Category: Current Events

By Alex Padilla

COVID-19 has impacted us all in so many different ways and I am no exception. Financially, I haven’t had any work. As someone who works in live entertainment, I earn revenue through mass gatherings of people, something governments have told us to avoid. Mentally, I have seen the return of the anxiety I used to have. Academically, all my classes have moved online, including hands-on and lab-style classes. It’s affected so many other activities too. It was heartbreaking to wake up the morning of our spring musical’s opening night and receive an email saying that the university had canceled all shows and performances; I was assistant designer for the show. Weeks of preparation and long nights at school felt like they vanished into thin air. Physically, COVID-19 impacted me because I contracted it.

 

What It’s Like to Have COVID-19

How did I come in contact with COVID-19? I’m not sure. I believe I may have contracted it at the gym or a grocery store during The Great Toilet Paper Scare of 2020. My friends have often asked me how it felt having COVID-19. It felt like a bad cold with the lingering phenomena of completely losing my sense of taste and smell. I had no fever, no chest pains, and no difficulty breathing.

My dad, however, was quite a bit more ill than I was. He developed a high fever and an awful cough; I have never seen him so sick. His fever lasted over eight days, and he was coughing so much that we worried he had developed pneumonia. We were knee-deep in anxiety but, by the grace of God, he recovered.

My mom and brother also contracted COVID-19 a few days after my dad and I started showing symptoms; thankfully, both of their cases were mild. The one symptom that all four of us shared was the complete inability to smell or taste anything, even though our noses were not stuffy. I thank God every day that no one in my family had to go to the hospital. 

 

Blessings in the Midst of Sickness

While we were ill, word spread through the grapevine. This was just one of the blessings bestowed upon us by God. The next thing we knew, people were dropping off meals and groceries at our house, but the most profound thing for me was all the people praying for my family. People who were perhaps lost in this world, straying away from Christ, were praying for us. God works in ways that are not always the easiest to see; this was one of them.

Now that the chaos has passed and I’ve had time to reflect on it, I see a direct parallel with the 10th chapter of John, specifically verse 16: “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” I believe that through my family’s being sick, Christ has called out to some of His lost sheep, and He has brought them into His flock.

 

How Being Sick Affected My Faith

With all the disruption, I must confess that I put my faith in the background. It wasn’t until I talked to my grandparents that I realized the sinful cycle I was in. They informed me that family members (whom I have never met or spoken to) in the Philippines had been praying for my family, and I just broke down in tears.

There I was–ill, stressed out, anxious, depressed, and putting God in the background–but overseas I had family I’ve never met who were praying for me and my family. That’s when things changed for me. I no longer felt stressed out, and my anxieties and depression subsided.

Alongside worldly needs such as food and sleep, I could not have gotten through this without my faith in Jesus Christ. For I had pleaded, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). Since then, I have immersed myself in the Word through reading my Bible, listening to hymns, and watching my pastor’s daily devotions. Christ took upon Himself the sin of the whole world, and beat death. God’s promises us eternal life through Christ. That knowledge is what pushed me to continue to be steadfast in the faith amid the COVID-19. I owe God all thanks and praise.

 

Thoughts from Someone Who’s Been There

After some time reflecting these past weeks, here are two things that I feel obligated to share:

First, I have seen lately on the news stories of young people gathering, often holding parties and street takeovers. I have also seen this on my friends’ Snapchats. They are completely disregarding the laws put in place by our government! This article is not the place for political commentary, but fellow Christians, you must remember the Fourth Commandment. As Martin Luther wrote,

“The same also is to be said of obedience to civil government…it is our duty to honor them and to esteem them…He, now, who is obedient here, is willing and ready to serve, and cheerfully does all that pertains to honor, knows that he is pleasing God and that he will receive joy and happiness for his reward” (Large Catechism I.150-151).

We are not to worship our government, but as faithful Christians, it is our duty to obey the laws put into place by our leaders (so long as those laws don’t make us violate God’s moral will), and it is also our duty to pray for our leaders (whether we like them or not). 

