September 2018 – What Does This Mean?

Friedrich Wyneken in Indiana

Friedrich Wyneken arrived at the settlement of Friedheim, near Decatur, Indiana on September 20th, 1838. The first German he met in Indiana received the missionary with suspicion. “If you are an honest pastor, then go to that house over there. A very sick man lies
in it,” the woodman challenged. “If you are something else, like most pastors coming from Germany, then go over there to the rich wagonmaker!” “Nevertheless, I’d love to see the sick man first,” Wyneken quipped and then carried through. At this sick man’s home, he learned of Karl Friedrich Buuck, the leader of Jesse Hoover’s Adams County congregation and the pastor’s future father-in-law.

Wyneken ministered in the area for six days before riding north along the Decatur Road to visit Fort Wayne and New Haven. In 1838, Fort Wayne was a small but growing town on the Wabash-Erie Canal. This community of fifteen hundred sat at the portage between the Wabash and Maumee rivers, the only passage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. At the summit, overlooking the merger of the Maumee’s two sources, Fort Wayne was the focal point of the effort to create a continent-wide water transportation system. By 1837, the Wabash-Erie Canal was complete to Logansport, a growing community on the Michigan Road. This road stretched north to South Bend and Michigan City and south to Indianapolis, Madison and the Ohio River. Due to this geography, Fort Wayne grew in spite of the economic depression that followed the Panic of 1837. The Northeast corner of Indiana quickly became a destination of choice for German emigrants in search of a new home. Fort Wayne was an ideal location fora circuit rider charged to “gather scattered Protestants.”

Shortly after Wyneken reached Fort Wayne, St. Paul’s of Fort Wayne and Zion in Friedheim called him to serve as their resident pastor. The young pastor explained that he could not accept such a call without the permission of the Pennsylvania Ministerium. Since the missionary needed to continue his survey of Indiana, he suggested that the church council of Fort Wayne’s St. Paul Congregation write to the Mission Society for his release. Wyneken promised to return in four weeks to receive the Mission Society’s instructions. On October 2nd, Friedrich Wyneken once more mounted his horse and headed north into the forest.

Our Living Hope

Sermon on 1 Peter 1:3-9
17th Sunday After Pentecost
September 16, 2018
Our Hope Lutheran Church
Huntertown, Indiana

Text: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (ESV)

Intro: Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! No, it is not Easter or even Easter season, but given the text I’ve chosen this morning, I think we need to say it! I came to love this passage when visiting a member of my second parish in the hospital. She was one of those ladies that served in every office in the LWML, the church and the community. She had cancer and shared this passage was her favorite when she was ill. It reminds us of what is really important when the world closes in on us.

I. We are bothered now by all kinds of trials
A. Hurricanes, sickness, the evils of this world harass us.
B. Satan takes aim for us, trying to drive us to despair and unbelief.
C. What all this does to us is show us what is really important—our faith.
D. We have a something precious waiting for us – and this is our hope. He is risen!

II. Yet we have a living hope in Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.
A.After all, Jesus lived, suffered and died for our sins.
B. His death has destroyed the power of sin, suffering, grief and death.
C. All that we hope on here passes away – our hope is forever.
D. Because he rose, we will rise from the grave.
E. For this reason, we can rejoice in our sufferings.

Pastor Wyneken’s Lima, Ohio Ministry

On September 10th, 1838, Friedrich Wyneken stopped for supplies in Lima, Ohio. There he met a German, who pleaded in tears with Pastor Wyneken to stay in the area awhile and preach to his countrymen and women, many of whom had not heard God’s Word or received the Lord’s Supper in years. With his heart breaking, Wyneken could not pass them by.

For eight days, he conducted services in Lima, in Putnam County, to the north of Lima, and in Wapakoneta of Auglaize County to the south. With wonder, he reported that he preached nine times in these settlements and baptized fifteen people. Thirteen of them were older children, one an eighteen-year-old young woman, and another, the forty-year-old mother of two. He even confirmed a young married man, catechized but never communed. With joy, Wyneken wrote to Haesbaert:

“The people were so delighted to receive God’s Word and the Bread of Life once more, that I couldn’t thank the Lord enough for His love, because, at the very beginning of my ministry, He had led me to such hungry hearts.

Very reluctantly, young Pastor Wyneken left Ohio for Adams County, Indiana. “I regret now, that I didn’t stay longer with the Germans in western part of the State of Ohio,” he wrote the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania Mission Society, “and did not visit more settlements, because there are no pastors there, and also, as far as I can tell from what I’ve been told, none have been visited by a circuit rider to date”

Impelled by a sense of duty, he forced himself to travel northwest on the Piqua Road, along the St. Mary River toward Fort Wayne. Wyneken’s route took him past Willshire, Schumm and Van Wert, settlements he would later serve from Fort Wayne and Decatur, beginning in 1839.

Meet Phillip Melanchthon

In the last week of August 1518, a twenty-one year old humanist, Philipp Melanchthon settled into his quarters at the University of Wittenberg as a professor of Greek. He was the great-nephew of the dean of German Humanism, Johannes Reuchlin, who saw to it that the young scholar had the finest education available. A true renaissance man, he studied the classics widely, including philosophy, astronomy, pedagogy, theology and the Greek language. Before coming to Witteneberg, he accepted his great uncle’s advice and translated his German surname Schwarzerd (“black earth”) into Greek, Melanchthon. He soon published a grammar of Greek that drew praise from Erasmus.

When Martin Luther suggested to Elector Frederick the Wise that he reform the curriculum of the University, the Elector accepted the suggestion of Reuchlin to call the young Melanchthon to teach Greek there. In his first lecture, Philipp argued that, to really return to the sources of theology, scholars must learn Greek and Hebrew. Melanchthon and Luther very quickly became the closest of friends.

The two scholars shared a boundless energy, a commitment to the classics, especially language study, a devotion the Holy Scriptures and to teaching. There the resemblance ended. Melanchthon was calm, mild-mannered, systematic and a consensus builder. He was tactful and not given to hyperbole. Luther was exactly the opposite. They complemented each other and built on each other’s strengths.

Melanchthon went on to be the author of three of the Lutheran Confessions — the Augsburg Confession, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession and the Treatise on the Power and the Primacy of the Pope. His work on pedagogy ended up reforming the teaching of children throughout Germany and remained the standard for centuries. He became known as the “teacher of Germany.” His systematic theology Loci Communes became the foundation for all systematic theologies in Lutheran theology — in spite of a reputation for compromising with the Roman Catholics and Reformed traditions he earned after the death of Luther.

We will have much more to say about this remarkable man as time goes on. For now, we will be content to note that Martin Luther has now gained an important co-worker, sounding board and ally. He is going to need his “dear Philipp” soon enough.