Once He came in blessing, All our sins redressing; Came in likeness lowly, Son of God most holy; Bore the cross to save us; Hope and freedom gave us.
This verse speaks of Christmas, the First Coming of our Lord, born of the virgin Mary. He came in blessing, but how did He bless us? He blessed us by dying on the cross for us and forgiving all of our sins. Perhaps we do not often think of “bless” and “death” in the same sentence. But this is grace, that God died for us instead of us, and this is a blessing we could never accomplish on our own. This is why Jesus came to us on earth in the first place. He came in likeness lowly, like us, but was God most holy. There is no other god that would come so humbly and die so terribly. What a blessing this truly is for all of us!
Now He gently leads us; With Himself He feeds us Precious food from heaven, Pledge of peace here given, Manna that will nourish Souls that they may flourish.
Here we see the Good Shepherd language, that He gently leads us. This is what Christ does for the Church now, for each of us now. He leads us and He feeds us, not only with the things we need for body and soul, but even with something greater than the manna from heaven in the wilderness. Jesus Christ offers to us His very own Body and Blood at this altar, not as a re-sacrifice, but as the cross and Passion of our Lord personally applied to us and granted to us. While the first verse retold Christmas and Good Friday, this verse applies what Christ did to us, that Christ is still doing among us this work of forgiveness. The cross is only past, but present, received and believed in our life as the Church.
Soon will come that hour When with mighty power Christ will come in splendor And will judgment render, With the faithful sharing Joy beyond comparing.
The first verse was set in the past. The second verse was set in the present. This third verse is set in the future. Here we sing of the Last Day, of the Second Coming of our Lord. Jesus regularly referred to “that hour” as the hour when He would die for the sins of the world. But we know that there is another “hour” that awaits us. And now the Lord comes not to forgive sins nor to defeat the devil, but He comes in splendor for judgment. As Christians, we do not need to fear this judgment, for we believe in the first verse of this hymn and we receive the Lord’s Supper that the second verse mentions. The judgment that we shall receive is simply this: “Not guilty!” And that is most certainly “joy beyond comparing.”
Come, then, O Lord Jesus, From our sins release us. Keep our hearts believing, That we, grace receiving, Ever may confess You Till in heaven we bless You.
This final verse is not a doxology like we have seen in the past. But the writer of this hymn has reversed the thought he began with. In the first verse, he sang of Christ’s First Coming, and that this was a blessing. But in this verse, he encourages us to confess the Lord until we bless the Lord. Once again, this “blessing” word shows up, and this is eternal worship of the Lamb on the throne. This we even do witness on Sunday mornings. After receiving the Sacrament, toward the end of the Divine Service, we sing, “Bless we the Lord.” Perhaps we say it without faith. But in reality, this then is what Christianity seeks in the end of days, to “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name!” It doesn’t get any better than that!
Rev. James Peterson St. John Lutheran Church Curtis, Nebraska
The advent of our King Our prayers must now employ, And we must hymns of welcome sing In strains of holy joy.
“Advent” means “to come toward.” When we use the word Advent, we speak about Jesus’ first coming toward earth and His Second Coming on the Last Day. In this verse and during this season, we recall when Jesus first came to earth as a baby in Bethlehem.
The everlasting Son Incarnate deigns to be, Himself a servant’s form puts on To set His servants free.
Jesus is the Son of God. This verse reminds us that Jesus is “everlasting,” both before the creation of the world and after He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. The Son became flesh as a servant, the opposite of King, to set His servants, all of us, free from sin, death, and the devil.
O Zion’s daughter, rise To meet your lowly King, Nor let your faithless heart despise The peace He comes to bring.
“Zion’s daughter” is an Old Testament phrase for the Church. And here there are two meanings for the word “rise.” The obvious meaning is to stand up while we sing for “the King is coming.” But here also, the hymn means for us to consider the resurrection, that the Church shall rise from the graves on the Last Day and see the King, our Lord Most High.
The Advent of our King As judge, on clouds of light, He soon will come again And His true members all unite With Him in heaven to reign.
Suddenly, the hymn shifts from the First Coming to the Second Coming of our Lord. Now the Lord Jesus, the Judge of the living and the dead, comes on the clouds as the Scriptures testify. This verse puts the hymn in our own context, for we await the Last Day with patience and joy in the midst of suffering.
