Author: Higher Things

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Categories
Gospeled Boldly

Focus – Gospeled Boldly #107

In this episode, Pastor Eric Brown and Thomas Lemke read about the proper focus of the Christian.

In the Backwards Life, Pastor Brown talks about the proper sense of “doulos” – is it “servant” or “slave”?

This episode covers Galatians 6:1-11.

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Categories
Catechesis

No sola goes Alone

by The Rev. George Borghardt

<“Sola” means “alone.” Solus Christus. Sola gratia. Sola fide. Sola scriptura. Christ alone, Grace alone. Faith alone. Scripture alone.

But no sola ever goes alone. Together they sum up the teachings of the Reformation. Christ’s death alone saves you by grace alone – that is, gift alone. All that He did for you on the Cross is received by faith alone. And it is certain because it flows from Scripture alone.

All together. No sola by itself. They are always together! Pull them apart and everything goes wrong! Seriously wrong – as in life and death wrong.

You’d think solus Christus could stand on it’s own, right? But you’d be wrong! Without sola gratia, sola fide, and sola scriptura, Christ doesn’t do you any good. If Christ is not delivered to you by grace alone, if He is not received for you by faith alone, then you are lost. And His Cross does us no good unless the Word is put into our ears.

“Grace alone” all by itself is no good either! Without the other solas we are left with an uncertain religion that says God is merciful to us apart from Christ and His Cross. It’s called “universalism.” You may not know the name, but you know the game. Universalism is the false belief that God – whatever “God” there is – is like an old grandpa who loves you just because you are you. He knows you do bad stuff, but still… He just can’t help loving you.

You know better. The truth about your sins troubles you. You know there is nothing save-able about you – nothing that God would find lovable. There is no comfort in grace alone apart from Christ, faith, and the Word. Grace all by itself isn’t grace at all – it’s slavery and uncertainty.

Sola fide all by itself is a nightmare called “fideism.” It’s believing in your believing. All you need is faith – just a bit. Muster it up, and you can move mountains. But do you have enough faith to save yourself? You don’t. You know it. I know it. Your faith in your believing won’t save you.

Have you ever heard the expression, “The Bible says it, I believe it and that’s it?” No, that is not it. Scripture all by itself is “fundamentalism.” Apart from grace alone and faith alone – apart from Christ – the Scriptures are nothing but a closed book. There may be interesting history and a good guide to living, but you won’t find comfort, peace, or eternal life. No, the Scriptures testify of solely of Christ (St. John 5:39).

Of course, we can deceive ourselves and think that God is like grandpa, or that our believing is enough, or that by obeying every last rule of the Scriptures, that God will love us and then save us. People will pay, pray, or do anything to get heaven. Who wouldn’t? Churches have been built on less.

The true Church, the one that the gates of Hades will not overcome, is built on Christ alone (grace alone) who saves us not by what we do or how much we believe but by faith alone. You can depend on that, you can die for that, cause it’s built on the Scriptures alone.

But you don’t have to die Christ already died for you. His death for your sins. His life for your eternal life. He saves you not because you deserve it, but despite what you have done. Not by good or bad works, but by the antithesis of all your works – He saves you sola gratia. Too good to be true? Can’t bring yourself to believe it? That’s why salvation is sola fide.

That’s the Gospel. Salvation is by the Cross alone, that’s grace alone, through faith alone. This is certain because it flows from Scripture alone. solo Christo. sola gratia. sola fide. sola scriptura. No sola goes alone.

 

Categories
HT Legacy-cast

Episode 336: Starbucks Cups, Religion of the World, and the Abomination that causes Desolation

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Today on HT-Radio, Pr. Borghardt and Stan Lemon talk about the Starbucks red cup, they take a look at the religion of the world and the abomination that causes desolation. They also learn a lot about making sure microphones are plugged in and the record button has been pressed, which makes the producer very happy.

 

Categories
Higher Homilies

Impress Me!

Rev. David Kind

I Corinthians 2:1-5

Grace, Mercy and Peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen

For several years now folks from my church have gotten together on the 4th of July to have a cook out and watch the fireworks in Minneapolis. We always have a pretty good time together. But this year the fireworks were, well, just not that impressive. The display lasted about 15 minutes total. And the grand finale, and it is a stretch to say it was grand at all, lasted all of about 30 seconds. And there really wasn’t anything special about the fireworks that were shot off. And most disappointing to me, there were hardly any of those ones that make the big boom that you can feel in your chest. So I said to my wife afterward: “That was pretty lame. Next year we need to go somewhere else.” I want to be impressed, after all.

