October 2019 – What Does This Mean?

What is a Good Work?

Encore Post: At first, the answer to this question seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it? We all know what it means to be good. We start “advising” our children when they can barely walk to “be good.” Our schools, armed forces, institutions of all descriptions give awards for “good behavior.” Exceptionally good deeds attract occasional “feel good” T.V. news segments and feature articles. A few of these “go viral” on the internet.

But when you try to pin it down, the definition of good work changes quite a bit depending on the person we’re praising and who it is that notices the deed. What is good sometimes varies by age and by culture. A toddler who picks up her toys is being good. A firefighter that runs into a burning building to save a child or even a pet is a hero. Generally speaking, someone who takes care of others, especially if they do not have to, is often called good. We call this definition of good works Civil Righteousness.

For Christians and Jews, a person that keeps the Ten Commandments is thought of as a good, God-fearing and righteous person. We are tempted to think that if we can check off each one of the commandments in our daily routine that we are pretty good people. We’re tempted to pat ourselves on the back when we achieve this feat on the surface. It is very possible to be righteous on the outside, but in God’s eyes, this form of good works is simply not good enough. Without faith in Christ, our righteousness in like a dirty rag.(Isaiah 64:6-7)

In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus takes on what the Jews thought it meant to be righteous — to be good people. God wants more than just holy deeds. He wants our every thought to be holy. “Be perfect,” he said, “as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) Only Jesus himself lived up to that standard. That is why St. Paul tells us that no one is saved by works done according to God’s Law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. (Galatians 2:16)

God and the Good Works Christians do

Encore post: Crafters carefully select the materials for their works. They weigh their qualities, imagine what can be done with them, use their experience and training to prepare them for use. With great care and the confidence that comes from their skills honed by years of practice, they prepare, shape and fashion a quality product. The best are held up as works of art, masterpieces of their craft.

Even more so, God prepared us for salvation. By his grace and through the faith he gave us, he made it so. Our sins are forgiven, their power over us destroyed and we will rise from the grave on the last day — all for Christ’s sake. But there is more to God’s plan for us than these things. He has made us in Christ a new creation — people who want to do good works and do so as naturally as a good tree bears good fruit.

And God does even more for us. He prepares the good works for us do. He gave us his law, so we know what his will is for us. He places us in the right time and place, then urges us to do them. Because we love him, we follow through serving him and loving our neighbor. (Ephesians 2:10, Philippians 2:12-13) So it is that we are instruments in God’s hands, doing good, showing his mercy to others and bringing the Gospel to them.

Words that Carry Weight

Encore Post: Perhaps you can think of a time when you received some words with weight behind them. I remember the words of the pastor who announced to the congregation that my wife and I were married. Perhaps you have had similar words spoken. Maybe they weren’t words of great joy but maybe they were those heavy words from a doctor saying you had cancer. Or you can remember back in high school how the gossip got around. That old lie we tell ourselves: Sticks and stone may break my bones, but words can never hurt me. Words definitely carry weight. Some good weight and others much worse.

And so it is with Jesus. He is preaching the Word given Him to preach. We were told what this Word was last week in his first sermon, right out of the prophet of Isaiah. He was anointed to preach good news to the poor. He preaches with authority unlike any people of the towns had seen. And His Word carries weight! And His Word is effective!

Jesus’ word has power. You might think it odd, but have you ever read the bible out loud to yourself? To hear the words, reverberate into you own ears. Paul makes the connection to faith. Faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ.

In a manner like Peter’s mother-in-law, you have been raised back to life by the word of Jesus. You were dead in your trespasses and sins. But by the power and authority of the Word of Jesus you are made alive. You were called by the very Word of Jesus at the moment of your Baptism. The very Word which was preached and proclaimed to the demon was said to you. “Out you unclean spirit, and make room for the Holy Spirit.” You were dead in trespasses and sins, held in captivity and slavery of sin, death, and Satan. And Christ speaks a mere word from the cross, “It is finished.” The time of slavery is finished, the time of death is done. “It is finished,” says your Lord and Savior Jesus.