Before the dawning day Let sin’s dark deeds be gone, The sinful self be put away, The new self now put on.
What can we do while we wait for the Last Day? We put the new self on. While we worship, we ask for God’s forgiveness of our sins, and He forgives them. This He has promised to us. Then we hear the Word of God, which works faith in us. Finally, we receive the Sacrament, the foretaste of the feast to come.
All glory to the Son, Who comes to set us free, With Father, Spirit, ever one Through all eternity.
The triangle reminds us that this is a doxology. “Dox” means “glory.” These final verses of some hymns give glory to God. In this particular hymn, the doxology serves as a profound conclusion that our lives in heaven on the Last Day will be endless refrains of giving glory to God forever and ever.
Rev. James Peterson St. John Lutheran Church Curtis, Nebraska
Over the past month, I’ve received feedback that readers would love to have all the posts in a particular series all in one file for future reference. At the urging of my sons, I’ve experimented with producing Kindle and print booklet form through Amazon’s publishing service.
I’ve created a Kindle Book of my Preparation for the Gospel series, which will run on the blog this month. Ironically, it is too short to offer as a booklet, so I will have to say more in it to flesh it out. (Imagine telling a pastor to talk more!) I will price these inexpensively, mostly covering cost, but truth in advertizing, I’ll make a little money with each one bought.
To follow how I’m doing on this, my Amazon Author page is:
Encore Post: We’ve been reading articles and watching spots most of my life lamenting the earliness of Christmas-ish stuff every year. It doesn’t just seem as if the pre-Christmas shopping season has gobbled-up all dates and times preceding it. The shopping season has done exactly that.
In the foggy early reaches of my growing memory, I recall days before there was a Black Friday shopping spree. The phenomenon appeared in the 1980s. I’m quite certain there was consternation in the decades before 1980 over the encroaching commercialization of Christmas. Those earlier and earlier mercantile sales dates scheduled on their way toward Black Friday weren’t welcome then either.
We Christians habitually grouse about symptoms. It’s as if symptomatic abatement cures the underlying illness. See my articles about fathers and the children’s future attendance here, here, here, and here. Christmas cheer getting sucked up before “the holidays” is a symptom, not the illness.
The illness is this: we are seeing civic festivals and pagan consumerism crossing the boundaries into the life of the church. Instead, let’s reset those boundaries and get our minds around the days of the church. Dear Christians, we are to be in the world, but not of it.
Halloween, Thanksgiving, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day are not church festivals.
Halloween falls on the official church day of All Hallows Eve, October thirty-first. Lutherans more commonly celebrate Reformation Day on the same day, commemorating Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg castle church, sparking the reformation.
All Saints’ Day is November First. Christians will often observe All Hallows Eve/Reformation and All Saints’ Day by shifting the former back and/or the latter forward to the nearest Sunday. Both days fall within the season of Trinity (Pentecost on the Pope’s lectionary) just ahead of the end of the church year.
Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November and can fall between November twenty-second and twenty-eighth. That makes for seven variable relationships between Thanksgiving and Christmas, between twenty-seven and thirty-three days apart. 2023 will be an infrequent occasion, with Thanksgiving falling before the last Sunday of the church year. However, Thanksgiving is still always before the beginning of the new church year.
The pagan world would have us believe all of those holidays are part of the Christmas season. They are not. Those days and commemorations are not even in the same church year as the seasons of Advent of Christmas, which follow them.
The church year ends with the last Sunday of the church year and the week following it. The day can also be called Ultima Sunday, after the last syllable of a Koine Greek word, or Christ the King Sunday, commemorating Jesus’s second Advent at the end of days. The last Sunday of the church year is always the fifth Sunday before Christmas Day.
After the first two civic holidays, the church year begins on the first Sunday of Advent, always the fourth Sunday before Christmas. Advent can consist of between twenty-two and twenty-eight days. It begins between November twenty-seventh and December third. And, Advent contains three or four Wednesdays. The three Wednesdays are slightly more common, occurring in four of the seven variations, excluding Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve is a day of Advent. It is not typically celebrated as a Wednesday of Advent, when falling on Wednesday.
