Category: Current Events

Stan Lemon

“Do not fear any of these things which you are about to suffer.” – Revelation 2:10

Recently you might have seen this image on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. It’s the letter “N” in Arabic. Right now there is a lot of conflict in Iraq. There’s a group called ISIS, which is short for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and they’re a jihadist group. A jihadist group is following a specific teaching within the religion of Islam that leverage some particularly violent tactics to dealing with infidels, folks like you and me. What’s going on in Iraq right now is both sad and bloody. This past week ISIS told Christians to get out of the town of Mosul in Iraq or convert to Islam. If they didn’t, they would die. The “N” you’ve been seeing all over social media is for the word “Nasrani” (Nazarene) which refers to Christians. ISIS is using this to mark the doors of Christian homes. You can guess as to why.

Our Christian brothers and sisters in Mosul and throughout the world need our prayers. They are being persecuted for confessing Christ, for clinging to the Cross and the gifts which He, the very Son of God delivers to you. Christians are being marked by their enemies with this Arabic letter, but the reality of the situation is that these terrorists are too late. As ones redeemed by Christ, these Christians in Mosul, like you and I, have already been marked. It is not a visible stamp on our front door, but instead it is a sacred stamp upon the forehead and the heart. It’s a stamp that was sealed at the blessed font in the waters of Holy Baptism. A stamp placed upon you when a lowly “infidel” made the mark of the Cross and baptized you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. What’s more is this Arabic N intends to mark Christians for death, but you can’t kill the dead! In Christ your old man has already died, he has been drowned in those waters with that sacred stamp. Out of that death comes life, a life which cannot be taken away from you. A life given to you by the worst of the Nasrani, the Son of God, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. A life delivered to you in Holy Baptism and given over and again at the altar in His body and blood. There is no mark that can be placed upon you because you are already marked. There is no death which can conquer the death that Christ died for you. That is the hope of our brothers and sisters who suffer and flee.

What’s going on right now in Iraq is sad and scary. There is no doubt about that. But in Christ there is hope. There is the certainty that no death can overcome Jesus. And like the saints who suffered for the Gospel in days of old, the saints in Mosul shall bear witness to Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. With all the host of heaven we pray for our brother and sisters in Christ, that they might be spared the hand of their oppressor and that through their suffering they might be comforted by the greatest of Comforters and His very precious body and blood.

Lord Jesus Christ, before whom all in heaven and earth shall bow, grant courage that our brothers and sisters in Iraq may confess Your saving name in the face of any opposition from a world hostile to the Gospel. Help them to remember the long line of Your faithful witnesses who endured persecution and even faced death rather than dishonor You. By Your Spirit strengthen them to confess You before all, knowing that You will confess them before Your Father in heaven; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (Collect for persecuted Christians)

Rev. Mark Buetow

We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way [alternately: put the best construction on everything]. – The Small Catechism, Eighth Commandment

I’m not much of a sports fan. I don’t really have an interest in who winds up in the Super Bowl, though I’ll watch it in order to see funny commercials and eat gobs of junk food. But I follow enough news and social media to have heard about Richard Sherman and heard the clip of his post game comments after Seattle beat the 49ers yesterday. The guy was amped up on adrenaline after a play that shut down San Francisco and secured the Seahawks’ place in the Super Bowl. Reaction was fast and furious about how he could be so rude, so mean, so unprofessional, etc. Sherman was vilified for comments which may seem harsh in and of themselves but in the context of a post-game adrenaline rush and on-field chaos seem pretty tame. It’s a good illustration of just how bad we are at covering people’s sins.

How often do you hear people say or say yourself, “I can’t believe they did…!” or “Did you hear what so-and-so just said or did?” or “There’s no excuse for behavior like that!” When we see someone sin, it is the easiest thing in the world to blab it all around to everyone else. It’s easy to accuse and condemn and judge because someone said or did something that is clearly out of bounds, over the top, excessive, and bad. And it may well be that what a person says or does is bad. But what are we supposed to do about it? “Explain everything in the kindest way.” It’s no secret that reporters are looking for the juicy story, the scandal-laden report. The opportunity to bring down a person’s reputation and expose hypocrisy is something we like to look for because it makes us feel important at the expense of others. But Christian love compels us to to do otherwise. Being forgiven and being a new creation in Christ teaches us not to instantly go for the jugular when someone says or does something we could point out and for which we could judge them. Rather, as Christ has forgiven us, so we forgive others and when they say and do something that is embarrassing or even shocking, we overlook it and keep from making an issue out of it.

