Category: Catechesis

by The Rev. Rich Heinz

Pentecost. It is the Israelite Festival of Weeks – a “week” of weeks since the Passover. Pentecost is when God was thanked for the gift of processed grain. Yet now it took on a whole new meaning.

Just over a week earlier, Jesus had ascended. He had promised to send the “Helper” – the “Counselor”/“Comforter” – the Holy Spirit. Indeed, He would process the “grain” that He harvested through the ministry of the apostles!

On that first post-Resurrection Pentecost, the Holy Spirit “harvested” some 3,000 people as He baptized them by the apostles. After sowing the seed of God’s Word which they knew, but now understood through Christ, He gathered them to the Father through the miracle of God’s Word combined with water.

Then the Holy Spirit kept on working on these people. He immersed them in a baptismal life. Their faith was not simply a name on a church roll. Not even having a confirmation certificate does guarantees entrance to heaven. Faith is not a matter of paper or appearances; it is a new life given in Holy Baptism, lived in the Holy Sacraments.

Instead, soaking in those baptismal waters, receiving Christ Jesus through the gifts of the Holy Spirit (God’s means of grace) – that is living in faith! Hearing the Word of the Lord and treasuring it like the Blessed Virgin Mother – that is living in faith. Confessing our sins to our pastor and receiving Holy Absolution – that is living in faith. Drawing near Christ’s altar to receive His most holy Body and most precious Blood for forgiveness, life and salvation – that is living in faith.

The Holy Spirit does not just float around in space, seeking people to zap with grace. Absolutely not! He works through the means that Jesus promises: Holy Baptism, preaching of the Holy Gospel, Holy Absolution, and the Holy Supper. The bodiless Spirit and intangible Third Person of the Holy Trinity uses these “concrete” earthly vessels to deliver the forgiveness and salvation of God!

No longer does the Holy Spirit land on your shoulder like a dove at Baptism. Nor does He enter the church nave with a rushing wind or tongues of fire or the speaking of foreign languages. Instead, He quietly brings Christ to us, and with our Lord, His saving forgiveness, life, and salvation.

So rejoice and be glad as Pentecost approaches! No, you don’t need to look for “tongues” – either languages or fire. No, you don’t need to fear any mighty wind or earthquake. No, you don’t need any sort of extraordinary miracle from heaven.

The Holy Spirit comes when and where He wills. And He wills to come to you through Christ’s preaching and His Holy Sacraments – all given and worked for you! Amen!

Rev. Richard Heinz is Pastor of St. John’s Ev. Lutheran Church in Lanesville, IN. He works with Higher Things Internet Services, serving as editor of the Front Page. 

by The Rev. Dr. Rick Stuckwisch

Hats off to St. Boniface of Mainz, the eighth-century missionary bishop and martyr, who is commemorated today. It was on the 5th of June in the Year of Our Lord 754 that St. Boniface and his companions were attacked and killed by a band of hostile pagans in what is now the Netherlands. He was pushing 80 years old at that point, but he was still out there on the mission field, preaching the Gospel, teaching the Word of God, and bringing the Church to new frontiers. He was waiting on a group of catechumens, who were to receive the rite of confirmation from him, when he was martyred. He was reading the Scriptures, as I understand it, and had only that book to defend himself against the swords of the enemy. His body was returned, together with that slashed and bloodstained Bible, to the monastery he established in Fulda, where his earthly remains are buried to this day.

I’m often asked the point to remembering the saints who have gone before us. Our Lutheran Confessions offer several good reasons for doing so: We thank God for His gift of these men and women of the faith, through whom He has served His Church on earth. We are strengthened in our own faith by the example of His mercy toward them, His forgiveness of their sins, and the repentance to which He called them by His grace. We are similarly encouraged in our stations in life by the example of their faithful service and good works within their vocations. To be sure, St. Boniface is such an example of Christian faith and life, and a gift of God to His Church.

St. Boniface was an apt pupil, and he was in turn a popular teacher. Really, throughout his life, he seems to have excelled at whatever he tried; if not immediately, then with persistence. He was driven especially by a missionary zeal for the lost, to which he kept returning over the years. He is known as the Apostle to the Germans, because he was so instrumental in bringing the Gospel and the Church to that part of the world. For that reason, in particular, he ought to be more popular among Lutherans than he is. He also assisted significantly with a reformation of the Frankish Church. Because the Lord blessed so many of his efforts with obvious success, there were numerous opportunities along the way for St. Boniface to sit back, put up his feet, and rest on his laurels, but he was never content to do so. To the end of his life, he kept on preaching.

