It’s Time to Say Amen

My Dear Reader,

The time has come for me to say amen to The Shepherd’s Study. On 23 January 2008, I began this blog hoping to provide a little support and encouragement for busy Lutheran shepherds like myself. I hoped to share resources and thoughts and insights I found from my own personal reading of God’s Word and other theological reading to provide some renewal amidst the busyness of ministry.

As I look back on the past three and a half years, it’s amazing to see how the Lord in his grace did more than I imagined. It’s been humbling to see how many people have actually visited this blog (over 108,000 as of this writing!) and how many have actually taken the time to read what I’ve written. It’s been fun getting to know fellow and future shepherds of God’s people and faithful laypeople who care very deeply about the true teaching of God’s Word. What I’ve loved the most, though, has been the opportunities I’ve had to encourage and support my fellow shepherds (or those who will soon be shepherds!) and provide them a little renewal amidst the busyness of ministry. If this blog has provided some of that for you, thank you for the opportunity to serve you!

Over the past three and a half years, life has also changed considerably for me and for those I serve. The time that I need for this blog just isn’t there anymore. Personally, the Lord has grown our family from three to five. Professionally, the congregation I serve is, with God’s help, about to take on one of the biggest projects in our history. After six years of mission re-start, we are now preparing for the real possibility of expanding our small 30-year-old facility. Amidst all of this, through the deliberation of three Divine calls in the past year and a half, the Lord has also made it clear that more time spent training, equipping, and mentoring God’s people and those who serve God’s people has become all the more necessary for me.

In the meantime, I am 1/3 of the way towards completing a STM (Master of Sacred Theology) in historical theology at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. Besides the classes each year, I’m hoping to write my thesis on the life and work of Prof. John Schaller (1859-1920). That research and translation work has just begun and will take considerable time as I seek to bring his works from German into English and put together the largely untold story of a great Lutheran theologian, who truly embodied the meaning of “Pastor”.

So the time has come to say amen. I’ll still be making use of social media like Twitter and Facebook, but work on The Shepherd’s Study will come to an end for the foreseeable future. Dear Reader, thank you for taking the time to follow this blog and for giving me the opportunity to encourage you as you serve the Lord wherever and however that might be. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

May Christ, that great Shepherd of the sheep, richly bless you and be with you always as you serve him! Amen.

Yours in Christ,
Pastor Jeremiah J. Gumm

[11/5/11 Update: I am slowly dismantling this blog as a new opportunity to resurrect a new version of The Shepherd's Study with all new contributors, but the same goals of the original Shepherd's Study, has arisen over at http://www.wlsce.net - Grow in Grace: The Institute for Continuing Education @ Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. It hasn't launched yet, but keep an eye out for it when it does. God bless and be with you, dear Reader!]

Only God Will See This

I don’t normally write movie reviews, but there’s actually a connection to ministry with this one.

Yesterday my wife and I watched a 2009 movie called “Taking Chance”.  It’s based on the real-life events of  Marine Lt. Col. Michael Strobl, when he volunteered to serve as a military escort officer to accompany the body of 19-year-old Marine PFC Chance Phelps from the Port Mortuary at Dover Air Force Base to Phelps’ hometown of Dubois, Wyoming. I had received a couple recommendations to see the movie and got it through Netflix on DVD. We weren’t disappointed.

“Taking Chance” was, for lack of a better word, outstanding. We were impressed by the dignity and respect of the whole movie – from the treatment of the death of the fallen Marine to the scenes depicting the precise care for his body and effects to Strobl’s journey from Dover to Dubois to the funeral of the fallen soldier. Respect and honor were shown throughout not only to the fallen soldier, but also to those who serve in our nation’s military. It makes one thankful for those who daily put themselves in danger’s way in service to our nation and especially for those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our nation and the freedom we enjoy. It was truly a tribute to those servicemen and women who have given their lives and showed a side of America not often seen these days. I personally enjoyed the interviews behind the scenes with the Marines who served with PFC Phelps, his family, and Lt. Col. (Ret.) Strobl.

