January 2025 – What Does This Mean?

A Walk Through the Liturgy: Confession and Absolution

Encore Post: We go from one activity to another, often without even beating an eye. This certainly can happen within the Divine Service. How much attention do we pay to what’s going on? Do we know why we do what we do in worship service?

Before confessing our sins as a whole congregation, we speak back and forth responsively, “I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord” and the congregation responds, “and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.” After those words, there are some important red words printed in the hymnal. They say, “Silence for reflection on God’s Word and for self-examination.”

There is a time of silence. It is a time to consider myself and yourself in light of God’s Law found in the Ten Commandments. Have I been the best father and husband I could have been for my children these past days? Probably not. I failed in my responsibility to my wife and children, breaking the 4^th commandment not being a faithful to my calling as head of my household. Did I grudgingly congratulate someone who won the raffle or the lottery, when in reality wishing it was me? Yup, so I broke the 7^th, 9^th and 10^th commandments. And oh, by the way, I broke the first commandment because I didn’t trust God to give me all that I need.

Lord, have mercy. I am a sinner. I deserve exactly what I am about to confess about myself. I deserve death. We plead for God to have mercy on us.

But God who is faithful and just forgives our sins. Thanks be to God that, for Christ’s sake, God forgives our sins. We cannot add anything to make God forgive us. Christ has done it all. Thanks be to Christ!

When we confess our sins and receive His forgiveness in the words of Absolution, we are prepared to sing our Redeemer’s praises. We are prepared to receive from His bountiful goodness the forgiveness of sins purchased and won for us by our Lord Jesus by his death on the cross.

So, take a moment slow down and brush up on the Lord’s Ten Commandments in preparation for Confession and Absolution as we begin the Divine Service where God comes to serve us His gifts of forgiveness, life, salvation given to us on account of Christ, our Lord.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
Christ Lutheran Church
Noblesville, Indiana

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Your Pastors Already Know

Encore Post: The data is out there. The trends are known. We know before we go about our duties. We know who is likely to remain in the church. We know who is likely to return to the church. We already know.

Will the married couple remain in the church after their wedding in our building? Will the family bring their baptized child into the Lord’s house regularly? Will the catechumens remain in the church after they’re admitted to the altar? Will the new visitors become a permanent fixture here after transfer or conversion? Will the family newly invigorated by the death of a closely related blessèd saint of the Lord lose their zeal or keep it? Will the children keep coming when the duties, passions, and hormones of adolescence drag them around wildly in their own minds?

Your pastors pray the data is more dire than reality.

In each case, it boils down to habit and patterns.

Newlyweds: what is their family background? Was the couple from a similar upbringing: LCMS, regularly attending as a child and adolescent, and both parents bringing them to church? It’s the same way that similar ideas about money, number of children, and chiefly if moms and dads were married and remain married, improve the chances of a successful marriage. The commonalities of faith also improve the chances that these kids will be and remain in the church.

Your pastor will coach you concerning the difficulties in your future when the odds are not stacked in your favor. Only in extremely rare circumstances will he refuse marriage. Success is always possible. But, in order for that to blossom, we have to be honest about poor odds. Your pastor prays the Lord will deliver you from misfortune and strife, even the foreseeable kind.

Baptized child: what’s the deal with Mom and Dad? If they are or become regular attenders, the kids will probably follow suit. If they are not, their kids will still likely follow suit. Your pastor will often baptize a child whose future in the church is uncertain. He prays that foreseeable apostasy does not befall your house.

Catechumens: Again, what’s the deal with Mom and Dad? Here, there’s more data readily available. Did y’all attend regularly before confirmation was on the horizon? If not, there’s a mighty high chance the catechumens will peter out quickly following confirmation.

Your pastors will desperately attempt to instill new habits in the kids. He’ll impose strict attendance standards or require seemingly endless piles of sermon reports. He’s seen parents drop children off for required church attendance, while driving off themselves. He’s grieved to know the child may be lost already. He prays he’s wrong, keeps up with his efforts, and prays the Holy Spirit defeats those odds. Rarely would he withhold confirmation.

Transfers/Converts/Those motivated by a close death: Where were you before? Are you returning to lifelong patterns of attendance to the Lord’s house? Or are these attempts to develop a new pattern? Those who attended before are more likely to attend again. Those who did not, are not.

Adolescents: This group gets the most attention, the most ink spilt over them, and even individualistic ministerial attention. How often have you heard of a church with a minister of newlywed Christianization, baptismal life, catechetical instruction, or newly returned Christian life instruction? Prob’ly never. But, we’ve all seen churches with a youth minster or a youth ministry team.

Sadly, that’s also an example of the poor return on those efforts. Again, data indicates that strong youth programs don’t predict strong Christian adults from within them. Worse, when those programs look distinctively different from the churches from which they spring, they serve as an offramp directly out of the church. By the time the youth are at that age, the patterns are well-established. It will take an earth-moving effort by their father, dragging to the entire family to church, consistently to develop a new pattern. That effort has a chance. The youth group or activities are woefully unlikely to move the needle.

Can’t we beat the odds? Yes, we can. Your pastor prays you do. He preaches, teaches, and conducts himself towards you, assuming the data is wrong in your case.

As a body of believers, we have data to help direct our efforts. Children follow the patterns established by their fathers regarding church. As we discussed before, the data is stark in this regard. If we want baptized babies in church, children in church following along and learning, catechumens attending to the Lord’s house, youth who remain in or return to church, newlyweds who attend regularly and bring their babies to the font, we must have fathers to build those patterns into their children.