Second, at one of the last Divine Services I attended I was reminded of the Fifth Commandment. It reads, “You shall not murder.” Okay, I’m not murdering anyone. But, “We are to fear and love God, so that we neither endanger nor harm the lives of our neighbors, but instead help and support them in all of life’s needs” (Luther’s Small Catechism).

 

Please Stay Home!

When we’re staying home and practicing social distancing, we Christians are not being deprived of our liberties, nor are we being persecuted. No, we are being faithful stewards; we are protecting our neighbors to every extent we can. Even if you don’t feel ill, dear Christian, you may be asymptomatic and could pass COVID to someone else. That is why it’s important to stay home as much as possible — so that we can be good citizens and faithful stewards. It is also essential that we help our neighbors. If you know someone who is ill, try to help them; bring them food and essential items if you can.

 

The Good News!

That was quite a bit of Law to end on. It is vital for us to obey God’s Commandments, even during these times of stress and conflict. But, fellow Christian, it is also vital to rejoice in the Good News that Christ Jesus has forgiven ALL of your sins. Because of Christ’s death on the cross, we can look forward to spending eternity with Him in His kingdom, where there is no sickness or death, but only everlasting life.

Almighty God, heavenly Father, give us grace to trust You during this time of illness and distress. In mercy put an end to the epidemic that afflicts us. Grant relief to those who suffer, and comfort all that mourn. Sustain all medical personnel in their labors, and cause Your people ever to serve You in righteousness and holiness; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. (Collect for During An Epidemic)

 

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Alex Padilla has been to a number of Higher Things conferences and served in HT as a College Conference Volunteer (CCV). He’s a member at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Irvine, CA. While a Theatrical Design student at the California State University in Fullerton, he works as a Sound and Lighting Technician at Knott’s Berry Farm.

Dear Divine Service,

I’m sorry that I even have to write this. It’s painful. I’m sure you’ve known it was coming. Maybe you didn’t. I certainly didn’t. It’s the things we take for granted, you know? Absence makes the heart grow fonder, I guess. Or, maybe you don’t know how good you have it, how greatly you’ve been blessed until something’s been taken away.

I know what you’re thinking. It’s you. It’s not! You offer so much. You’re a blessing! You bring Scripture to me. Not just in the readings. That would be enough! That’s enough to fill my heart, soul, mind, strength with God’s Word. That’s enough to sanctify me, my life, my week with His Word. No, always more with you. The parts of the liturgy, the hymns, the singing—all of it!—dripping with God’s Word for me. The Gospel of Jesus literally delivered to me, through me, for me, and for all those gathered with me. What great joy!

And sure, it’s great that there’s lots of stuff online: church services, devotions, videos. I’m so glad that God’s Word and Gospel aren’t bound. They go forth no matter what, even through computers, TVs, and phones! Even the radio for my grandma who loves you, too! But it’s not the same, you know? A screen isn’t a person. A recording isn’t a conversation.

No, it’s not you. It’s me. Well, actually, it’s my neighbors. I love them. I don’t want to harm them. But I never realized what a blessing it was to sing the Gospel for and to my fellow believers. I never realized what a blessing they were to me, singing that same Gospel into my ears and heart. Now, I love them by not gathering. My singing could harm them. Not the words or the sound, but the air I exhale could carry something harmful to them. So, for their sake—it’s painful to say—we’re gonna have to take a break.

It breaks my heart to break our fellowship. We do have fellowship when we’re together with you—fellowship in the Body and Blood of Jesus. One of the main reasons you’re a thing! You, Divine Service, can’t be much better when you’re the setting of the medicine of forgiveness and immortality that is being handed out for me and for all the disciples of Jesus gathered with me.

Oh, my pastor! I know it’s hard for him to let you go. I can’t imagine the pressure He’s under. The pressure to fulfill His calling as Pastor to deliver the Word and the Gifts of Jesus. The pressure to love the members of his congregation, to love me! Now, he’s probably putting in more work, more stress, more time to wonder and doubt if he’s done the right thing, more time to worry that he’s doing the wrong thing.