Consider how Christ deals with us. Over and over we give the Lord reasons to condemn, judge, and cast us into Hell. But He can’t. He won’t. Because He’s covered it. In fact, if the devil were to say about you, “Look at His sin!” Jesus’ reply would be, “No, it’s My sin. I took it. Deal with me.” It’s like the story in the book of Genesis when Noah was drunk and laying around naked after the Flood (Genesis 9). His son Ham saw it and went and told his brothers. Perhaps he was mocking Dad or just pointing it out to shame him. Either way, Noah’s other two sons, Shem and Japheth, took a blanket, and walked backwards, covering up their naked dad. They covered Noah’s nakedness. In the same way, Jesus, by taking our place on Calvary, covers our sin with His righteousness. He gives no one any occasion to accuse us, for He has taken way our sin and made it His own. No one can say anything to God against you because of your sins because He won’t hear it.

Likewise, as Christians, we don’t learn the Commandments so we can point out other people’s sins. Rather, the Spirit teaches us the Law of love in Christ which says, “Well, maybe Richard Sherman was just excited after that intense game.” “Maybe mom has a lot on her mind.” “Maybe my friend just had an off day.” If that sounds like making excuses, well, maybe so, but it’s doing the hard work of forgiving and not treating another person as their sins might deserve. That’s how the Lord deals with us and that’s how the Spirit teaches us to deal with others. And yes, we can be very bad at that. So we are grateful when our pastors and other Christians teach us by the Word and by examples in our own lives, of what it means to forgiven and overlook our sins.

The media makes us quick to judge others and social media makes our judgments almost instantaneous. It’s easy to see the faults of others and magnify and broadcast them, to make ourselves look good or to feel better about ourselves. Except the very condemnation we might bring against another person could come back to us too, for our own faults and transgressions! But Christ has set us free from the Law’s condemnation. That means, in part, that we learn in our lives as Christians how to put up with, overlooked, and cover the sins of others. Whether it’s a famous football player or just an average person you deal with every day, their faults, mistakes, and goofs are always an opportunity for us to remember the love God has for us in Christ and to demonstrate that same patience and kindness of not rubbing it in their face or tossing it out for the attention hounds to go after. Instead, we “walk backwards” and “cover their nakedness” exposing not their sin but exposing them the same forgiveness we rejoice to receive always from Jesus.

Rev. Brandt Hoffman

Super Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines on the morning of November 8 as one of the world’s most powerful storms on record to make landfall. The Category 5 typhoon made landfall near Leyte Province in Eastern Visayas Region causing massive destruction and loss of life. The storm hit with wind gusts up to 235 mph, nearly 16 inches of rainfall and waves up to 45 feet in some areas. (Lutheran World Relief)

The Philippine government is reporting that they don’t know the full extent of the losses in the wake of the recent typhoon, but they have confirmed that nearly 2,500 people were killed. As I think about those numbers I marvel because that is the equivalent of wiping out 5 to 10 villages in my home state of Alaska! It’s then that the loss of those lives so far away can become very personal. No longer is it something that “simply happened” in a faraway place to a group of nameless and faceless people, but it is a tragic loss of lives in a terrifying display of wind and rain.

Certainly these are terrible times and the media has no shortage of people making commentaries regarding the possible connections to “God” and His role or plan in all this. Atheists are quick to mock the faithful by saying “Where is your god now?” Foolish preachers calling themselves Christians are decrying “God’s judgment on a world filled with fornicators, idolaters and homosexuals”. In the end, you find yourself in the middle asking “What does it all mean? What do we say about God in these situations?”

It seems that any time we experience a “natural disaster” (hurricane, earthquake, typhoon, etc) the question comes to light “Why God?” You might remember back in 2004, the Indian Ocean Tsunami claimed 150,000 lives and in 2005, Hurricane Katrina claimed 1,800 lives in Mississippi and Louisiana. In each case, when people are faced with these kind of horrors, they not only want answers, they want comfort. They want to know that sense can be made of such a shocking display of death and suffering!

We tend to only notice death collectively when it comes in such a dramatic fashion. When the death is exceptionally graphic or on a large scale. It doesn’t seem to strike us that every year, our world loses 259,800,000 to deaths unrelated to horrible and dramatic events such as we have witnessed in the Philippines recently. The news is not interested in sending reporters to visit a family devastated at the death of an 8 year old girl in the Netherlands who died of a congenital heart defect or the 52 year old man who lost a battle with cancer in Detroit, Michigan. As a pastor and volunteer hospital chaplain in a state with a high infant-mortality rate, I can say that a young mother holding the lifeless body of a child not one hour old is as great a tragedy as any wave or flood can produce. I can tell you that in these less-known, less-dramatic deaths, the exact same questions are asked by people who are hurting and suffering at a time of great sorrow and confusion. They look at me and ask “Why did this happen? Why did she have to die? Why me?” Like the deaths in the Philippines to villages in Alaska, death seems to only become “real” to people when it becomes personal, spawning very personal questions to and about the nature of God in these situations.

