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Current Events

Three Wrong Ways to Look the Reformation (and One Right Way)

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Catechesis

The Purpose of Hymns during the Reformation: Part 1

By Monica Berndt

The Reformation, sparked when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the cathedral door in Wittenburg, spread across most of northern and eastern Europe with such determination and speed that it shocked the Catholic Church. One of the questions that is often asked about this reformation is how Luther’s ideas managed to spread throughout Germany and resonate with enough people that they abandoned the relative safety of Catholicism for Lutheranism. An important part of this spread lies in the rich vernacular hymn tradition of the Lutheran Church; a tradition that Luther himself started by composing many new German language hymns for congregations to sing. These hymns were instrumental in spreading and teaching Lutheran ideas to laymen who had never even heard a church service in their own language before. Hymns functioned as a kind of propaganda for the Lutheran church by spreading Luther’s basic teachings in German through songs that everyday people could sing whenever they wanted.

Luther wanted to keep the basic structure of the Catholic Mass, yet make it more accessible to the German people. Officially, all Catholic Masses were done in Latin, a tradition begun in the early days of the Holy Roman Empire and lasted through the 20th century. While we cannot know exactly how each particular parish celebrated the Mass, we do know that there were many prohibitions passed by the Catholic church forbidding the use of German hymns and replacing the Latin Masses with German from before Luther’s time.1 Luther’s primary concern was that services and hymns should be in the language of the people participating so that they could know exactly what they were being taught.2 His hymns gave the common people the power to understand their own beliefs and an access to theology that they had been previously denied. The music of the Reformation became “an instrument to improve literacy, unlock scripture, and to promote evangelical learning,” which allowed the everyday man to understand the basic doctrines taught in the church.3 Hymns had a clear purpose grounded both in Luther’s beliefs about the position of music and in the idea that people other than the clergy could participate in services.

Sources:

1 Herl, Joseph. Worship Wars in Early Lutheranism: Choir, Congregation, and Three Centuries of Conflict. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
2 Schalk, Carl. Music in Early Lutheranism. Saint Louis: Concordia Academic Press, 2001.
3 Loewe, J. Andreas. “Why Do Lutherans Sing? Lutherans, Music, and the Gospel in the First Century of the Reformation.” Church History, vol 82, no. 1. (2013): 69–89. Accessed April 16, 2017.

Monica Berndt is the music director at Messiah Lutheran Church in Seattle, WA and studies music and history at the University of Washington. This is the first part of a paper written for her Medieval Music History course last spring. She can be reached at acinomtdnreb@gmail.com.

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Lectionary Meditations

It’s Going to Be Alright – A Meditation on John 4:45-54

“Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe/Go; your son will live.”

Jesus seems a bit put out or maybe a bit miffed at first in this lesson. I mean, the dad asks for something quite reasonable – the healing of a sick child isn’t something bizarre to ask for, after all. Yet Jesus gives this stark response: “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” That’s a rather harsh and blunt statement. Dismissive. But then, Jesus looks at the man and says, “Go; your son will live.” And there is of course, much rejoicing.

Don’t let the “miracle” distract you. John calls this a sign for a reason – a sign points to who Jesus is. And the fact is this. The reason Jesus came wasn’t just to heal that boy back on that day or to answer any specific prayer we might have about the health of our loved ones today. He came to die and rise, to win forgiveness and salvation and eternal life – not just a few better years in this world here.

Doesn’t mean that we don’t pray for health for our family and friends, for ourselves. My Grandmother was sick last month, and I prayed for her. And she died. And she was baptized. Go, your grandma will live, because Christ Jesus has died and risen for her. That’s the point, that’s what we are to believe – the miracles and signs are all just spelling out who Jesus is so that we see His death and resurrection for what it is – the victory over sin and death for all eternity for us.

And this is the promise Christ Jesus has made to you in your baptism. Go, you will live. You will rise with Christ. It doesn’t matter what this world throws at you, the hardships and struggles you see. They will be real and big, but Christ Jesus, the LORD of Life, is with you and for you, and you will live eternally. Nothing you face can change that fact.

