Category: Life Issues

Chris Vecera

Forgetfulness usually gets you in trouble. If you forget to do your chores or homework, things usually won’t end well. Don’t forget your girlfriend’s birthday or Valentine’s Day! Did you forget to get your dad a card for Father’s Day?

Give it enough time and you’ll forget the things that you wish you could remember. If Facebook didn’t remind you, the fun times you had with friends would disappear into the internet. If it weren’t for pictures, you’d slowly lose the faces of loved ones and friends you don’t see anymore. You want to remember the love that’s been shown to you, but you can’t seem to hold onto those memories tightly. For some reason, when you need some good memories, they aren’t easy to remember.

So why doesn’t it work that way with the things you want to erase from your brain? You remember every detail of the things that you wish you could forget. Sure, you try to hide them. On the outside you do a pretty good job, but eventually they flare up in your mind. You can’t “unsee” the images on the computer screen. You can’t “unthink” the gossip and betrayal. You can’t undo the hook-ups. You can’t forget the beating and abuse. You can’t rewind the failures.

As you eat your Cheerios, you forget the things you want to remember and remember the things you want to forget. The words of the Accuser always seem to win, but there is another Word. It comes from outside of your mind. It’s spoken to you. It goes against your experience.

I was a student in Dr. Rod Rosenbladt’s doctrine class at Concordia, Irvine when I heard this story.

“Pastor,” the young woman’s eyes were bloodshot from crying all night, “Can I talk to you?”

He had just poured his first cup of coffee for the morning, “Of course Jessica, come in. What’s up?” She had grown up in the congregation, and the pastor had known her family for years.

“I can’t sleep,” she said, “I want to talk to Mike, but I can’t. He would be so mad. We’ve been dating for two years, and things were going pretty good. I don’t think he would be able to forgive me. I already feel like everyone looks at me different. I can’t imagine what it would feel like if everyone knew.” Her eyes started to well up, “I’m not even sure I can talk with you pastor. I messed up. I don’t think I can go to church anymore. I can’t face the people, let alone God.”

“What is it Jessica?”

“I had an abortion. Pastor, I should go. I don’t want to burden you.”

“No. No. It’s no burden.”

“How can God forgive me? I didn’t tell anyone I was going to do it. Mike always talks about how he wants to have kids someday. I just wasn’t ready, but after everything…” she was sobbing now, “I wish I would have kept it. I can’t get the doctor’s face out of my mind. I have dreams about going to the clinic over and over again.”

“I’m so sorry.” He paused and the room was silent for a moment, “This may sound strange, but you were in church last Sunday, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you remember confessing your sins with the congregation?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t make the memories go away. Sometimes it makes them worse.”

“That’s one of the reasons we confess our sins and hear the absolution every Sunday. Our memories work against us. We can do it today if you want.”

“Really, we can do that?”

“Sure.”

“Okay.” They opened the service book together and read through the private confession and absolution. Through tears she confessed her sin.

“…God be merciful to you and strengthen your faith.”

“Amen,” she whispered.

“Do you believe that my forgiveness is God’s forgiveness?”

Again, in a low and shaky voice, “Yes.”

“Let it be done for you as you believe,” with his hands on her head he gently spoke, “In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

After a few moments of silence, she looked up with a grimace, “Thanks pastor. Could you do me a favor though?”

“Sure. Anything.”

“Don’t tell Mike about the abortion.”

“What abortion, Jessica?” There was a soft grin on her face. They hugged and she let out a deep sigh in relief. As she left the church office the pastor slowly took his first sip of coffee.

The other Word is a promise. It’s the promise of the new creation. When you can’t forget your sin, because it plagues your conscience, your pastor reminds you that when God sees you He doesn’t see you as you feel: condemned. That condemnation has already fallen on Christ. Instead, He sees you covered in the righteousness of His perfect Son, righteousness that has been won for you on the cross and delivered to you in the words of absolution. This is God’s promise: “I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more” (Hebrews 8:12), and this promise is for you. This word defeats the demons in your mind.

This is the blessed forgetfulness. Rest assured, no Christian will have his sins counted against him. Your sin will to cling to you, but you are blessed with this forgetfulness: You are new and your sin will not be counted against you. It doesn’t feel like it, but it’s true. God will not remember it. Don’t despair. Jesus has done it all for you.

Chris Vecera is the Director of Youth Ministry at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Aliso Viejo, California. He can be reached at promissio5611@gmail.com.

Bethany Woelmer

There is not one person in this world who has not experienced any degree of suffering that has hurt them emotionally and physically. There is not one person in this world who has not, filed away in their past, things that they wish had never happened – things that have changed their life, things that they have carried with them to the present. And there is not one person in this world who lacks that certain “tic,” the uncontrollable itch inside of them, a weakness attributed to them since birth. A weakness that is hidden within the skin of our flesh, a truth deep within our nature to which others can not clearly see.