That’s the trouble. People have lost sight of the right question. Rather than asking “Why did MY daughter die, God?” or “Why did so many people in the Philippines die, God?” The right question is “Why do people die at all God?” or “Where does death come from?” When death is only personalized, God can only be seen as adversarial and vindictive. But as we look at the Scriptures, we see that although death comes to us in many ways, (violently, slowly or quickly), it comes only for one reason: because we are fallen and broken sinners. Since the fall in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3) God has told us that we will indeed die. There is nothing “natural” about death and disasters. They are both a product of the fall. They are a result of the curse under which this world lives. So now, in the face of all disasters (both great and small) we no longer ask “Why did he/she/they die?”, rather we ask “What does Jesus say about the world we live in?” In John 16:33 He is quite clear that people living in a world infected by the fall are going to suffer. “In the world you will have tribulation.” At no time did He say “Fires, floods and storms won’t affect you because you are a Christian.” Quite the opposite, really. Jesus told us that being his follower, being His child, His redeemed, means we will suffer (Acts 9:16, Phil 3:8, Col 1:24, Matt 10:39) and that the rain (from a typhoon or otherwise) falls on the just and the unjust (Matt 5:45). So to all of the trials and tribulation we suffer in the world, Jesus completes John 6:33 by saying ” But take heart; I have overcome the world.” In other words, when sin death and the devil show themselves, we need not ask “Why?” but rather take comfort in the fact that the world does not dictate our faith in good times or bad. Instead we may ask “How long, O Lord?”

In Revelation 3:11 Jesus answers that question. He says:”I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.” After the fall, God let us know that all death to Him is indeed very personal and the time is coming when He will bring a final end to death (1 Corinthians 15:26). By sending His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross and rise for you, God has indeed shown that He is the master over sin, death and the devil. At Christ’s ascension, He promised us that He would return in glory to judge the living and the dead. He promised to wipe away our tears and that this earth and heaven would be replaced with a new heaven and a new earth. Of course, in the meantime, He tells us our waiting for His return would not come without suffering. All of the evidence of the fall is there. So where is God in the midst of suffering? He is where He established Himself to be on that first Sunday in Pentecost nearly 2000 years ago. He is where His Word is purely preached and His Sacraments are rightly administered. Church is not a refuge for the righteous, but a hospice for sinners. It is where all the troubles of the world can be brought and where every sin you have, may be brought and all of that evil removed. It is where you are fed and washed with the food and water from God. When Christ ascended into the heavens, we were called to await His return, and we will wait. In the midst of joys and sufferings, in the midst of our prayers for all people who are caught dramatically in suffering and for those who suffer silently, we will wait in the hope of our Redeemer who has promised us rescue and redemption.

The Rev. Brand Hoffman is pastor of Zion Lutheran Church, Anchorage, Alaska.

Rev. Mark Buetow

“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” — Matthew 24:5

Rumors of war. That’s what we hear. Syrians have been killing each other for a couple of years but suddenly it’s bad because chemical weapons seem to have been used. It doesn’t matter what party is in power. When “our” guy is in, we’ll support the drumbeats for airstrikes and war. If you are a senior in high school today, you’ve gone your entire school life since Kindergarten with the United States reacting to violence and involved in war. And meanwhile, all around the world, other nations are at war. Civil wars. Border wars. Big wars little wars. Wars and rumors of wars.

And what does Jesus say? “See that you are not troubled!” This, from the One at Whose birth angels said, “Peace on earth?” Still waiting! But wait, that’s a different kind of peace. When we speak of the “peace of Christ,” we don’t mean the end to world hostilities. We mean peace with God. You don’t want God as your enemy. But now that Jesus has gone through Good Friday and Easter, cross and empty tomb, God can never be your enemy. His forgiveness means whatever you have done that would make Him mad or disown you is gone. Forgiven. Wiped away. No matter how much fighting there is on earth, there will never be a fight between you and the Lord. He loves and forgives you.

So what about war? War in Syria? Iraq? Iran? Vietnam? Europe? Asia? We like to think some wars (like World War II) are “good,” because we were fighting clearly evil individuals. We tend to think some wars are “bad” (like Vietnam) because it didn’t seem to have a resounding victory and humiliation of the enemy. There’s thinking about war when you’re watching the news on TV and there’s thinking about war when you’re marching through the jungle or looking for IEDs in the desert. Some people want to fight. Some people think we should stay out of it. Christians will end up on both sides. Some think the evidence says one thing and some think it says something else. But one thing is for certain: We will never be without wars or rumors of wars. Never. Not until Jesus comes back.

And that’s the point. We shouldn’t want a war. We shouldn’t want people to die. We shouldn’t want our own troops to be in harm’s way but neither should we want anybody getting blown to bits for any reason. Death. Violence. Carnage. Evacuations. Refugees. Those are all sad things. And we will despair when we see these things if we take our eyes off of Jesus.

