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I love reading about Luther complain. He whines about the exact same things we do. This is great news. 500 years ago, things looked like they were falling apart, but God kept His church. We’re up against the very same things. It still looks like everything is falling apart. God kept His church so far. He will keep it now.
Questions or Comments? Contact Pr. Goodman via our Contact Page or through Facebook.
Parents, listen up. God gives you incredible authority. He has promised to work through you. This isn’t so you can serve yourself. You can serve the people God gives you better than anyone else. He has promised to work through you in your vocation. Serve your family and rejoice that God will work through you.
Questions or Comments? Contact Pr. Goodman via our Contact Page or through Facebook.
By Rev. Eric Brown
“If You are the Son of God…”
Satan knows perfectly well who Jesus is. He’s not approaching Jesus trying to figure out who or what He is. Satan is operating with a flawed view of what it means to be God. You’re God; why would You be hungry and suffer when You don’t have to? You’re God; why wouldn’t You just have the awesome earthly glory You are entitled to? You’re God, You can do what You want – how about we sign a treaty and You can have all these sinners without a fight.
Satan knows that Jesus is God, but Satan doesn’t understand God. He never did. Satan thought being God meant power, might, glory – all the things Satan and the world still tell us to strive after. Satan thought being God meant doing whatever you wanted for yourself.
John tells us in his epistle that God is love. That’s what Satan can’t get. God loves. Period. God serves. God always acts not in His own interests, but for the good of His creation, the people He loves. God always acts for your good. And as Jesus is true God, that is what He does even when tempted.
Because Jesus is the Son of God, He will see that you live by the Word of God who wins you life and salvation by His own death and resurrection.
Because Jesus is the Son of God, He will not put God to the test. His foot won’t hit a stone – but His heel will be bruised when He grinds Satan under His heel on the cross.
Because Jesus is the Son of God, He will serve the Father by going to the Cross to win you salvation.
Christ doesn’t tangle with sin and temptation just to mess with Satan; He does so because He loves you and will see that you are forgiven and with Him for all eternity. That is who He is, and whom He makes you to be in your Baptism.
Rev. Eric Brown is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Herscher, Illinois.
By Monica Berndt
College campuses and Christianity are not two words I would put together very often. With our society increasingly moving towards ‘post-truth’ where no one can state objective truths, Christians are often left out of the conversation. This is especially true on college campuses across the country. But, thinking that there is no such thing as truth undermines everything we believe as Lutherans. It can be frustrating to attempt conversation with someone who does not respect your point of view. It can also be difficult to find other Christians who can help balance out this thinking. However, there are still ways to remain a Confessional Lutheran on campus and not feel overwhelmed.
In one way or another, college is tough and there’s no easy way around that. However, no matter what happens you will always have the promises and the grace of Jesus Christ available to you through His Word and Sacraments. They will always be there- given for you.
Monica Berndt attends the University of Washington in Seattle where she studies history and music education.
By Rev. Eric Brown
“But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what He said.”
Jesus Christ is not your fairy godmother. He’s not a genie in a bottle or a falling star to wish upon. He’s not in the business of wish fulfillment. His job, His task is to win forgiveness with His death upon the Cross. His job is to bring about the restoration of Creation with resurrection on Easter. And this is what we see Jesus doing all the time in the Gospel – forgiving people and fixing little bits of the fall, undoing little consequences of sin. His redemptive work which we see in full in the last day bubbles out early.
In Luke 18, the disciples still don’t see this. They don’t want a Jesus who dies and rises. Even when Jesus tells them flat out that this is what He will do, it makes no sense to them. It isn’t what they want. They want a glorious revolution, a new earthly kingdom, power and respect from friends and crushed enemies at their feet. The thing is, those sort of wishes are the sort of thing Lucifer would offer to fulfill (check back next week). But that’s not what Jesus does. He’s not interested in earthly glory or giving the disciples everything their sinful hearts desire. He is focused upon the Cross.
The temptation still remains for us today to try to treat Jesus as though His job is to give us what we want. We can even pout when we don’t get our way, when our vain dreams of glory or stuff or popularity or wealth don’t play out the way we want them to. But while we often get distracted by foolish things, Jesus has a single minded focus upon the Cross – and He has this focus for you, for your good. Jesus is determined to be your Lord and Savior, and so He goes to the cross and wins you salvation. And that is more joyous than anything else we could have thought to wish for.
Rev. Eric Brown is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Herscher, Illinois.
Higher Things presents the next set of Daily Reflections for the season of Lent, Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday, March 1st, 2017 through April 15, 2017. Reflections are available as a printable booklet and in a variety of other formats below.
Download the Lenten 2017 Reflections as a booklet by clicking here or in a variety of other formats at higherthings.org/reflections.
In Christ,
Rev. Aaron Fenker
aaronfenker@higherthings.org
Media Executive
Higher Things, Inc.
