Author: Robert Smith

Sermon preached at Kramer Chapel of Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, 28 September 2012 (from a transcript)

Grace, Mercy and peace be to you from God our father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

Deep forests, vast prairies, breathtaking mountains, mighty rivers, America called to people yearning for a utopia – a good place — to show the world what society purged of evil could be like. The Puritans came across the sea just over 400 years ago and planted its city on a hill — The Plymouth Bay colony. Quaker William Penn acquired a colony, — Penn’s Woods — where anyone of any religious view could come to find a home — even Lutherans!

To America came more utopias — Shakers and Harmonists. Mormons and Amish, eventually Saxon Lutherans and Löhe’s colonies of witness in the Saginaw Valley — all trying to erect ideal societies to some extent.

In civil terms, they succeeded, but in spiritual terms they were disappointed. It seems even devout Christians are still sinners. Who would have imagined it?

God has hardwired law into all our hearts and our creation, and so from the very beginning of civilized society, people wondered: what would it be like to have a perfect society?

Plato, had his Republic, Augustine the City of God. Monastics had their monasteries and convents. As we go down through time, Thomas Moore, made fun of it. He coined the term Ευτοπία — meaning good place — but also Ουτοπία — meaning no place because there is no such place. After all, even though Luther didn’t say it, the old Adam is a good swimmer.

Yes, we can live a good life in service to neighbor. But that only goes so far. At best living according to nature, we can praise the good and condemn the evil together we can live in well-ordered societies and civil law can keep and succeed at it. Yet it cannot extinguish sin.

There is always some way that we will rebel against the rules that are made up for us for our own good.

God’s law does work as a curb and so, in good times, our societies can keep sin well under control, even though those good times really don’t last. Even though there is a measure of peace — Even in the best society, yet, sin is still there. To keep the law is extremely difficult, even if only externally.

We are tempted to think that’s all we have to do. You can run your checklist of the 10 Commandments, we think.

Look I go to church on Sunday. Check.
I don’t have any gods other than the Holy Trinity. Check.
I don’t ever swear. Check.
That gets the first table all down.
I love my parents. Check.
I haven’t murdered anybody recently. Check.
I have honored my wife. Check.
I don’t covet — at least publicly. Check.
And so you think that you have it all covered.

The new Moses, however, informs us that exterior righteousness really doesn’t work.

In the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord goes through and points out that it’s not good enough not to murder. You can’t even swear at them when you cut them off in traffic or show them the universal sign of displeasure.

It is not enough not to commit adultery, but to even look at a swimsuit model if you’re male, or the Bachelor on The Bachelor if you’re female, and think thoughts — slightly inappropriate thoughts. Even that is adultery in God’s book.

You see, Jesus pointed out it is not those things that come from the outside that corrupt a person. It is that which is in inside of us,. that we constantly think evil thoughts all the time — that is what corrupts a person. And if you can’t deal with that problem within you, there is no chance that you are going to stop sinning.

Education will not cure it. Redistribution of wealth will not solve it. Blaming the other guy just doesn’t hack it. Piety will not quench it, striving to overcome it will not work, no matter how high the standards you set, no matter how hard you work, sooner or later that old Adam and that old Eve is going to get you. That is why the works of the really good guys in the time of Jesus, the Pharisees, really just weren’t enough. They may be able to get the exterior right, but inside they are still filled with lust, sin, envy and all that goes with it.

And so if you want to enter God’s Kingdom. Your righteousness has to exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees. Good luck with that. You’re going to need it.

What we need is a completely different kind of righteousness, not one that comes from inside of us, that we can gin up, that we can achieve if we work as hard as we can.

What we need is a righteousness that comes from Jesus Christ himself.

Jesus is the blessed one, who lived the perfect life for us and fulfilled every letter of the law, every iota, accent, yod, dagesh and dash. He kept every aspect of that law for us, so that when he took our evil to the cross, he was able to break its power once and for all. Dying for our guilt and bearing our sin, he paid its punishment once and for all. When he rose again from the dead he brought to us the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.

In baptism, we receive from him this righteousness, a righteousness which exceeds not only that of the Pharisees, but describes what fulfills God’s perfect purpose. Exactly that righteousness is now ours, so that when we come before God’s throne, what he sees is his son, and not us.

Yes, we still do sin, because the world, the devil and our flesh still haunt us. But even when we find it difficult to keep more than just the exterior law. we have someone who lives in us. Saint Paul reminds us it is not we who live, but Christ who lives in us.

