Oftentimes, I have found that campus ministry is full of gimmicks and feels like a bait-and-switch. Either congregations ignore their campus (campuses are becoming less and less aligned with LCMS teachings) or they sacrifice the Confessions and good practice for the sake of bringing in “the youth.” What good is a campus ministry if it leads to open communion? What benefit is a campus ministry to the students if it is fluffy, full of activity but void of study?
It takes some doing, but campus ministries can be thriving and congregations can be confessional. Perhaps in my case, I serve in an unusual context. At Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture, the students are focused and hard-working (or they are fooling me). The students go home most weekends to go work on the farm with dad. The campus serves as an apprenticeship, as on-the-job training, and experience and internships are abundant locally, rather than far off places with no connection to campus.
How then does a congregation do campus ministry if the students are gone on the weekends? It is necessary to host week day events. And that could be part of our success. We are not expecting regular church attendance; we focus on the Word of God and prayer throughout the week. And it is my hope that I can serve as a counselor of sorts for the students rather than the secular counsel they will receive on the campus.
“Every campus ministry is different” and “every congregation is unique.” Boy, how I get tired of that excuse that allows churches to do whatever they want. I don’t have the answers yet, but we need to discuss these matters and I hope this article is a good place to start. If the confessional congregations do not engage their universities, we are missing out on a ripe harvest field. If other congregations become like their universities, then the church becomes the world, and it is not a good witness of our faith.
Can campus ministries be confessional? I hope so, and I think so. Let us strive for that.
Encore Post: At the Transfiguration, Jesus appeared to his disciples in his full glory as God. It ends the season of Epiphany where it began, with a theophany — an appearance of God. At the Baptism of Jesus, the Father spoke over his Son from heaven and the Holy Spirit appeared as a dove. Now the Father speaks from the Cloud of God’s Presence and with him is the Holy Spirit.
But that is not all. With Jesus appeared the two greatest witnesses of the Old Testament — Moses and Elijah. God used Moses to lead his people out of Egypt and gave the Law to them through him. God buried Moses when he died. Elijah was the great and fearless prophet, whom God carried into heaven in a chariot of fire. God promised the Messiah to Moses, calling the Messiah a prophet like him. The prophets predicted that Elijah would return to witness to the Messiah on the day the Messiah would come.
Now on the mountain of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah discussed with Jesus his Exodus — his departure. As Moses led Israel through the Red Sea to freedom, Jesus would bring us all through death to everlasting life by his death on the cross. Not knowing what to make of it all — Peter offered to set up tents like the people used in the wilderness wanderings. As usual, Peter missed the point.
So the Cloud of God’s Glory appeared on the mountain. In that cloud the Angel of the Lord led the people by day through the wilderness and showed God’s presence in tabernacle and temple. From this Cloud, God the Father speaks a second time. “This is my Beloved Son,” he said, “listen to him.”
The message of Transfiguration is that Jesus is God, yet He set aside His glory to die for our sins. We should serve God by doing what He says and serving one another.
Encore Post: The town of Bethany was a bedroom community for Priests and Levites, just over the Mount of Olives along the road to Bethlehem. Mary, Martha and their brother Lazarus were well off. They owned a home and probably a few slaves. The Scripture does not tell us what they did for a living, but they had enough resources to afford expensive perfume and likely were donors to the ministry of Jesus and his disciples. Outside the small circle of the apostles, they were the closest friends of Jesus during his earthly ministry. It seems likely that Jesus and his entourage stayed with them every time they came to the Holy City.
On one trip to Jerusalem, Martha was preparing a banquet for her favorite Rabbi. Nothing was too good for him. Mary was helping her sister, but when Jesus began to teach, she sat down like a disciple at his feet, listening to him. Martha was angry that her sister was lounging around while there were many things that needed doing. She complained to Jesus, who told her affectionately that she didn’t need to worry so much. What she was doing was good. Hospitality is a form of the loving service God calls us to do. Some in the early church, in fact, looked at the example of Martha as a model for the work of a deaconess. Listening to God’s word was more important than all the details that she was concerned about.