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Catechesis

In the NAME…

“I baptize you in the NAME of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

So begins our life in Christ. It is fitting, then, that the Divine Service also begins in that same NAME, since the Divine Service is the center of our Life in Christ.

We bear the NAME of God. To ask Luther’s famous question, “What does this mean?” Is it simply an identifier? If a car says, “Ford” on it, it is identified as a car made by the company founded by Henry Ford. But that is about all the connection that car has with the late Mr. Ford.

Is it simply to identify who you belong to? Well, it definitely does that! You belong to the Blessed Trinity! And that is a great comfort. “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.” (Isaiah 43:1 NKJV) And when God says that He calls you by your NAME, He isn’t only talking about “Robert” or “Kelly”. He is talking about that NAME placed on you, given to you in Holy Baptism. This promise of God to call you by name is for, “Everyone who is called by My name.” {Isaiah 43:7 NKJV)

But bearing God’s NAME gives you even more identity than that! You aren’t merely associated with God. You don’t just belong to God. Where God’s NAME is, there God is! And when God comes to those who are His, He comes with blessings in His hand. “In every place where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you.” {Exodus 20:24 NKJV)

Among the precious blessings that He pours out on us from His overwhelming love is that we may “…ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.” And not only ask Him, but also be assured that He will hear and answer us. In fact, He promises, “And whatever you ask in My NAME, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My NAME, I will do it.” (John 14:13-14 NKJV)

This blessing is not simply a “So what God will do for me?” kind-of-thing. It all flows from the awesome gift of communion with Him. This is what we were created for. It is what we were re-created for. It is, in the end, the goal, the very purpose of our existence and answers the question, “Why am I here?” You are here to live in loving communion with the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

In the Fall, Adam and Eve chose to follow their own desires, to live independently of God. They chose individuality over communion. Does this mean that we lose our distinctiveness in Christ? Are we all just the same? “Dear Father, this is 1 of 6.”? Hardly! The One who created us is not that way! Our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Son, is unique and distinct from the Father and the Holy Spirit. But He does not live for Himself, or by Himself, but rather in loving communion with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and, by His self-giving love on the Holy Cross, in loving communion with us!

It is the same with us. We are still distinct persons. God does know us each by name. And He draws each of us out of our self-centered individuality, into a life lived in communion, loving and being loved.

And so we don’t speak of our life with Christ so much as our life in Christ. Christ living in us, and, He says, where He is, there the Father will also come and the will make their home in us. We are made temples of the Holy Spirit.

Rejoice! You are never alone, but have been brought into a life of communion, a life lived in the NAME of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. “So they shall put My Name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.” (Numbers 6:27 NKJV)

by Pastor Allen Braun

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Lectionary Meditations

But That Person is Truly Worthy… – a Meditation on Matthew 22:1-14

“The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy.” – Matthew 22:8

The King just wanted them to have a good time. That was why He had invited them to the wedding feast. It was going to be a fantastic shindig, a wonderful feast. But when invited, they would not come. When invited again, they become rude, dismissive, or even violent and murderous. It is so bad that the King ends up sending troops to wipe out the rebellious district (Kings didn’t mess around with rebellion).

The summation, the description of these lout is interesting. They were not “worthy”. This seems odd to us because they didn’t do anything to prove their worth – it wasn’t that you got an invite after you went on a quest or donated so much to the King’s fundraiser. After all, the servants turn around and invite people off the street, both good and bad. What is up with that description?

The Small Catechism actually gives the answer. “Fasting and bodily preparation are certainly fine outward training. But that person is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: ‘Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.’” The simple fact is that the folks in the parable had no faith in their king to throw a decent feast. Later on, the fellow who refused to put on the wedding garment didn’t trust the King either.