When St. Boniface first arrived in one part of Germany, he chopped down a sacred oak associated with the pagan god Thor. I like this story better than the one about George Washington and the cherry tree. All the superstitious pagans in those parts were standing around, watching and waiting for a lightning bolt from the blue to strike St. Boniface down. When that didn’t happen, evidently there were a fair number of conversions that followed. And St. Boniface used the wood from that oak to build a church dedicated to St. Peter the Apostle.

We all have our sacred oaks, which need to be chopped down by preachers of the Word who are not afraid to expose our idolatry for what it is. With His Law, the Lord brings down the false gods that reign in our hearts and lives, and with His Gospel He brings us into His own Church. He is not lax in calling men to this preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He shall continue to do so, even to the end of the age.

The Rev. Dr. D. Richard Stuckwisch is Pastor of Emmaus Lutheran Church in South Bend, Indiana. Married for 22 years, he and his bride, LaRena, have nine children. Pastor Stuckwisch has frequently written and spoken for Higher Things.

by Aaron Fenker

Today is Jubilate Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Easter. Jubilate comes from the Latin Introit for today – “Make a joyful noise.” Earlier in the Church Year we had other joy-filled Sundays: Advent 3 – Gaudete, and Lent 4 – Laetare. The joy on those Sundays was for something yet to come (Christmas and Good Friday/Easter), but now, in the heart of the Easter Season, our joy is made complete.

Our joy is complete in Christ. We “make our joyful noise” this day because Christ has been raised from the dead! Formerly the Introits called us to rejoice, but now we are called to “make a joyful noise.” Formerly, our joyful noise was kept in check by preparation of things to come, but since we are always redeemed we can still rejoice. But now in Easter no somberness chains out lips, and out Alleluias – our “joyful noise” – leap forth to Him who is risen never to die again.

Formerly there was sadness, but now gladness. Formerly death, now life. Formerly sin, now redemption. Formerly “yet to come,” but now “has been.” Formerly silence, now Alleluia!

Today our mouths that open to make a joyful noise also open to receive the very true and present body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and the preservation of our bodies and souls. Our hearts that are filled with joy were first filled with Christ at our Baptisms. Our ears that ring with Easter’s empty tomb truth of Good Friday’s “It is finished” now, with joy, receive into the the Absolution of sins and the preached Word.

Four weeks ago Christ died and rose from the dead, and now we make our joyful noise for the many and various ways he gives the fruits of those events – forgiveness, life, and salvation – in the Font, Keys, and Supper. Jubilate – Make a joyful noise! Christ is risen; He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Aaron Fenker resides in Cincinnati, OH. He is studying for the Office of the Holy Ministry and will begin his second semester of seminary studies in the Fall at Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne.

by The Rev. Randy Asburry

Holy Thursday brought a small burst of joy. As we finished Lent and entered the Holy Three Days, we heard the readings of the Passover, the Lord’s Supper, and Jesus washing the grimy feet of His disciples.

Good Friday drew our focus to the blessed Cross on which our Savior, the Son of God and perfect Man, suffered and died for our forgiveness, life, and salvation. As someone told me after last night’s Good Friday Chief Service, “It struck the right balance between sadness and triumph.” That’s especially true because we heard St. John’s account of the Passion (and this year we added choir portions during the reading), venerated the Cross, heard the Reproaches, and ended the service by singing the somber yet victorious sounding hymn, “Sing My Tongue the Glorious Battle” (LSB 454).

But what shall we do with today, “Holy Saturday,” the seventh day of Holy Week?

First, let’s recall how Day Six led into Day Seven at the first creation. On Day Six “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). Then, after reaching this crowning achievement of His creation, God rested on Day Seven.

Holy Week follows the same pattern. On Day Six of Holy Week – a.k.a. Good Friday – God the Son recreated humankind, male and female, and restored all people to His image. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15). Through His innocent suffering and death, our Lord Jesus Christ has restored us and will restore us to His perfect image. “[We] have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:10). Yes, because of our Lord’s work of re-creation and restoration, we are attaining “to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).