The week before Palm Sunday, the family was grieving. Lazarus had died and was in the tomb four days by the time Jesus got there. Both Martha and Mary expressed strong faith in the Jesus and the resurrection of the dead. Jesus called Lazarus back from the dead.
To celebrate their brother’s resurrection, Mary, Martha and Lazarus held a banquet. Once again, Martha was preparing the feast. This time Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with a perfume worth $24,000. Judas made a scene about how it could be sold to feed the poor. The disciples later questioned his motives, since he was the treasurer of the group and a week later, he would betray Jesus for coins worth $3200. Jesus told him to leave well enough alone. Mary had learned from Jesus well — she was preparing him for his burial. Two weeks later, Jesus would serve them — and us. He suffered for their sins and ours, died to pay their debt and ours and rose again that we might all rise on the last day. Now we can serve like Martha, Mary and Lazarus, showing our love for Jesus by caring for others.
Encore Post: In the Middle East, shepherds often build a common sheep pen for their town. All the shepherds in the village would keep their sheep together in this pen overnight. They would build a wall to keep the sheep from wandering away and to keep wolves and other predators from attacking them. A watchman would guard the gate or door to the pen so that only shepherds could enter. This discouraged thieves.
When a shepherd was ready to feed his sheep, he would go into the pen and call them by name. A shepherd had an intimate relationship with his sheep. In some cases they would be as close to them as a pet is to us. So the sheep recognized the voice of the man who cared for them. When he called them by name, they would follow. The shepherd would take them to good, green pastures and nice, quiet waters. He would keep them from wandering off and would treat any wounds, binding them up. He would protect them from wild animals, often doing battle with them, as King David describes what he did as a young shepherd. True shepherds would risk their lives to save their sheep.
Kings often compared themselves to shepherds. They liked to be seen as caring for them and keeping them safe. They expected their subjects to willingly follow everywhere they wanted them to go.
In the Bible, God tells us He is our Shepherd. He will feed them, gather their lambs in his arms and hold them close to his heart. (Isaiah 40:11) Most of all, in Jesus, God is our Good Shepherd. He leads us with his word, guides us and protects us from evil. Like a good shepherd, he laid down his life for the sheep. He died so that we might be saved. On the last day of our life, he will lead us through the valley of the shadow of death safely home to dwell in his house forever. (Psalm 23)
Encore Post: Leprosy was a dreaded skin condition during Biblical times. It was caused by a number of diseases from bad rashes to sicknesses that caused the loss of fingers, toes and other parts of the body. Lepers were made to live away from everyday people and to yell unclean if anyone came close to them. They were not allowed to go to the synagogue or the temple and so were cut off completely from God and the care of family and friends. Often they lived together with other lepers. If a person touched a leper, they were called unclean, too, and couldn’t enter the temple or synagogue.
Sometimes lepers would get well. To recognize that the person was no longer a leper, a person would go to the priests to be declared clean again. One of the signs of the Messiah’s coming was that he would heal lepers. Jesus showed God’s love for everyone, even lepers, when Jesus healed the disease.
One day, when Jesus was walking down the road, ten lepers shouted to Him from a distance: Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. He told them to go and see the priests in Jerusalem. As they went, they were healed. When one of them, a Samaritan, saw that He was well, He went back to Jesus, loudly praising God. The man lay down on his face at Jesus’ feet to worship Jesus and thank Him. Jesus asked where the other nine were. Jesus told the man to get up because his faith made him well.
Even though Jews of Jesus’ time despised Samaritans and treated them poorly, Jesus once again makes the point that God does not discriminate against people due to sickness, race or religion. All people are his children and he shows mercy to us all. After all, he was about to bear the sins of all the sons and daughters of Adam on the cross. On the last day, people from all nations, races and time, redeemed by his blood, will gather as one to praise him. So, now, we join the former lepers is praying, “Lord, have mercy” and reach out to care for all his children in need.
Encore Post: One day Jesus sat down to teach in the temple’s Court of the Women where he could watch people putting freewill offerings into the offering box. People of all walks of life put money into the treasury from the wealthiest to the poorest of God’s people. One of those people was a poor widow, who contributed her last two copper coins.
