to bring sinners to faith in Christ, the Son of God. John wasn’t there to bring attention to himself but to Christ. His finger was aimed always at Jesus: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
It was this Jesus to whom all fingers ultimately point. Not only the fingers of faithful preachers, but also the fingers of all the blame in the world, for Jesus took upon Himself our sins. It was to Jesus that the Jewish religious leaders pointed as the One who was worthy of death. It was to Jesus that the finger of Pontius Pilate pointed when he announced, “Behold the man!” (St. John 19:5). It was to the crucified Jesus that the fingers of His enemies and those who mocked Him pointed. It was upon Jesus that the Finger of God’s judgment came forth and punished Him for the sins of the world. And it was in the wounds of Jesus that the fingers of His disciples rested when He showed that He was indeed risen from the dead!
Ah, brothers and sisters in Christ, how worthless and silly all of OUR finger pointing seems in comparison with the Lamb of God who was pure and innocent and yet suffered for our sins and conquered death!
Dear Christians, follow the finger of John the Baptist! See to Whom it points! And follow the finger of your pastor to see where it points! For I, too am called to point my finger. But, like John, my finger isn’t here to point out your sins for condemnation or to point you to the sins of others. My finger is to point where John’s pointed: to the Lamb of God.
Of course, we know that Jesus has been raised from the dead and has ascended into heaven. Yet my finger does not point up into the sky! No, my calling is to point you to Christ where He has promised to be found. My finger doesn’t point here (the heart) or out there (the world) to tell you where to find Christ. No, follow my finger. It points you to the Font, where this salvation is delivered. It points you to the Altar where Christ’s own Body and Blood are given. It points you to the Scriptures, which alone are the final authority for all of our faith and life. It even points you to my lips which speak His forgiveness of sins into your ears.
In pointing to these gifts, brothers and sisters, I am pointing you away from yourselves and your finger-pointing at others, to Christ and His life and salvation for you.
Dear Christians, repent of your own finger-pointing! Receive the forgiveness from such finger-pointing that Jesus gives, to Whom all things point. And learn, then, to use your fingers for good and not for evil! Use them for pointing others to Christ, not for pointing out their sins. Husbands and wives, instead of pointing out what’s wrong with each other, point one another to your rings and vows and the grace of God which has bound you together. Parents—like Hilary today for Emma—as your kids grow, point them to the Font and Altar as the sure and certain means of knowing that God loves them in Christ. All of you: whether you’re on the playground, or at work, or with friends or family – learn to stop pointing out the sins of others, whether to blame them, or excuse yourself, or to make others laugh at them! Rather, point one another to Christ and to His means of grace and to His forgiveness. Let it be said of you, “Gee, she never points fingers!” What a blessing THAT would be wouldn’t it? And of course, when the sinful urge to point your finger at someone overcomes you, then run back here and I will point you to Christ and the gifts that deliver His sin-covering Blood.
Today we remember the Nativity, the birth of St. John the Baptist – not for his sake, but for yours – to recall that he was the one born into this world to identify the Christ for us. John the Baptist points to Jesus. And by pointing to Jesus, John has identified for us the one Source of all of our hope and comfort and peace and life and joy. John brings God’s people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of our sins. That is salvation: the forgiveness of sins.
John was born to point to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Let John and every preacher do this faithfully. Then you will always be directed to the Savior who takes away your sins. To the Altar. To the Font. To the Scriptures. To the preaching and absolving. There is Christ, just as John has shown us.
Praise to be God for the birth of St. John the Baptist! Praise God for St. John’s finger, for it points us to our Savior, Jesus Christ the Lamb of God who has taken away our sins. Happy Nativity of St. John the Baptist Day! Amen.
The Rev. Mark Buetow is the pastor of Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church in Du Quoin, Illinois, and is also the chief editor of Higher Things Reflections.
by Stan Lemon
Following a growing list of bad sequels by Marvel, The Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer steps into line right behind Spider-Man 3. Marked by a rather well-written introduction, our four fantastic friends, Mr. Fantastic, the Thing, Torch and the Invisible Girl, return in this sequel – which,sadly, is ruined by convenient story changes and an unnecessarily sappy wedding twist.
The story begins with Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl finally tying the knot. If you remember, the last movie ended with a romantic exchange between these two lovebirds involving a gasket from the space station as a makeshift ring. These two characters are entangled in a web of media frenzy, and we’re apparently witnessing their fourth (or is it fifth??) attempt at getting hitched.
Meanwhile, the world is quickly approaching its doom, as the Silver Surfer (unknown by that name at this point) soars around the planet, changing the climate and drilling huge holes in the ground. The wedding ends abruptly as the Silver Surfer happens to whiz through the city of New York – but not before Stan Lee, Marvel creator, makes a guest appearance arriving to the wedding. It’s so convenient that the Silver Surfer appears at the wedding, you could have predicted it during the opening credits.