We all like to be impressed. And that’s the way people think about church a lot of times. Sometimes the church service doesn’t seem all that impressive. We go and sing the same old hymns, chant the ancient liturgy, and listen to the same preacher. And though your pastor is pretty well educated, he may not be the most impressive person around. Perhaps he’s a little nerdy, or over weight, or balding. Maybe his sermons aren’t the most riveting things you’ve ever heard. Perhaps his preaching style is a little dry. And then you hear that there is this great preacher at your friend’s church that really speaks to people like you, and that their worship services are dynamic and exciting and designed to impress you. And every Sunday there are like thousands of people there. And once in a while they may even give away a big screen TV. And you think about going, because you want to be impressed for a change.

Or maybe what’s really impressive is not another preacher, but someone speaking at the local mosque, or a professor wowing people with scientific or philosophical wisdom in the lecture hall at the University, or an atheist poet at the local coffee house. So why waste your time and attention on something that doesn’t seem all that impressive. Why continue to listen to your pastor and go to your church?

Tradition tells us that St. Paul was not a very impressive preacher, that he had a kind of irritating high-pitched voice, and that he was long winded. Now I know that I’m not the most interesting of preachers, but I can say that I never put anyone into such a deep sleep that they fell out of a window and died during any of my sermons. But St. Paul did. And yet we know that he was one of the greatest apostles and saints that the Church has known and that the spread of Christianity into the Roman empire was due in large part to his preaching.

But what does St. Paul say about all of this himself? He says: “And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom… And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom…” Paul admits it! He wasn’t that impressive. But what else does Paul say? He came not with human strength, but with the power of God, not with words of human wisdom neatly fitted together into an impressive message, but with the Holy Spirit, not with lofty speech, but preaching Christ crucified.

And why? Because your faith must not be in men, must not be in human wisdom or philosophy, must not be in what impresses for the moment, but in the power of God, that is, in Jesus Christ and in Him crucified. All other impressive things fall apart in the end. And so Paul contrasts the plausible speech of men to the mysteries of God, which are above human explanation. He contrasts the wisdom of human beings, even the most intelligent of them, with the power of God which is active in the simple Word of Christ that is preached. He contrasts the lofty well crafted rhetoric of the unbeliever with the seeming foolishness of Christ.

But what is truly impressive? An exciting, well rehearsed, preacher? A passionate imam? An erudite and articulate college professor? Or Christ Himself, the Son of God come down from heaven to be crucified for you? In Him is the power of faith and life. In His death and resurrection is forgiveness and salvation. He alone is truly impressive. And because of Christ, your pastor, however funny he looks, whatever foibles he might have, however boring his speech, is impressive too. For he speaks and acts for Christ. His Word, by the power of Christ, forgives. And the supper he serves you from Christ’s table gives eternal life. So don’t look too closely at the messenger who faithfully preaches Christ and His Word. Don’t let his lack of impressiveness fool you. For the Word that is faithfully preached is the power and glory of God, and Christ is heard and given in it. And that is truly impressive. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, to life everlasting.

Categories
HT Legacy-cast

Episode 111: November 19th, 2010

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In this edition of HT-Radio, Pr. Borghardt is joined by the Rev. Mark Buetow of Bethel Lutheran Church in Du Quoin, IL. Pr. Borghardt and Pr. Buetow go through some of the Gospel readings from the Last Sunday’s in the Church year and show how they point only to Jesus – even on the Last Day.

Categories
Catechesis

The Purpose of Hymns during the Reformation: Part 4

By Monica Berndt

The Purpose of Hymns for the Reformation: Part 4

Hymns worked well in the primarily oral culture of Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Europe. Because spoken word, not written word, was the primary way that people accessed information, hymns were not too revolutionary a technique for spreading information.1 The best kind of propaganda is the one that fits perfectly into the culture, and Luther’s hymns were able to do exactly that. There are seven characteristics of oral culture that help knowledge become cemented in the minds of people and hymns have all seven characteristics.1 They generally had familiar melodies, or simple, straightforward melodies, and these tunes made the text easier to remember, which in turn aided in teaching hymns to large congregations. Tunes were learned by rote and given titles that people could recognize, which allowed publishers to print the text for hymns with the name of the tune, without needing to set up type for musical notation.1 Common people did not need to purchase a complicated book of theology to learn the things they needed to know about Luther’s doctrines because they had relatively easy access to the new texts, and tunes that were already in their memory. Luther understood how easy it would be to spread their idea through this medium, so he created hymns that articulated his beliefs in a simple, understandable way, creating propaganda for the Lutheran Church.