Jesus says, “See that you are not troubled.” Don’t worry about it. Don’t get worked up. There will be wars. There will be rumors of wars. But no matter how much fighting mankind engages in, Jesus still rose from the dead. And His resurrection means sin is defeated. And the defeat of sin means that one day, when He comes back, wars will be gone. And rumors of wars will be silenced. Forever. Once and for all.

But until then, what? How do we live? We live rejoicing! For after all, when we see wars and rumors of wars, we know Jesus’ words are true. We are living in the End Times, however long they may be. We don’t know how all these wars will end. But we know this: there has been a battle that HAS been won: Jesus versus the devil. Jesus versus sin. And He has won. And that makes all the difference. It means there is a hope that does not reside in our weak attempts to keep out of trouble and avoid conflict (which never seems to work)! We have a hope in a Savior who has endured all things and conquered all things for us. A Savior whose love and forgiveness outlasts our wars and battles.

In the meantime then, soldiers, follow your orders. Leaders, make wise decisions. Citizens, pray for your leaders, for wisdom and integrity. And no matter what happens, know this: wars you will always have with you but because of the cross of Jesus, they needn’t trouble you as if they mean God is not God and Jesus isn’t Lord. Because He is. And His true and saving promises are not broken even by wars or rumors of wars.

Heavenly Father, God of all concord, it is Your gracious will that Your children on earth live together in harmony and peace. Defeat the plans of all those who would stir up violence and strife, destroy the weapons of those who delight in war and bloodshed, and, according to Your will, end all conflicts in the world. Teach us to examine our hearts that we may recognize our own inclination toward envy, malice, hatred, and enmity. Help us, by Your Word and Spirit, to search our hearts and to root out the evil that would lead to strife and discord, so that in our lives we may be at peace with all people. Fill us with zeal for the work of Your Church and the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which alone can bring that peace which is beyond all understanding; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Jonathan Kohlmeier

As I’m sitting on the plane headed home from Tacoma, I’m not sure what to write. I’ve covered that each year the Higher Things Conferences pick right back up where they left off and that we continue on in the same worship and theology in our home congregations. I’ve talked about how completely insane HT conferences seem to the world, yet the youth are there singing at the top of their lungs, asking pastors tough questions, growing in the faith that has been given to them.

So now what? What do I write about as I’m headed home from the final From Above conference? The conference theme and the HT family of course!

Anothen. From Above. Jesus tells Nicodemus that unless one is born From Above he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. You have been born from above (me too!), in your baptism. By name, your pastor baptized you, “In the Name, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Someone probably spoke your “amen” for you. Amen is that “yes it is so,” that “gift received.” And what a gift your baptism is! It’s there when you have nothing else going for you. When you are going through Higher Things withdrawal.

In your baptism, you have everything going for you! You have Christ’s death and resurrection delivered to you! You receive the drowning of your own Old Adam and your New Man being raised to life!

You are baptized into Christ so you can gladly say you are God’s own child. That means your family is the rest of those who have been baptized. The whole church is your family!

We get to have a small family reunion at HT conferences. The staff really does consider it our HT family. We get together each year to rejoice in the gifts that God has given us. We tell the fun stories that have happened since the last time we saw each other. We gather around meals in the cafeteria and enjoy each others company. More importantly we gather around the Lord’s Supper to commune with our HT family.

Last weekend we said “good-bye” and headed home. It could be a year or more before we see some of our family again. But in the communion of Christ’s body we will join each other at our family reunions week in and week out. There won’t be hundreds of kids singing the Divine Service and joining in praying Matins, Vespers, Evening Prayer and Compline every day. But we will gather in our churches around the altar to join with the whole company of heaven to receive the Lord’s gifts. We will join in the heavenly feast for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

You have been born from above! You have been adopted into Christ’s family. We pray for and with each other in the Lord’s Prayer. We are joined with each other in the Divine Service. And we remember and rejoice in our family Name placed on us as we were born from above!

Rev. Mark Buetow

And he released to them the one they requested, who for rebellion and murder had been thrown into prison; but he delivered Jesus to their will. (Luke 23:25)

We know we live in this world surrounded by the horrors and tragedies of sin. Often, we’re so accustomed to these things that they don’t even strike our conscience. We are not aware of them. Maybe we’ve become desensitized. Maybe we just don’t have the emotional energy to care. Maybe we just don’t want to know what goes on. Every so often the curtain is pulled back and events like the trial of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell brings these horrors vividly to light. This man ran a clinic that not only provided women with the service of killing their unborn children but in many cases, he murdered babies born alive by cutting their spinal cords. For just a little while, the graphic horrors of sin are made known for all to see.