The Silver Surfer is eventually downed by a tachyon pulse, the blast of a theoretical particle which travels faster than light. (Has Marvel stooped to borrowing technology from Star Trek now?). This pulse throws the surfer off of his board, a true “wipe out,” thus rendering him powerless. He is captured by none other than the villainous military thugs who whisk him away to a secret compound, sadly reminiscent of one of Marvel’s better movies, X-Men 2. While the goons are off torturing the Silver Surfer, the Fantastic Four are busy trying to figure out how to pull off his jail-break. Did I mention Dr. Doom even comes into play?
Another convenient plot twist occurs when the Silver Surfer (before he is caught) just happens to soar over Latveria. For those unfamiliar with Marvel comics, Latveria is a small country tucked away between Hungary, Romania and Serbia. The country is ruled by Doctor Doom, whom we see at the conclusion of the first movie entombed in a crate being shipped off on a freight liner labeled “Latveria.” Did I mention Latveria has no access to a body of water? Presumably our villain resides in the capitol city of Doomstadt, still entombed from his last encounter with the Fantastic Four. But, conveniently for Doom, the Silver Surfer flies over this micro-state, triggering some unexplained reaction which gives life to Doom. The process isn’t incomplete, because one of Doom’s assistants helps him by cutting pieces of steel from his body. The audience isn’t quite sure as this convenient aide is not explained.
Dr. Doom is now free, and with no explanation, he flies away in a helicopter with fancy scientific equipment to find our silver friend. Marvel really did fans an injustice on this one, failing to explain about the Doom empire to those who may not be comic-savvy. Doom teams up with the military and, reluctantly, the Fantastic Four in order to take on the Silver Surfer. If you didn’t see it coming I’ll spoil it now: Dr. Doom has another plan in store…when the Four finally free the Silver Surfer from the compound where he’s been confined, Doom runs off with his surfboard, which is (of course) the source of the Silver Surfer’s power, and thus makes Doom even more powerful.
In the end, Doom is defeated only by the combined powers of the Fantastic Four, which is (conveniently) made possible since the Human Torch contracted a mutation from the Silver Surfer which exchanges his powers with those of the others. Even more amazing is how this mutation suddenly changes form “swapping” to “absorbing” and thus all of the other’s powers are united in the Torch and can finally defeat Dr. Doom.
The movie wraps up, with the exchange of the Invisible Woman (who dies after battling Dr. Doom) for the Silver Surfer, whom we learn has been sent to earth by some mysterious demi-god who eats planets. The Silver Surfer’s job is to direct him to the tasty planets, so that his own home planet might be saved. If this doesn’t sound strange enough, then be prepared for more. The movie finally ends with the Surfer going kamikaze on the Planet-Eater, resurrecting the Invisible Woman, and restoring all of the Fantastic Fours’ powers to them.
The moral to the story? Everyone has a choice, even the Silver Surfer who does the bidding of the Planet-Eater. In the end, the Surfer’s choice is to stop the Planet-Eater.
If you can make it through the twists, turns and convenient plot changes to the end, you’ll find this an anti-climatic build to a modern-day decision theology. There is no free gift for the Silver Surfer, and there is no gift for the Fantastic Four. Everything is based upon what they earned or taken, and the choices they have made. It’s no wonder that the Invisible Woman doesn’t quite seem satisfied with the direction of her life, or why the Torch feeds only off of his entrepreneurship, or even why the Silver Surfer looks so down and out about his predicament. Ironically, only Dr. Doom gets it – in the last movie, he said to the Invisible Woman, “Do you really think Gate turned us into gods so we could refuse these gifts?” For Dr. Doom, his evil powers comes as nothing but gift, they exist outside of himself and he reaps the benefits of them. It’s sad that the best theology in this movie is found in the words of the evil villain.
One other cool reference worth noting in this latest edition of the Fantastic Four series is when Mr. Fantastic discovers the vocation of the Silver Surfer, he says, “Everywhere he goes, 8 days later it dies.” What beautiful baptismal imagery! The Silver Surfer (if you can get past the other bad theology) is like a planetary baptizer! Eight is a baptismal number, for eight people were saved in the ark when God flood the earth, destroying all life on it. Eight is also a baptismal number as we remember the circumcision of our forefathers, who were saved by the promise of God attached to this earthly act performed 8 days after birth. Perhaps the evil guys in this movie do get a bad rap. Eight days, and the old planet died so that the new one might live? All is gift for Dr. Doom? Sounds like Dr. Doom might be a little bit Lutheran!
If you’re a Marvel fan you’ve got to go see this movie – even if you see it simply because you’re a Marvel fan. If you’re not, save your money and hit up Shrek, or Ocean’s 13 instead. A little more explanation, a lot less wedding and fewer less-than-convenient story changes could have put this movie on my shelf next to the X-Men Trilogy and the first two Spider-Man’s. Instead it’s getting filed away with Daredevil, Elektra and Spider-Man 3 – somewhere in the attic.