I’ll pray for him. I need to. He’s praying for me, for us all. He almost needs it more than I do! So I’m taking my cue from Jesus when He told Peter: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” I know Jesus will answer my prayers, but they do seem different, emptier, when I’m not praying there with you. Lord, help me!

This isn’t meant to be a sob story. I just wanted to write to you, I didn’t want it to be long. I just wanted to let you know what I’ve been going through. And I wanted to say: Don’t worry. I’ll  be back. This isn’t permanent. This isn’t your fault. It’s the fault of a sin-broken world that makes sin-broken people sick, who can then even make other people sick! I know the Lord will keep His promise. If He’s told us to cherish His Word and told pastors to preach and teach it, He’ll work it out to bring us together in person to hear it! And if He’s told us to eat and drink, He will surely run things so that we’ll be able to eat and drink His Body and Blood. He just has to do those things: He’s died and risen for the whole world!

But, really, I just wanted to write this to say one thing: Divine Service, I miss you.

Love,

Me

 

by The Rev. Rich Heinz

The need was even more apparent for the FOR YOU conferences: something was needed to give an ecclesial sense – a churchly feel – to the concert hall in Minneapolis and the facility in Asheville.  Something was necessary to transform the space.  The ideal of Higher Things conferences is to have sacred space set aside, not used for plenaries, announcements, and the business of the conference.  Something was desired that would proclaim: “Work and play take place in other settings; this space is for worship.”

What could possibly accomplish this task?  What could transform these rooms (and others at future conferences?)  What simply by its placement would declare that this is a Lutheran space, where we gather around the Lord in Prayer Offices and Divine Services?  A large crucifix!

The Rev. Kantor Richard Resch related that the internet was used for studying options, but nothing seemed quite right.  Then another option surfaced.  The Rev. Mark Mumme has a large workshop for his talent and hobby of woodworking.  Pastor Mumme, who makes many of his own furniture items, made a processional crucifix for Kramer Chapel at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne.

Kantor Resch emailed Pastor Mumme, asking for his ideas.  Pastor Mumme immediately responded: “I want to do this!”

Although a fine craftsman, Pastor Mumme does not carve figures such as a corpus for a crucifix.  This meant a non-budgeted expense.  However, when the choral workshop for FOR YOU was canceled, the original donors from Saint Paul congregation in Fort Wayne graciously gave their consent for the funds to purchase it.

A corpus from Oberammergau, Germany was ordered.  Although such international orders can sometimes be delayed, worries subsided when arrangements were made for faster shipping, and the Christ figure swiftly arrived.

The figure of the body of Jesus was ready, now they needed a cross.  The youth of Zion Lutheran in Hardwick, Minnesota (Pastor Mumme’s parish) raised the funds needed for the lightweight, yet sturdy wood.

As it was finished, Pastor Mumme suggested to Kantor Resch, “I could make a processional cross that matches it.”  And so he did.  They were completed and delivered the Monday before the conference in Minneapolis.

HT Retreat Executive Landon Reed is building boxes for both crucifixes, to transport them easily.  Each corpus needs to be handled and transported carefully, as the figures, especially the fingers of Christ, are very delicate.

Higher Things thanks Pastor Mark Mumme, who donated all of his labor, sharing his talent in these two works of art.

Just as the processional crucifix in Kramer Chapel has become a focal point of great beauty, directing our thoughts toward our Savior, so do the new Higher Things hanging crucifix and processional crucifix.  With the aid of these crucifixes, we witness with our eyes the Gospel that we hear as we Dare to be Lutheran and gather for the Feast, given For You, and gladly respond: Amen

by Rev. William Cwirla

I find myself watching more television than usual these days. Especially in the morning after my early morning walk. I’m looking for some good news — that New Orleans really isn’t all under water after all, that it’s all a very bad dream. I did the same after 9/11. That disaster was caused by bad religion and people who believe it. Hurricane Katrina was caused by a mixture of moisture and air. “Natural causes,” as we like to say. “Acts of God,” as the insurance companies put it when they don’t want to pay up.

“Why?” many will ask. “If God’s in charge, then why? If the universe is so intricately and intelligently designed, then why? Why didn’t God stick His Designer’s hand in front of the whirlwind and make it go back out to sea? Why did He allow a direct hit on a city built below sea level? Why even build a city below sea level?” That’s a question for each other, not for God.

Some are quick to answer the “Why?” question by pointing the finger of blame. Moralists will point to the hedonism and decadence that is New Orleans’ signature: Mardi Gras, “Girls Gone Wild,” or the homosexual “Southern Decadence” festival. Watch out, Las Vegas! Environmentalists will blame global warming. Liberals will blame George Bush. Who really knows? Nature abhors a vacuum. Silence begs to be filled with chatter. And when God’s not talking, we love to fill in the blanks.

The Bible runs lean on the “why” question. When Job asked it out of his suffering, the answer he got from the Lord in the whirlwind was a bunch of questions. “Who shut the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors?” (Job 38:8-9). In other words, “I’m God, you’re not God, and that’s good. Now stop asking questions and start worshipping.”

Some people asked for Jesus’ reaction to a political atrocity, some Galileans who were slaughtered by Pilate while worshipping. Why did it happen? What did Jesus think? He upped the ante with a construction accident — eighteen people killed by the tower of Siloam falling on them. Jesus’ word in response: “Repent, lest you all perish.”

Repent means to have a new mind, to come to a new way of thinking about God and about yourself. Repent of sin? Of course, every day, all of us. Do you think a category five hurricane is bad? It’s a walk in the rain compared to the Last Day! Repent also means to come to new thinking about how God does business, whose ways are not our ways, and whose thoughts are not our thoughts.

Why didn’t God do something? Lots of people prayed on Sunday morning. Unlike earthquakes or tidal waves or tornados, hurricanes give you plenty of time for prayer. They are slow-moving disasters. Plenty of prayers rose up like incense before the throne of grace. So why didn’t God do something to interfere with Katrina?

In the movie Bruce Almighty, Bruce discovers that it isn’t easy being God. He draws the moon in a little closer for a romantic dinner with his girlfriend and causes tidal waves and flooding on the other side of the world. He tries to answer everyone’s e-mailed prayers with a “Yes,” but as God, played by Morgan Freeman, points out, “Saying yes to everyone’s prayers just doesn’t work.” The truth is, you and I wouldn’t want to live in a world under the hand of the Divine Micromanager of All Things. A bride prays for sunshine for her outdoor wedding; the farmer begs for rain for his parched land. What’s a God to do?

God creates in freedom. Clouds, water, air, sea, and dry land, all do what they are designed to do. Usually, everything happens benignly out in the Atlantic somewhere, and the fish go surfing. Occasionally one of God’s free creatures of air and water slams into a populated chunk of land. To put a Divine Hand in the way would do the ultimate harm — withdraw the freedom of air and water and cloud. It’s the equivalent of turning stones to bread.

Why didn’t God do anything about the whirlwind heading toward New Orleans? He did in a way no one would have thought to ask. He dropped dead. He embraced it once and for all in the dark death of Jesus on the cross. “It is finished.” Everything that needed to be done has already been done. In Jesus’ dark death, all the devastations, the deaths, the destructions have been answered for and atoned. The suffering Son suffers along with His creation. He asks the “Why” question for us all: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He absorbs the silence. He dives headlong into its death and brings up from the depths a new creation. Even Noah, bobbing on the water with the animals and his family in the ark was only a temporary fix, a band-aid. It was hardly a new creation that popped out of the ark on Noah’s 601st birthday. Only a sneak preview, picture-type of the coming Jesus attraction. The real lifeboat is the death of Jesus, and that’s already been done one time for all time, once for all people.

Where was God when the winds blew and water rose? Right there in the midst of all of it. The One who “fills all in all” never abandons His creatures or His creation, even when it does some terribly devastating things. He is the Word who made all things and in whom all things hold together. He is with us always, until the end of our days and the end of all the days. He is Calvary-committed to His creation, and in Him, all things are already made new, even as we struggle to clean up the mess of the old.