And so, when we have trouble keeping the law, we can turn to Christ who is within us, who has kept the law already for us and from his strength we can live good lives in this world. And as we live, we serve each other and serve our neighbors, Christian or not. We will become a light in this world where people will look to us and see Christ and wonder how is it that you can live that way. And when we tell them we can’t on our own, but with Christ alone can, they will be drawn to him.

He is, after all, the source of all light and so we will reflect his light, until the day Christ comes to bring an end to sin and death and the power of the devil. Then the true city of God will descend from heaven itself, The church, perfected in God’s glory to live in the good new place, the true utopia, forever and ever, Amen.

And now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, set watch over our hearts and minds in faith in Christ Jesus to life everlasting, Amen.

©2012, 2021 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

On September 3rd, 1846, the Bark Caroline arrived from Bremen, Germany at the port of New York after fifty-six days at sea. Aboard were eleven second career men and a candidate for the ministry. They were bound for Fort Wayne, Indiana. The were the first formal class of students to attend what is now Concordia Theological Seminary.

Like most German immigrants, the soon-to-be student body would be very glad to stand on the bustling docks. They would be far from alone. By 1846, thousands of Germans arrived in New York each day, bound for the lands in the Midwest, which were legendary for their fertility. They would soon have hard work ahead of them, literally carving farmland out of the endless old growth forests in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and territories to the west.

Wilhelm Löhe called these future pastors Sendlinge (“Sent ones”) and Nothelfer (“Emergency Helpers”) They were second career men who were given a crash course in an array of subjects, designed to produce pastors for the hundreds of thousands of Germans scattered on the frontier. Löhe and several of his friends spent about a year preparing the men to go to North America. Dr. Wilhelm Sihler and several instructors that would serve alongside of him would finish their training in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The Sendlinge likely booked passage to Fort Wayne via a steamboat to Albany, New York. There they would travel on a packet boat along the Erie and Wabash Canals. In good weather, the trip would have been quite pleasant, towed most of the way by mules, traveling through nearly virgin forest across New York State to Buffalo, along the southern shore of the great lakes, into the Wabash Canal through the Black Swamp to Fort Wayne. They would take their meals on board, but would stay overnight in inns and taverns that had risen along the route to care for passengers. The trip would take about a week.

The frontier town of about five thousand residents had begun to prosper. Fort Wayne was the portage between the Maumee River and the Little Wabash River — ten miles that separated the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River systems. The canal bridged that gap, so goods, settlers and travelers soon flowed through town on the way back and forth across the frontier. Many German settlers selected this area as their home and a growing number of Lutheran congregations were scattered across that wilderness. Dr. Sihler and his predecessor, missionary F. C. D. Wyneken had been caring for them from this crossroads.

©2021 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

The Jews hated the Romans because they believed that God wanted them to rule themselves. In addition, the Romans were pagans, who worshipped idols, and lived in ways often directly against God’s Law. The saw Zacchaeus and Matthew as traitors who kept the Romans in power. The Pharisees mentioned them in the same breath as sinners — people who lived as they liked and ignored God’s laws completely. The feeling was often mutual. So tax collectors would often live like Romans do, cheat the people and live at their expense. Zacchaeus was like that. He was a tax farmer — a collector who employed other tax collectors. He would add a hefty surcharge to all he collected and think nothing of putting his thumb on the scales.

Zacchaeus was curious. He likely had heard all about this Rabbi, a descendant of David, who taught in a very direct way, healed the sick and loved people the Pharisees shunned. Being a short man, he climbed a sycamore tree to get a good look. The Rabbi surprised him. Jesus called him out by name, told him to come down because he had to stay in his house.

The tax collector was moved because Jesus did the unthinkable. He spoke to the tax collector. Even more, he stayed in his home and received his fellowship. This was unthinkable for a Rabbi. It would be like a pastor staying in a prostitute’s home to us today. Yet Jesus loved Zacchaeus. This love moved the tax collector to change his life and become His disciple. The tax collector was amazed. He had left God, but God had not left him.

Jesus explained why he was doing this to the crowd. In Jesus, God himself had come to this lost Son of Abraham. This was because God had sent his Son to seek and save the lost.

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©2021 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

One day when Jesus was at home in Capernaum, the friends of a paralyzed man brought him to to Jesus to be healed. The word about Jesus’ teaching and ability to heal was spreading throughout the area. His reputation had reached the scribes, biblical scholars of the time, and they were present to hear what the new rabbi had to say. The crowds were so big that the friends could not bring the paralytic to him through the front door. So they climbed up on the roof.

In the time of Jesus, towns like his built flat roofs made of branches, dried plant material and mud. The friends of the disabled man had a brilliant idea — they dug a hole in the roof over where Jesus was sitting and lowered him down to the teacher. Jesus recognized their love for the man and their faith in God. So, he forgave the man his sins.

While that sounds like an odd thing to do for us, it didn’t to Jesus’ audience. The Pharisees and other people believed that God punished especially bad sins with sickness and disaster. They thought that the blind, the paralyzed, lepers and others like them must have done something very wrong. Sins are ultimately all committed against God. So, if a person’s sins are forgiven, there is no longer a reason for the illness.

The people also believed that only God could forgive these sins and make the person well. By forgiving the man his sin, Jesus showed that He had the authority to forgive sins and to heal. Both are impossible for man, but not so for God. To say, “your sins are forgiven” or to say “get up a walk” are just as easy to say since both should be impossible — unless you’re God. And Jesus is God in the flesh. The people missed the point. They thought it meant that people also could forgive sins.

Because Jesus took all our sins to the cross and die to pay the price for them, he has the authority forgive them all. Which he does. He also tells pastors to forgive the sins of those who repent of them.

So, Jesus wants his people to do both today. He wants us to forgive sins and to have compassion on the sick and disabled. He wants us to pray for them and to do whatever we can to care for them. In the end, it is Jesus himself who does the forgiving — right here, right now and forever.

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©2021 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Our world is an evil place. Full of selfishness, violence, envy and hatred, people kill and torture each other, steal from each other destroy neighborhoods and businesses and ruin the lives of their neighbors. Christians are attacked for their faith and for trying to live life according to God’s word. Don’t you wish that all good, Lutheran Christians could move to a new place, live according to the will of God and love for each other?

We’re not the first Christians to think this way. Some Christians moved to desert areas where they lived more or less by themselves or in communities dedicated to live a pure Christian life. Called Monks (from the latin word for being alone) and Nuns, it worked to a certain degree. But as a project to live sinless lives, it failed every time. It turns out that even the most pious Christian has a sinful nature living in them. No place and be the good place, because there is no one in this world who lives a sinless life.

American history is filled with communities which thought the could achieve an ideal society by inviting only Christians committed to the vision of its founder to settle in it. Sir Thomas More wrote a satire in 1516 he called Utopia (a pun on two Greek words that mean good place and no place) making fun of life in his time. He set it on an imaginary island in America. The Puritans tried such a community in Massachusetts, followed by the Quakers, the Moravians, the Amana Colonies, non-Christian movements such as the Shakers, the Mormons, the Harmonists and others — and even Lutherans in Perry County, Missouri and the Saginaw Valley in Michigan.

The problem was that no place in this life is the good place. The Old Adam and Old Eve live in the hearts of every Christian. Sin will emerge sooner or later. We can’t expect perfection here. Such communities often produce much good but when people put their trust in them and not God, they are bound to be disappointed.

The solution to the evil world is in Christ. He took the sins of the world on himself, bore them to the cross where he died to pay the price for the damage they caused, breaking the power of sin and death forever. On the last day, he will bring an end to evil once and for all, raise us all from the dead, transform our bodies  for everlasting life. We will live together with him without sin, death, disease and evil. That is the good place.

So, if pulling out of the world is not a good solution for Christians, how do we cope? As most Christians have done for two thousand years, we continue to live in the world, but live according to the Word of God. We gather with other Christians, receive the gifts God desires to give us: the forgiveness of our sins, the hearing of his word of life, which has the power to change our hearts and the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus, which is food for the journey. We live for the next life, to witness to the love of God in Christ Jesus and to strengthen each other for the journey. Then, before we know it, we will be in that Good Place which lasts not for a lifetime, but forever.

©2021 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries tocosmithb@gmail.com.

Encore Posts: The Egyptians were not the only people that built pyramids. The Mayans, the Aztecs, the Sumerians — and the Babylonians did also. The all had the same purpose. They were meant to be man-made mountains that would be a ladder from Earth to Heaven, where they could visit the gods, sacrifice to them and get what they want from heaven. Most had temples at the very top, where sacrifices were made, some of them human sacrifices.

The people of Babel intended to settle down, build a city and one of these temples. This idea was sinful in two ways. God had commanded them to migrate over the whole Earth and fill it with people. They saw good farmland and decided to stay. They decide to build a great temple to manipulate God so that they could get everything they wanted. In a sense, they worshipped themselves. But God confused their language and scattered them anyway. Their sin resulted in people fearing each other and set one nation against another.

God gave Abraham a glimpse of this on Mount Moriah. Every indication God gave to him was that sacrifice would be just like the way his pagan neighbors practiced it. He demanded what was most precious to him in sacrifice — his own son whom he loved. But God had something else in mind on that mountain. God’s own son — his only son — whom he loved — stopped the sacrifice of Isaac. Later it would be God who would provide himself as the sacrifice for sin.