Your pastors already know. We pray every day that the data is wrong in your case.

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX

The posts in What does this Mean? blog are now available in Substack at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Meet Wilhelm Löhe

Encore Post: 153 years ago, Wilhelm Löhe was the pastor of a small, rural parish in Neuendettelsau, Bavaria. He was a leader in Germany’s then new Confessionalist movement. Because of this role, he always had a strained relationship with the leaders of his church body and so was kept out of the way — or so they thought.

Löhe was a man of boundless energy, persuasive when advocating a cause and highly skilled at marshaling talent and funds to accomplish a goal. In 1842, he read Friedrich Wyneken‘s appeals for the spiritual need of German Lutherans on the American frontier and his stirring plea for pastors. Löhe published his own appeal. He arranged to meet Wyneken to publish a polished version of the missionary’s appeal, titled Die Noth der deutschen Lutheraner in Nordamerika (The Need of the German Lutherans in North America) These appeals caused donations to flow in and soon second career men to volunteer to meet the need.

But Löhe was just getting started. With his friend Johann Friedrich Wucherer, he provided a basic education to second career men who volunteered to go to America. Soon they founded a mission society, raised funds, wrote manuals, instructions and churchly books. He at first sent these men and donations to the Ohio Synod’s seminary in Columbus, Ohio. When cultural and theological differences made that no longer possible, he worked with Wilhelm Sihler, pastor at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church of Fort Wayne, Indiana to found a “practical seminary” — an institution focused on providing pastors for the church as quickly as possible. In October 1846, this institution opened in his parsonage. This institution is now known as Concordia Theological Seminary — but that is another story!

Wilhelm Löhe, his friends and his small parish were just getting started, though. Seeing the suffering of the poor, the ill, the widowed and orphaned, he revived the office of deaconess. He also sent men and material to the Wartburg Seminary and its church body, the Iowa Synod (now a part of the ELCA), to Australia, the German colonists of Russia and other places. To provide a Christian witness to native Americans, he organized and founded Frankenmuth, Michigan and neighboring communities. His liturgies and worship books became the foundation of the Missouri Synod’s liturgy.

At the age of 63, Wilhelm Löhe died still serving as the pastor of his rural parish on January 2, 1872. He is buried where he served. His institutions still continue to this day, serving God and his church world-wide.

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

The posts in What does this Mean? blog are now available in Substack at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Our God, our Help in Ages Past…

Encore Post: The reign of Anne, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland, was a peaceful time for Isaac Watts and his fellow Reformed believers. Her Anglican policy of tolerance made her a very popular monarch. When she died, great anxiety spread. It was possible that the Catholic Stewart family would try to claim the throne, even after Lutheran Elector George of Hanover was crowned King George I. Only the passage of time calmed frayed nerves.

Isaac Watts was intent on improving the worship of Reformed congregations by paraphrasing Psalms so that Christians could sing the Psalms from the perspective of faith in Christ Jesus. He cast Psalm 90 as a collect for times of uncertainty. “Our God our Help in Ages Past” reminds us of what God has done for us in the past, especially by the suffering and death of Christ for our salvation, and what he will do for us in the future, when he returns in glory. The middle stanzas contrast the temporary nature of life in this world with the eternity of God, his promises and his love. The final stanza asks that God would guard us now and be our eternal place of rest.

One of the most beloved hymns in English hymnody, the song is popular for the opening of a school year, Remembrance Day in Canada and New Year’s Day in many churches. The tune most associated with it, St. Anne, imitates the tolling of bells as they mark the passage of time.

The original text is as follows:

1 Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

2 Under the shadow of thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is thine arm alone,
And our defence is sure.

3 Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth receiv’d her frame,
From everlasting thou art God,
To endless years the same.

4 Thy word commands our flesh to dust,
“Return, ye sons of men:”
All nations rose from earth at first,
And turn to earth again.

5 A thousand ages in thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.

6 The busy tribes of flesh and blood,
With all their lives and cares,
Are carried downwards by thy flood,
And lost in following years.

7 Time like an ever-rolling stream
Bears all its Sons away;
They fly forgotten as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

8 Like flowery fields the nations stand
Pleas’d with the morning light;
The flowers beneath the mower’s hand
Lie withering ere ’tis night.

9 Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

What’s in a Name?

Encore Post: Our names are important to us. They are kind of shorthand for everything we are and have worked to build. They tell us which family we belong to and how close we are to the people who use it. At important times in our lives, our names change — when we get married, if we are appointed to an office, earn a degree or get married. Parents often take a lot of time deciding on the name to give to each of their children.

In the Hebrew culture of the Bible, names meant even more, if that it possible. They were thought to predict the kind of person that the child will be. Often, people would change their name when life changed. Sometimes a name was given, along with the reason it was chosen. Some of the most important people in God’s plan were named by God Himself.

On January 1st, the Lutheran Church traditionally celebrates the Circumcision and Naming of Jesus. God Himself gave Jesus his name. The name is a form of the name Joshua, which means God saves. (Matthew 1:27) The angel told Joseph “for he will save his people from their sins.” In one sense, we dedicate each new year in Jesus’ name. In another sense, God dedicates us in the name of Jesus.

In the circumcision of Jesus, God’s son began his suffering for our salvation. He lived a perfect life for our sake, suffered and died on the cross for our sake, rose again from the dead and ascended into Heaven for our sake. In Our baptism, God’s name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is given to us. We are now his children and we will live with him forever. On the last day, Jesus will return for us. He truly is Jesus, because he saves us from our sin.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack