God – What Does This Mean?

If it is God’s Will….

Encore Post:

[Forty-Three in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

Why does God want us to pray for his will to be done? After all, God can do anything he wants to do. When he speaks, it is done. He loves us, cares for us, and wants only good for us. He promises to answer our prayer. Yet Jesus tells us to pray, “thy will be done.”

As with other aspects of God’s nature, the limits of our nature make the mystery of God’s will impossible to understand fully. God’s will will be done eventually, but in this world, it is often not done. We can choose to do things our own way. In this world, we often rebel against it. We sometimes do not understand why he allows evil to happen to us. Sometimes we do not even know what God wants us to do.

So, when we ask God for something that he does not promise to do unconditionally, we often pray “if it is your will.” This kind of prayer helps us to accept what God wants for us and trust it will be for our good. We have a good company. Jesus himself prays that way in the Garden of Gethsemane. (Matthew 26:42). Because he made the Father’s will his own, his sacrifice saved us. Now we pray that God will make his will our own will.

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

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

Why Pray for God to Make His Name Holy….

Encore Post:

[Forty-first in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

When you think about it, the first request we make in the Lord’s Prayer sounds strange. Maybe it is the old English “hallowed be thy name.” In modern English, we pray to God to make his name holy. To be holy means to set aside, to dedicate for one godly purpose. By definition, God’s name is holy.

In our sinful world, however, God’s name is often used as a cover for other agendas. When preachers stray from God’s word and teach their own ideas as if they were God’s word, they plant confusion and make God seem something he is not. So, for example, when preachers say that all you have to do to become rich is to believe and give money to that preacher, they make God into a vending machine. False religions of all sorts lead people to trust themselves and false gods rather than the God who loves them. This makes God’s name into something you can’t trust — like every other name. It is no longer holy.

So we pray God will send faithful pastors, bless the preaching of the gospel so that the lost might be saved, and we be made by the Holy Spirit to live according to his Word. We can be confident he will do this. After all, he asked us to pray for this.

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

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

Dear Children and their Dear Father

Encore Post:

[Fortieth in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

There is nothing subtle about little children. When loved ones come home after being away, they scream, “Daddy!” “Grandpa!” “Mommy!” “Grandma” and dash across the room to hug them. They have plenty to say, are ready to play, and enjoy being with them. Martin Luther in the Small Catechism compares prayer to a child who comes to talk to his father. (Small Catechism, Lord’s Prayer, 3.1) God wants us to come to him and to ask for anything, knowing that he loves us, cares for us, wants the best for us, and will answer our prayer.

In many religions, prayer is more about getting what you want from a god, an ancestor, a spirit, or some other supernatural being. It is often filled with attempts to manipulate the deity in order to achieve the desired result. These spirits are distant, not so interested in us, or are fearful beings. Like the Wizard of Oz, you just don’t get near them.

Not so with our Heavenly Father. Prayer is more about our relationship with our Father, who loved us before he made the world, who made us and cares for us daily, who sent his Son to die for our sins and rise from death so that we might live with him forever. He wants us to come with him, to share our lives with him, and to see how he provides for us. After all, Luther points out, God knows what we need before we pray. We pray so that he will be a part of our everyday lives.

In our culture, there is no problem with talking to God. It is when he talks back that they think we’re crazy. But God speaks through his word, through the events in our lives, and through other Christians. We see his love in what he has done and will do for us. So it is that we pray to him in many ways, from a short one-liner or making the sign of the cross, to praising him in hymns, to the formal prayers of the divine service, and other times we gather as a church to pray. When we do so, we grow closer to our Father in heaven, who loves it when we come to him and share our lives with him.

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

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

And He Shall Reign Forever and Ever

Encore Post: [Thirty-Ninth in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

When Handel’s Messiah premiered in London, even the King of England attended. When the choir sang, “The Kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ,” King George II, moved by the music, stood and with him all the audience from that day forward to the present — or so the legend goes. These words from Scripture, set as a liturgical gospel verse, capture a profound truth. No matter how evil and chaotic the world looks, God’s kingdom rules the universe.

So, why does Jesus have us pray: “your kingdom come?” Luther explains that God’s kingdom comes whether we pray for it. But we pray it will come to us. Jesus himself suggests this when he sums up his message: “The kingdom of heaven is here! Repent (literally: change your mind completely) and believe the good news.”

God’s kingdom comes to us in two ways. First, when God the Holy Spirit plants faith in our hearts, we believe our sins are forgiven because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. We turn away from our sins and desire to live according to his word. We do this together with all our fellow citizens of his kingdom. Our prayer is that God will give us the strength to live this way.