I found this movie particularly moving for a couple reasons. I come from a family who went through a similar tragedy near the end of the Second World War, a tragedy that has had a deep impact on our family even to my own generation. Movies like “Taking Chance” and “Saving Private Ryan” always seem to have that effect on me.

“Taking Chance” hit me in a different way though because besides being called to serve Cross of Christ here in Liverpool, I also serve as WELS Civilian Chaplain/Military Contact Pastor to WELS personnel of the 10th Moutain Division (U.S. Army) and their families serving at Fort Drum, NY. For those who don’t know, the 10th Mountain Division is the most deployed unit in the U.S. Army and when you’re at Fort Drum, you’re in the deployment cycle. In the brief four years I’ve been in the pastoral ministry, I’ve had the bittersweet privilege of entrusting quite a few soldiers to the protection of their Lord as they deploy to dangerous places like Iraq and Afghanistan. This is also the first war where I actually have friends and former classmates who have been deployed. So you can understand why this movie was so poignant.

By God’s grace, I haven’t had to make the long trip up a driveway with a military escort to inform a parent or a spouse that their loved one was killed in action. The Lord has brought them all home safely, but with fighting continuing in the Middle East, that time may come when I have to minister to the  grieving family of a fallen soldier. “Taking Chance” was a good reminder of the dignity and respect and honor due to our military servicemen and women and their families.

Whether or not you actually serve military personnel and their families as part of your call, I encourage you to take the time to see “Taking Chance”. The fact is, even if you’re in a civilian congregation in a civilian setting, there are still members out there serving in the National Guard or the Reserves and families with loved ones who deploy, maybe even young men and women you yourself have confirmed. Even if that’s not the case where you live and serve, please keep those servicemen and women in your prayers as they put themselves into harm’s way for all of us and pray for those who minister to them with the Word and Sacraments.

In addition to this review, I’d like to share with you a brief article with the permission of its author. The article is entitled “Only God Will See This”. It was written by Pr. Paul Ziemer – WELS National Civilian Chaplain to the Military and Armed Forces Liaison. He serves on the WELS Military Services Committee and as our synod’s point man with the Department of Defense, while also serving Beautiful Savior Ev. Lutheran Church in Fayetteville, NC, home of the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg and Pope AFB. Pr. Ziemer wrote the article around Memorial Day 2008 shortly after he had visited Port Mortuary at Dover AFB. He talks about similar subjects to what I wrote above and his article provided the title for this post. (If you see the movie, you’ll know why I chose it for this review!) The link above goes to the PDF file. Take some to read it and share what you think.

May God protect those who serve our country in harm’s way and may God bless those who serve them with the Means of Grace!

Remembering Who We Are and What We’re About

I recently came across a new blog called Pastoral Meanderings by Pastor Larry Peters. Here are a couple interesting posts reminding the Christian church who we are and what we’re about. What do you think?

• God is NOT Tolerant… Grace is NOT Tolerant
• Values

The Anvil of God’s Word

This came across my newsreader this evening. It really made me think and reminded me of the passage below…

“Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith’s door,
And heard the anvil sing the vesper chime;
Then looking in I saw upon the floor,
Old hammers, worn with blasting years of time.

‘How many anvils have you had,’ I said,
‘To wear and batter all these hammers so?’
‘Just one,’ said he; and then, with twinkling eye,
‘The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.’

And so I thought, the anvil of God’s Word,
For ages skeptic blows have beat upon.
Yet tho’ the noise of falling blows was heard,
The anvil is unharmed – the hammers gone.”

Attributed to John Clifford

All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the Word of the Lord stands forever.

1 Peter 1:24-25a, Isaiah 40:6-8

[HT: No Church Home]
[Graphic: Wikimedia Commons - Anvil - Lutherbibel]

Still Don’t Think Social Media Matters?