I listened to a presentation by a man named Marc Elliot, who talked with us about this idea of suffering which he experienced in a certain way. He asked the question, “What makes you Tic?” What is that little itch inside of you that causes you to act uncontrollably? What unique weakness do you have that you are self-conscious about every day you wake up in the morning? What sufferings do you encounter that not everyone around you fully understands?

For twenty years, Marc Elliot had a serious itch. This was no normal skin itch that we experience on a day-to-day basis. It was an itch of the mind that led him to speak and act in ways he could never control. In order to satisfy the desires of his itch, Marc would utter obscene and offensive words to others, chatter his teeth with small “barks,” and make the riskiest moves possible, all the while apologizing to strangers for such rude behavior. He told them that he had Tourette’s syndrome and that yelling swear words to ease this itch was his body’s way of coping with the syndrome.

However, Marc did not define himself as “one having Tourette’s syndrome.” Rather, he acknowledged the fact that that was just who he is. He is Marc.

Marc continued to tell story after story about his various interactions with people who became uncomfortable being around him. In addition to having Tourette’s syndrome, Marc also had an intestinal disease that left him with only four feet of small intestine, numerous embarrassing trips to the restroom, and five to eight strong bowel movements per day. He was embarrassed by these two weaknesses while growing more aware of the intolerance not only from the people around him but from himself and how he thought of himself.

We know as much as everyone around us the sufferings we face, because we all share in this result of sin in many different ways. We try to put a box around the “tics” inside, yet they still push through. We also ignore those “tics” of other people, judging them for their weaknesses instead of showing human kindness that heals. Not only do we neglect to love others, but we also neglect to love our God who created and redeemed us and who shares in our suffering.

While thinking about this message of the inner struggles of our lives, I couldn’t help but connect it to the idea of Law and Gospel. The Old Adam in us is bound by sin, stricken by the condemnation of eternal death, and beaten by the curse begun in the Garden of Eden. The original sin inherited by birth leads us into committing actions we can never dismiss. The Law is always broken. Sin is always present. It is a part of us; it is a weakness that we struggle with every single day.

Yet God in his love sent His Son to be our Savior, to take upon human flesh in order that this Law would be fulfilled in the person of Christ. His one and only Son died on the cross and rose again for our justification. He made us his own by graciously receiving us into his kingdom that we might live forever. This incarnate Lamb of God comes to us in His Word, proclaiming forgiveness for the sins we commit, for all those sins of neglect toward others in their sufferings and for all those times we neglect to realize who we are because of Christ.

We might not know everything about each other’s lives, but we do know that we are sinners in need of Christ’s forgiveness. The sin that “tics” inside of us can only be suppressed by the proclamation of justification by grace through faith in Christ alone. In Christ, we may stand out and look foolish to the world, but with the Gospel we have the privilege to live as a beacon of light to the world that shines on others with the grace of God’s love shown on the cross by Christ’s human suffering. This ultimate suffering saves us who are weak so that we may live eternally in heaven when all of our “tics” will be no more. What a joy for us Christians to possess now as we live in this promise of eternal life!

Bethany Woelmer is a member at Faith Lutheran Church in Plano, TX.

Timothy Sheridan

Wherever you live, you’ve seen them, lying on park benches, standing on the roadside, sitting on street corners, easily identified by disheveled hair, baggy clothes, and bad teeth: the homeless. Maybe you’ve also been one of those people who walk in the opposite direction, lock your car door or roll up your window, at the mere sight of someone holding a sign reading, “God bless,” as if the words written in Sharpie on the bent piece of cardboard were an imprecation rather than a benediction. I’ve seen someone reach for a concealed weapon at the mere approach of a homeless man.

“You always have the poor with you,” Jesus said (Matt. 26:11). Some Christians seem to have taken the Lord’s words as a challenge to prove Him wrong through various relief efforts; others have resigned them to their fate. For as much ardor as the Church seems to have for involvement in worldly politics, many of her number would just as soon leave the poor and the downtrodden to themselves, invoking other gods like self-determination, self-preservation, or the invisible hand of the market. But none of these have anything to do with the God who is the Father of the fatherless and the protector of widows (Psalm 68:5), whose Son became poor for our sakes (II Cor. 8:9).

That’s the God we confess, before whom we piously call ourselves poor miserable sinners, but what is it that we’re really confessing when we scramble for the locks on our car doors, our guns, our excuses for saving our own skins and our own goods at the expense of those who have nothing? We’re admitting that we know full well that what we have could just as easily and effortlessly be snatched from us as was the wealth of those now bereft of everything. We betray just how weak, helpless, scared, and impoverished we truly are. We’re afraid that God, who has promised to provide for all our needs, is actually a tyrant who cruelly and capriciously takes our rightful possessions from us. Perhaps we also fear the poor because in them we see our own poverty.