Second, let’s recall the first Seventh Day. “And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation” (Genesis 2:2-3). The first Seventh Day was hallowed and set aside for rest because God was done with His works of creation. “Holy Saturday,” then, is a day of rest – the day when our crucified Lord was done – “It is finished” (John 19:30) – with His work of saving us and rested in the tomb and thus hallowed the graves of His saints.

Today is a day of rest and restoration. Not quite the same kind of day most people have in mind with “To Do” lists chuck full of coloring Easter eggs, scrambling to prepare that Easter dinner, and rushing to the store to find that perfect Easter outfit for tomorrow! The words of Hebrews 4:9-10 provide a nice remedy for our “Holy Saturday” busy-ness: “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.”

It’s quite salutary and beneficial to sit back and rest, and let God do the work of His restoration! After all, when this day of rest is ended, and as we hold vigil this evening, we will rejoice and revel in God’s new creation, His Easter creation, His restoration to life in His Son Jesus Christ. As Luther teaches us to sing: “You shall observe the worship day / That peace may fill your home, and pray, / And put aside the work you do, / So that God may work in you” (LSB 581:4).

And what work does God work in you on this Holy Saturday? Here’s an ancient homily entitled “The Lord’s Descent into Hell” to answer that question:
What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled. Truly he goes to seek out our first parent like a lost sheep; he wishes to visit those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. He goes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their pains, he who is God, and Adam’s son. The Lord goes in to them holding his victorious weapon, his cross. When Adam, the first created man, sees him, he strikes his breast in terror and calls out to all: “My Lord be with you all.” And Christ in reply says to Adam: “And with your spirit.” And grasping his hand he raises him up, saying, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.” “I am your God, who for your sake became your son, who for you and your descendants now speak and command with authority those in prison: Come forth, and those in darkness: Have light, and those who sleep: Rise.” “I command you: Awake, sleeper, I have not made you to be held a prisoner in the underworld. Arise from the dead; I am the life of the dead. Arise, O man, work of my hands, arise, you who were fashioned in my image. Rise, let us go hence; for you in me and I in you, together we are one undivided person.” (quoted in For All the Saints, vol. III, p. 1037)

God bless you and keep you – rested and restored – on this Holy Saturday!

by Jonathan Kohlmeier

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.” Isaiah 1:18

If you live in the Northern states, you know firsthand that we have gotten a lot of snow this winter. Chances are at your school or work place, or just when you are out and about, you have probably heard quite a few people wish that the snow would just melt already and that spring would come. The majority of the time when people think of snow they think of negative things; it’s cold, it’s terrible to drive in, you have to shovel it, and you have to brush it off your car. We want snow on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and then we want to be done with it. But rarely do we ever think of good things about snow.

I, on the other hand, love snow! I would much rather have it cold where you can put more and more layers of clothes on than have it be hot and humid where you can only take so much off. You can have so much fun in the snow. You can build snowmen, (or snow-rabbits or snow-dragons which have been seen outside of CUW this winter) have snowball fights, ski, sled, or tackle people into a big snow-mound while walking outside. Plus, based on the verse above there is a theological aspect to snow.

This Ash Wednesday, the Milwaukee area got hit with almost 20 inches of snow. Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the Church Season called “Lent,” which means ‘spring.’ Ironic when you think that so far all of Lent has had snow on the ground. Everything was canceled on Ash Wednesday; schools, roads, businesses, and Ash Wednesday Services. Originally the Service here on Concordia’s campus was still going to happen as scheduled, but it was canceled hours later when the snow didn’t show signs of letting up.

Thankfully, God graciously provided for those of us at Concordia. The Rev. Philip Zielinski, an admissions councilor for Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, IN, had gotten on campus before the worst of the snow storm hit. He agreed to lead a service for us that night. Having only an hour and a half to prepare a service and get the word out to those of us snowed in on campus, Pr. Zielinski with the help of a handful of students put together a service which about 80 students attended. The service contained both the imposition of ashes and Individual Absolution. Pr. Zielinski even managed to write a sermon in the short amount of time.

In that sermon he brought up the Isaiah verse above, “Though your sins are like scarlet they shall be as white as snow.” That verse really stands out when you are surrounded by twenty inches of freshly fallen white snow. And it is even more vivid when this happens on Ash Wednesday. We were reminded that we are dust and to dust we shall return while the black ash was put on our foreheads. Thinking of all our sin and knowing we don’t even realize all of it. Then kneeling at the rail, the rail where Christ’s Body and Blood are distributed, the hands of a Pastor (shepherd) standing in the stead and by the command of The Good Shepherd, are placed on your head and the forgiveness of sins is announced to you in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Christ’s death has made our sins as white as snow. Just as snow covers up the dead trees and bushes, so Christ has brought us out of death and into Eternal Life. Snow is a more solidified state of water. That water which was poured on us at our Baptism. When we were clothed in the white garment of Christ’s righteousness. Next time you see snow instead of just wishing that it was gone, perhaps remember that though your sins were like scarlet, Christ has made them whiter than snow!

Jonathan Kohlmeier is a Freshman at Concordia University – Wisconsin. He volunteers with Higher Things Internet Services, serving as the Front Page Content Manager. Jon has also written All Means All: A Review of the HT Watermarked Retreat.

by The Rev. Mark Buetow

The season of Lent is usually associated with “giving something up”, or not eating meat on Fridays. One year I gave up television for Lent. I figured I spent too much time just sitting around and channel surfing. So I figured I would deny myself that pleasure (and waste of time) and use that time for better things…like surfing the web! Then I went to school with my daughters one day. One of their fellow kindergartners asked me, “Pastor why did you ground yourself from TV?” Good question! Why did I give up something for Lent? (With the writers’ strike, giving up TV this year wouldn’t really be giving up much, would it?) Should you give something up for Lent? If so, why? What should you give up? What about fasting? Let’s answer these questions in a way that points us to Jesus and the the forgiveness of sins!

On Ash Wednesday, we at Higher Things Internet services, joked that we had “given up” graphics and fancy websites for Lent. (We didn’t really, as you can tell by looking at our amazing new site!) People have the idea that the reason you give up something for Lent is to make yourself feel bad. Or to deprive yourself of something you like or that makes you happy. Since Lent has to do with Jesus suffering for our sins, people figure it’s a good time to try and make themselves suffer like Jesus. That is the WRONG reason to give up anything for lent! The only suffering that does us any good for is the suffering of Jesus for our salvation. HIS suffering accomplishes our salvation. HIS pain and anguish take place in order to win for us the forgiveness of sins. Our salvation and sanctification and holiness don’t come because we somehow make ourselves suffer “with” Jesus. The forgiveness of sins is ours because Jesus suffers FOR US. In our place. As our Substitute.

Lent is all about meditating upon and learning more and more about what Jesus underwent FOR YOU. Giving something up for Lent isn’t about feeling guilty or trying to take away something you like so that you can feel bad about what Jesus did for you. Observing the holy season of Lent is all about receiving more and more of those very gifts that deliver salvation to you: living in your baptism, confessing your sins and being absolved, hearing the Word taught and preached, eating and drinking Jesus’ body and blood which was given into death for the forgiveness of all of your sins! That’s why most churches offer additional times during Lent to hear the Word preached and to receive the Sacrament.

So if Lent is all about Jesus, why give something up? There are two main disciplines in Lent: Fasting and Abstaining. Fasting means not eating for a certain time (or eating less than usual – a kind of diet). Abstaining means giving something up or going without something you normally have. Why would you do these things if they don’t matter to God? Does fasting or abstaining from something mean you’re somehow more holy? That you get more sins forgiven? Of course not! Fasting and abstaining don’t make the Lord love you any more or any less! The Lord’s love FOR YOU is a done deal in Jesus Christ.

So why fast? Why abstain from something? Simple: for the benefit of your neighbor. The truth is, our lives are filled with things which satisfy US, they make US happy, and provide enjoyment–for US! But to give up things that we normally do or use in order to use the extra time or money for prayer, for hearing and studying God’s Word or for doing good to those around us–now THAT is something useful.