Judges 5:1-6:27
Sometimes you just need a musical interlude! In this episode Pastor Eric Brown and Thomas Lemke read the song of Deborah, offering notes on the text, and observations on the place of victory tunes in times past. Then they begin the account of the next Judge in the queue, a mighty warrior in hiding, and his amusing encounter with the preincarnate Christ.
In the Backwards Life, Pastor discusses Christian music, and Thomas confuses Billy Joel and Elton John.
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By Rev. Eric Brown
“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.”
Farmers must cringe when they hear what we normally call the Parable of the Sower. Seed is rather expensive (at least if you buy good seed), and in this parable so much seed gets seemingly wasted. The farmers I’ve known wouldn’t plant soil without meticulously preparing it. They would have weeded it, plowed it, and they certainly wouldn’t have just thrown seed all over the highway. Seed is too expensive to use that way.
Jesus tells us that the parable, the main thrust of the parable is this: The seed is the Word of God. And the Word of God is to be spoken and proclaimed to everyone—the great and good news that Christ Jesus has died for their sins.
Now sometimes, proclaiming the Word of God doesn’t seem to do much good. And at those times we can be tempted to start being scanty with the Word. For example, we might decide to not tell “that sort of person” about God’s love. But in the parable, the Word just keeps going out and out—everywhere and to every type of soil.
Because the simple fact is, we don’t know how God will use His Word upon a person. I don’t get to spiritually till and fertilize my neighbor first to figure out if he’s “good soil” or not. And that’s okay, because that’s not my job. The sower sows the seed all over; we proclaim Christ and Him crucified to all—again and again and again. And we do so, giving thanks that God’s Word of life is spoken to US again and again, even when our sin would make us seem a bit thorny or rocky or even flat-out stubborn and hard. Lord, keep us steadfast in Thy Word!
Rev. Eric Brown is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Herscher, Illinois.
By Rev. Michael Keith
Pax Domini. What’s that now? Does that having something to do with pizza being delivered in 30 minutes or less?
No, it’s about one of the coolest moments during Divine Service. Pax Domini: the peace of the Lord.
The Divine Service often begins with Confession and Absolution. We then join in the Kyrie and the Gloria in Excelsis, hear the Word of God read and preached, confess the Creed, join in the prayer of the Church, and all of this points us and leads us to the Service of the Sacrament.
It is in the Service of the Sacrament that we find the Pax Domini. After Jesus has spoken His Words through the office of the pastor in the Words of institution “Take eat; this is my body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me. Drink of it all of you; this cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me” the pastor then takes one of the consecrated hosts and the chalice and holds them up before the congregation and says “The peace of the Lord be with you always.” The congregation responds with a faith-filled “Amen.” This is the Pax Domini. And it’s so cool!
On the evening of the day Jesus rose from the dead He appeared to His disciples in the locked room. The disciples were afraid they, too, might be arrested and put to death like Jesus. The disciples’ initial reaction at Jesus appearing in the locked room may very well have been fear and terror as they had all abandoned and betrayed Him in some way. Yet, into this sinful, chaotic, and fearful place the resurrected Jesus physically appeared to the disciples and said to them “Peace be with you.”
And so Jesus does this for you today. Into your fearful, chaotic, sinful life He is physically present with His Body and Blood in the Holy Sacrament just as He promised—and He speaks a word to you. He speaks peace to you: the Pax Domini. It is in this Holy Supper that you know you have peace. It is in this Sacrament that you know that God is at peace with you despite your sin and rebellion and betrayal. It is in the Body and Blood of Jesus given and shed for you that you are forgiven, renewed, and strengthened. You respond with “Amen.” This is not a greeting between the pastor and the people. This is a proclamation. In Jesus, in this Sacrament, in the Body and Blood of Jesus now held before you, the peace of the Lord is with you always. You respond in faith and trust at the Lord’s Word. “Amen.” Yes, I believe that! I believe that through the Body and Blood of Jesus I have peace with God because of the forgiveness of sin. You sing the Agnus Dei—the Lamb of God—as you recognize that it is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world who is present for you in the bread and the wine. You then come forward to the altar to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus. You are strengthened and preserved in body and soul to life everlasting. In the peace of Christ, you depart in peace.
That’s why the Pax Domini is so cool. It proclaims the profound truth that in the Sacrament of Holy Communion Jesus is physically among His people to speak a Word of peace. A Word of forgiveness. A Word of hope. A Word of life. The peace of the Lord is with you always. Amen.
Rev. Michael Keith serves as pastor at St. Matthew Lutheran Church and SML Christian Academy in Stony Plain, AB Canada.
Excursus on Baptism
Hello, my name is… Baptized Child of God. Pastor Brown takes the mic alone in this solo episode dealing with Baptism. He explains what happens in the sacrament (there’s certainly a lot going on beneath the surface!), and how the Word spoken over us at the font shapes our identity. It’s the culmination of the great rescue mission to pull you out of Satan’s kingdom, a work of Christ and not of yourself, and a great comfort that should give you confidence in your salvation.
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