Participation in social media is quickly becoming a necessity as millions and millions of people every day tap into it. Sadly, though, many pastors still don’t see a need to invest at least a little time in social media. In an interesting post on this very subject, Pr. Paul McCain writes,

I have some friends who take great pride in being Luddites when it comes to social media. I always cringe when I hear people gassing on about how blissfully unaware and uninvolved they are in using Twitter or Facebook. Well, sorry folks, but it is a bad attitude, and doubly so, particularly among church workers. Why? The Church must be where people are gathering to talk. St. Paul searched out people gathering at the river for prayer perhaps one of the oldest forms of “social networking.” (Acts 16:13) We need to be aware of where people are talking and what they are saying. Whether we like it or not, or whether or not we yet fully understand the transformation that is taking place in global communication technologies, the fact  is that social media and social networking is becoming the communication tools of choice for vast numbers of people. Do you have teenagers in the home? Know any? Ask them what the use most to communicate. E-mail? Nah. That’s old school. It is all about texting and about Facebook. Older folks? Facebook fanatics, much to our kids chagrin…

A recent post from Church Marketing Sucks came across my newsreader this morning and the statistics are hard to deny. Here are a few…

• It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million listeners. Terrestrial TV took 13 years to reach 50 million users. The Internet took four years to reach 50 million people… In less than nine months, Facebook added 100 million users.
• Universal McCann reports that 77% of all active internet users regularly read blogs.
• More than 120 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day and more than 30 million users update their statuses at least once each day. Combined, more than 5 billion minutes are spent on the site on a daily basis
• If Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth most populated place in the world. This means it easily beats the likes of Brazil, Russia and Japan in terms of size.

Still don’t think social media matters?

From personal experience, I can verify some of these statistics at least on a local level. Most of our registrations for Vacation Bible School, Christmas for Kids, etc. are done online rather than by phone or mail. Just recently, for the first time, I actually had people tell me they would prefer receiving weekly E-Updates by e-mail or by Facebook than the snail mailings we send out each month. A growing number of members have also indicated similar preferences. For me personally, besides this blog, I’ve also taken an active role not only in our congregation’s website (which, God-willing, will soon be revamped!), but also in the creation of our congregation’s Facebook page, which has actually helped us to reach some interested people we would otherwise not reach with regularly updated announcements and invitations. I haven’t dipped my toe into the Twitter waters yet, but it’s very possible that time may come too.

Now, of course, nothing can replace the one-on-one personal interaction between a shepherd and his people, which is all the more necessary as people get more wired and don’t take as much time to build real relationships with others as they once did. It’s also important that the faithful shepherd doesn’t get too wired himself, but at the same time, the truth is, social media is here to stay and shepherds of God’s flock need to know how to communicate with the people of their congregation and community in this wired age. God-willing,  the proper balance between social media and personal social interaction can be struck as we minister to God’s people.

It Was Grace…

“No one can understand or appreciate the grace of God unless he first recognizes how much he deserves to be punished.”

In the midst of my text study last week on 1 Corinthians 15:1-10 (One-Year Lectionary – Pentecost 12), I came across this quote in an NPH Sermon Series book describing the importance of the grace of God in the life of St. Paul. I’ve been mulling over it ever since. It came up in conversation with my wife. It even came up as part of the discussion on the role of Christ’s forgiveness in the life of the Church in the Bible Information Class I taught this evening.

I guess I’ve found this particular statement so striking, because the truth is, so often I as a pastor don’t truly appreciate the grace of God. So often I fail to stand in awe of that little word “grace” that has made such a big, profound difference in my life and in the lives of so many others, particularly those whom I am privileged to serve. It’s easy to be more like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable (Luke 18:9-14), so proud of who I am and what I have accomplished for God, than the tax collector beating my breast with the painful confession that I don’t even deserve a scrap of the Lord’s mercy because by nature I am a damned sinner. I deserve God’s wrath and condemnation in hell.

The Apostle Paul truly understood and appreciated the grace of God because there was a time when he literally was that Pharisee, when he thought he was doing great things for God especially when those dirty “Christians” came along professing Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God”, he wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians (15:9).