So Jesus came to be the ultimate sacrifice. His death was not an attempt to manipulate God, but was God of His own free will paying the price for their sins of rebellion. In Jesus, all divisions among people come to an end. The miracle of the Day of Pentecost showed that God can make us one people again — not to serve ourselves, but worship God together. The speaking of tongues on that day showed that God would bring together his people from all times, places, races, peoples, nations and languages.

©2019 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Why are we the loneliest generation? With ever-present devices designed for communication, we can be instantly in contact with every friend we ever had. Social media allows us to do this easily and effortlessly not only by phone, but by computer or by simply speaking to devices we’ve installed throughout our homes. These were lifelines for us during the pandemic of 2020-21, allowing us even to watch worship services and sermons while barred from gathering in person. These blessings tempt us to think we do not need to get together with others or even go to church in person.

Yet study after study tells us what we know deep down. Disembodied communications will do in a pinch, but we really do need each other and not a ghost of each other on a computer screen. The shut down of society resulted in record numbers of suicides, drug overdose deaths and domestic violence. The heart-breaking images on TV news of spouses and children, separated from loved ones as they died haunt us.

None of this should surprise us. God made human beings to be with him and with each other. In the Garden of Eden, God observed “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make a helper fit for him.” (Genesis 2:18) So he made a woman to be with him. He then commanded our first parents to have children and fill the world with their descendents. Because God made humanity in his image, we are made to live with each other, much like the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not alone, but live together eternally.

When sin separated God from people and people from each other, God did not leave it that way. God’s Son was sent by the Father to become a flesh-and-blood man, conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Through his sufferings and death, he paid the price for our salvation and destroyed the separation between God and his people and the wall of hostility between us all. He calls us together to live with him and each other. When we gather together, he is with us all. When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, the Lord Jesus himself is with us literally to give us his body to eat and his blood to drink. When we do this, he is really present with us and we are really present with each other.

Since God made us to be with each other, we need to gather together. Each of us brings a different set of gifts and talents to the mix. The truth is that we need each other, no matter how unimportant we might think of ourselves. (1 Corinthian 12:12-30) When we get together, God is present to give us his gifts of the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. We rejoice together in these gifts, share each other’s sufferings and each other’s blessings. We encourage each other to love God and our neighbors. We support each other in doing the good works God calls us to do.(Hebrews 10:19-25)

This is why we gather together, being really present with each other, really present as Christ’s Church and really present with our Lord with whom we will live forever.

©2021 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

It is Spring cleaning time at our blog and so, like a good librarian, I’ve moved things around a bit. We used to use URLs (link addresses) that contained the date a post was last made public. We have removed the date from the URL. So, if you have a link to one of our posts and want to re-read it, just delete the date from it and you are good to go.

If you can’t find a post in the near future, this is likely the problem. To find one if you don’t have the link for some reason or another, you can search for it from our home page (whatdoesthismean.blog to from google or another search engine. Just search for this address in th search engine alone with a few of the words from the post title.

Thanks for understanding.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Electronic Resources Librarian
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana
and
Editor
What Does This Mean? Blog

In May of 1521, young knight moved into the Castle Wartburg, in a small apartment normally used to house noble prisoners. He was cared for by two young squires and was well cared for by the warden of the castle, who became his friend. From time to time, he would venture out into the town nearby. Once he went hunting with other nobles, but didn’t seem to enjoy the sport. Known as Junker Jörg, (Knight George), he was not the minor noble that he seemed. Lucas Cranach the Younger, renaissance artist, painted his portrait. He was in fact Martin Luther.

Luther lived in the Wartburg for ten months while the politics of Germany settled down in the wake of the Edict of Worms. The secret was well-kept. Even the brother of Elector Frederick, who would be Luther’s ruler in a few years, did not know the reformer was there until he visited the castle in September. Before too long, his friend knew he was alive and well. Luther wrote an amazing number of letters to support and advise them. These letters went from Luther to the Elector’s chancellor and his good friend George Spalatin, who sent them on. Without the duties of a professor, pastor and leader of a movement, Luther was able concentrate on writing and write he did. Excluding the letters, his Wartburg writings fill two full volumes of the Weimar Edition of his works.

Although he eventually became used to life in the Wartburg, Luther was not suited to life as a noble. He went from being a monastic with a frugal diet to the rich foods of the court. He got much less exercise and was cut off from the all the interaction with people. He was ill suited to that kind of life. It would be only a matter of time before he would have to return to Wittenberg publically.

©2021 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com