If that’s really the case, then we’re poor miserable sinners indeed. But because that is the reality of our plight, we are in good company. The Son of Man, who had nowhere to lay His head (Luke 9:58), became poor and miserable for us. In laying aside everything, including His very life, He became even less than the most destitute vagrant – He became nothing (Phil. 2:7).

By becoming the victim of every injustice and misfortune, by allowing Himself to be murdered by the affluent, falling among thieves and robbers, and making His grave with the wicked, Jesus became the neighbor we are to love according to the Great Commandment. In the suffering and bruised countenance of God in the flesh, executed like the greatest of criminals, we realize that where Jesus ends and the neediest of our neighbors begins is intentionally ambiguous: “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matt. 25:40).

The distinction between our Lord who has redeemed us and our neighbor whom we are bound to serve is blurred by the blood of Jesus. Encountering the poor is not an aberration in our otherwise comfortable middle-class lives, but is an encounter with Jesus Himself and with people who are not panhandlers, bums, or addicts — they’re our neighbors.

So when you come face-to-face with the poor, it won’t matter what you think of welfare, humanitarian aid, or vagrancy laws. You are free from your anxiety about the stuff to which you try to cling and your own poverty. None of God’s children will be left as orphans. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32). Our heavenly Father can’t be out-given. As lord of all in Christ the conqueror, you are free to be the servant of all. Having lost our old lives of sin and death with Christ and having been raised with Him, we have nothing to lose.

Timothy Sheridan is a member of Our Savior Lutheran in Raleigh, NC.

Rev. Donavon Riley

The story of Chicken Little is about a chicken who believes the world will soon come to an end. One day, when an acorn falls on his head, he mistakes it for the sky. In his panic he runs to tell the King that the sky is about to fall on all of them. Whenever he meets someone on his journey to warn the King he exclaims to them, “The sky is falling!” This phrase is often used as a common way to say someone is under the mistaken belief that disaster is imminent.

We all do it from time to time. Something happens to panic us. We think it’s so bad it means the end of us, or our friendship, or our family, or church, or faith. A friend moves away so we say, “I will never have a friend like you again.” Our parents get a divorce so we say, “It’s the end of our family.” The pastor is asked to resign because it was discovered he was having an affair so we say, “Our church will never recover.” Someone we love dies from a terrible disease, even though we prayed God would heal her so we say, “God didn’t listen to us. We will never believe in him again.” Whenever something happens to us that we think is terrible, something that means the end of us, our work or hopes, we become like Chicken Little. “The sky is falling!”

Then we wake up. We get out of bed. We get dressed, eat breakfast, get ready to go to school or work, and despite what we said the day before the sky did not fall on us while we slept. But why do we do this? Why do we over-react when we know the sky isn’t falling? It’s not the end of the world. Jesus isn’t coming on clouds with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. The dead aren’t up out of their graves. The new Jerusalem hasn’t descended from heaven. Why do we run around, get all worked up, and say, “The sky is falling,” over and over again when we know it’s not? Because it comes natural. It’s the default position of the old Adam. He’s always got a “but” in his pocket, just in case he sees that the sky may fall on him.

“Yes, I believe God is Almighty, Maker of the heavens and the earth. But…” “Sure, Jesus is the Lord of the Church, and it cannot go on without His body and blood. But…” “Of course the Holy Spirit must create faith in us or we can’t believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him. But…” The old Adam loves “buts” and he loves to put the brakes on God. He does it in church on Sunday. He does it at home at the dinner table. He does it in every relationship. Wherever the old Adam goes he loves to put the brakes on God’s Word and works. That means we do too. Whatever the old Adam is, we are too. To quote an old cartoon, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

Take for example the recent Supreme Court decision about gay marriage, which is now just “marriage.” The reactions from conservative religious leaders, pastors, and laity have declared this to be a disastrous decision by the court. Some say, “It means the end of traditional marriage.” Others say, “Christians will be persecuted for their views on the biblical definition of marriage.” And others say, “Pastors can expect to be arrested and jailed when they refuse to marry same-sex couples.” Is any of this true? Maybe, but not today or tomorrow. Not in the United States. The sky will not fall on us because of same-sex marriage. The Church will not crumble. For Lutheran pastors, orange will not be the new black.