Just think of what a joy it would be to others if instead of spending your time watching TV, you spent time doing something with them, like talking to your parents, or spending time with a little brother or sister who looks up to you. Or maybe giving up your video game night for awhile in order to take advantage of the extra opportunities at church for worship and Bible Study that are available during Lent. Or maybe giving up fast food a few times a week and putting the money toward an offering at church. Or maybe not eating meat on Fridays to remember that it was His flesh that Jesus gave for the life of the world. Giving things up during Lent isn’t about doing something for YOU, it’s about learning from Christ to put all of our hope and trust in His word and to love and serve our neighbor in whatever ways they need us.

This is what Lent is really all about: learning what it is to be a Christian, that is to be baptized.. To have a cheerful hope and live in confidence that Jesus takes away our sins by His suffering and death. That’s why the Catechism tell us, when we get up in the morning, to remember our baptism and “go to work at once and in good cheer.” Because there is simply no need to ever worry about how it is with us and the Lord. It’s all a done deal in Christ. And becausewe are the Lord’s, we serve our neighbors, pointing them to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and helping and serving them in whatever ways we can.

However you celebrate the season of Lent, whether you give something up or whether you fast or even if you don’t do any of these things–don’t do them for God, as if that makes Him more satisfied with you. He’s already pleased as punch that you are His child in Jesus! Your baptism says so! Don’t even do these things for yourself, as if by your being miserable somehow makes you a better Christian. During Lent, if you give something up, do it for your neighbor who needs you and your good works more than ever. All eyes off of yourself and all ears on the Gospel, which gives us Jesus going to the cross to rescue us from sin and death. A blessed holy season of Lent to each of you, in Jesus!

Rev. William Weedon

If Lent is the journey to Easter; if Easter is the return to the new life given to us in our Baptism; then Gesimatide is the preparation for that journey of return to our Baptism.  The Church knows in her wisdom that we cannot be like Bilbo Baggins, simply shoved out the door for our journey without our kerchief or any plans or preparations.  So for three weeks the Church seeks to ready her children to begin the slow and sometimes painful pilgrimage back to the very fountain of their life in Christ:  back to Baptism and to the life in and from Christ Himself.

Do we need a journey back?  What do you think?  The sad fact is that we constantly fall away from and betray the new life that God gave us when we were baptized.  How often we live our lives as though Christ had not been raised from the dead!  How often we live as though death had not been squashed beneath His feet and as though sin still had the right to put us in its shackles!  Lent shows what a lie we try to live from when we would still live that old way – we who have been baptized into Christ. Lent calls:  Time to come home, child!

But the journey home calls for serious effort on our part (yes, Lutherans can speak of serious spiritual effort – for them all the credit goes to God) to return to living in the dignity of our status as beloved children of the heavenly Father.  Lent forces us to face the pain of our exile – it places us in the parable of the waiting Father and calls us for us to stop hungering for the pig slop and hit the dusty trail back to the Father (see Luke 15:11ff.)  

In German there was no mistaking what Lent was about.  In German it is called “Fasten-zeit” – the time for the fast.  And the point of the fast is to discipline our bodies so that they learn, and we learn with them, that man does not live by bread alone; that we live from every word that proceeds from the mouth of our God.  “Return to me,” we hear the Lord say on Ash Wednesday “with prayer and fasting.” (Joel 2:12-19)

Gesima-tide, then, or Pre-Lent, seeks to get us ready for Lent and for the return to the new life.  The first week’s readings stress that it will be a struggle not only with our flesh (our bellies that want to be filled, our bodies that need to be disciplined, lest we be “disqualified”), but a struggle with the inner attitude of distrust in God that breaks forth into complaining.  There’s a Lenten fast for you:  lose the griping and groaning, the moping and moaning about your life and unfair things are for you.  The second week’s readings remind us the power to change is not something found in us, but in the Word of God alone – and so the extra time for the Word built into Lent, time to gather midweek and hear God’s Word.  The following week issues the invitation for us to join the formerly blind man in following Jesus up to the road to Jerusalem, to see Him offer Himself to the Father and so return humanity to God.  

That’s gesima-tide for you:  Septuagesima (70-some days to Easter!), Sexagesima (60-some days to Easter!), Quinquagesima (50-some days to Easter!).  It’s the way the Church calls out “ready, set, and go!”  We’re on the way home!

The Rev. William Weedon is pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Hamel, Illinois. He and wife, Cindi, are the proud parents of three high school and college-aged children. An advocate of the Atkins Diet, the Lenten fast becomes interesting for Pastor Weedon.