Christ Jesus your Lord wants to give you precisely what you need with His preaching and with His Supper. He wants to give you forgiveness, life, and salvation. And we get told that this isn’t worth all that much – it isn’t what the world wants or often what our flesh wants. But it is vital, it is wonderful, and He sends forth the call week in and week out to come to His feast in His Church. And to be prepared for it isn’t a matter of how wonderful you are – rather, it is there because of how good He is to you. You can certainly trust Him on that.

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Catechesis

O Love How Deep

When it comes to sacred music there are two options. The first we can sing about how Jesus is worthy of OUR worship. The law in how WE lift his name and sing his praises. Then there is the second option, the better option: The option where the Gospel is present.

What is the Gospel specifically? The number of people who don’t know is both surprising and sad. Specifically, the Gospel is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ FOR MY SINS, FOR YOUR SINS, FOR OUR SINS, FOR THE SINS OF THE WORLD!

The Higher Things Conference hymn definitely shows us the Gospel.

O Love, How Deep – LSB 544

“O love, how deep, how broad, how high,
Beyond all thought and fantasy,
That God, the Son of God, should take,
Our mortal form for mortals’ sake!”

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son…” The ‘so’ in this verse does not say that God loved the world so much, but it shows how God loved the World. “God loved the World in this way, He gave His one and only Son”

God’s love in this act is greater then we can even dream about! This stanza also shows us that it was no mere man who came for us. This was God the Son of God, 100% God who took on our mortal form, 100% man, FOR US!

“He sent no angel to our race,
Of higher or of lower place,
But wore the robe of human frame,
And to this world Himself He came.”

What? He thought that we were important enough for Him to come to us Himself? Surely an angel would have been sufficient right? No, FOR US God came as a man. His glory was covered up by the robe of human flesh only for His grace and mercy to show through in His bloody body on the cross.

“For us baptized, for us He bore
His holy fast and hungered sore;
For us temptation sharp he knew;
For us the tempter overthrew.”

Christ Baptized? But why? (Pr. Kuhlman put it wonderfully: http://blog.higherthings.org/bb55841/article/2922.html) In His baptism Christ takes all the sin out of the water and places it on himself. He was Baptized FOR US, so he could die IN OUR PLACE (FOR US) He was tempted FOR US in every way yet FOR US he did not succumb to temptation!

“For us He prayed; for us He taught;
For us His daily works He wrought,
By words and signs and actions thus
Still seeking not Himself but us.”

Jesus prayed for us? Sure He did! Just look at John 17. Or even his words on the Cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” He taught for us too! Just look at the Scriptures, he didn’t teach those things just for the people there, otherwise why would they have been written down. Every week we hear Jesus teaching, through the reading of the Scriptures and through the words of the Pastor’s Sermon.

“For us by wickedness betrayed,
For us, in crown of thorns arrayed,
He bore the shameful cross and death;
For us He gave His dying breath.”

The Gospel FOR US! FOR US He let those thorns pierce His head. FOR US His bloody body was put up on the cross, for all those around to mock. They told Him to prove Himself as the Son of God to take Himself down from there. FOR US he does not give into that temptation. FOR US He stays up there, FOR US He prays, and FOR US He Dies.

“For us He rose from death again;
For us He went on high to reign;
For us He sent His Spirit here
To guide, to strengthen , and to cheer.”

Death could not hold Him! He rose again, just as he said he would, three days later! He rose FOR US. We rose with Him! He left His apostles just weeks later. Did He leave His apostles and us to fend for ourselves? Of course not, He is at the Father’s right hand on our behalf. He didn’t leave us alone. He sent His Spirit!

“All glory to our Lord and God
For love so deep, so high, so broad;
The Trinity whom we adore
Forever and forevermore.”

Through the Gospel we join with the angels singing, “Glory to God in the Highest!” Only through His love in the Gospel can we do so. We are not worthy to praise God by ourselves. We rely on the blood of Jesus to make us worthy. That name we were marked with at our Baptism makes us worthy. We were washed, cleansed in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit! With that we can sing His praises forever and forevermore!

