Encore Post: When I was at seminary, I fell in love with the book of Isaiah. My love for the book has only intensified. This is especially so when it comes to the readings that we just heard from Isaiah for Christmas. Isaiah 9:2-7 is perhaps the most well known prophecy of the coming Messiah. We easily remember the names that Isaiah calls the child who is to be born: “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” But we should not forget the the last sentence of verse 7. It says, “The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do this.”
That got me thinking more about the Lord’s zeal. What is it? What does it mean that the Lord has zeal? And in which direction is this zeal going?
Yes, what is this zeal? As I studied the word behind the translation “zeal”, the word used is the same word that the Lord uses to describe himself as a jealous God to Israel at Mt. Sinai. There He speaks to Israel displaying to them that they are his possession and no one else’s, and Israel should not chase after false gods because they are the Lord’s chosen. The Lord knows his own, so he desires them for himself and for himself alone.
But in Isaiah, as I traced the word further, I saw that zeal was also connected to the Lord’s promise he made to David. That promise is found in 2 Samuel 7, when the Lord tells David that he will place a son on the throne and he his reign will be forever and it will be a reign of peace.
That is big news! And the first instance of this word in Isaiah as well as Isaiah 37:32-35, “zeal” connects us back to that promise made to David. The child that is born, the son that is given will reign on the throne of David. And it will be so because the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do this. The Lord remembers his promises and makes them come full circle in the birth of Jesus. He is the King of the Jews, the Son of David, who saves his people and brings peace to all, as the angels declare.
The Lord’s zeal is for his people, whom He works to reconcile unto Himself. And this zeal is seen again in the work that this Son of Isaiah 9 does. He joyfully goes to the cross to bring to us peace! The Lord’s zeal is Jesus’ zeal who cares for us, remembers us, and dies for us that we might be made children of God.
What a zealous God we have, caring for his people, remembering his promises, and by his own zeal makes his promises come true! The zeal of the Lord of hosts has done it and done well for us and our salvation!
Merry Christmas!
Rev. Jacob Hercamp Christ Lutheran Church Noblesville, Indiana
The event, which recently wrapped-up at Asbury University, is called an outbreak by folks in those revivalist circles. “A student praying in the chapel broke out into”, “a prayer meeting the dormitory spilled out onto the streets and became”, or “a student’s testimony broke into a revival lasting [a number of] days.” That’s how the Asbury College website describes their own history of great revivals in 1905, 1908, 1921, 1950, 1958, 1970, and 2023. No mention is made of the lesser revivals that didn’t breakout adequately.
Who are these Asbury University folks?
They identify themselves as a nondenominational Christian college turned university. Nondenominational is a disingenuous category. There’s always a denominational precedent leaving its mark on the organization into the future. Typically that nondenominational root is Baptist. Not so for Asbury, they are product of the Wesleyan-Holiness Movement. The movement comes from a 19th Century mingling of Methodism, Quakerism, Anabaptism, and Restorationism.
The Holiness Churches reject infant baptism, infant faith, and the view that God creates faith in us (monergism). Instead, these churches teach a synergistic view that we generate faith within ourselves as an act of our will. This runs contrary to the clear teaching of Scriptures like “For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing; It is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) And, “Yet you are he who took me from the womb; You made me trust you at my mother’s breasts. On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.” (Psalm 22:9-10)
The Holiness crowd also places a strong emphasis on the “Second Work of Grace.” Namely, after coming to faith, a Christian is completely free from sin’s grip. In the future, Christian perfection is an achievable goal. This goal must be the aim of a Christian, and must be attained. Falling back into sin is a gross error within Holiness communities. When a regenerate Christian “backslides” into sin, they must repent, revive themselves, recommit, and often be rebaptized. This is where the revival aspect took root.
Charles Grandison Finney
Finney’s new measures centered upon revival meetings. His theology rejected the songs and liturgy of the church in favor of new musical styles and a different structure. This structure reversed the direction of corporate worship. Christian worship prior to Finney revolved around God’s gifts for His people and our receiving them.
The revivalist style and its substance revolve entirely upon the emotional excitement of the people gathered. Ramping that into a heightened fury is their evidence of the Holy Spirit at work. Apart from these events, the revivalists find no comfort or certainty in their faith, conversion, working of God in their lives, or even their salvation. The moment and surety of the their salvation, as they understand it, has a date and time concurrent with a revival event experience.
Is that a problem?
Yes, it is. Christianity revolves around a God, who promises Himself to us through means, in which He promised to deliver His gifts. In Baptism, God forgives sins and delivers faith. In the hearing of the Word, we receive faith. In the Lord’s Supper, we receive the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. The absence of our doing in the faith is a feature not a bug. The absence of our emotional proof of God’s work is a feature not a bug.
Revivalism rejects God’s work for us, replacing it with our work. The event earns God’s attention and His favor. The event is all about us and our doing. Our work and our feeling of the event are proof of God. This is the opposite of what the scriptures teach us.
God the Father sent His son Jesus to die for our sin. He delivers this to us extra nos, (outside of our selves). Looking inside, just reveals the sin that remains. Gathering to hear and receive from outside of ourselves in the Lord’s house is His work for us. He’s never been apart from His work for us. He’s always been in exactly the same place for you. There’s certainty here.even
Here is how Martin Luther Describes it:
The third article of the Apostles’ Creed – Sanctification.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
What does this mean?
I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the last day He will raise up me and all the dead and will give eternal life to me and to all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true. (Luther’s Small Catechism 2:3, emphasis mine)
The Bottom line
The Holy Spirit isn’t in my emotions, which rise and fall, grow and fade. He is at work in His Word and sacraments. He’s in the same places He promised to be. The Holy Spirit was ceaselessly at work in His church for 1800 years before Finney discovered the “real” way and evidence of the Spirit.
Beware of innovators, God doesn’t change.
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 American culture, love is everywhere. It is a constant theme of movies, TV programs, stories, songs, poetry and even commercials! At Valentine’s Day especially, images of couples planning romantic moments are everywhere. At some point in the dating life of many lovers, men and women obsess over whether they should tell their dates that they love them.
But the English word love is more than that. We love our pets, our favorite food, good weather, our sports teams, our friends, freedom and truth — just about everything. The Greek language of the New Testament uses several words to cover it all. φιλέω (phileo) is the love and affection between friends. ἔρος (Eros) is sexual love that is obsessed with another and is not satisfied until it gets what it wants. ἀγαπάω is a love that sacrifices for the good of the one it loves. (See 1 Corinthians 13) ἀγαπάω is the word the New Testament uses for God’s love and the love God wants us to show to him and our neighbors.
God loved us before he made the world. (Ephesians 1:4-5) He loved us so much that he sacrificed his only Son to save us. (John 3:16-17) Because he first loved us, we love him and want to please him. He commands us to love him and our neighbors. Jesus tells us that the whole of God’s law is to love God and our neighbors as ourselves. (Matthew 22:37-40) In a very real sense, our love is itself God’s gift to us. While our love in this world is not perfect, God’s love for us is perfect. It lasts forever and conquers even death.
Encore Post: The word Torah (תרה) found in the Old Testament is actually pretty difficult to translate because it carries so much theological weight.
So what can Torah mean? Well, you look at the first books of the bible (Genesis through Deuteronomy) that is called the Torah. It’s sometimes called the Law of Moses. Torah means Law.
But then you may be asking yourself, how is Law defined? That is a very good question. In Lutheran circles we understand the Law of God to have 3 uses. The second use is the most common because it is the one that accuses us of our sins. But the books of Moses are not just made up of that kind of Law. So we need a broader definition.
Torah means God’s Law in the sense that it is His Word. Understood in this way Torah is Law and Gospel. The Old Testament has both Law and Gospel throughout.
God’s Torah then is both Law and Gospel. It contains the 10 commandments and the all the purity laws of Leviticus, but it also has the Gospel that points us to Jesus’ atoning death on the cross. Think to Leviticus 16, Genesis 3:15, Numbers 21, to name a few.
So if God’s Torah is understood as God’s Word, then when Jesus who is called the Word of God incarnate, another way to say it is that Jesus is the Torah Incarnate. This idea comes through in the Gospel of John most prominently, and come to think of it in Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount. For Jesus in both John and Matthew states the Law and then explains it and further intensifies it. We only need to think about the sin of adultery, for instance.
Rev. Jacob Hercamp St. Peter’s Lutheran Church La Grange, MO
Encore Post: You might remember the Ebionites and those who followed Marcion from earlier posts. In this post I want to introduce the two theological schools that ruled the day and effectively have left marks on the way we interpret the Bible still today.
But why are they called schools? Don’t think of them so much as buildings but the way of thinking. The first is Alexandria. The other is Antioch. Both cities were centers of Christian thought. Paul and other apostles spent time in Antioch, and Alexandria was known throughout the world as another great center of learning.
So what was the difference between Antioch and Alexandria? Well, let’s look at Alexandria first. Alexandria was the melting pot of cultures. Greek philosophy was alive and well. Many theologians, Origen, for example, had a background in philosophy. If you were to read Origen’s writings that we have at our disposal you would see him interpreting the text not just literally but also philosophically or in an allegorical fashion. Words meant more than just the literal word for him and others that came after him in the Alexandria School. Now this is not always a bad thing, but we need to always be careful to always consider the literal text.
Antioch and the theologians there were of a different style. They interpreted scripture in a literal, historical sense. Antioch generally steered clear of the allegorical approach to interpreting Scripture. That being said, they did not always have a lot of opportunities to find Christ in the Old Testament.
Both schools had men fall of either side of the the proverbial horse. Origen allowed his mind to go too far. Some men in Antioch did not go far enough to find Christ in the text, and questioned some of the Old Testament’s use for the Christian. Again, we should be looking back to what Jesus says. The Scriptures are all about him. He fulfills what was said in the Law, Prophets, and Psalms. If we keep that in mind, we ought to be able to see Christ not only in the New Testament but also the Old.
Rev. Jacob Hercamp St. Peter’s Lutheran Church La Grange, MO
Encore Post: Three thousand years ago, ten tribes of Israel broke away from King Solomon’s son and formed a new kingdom north of Jerusalem. The kings of the northern tribes built a capital, called Samaria about forty miles north of Jerusalem. When the Assyrian Empire conquered the northern kingdom, they deported many of the Israelites and resettled people from far away places. The Samaritan people were born when Israelites married their captors. The Jewish people considered them as traitors and hated them. The Samaritans hated them in return, especially when Jewish armies destroyed their temple and their city. At the time of Jesus, Jews wanted nothing to do with them. They would avoid even traveling through Samaria, even to go to Jerusalem. The worst thing one Jew could call another was a Samaritan.
One day, an expert in God’s law asked Jesus a traditional question posed to Rabbis: which is the greatest of all commandments? Jesus turned the question around to him. The expert replied with the commandments to love God and to love neighbor as yourself. Jesus agreed and told him to do these and he would inherit eternal life. So, the expert asked Jesus who is our neighbor. Jesus’ answer was the story we call the parable of the Good Samaritan. (Luke 10:25-37)
In this story, the two kinds of people you would expect would help you were priests and Levites. They led worship in the temple, where God showed His love for His people by forgiving their sins. They did not want to become unclean by touching a dead person. So they did not help the injured man. But the Samaritan felt very sorry for him, cared for him and paid a lot of money to see that he was cared for until the day he recovered.
Jesus asked the expert which of these three was a neighbor to the injured man. He answered, “The one who showed mercy.” Jesus told him to do the same. As sinners, we will fail to do this perfectly. Yet as Christians, the church responds to the love of God in Christ, has reached out in mercy to those who suffer with countless needs over two thousand years. We remember that Jesus responded to our greatest need by suffering and dying that we might be saved and inherit eternal life. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we reach out to care for those who need us the most to show them the mercy God showed us.
Encore Posts: Once every four years, the world pauses to watch the Olympics. Among the most exciting of the sports contested are the foot races, where the fastest men and women to ever walk the earth run nearly as fast as each other, the winner crossing the finish line a few thousandths of a second ahead of the others. The crowds That pack the stands cheer them on. The loudest are coaches urging them on.
The Book of Hebrews uses is image to describe the assembly of the church triumpant — all of God’s holy ones — his saints — who have died and now live in God’s presence forever. They form a “great cloud of witnesses” cheering us on. (Hebrews 12:1-2) Also our coach, Jesus, stands at the finish line. We focus on him as we run our race because he endured the cross before us and for us. When we worship, we enter eternity and join them, the “whole company of heaven”, in praising God.
All Saints’ Day is an ancient celebration — begun in the Eighth Century (700s AD) It was intended celebrate all the Saints that did not have a special day assigned for them. Lutherans have kept this day a sort of Christian Memorial Day. We remember the Christians in our lives who have died and now rest with Christ, especially those who entered eternal life in the last year. It is a joyful day, more so than the day of their funeral, where grief is more intense. Most parishes read their names during worship. Some use other ways to remember — distributing flowers, lighting votive candles or other practices special to them.
Yet our celebration is not about the saints — even our loved ones. It is about Jesus, their Savior, who by his death has destroyed death and by his resurrection opened the kingdom to all believers. He is the author and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of God. It is because he is risen that they — and we — will rise on the last day. So, we dry the tears in our eyes, for he is risen! He is risen indeed! Allelujah!