And He speaks life into you, calling you to a life of faith in Him. Clinging to the promise and pledge that by his life, death, and resurrection, we too have the same resurrection. You have already been raised to a new life by Baptism where He speaks to a very wonderful Word carries real weight!

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

Luke’s Musical

Encore Post: St. Luke wrote his Gospel and the Book of Acts in polished, carefully constructed Greek. The Introductions to both books are in well-balanced, formal language, like the best of ancient classical history. But when he begins the story of Jesus, he writes in the Greek of the Septuagint — the translation of the Old Testament read in the synagogues where Jesus and his disciples grew up. It would be like reading a novel that starts in New York, writing with a Brooklyn accent, and, when the scene changes to Dallas, it speaks with a Texas twang and vocabulary.

As Luke weaves the story, he recalls several canticles — New Testament psalms really — sung by various persons in it. The result is much like a modern musical. The Church picked up on this. We sing them in worship and have done so for more than 1600 years.

Called by the first few words of these songs in Latin, they are:

Mary’s song, the Magnificat. We sing it during Vespers.

Zechariah’s song, the Benedictus, sung in morning services.

The Christmas Angel’s song, the Gloria, sung in the Divine Service — When the Lord’s Supper is served.

And Simeon’s Song, the Nunc Dimmitis, also sung during Divine Service.

These songs of joy, celebrating the births of the Messiah and the prophet who announced him are now our songs, too, not just at Christmas, but the whole year.

How Did We Get the Bible?

Encore Post: When we think about the Bible today, we think about it as one book. And so it is. God is the author of all of Holy Scriptures. He spoke though his prophets, evangelists, apostles and — most importantly — his Son. (Hebrews 1:1-2) It has a single theme: how God saved the world by sending his Son to die for us.

Yet in most languages the word for Bible is plural — Biblia — books! In fact, when we call the Word of God the Holy Scriptures you can see that even in English. Scriptures is plural too! The Bible is a library of sixty-six books written over a period of about 1500 years. At first they were written literally in stone and clay tablets. Later they were recorded on papyrus (paper made from reeds that grow along the Nile River) and on animal skins, rolled into scrolls. Copies were made by hand, one by one, a scholar carefully copying it letter by letter. Later the whole thing would be memorized and passed from one teacher to his students.

At the time of Jesus’ ministry, a new form of the book took form. Rather than roll a book up on spindles, small segments were sewed together along one edge creating a codex — the form with which we are most familiar. It was easier to carry, to page through and to read. To make many copies, one person would read it from a desk called a lecturn — a reading stand — and multiple scribes would carefully write it down word for word.

At first the words of Jesus were memorized by his disciples and hearers. It was a part of the way rabbis taught. They would perhaps also take notes on Roman wax tablets from which they would later copy. After a period of time the Evangelists (literally translated gospelists) would bring these together with their own testimony and that of others to produce books from which the faith could be taught. The rest of the New Testament are letters written mostly by St. Paul, St. Peter and St. John, to pass instructions and encouragement to growing churches far away. The ones the church recognized as the very words of God were copied and collected into codices (plural of codex) and carried wherever the Gospel would be preached.

Eventually the Word of God would be translated into many languages and copied in numbers greater than any other book in history. When the printing press came into being, the first book printed was — you guessed it — the Bible. Now everyone could afford to buy one. In our age, the Bible continues to be the most translated and printed book. Yet it also now is in electronic form. It is easier than ever to read, learn and hear God’s own message to you.

Inerrancy: What Does It Mean?

Encore Post: Inerrancy means to be without error. If the Bible contains errors then what use is it for us and our salvation? How could we find the errors? What would be true, and what would be erring? If one thing is wrong in the word it might as well be thrown out entirely.

This is what we get with Higher Historical Criticism of the Bible. If the words written on the pages of the Bible are not truly God’s word then certainly the words there are riddled with errors because they were written by men. The Bible was questioned even in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. For a much greater overview , I highly recommend you take an opportunity to read the newest book by David Scaer where he lays out these things as they were happening inside the Missouri Synod’s St. Louis Seminary in the 1950s, leading to the walk out of its liberal faculty in 1974.