He works all things together for good to those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. All things — the good, the bad, the ugly, the terrifying, the destroying, the devastating. All things are lifted up in His death. All things. It’s not as though we can load the cosmic dice to come up sevens with our prayers and good works. Instead, every roll of the dice, from snake eyes to box cars, from tidal waves to hurricanes, comes up an eternal winner because the Owner of the cosmic casino insists that it is so, all for crucified Christ’s sake.

Faith clings to the Promise that God is actually reconciled to this world as it is in the death of Jesus and does not count men’s sins against them, and that in Christ He works life in the midst of death, and victory in the middle of a shutout. The world doesn’t need to be micromanaged by a Divine Meddler; it simply needs to be held by the cross-scarred hands of the creative Word Incarnate whose Death swallows up all death once and for all.

Just because it’s all done to death in Jesus, doesn’t mean there isn’t much for all of us to do. Giving, helping, praying, tending our neighbor in need. Each according to his or her vocation and gift. For some, it will mean giving above and beyond the usual. For some, it will mean lending a helping hand. For all of us, it will mean prayer. Jesus is in the midst of that activity too. He is your neighbor in need for you to serve — the man in the ditch who fell among the thieves, and the man whose life has been swept away by the whirlwind named Katrina. “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.”

The important thing to remember and trust is that crucified and risen Jesus is always there, right there in the middle of it all, in the eye of the storm, to save you.

 

by The Rev. Mark Buetow

The rally cry of Higher Things is “Dare to be Lutheran!” In October, Lutherans celebrate Reformation Day , the day when Dr. Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg to call the church back to preaching God’s grace through Jesus Christ. Martin Luther was ready to give his life for the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins for Jesus’ sake alone, just as many more martyrs before him had given their lives for confessing Jesus. Today, however, we live in a world where it is unacceptable to say that one religion is right and others are wrong. Today, even Christians are timid when it comes to saying that Christ is the only way to heaven. Even more, some Lutherans call themselves “Lutheran-Christians” as if to emphasize that somehow the two aren’t quite the same. Against all this, we say, “Dare to be Lutheran!” And just what does it mean to “Dare to be Lutheran?” Read on!

“Dare to be Lutheran” means that you dare to be a Christian, a follower of Christ. It means that we confess that Jesus Christ is the ONLY Way, Truth and Life. He alone is true God and true man who was born of the Virgin Mary to carry our sins to the cross of Calvary and die for them. To be Lutheran is to believe, teach, confess, celebrate, rejoice in and live by Christ and Him crucified. It is to joyfully declare to the world that the God who was killed on the cross and rose again is the only true God and Savior. To dare to be Lutheran is to have all of your hopes and confidence in Jesus, who has rescued us from sin, death, the devil, hell, the curse of the Law and the judgment of God. It is to trust in the Jesus who has given us forgiveness of sins, life, salvation, and made us children of God with an eternal inheritance. Dare to be Lutheran? It’s all about Christ!

“Dare to be Lutheran” means that you live only by Christ’s gifts. It means confessing the salvation that God gives in Holy Baptism where you are born again from above by water, word and Spirit and become God’s child by His grace. Daring to be Lutheran is about believing that by the pastor whom God calls, Jesus Himself forgives our sins and no one in heaven or hell or on earth can say otherwise. It means that all of our religion and piety and worship and believing and doctrine and teaching come from one place and one place only: The Holy Scriptures, the pure “fountain of Israel” which are God’s holy Word. Daring to be Lutheran means having a hunger and thirst for the body and blood of Jesus at His altar. His Supper is no symbolic meal but a true and living gift of the very body and blood that were pierced and flowed on the cross for your sins. Dare to be Lutheran? It’s all about Christ’s gifts!

“Dare to be Lutheran” means that you speak, sing and listen for Christ and God’s Word in your worship and when you hear teaching. It means singing the hymns of the faith with gusto, singing the liturgy with joy and worshiping not mostly to tell God how great He is, but to receive from Him His holy and saving gifts. Daring to be Lutheran is all about hearing our pastors teach us Christ from the Holy Scriptures, call us to repentance for our sins, and teach us how Christ lives for others in and through us. It means asking the hard questions and relating all that we hear and learn to Christ and his salvation. Daring to be Lutheran means rejecting what is false and flashy for what is true and genuine. Dare to be Lutheran? It’s all about Christ’s Word and teaching!

“Dare to be Lutheran” also means that you enjoy the creation that is a gift from your heavenly Father, even while knowing this life is passing away for a better life to come. Daring to be Lutheran means enjoying the gifts of this world in music and art and friends and activities. It means being hardcore sports fans or skilled video game players. It means enjoying good food and fun entertainment. It means being silly and having fun with friends. It means having a good time without having to fall into the excesses of a world that has no heavenly perspective. Daring to be Lutheran recognizes that all of these things are gifts from our heavenly Father, given to us for Jesus’ sake. Dare to be Lutheran? It’s all about every good gift given to you through Jesus Christ. 

So as Reformation Day approaches, “Dare to be Lutheran!” As St. Peter says, be ready to give a defense for the hope that is in you! It’s Christ. By His cross and through water, word, body and blood, Jesus has saved you from your sins. He continues to forgive them and has prepared a place for you in the life to come. Dare to be Lutheran? You bet! Dare to be Lutheran! For Christ is Lord of all!

 

The echoes of A Mighty Fortress are still ringing from this week’s Reformation celebration in the Lutheran Church. This year was a special anniversary—500 years since Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. And it wasn’t just Lutherans. People all over the world celebrated Martin Luther’s bold stand for the German people that ended up changing the course of history. The only problem is, that’s the wrong way of looking at the Reformation. It’s not about a person, or a nation, or the progress of human history. It’s about one thing, and one thing only. The Gospel.

The first wrong way to look at Reformation is to see it as a heroic stand of Martin Luther. Although Luther was indeed a larger than life character, it wasn’t about him as a person. It wasn’t about the common man standing up against the powers that be. If that was the case, then the Reformation would have ended with the death of Luther, and the Lutheran church would be nothing more than a cult of personality. But it’s not that at all (despite the fact that we are called Lutherans, something Luther himself never wanted). The Reformation is about another person, a person of much greater significance.

The second wrong way to look at the Reformation is to see it as a movement of the German people. There is certainly a German element to the Reformation, and your Reformation celebrations may have included a German style meal, or an Oktoberfest complete with polka music. Maybe you even made a pilgrimage to Germany this past year to tour the sites of the Reformation. But the Reformation isn’t about uniting Germans. As the first reading for the Festival of the Reformation says, its message is for “every nation and tribe and language and people” (Rev. 14:6).

The third wrong way to look at the Reformation is to see it as a moment in the progress of human history. This view of the Reformation sees it as the emergence of new, more enlightened way of thinking. It was a historical moment of casting off the shackles of old superstitions and breaking free from the authority of the institutional church, which squelched free thinking. But if the Reformation is just a moment in the progress of human history, that means that it only sets the stage for additional progress and it’s no longer relevant for us except as a part of history.

So what is the right way to look at the Reformation? At its heart, the Reformation was a rediscovery of the Gospel. It’s about Jesus, not Luther. Jesus is the real hero in this story, but not in the traditional sense. He suffered and died and rose and ascended so that sinners would be forgiven. The Gospel is the eternal message that is for the German people and for every nation and tribe and language and people, uniting them together into the one body of Christ. The rediscovery of the Gospel was a moment in history, but a that moment reaches back to Abraham and the patriarchs, and now down to us. “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Rom. 3:28).

As we begin the 501^st year of the Reformation, and the celebrations have all gone quiet, let us rediscover again and again the message that our righteousness is revealed in Christ, and that we are justified by faith, apart from works of the law. That’s what the Reformation is all about.