OK, Kermit Gosnell is a murderer. If we take seriously the teaching of God’s Word that He Himself is the one who gives life and takes it away, we can clearly conclude that taking the life of any child is murder, born or unborn. Many were surprised to hear that these horrors exist in a world where we were promised 40 years ago that legalizing abortion would make it a safe procedure. Are we surprised that when taking the life of an unborn child is made legal and seen as OK it leads to such sadness? It is easy to take the examples and opportunities that such a case presents to stand in stern judgment, wagging our fingers and supposing that now we have a clear example to prove to the world that these evils are real. Here we can point to a man and say, yes, that’s a murderer. A modern day King Herod who would kill babies. If there ever was a murderer, it must look like this guy, Kermit Gosnell.

So take a moment then to ponder the words of St. Luke above. A murderer is just the sort of person with whom Jesus traded places! Maybe Barabbas, the man Pontius Pilate let go, didn’t kill babies. It doesn’t really matter. Somebody died at Barabbas’ hands and for no good reason. And he was on his way to be nailed to a cross for six hours and have his legs smashed to make him hurry up and die. Painfully. Badly. Except he didn’t go. He didn’t make the death march to Golgotha. Pilate released Barabbas and sent Jesus to be crucified in his place. And, what’s worse, that choice was made because people would rather have the murderer saved than the innocent man who never did anything but heal and forgive and preach good news!

Whether or not you’ve followed the trial of these abortion clinic horrors; whether you’ve paid attention to this murderer and his fate or not; ponder this: You are a murderer too. The Fifth Commandment, YOU SHALL NOT KILL, convicts every person of murder because of what Jesus taught us about it. He said that it doesn’t just mean killing babies after they were born or committing homicide. He says it also takes place in the heart. Murder happens in our hatred and anger and rage at others even if we don’t actually act on it. (See Matthew 5:22).

So if you’re a murderer too, then what? Good news! Jesus takes the place of murderers! That’s what He does. That means that Jesus came to trade places with you and people like Kermit Gosnell who kill babies for a living. And here is where true repentance comes: We don’t want to believe that what Jesus did counts for everyone. At least not people like that. We can intellectually acknowledge that, “Yes, I’m a murderer by my attitude or anger” but our thoughts say, “And while that may be true, it’s just simply not the case that I’m as bad as that guy.” It should be a great warning to us not to stand in judgment against a man like that. It should also warn us away from trying to show the world that we think we’re better than such a person merely because we offer hope and life to people where he only offered death.

The only answers to such horrors is Jesus. Jesus who became the murderer so Barabbas, and Kermit Gosnell and you could go free. Our prayer ought to be that what has been given to us by Christ in baptism, absolution, the Gospel and the Supper–the forgiveness of sins–will be declared to this man. And we should give thanks that we are able to hear that forgiveness again and again and over and over. There is a temptation to declare with some relief that this man will get what he deserves for what he has done. But let there be this fervent prayer that while the state will give him what he has coming, the Lord would make known to Kermit Gosnell that he won’t get what he deserves from God. Instead, pray that He would receive what Jesus has earned by taking His place.

Jesus once told His disciples, when questioned about some tragedies in the news, “Unless you repent, you will likewise perish.” (Luke 13:5) By “repent” Jesus doesn’t mean here “fix your life in such a way that you can avoid the consequences of doing bad things.” Rather, by “repent” He means “believe that there is nothing in heaven or on earth that can get rid of our sin except Him.” And that’s exactly what He does when He works things out so that He is the one who goes to Calvary and sinners are the ones who are set free. Thanks be to God for His Son Jesus Christ who came to trade places with the murderers. All of them.

They rise and needs will have My dear Lord made away; A murderer they save, The Prince of Life they slay. But cheerful He To suff’ring goes That He His foes From thence might flee. (My Song is Love Unknown, LSB 430:5)

Rev. Mark Buetow

And they said among themselves, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away — for it was very large. – St. Mark 16:3-4

Here we go again. Bombs. Carnage. Mayhem. Evil. Suffering. Horror. Innocent people killed. It’s a chance for the atheists to shout, “Where’s your loving God now?” It’s a chance for people to say, “Yeah, but look at all the good in people who are helping.” It’s a time for Facebook to be inundated with well wishes, political arguments and conspiracy theories.

The fact of the matter is, this new Boston Massacre is one more stone rolled over the tomb. One more heavy rock that shouts to the world that men are evil and death is real. It is a stone that declares our mortality, our inability to overcome it. Who will roll it away? Who will make the pain stop? Who will make it so these things don’t happen? How will we get in to put spices on our dead God to make Him smell better now that He’s a corpse? What can we say to take away the pain and stench of burned flesh in what was supposed to be a healthy competition and exciting athletic event?

But the stone WAS rolled away when the women arrived. It was laying on the ground. The tomb was open. And it was empty. Well, except for the angels who said, “He is risen! He’s not here! See the place where they laid Him!” The place where they laid Him was a tomb cut into the rock for a dead guy. It was a place of the dead. Like the finish line for the Boston Marathon. A place where death seems to be king. But it’s not. Because the stone is rolled away and Jesus is not there.

