Robert Smith – Page 39 – What Does This Mean?

Read, Mark, Learn and Take God’s Word to Heart

Encore Post: So, you want to study God’s word, but you’re kind of afraid to do so. You remember all those “begats” and difficult words, long, boring lists of names and places you only half understand. It doesn’t help that you haven’t much cracked the book open since college or even confirmation class. Then the pastor pours on the good old Lutheran guilt. So… you go to the store and see rows and rows of Bibles of all sizes, shapes, colors, translations and types. Makes you think you really can’t do it, doesn’t it?

Well, you’re not alone. Many people find it hard to approach the Bible, even though they know it is good for them. There are lots of barriers to understanding the Scriptures. But there also is much that even the smallest child can understand. After all, God knows you and knows you need help. That is why he takes the initiative and spoke to us though first prophets, and then, in these last days, though his Son.(Hebrews 1:1-2) God’s nature is impossible for us to understand in the end, but a man — just like us — now that we can understand.

One classic analogy tells us the Bible is like an ocean. At the shore, it is shallow and inviting, a place even a toddler can enjoy. Yet it is so deep and challenging that the most experienced diver cannot exhaust its mysteries. The great fathers and theologians have spent a lifetime exploring it, and yet always found more to challenge them.

So, don’t be afraid of it. Wade in — the water is fine! To help you find your way, we’ll explore some rules you can use and strategies you can take to learn much. You may be pleased to discover that most of them are common sense.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Eck Publishes Bull Exsurge Domini

After the bull Exsurge Domine was formalized in Rome, Pope Leo X appointed Johann Eck and Aleander as Nuncios to proclaim the bull in Germany. Eck was reluctant to do this with good reason — he himself was very controversial in Germany and it hurt the credibility of the bull to have him put it into effect. Aleander was a respected humanist and given the task to deliver the bull to the emperor, Frederick the Wise and other rulers. Eck went first to his parishes in Ingolstadt, where he had the bull printed. He had no difficulty issuing it where the Pope’s loyal supporters were in power. In Mainz, Cologne, and Louvain, it was proclaimed and Luther’s books burned. That was where his good fortune ended.

In Northern Germany, the bull was greeted with hostility. It was posted in Meissen five hundred years ago on September 21, in Merceburg on 25 September and in Brandenburg on 29 September. Eck remained in Leipzig until 3 October. Not risking entering Wittenberg or Electoral Saxony personally, he sent copies to the University of Wittenberg in the hands of militiamen. Although Duke Georger favored the bull, the people reacted angrily, vandalizing the proclamation, circulating pamphlets against him and sending him death threats. He had to stay in the Dominican monastery for protection. Students from Wittenberg engaged in these and other violent activities against him. On October 4, Eck returned to Ingolstadt.

Bishops, rulers and universities by and large stalled, made excuses and attempted to dodge proclaiming it.

Why You Do Not Want God to be Fair

Encore Post: You are a good Lutheran. Really! You are a committed Christian. You go to church every Sunday, give 10% of your income to church and care for anyone in need you meet. You study the scriptures, go to Bible Study and serve in one church position after another. You even read this blog every time we post! So, when you get sick, when you are in an accident, when a flood or tornado hits your home, you cry out to God, “It isn’t fair!” And you are right — but in a way you do not expect.

When we try to be fair to others, we’re trying to do a number of things. To be fair, we strive to treat everyone the same. We try to be consistent, acting the same way every time. We give people what the rules say they deserve — no more or no less. Yet we cannot know all the factors that should influence our decision. We are, after all, human. We expect better from God.

The Scriptures tell us that God is just, righteous and even-handed. And he is God expects us to be holy in thought, word and deed. He shows no partiality.

Sihler, Wyneken and the Sendlinge Leave Their Synods

Friedrich Wyneken‘s call for pastors to serve in America was very successful. From the beginning of his missionary work in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, Wyneken wrote one letter after another to friends in Germany, church newspapers and anyone who would listen. A few pastors joined him on the frontier, but not nearly enough to meet the needs of the ceaseless flood of immigrants settling there. In 1841, one of these pastors came to Fort Wayne and Decatur to care for his parishes. He decided he needed to press the case in person. The General Synod agreed to send him home to do this and seek treatment for a throat ailment.

From October 20th, 1841 to July 5th, 1843, Wyneken met with people throughout Germany, raised funds, and recruited missionaries. He met with Wilhelm Löhe, who had already been working to send men to America, nicknamed Sendlinge (Sent ones) and Nothilfer (emergency helpers). They formed a friendship that shaped Löhe’s strategy, who would prepare second career men for service in America and send them to an American seminary to round out their education in country. He also helped Wyneken polish his appeal into the very successful Distress of the German Lutherans in North America. The first seminary to benefit from these students was the Ohio Synod’s german language institute in Columbus, Ohio.