Catholic clergy bemoaned the fact that hymns contained so much doctrine and bitterly remarked that Luther “destroyed more souls with his hymns than with all his writing and preaching.”2 This was because hymns were more pervasive than books or sermons could ever be. They could be sung both publicly in the church, and privately at home, at work, or in schools. An individual in Luther’s day could potentially sing the same hymn several different times a day and even use them to teach their children. While the spoken words of Scripture were still valued highly by Luther, “music added even to a Scriptural text a force beyond that of the words alone.”2 In a world where the Bible had not been translated into the vernacular until Luther’s time, hymns opened a door into not just church doctrine, but also to the words of Scripture. The everyday church goer now had access to Luther’s teachings through hymns and could decide for themselves whether to join Luther’s movement or to stay in the Catholic Church. Given the success and lasting effects of the Reformation, it seems that many people were drawn to a church that could talk to them in their own language and let them learn theology, instead of keeping them from it. This is why hymns were influential during the Reformation: they brought hundreds of people to the knowledge of salvation in Christ.

Sources:
1 Oettinger, Rebecca Wagner. Music as Propaganda in the German Reformation. Aldershot, Hants, England ; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2001.

2 Brown, Christopher Boyd. Singing the Gospel: Lutheran Hymns and the Success of the Reformation. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2005.

Monica Berndt is the music director at Messiah Lutheran Church in Seattle, WA and studies music and history at the University of Washington. This is the first part of a paper written for her Medieval Music History course last spring. She can be reached at acinomtdnreb@gmail.com.

Categories
Life Issues

I Kissed a Girl

I Kissed a Girl
by Katy Perry

This was never the way I planned
Not my intention
I got so brave, drink in hand
Lost my discretion
It’s not what, I’m used to
Just wanna try you on
I’m curious for you
Caught my attention

I kissed a girl and I liked it
The taste of her cherry chapstick
I kissed a girl just to try it
I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
Don’t mean I’m in love tonight
I kissed a girl and I liked it
I liked it

No, I don’t even know your name
It doesn’t matter
You’re my experimental game
Just human nature
It’s not what, good girls do
Not how they should behave
My head gets so confused
Hard to obey

I kissed a girl and I liked it
The taste of her cherry chapstick
I kissed a girl just to try it
I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
Don’t mean I’m in love tonight
I kissed a girl and I liked it
I liked it

Us girls we are so magical
Soft skin, red lips, so kissable
Hard to resist so touchable
Too good to deny it
Ain’t no big deal, it’s innocent

I kissed a girl and I liked it
The taste of her cherry chapstick
I kissed a girl just to try it
I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
Don’t mean I’m in love tonight
I kissed a girl and I liked it
I liked it

It takes a lot to disturb me.  I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but it is what it is.  I have been disturbed.  And of all things, by a song I heard on the Top 20 station on my radio* between random errands the other day.  I normally just listen to the news or the 70’s station, but I was actually trying to get an idea of what teens are listening to these days.  Did I get an earful!

Just to make sure I wasn’t imagining what I heard, I asked my youth group about it this week.  Before I even finished asking my question, they named the song, the artist, and were singing the lyrics.  Against their will, they say.  They all hate the song, but its catchy tune has burned it into their memories.  (If only I could get them to learn the catechism so quickly! Somehow I don’t think Katy Perry will be on board with that plan.)

We have become such a hedonistic and disposable culture that it’s perfectly normal – the stuff of Top 20 pop music charts – for a young lady (and I use the term loosely here) to get drunk and make out with another young lady (and I use the term loosely here too).   She hopes her boyfriend doesn’t mind, but every girl today knows that making out with another girl is a great way to get a guy’s attention and “safely” be a tease.

Now I know that a lot of people these days, even Christians, are cool with sexual experimentation, many of them even promote it.  How else are you going to know if you’re “compatible” for a long term relationship or marriage if you don’t try things out ahead of time?  (Don’t get me started on the plug and socket speech…)  Not only is there the usual boy-girl experimentation going on, but now we have pop music promoting same-sex experimentation too.  It’s not enough for us to teach against and try to prevent “purpling”, but apparently “pinking” and “bluing” is more common than ever.

“Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.  Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.  For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature…”  (Romans 1:22-26)

The interesting thing about this song is that Miss Perry knows what she is doing is wrong.  She’s struggling internally with the decision.  It demonstrates how, even though it is against our conscience, we are encouraged to overcome that voice and satiate our curiosity.  Separate intimate actions from intimate relationships.  It’s all about random feelings and following our basest of urges.  Even the personal interaction of a kiss has been depersonalized.  This girl Miss Perry kissed may as well have been a light post for all the human interaction that was involved.