The Supreme Court decision is one more in a series of social events that remind the Church that we are still on this side of the resurrection. Jesus said the world would hate us because of Him (Matt 10:22). Only a Church that has grown bored of Christ and the Gospel thinks the world, “this evil, sinful generation”, as St. Paul refers to it, would think anything we have to say about marriage is relevant. The old Adam will take anything God makes and use it for his own purposes. The Church, sacraments, prayer, marriage, you name it, the old Adam will pervert it. But when we think to change society, to make it over into a Christian nation, to motivate our government and those in authority to show deference to Christians, we become like Solomon who tried to remake paradise. In his eagerness to demonstrate his wisdom he became a fool and assumed anything he did was blessed by God. In the same way, when we begin with human wisdom, when we try to mix political philosophy with Christian theology the result is always the same – we become fools. We confuse heavenly and earthly things. We confuse Christ and his gifts with political legislation.

Jesus came to his own. We did not receive him. We killed him. How can his body, the Church, expect to be treated any different? How can we expect the Supreme Court or career politicians to regard marriage as anything other than a legal contract or an opportunity to grab votes away from “the other guy”? And when they fail to say, “God created marriage between a man and a woman as a reflection of the relationship between Christ and his Bride, the Church,” that doesn’t mean the sky is falling. It’s not the end of the world. Our Father in heaven causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matt 5:45).

So then, if the sky is not going to fall, what will we do tomorrow? The same thing we do every day: preach Christ and him crucified. The Church is a gift given by God to the world. By God’s word, water, and blood sinners are converted, renewed, and regenerated. All sinners are called to the cross, regardless of what buts or brakes they put on God’s work. And all Christians are sent into the world to be God’s hands and mouth for the neighbor. Not some neighbors. Not just heterosexual neighbors. Not married neighbors. Not even white, upper-middle class neighbors. But everyone without distinction is our neighbor, because Christ died for them all. We are sent out into the world to do good to all so that through us God’s Spirit might win some for the kingdom.

In the work God gives us God works in and through us, as he works in the neighbor, for our good. But we’re sinners too, so things can get messy, even for Christians. We don’t want to suffer for what we believe. We’d rather not be told our beliefs are old fashioned, or bigoted, or hateful. We don’t want people to ignore us. We want special treatment. We want everyone to believe just what we believe. We want people to love us and do things for us that make us feel special. And when they don’t it’s easy to imagine things couldn’t get much worse. When that happens we tell everyone we meet on our way to warn the King, “The sky is falling!” But it’s not.

Christ is still the Lord of heaven and earth. God will continue to cause a man to leave his mother and father and cling to his wife. Children will be born. The Gospel and the sacraments will be delivered, because God is almighty and we are not. And when the day comes when pastors are put in jail for what they believe and confess about Christ, or marriage, or whatever the cause rejoice, they have been “counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Christ” (Acts 5:21).

Rev. Donavon Riley is pastor at St. John’s Evangelical Church in Webster, MN.

Deaconess Ellie Corrow

“In the beginning He created them. Male and female He created them.”

Women are fearfully and wonderfully made. As women. Femaleness is not secondary to women’s existence as humans, rather it is written into every cell of their bodies. To be created as a woman isn’t a prison, something to be escaped or endured. A woman’s jailor is not gender, but sin, death, and the devil, from which you’re liberated by Christ in the water and word of Holy Baptism. As baptized daughters of God, you are given occasion to rejoice, and the freedom to serve your neighbors in grace and mercy, in whatever vocations God provides.

Femininity is not an obstacle Christ must overcome as He sanctifies you, it is not a sin to be a woman, and female saints are no less valued by Christ than males. Indeed, even when women are called the “weaker vessel,” this isn’t meant to indicate a deficit, instead the phrase expresses that you are the fine china of creation. It illustrates the care with which you’re to be treated, because you are treasured by our Lord, who counted many women as His friends.

To be a woman is to be more than the sum of your parts; your femininity finds its expression as you use the many talents and abilities God has granted you, in service to your neighbors. A bright mind, a talent for music, or art, or law are not temptations laid out for you by a trickster God, waiting for you to fall for the distractions of the world. No, these are just other avenues, other opportunities, other tools to use in your vocations. As such, you are free in Christ to use them as you see fit-they may make for more fruitful homeschooling, heal the injured patient, teach the struggling student, or find justice for the oppressed.

We do violence to God’s Word when we read it with our eyes trained on the turmoil of this present age, attempting to glean some promised cure-all for society’s ills beyond the forgiveness and mercy of Christ. Instead, we should let Scripture be Scripture, and in doing so we will see there is not a passage anywhere which suggests women have only one way in which they may care for and support their neighbors, only one way in which they may be women. On the contrary, Scripture illustrates a variety of women who utilized the various gifts and resources in service to neighbor and the Church. To recognize this is not to say that men and women are interchangeable, it merely honors the Church’s witness.

When we allow God to define Godly Womanhood, we see something that is far from monolithic; instead we see that it looks like Deborah, Jael, Esther, Phoebe, Anna, Lydia, Mary, and Martha. Godly women do not to look for the holiest vocation in which they may serve, rather they receive the repentance and forgiveness of God, placed on them in baptism, poured into their mouths and ears in the Divine Service, and freely serve those whom God has given them, with the tools He grants out of His divine goodness and mercy.