175 years ago, Wilhelm Sihler, Friedrich Wyneken and the Sendlinge met in Cleveland. The American Lutheran church bodies were proving to be not very true to Lutheran doctrine and practice. Of special concern was the form of the words of institution used by the Ohio Synod (“Jesus said, “take, eat…”), which allowed for Reformed tradition Christians to commune with Lutherans, and that the Columbus seminary would not exclusively teach in German. In addition, the first issue of C. F. W. Walther’s Der Lutheraner indicated there were other confessional Lutherans in America. The wrote a joint letter, the Document of Separation, in which they all resigned from their respective Synods. They agreed to reach out Walther and the Saxons about the possibility of forming a new synod and to Löhe to found a seminary in Fort Wayne.

Tested in Every Way as We Are

Encore Post: After Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit sent him into the desert alone for forty days to fast and pray prior to beginning his ministry. The number forty was important to the Jewish people. Their ancestors wandered in the desert for forty years. Moses and Elijah fasted for forty days in the desert. God kept Noah and his family safe in the ark for forty days. For them, the number forty stood for a period of testing. The church took its cue from these periods of testing when it chose to make the season of Lent forty days long.

After the forty days were over, Satan appeared to test him. He said: Why not turn stones into bread? Why not prove to everyone you are the Christ by jumping off the temple so that angels will catch you? You can avoid the cross by worshipping me? After all, I can give you the world!

Jesus could have blown Satan away, but He chose to face temptation in every way that we are tempted, but he did not sin. (Hebrews 4:15) He quoted the will of God from the Scriptures instead. In God’s Word is the power to overcome the Devil — and the world and our flesh, too.

Satan gave up for awhile. He knew he would have other opportunities. Ahead of Jesus was still his sufferings and death for our sins. Because He faced temptation as a human, we know He understands us and is ready to help. So, we go with him this Lent, walking with him to Jerusalem, to and through Good Friday and on to Easter.

Church Words #30: Sin

Encore Post: Sin is one of those church words everyone knows. After all it is what is wrong with the world. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just move to a remote place with just Christians. Then we would be in a good place (a utopia), where there is no sin — or where sin is manageable — right? Then we would be with only people who try to be good. That is what many Christians have thought in the last two thousand years. Yet it never works. Why? Because Christians, even the best of us, are still sinners. We can’t leave it behind because we bring it with us. There is no place that is “the good place” — at least not in this life!

At it’s basic level, sin is breaking God’s law. It may be by not meeting its standards (being good, but not good enough, like not lifting a hand in anger ever, but swearing at people under our breath or behind their backs). It may be by transgressing his law, going over the bright lines it lays down, or being lawless, living as if we can do anything we wish, as if there was no law. We invent good deeds that impress us to do — we fast, we go on pilgrimages, we create rituals and perform them, we advertise donating to the poor. We will do anything, except follow God’s word. Yet actual sins, things we think or do, is not the root of the problem. It is not what do, but who we are.

Since Adam and Eve committed the original sin, we have all been born as sinners. In trying to be like God, our first parents stopping being righteous, like God. Now we are all born as slaves to sin. Just like a slave cannot free himself, we can not free ourselves. Our thoughts are curved in on themselves, even what we think are good thoughts and deeds are colored by self-interest. Because he is holy, God cannot tolerate this. So we are destined to live separated from God forever. And so we die. So, someone must set us free.

That is why the Son of God was born of a virgin. As God, he was (and is) without sin. As a human, he is able to die, taking our place in paying the full price of our freedom on the cross. When he died, we died to sin. When he rose, we rose from death with him as a child of God. In baptism, he sets us free from sin and the compulsion to sin. Now we are free people, Children of God. Sin’s power over us is broken. Now we can live a new life in him.

Blog Post Series

A Lutheran Kind of Colony

175 years ago, a small colony of Lutheran missionaries began to clear land in the swampy pine forests of Michigan’s Saginaw Valley. Like many other settlements in 19th century America. they fervently believed in their religion and were led by a pastor, August Crämer. Unlike most utopian movements, however, they were orthodox Christians and were not there for themselves primarily. They were missionaries to the Chippewa people. The vision of their benefactor, Wilhelm Löhe was they would reach out to these Native Americans and provide a Christian community that would be a witness to how those who love Jesus live with each other. Löhe named the town Frankenmuth — Courage of the Franconians.