So what is the response to the FOR YOU of the Gospel? Is it go and do this, this and this? Of course not because we can’t, but Jesus did! The only proper response to the FOR YOU of the Gospel is AMEN!

Pax Christi!

by Jonathan Kohlmeier

Categories
Catechesis

“Such Authority to Men” – A Meditation on Matthew 9:1-8

“When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.”

Forgiveness can be a terrifying thing. It’s not something that we sinful human beings deal with well. Society doesn’t like to simply forgive; we might “forgive” but not forget – which isn’t really forgiving. Or we might “forgive” after someone has done his time and made amends and worked himself back into our good graces. Which again, isn’t forgiveness.

God actually forgives. A full and simple forgiveness. Your sin is gone. No secret double probation, no “I’ll let you go this time, but if I catch you again.” There are no “ifs” with the forgiveness – if you work harder if you please me by doing X, Y, or Z. He simply forgives. All your guilt, all your punishment, all your anything that might stick to you is gone. Christ Jesus takes that away.

And that’s terrifying to us sinful folk. See, we like to use people’s sin against them, to control them. It gives us a lever over them, and our anger and disapproval or long memories can manipulate people all over the place. Other people’s sin makes us feel righteous – it lets us ignore our own sin because, after all, they are worse than us or they started it.

But Jesus isn’t interested in manipulating you or controlling you. He’s not going to wash your back only if you promise to wash His. Instead, He simply loves. He forgives. He forgives this paralytic who has done nothing for Him; He won forgiveness for you before you were even born. And even more astonishing – He authorizes you as His baptized child to forgive the people in your life. With no strings. We are free to simply love and forgive – authorized by God so to do as heirs of His righteousness.  We live in His forgiveness.

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Life Issues

Review: Soul Searching by Christian Smith

With so many books on “youth ministry” available today, it’s often difficult to decide which ones to pick up and which ones to leave on the shelf. If you are interested in youth and what is happening in the spiritual world of teens then do pick up Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers.

Parents, pastors, and youth leaders alike will gain surprising insight when reading this book. It is the culmination of a sociological study conducted across the country through surveys and one-on-one interviews with American teenagers. Two things make this book a must-read: first, the candid, word-for-word, dialog that the author’s record with teens; and second, the conclusions that can be drawn from those discussions.

The authors canvassed over 250 teenagers between the ages of 13-18 from around the country. The teens provided a snapshot of America. The good news is that most American teens seem to be interested in spirituality. According to the findings in the book, they also tend to “go along” with the religious practice of their parents. The bad news is that they tend to be highly illiterate regarding the teachings of whatever faith that they do practice. The authors refer to the term “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism,” the view that being “Christian” is equivalent to “being good,” and that “being Christian” means you have access to some sort of “great therapist in the sky.” Very few teens had the sense that the faith they practiced was any different from any other religion. Most related in their interviews a willingness to see “all religion as the same”.

Perhaps the most disturbing discovery was the reality that very few teens could articulate the central truths of their own faith traditions. When the question was asked of them: “What is the central teaching of your faith?” the authors got the impression that the teens had never had this sort of conversation with an adult before. In fact, the authors describe the teens as being “incredibly inarticulate.” One of their examples includes a quote from a “17-year-old white mainline Lutheran boy from Colorado: ‘Uh, well, I don’t know, um, well, I don’t really know. Being a Lutheran, confirmation was a big thing but I didn’t really know what it was and I still don’t. I really don’t know what being a Lutheran means.” More often than not the youth being interviewed failed to even use the language of the faith teaching that they identified as “most important” to them. In individual interviews, teens used the phrase “to feel happy” more than 2,000 times as opposed to using “Christian phrases” like, “sin,” “righteousness,” “salvation,” and “Trinity,” only 154 times.