If you think the video of the bombs going off in Boston was scary, you should have heard the bomb Jesus dropped on hell. Defeat. Disgrace. Undoing. Sins paid for. The devil’s power done. Where that liar and father of lies would deceive us is in the belief that God doesn’t care about such suffering as we see. We’re on our own. Nothing but misery. So Jesus shows up and tells the devil the deal: His cross means sin is finished. His resurrection means death is done. His Ascension means your righteousness can’t be snatched by that roaring lion.

Let’s put it another way: the answer to horrors and tragedies like the bombing of a marathon is that Jesus is alive. Bombings and all the other suffering we see in the world are like stones that remind us that our destination is a grave. Graves sealed with stones and covered with dirt. But what the women find is the answer to that: death has been defeated. Whatever suffering and death take place out there, they can’t overcome Jesus being alive. He died to overcome sin and His victory over sin means death can’t hold Him down. The stone’s got to go. And it does. And now there’s nothing but good news inside: He is risen!

And that risen Jesus is the one who stands behind your baptism, who proclaims through your preacher, and who gives Himself in His Supper. These are the gifts that confess that the stone has been rolled away. Death has been defeated. The devil is powerless. These aren’t gifts that remove evil from this world. They are gifts that protect you from all things and promise that on the Last Day, the stone on your grave will be rolled away; the dirt covering your casket will be removed. And you will stand, risen and alive and with the Lord forever.

Horrors happen. People ask questions. The investigators will investigate. The relief agencies will relieve. The living will mourn the dead. And when someone asks who can roll away the stone of such a sad thing that points us to death and our mortality, you can answer, “What stone? You mean the one lying on the ground because Jesus is alive?” Indeed, the only thing to say when we see such things is that Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Yes, Easter beats even bombs at the Boston Marathon because Christ is risen indeed.

Rev. Mark Buetow is pastor of Bethel Lutheran Church in Du Quoin, IL. He is also the Media Executive for Higher Things.

“Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying: “A voice was heard in Ramah, Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, Refusing to be comforted, Because they are no more.” (St. Matthew 2:16-18)

“Why? Why children?” “Why did God let this happen?” “What is wrong with people?” Those are the questions that the mothers in Bethlehem might have asked when the soldiers of King Herod killed their children. Those are questions we’ll hear in Connecticut now after the death of 27 people, including 18 children at a shooting that took place at an elementary school. An elementary school! Little kids! Children! How? Why? What do you even say?

The crazy thing about the death of the children of Bethlehem is that Jesus got away. He got away so that He could grow up and be the Savior of those children, the Savior of the children in Connecticut that just died and the Savior of everyone. Even the Savior of the man who did this. Because, after all, it’s a person who did this. Evil. Sin. These are the things that cause people to do horrible things. Let’s remember that. God didn’t do this. Sin did this. We’ll weep for the children and their families. We should weep for the shooter and whatever it was that led him to do it: anger, rage, maybe mental illness. It doesn’t really matter. We weep because we see what the fallen world is really like.

What matters is, what could God possibly have to say to parents who are cradling their dead children in their arms and the first responders who have to clean up the mess, and the parents and children who will never be the same for having been through this? What could God possibly have to say to the mothers of Bethlehem who were weeping in fulfillment of a prophecy? Here we are with nothing to say. A loss for words. Shaking our heads. What does God have to say to us?

These words of Jesus come to mind “In this world you will have tribulation. Take heart. I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33). Jesus doesn’t save us by fixing this world. He saves us out of it for eternal life. We stare stunned at the story that children have died and right before we celebrate the birth of the Son of God, as a child! And then we begin to see what God has done. God came as a child. To be born. To grow up. To suffer and die. Forsaken by the Father. Nailed to the cross. Hanging there bleeding and dying because of what we’ve done. What sin has done. What it has made us. And by the blood and water that flows from His side, into the font, He makes us His children. To die with Him. To rise with Him. To have such a promise that there is nothing in this world that can happen to us that can take that away. Jesus has overcome school shootings and the horrors inflicted upon children and others. He has overcome such things not in the way we would like, by simply punishing them and keeping us safe. He has overcome the world by actually taking on sin and destroying its power forever. And there’s more. He rose. His resurrection is the promise and guarantee that death never, ever gets the last word.

When some terrible disasters happened in His day, Jesus said, “do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:4-5). These words remind us that when we see tragedies like this, there is no blaming and finger-pointing and name-calling and wondering. There is only repentance. Repentance is recognizing that it can only be Christ who delivers us from such evil because left to ourselves, this is all we’ve got. But in Him, we are saved from all these things.