The colony established itself in spite of the difficulties in settling virgin land. Giant trees had to be felled, shelters built, land plowed and a basic crop planted to survive the winter. They were plagued by malaria and other illnesses and all the while struggled to contact the Chippewas. By December, they had built the first church, St. Lorenz Lutheran Church. In the meantime, Crämer had interested the native peoples to send their children to the missionary school he would establish. The Pastor would eventually learn their language and translate the Small Catechism into their language. Soon Missionary Baierlein arrived and moved into their village. Eventually, 35 Chippewas were baptized. The Mission came to an end when the US Government relocated the tribe further west.

In the next year, ninety more colonists arrived. The community grew into a bustling farm community. Soon three more colonies would follow and prosper. Today Frankenmuth is a tourist destination for Christmas shoppers, crafts, German heritage and fine dining.

To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation

Martin Luther wrote a lot of books, pamphlets, sermons and other writings. In addition, once he was famous, his friends and students wrote down everything he said and did. These have been printed in one series of books containing all of them. They take up 120 tall volumes. So, which of these should you read to know what he taught? On everyone’s short list are two books you may have read: Luther’s Small and Large Catechisms, and others you may have not: his 1535 Galatians Commentary and three documents from 1520: A Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, Freedom of a Christian and the subject of this post: To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation. I would add one we’ve talked about: On Good Works.

By Summer of 1520, it was clear to Luther, his prince Elector Frederick that the papacy would soon move to excommunicate Luther and perhaps other. They decided that a direct appeal to Emperor Charles and the other princes and powers of the Holy Roman Empire. The strategy was to convince them to call a Church Council to reform the church. As the document was being written, a variety of princes and other respected members of German governments urged him to provide a theological justification for the secular powers to intervene. Luther the first edition of To the German Nobility came off the press five hundred years ago by August 18, 1520.

Martin Luther answered three arguments made by defenders of the pope against the involvement of princes in the reform of the Church, which he called walls protecting him. The first was that the clergy and monks were superior to laymen spiritually and no one could approach God except through them. The second was only the pope could interpret the Scriptures correctly and third that only the pope could call a church council. The ground-breaking assertion Luther made was these were not true because the clergy are not superior to laypeople spiritually. All Christians were members of the Priesthood of All Believers, equal to the clergy spiritually and with their own, direct relationship to God. So they were also able to interpret Scripture and, as called by God to maintain order in the world and restrain evil, the princes have a right and a duty to call councils to reform the church.

With To the German Nobility, Luther had liberated the laity from dependence upon the clergy for all of their spiritual lives. Lutherans and the Reformed believers now were able to care for their own spiritual needs. The focus shifted to individual relationships between God and the believer. Western Christianity would never be the same.

Meet Friedrich August Crämer

In August of 1845, August “Onkel” Crämer arrived in the wilderness of Saginaw County, Michigan, as the Pastor and leader of a unique colony. Called “Frankenmuth” (The Courage of the Franconians”), this group was founded to be a witness to the Chippewa nation. The idea was to show these non-Christians what a Christian society was like. Crämer was not only their pastor, but a missionary and a translator. His work bore fruit in the baptism of Chippewa and the physical care for the tribe’s children. In 1850, he was called to be a professor at the seminary in Fort Wayne. He served the “practical seminary” the rest of his life, moving with it to St. Louis and later to its one hundred year home in Springfield, Illinois.

Crämer was born into a Bavarian merchant’s home. He was raised in a strict German fashion and eventually sent on the Gymnasium (a German preparatory high school for students destined for University study) He went on to study theology at the University of Erlangen. Under the influence of the culture of the time, he strayed from his Lutheran roots into rationalism. He became involved in a German nationalist movement that eventually made a poor attempt at a coup. The result was he was imprisoned for six years.

After he was released, he turned to the serious study of linguistics, including the languages of ancient Greek, modern Greek, old and middle High German, French, and English. During a serious illness, he turned to religion for comfort. At first, confronted by his deep sinfulness, it did anything but comfort him. But in the midst of the depression this insight caused, the words of the catechism came back to him. He now realized that God’s grace was even for him. From this great comfort came a fervent commitment to Confessional Lutheranism, not unlike his future brothers-in-ministry, C. F. W. Walther, Friedrich Wyneken, Wilhelm Sihler and others.

After completing his studies, he served first as a tutor in the household of Lord Lovelace, which did not end well when he did not convert to Unitarianism, later in the home of Henry Drummond, with a similar result, when he did not become an Irvingite and, finally, as a tutor at Oxford University with the same outcome when he did not become an Anglican. It was then that Wyneken’s Distress of the German Lutherans in North America fell into his hands. Convinced he needed to serve his countrymen in the wilderness of the United States. Wilhelm Löhe recognized his talents, arranged to have him ordained and set him over the missionary colony soon to make its way to Michigan.

Author: Robert Smith