…But then the light of the grace of God shattered the darkness of unbelief’s blindness. The crucified and risen Christ appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus. Finally Paul understood and Paul’s life changed forever. “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” (15:10). Read all of Paul’s letters and you will find this theme run through them all – the grace of God in Christ Jesus. All Paul could do was marvel day after day at the grace of God shown in his Savior Jesus. That defined his life, his message, and his ministry. It wasn’t all about Paul, but all about God’s grace in Christ Jesus.

Perhaps that’s why the quote and the sermon text really hit home with me this past week. I need to stop and  leave my Pharisaical arrogance at the foot of the cross, to finally appreciate the grace of God in Christ for what it truly is – my life, my breath, my salvation, my everything. Without it, I am nothing before God, but looking back, I see that God’s grace has been there all the way.

It was the grace of God that brought me into His family through the waters of Holy Baptism and has kept me there through the Word and Sacrament. It was the grace of God that enabled me to become a shepherd of the Good Shepherd’s flock and it was the grace of God that brought me here to New York to serve God’s people. It is the grace of God in Christ Jesus that I pray defines my life, my message, and my ministry, and it is the grace of God that will bring me home to heaven someday. It really isn’t all about me, but all about God’s grace in Christ Jesus.

Dear Reader, may the Lord of free and faithful grace lead you to stop and marvel at the tremendous gift He has given you in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

ELS Statement on ELCA Resolution

The response from our sister synod – the Evangelical Lutheran Synod…

21 August 2009

Evangelical Lutheran Synod disagrees with homosexual clergy resolution adopted by ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America)

MANKATO, MINNESOTA—Officials of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS), a church body based in Mankato, noted with concern and disappointment the decision of the national convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), held in Minneapolis August 17-23, to allow the ordination of practicing homosexuals and lesbians as pastors of the church.

The smaller ELS is not affiliated with the larger ELCA, even though the names of the two churches are very similar.

ELS President, Rev. John A. Moldstad, said: “Ordaining practicing homosexuals and lesbians to the ministry is a serious departure from the biblical standards of morality to which Lutherans and Lutheran pastors have historically been held.” Moldstad clarified that, in contrast to the newly-adopted position of the ELCA, the position of the ELS on the matter of homosexuality and marriage is as follows:

We confess that Scripture condemns homosexuality and extra-marital relations (fornication and adultery) as sin. Nevertheless, when an individual caught up in such sins truly repents, the forgiveness of the Gospel is to be fully applied. We confess that the divine institution of marriage is to be heterosexual, in which, according to God’s design, a man and a woman may enjoy a life-long companionship in mutual love. We teach on the basis of Holy Scripture that marriage is the only proper context for the expression of sexual intimacy and for the procreation of children. See Rom. 1:26-27, 1 Cor. 6:9, 18 and 7:2-9, John 4:17-18, 1 John 1:9, Gen. 1:27-28 and 2:18-24, Matt. 19:4-6. (From We Believe, Teach, and Confess, adopted by the ELS in 1992)

Moldstad explained that ELS churches welcome into their midst those who may struggle with temptation toward a same-sex attraction, but who know in their conscience that this is wrong, and who seek God’s help in their struggle. Said Moldstad, “The ELS believes that in this world it is the duty of the church – as the body of Christ – to be a community of healing and reconciliation in the Gospel, and a beacon of hope to all humanity. And so, while the church is indeed called by the Lord to condemn as sin that which God condemns as sin, it is the church’s privilege also to offer and apply the grace, forgiveness, and acceptance of God, in Jesus Christ, to all who repent of their sins – whatever those sins may be.”

In addition to the similarity in names, the ELS shares a common heritage with some segments of the ELCA. The Mankato-based group was organized in 1918 by pastors and congregations that had declined to enter a merger that formed one of the predecessor bodies of the ELCA. The ELS has not participated in subsequent Lutheran mergers either – including the one that formed the ELCA in 1988 – because of what it saw as doctrinal compromises that these mergers represented.

New Additions to The Shepherd’s Study

I’ve made several new additions to the links & blogroll of The Shepherd’s Study…

First the new blogroll additions – Both have been active participants in the comments on this blog!