The second way the kingdom comes is when, on the day known only by the Heavenly Father, Jesus returns with his angels to bring an end to sin, disease, grief, and death, to open the graves of all people, raise them from death, and bring them before his throne. On that day, all will be set right. The devil, his angels, and unbelievers are cast into hell, and God’s children go to live with him forever. Then he will reign forever and ever.

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

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

The Resurrection of the Body

Encore post:

[Thirty-Eighth in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

To the ancient Greek philosophers, and many people today, it is nonsense. (Acts 17:32) We all know what happens to the body after death. We’ve seen it on TV in crime shows and horror films. Some families have the bodies of their loved ones cremated. It decays and eventually turns to dust, just as God promised Adam. (Genesis 3:19)

Yet God clearly promises this wonderful miracle. While we cannot understand how this could be true, we know that God, who is almighty and created us and the whole world, can do whatever he wants. (Matthew 22:23-33) The resurrection of the body is the bottom line for the Christian hope. Because Christ rose from the dead, we will rise from our graves on the last day. (1 Corinthians 15:12-58)

The resurrection teaches us a few very important things. First, the body matters. The way we talk about the death of a loved one makes it sound like only our spirit matters. Yet God did not make us to be spirits only, but both body and spirit. Death unnaturally separates the two. But on the last day, when death is defeated, we will be restored and our bodies glorified like that of Jesus. Job’s prophecy will come true for him — and for us. (Job 19:25-27) Our bodies are good, even if the evils of this world mar them. We can accept ourselves the way he made us.

We can also live life in hope of the next. We grieve when death separates us from loved ones. But we will see them again, quicker than we suppose. We can face down the demands of an evil world, knowing it is temporary, and life eternal awaits. Best of all, we will live forever with him who bought us, shed his own blood for us, and broke the power of sin and death over us. He is with us always, today and forever.

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

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

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

The Forgiveness of Sins

Encore Post:

[Thirty-Seventh in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

King David was a prime example of someone who needed forgiveness. In one episode, he managed to shirk his duty as a commander, lust after his neighbor’s wife, use his power to rape or commit adultery with her, lie to her husband, send him on a suicide mission to murder him, then marry Bathsheba to cover it up. He sinned against everyone, it seems. Yet it is to God he goes for forgiveness. In the end, all sins are rebellion against God. (2 Samuel 11:1-12:25 and Psalm 51)

Forgiveness is hard to come by in this world. When we are hurt, we want to return that hurt in kind. Eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism have no forgiveness — you pay back the bad karma you give with suffering in this life or nearly endless reincarnations. Mormons must cease sinning to pay for forgiveness and progress towards godhood. Pagan religions require a suitable sacrifice to an appropriate spirit.

Christianity is different. We have a loving and merciful God, who, in Jesus, died to pay for our forgiveness and, through the Holy Spirit, gives faith, the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. The Spirit uses his Church to bring this forgiveness to all. In the Church, the Gospel is preached, God adopts his children through baptism, Jesus gives his body and blood for the forgiveness of sins, and he hears our confessions and absolves us of our sins through pastors he sends to do so.

So, then, the Church is not a country club, a place where only good people need apply. It is a hospital, where we who are sick can get well, taking the only medicine that can make us well. We are, after all, beggars telling other beggars where they can find bread.

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

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

The Marks of the Church

Encore Post:

[Thirty-Sixth in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

The word “Church” is used in many ways by Christians. We call our buildings churches. We name our local gatherings of Christian churches. We talk about national organizations of Christian believers, congregations, colleges, seminaries, and churches. We even call worship services church — in a way. Strictly speaking, the Church is all those who have faith in Christ. Even though only God knows for sure who is a Christian or who is not, the public confession of Christians and their good works reveal them to us and to the world. The same thing is true for the Church as a whole. When the Gospel is preached and the sacraments are offered, there you will find the visible Church. So, these things are called the marks of the Church.

The Means of Grace are the instruments that the Holy Spirit uses to call people to faith in Christ and to strengthen and maintain that faith. He places these gifts into the hands of the church and the pastors he calls to shepherd them. They are the masks God wears to seek and to save the lost. He calls them together to receive these gifts, encourage one another, and thank and praise him. This divine service is what we often call worship.

The church in this sense is also called the church militant — the fighting church — because it is at war with the World, the devil and his forces, and our sinful desires. These earthly organizations formed by members of the Church are plagued by the same things individual Christians are. Because its members are sinful, the congregations also sin, are persecuted by the world, tempted by the devil, and suffer along with the Christians who form them. Unbelievers may also belong to them, all the while deceiving themselves and others, behaving like any other Christian.

Yet, as flawed as they are, God loves his people and chooses to use them to proclaim his Gospel, to create faith, to forgive sins, and to bring the lost home. After all, the Lord of the Church, her Good Shepherd, laid down his life for them. And the day will come when he will return to bring his bride, the church, home to enjoy the marriage feast, which has no end.