One place that people said even Jesus erred in the Bible was when he gave the saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 10:23-26) Those with the view that Jesus erred would say that Jesus had no idea of germination. It was always assumed that it died but now science has shown otherwise. They claims Jesus didn’t know this. But all that does it show their cards when it comes to understanding Jesus. They think He was just a man and not God in the flesh. But the Bible tells us otherwise. And besides, those of the errant view did not care to see what Jesus was doing in the verse before it. He tells the the people, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Jesus is talking about his death on the cross and his resurrection. He is speaking about your salvation, not about the science of how a seed germinates and the like. He effectively says, “I am the seed that must die in order to bring life to you who believe in me.”

But if we take seriously the words of John 1, that Word was Made Flesh, we should take seriously the words which are recorded for us in the Bible because that word speaks of Jesus. For He is the Word of the Father, and that Word has been glorified for us by his incarnation, life, death, and resurrection, for our salvation.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

The Word of God Changes Everything

Encore Post: A good book, a great movie, a stirring song or a work of great art — all of these have the power to take you away to another place, another time, worlds away from day-to-day life. You can escape into them and find an energy there to face life for a little while longer. Yet even the best of them, even the most inspiring, do not change your world at all. Everything is still where you left it and you have to go on.

The Bible is different. It is not just any other book. It is like no other book. The Bible is God’s Word, breathed out by his Holy Spirit in the same way that God created the world. (1 Timothy 3:15-17) By God’s Word, the Holy Spirit creates faith in our hearts. (Romans 10:14-17, John 20:30-31) This faith takes hold of the promises of Holy Scripture, trusts the Gospel it hears when the Bible is read and lives by it. (Romans 1:16-17)

This is the reason why Christians have read the Bible in every worship service since Christ founded it and why the Hebrew and Jewish believers before them have read and meditated upon it for 3500 years. Great literature and works of wisdom authored by human skill can be very helpful to us when we want to understand the world and God who made it. These writings can just as easily confuse us, faith to provide insight and often completely mislead us. They often miss the mark when they assume that by our wits, we can understand God. But we cannot.

Because Holy Scripture is God’s own message, it can be trusted to be true, where every other message can fail us. It teaches us when we do not know what to do. It is eternal and never-changing and so is a solid base on which to build our lives. It helps us see through the complications and confusion of life in a sin-filled world. The Word of God changes things, reviving our souls, giving us joy in times of depression and comfort in times of grief. (Psalm 19)

The very center of the message that the Scripture proclaims is the Cross. God saw us lost in our sins and loved us. Not willing to see us die forever, He came to seek us, find us, lay down his life to save us. In Jesus, he took all our sin and guilt upon us. As the Lamb of God bore it all away. On the cross, he paid the full debt due because of it. Rising from the grave, he broke the power of sin, death and the devil forever. That is why we gladly hear the Word of God, give thanks to him for it, and use its power to obey it and serve him gladly.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Turned Inside Out by the Cross

When Martin Luther described our nature as sinful human beings, he concluded that we are in curvatus se — we are curved in on ourselves– like a turtle that hides in its shell. We seek to satisfy our own needs, our own comfort, our own desires before all things. We want things to make sense to us and so, in a way, make everything over in our own image — including God. (Ephesians 2:3, 2 Timothy 3:2-5, 4:3-4) Our attitude is like that of Satan in John Milton’s Paradise Lost: ” Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven” (1:263)

Our culture plays to this built-in selfishness, parading all kinds of delights in commercials, music and literature. It plays to greed, jealousy, lust, pride and envy. We are easily hooked by such things which often become obsessions. The problem with such pursuits is it makes things and ultimately ourselves into gods. The irony is these things eventually make us into their slaves rather than liberating us. They set us in conflict with others and make more and more alone. They lead away from God, the source of life, to destuction.

God is very different. From the beginning, his focus was on us. He loved us before he made the world. He decided to make us his childen and rigged the history of the world to adopt us as his heirs. In Christ, he set aside his power and glory to become a man, live a perfect life for us, bear our selfishness and sin to the cross, suffered, died and rose again from the dead to break into our lives. In baptism, he kills this selfish nature and plants a new life in us — one that focuses outward on him and our neighbor.