It was a Tuesday morning. I was preparing to host our monthly circuit pastors’ meeting. My wife called from work. “Turn on the TV, we’re under siege,” she said. I turned on the television in time to see a second jet slam into the World Trade towers. The Pentagon had also been hit. A fourth jet had crashed in the fields of Pennsylvania. Within a couple of hours, the World Trade towers collapsed.

Our circuit pastors met that morning. We were planning to do the usual Bible and Confessions study and then go out for lunch. Instead we talked about how best to respond to events that were still unfolding. We planned services for the evening. We prayed. After a few days, I could no longer watch television. I sometimes broke down and wept as I prayed. My world was irreversibly changed that day. Our country had been attacked on our own soil, which seemed rather foreign to our secure American way of life.

Ten years have gone by. Families were shattered, children left without fathers or mothers, widows and widowers were made. Some have moved on, some haven’t. Friends went to work and didn’t return home. Firemen, policemen, and emergency workers put their lives on the line to save others. Some lost their own lives trying to save others. Our national wound has healed somewhat, but an ugly scar remains. No cosmetic surgery exists to cover it. We are not the same as we once were.

As a nation, we are more religious than ever. And less. We agonize and argue over the absence of religious leaders at a 9/11 civic event and an Islamic center in the neighborhood of ground zero in New York. We debate prayer in the schools and the mention of God in the pledge. We dissect the religious beliefs of our candidates and examine them under the media’s microscope. Church attendance is at an all-time low. We are spiritual though not religious. Religion is a dirty word.

Atheism has grown more aggressive and confident. 9/11 provided the indicting evidence against religion. Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens believe that religion is to blame for most, if not all, the violence in the world today. Many appear to agree.

Osama bin Laden and the 19 perpetrators of 9/11 were all Muslim, but one could hardly call them “devout.” Instead, their religious beliefs provided form and substance for their hatred of America. Houses of worship were not targeted, as they often are in the middle east. The crosshairs of 9/11 were focused on symbols of American rule and might – the Pentagon, the World Trade Center, and presumably the White House or the Capital building. The source of their rage was not religion but the American presence in the middle east and its support for Israel.

I am more self-consciously religious today than ten years ago. I wear my clerical collar intentionally but less often than I used to. I don’t wear it when I fly. I am more aware of the religious beliefs of those around me. On a recent flight home, I sat next to a Pakistani man who was quietly but fervently chanting from an Islamic prayer book. I must confess to watching his every move out of the corner of my eye as I pretended to nap. I thought of United Flight 93. What would I have done?

As a people who love liberty, we have been posed with the difficult choice between freedom and security. We endure intrusive TSA screenings and searches of our person and possessions. We turn a blind eye to what was once considered illegal government surveillance. We want to be safe, or at least harbor a credible illusion of safety, but this safe new world comes at a very high cost. Have we done the full accounting?

Osama bin Laden is dead. Al Qaida is scattered. America is still entangled in the middle east, and probably always will be. There is too much to lose. I will gather with my congregation tomorrow, not to remember 9/11 but to remember Jesus’ victory over Sin, Death and devil. We will pray for our nation, our leaders, those who defend us, and for those victimized by the events ten years ago. We will pray for our persecutors, slanderers, and those who hate us, those who plot against us and wish to kill us.

The readings for tomorrow are about forgiveness: Joseph’s forgiveness of his brothers who sought his harm. “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” The all-reconciling, all-atoning, all-embracing death of Jesus works good out of evil. All evil. Every evil. We must believe that and confess it, even when we don’t always see the good. The good is our forgiveness and our freedom. Forgiveness without limit: seventy times seven. The freedom of being forgiven and to forgive others. “Love to the loveless shown that they might lovely be.”

Should you doubt for a moment that God can work good out of evil, consider Jesus’ death on the cross. It was a great evil; and an even greater good. This is the God who wages holy war to save not only His people, but the world, His enemies, the ungodly, and you. This is the God who suffers and dies for you. The cross was meant for evil; God used it for good.

And if that’s true of the cross, then it is also true for what happened that Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001.

Rev. William Cwirla is pastor at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Hacienda Heights, CA. 