This just further goes to show the depth of sin in this world we live in, in our relationships with one another and even our “relationships” with ourselves.  This is not the way God created things for us, not the way He wants them to be for us.  He has given us His Son to be our Bridegroom, to be the One who tends to us, loves us, gives Himself for us, puts us first, does not treat our bodies merely as objects of lust for his own pleasure and experimentation.  How could He?  He died to save us from this twisted world we live in, where our young ladies are encouraged to try out homosexuality on the radio.  Come quickly, Lord!

* XM radio is REALLY cool – it’s like cable TV for the radio!

by Sandra Ostapowich

Categories
Gospeled Boldly

Fruit Salad – Gospeled Boldly #106

Just one little bite? In this episode, Pastor Eric Brown and Thomas Lemke read about freedom and the law. Then, they examine the WORKS of the flesh, and the FRUITS of the spirit.

In the Backwards Life, Pastor Brown talks about premarital sex, and how to tell when someone is self-justifying via Scripture.

This episode covers Galatians 5:13-26.

If you have questions you’d like answered send them via our Contact Page or post them on The Gospeled Boldly Facebook page.

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Categories
HT Legacy-cast

Episode 110: November 5th, 2010

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Pr. Borghardt is joined by the President of Higher Things, Rev. William Cwirla, to talk about All Saints in episode 110 of HT-Radio. The Feast of All Saints is celebrated on November 1st each year. Pr. Cwirla explains what this feast is about and who “the saints” are while always pointing us to Jesus.

Categories
Higher Homilies

The Festival of the Reformation

by the Rev. Mark Buetow

Martin Luther had to be set free. He was a slave to his sins. He had become a monk so that he could spend every hour of every day living a holy life and make God happy with him. But the problem was that instead of a holy life, he just had more time to think about his sins. He spent hour after hour and day after day wondering how he could ever get on the Lord’s good side. After all, Jesus was the righteous Judge and Luther was a moldy worm sack! He would go to Confession and then go and scrub the floor and then have to run back to his Father Confessor because he remembered some sins he had left out. Finally his Father Confessor, Father Staupitz, told him, “Martin! Stop already! Believe and trust in Jesus who has taken away your sins! I’ll tell you what. You have too much time around here to think about your sins all day. You’re not busy enough. You’re going to go to Wittenberg and teach the Bible.” So off Martin Luther went. And he immersed himself in the Old Testament as he lectured. He drunk deeply of the Scriptures until at last the Holy Spirit brought the Word of God clear to Martin Luther. God’s justice and righteousness are found in Jesus and Jesus forgives our sins by grace. We receive this forgiveness by faith through the Word and Sacraments. Luther finally learned, from God’s own Word, that Jesus was not the Judge of sinners but their Savior; that salvation wasn’t something earned but given; that the forgiveness of sins and eternal life were not rewards but gifts. The Word of God showed Martin Luther the Truth. And the Truth, that is, Jesus, set him free. Free from sin, death, devil, hell, the curse of the Law, guilt, misery and despair. Luther was a free man in Christ!

As Luther learned the Gospel more and more and as he preached and taught and wrote, he was constantly fighting against two kinds of false doctrine. These are the same temptations to false belief that swarm around us today. On the one hand was the teaching of the Roman church that just by doing whatever the church said, you would be saved. As long as you went to Confession, went to Mass, acknowledged that Pope was always right, and did other good works, you would be saved. Furthermore, if you just gave enough money, you could have your sins forgiven completely and avoid any time in Purgatory. In other words, by mixing your faith with your good works, you could be certain of God’s favor. On the other hand, the other “Protestants” taught that God is experienced directly, in your heart. Never mind preaching and the Sacraments. Never mind the external Word of God. We are to look for Jesus in our hearts and in our changed lives. All of these ideas are alive and well today! That if we just do some things like show up in church, we’re automatically in. Also, that being a Christian is all about MY faith and what’s going on in my heart; my decision and choices; that we don’t have to receive God’s grace in the Word and Sacraments but just have some “personal relationship” with Jesus, whatever that means. Brothers and sisters flee such preaching! Flee such teaching which directs you to trust in what you’ve done or what you have chosen or how you live. Flee such instruction which does not lead you by faith to Jesus Christ but one way or the other has you put your trust in yourself and what you have done. Such a faith can never save! Only Jesus the Son sets us free by giving us His Word to save us.