This means that those cute, pre-made, every-year advent calendars are seldom actually right. It’s a lot of fun to open the doors for the little prizes. But, Advent rarely has exactly twenty-four days.
Like the Advent Calendars, Christians used to decorate progressively. By adding a bit each week heading into Christmas it adds to the excitement of preparation for the incarnation of Our Lord. This is the opposite of the Christmas fatigue caused by all decorations going up the day after Halloween or Thanksgiving, before Advent even started.
The twelve days of the Christmas feast begin on December 25. They can contain two Sundays, but more commonly just one. The days of Christmas are December twenty-fifth through January fifth. On December twenty-sixth, we also celebrate the feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr. We celebrate the feast of St. John, the only apostle to die a natural death, on December twenty-seventh. December twenty-eighth marks the feast of the Holy Innocents, killed by Herod upon the magi’s visit to Bethlehem. The celebration of the Circumcision and Naming of Jesus on January first is also a named feast within the twelve days. Christmas ends on Twelfth Night, preceding the Epiphany of Our Lord. The latter of which is celebrated on January 6.
It is suitable for Christians to decorate and sing seasonal hymns beginning on Christmas Eve. In decades past, we would have it no other way. Now, it may be impossible to forego all of the civic festivities around us. But, we should at least save the bulk of our revelry for the actual celebration of the incarnation of our Lord. We should not allow the pagan world to suck all of our Christmas cheer before we’ve even begun the Christmas feast.
This year and in years to come, spend some time in thought and prayer concerning the harrowing of the End of Days, preparing our hearts in Advent, and the joyous gift of Christmas (the entire season of Christmas). There’s more to it than the Christmas shopping season. Our Lord took on human flesh, being born in the lowliest state to bear our sins and be our Savior! Beyond just thought and prayer, avail yourself of the Lord’s house, receiving His gifts of the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation for you.
Blessèd Advent preparation!
Rev. Jason M. Kaspar Sole Pastor Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool La Grange, TX
Encore Post: The congregations I serve uses the One-Year Lectionary, or also called the Historic Lectionary. For us, the final three weeks of the church year focus on the end of this age and the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We hear of the coming destruction of Jerusalem, the Sheep/Goat Judgment, and the parable of the Ten Virgins. God’s holy and perfect Law is clearly seen in these lessons.
The terrible consequence of sin and unbelief are unmistakable. The unbelief of the Jews and the reliance on a power other than God will see Rome ransack Jerusalem and destroy the Temple. The goats, who found their righteousness not in faith but in themselves, enter the lake of fire prepared not for man but for the devil and his angels. And finally, unwise virgins are invited to a wedding. But when they have no oil, that is, have no faith, they are left out of the celebration.
But even more powerful in these final weeks are the mercy and grace that God has for us in His holy Gospel. While Jerusalem will be destroyed, God warns and protects His Christians. Even if one of them is caught up in the siege and destroyed in body, God delivers them through that death into eternal life. The sheep, who have faith and bear fruit by the work of the Holy Spirit, are welcomed into the heavenly kingdom. And the wise virgins, filled with faith, enter the eternal wedding feast.
We are in troublesome times, no doubt. But your God is still King. He still watches over you, provides for all your needs in body and soul, and delivers you from every evil.
Which is why we begin a new church year with the season of Advent. We prepare not only for our Lord’s birth and incarnation, but we prepare for His second advent, His second coming. We begin this new year and this waiting with His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem during Holy Week.
Indeed, our church year begins with the account of why Jesus came in the first place: to save His people from their sins. Not with the blood of goats and bulls, but with His holy, innocent, and precious blood.
As we close one year and enter another, may you always remember your deliverance from sin, death, and the devil as your Lord, your Mighty Fortress, comes to rescue with through His death.
Rev. Brent Keller Trinity Lutheran Church Guttenberg, Iowa and St. Paul Lutheran Church McGregor, Iowa
Encore Post: During Martin Luther’s lifetime, the Church Year was filled with Saints’ Days. Thousands of saints were remembered — and venerated. Some of the pressure on time was controlled by celebrating All Saints’ Day, so the ones without a day could be remembered. The day after was remembered as All Souls’ Day, to pray for the rest of us!
The Lutheran Reformers solved the crowding of the calendar by removing almost all the non-Biblical saints. A few like St. Valentine, St. Nicholas — and, curiously, St. Lawrence, remain to this day. Local congregations are, of course, free to celebrate others.