“I can’t believe this is really happening. This is so unreal. I never thought this would happen to me.”

Imagine hurriedly packing what stuff you could into the car and just leaving your home, your job, your friends, your life. Picture yourself riding down the road, unsure of where you are going, or when, how or even IF you would ever return…yet knowing that even if you did, life from that moment on would never be the same. Waking up in a strange place with strange people around you, watching things happen around you from the fringes of life…it all feels very surreal.

Everyone and their uncle has advice for people suffering in these kinds of situations. We hear similar words all the time, and a lot of them even come from well-meaning fellow Christians.

“Don’t worry. God has a plan.” Hello? Did God plan this? I don’t like this plan at all, is there a Plan B? “Things will get better eventually.” You must not understand just how bad things are – I really don’t think I’ll make it to “eventually”. “God is teaching you a lesson, you need to believe harder and live better.” Couldn’t He have just TOLD me this stuff?

We even give ourselves advice in our internal dialogues. “God is punishing you. He’s abandoned you. You don’t matter to Him. Shoot, God may not even exist, how could He let THIS happen to you?”

Like the Psalmist, we shake our fists at God and demand to know why. We cry out and plead to know how long this pain will go on. We become fearful, afraid to trust and let ourselves get comfortable with life again because we’ve learned just how quickly it can change…or end.

We actually think we deserve better. We think we’re pretty good people, for the most part, living decent, responsible, productive lives. It’s those other people over there, the bad people, the sinners who deserve to suffer for their sins.

Oh, wait…I’m a sinner. Everything that I suffer really is my fault, whether my own personally, or as a result of my sins in Adam. That’s why we confess every Sunday that we justly deserve to suffer God’s temporal and eternal punishment. How selfishly idolatrous we’ve been!

How faithless! Now what? We’ve lost everything – goods, fame, child and wife – and then to realize that even our faith has been almost completely misdirected back upon ourselves. What could possibly remain to give us reason to want to wake up for another day?

Let’s be honest. Most days baptism doesn’t mean much to us nor does it play a very significant role in our lives. We just don’t give baptism much thought. But when everything in our lives is turned upside down and we’re trying to find something, anything, to cling to that is stable and not going to disappear like everything else, Christians have been given Baptism.

It is by baptism, the external application of water and the Word of God’s promises of forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation to us, that we receive all things in our lives as gifts from God. In Baptism, God adopts us into His family and makes us heirs of His kingdom with Christ. In baptism, God promises to give us everything that He has given to Christ and to love us as He loves the Son. When we remember that we have been baptized, we remember that God will not punish us as we deserve, He punished Christ for all our sins already. God doesn’t hate us, He hated Christ because of all our sins that He took upon Himself and He made Christ His enemy on the Cross for us. God has not abandoned us. He abandoned Christ for us and for our salvation.

To say, “I am baptized,” is to cling to those promises God gave us in baptism. Faith holds God to His baptismal promises, even when everything in our lives, all the voices of people around us and even within ourselves tempt us to doubt His Word, to curse God and die just to end the suffering. When the only good thing we can find in our days and lives is to be able to say, “I am baptized,” rejoice! You have already been given everything. Things aren’t just going to get better one day when we’re in heaven – all of heaven was given to us in Baptism.

Only by faith are we freed to see even tragedies in our lives as gifts from God. Like the blind man at the well, our suffering under the Law is an opportunity to repent of our sins and be turned once again to the waters of our Baptism. In suffering, strange as it sounds is a chance we wouldn’t have otherwise had to glorify God and bear witness to Christ. Those experiences borne out of tragedy nuance our vocations and increase unique opportunities for the Spirit to reach people with the Gospel. Only faith tells us that the suffering we experience is not condemnation.

You are not just a sister, you are the sister of a developmentally disabled sibling. You are not just a son, you are a son who lost his mother to cancer. You are not just a wife, you are a domestic violence survivor. You are not just a southerner, you lost everything you had to Hurricane Katrina – everything but the one thing that cannot be taken away. You are baptized.