Dcs Ellie Corrow serves as the Missionary Care Coordinator for the Office of International Mission. She can be reached at Ellie.Corrow@lcms.org.

Kaitlin Jandereski

The doctor put his trembling hand on her frail, freckled arm and stammered, “You or the baby will survive. Not both. I’m so sorry.”

The mother, who had put thought into her next few words, knowing that this might’ve been the outcome, met her doctor’s green eyes and sharply replied, “Let my child survive. I’ll die.”

Concerned that his patient was not thinking rationally, the doctor informed her that she was young, that she had the option to live and that she would have the opportunity to conceive another child in her future.

“I know,” the mother replied. “Without my dying, though, this child’s life,” she massaged her stomach, “will have no value.”

When the child was born, he was placed into an adoption center. He grew, but not without problems. He went to second-grade and got picked on for being overweight. He was laughed at in junior high for asking out the Homecoming Queen. He earned Fs in math class. He dropped out of high school by eleventh grade.

Nobody thought much of this boy. And he didn’t think much of himself. He was sure that his mother should be living, that she would have been a better person than him. Some days, most days, all days, the only push to keep him going, though, was knowing that his mother laid down her life for him.

He was given life not because he was supposed to be handsome or smart or well off, but because he was her child. And if nothing else, that gave him worth.

We’re not this boy, but we’re, sort of, in his situation.

Through conception, we are born with a fatal illness that will eventually kill us – sin. Engrossed in a sinful womb, we have no escape. We’re doomed for death.

Except Jesus happens.

He takes us, filthy with our insecurities, with our poor math grades, with our rejections that pile up next to our name and He shoves us down into His cleansing baptismal waters and brings us up again clean with holiness, spotless with beauty, with intelligence, flawless at worst.

Like the boy in the story, our life gets hard and we forget how much we are loved. We know we were loved to the point of death, even death on the cross, but we still feel hated, rejected and hurt by this world.

So, Jesus happens again.

He picks us up and carries us to His table of food and drink. Weak and weary is our souls, so He lifts the bread to our lips and informs us, “This is My body, given for you.” Unworthy were we in sin, but Jesus reminds us, “This is My blood, given for you” and the chalice is poured.

As if that’s not enough, our own Savior speaks to us through His Word, “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6).” No one comes to the Father except through Me. Like the boy and his mother, not our intelligence, not our beauty, not our amount of friends can give us life, but we were merely given life through somebody else. We didn’t earn our way to heaven. We were simply given heaven through Christ.

We’re not this boy, but we’re, sort of, in his situation. We were given life by grace alone.

The key to accepting eternal life is receiving it through faith alone. It’s receiving a Savior who ardently hunted for us, even to the point of His own crucifixion, that He might claim us as His brothers and sisters. He indeed has that divine love, that saving eagerness to have us wholly as His own. And so He does. We do not ask. We just receive Christ. Through love. It is a love that is more satisfying that the story of the mother lying down her life for her son because it is a love that not only gives us life here on earth, but also life in paradise with Christ. Christ’s life saves us from ourselves, saves us from every hurt and saves us for a life in which Christ lives through us, delivering us up out of the likes of this world to an eternal paradise to be with the Savior of the whole universe.

Kaitlin Jandereski is a student at Central Michigan University. She currently lives in a small town called Bad Axe, Michigan and can be reached at jande1kb@cmich.edu.

Kaitlin Jandereski

After the last word of the last stanza from the last hymn of yet another Higher Things conference is all said and done, all of the youth attendees pack up their belongings, load their vans and head home. They get up the next morning, eat their Chex cereal, listen to some country radio, and perhaps never give a thought about the College Conference Volunteers (CCVs) who helped put the entire conference together again.

Wait, what?

Okay, I get it. We CCVs-we’re not always the coolest bunch of kids on the block. We cut in front of you in lines, we sometimes give you the wrong directions, and we wear the same shirt all conference long.

But I think if you decide to take the CCV plunge for yourself, you’ll discover that it’s an amazing experience!