The “Conclusion” and “Concluding Unscientific Postscript” found at the end of the book is worth the price of the book alone. While sifting through the first several chapters may seem tedious with all the statistics and frustrating (but enlightening) quotes from teens, the Conclusion pulls together the hard work of the authors. The reader is left with much to ponder. Parents are reminded that the role they play in the faith formation of their child is real and intense, for better – and for worse. The authors also remind the church that the message she conveys is vital as well. They admonish the church to “better attend to their faith particularities,” as well as observing the trend “that many youths, and no doubt adults, are getting the wrong messages that historical faith traditions do not matter, that all religious beliefs are basically alike, that no faith tradition possesses anything that anybody particularly needs.”

Confessional Lutherans need to read this book. Although it is primarily a work of “sociology” and not of “theology”, it outlines the battlefield that exists in the church today. Through the muck and the mire that is “American religious and spiritual life”, Lutherans hold up the “Light of the World,” which is the clear articulation of the Gospel: Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for fallen man. Soul Searching is a perfect reminder that all disciples are made by baptizing AND teaching.

by Karen Gabriel

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Life Issues

When God Changes My Vocation

God changes your vocation. God gives you meaningful employment. God gives you employers and other authorities at work. God gives you governmental authorities. God gives you parents. God gives you a family, spouse, children.

How different are these statements then what is typically heard! “I moved over to this new company last June.” “I finished law school three years ago and joined this firm.” “I met my wife and married her three years ago last June.” “My husband and I have two sons and a daughter.” None of those statements are totally untrue – and most are not said maliciously. Yet is it not funny how the first words out of our mouth when we speak of all of our daily vocations usually starts with the first person singular or plural subject?

I even find myself speaking the same way – “I began studying for the Office of the Holy Ministry four years ago last June.” “We moved to Fort Wayne in 2003 to begin my seminary education.” “I was ordained this past June.”

God is supposed to be the subject of these sentences. He gives us all things. I am therefore slightly off base, although perhaps without intending great and mortal sin. The better way to speak of my recent history: God blessed me by allowing me to begin studying for the Office of the Holy Ministry in June of 2003. Before that, God blessed me with a beautiful and supportive wife in 1999, and God blessed us with the gift of a healthy son in October, 2002.

Since then, God allowed me to complete study at the Seminary, graduate, and has blessed me with a call to be the Associate Pastor of Faith Lutheran Church, Plano, Texas. Even better, God consecrated and ordained me into the Office of the Holy Ministry here at Faith on June 24, 2007, the Festival of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. What a gift! What a privilege! God uses a poor, miserable sinner like me to preach and teach His Word, bring His Absolution and peace to His people, feed them with His Body and Blood, wash them with His Baptismal flood.

But you know, even before God granted all these things, He had given me some wonderful vocations. He gave me the vocation of being a dutiful son to caring and loving parents. He gave me to be a loyal brother to two siblings. He gave me the vocation of husband and father. He gave me the vocation of hard-working student in elementary, high school, and college. He gave me the vocation of being a responsible, single adult who was continually gathered around His Word and Sacraments before I was blessed with marriage. After college, He provided for my daily bread by giving me the vocation of Chemist and later a junior-level manager at the same company. In that company, God gave me many opportunities to share the Gospel news of Jesus Christ with colleagues who needed to hear it – in particular a lapsed Mormon and some nominal Moslems come to mind. Because of God blessing me with meaningful employment, He allowed me to be able to support the work of spreading the Gospel to my neighbors through the work of my home congregation and through the Church at large.

Then, God used my dear Pastor in Christ to give me a “kick in the pants.” “You know,” he said quite innocently one day, “you enjoy talking theology and liturgy with me. You enjoy teaching Sunday school. I think you ought to consider the Holy Ministry. I think you have the heart for it.” That’s what it took. A small encouragement, and prayerfully, listening to God’s Word – God changed my vocation, especially in employment terms (!), yet still blesses me with many of those other vocations as well. Notably, God has blessed my wife, son, and I with the birth and Baptism of a second son this summer.