Since this offering was not required, anyone who gave to the Lord in this way showed love for God. The rich people Jesus saw contributing were giving from their wealth and did not miss the money at all. The widow, on the other hand, showed complete trust in God. She literally did not know where her next meal would come from. Yet she gave her last resources so that God could be praised.
In the time of Jesus, widows had a hard life. Very few women had independent means of support. When a widow’s husband died, she was completely at the mercy of her relatives, especially her sons. If they did not care, she would have to scrape by in any way she could. The widow in our story is very likely one of the less fortunate ones.
Jesus commented on this woman’s faith and praised her for her trust that God would care for her. He did not condemn the giving of others. Instead, Jesus taught the disciples that the amount someone gives to God is not as important to him as the faith it demonstrates.
Christians are not commanded to give a specific amount of money or even a particular percentage of our income. We give offerings to our church, to other organizations in the Church and to care for those in need. We love God and want to participate in His mission to seek and save the lost. So we share what we have, praying that God would bless them for the good of others.
Rev. Robert E. Smith Concordia Theological Seminary Fort Wayne, Indiana
Encore Post: For Jesus and the disciples, it had been a long day. The crowds had turned out to hear Jesus teach and he did so all day. In the evening, Jesus challenged the disciples to feed the crowds with five loaves and two fishes. They couldn’t but he did. They gathered up the pieces in twelve baskets. So Jesus needed to get away to pray. They just needed to get away. So Jesus pushed them to get in the boat and do what they knew very well — travel across the lake. He went away to pray alone.
For people in ancient times, the sea was a symbol of chaos and evil. They did so for good reason. Not only was the sea a place that could become violent at a moment’s notice, they had no way to know about coming storms as we do today. The disciples were veterans of the sea, not bothered much by the wind and wave, even when it was rough. That evening, the sea was much trouble. They could not use their sails, which would be blown to pieces. So they labored to row against it all night. They made good progress nevertheless.
Yet they were so exhausted that they did not know Jesus at first. They thought He was a ghost. When He told them who He was, they still weren’t sure. Peter came up with a test. If it was Jesus, Peter could walk on the water too, if Jesus wanted him to. As long as Peter paid attention to the Lord, he did walk on water. Only when he turned to watch wind and wave did Peter fear and begin to sink. What they missed is they did not need to be afraid. They should have known they could trust Jesus. By this event, Jesus taught His disciples to trust Him, even when water and wave threaten to destroy them.
O Savior, whose almighty word The winds and waves submissive heard, Who walked upon the foaming deep, And calm amid the rage did sleep; O hear us when we cry to Thee For those in peril on the sea.
I’ve recently written two articles. First, the LCMS and those in our global fellowship are the only right teaching church. And, some non-Lutherans will surely go to heaven, but we’ll all be Lutheran in heaven. Now, there are folks calling themselves Christians who will not go to heaven.
False Teachers and those who firmly believe their demonstrably false teaching are prob’ly not going to heaven.
Concerning diseased trees who will be known by their bad fruits, Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21-23)
Jesus says about false teachers, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matthew 18:5-6) We are all to trust what we hear like little children, trust the words of our father and mother. But woe to those leading any astray. The depths of the sea are for Satan and His minions, miscreants, and myrmidons. “Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea.” (Revelation 18:21a) The Dragon, the great serpent, who is the Devil belongs there in the sea.
Francis Pieper warns strongly about continually, knowingly, teaching falsely because others have done the same. “Over against such notions we need to perceive clearly and to maintain firmly that the “felicitous inconsistency,” through which by the grace of God an erring Christian is kept from losing his personal faith, in no way extenuates the error, much less legitimizes it. Those who defend their false teaching by citing the case of pious erring fathers are reminded by Luther of a possible eventuality: they follow the pious fathers indeed, but will not be with them at the end. Teaching in the House of God, the church, is a most serious matter. The teachers of the church must never forget: 1. Scripture nowhere gives any man the license to deviate in any point from God’s Word.”