Here’s why:

• CCVs get to meet people from all different states with all different accents. (And Canadians, too, eh!)
• Most people play Uno. CCVs play Killer Uno.
• Pastor Buetow takes the entire staff, which includes the CCVs, for morning Starbucks runs. (If you’re from a small town like me and have never tried Starbucks before, my recommendation for you: The peach cobbler frappuccino. One word: Ahhhhh-maz-ing.)
• Cutting in front of people in the meal lines is indeed a perk. Well, a perk for the CCVs. But we get to do it because we need to make sure we are available for whatever is coming next in the conference.
• CCVs get to steam the banners that are used for chapel. C’mon! You know you’ve always wanted to say that you did that!
• CCVs supervise free-time activities, like dodge ball, karaoke, Minute-to-Win-It, and the annual Higher Things talent show.
• Even the Conference Executive, Sandra Ostapowich, wants to hang out with the CCVs! Hellooooooo late night trips to Steak ‘N’ Shake!
• CCVs meet people who are experiencing Higher Things for the first time ever and people who are experiencing Higher Things for the fourteenth time. Yet each person they meet is freshly amazed at the pure theology delivered during the services, the classes, and the plenary sessions.
• CCVs get to pack every.single.bag. For every.single.group. That’s a lot of bags.
• Exhibitors are friendly and they’ll talk to CCVs when nobody else will. Actually, exhibitors will talk to anyone when no one else will. But, you get the point.
• During announcements, Pastor Borghardt will make the CCVs jump on stage. In case you were wondering, it’s a good way to get over stage fright.
• CCVs get to meet the Higher Things’ vicar and laugh when everybody calls him “Victor” because that’s not his real name, but everybody thinks it is.
• CCVs might be busy all day long, but they still get to take a break, attend the church services and be fed the solid preaching of the Word from the pulpit.
• CCVs try to be asleep by 12am (because they were working all day and they’re tired and normal people are in bed already), but they get to stay up all night talking with their other CCV friends instead.
• CCVs get to sit with the pastors at lunch and talk theology.
• CCVs get to lead Sandra Ostapowich and Pastor Borghardt to the first plenary session of the week. And then they get them lost and leave them wondering why the heck they even brought you on board as a CCV. (Or maybe that only happened to me. Yeah, probably just me. Uffda! Sorry, guys.)
• CCVs get to meet hundreds of people with the same beliefs that they have. And then CCVs also give those hundreds of people directions to the buildings that they’re trying to find (and try not to get them lost)!
• CCVs get to sell merchandise, which may or may not lead them to fall into a desire to covet ALL of the items for sale.
• We CCVs love to laugh and we even love to laugh so hard that we really do cry. #Winning
• Water. CCVs get to carry lots of water bottles and hand them off to the breakaway teachers.
• If you ever wanted to dress up like a minion and run around on stage during Friday Announcements like a-well -like a minion, this is your chance! But only if you’re a CCV. PLUS, Pastor Buetow is the CCV’s very own Dr. Gru and speaks in a Russian accent to accentuate your minion experience.
• Just like at their home congregations, CCVs have a second family within the Higher Things’ staff. The camaraderie is unparalleled!
• Like you, CCVs leave each conference, happily drenched with the Gospel, knowing Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Kaitlin Jandereski was a CCV for Gainesville, FL’s 2014 Higher Things’ conference and is a future deaconess. She currently lives in a small town called Bad Axe, Michigan and can be reached at jande1kb@cmich.edu.

Daniel Fickenscher

Consider these two scenarios. First, a pastor walking down the street comes across a five-year-old homeless boy who looks hungry and threadbare. The pastor tells him, “You’re a sinner, but your sins are forgiven! You have been given the gift of eternal life through Christ’s death on the cross.” The pastor then goes on his way.

Second, a 4’11”, redheaded girl from a small town Michigan is trekking through a wave of dark Peruvians in a dusty slum of Lima. It’s the sort of neighborhood where locals warn passersby like her, in a language that she is just barely grasping, to be careful.

Does one of these seem more familiar or recognizable to Lutherans?

While the first scenario sounds pretty “Lutheran” is there anything missing? When there’s a clear proclamation of Law and Gospel, what more could you ask for?

Well, Caitlin Worden, the 4’11” Michigander, could tell you what would make it better. Worden is serving The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod in an internship in Lima as part of her deaconess studies at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne. Her role is to provide exactly what is missing from the first scenario: mercy. She servers as the director of Castillo Fuerte, the mission’s mercy house.

Castillo Fuerte serves at risk youth in the La Victoria district of Lima. Several of the community’s children return home from school to an empty house as their parents work long hours in a nearby market. With no supervision, they’re left to wander the crime-ridden streets.

Before Worden’s arrival, the mission team recognized La Victoria’s apparent need, so they went to the government to inquire about using a park to host activities. It turned out that the government had paid so little attention to the neighborhood that it didn’t even know the park existed. Since then, a building just a block from the park has been acquired where Worden and the Peruvian staff look after and tutor the kids on weekdays. On Saturdays they host escuelita, a Sunday-School-like program.

While this sounds like a great idea for serving these youth in need, why aren’t the resources that are being used for Castillo Fuerte being put towards a new congregation, a new Word-and-Sacrament ministry, in Peru? Why mess around with an after-school program?