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

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

One Flesh in Two Persons: Marriage

Encore Post: For six days, God had been creating the world. He spoke, and light appeared, earth took form, land appeared out of the great sea. The sun, moon, and stars shone in the sky. Plants grew on the ground, fish swam in the sea, and animals roamed the earth.

Now Father, Son, and Holy Spirit conferred and said, ” Let us make man just like us. “And so he made us — male and female. He planted a garden, came down, formed Adam (His name means “ground, soil” in Hebrew) from the soil, and breathed life into him. But something still was not quite right. Adam was alone.

So God brought all the animals to Adam. He named them all one by one. While they were good, something just was not right. Dogs and Cats just didn’t do it. So God made woman from his own bones. Now at last man was just like God–– two persons in one flesh. Adam called her woman—she-man, and named her Eve—life, because she would be the mother of all people. God’s creation was finally complete. He had made marriage and the family. This was very good.

This perfect image of God, holy like him and the closest human beings have to understanding the nature of God, was ruined by sin and its consequences. When people make themselves the center of the universe, there is no room for a god or another. Now sin tempts us to look everywhere for pleasure rather than in the very good gifts God has given to us. As we turn our hearts from our beloved and the Beloved, they grow cold and unfeeling.

This is why God condemns adultery, pornography, same sex relationships and acts, pre-marital sex, sexual assault, rape, and all other seeking of desire outside of the love of one man and woman, united in marriage for a lifetime. It divides what God himself has joined together and mars the image he placed in us. It destroys the image of Christ’s marriage to the Church and obscures the work he has done for us.

But when we were lost, unfaithful to God our husband, Jesus came and sought us to be his holy bride, with his own blood he bought us, and for our life he died. When he found us, he washed us, cleansed us in baptism, so that he could present us as his radiant bride. On the last day, he will come for us, and bring us to the wedding and the marriage reception that lasts forever.

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

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

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Enlightened with His Gifts

Encore Post:

[Thirty-Sixth In a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism,]

Everyone loves receiving gifts. They show us we are appreciated and that someone was thinking about us. This is true even when it comes from someone you love. Of course, a young woman loves to receive an engagement ring. It not only shows her that her boyfriend cares about her, but it also carries a promise. The day soon will come when he will make her his bride. It is filled with visions of a happy life, children, and the hope that she will not be alone as long as they both live.

It is likely the ring is not the first gift she received from him or the first gift he gave to her. And it will not be the last. Yet she would never consider returning a gift from her beloved. Each new gift comes with the same reminder that she is loved.

God, the Holy Spirit gives us many gifts. The Means of Grace are the most precious of them. While they are simple in form — written words on a page or said by a man, water poured on your head, bread and wine eaten with other very ordinary people — they are precious gifts. All of them come with the power of the Holy Spirit to create faith in our hearts, make a new Adam or Eve within us who loves God and wants to serve him. They give us the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

In the waters of baptism, we are adopted as God’s children. With the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper, we eat the body of our Lord broken on the cross to pay for our sins and drink the blood of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. In Absolution, we hear the words of Jesus that our sins are forgiven in the voice of the one sent to say them to us.

These are gifts that produce more gifts. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These gifts serve God and our neighbors and testify that God is indeed good. (Galatians 5:22-23)

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

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

Called by the Gospel

Encore Post:

[Thirty-Fifth in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]

God’s grace knows no limit. He loves us so much that all three persons work for our salvation. The Father chose us to be his before the world was made. He sent the Son to die for us. The Son became a flesh-and-blood man, lived a perfect life for us, suffered and died to pay the price for our sins, and rose from the dead so that we might rise to live forever.

The Holy Spirit makes us holy—sanctifies us. In theology, we use the word sanctification in two ways. The first is everything the Spirit does, from placing faith in our hearts to maintaining it to the day of our death. The second way we use it is for everything the Spirit does after he saves us. Martin Luther describes the first definition in this way: “the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the one, true Faith…” (Small Catechism, Creed, 2.3)

The Holy Spirit calls us through the preaching of God’s Word.(2 Thessalonians 2:13-14) He inspired Moses, David, the prophets, evangelists, apostles, and the other human authors of the Scriptures to record his words. In the Word of God, we find the law, which condemns us all as sinners, worthy of eternal death, and the gospel, which reveals that God is gracious to us for the sake of Jesus’ death on the cross and will forgive all those who believe this. This gospel is preached to us by those God sends to do so, read in the Bible, and when put together with water in Baptism. In this way, the Holy Spirit calls us to faith in Jesus. (Romans 10:14-17, Titus 3:5-7)

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

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