Pucker up movie goers! I give Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer four out of four lemons, which makes for one sour movie!
Attention Minneapolis FOR YOU conference-goers! A group coming to Minneapolis from the St. Louis area has extra room in their bus if any stragglers still need transportation. If you’re interested in hopping a ride, please contact. Pr. Bruce Keseman at Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church in Freeburg, IL at (618)539-5664.
During the Trinity Season, the church continues to hear of the work of the Triune God shown in the Son’s work as true God and true man in Jesus Christ. These Reflections, which continue to carry us through the Trinity season, are drawn from the Sunday Readings, the Daily Readings and portions of the Small Catechism. In them, you will continue to be nourished by the comfort of Christ’s saving work accomplished FOR YOU and delivered in His means of grace. The Rev. Carlton Hein, Mt. Olive Lutheran Church, Loveland, CO, is the author for this portion of the Trinity season.
Trinity: Apostle’s Tide Reflection are now available for download here.
A Pre-Conference Lockin is being held at Trinity Lutheran Church in Kearney, MO on June 29th. All are welcome to attend! The lockin will be held from 7:00pm until 7:00am the following morning. Rev. Drew Newman will be the catechist. Interested in coming and want more information? Contact Rev. James Gier at (816)637-2785.
Are you interested in having a Pre-Conference lockin before you come to this year’s Higher Things Conference, For You in Minneapolis, MN and Asheville, NC? Contact Landon Reed to set a lockin up at your church today!
by The Rev. Matthew Ruesch
So I’ve read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for the fifth time, in preparation for the movie of the same name on July 11th. And I’ve given away all my Harry Potter books, going on sort of a “Harry Potter fast” in preparation for the seventh installment in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
I’m a self-professed “Harry Potter geek.” I was a little behind the culture in getting on board this train, but now I’m planning to be at WalMart at midnight on July 21st to get my copy. That’s the sort of thing only a geek would do. But at least I’m honest with myself.
I’ve debated with a few people the appropriateness of Christians reading the Harry Potter series. I won’t lay out the entire argument in defense of the books, but here are a few thoughts:
1. If you’ve never read at least one of the books, don’t criticize the series. Yes, the books use magic, but so do the beloved fiction works of Christians, such as The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings.
2. Of course the books are dark and involve evil. Again, see my comments on #1. Don’t read the book of Revelation if you’re trying to avoid learning about the battle between good and evil.
3. Because the books involve a level of violence and mature subject material, of course caution should be exercised in giving them to children. Like I said in #1–read the book first, then decide if it’s appropriate for your child to read.
4. What are the books trying to communicate? This is what I’m waiting to find out in Book 7. I agree with Rev. Dr. Richard Stuckwisch who believes that Harry will have to die in order to defeat Lord Voldemort. He sees a lot of Christian imagery in the books, in a similar manner to Narnia and Rings.
I’d put my money (okay, I would never actually bet money…especially on something as meaningless as a fantasy book) on Harry dying in Book 7. I know a lot of hard core Potterites don’t want to hear that, but given J.K. Rowling’s Christian background (yes, she is a Christian in the Church of Scotland tradition), I believe she will use the finale of the Harry Potter series to communicate the values of sacrifice and selflessness to a world that is self-centered and “me-focused.” After all, since the thing Voldemort fears most is death – doesn’t it fit that Harry will then exploit him in his greatest vulnerability? Throughout the books, Harry has not feared death. Therein lies another great Christian truth: our redemption in Christ overcomes death. As Dumbledore has pointed out, there are things worse than death. Eternal death is far worse than our earthly death.
As Christians, we learn to view the world through the cross of Jesus Christ. God’s Law has identified sin for each of us and the Gospel has provided the solution to that eternal problem. It just might be possible that with our eyes fixed squarely on the cross, we can find something valuable in books like the Harry Potter series. We rejoice each day because our sacrifice is not found in the pages of fiction, but in the inspired Word of God, the Holy Scriptures. Somehow that message is so pervasive, we’re even able to find a picture of the all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ in an imperfect fictional character like Harry Potter.
The Rev. Matthew Ruesch is Pastor of Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran Church, Garrison, MN.
Are you an aspiring writer? Have you ever been interested in putting together an article for Higher Things Magazine? Before you put pen to paper, check out our new, updated list of potential topics for the upcoming year. Then, feel free to familiarize yourself with the writer’s guidelines, which are there to help you mold and shape your thoughts into a dynamic article. Go to http://higherthings.org/magazine/writers.html for more and new information.
Many groups attending the For You conferences this summer have asked for a medical release form to use for the trip. Higher Things does not require a medical release form for our records of each registrant, but groups should have one on hand for each youth should an emergency arise. Here is a SAMPLE form, for your use. Groups should make adjustments to it wherever appropriate for their congregation’s liability insurance requirements, and a copy of the signed forms be available on the trip for the group leaders.