As it turns out, Worden and the staff often have the opportunity to teach Christ to the children through the inclusion of prayers and Bible stories in the program even as they care for the earthly needs of the children and their families. Their mercy work is a reflection of Christans who have been “loved much” loving much.” (Luke 7:40ff).

Rev. Matthew Harrison writes in Theology for Mercy, “Lives that have received mercy (grace!) cannot but be merciful toward the neighbor (love!). Thus the merciful washing of baptism (Rom. 6:1ff) produces merciful living (Rom. 7:4-6). In absolution, the merciful word of the gospel begets merciful speaking and living (Matt. 18:21ff).”

As wonderful as it is that Worden and the staff are serving their neighbors’ earthly needs, she is careful to point out, “If you only are doing mercy work, and you’re not sharing with them the hope that salvation brings, and the hope, the light of the Gospel, then all you’re giving them is a social ministry. It’s only for the here and now, for this life.”

Thanks be to God, the mission team is doing much more than just a social ministry. Rev. Mark Eisold is currently preaching and administering the Sacraments in two congregations, and the upcoming arrival of two new pastors will allow for the start of a Word-and-Sacrament ministry one floor below Castillo Fuerte! Join the team in giving thanks for the soon pairing of works of mercy with Christ’s Word and Sacraments in La Victoria.

While we are grateful for their willingness to serve the Lord far from home, it certainly doesn’t take a passport to act with mercy. Ask your pastor how you can help meet the heavenly and earthly needs of those around you. The same death and resurrection that gives us eternal life also gives us new hearts that desire to serve those in need and to show mercy, whether to those in need on the other side of the world or to the kid across the street.

Daniel Fickenscher is enjoying serving as a Globally Engaged in Outreach missionary with The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. He resides in the Dominican Republic and serves as the communication specialist for the Latin America and Caribbean regions. He keeps Lutherans in the US up to date with what LCMS mission and sister churches are doing throughout Central America, South America, the Caribbean, and Spain.

You can learn more about the work being done in the Dominican Republic by watching this video on Castillo Fuerte or checking our their Facebook page.

Rev. Ryan J. Ogrodowicz

The internet has flooded us with easy access to pornography. Just a few clicks of a button lead to innumerable free and legal sites of sexual graphics in which the heart and mind can indulge. And it’s easy to hide. Outward signs marking the alcoholic or drug abuser are absent in the porn addict, making the sin harder to detect. Pornography, then, is an addictive sin met with little resistance.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking pornography isn’t an addiction, or that it doesn’t cause physical damage. Studies show that extensive exposure to pornography arouses the brain in ways resembling an addict’s response to cocaine and heroin combined. This, in turn, creates a greater tolerance that drives the user to look for more graphic images to produce the same sensation. There is a difference, however, between drug and porn addiction in that drug users increase quantity to get the desired effect. Porn addicts, however, need novelty, something new and different that can lead to looking at unspeakable and even illegal images.1

Needless to say, all of this does great damage to singles and married people alike. For spouses, no one wants to be married to someone who constantly lusts after another person. They feel betrayed and violated. Single people fare no better. All the mental changes to neurological pathways result in stimulation over images instead of flesh and blood people. This means addicts have a harder time relating to real people and building meaningful relationships. After all, the brain has been trained to become aroused at pictures, not people.

Still think pornography is harmless?
Christ addresses this when He says “everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Highlighting the danger, He adds “if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away… it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body to go into hell” (Matthew 5: 27-30). Sexual temptation is so powerful that God says it can drag someone right out of the kingdom and into hell—an outcome worse than self-mutilation.

So what’s the solution?
Blocking software, accountability partners, a computer in a public space—these things can provide some assistance, but apart from Christ such efforts are futile. We must know our enemy. In the Lord’s Prayer we pray “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” Note how close the words “temptation” and “evil” are to one another. With every temptation there is real evil at work and we are powerless to stop it. No amount of human will-power and strength can defend against the onslaught of the devil, world and our own sinful nature. Temptation must be met with a power outside of us, the gospel that is the “power of God for salvation” (Romans 1: 16). The power of God’s forgiveness is the remedy for every sick sinner caught up in a transgression. Therefore, if confessing sin and receiving forgiveness is the answer, then hiding sin is a surefire way to exacerbate the problem. The devil loves darkness, but hates the light. The sinful flesh hates the light and flees to the cover of darkness where sin can fester and rot. Keeping sins private may seem like a way of avoiding shame and embarrassment, but it’s just what the devil wants—for you to keep yours sins hidden from yourself, even from God.

The Psalmist speaks about containing sin. “When I kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long…I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity; I said ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin’” (Psalm 32 4-5). From decaying and groaning to receiving God’s mercy and healing, the Psalmist confesses and receives the grace and absolution God promises.