“Do not be anxious” for today or tomorrow, Jesus says. God has promised and given all things to us in our crucified, risen, and ascended Lord Jesus Christ. It is my prayer that all of us continue to recognize and give thanks to our Heavenly Father for the blessings He gives us on account of His Son, no matter what vocations He has ordained to give us. Know God does not give a vocation that you cannot truly handle, because He promises to carry your burdens. Know God can and does keep you safe and secure for this life and the eternal life to come through His pure and no-strings-attached love for us – including His Word and Sacraments, including the employment, authorities, parents, family, pastors, and fellow Christians that He blesses us all with.

Evening and morning, sunset and dawning,
Wealth, peace, and gladness, comfort in sadness:
These are Thy works; all the glory be Thine!
Times without number, awake or in slumber,
Thine eye observes us, from danger preserves us,
Causing Thy mercy upon us to shine.
–   Paul Gerhardt, 1607-1676, Evening and Morning, LSB #726

by the Rev. Jacob Sutton

Categories
Catechesis

The Divine Service: A Parable in Leviticus

Jesus often spoke in parables. Our Lord uses everyday illustrations such as sheep (Luke 15:1–7), sons (Luke 15:11–32), and coins (Luke 15:8–10) to paint pictures of God’s kingdom. Through these parables, Jesus proclaimed the good news that God goes to great lengths to seek after the lost, forgotten, poor, and dead to resurrect them. 

This Gospel “good news” however, the proclamation of Christ crucified for us, did not originate in the New Testament gospels. In Genesis 3:15 the first Gospel promise was spoken and has been proclaimed since. Jesus is the fulfillment of this promise. He is the center of the parables, the One who goes to great lengths, even going into death, to seek after the lost.

In Leviticus, in the tabernacle, we see another parabolic illustration of the lengths Jesus goes to to seek after the lost.

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually. Outside the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law in the tent of meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps before the Lord from evening till morning, continually. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. The lamps on the pure gold lamp stand before the Lord must be tended continually” (Leviticus 24:1–4).

Housed in the tabernacle was a lamp which never ceased burning. Even in the evening, when the black veil of darkness covered the earth, a light proceeded to pierce the darkness shining in the Lord’s dwelling place.

In his commentary on the book of Leviticus, John Kleinig writes of this light, “It was the light that came from God’s presence and proclaimed that presence with his people in the menacing darkness of the night. More precisely, it was the light of his presence that shone on his people with his grace and blessing… Like the whole outer tent and its rituals, they were parabolic for the present age and lasted until the coming of the Messiah. They prefigured the work of Jesus with his establishment of the new way into the heavenly sanctuary by means of the holy things.”

The lamp served more than just a practical purpose, illuminating the surrounding space in the tabernacle. This lamp prophesied of the One who would come into our darkness. The One who would go to such great lengths to rescue us that He, Himself would enlighten our darkness.

This means too, then, that when we do not fear, love, and trust in God above all things we leave our Light, the only light who is Jesus. But, on the cross, Jesus was made sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus even went into the darkness of death to seek and save us.

This ever-burning lamp reveals Jesus, the Light of the world (John 1:5), whose saving light has burst into our sin-eclipsed souls to bring us out of the darkness and into His Light (Colossians 1:13), the Light no darkness can overcome.

All this is given to us in baptism, where the Trinity bespeaks us righteous. Therefore, as the hymnist Martin Franzmann writes, “Thy Strong Word bespeaks us righteous; bright with Thine own holiness” (LSB 578). We are made righteous through water and the Word. Through baptism we are connected to Christ, and filled with His light. The liturgy of our baptism even points to this reality, “Receive this burning light to show that you have received Christ who is the Light of the world” (LSB 271).

Thus, in the Divine Service, the Lord dwells with us in Word and Sacrament. Like the candle which never ceased providing light, so our God never ceases from His work for us. Likewise, in the Small Catechism, Martin Luther writes,”The Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified, and kept me in the true faith.” As the priests continually tended to the lamps, so our Lord continually tends to us in the Divine Service to dispel the shadows of doubt and unbelief, and to extinguish our sin with the light of His absolution.