In the strength he provides us through baptism and the Lord’s Supper and the power of the word that changes hearts, we take up his call to take up our cross daily and follow him. In doing so, we deny our sinful nature and are turned inside out. Instead of serving ourselves or seeking to be served, we serve God and others. As we do this, God meets our needs and those of others.

Sunday School #33: Noah and the Flood

After Cain killed Abel, the world continued its descent into evil. For awhile, the descendants of Seth, called by Moses the Sons of God, remained separate from the descendants of Cain. They remained faithful to God and his will. However, slowly but surely, they began to marry each other, The Sons of God soon became as evil as their neighbors. This should not surprise us. Because of sin their every thought was evil. So God resolved to destroy the world and all of the descendants of Adam and Eve — except for eight of them. God preserved humanity in the person of Noah and his family, who had continued to serve him. God kept them safe in the Ark he built and resettled the world through him.

The first time we read about the flood, we get the impression that Noah and his family were saved because they were saints in a world full of sinners. But this is not true. They were just as sinful at heart as their neighbors (compare Genesis 6:5-6, before the flood and 8:21 after the flood). The difference was that they “walked with God” (6:9) and were righteous by faith (Hebrews 11:7), trusting God to care for them and obeying His commands. In Martin Luther’s Flood Prayer, which we use in our baptismal services, we confess it this way: “Almighty and eternal God, according to Your strict judgment You condemned the unbelieving world through the flood, yet according to Your great mercy You preserved believing Noah and his family, eight souls in all. ”

The flood reminds Christians of baptism, in which our sins are drowned and we are safely carried to new life. We speak about the Church as God’s new ark, in which he keeps us safe from the evil world. The place in our church building where we sit for worship is named the Nave, which means ship in Latin. Baptism saves us by uniting us with Christ’s suffering and death. In it our sins are washed away, where Jesus received them at his baptism. In exchange, we receive his righteousness by faith. When we rise from the water of baptism, we are united with his resurrection. So, as Christ rose from the dead, we will rise from our graves on the last day.

The Need of a New Heart

Encore Post: God used Moses to give his people the Lord’s Law on Mt. Sinai. It was the Lord’s holy will for Israel. And in effect, the way that Israel was called to live was to serve as an effective witness to the nations that surrounded it. Their way of life was to point to the Law of the Lord and bring life to the nations. That is why that he calls us to teach our children and their children. I think that is a call to remember the 3rd commandment because on the sabbath day Israel was to remember what the Lord had done for them and their salvation (Exodus out of Egypt). The generation with Moses were either eye witnesses or they were the generation that followed the eye witnesses of those events.

Israel was told not to forget the things they had seen, lest they lose life. But the problem was that Israel had a bad heart. And that is our problem too. We don’t listen and take to heart what the Lord our God tells us. If we look long and hard at our own hearts, or better yet, let’s let God talk about our heart. According to Him, we have a heart of stone. Israel could not be the witness the Lord called them to be, and neither can we. We utterly fail to walk in the way of the Lord. And we can’t make our hearts of stone alive. We need a new heart.

Dear Christian, you have been given a new heart, a new spirit.. This happened at your Baptism. This heart is made in the image of the One, the Word made flesh. Jesus walked in the ways of the Lord our God, His Father. He walked in the statutes and laws of His Father on your behalf. It was through Him and by Him that the nations learn of the mercy of God. And because of this wonderful One, Jesus Christ, you have life everlasting. Your heart is made alive in Christ, through baptism into His name. There at those baptismal waters you were made God’s child. He made Himself your God. And in and through Christ you certainly and do keep the laws and statutes of your Heavenly Father, for He has done them for you. And now we want to walk in His Way which leads us to life everlasting.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

See Also: The Law of God is Good and Wise | Fence, Mirror and Guidebook | What is Baptism? | Baptized into Christ’s Body | Sabbath as Day the of Salvation