But the news gets better. Not only does God promise you absolution in Christ, He tells you where you can hear it, and this is vital. Your pastor, a called minister of Christ, is charged to forgive you, the repentant sinner. Your pastor is God’s man working under His authority and divine command to absolve those crushed, burdened, and looking for grace. This means you know exactly where to go when temptation hits. No guesswork and confusion; just go to the pastor and hear what Christ charges him to say: that you are forgiven for the sake of Jesus and that you can depart in peace. There is tremendous comfort in hearing your sins cannot kill you because you are justified and cleansed in Christ, and we mustn’t tire of hearing this message. Take advantage of confession and absolution, in which we are free to bring our sins into His light and receive His peace. Hear the gospel that is the true balm for the wounded conscience—the consolation of knowing the very sins we struggle with have been taken care of by Jesus.

Temptations are sure to come; evil never takes a break. Sexual addiction is powerful, but during the strife you know where you can go and what you will receive. Come into the light. Confess boldly again and again. Receive the gospel of Jesus, who has overcome your sin, temptation and even death. Pornography is easy access to sin. Absolution is easy and free access to forgiveness and everlasting life!

1 See “The New Narcotic” at http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/10/10846/, accessed 2/13/14.

Rev. Ryan J. Ogrodowicz is the pastor of Victory in Christ Lutheran Church located in Newark, Texas. He can be reached at pastor@viccla.org

Rev. George F. Borghardt

When Adam saw Eve, it was on like Donkey Kong! She was the cream in his jelly donut, the icing on his cake, the Yin to his…well, you get the point. She was made from his side. He was “not good” without her.

They were the happy ending to Romeo and Juliet. They were Edward and Bella without the fangs and blood. They were more royal than William and Kate and more perfect than Westley and Buttercup.

And, like any good love story, when Adam saw Eve, the world froze for him. What else was he to do other than to break into song? “Finally! This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh! She shall be called ‘woman’ for she was taken from a man.” A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:23-24) Did she giggle like a school girl? How could she not? She completed him. She wouldn’t “be” without him.

She loved him. He loved her. They were holy. They were pure. They were chaste. They were decent. It was friendship and like and love all in that one instant. They happily-ever-after-ed and were married. Then, came the honeymoon and all the “two-becoming-one-flesh-ness.”

Then, there was the Fall. Adam tried to possess Eve. They used one another. They turned their God-given desire for each other into something that would become its own god. They ate what was not given to them to eat. They disobeyed the God who created them and brought them together. Sin came into the world, and with sin came death. They fell and we all fell with them.

Lust is one of the fruits of their fall. It is the twisted, fallen desire to do something with someone who isn’t your Adam or your Eve. It is the thought behind the action, the urge before the doing. It starts innocently enough, with just a second look—an itch that quietly asks to be scratched. What if? Wouldn’t that be nice? A kiss…maybe more. Just a little thing. What’s the harm in letting your mind wander a bit? And before you know it, the daydream goes from PG, to R, to NC-17.

Hearts race, minds contemplate how to make the dreams come true, we get excited, maybe even communicate what we want to the other person. There are no accidents here as we run, scheme, and plan to make what we want a reality. Lust always ends in full blown sin. Always. You can’t have hot coals in your lap, says Solomon, and not get burned (Proverbs 6:27).

That’s lust, not love. Love comes from the God who created Adam and Eve. It is patient and doesn’t go too far. It doesn’t treat others as if they are possessions or just things to be wanted, owned, or consumed. Love is seen in the suffering and death of Jesus.

That’s how Christ loves His bride. She is born out of the water and blood flowing from His pierced side. She’s doesn’t exist to scratch His itches or just to give Him pleasure. No, He serves her. He cares for her. He loves her! He really does. He loves her not only with words but also by giving up His life for her.

She receives from Him, lives from Him, breathes from Him. He gives to her, who she is. His Words wash her. His Words feed her.  His Words change her world. She is who she is because He speaks her, creates her into being.

He is chaste. He refrains from immorality. He is decent. He makes His Bride chaste. He makes her decent. He is holy. She is holy in Him.

For you were bought with the price of the holy life and bitter sufferings of Christ. He has redeemed you, bought you back, from all your sins, from all your lusts, from all your itches, to be his own. You are His. He is yours.

You are chaste in Him. You are decent. You are pure. You are not lust-filled. You wait until marriage to do all the things that aren’t given you until marriage in Christ. You are holy in Him.

One day, He may give you your Adam or Eve. It could be Katniss or Peeta or Gale. He will give you the particular gift that is just right, very good, and just for you. You can wait to do what isn’t given to you to do until then. And if you have failed already, He has given you forgiveness and a new start. You are right now, for Christ’s Cross has made you chaste and decent already in Him.

Rev. George F. Borghardt is the president of Higher Things and serves as the senior pastor at Zion Ev. Lutheran Church in McHenry, Illinois.