Point one is very clear. When God’s Word refutes the existence of female “pastors,” the denial of infant faith, the denial of the real physical presence of Christ for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation in the Lord’s Supper, the denial of two genders given to us by God from creation, the denial of Jesus’ full forgiveness by the words of your pastor, and the like, there is no room in Christianity for a false teacher unless they repent and turn from their sin. Yet false teachers persist in their refuted error.
“… 2. Every departure from the Word of Christ, as found in the Word of His Apostles, is expressly designated an offense. Romans 16:17: ‘Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them.’” When we hear false teachers, we must call out the error. Furthermore, we must also withdraw ourselves and our families from the false teaching.
“… 3. Everyone who rejects the testimony of scripture concerning one doctrine, actually, though he is not fully aware of it, invalidates the Christian principle of [inerrancy].” It is impossible to deny a “small area” of doctrine. All of the scriptures are breathed out by God. There is no shady spot for a teacher, a student of God’s Word, to hide themselves in a known rejection of God’s Word.
Avoidance keeps us and our families away from the infection of false teaching. Treatment seeks to cure the infection with repentance and renewal in the faith, away from false teaching. Surgery severs us from the false teaching/teachers by removing them from us and our families.
Stay tuned, there is still more: does a “Christian Church” exist?
Close your ears to false teachers, dear Christians.
Rev. Jason M. Kaspar Sole Pastor Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool La Grange, TX And Mission Planting Pastoral team Epiphany Lutheran Church, Bastrop, TX
Encore Post: In the ancient world, the majority of children died before their 18th birthday. In fact, childhood death was common until the twentieth century. Every couple could expect to bury at least one child during their lifetime. That is why the childhood prayer was taught to generations of young people: “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. If I should live another day, I pray the Lord to guide my way.”
Children and young people, therefore, were kept at an emotional distance and paid little attention. Besides, Children were disruptive, especially when a Rabbi was trying to teach. They do not understand abstract thought and so would look for other ways to entertain themselves and get attention. They were expected to behave, to be just like the adults with them. So, they were pushed aside so that adults could get on with “important” business. Keep them out of sight and out of mind.
Jesus made two points by bringing a child before them. First, all people are important to God, no matter how small. He loves them, cares for them. In fact, Jesus came to die for them, too. They are not the future of the church — they are the church.
Second, children trust adults to take care of them, live humbly and assume their love. In fact, they are better Christians than adults! To be Christians, after all, means to trust God to take care of us, to deny ourselves, knowing we are cared for and dedicate our lives to the service of others. This comes naturally to them. They are not bothered when they cannot understand something adults or God tell them. They accept the truth, rely on it and build on it because they trust their parents, their teachers and God. They may not know something but they know someone. So, ironically, if we want to grow in faith, we need to become like them and trust the God who made us, loves us, died for us, cares for us and will bring us home one day to be with him forever.
Encore Post: Jesus had sent his apostles out on a mission to preach in the towns and villages of Galilee. When they returned to him, he decided rest was in order. So they got into a boat, went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee to a place in the wilderness. But people saw where they were going and ran ahead of them. When they got out of the boat, a crowd had gathered. So he taught them. The disciples recommended that Jesus send them away at evening to get something to eat. But Jesus told them to feed the crowd. Since they had only five small loaves of bread and two fish, they thought it was impossible, but did as he asked. The whole crowd were fed with twelve baskets of bread pieces left over. (Mark 6:33-44)
The people no doubt remembered that, when God freed His people from slavery in Egypt, He led them into the wilderness for forty years. He fed them with bread from Heaven, called Manna, and quails for meat at night. Much later, during a drought, the prophet Elijah stayed with a widow and her son in Zarephath. God made the widow’s flour and oil last until the prophet left.
When Jesus fed more than five thousand people in the wilderness, they would remember these things and the other ways that God took care of His people. Later Jesus would give us the Lord’s Supper, where He gives us His Body and Blood to eat with bread and wine. This sacrament meets our need for forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. When we remember how God provides for us food to eat, we also think of how he also feeds us with his own body to strengthen us. He gives us bread in the wilderness of this life and bread for our long journey until we arrive home.