I Trust When Dark My Road is simply described “A Lutheran view of depression” by Pr. Todd Peperkorn, who suffers from clinical depression himself. The blog is much more than that however. Pr. Peperkorn “pose(s) questions about treatments, theological questions, a little humor, and generally discuss the matter of how Christians respond to mental illness.” I’ve found his blog and his book linked there (also available in PDF!) particularly helpful as I minister to fellow Christians suffering from clinical depression. Links are also available on his blog to his 3-part interview on Issues, Etc., which are well worth the listen. Welcome to The Shepherd’s Study!

Light From Light † is a “personal web log…about amateur photography, worship, history, and anything else of interest from a WELS confessional Lutheran layman’s Christian perspective.” The blog’s author, Rick Techlin, offers some great insights and impressive photography. Welcome to The Shepherd’s Study!

Now the links…

Codex Sinaiticus - One of the oldest manuscripts of the New Testament is now available online for your viewing pleasure! I know you’re excited!

Luthers Werke – Weimar Volumes is an index of the volumes (1883-1929) currently available on Google Books for free! Just one note…If you would like to do detailed scholarly work using some of these volumes, please note that some of the earlier volumes have been updated since 1930. Thanks to Pr. Paul McCain for word about these two resources online!

Koiné – The Church Band – I’ve added them to the links because I’ve grown particularly fond of their music.  They are the “House Band” of St. Marcus Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS) in Milwaukee, WI. What they’ve been able to do in bringing alive in new ways beloved hymns of the past from our hymnal is quite remarkable. Plus you can’t help humming the tunes or thinking of the hymn texts after you listen to them.

 

…Even When Steeples Are Falling

When I saw the picture above following the tornado that struck near the convention location of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the following words came to mind – “Built on the Rock the Church shall stand even when steeples are falling. Crumbled have spires in ev’ry land; Bells still are chiming and calling, calling the young and old to rest, but above all the soul distressed, longing for rest everlasting.” Sadly the ELCA has completely forsaken Christ the Rock as its foundation to settle on the shifting sands of secular society, and thereby has forsaken  souls distressed by the guilt of sin. Years of forsaking Scripture for liberal theology, declarations of union with liberal church bodies, and recent endorsements of anti-Scriptural teaching and practice, in essence, have toppled the cross above their church body by calling evil good and good evil.  The picture is therefore sadly descriptive of what has taken place in the ELCA.

As you’ve likely already heard in the secular news, on Thursday (8/20) the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in its Churchwide Assembly adopted a “social statement” on human sexuality that formally endorses same-sex relationships that are “chaste, monogamous, and lifelong”. This endorsement, of course, is completely contrary to Holy Scripture as it goes along with society & culture in contradiction to God’s institution of marriage as one man and one woman living together as man and wife in a chaste, monogamous, and lifelong relationship.  Today (8/21) this endorsement led the ELCA Churchwide Assembly to approve a resolution committing the church to find a way for “people in such publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships”  to serve as professional leaders of the church. They also declared full communion with the United Methodist Church, one of the most liberal church bodies in America.

These endorsements and resolutions are particularly galling to confessional Christians who consider themselves Lutheran, because this formal endorsement was made by a liberal church body that is Lutheran in name only. This, therefore, places a dark mark on the name “Lutheran” in our nation. This particular event only continues the sad trend in our country for people to paint Lutherans with a wide brush and consider them all liberals, when in many, many ways that is the farthest thing from the truth.

It is also cause for those who do still consider themselves confessional Lutherans to repent of any pride we might have in how firm we stand (1 Corinthians 10:1-13). It is also cause for us to be on guard when and if error is allowed to creep into our midst, error that can so easily destroy that foundation on which we stand.

For good reason, the confessional Lutheran blogosphere has been quite active in recent days about the going-on in Minneapolis including statements by  conservative Lutheran church bodies around the nation expressing regret over the votes taking place. There is a particularly good response from Pr. Paul McCain of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod on his blog Cyberbrethren. He has also posted several other articles about the happenings at the ELCA Assembly in Minneapolis, including articles about the so-easily-missed declaration of full communion with the United Methodist Church. Take time to check them out after reading the official statement published today (8/21) by WELS President – Rev. Mark Schroeder and printed out for you below.