Encore Post: 1600 years ago, a respected, old monk lived in a cave in Bethlehem said to be the birthplace of Jesus. We know him as Saint Jerome, the father of translation, one of the greatest scholars of church history, standing only in the shadow of his contemporary, St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. We give thanks for him and all translators on September 30. In medieval times, the church assigned him to the role of patron saint of libraries. His symbol in Christian art is the lion, after the legend that he pulled a thorn out of the paw of a lion cub, who followed him the rest of his life. A large version of the classical painting of him in his study hangs opposite my desk in the Walther Building of the Wayne and Barbara Kroemer Library Complex.
Jerome is said to have written the latin pun: translatio traditio est. It means both: “Translation is Tradition” and “Translation is Treason.” It captures perfectly the two forces that pull at faithful translators. You can either perfectly rewrite the meaning of the text in the new language or reproduce each word with the one or two words in the new language that are closest to the original. If you do the first, the result is more a commentary — what the scholar believes from his or her theological viewpoint. If you do the second, people reading the translation have a very hard time understanding what it means.
Most translations lean towards one or the other, but try to do both. If they succeed — like St. Jerome’s Vulgate, Luther’s German Bible and the King James Version — generations will come to love the language of these version and at the same time hear God’s Word. It passes down the faith to the next generation. When they do not, it distorts God’s word at best and betrays it at worst. So, translation is both tradition and treason. For those of us who speak English, we are blessed with dozens of translations. Taken together, they open to us the treasures of Holy Scripture. For this reason, we thank God for Jerome — and all translators!
Encore Post: As you take a vacation trip and visit new churches along the way, you may notice that the Scripture passages read seem a lot like the ones being read at your church at home. You are probably right. Most Lutheran churches and other Christian traditions use a Lectionary — a list of readings agreed upon by a group of Christian Church bodies.
This is nothing new — the first lectionaries were used by synagogues before Jesus was born. The church continued that tradition, adding readings from the Gospels and a variety of letters and sermons written by the apostles and other early church fathers. Those recognized by the church as God’s Word eventually became a part of the lectionary proper and joined other Scriptures read regularly in worship.
The readings eventually settled down into a standard rotation. These became traditional lessons for the same Sunday in the Church Year. This pattern is used to this day — with some small adjustments — in the historic one year lectionary. Its advantage is that our ancestors heard these passages read — even Martin Luther and those before him.
Beginning in 1974, Protestant churches together developed a three-year lectionary, which reached its final form in 1983. Called the Revised Common Lectionary, it is used by most Christians in the United States. The three-year lectionary in Lutheran Service Book is based on this Lectionary. Its advantage is that more of the Scripture is read in worship and preached upon.
If you want to prepare for worship on Sunday during the week before, why not consult your congregation’s lectionary? The list of readings is available online at: the LCMS’ lectionary page?
Encore Post: So just where does Jesus go? Well he goes to places that are pretty messy sometimes. If we just consider the 12 disciples who Jesus called to himself at the beginning of his ministry, we see a man in Matthew who was a tax collector. We see a zealot in Simon, we see a couple of brothers who want honor and glory. And that’s just a few of them! What we see in the 12 disciples are sinners! And all the disciples of Jesus including us are sinners! Jesus preaches to sinners like the 12 and still to you and me.
A term that comes from the bible is that of disciple. And that is a great thing to recall. We who follow Jesus as taught in the Bible according to the words of the apostles are disciples of Jesus. We believe the teaching that was handed down by Jesus to the first disciples who were later called apostles who then wrote their Gospels, Epistles, and Prophetic books that make up the New Testament.
The season of Epiphany is a great time to be talking about the disciples because we just heard the reading of Peter, James and John being called to be “fishers of men” and soon we will be hearing the words from the Mount of Transfiguration, “Listen to Him!” Disciples are and to follow and to listen to their master, their Lord Jesus. Peter on the mount shows a desire to stay on the mountain and bask in the glory, but that is not where Jesus stays. No, he goes, setting his face like flint towards Jerusalem, getting ready for the Cross, where He would atone for the sins of the world. Many people, even Peter, don’t want this to be the case, but it must be so. That is why Jesus was sent.
A disciple then follows Jesus to the cross. That is where our journey takes us, the place where our salvation is won. The place from which comes all our blessings including the blessing of being able to tell others about Jesus’ wonderful work there for all humanity. Disciples then don’t just keep this message of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to themselves, but rather disciples tell others who do not know about Jesus to follow Jesus unto that Promised Land which he has entered and will ultimately gather us together with all the faithful disciples who have gone before us.
Rev. Jacob Hercamp St. Peter’s Lutheran Church La Grange, MO