Things have changed forever for the people who have been a part of this horror today. But Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. It is that promise which will be the truest comfort for those who suffer such things. The Lord grant them His mercy and the healing that Christ alone can bring to them through their bitter tears.

“They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:16-17).

Rev. Mark Buetow

What shall I render to the Lord For all His benefits toward me? I will take up the cup of salvation, And call upon the name of the Lord. (Psalms 116:12, 13 NKJV)

What do you get for the guy who has everything? How do you thank the God who made everything that exists? The God who made you? How do thank the Lord who can call all things into existence out of nothing with just a Word? How do you show gratitude to the God who becomes man to be nailed to a cross and died and then rise again so that you will rise from the dead and live forever? No matter how good your manners are, tossing out a “Thank you very much, Lord!” doesn’t really seem to cover all that Jesus has done for us. Besides, is the Lord really so vain that He needs to be told how awesome He is? How grateful we are? There are people like that — people who think that if you don’t fawn over them for what they’ve done then you aren’t grateful. We do that ourselves. “I don’t do it to be recognized but a little thanks would be nice.” You’ve just proven the point!

So what is true thankfulness to God? How do we express our gratitude? How do you say “Thank You” to Jesus? Psalm 116 helps us out here. We sing it in the first and second settings of the Divine Service: “What shall I render to The Lord?” How can we thank Him? How do we repay Him? We don’t. Rather, we receive more from Him! When Jesus gives you the forgiveness of sins, the only way to truly thank Him for such a gift is to receive more forgiveness! Live more in your Baptism! Receive again and again His body and blood, the cup of salvation. Hear again that He was crucified for you, died for you, rose for you and forgives you. To put it another way: We don’t thank Jesus by returning something to Him, be it our “thankful hearts” or something else, but rather by receiving more of what Jesus has to give. To live in and enjoy the gifts of Jesus is the only way to thank Him. To live as a sinner who can’t get too much forgiveness but knows He has always more, is to render true thankfulness to God.

Now we certainly do say “Thank you, Lord,” in our hymns and prayers. Such words are a confession that everything we have is a gift from our Heavenly Father given to us through His Son. It is because of Jesus that the Father lovingly bestows on us “food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rules, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.” We ought not forget that even what we earn in this life or receive as a gift is ultimately from the gracious hand of our heavenly Father.

Some people will try to guilt you into being thankful. Prepare for the barrage of Facebook photos of people waiting in line for iPhones while folks in Africa wear soda bottles as shoes; or reminders that on Thanksgiving we are thankful for all we have and then spend the next day waiting in line to get more; or reminders that if you’re enjoying yourself, there’s always someone who is miserable during the holidays. Or maybe we’re the miserable ones who so easily forget all of God’s gifts to us in Christ. It’s the sort of thing that drops a guilt-bomb that makes us feel bad for enjoying what we have. Then we feel bad we feel guilty when we know we should know better. How’s THAT for thankfulness? The world goes crazy trying to manipulate our emotions from happiness to sadness to guilt to excitement to apathy.

Away with all that! Christ has died for you! Washed you. Feeds you. The Father cares for you. No matter what things you have received, good or bad, nothing can take away your being a child of God. And that means Jesus has died to take away even our sins of gluttony, greed and false guilt. Therefore there’s just no sense in getting worked up over how much gratitude you should have or how you should show your gratitude to God. Instead, live by receiving more Jesus. More forgiveness. More life in the freedom to enjoy all that God has given to you, sharing with your neighbor as you are able, and above all, taking that cup of salvation, the cup of Christ, and calling upon the Name of the Lord, the Name into which you’re baptized. It’s nice to say “Thank you” to Jesus but an even better word that confesses His goodness is the “Amen!” The “gift received, for me, yes, yes, it is so” word that receives what the Lord has for you.

On Thanksgiving Day, enjoy your turkey and dressing or whatever food you celebrate with, watch some football if that’s your thing, go get some bargains for your Christmas shopping, help serve dinner to the poor, invite someone over who has nowhere else to go. Do any of those things but do them all in the glad confidence that what most puts a smile on your Lord’s face is that He can give to you unending blessings of forgiveness, life and salvation. Happy Thanksgiving!

Rev. David Kind

Oh Boy! A new Gospel!!!

Every few years, it seems, there is a big hubbub as someone unveils some “new” “early Christian” writing that supposedly sheds new light on Jesus and the faith of the early Christians. A few years ago it was the “Gospel of Judas”. Before that it was the “Gospel of Mary Magdalene”, before that the theoretical proto-Gospel of “Q” (manuscript evidence for which no one has ever found or seen). This week the stir is being caused by the discovery by Harvard professor Karen King, of yet another gospel which is being touted as the “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife.” But do these fragments and writings do what St. John says the Scriptures are for? Do they bring us to believe that Jesus is the Christ and that, believing, we have life in His Name?