Aug. 21, 2009

WELS president expresses regret at ELCA decision on gay clergy

Milwaukee, Wis.—Rev. Mark Schroeder, president of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), is expressing regret at the vote of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) convention regarding homosexual clergy. Friday, delegates approved a resolution committing the church to find a way for “people in such publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships”  to serve as professional leaders of the church.

“To view same-sex relationships as acceptable to God is to place cultural viewpoint and human opinions above the clear Word of God,” says Schroeder. “The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, along with The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, and other smaller Lutheran synods, maintains and upholds the clear teaching of the Bible that homosexuality is not in keeping with God’s design and is sinful in God’s eyes.”

At the same time, Schroeder says WELS congregations stand ready to support those struggling with same-sex attractions. “As with any sin, it is the church’s responsibility to show love and compassion to sinners, not by condoning or justifying the sin, but by calling the sinner to repent and by assuring the sinner that there is full forgiveness in Jesus Christ,” Schroeder says.

WELS, with about 390,000 members and nearly 1,300 congregations nationwide, is the third largest Lutheran church body in the United States. In Wisconsin alone, there are more than 201,000 members and 417 congregations. “It’s unfortunate that many headlines have referred to the recent decisions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as something ‘Lutherans’ have decided,”  Schroeder says. “In fact, the ELCA is only one of many Lutheran denominations. We are saddened that a group with the name Lutheran would take another decisive step away from the clear teaching of the Bible, which was the foundation of the Lutheran Reformation.”

Schroeder says that WELS is firmly committed to upholding God’s design for marriage as outlined in Scripture—a design intended for one man and one woman. “We believe, and the Bible teaches, that God designed this relationship to be a blessing for men and women and for society. Any departure from what God himself has designed does two things: it denies the clear teachings of Scriptures and it undermines God’s desire that the man/woman relationship in marriage be a blessing.”

Kyrie Eleison! Lord, have mercy!

50% Off Luther’s Works!

This blog really isn’t all book recommendations, but you can’t pass up this deal!

Back in April, I posted about the twenty new volumes of Luther’s Works being published annually by Concordia Publishing House starting this October. In celebration of the new volumes published, CPH is offering all of its current volumes of Luther’s Works, as well as the Libronix version of the entire current set on CD-ROM for 50% the regular sale price! I’ve had the CD-ROM since it first came out while I was at the Seminary, but if you have holes in your printed collection of Luther’s Works, want to start collecting them, or want to get the electronic edition, now is a great time to purchase them. Here’s the link to the CPH sale. The sale will conclude on 1 September 2009.

Roll Call!

A week or so ago, The Shepherd’s Study passed a major milestone in its history. Started on 23 January 2008, the Lord in his grace has allowed The Shepherd’s Study to be visited over 30,000 times since then. Thank you so very much to all of you who have visited here frequently or occasionally or who read posts from here via your newsreader or e-mail! I pray that the suggestions and resources and discussions and encouragements found here will continue to be worth your reading in the future.

To mark this major milestone in the history of The Shepherd’s Study, I’m going to have a roll call of readers, because this milestone has only been possible because you, dear Reader, have been following it.

If you’re reading this, please share your name, place where you live/serve, and to be a little different than other roll calls, share your favorite  source for devotional reading besides Holy Scripture and the Book of Concord. You can participate in the roll call in the comment section on the blog. If you receive this by e-mail, just click on “Comments” on the bottom of the e-mail.

Thanks for participating and for being part of The Shepherd’s Study!

Another Gem from the Past

This morning I finished the commentary, Follow Me: Discipleship According to Saint Matthew, by the late Prof. Martin Franzmann. Though the book is nearly 50 years old and written during the turbulent years of the late 1950s-early 1960s, the truths expressed there are timeless. It is truly a treasure that should be on the shelf of every Lutheran shepherd and worthy of  a place on the shelf of the members of his flock. What’s even better is the fact that Concordia Publishing House has re-issued this long-out-of-print treasure of a commentary through its On-Demand program for only $23.99! Definitely worth every penny! If I haven’t convinced you yet to make this gem part of your library, here are Franzmann’s closing words in reference to Matthew 28:18-20. They are strikingly contemporary for the 21st Century.