Against the first false notion of earning grace by works we put the works and merit and life and death and resurrection of Jesus. What Martin Luther learned is what Jesus taught the Jews: “If you remain in my Word then you are truly my disciples and you will know the Truth and the Truth will make you free.” The Word of God, the Holy Scriptures, the teaching and preaching in the church all give us Jesus. Everything in our Christian life is about Him. All that He has done, He has done for you. All that He still does, He does for you. He is the eternal Son of God, begotten of the Father. He is man, born of the flesh of His mother, the Virgin Mary. As a man, Jesus placed Himself under the obligations and demands of the Law. He sinlessly kept all the commandments for you, loving His Father above all things and His neighbor as Himself. Jesus was baptized with sinners, tempted by the devil, accused and condemned by men. He carried our sins to the cross of Calvary and, nailed there, shed His blood for the sins of the world, for your sins and my sins. On that cross, Jesus drank in death and breathed His last, declaring that all things for our salvation and bringing us back to God are finished. He declared that victory triumphantly to the Devil and the powers of Hell. He rose again on the Third Day. He ascended in triumph and then sent the Spirit upon His preachers so that the Word would go forth to save sinners all over the world. All glory, honor, work, accomplishment, belongs to Jesus! The Jews didn’t recognize that Jesus was the center of salvation. The Roman Church and other Protestants speak of Christ while subtly putting the focus on ourselves. But the Holy Scriptures deliver Jesus to us for our salvation.

Now, against the other notion, that we can only be sure of Jesus when we look into our hearts, or in how well we live, against that notion Luther preached and taught plainly that the Lord does not come to us or deal with us or save us in any other way than in His external Word. What do we mean by that? We mean the Gospel and the Sacraments. The four “holies” as they  are called: the Holy Gospel which preaches and teaches what Christ has done for us. Holy Baptism in which God’s Word is joined to water to wash away our sins! Just like Alayna today! At the font, the Name of God is put upon us! Holy Absolution in which the called minister of Christ pronounces forgiveness in the stead and by the command of Jesus. Holy Communion in which our crucified and risen Lord’s body and blood are put into our mouths so that we have forgiveness, life and salvation. Dear Christian, believe this, trust it, that Jesus comes to us in no other way than through His Word and Sacraments. The Jews of Jesus day were proud to be in the family tree of Abraham. But that didn’t save them. Many so called Christians today are convinced that by their own feeling of faith in their hearts or by some way of living, they prove they are Christians. Such ways of thinking leave us no comfort. The Gospel and Sacraments, however, are all the comfort in the world. They show us exactly where Jesus is and teach us to be absolutely confident and certain that our sins are forgiven and the Lord is no longer our enemy but our Savior. He is no longer the Judge who will condemn but the Lord who has brought us into His kingdom of righteousness. Through the Gospel and the Sacraments, you can be certain that you are Jesus’ disciples and that He has set you free from sin and death. So be in church! Not because showing up makes you holy. But because Jesus’ church t is the only place you can be certain that your sins are forgiven and you have a heavenly Father in Jesus.

Finally, now that the Gospel has come clear in the church, now that we understand that the forgiveness of sins is a free gift of God, accomplished by Jesus and delivered in the Gospel and Sacraments, we can have a right view of God’s Law and Commandments. Now, instead of thinking the Law is just rules to keep to avoid hell, we can learn and believe that the Law teaches us how best to love and care for our neighbor. Martin Luther became a monk because he wanted to avoid hell. He left the world where he could serve his neighbor so he could try to save himself by his life cut off from the world. What joy that he learned later on to come back into the world and work hard to preach faithfully to his congregation, to be married and so care for his wife and children. You, dear Christian, have been set free from the Law and its judgment against your sins. Now, learn from the Commandments what your neighbor needs you to do: to love your husband or wife; to care for and teach your children; to work honestly at your job; to help those in any kind of need. Because you are no longer slaves of sin! You have been set free by the Son to be a servant to your neighbor.

Martin Luther became a free man in Christ by the power of the Holy Gospel. In that Gospel, God’s righteousness was revealed through the faith of Jesus Christ. It’s all about Jesus and His work to save sinners. Now you are set free. Set free from thinking your works can earn you God’s smile. Jesus has done this by His life, death and resurrection. Now you are set free from looking in your heart or life or other strange places to find Jesus. He comes to you clearly and for certain from the font, altar and pulpit. Now you are set free from using the Law as a ladder to get up to God. Rather, the Law becomes your guide in knowing what holy and good works your neighbor needs you to do for them. Remain in this Word, dear Christians, and you are truly His disciples. Because His Word makes it so. His Word gives you Jesus Himself. And Jesus has set you free from sin and death. Go in peace. Happy Reformation! Amen.