This new “gospel” is actually just a small fragment of text found on a scrap of papyrus (about the size of an early iPod nano) preliminarily dated to some time in the fourth century (the 300s). It is written in Coptic, leading the scholars involved to believe it originated in Egypt. The scrap contains only 8 lines of text on the front, none of which are complete sentences, and only five legible words on the back. It is being called a gospel because it contains phrases like “The disciples said to Jesus” and “Jesus said to them”. According to the article posted by the Harvard Divinity School, the translation of the front of the papyrus reads:

Line 1: not [to] me. My mother gave me li [fe]
Line 2: The disciples said to Jesus
Line 3: deny. Mary is worth of it (or) deny. Mary is n[ot] worthy of it.
Line 4: Jesus said to them, “My wife…”
Line 5: she will be able to be my disciple
Line 6: Let the wicked people swell up…
Line 7: As for me, I dwell with her in order to…
Line 8: an image…

The line that is causing such a stir is the fourth where it could appear that Jesus is talking about His wife; who, because line three mentions a “Mary”, might have been Mary Magdalene according to Karen King. Others in recent times have made the same claim, based on the fact that Mary Magdalene is held up as an important disciple in other writings like the Gospel of Mary Magdalene and the Gospel of Thomas. This rather new idea was made popular in the book The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown (and in the movie version with Tom Hanks). However none of these other texts actually say that Jesus was married, let alone that Mary Magdalene was his wife. In fact there are no texts written by anyone from before the fourth century (assuming this scrap is really that old) that make the claim that Jesus was married. Read the text of the papyrus and you will see that what we have in this case is an awful lot of speculation based on a piece of old paper that doesn’t even contain a single complete thought on it!

But what about these other gospels that don’t show up in the Bible? And what does this newly discovered papyrus fragment have in common with them? There are dozens of writings, claiming to be about Jesus or claiming to have been written by His disciples, that are not in the Bible. Most of them, like this scrap of papyrus, come to us from Egypt. Most of them were discovered in the last century, meaning that they were never used by the Church as Scripture (If they had been they wouldn’t have been lost). None of them were written before the late second century (more than 100 years after Jesus death and resurrection). And nearly all of them were written by people who held to a strange mystical spirituality called gnosticism.

The Gnostics were people who believed that there was a secret knowledge that only certain people had within them which would free their spirit, which, they said was, a little piece of God trapped within a person, from its material bondage (so your body and everything material was thought of as a kind of prison). Though there were dozens of flavors of gnosticism, all of them were rejected by the Church and their teachers condemned as heretics. Much of what St. John wrote in his epistles (See especially I John 1:1-5) and some of what St. Paul wrote in his, was in response to the early gnostic heresy.

What do the Gnostic gospels tell us about Jesus and the Christian faith? Not much, it turns out. Most of them borrow some material from the Biblical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. But what is not borrowed directly from the Bible is often so bizarre that, even if one were to take them seriously, they would provide precious little useful information in terms of who Jesus is and what He supposedly taught. For example, in the Gospel of Judas Jesus is portrayed as someone who needs help freeing His inner divinity through suicide (the cross) and Judas is portrayed as the hero who helps Him do it. In the Gospel of Mary Magdalene Jesus delivers a cryptic discourse to Mary Magdalene who is portrayed as the chief disciple. In the Gospel of Thomas Jesus supposedly says that in order to be saved Mary Magdalene would have to become a man first. So take teachings that are incoherent, then mix in lots of crazy visions, detached sayings, and weird stories, and you’ll get an idea of how most of these so-called gospels read.

Nowadays some scholars are promoting these gnostic texts as alternative witnesses of early Christian beliefs. By presenting these bizarre texts as legitimate expressions of Christianity, they claim to be showing the world that there were other forms of Christian faith which existed peacefully along side of orthodox Christianity. Karen King admits that she has based her career on challenging the Christian Faith and critiquing what she calls “the master story of Christianity”. What King and others like her are really challenging is the authority of the Holy Scriptures as the Word of God. The Bible, they claim, is merely one version of what people believed about Jesus, and that there is no one truth but several alternative versions of it.

But the Word of God recorded in the Holy Scriptures is not one version of the truth. According to Jesus and the Apostles it is The Truth. Jesus makes the claim that the Word of God is Truth in John 17 and that that Word cannot be broken in John 10. So how could there be multiple versions of the truth? And concerning the writing of the Scriptures, St. Peter says (II Peter 1): “we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” and again, a few verses later: “no prophecy of Scripture is of any private origin, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” The Gospels in the Bible were given by God through His apostles. These Gospels are clear, true and trustworthy. Most importantly, they bring us repentance unto faith in Jesus, who, they witness, was crucified for our sins and alive again on Easter. The “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife” and the other gnostic gospels? Well, that’s another story…