“Make disciples” was the last command that Jesus gave to His own. We know little or nothing of how Matthew fulfilled that command in his lifetime. But we do know how his book has gone on making disciples in all ages. It can make disciples of us again in our uncertain century and give us a disciple’s certainty again, if we will give him a hearing. If we will do him the honor of hearing him out on his terms, we can hear again the call which he once heard. And the Spirit which works in his book can make us capable of heeding that “Follow Me!” too. The Christ who called Matthew can be our Christ, to shape and mold our wills with His whole gift and His whole claim of grace. He will write the Law into our hearts, make pure and acceptable our worship, and put serene confidence into our bread-and-butter lives. He will equip us for conflict with the irreligious and the falsely religious world about us and make us capable of doing what His disciples must do, without harshness and without feverish self-will, with prayer and with love. He will give us courage for the narrow way and the strait gate. He will close our ears to seductive prophecy and close our eyes to the false splendor of “successful” churchmanship. He will enable us to live lives of eschatological responsibility under His Messianic word, a life in which hearing and doing are one.

The Christ whom Matthew proclaims will send us out on missionary paths that run through all the world, paths of defeat and persecution, perhaps, but also paths on which we can witness to Him, speak in the power of His Spirit, and win His victories according to His will. He can and will make us strong to face the divisions and confusions of our day undismayed. He will give us eyes to see the Kingdom where men see it not, in the Sower who goes out to sow His seed. He will give us ears to hear the footfalls of His judgment in the noisy clutter of our world and teach us to know with fear and trembling the precarious preciousness of the grace of God.

He will fit us for fellowship by removing all greatness and all hardness from our hearts, by giving us an eye for His little ones, a heart that can forgive wholly and again and again, and a love which has the courage to tell a brother his fault.

He will plant in our hearts a high hope which will make us faithful to Him within the orders of this world, where He has placed us and where we stand, while we await Him and the new world which He brings. He can give us courage to confess Him and proclaim Him. And He can give us the wise sobriety which can read all history as the trumpets of His advent and the world’s rebirth.

He will judge us with His cross and forgive us with His resurrection. He will melt down the stubborn stuff of our heroic manhood and remold us into men of God.

He will make disciples of us; He will make of us the holy, Christian, apostolic church. It will not be a very brilliant church perhaps. Perhaps we shall not be a large church, this church created by the Christ of Matthew; perhaps not a very successful church, not so well integrated in our communities, not so well accepted as we once were. Perhaps we shall even be a persecuted church again.

But we shall be church, real church, His church; and we shall live forever. We shall rise from our graves and break through the gates of death when He shall come and cry once more, “Follow Me!”

Source: Franzmann, Martin H. Follow Me: Discipleship According to Saint Matthew. Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis: 1961, pgs. 225-226

Our God Always Does All Things Well

The 60th Biennial Convention of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod convened this morning (27 July) at Michigan Lutheran Seminary in Saginaw, MI. There’s a whole host of resources, documents, presentations, and videos including live streaming video during the sessions available at http://www.wels.net/convention.

The convention began with the address of WELS President Mark Schroeder. I’m sharing it here to draw your attention to it. I didn’t get a chance to hear/watch it live this morning, but the longer I listened to it this evening, the more I realized that this is something that should be shared on this blog. How refreshing to hear Pres. Schroeder stress the importance of the theology of the cross as opposed to the theology of the glory in the life of the church, of realizing and being who we are–confessional Lutherans–as individuals, as congregations, and as a synod, and of not forgetting the lessons learned from the history not only of our synod, but of the Christian church over the centuries. At the same time, he takes a realistic view of our synod’s present situation, while providing a Christ-centered focus that brings a true optimism founded on God’s promises in Holy Scripture. I give thanks that God has provided such a faithful shepherd to lead our synod and I pray the Lord not only be with him, but with our beloved synod during these difficult times.

I recommend that you check out the Synod Convention site throughout the week as they’ll be providing daily updates, especially if you don’t get a chance to follow it live. Even if you don’t, take some time to watch/listen to the President’s Report from this morning and get some encouragement from the limitless promises of our gracious God.

[Update 11/11/09: The PDF transcript of President Schroeder's Address can be found in the 2009 Proceedings under "President's Report"]

For Another Year of Grace, To God Alone Be Glory!

+ 24 July 2005 – Soli Deo Gloria +

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that
your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

+ 1 Corinthians 15:58 +

Oh, Lord God, Thou hast made me a pastor and teacher in the Church.
Thou seest how unfit I am to administer rightly
this great and responsible Office,
and had I been without Thy aid I would surely have ruined it all long go.
Therefore do I invoke Thee.
How greatly do I desire to yield and consecrate
my heart and mouth to this ministry.
I desire to teach the congregation. I, too, desire ever to learn and to keep
Thy Word my constant companion, and to meditate thereupon earnestly.
Use me as Thy instrument in Thy service.
Only do not Thou forsake me for if I am left to myself,
I will certainly bring it all to destruction. Amen.

+ A Sacristy Prayer by Martin Luther +
Translator: Unknown
Hangs in the office at Cross of Christ Ev. Lutheran Church – Liverpool, NY

History is His Story

Came across another gem from the late Prof. Martin Franzmann in my devotional readings yesterday. Franzmann discusses the connection between Christ, the history of the world, and the history of the church in the context of Matthew 24:4-14 – Christ’s description of the last days. Franzmann puts all history in its proper context as “a sign for the eyes of faith…”, as something that “alerts the disciple for the end of history”. Rather than this great force moving along outside of our control as it ebbs and flows, instead all history is intended to prepare the disciple for the final coming of Christ. I hope you enjoy this treasure!

Jesus makes all history as it unrolls the sign of His coming. The disciples are to see and to interpret all history in relation to the work and the return of the Christ. There is for them no “secular” history any more. Israel’s history will be a sign to keep the disciple sober and alert; Israel’s false Messiahs and the fevered and diseased Messianism of a people who have rejected the true Messiah, the falsity of Israel’s hope and the tragic end of that expectation, will strengthen the disciple in his true and sober hope. (Mt 24:5)

The history of the world will be sign for the disciple (Mt 24:6-8). Wars near and far, a world without peace and racked by catastrophes, will be their monitor to tell them that this world is a dying world. These disasters are the iron footfalls of the God who marches toward ultimate judgment. But the disciples are not therefore to spend their lives in a flutter of fear (Mt 24:6); they are to learn that monumental composure which find documented so powerfully in the Revelation to John. “All this is the beginning of the sufferings” (Mt 24:8).  The word for “sufferings,” which Jesus uses is the word used for a woman’s birth-pangs, and it points the disciple to the hope which makes him strong and calm amid the world’s disasters. These agonies of history do not mean that God has abandoned His creation and now speaks a No to life. They are steps on the way toward that day which will do for the people of God what the day of birth did for the Jewish mother: it will take away the church’s reproach and give her life its true content and its lasting joy.

The history of the church too will be a sign to the disciples (Mt 24:9-14). Jesus paints no bright picture of that history: persecution and hatred from without; apostasy, treachery, false prophecy, and hatred from within. The church will be tested and sifted and tried by fire, so that only a genuine hope, one fixed upon the Christ and nurtured by His sobering word, can remain pure and unshaken. But for such a hope the promise is sure: “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Mt 24:13). And the disciple’s composure amid the world’s alarms will not be the composure of the spectator who is unmoved by the world’s agony. It will be the composure of the man who works while he can, to do what must be done for a world in agony. The Christ will, through His weak and suffering and divided church, yet make the reign of God prevail in a declining world: “And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then will the end come.” (Mt. 24:14) All history is a sign for the eyes of faith; all history alerts the disciples for the end of history…

Source: Franzmann, Martin H. Follow Me: Discipleship According to Saint Matthew. Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis: 1961, pgs. 178-179