Some church bodies, like the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod have recognized the desire to remember figures from church history. They provide a list of commemorations for figures like Wilhelm Löhe, C. F. W. Walther, Martin Luther and so on. Commemorations, unlike saints’ days, do not have their own propers — special readings, a prayer of the day, psalms, etc.
The point of both kinds of days is to thank God for these faithful men and women. We remember their lives, the way they lived their lives in faith and to pray that we, too, may be faithful. After all, their suffering is over, their tears are gone, and their sorrows turned to joy. And it will not be very long before our Lord comes to bring us home, too. With them numbered may we be here and in eternity.
Rev. Robert E. Smith Pastpr Emeritus Fort Wayne, Indiana
Encore Post: When I was a reference librarian, I frequently get asked whether (and where!) Martin Luther said a quotation people claim he said. Most of the time when I am asked to do so, I cannot find a place where he is recorded as saying or writing such a thing. That is not the case with the Luther quote “sin boldly,” which is often used by his opponents to claim Luther rejects God’s law for Christians. The short answer is: yes, he wrote this phrase, but, no, it does not mean what his opponents think it means.
Over Five hundred years ago, Luther was living in the Wartburg Castle — kind of as a safe house of sorts — under the name of Junker Jorg. At first, he had a difficult time adjusting — his diet switched from that of a monk to that fit for a noble. By August, he was settling in. He was far from idle there. Among the things he did was write an incredible number of letters to friends, allies, his prince and others. Few people knew exactly where he was — the letters all went to his friend Georg Spalatin, who was the chancellor for his prince Frederick the Wise. Spalatin then sent them on.
Soon Luther’s friends used the same channel to reply and to ask advice as to how to proceed in his absence. The letter where Luther writes — in Latin — “sin boldly” was penned August 1st, 1521. In it, Luther addresses the questions of whether monks should be held to their monastic vows and whether priests should be allowed to marry. Luther criticized these vows — among other things — as man-made laws. That these were to be valued more highly than God’s Word was a false commandment. To violate them was not a sin but an imaginary sin.
Serious Christians, such as Luther himself, had tortured themselves trying to observe such traditions. They felt great burdens of guilt for breaking these. Apparently, Philip Melanchthon and Luther’s allies couldn’t decide whether to set these aside. Luther’s advice was not to worry about these so-called sins. Be bold to just live your lives, but believe in Christ, who forgives sins even more boldly.
In this sinful world, Christians will never be free of sin. As another so-called Luther quote (this one he didn’t likely say) goes: “the Old Adam is a good swimmer.” He is drowning in baptism, but doesn’t give up without a good fight! As Christians, we need to remember to look to Jesus. He bore all our real sins to the cross. There he paid the full price due for our sin and the sins it performs and removes them forever. In Christ, we die to rise again on the last day without sin.
So, Luther’s advice to Melanchthon is good. Here is how he put it: “If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter (2. Peter 3:13) are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign. It suffices that through God’s glory, we have recognized the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day. Do you think such an exalted Lamb paid merely a small price with a meager sacrifice for our sins? Pray hard for you are quite a sinner.”
Sermon on Matthew 22:15-22 Monday of the 20th Sunday after Pentecost Our Hope Lutheran Church October 18th, 2020
Text: “Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you trying to trick me, Actors? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore pay Caesar what you owe Caesar, and God what you owe God”
Intro: The year Isaac Watts wrote “Our God, our Help in Ages Past,” Queen Anne was dying. Her reign was an age of religious peace and tolerance. Watts was a dissenting protestant and before Queen Anne, his church was persecuted by the crown. The leading heir to the crown was Catholic, and many worried about a return of persecution. The fear was relieved when the Lutheran George I was crowned. The hymn reminded them—and us — that God is in charge of the world and our eternal home. On Tuesday of the first Holy Week, the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus into a sound bite that would undo him. That day they tried politics. It didn’t work.
God appoints earthly governments—even the bad ones.
Earthly governments maintain order and restrain evil.
We owe them honor, obedience in earthly matters, prayers for their well-being and wisdom.
When governments call on us to sin, only then may we disobey.
When, as in a democracy, we are a part of the government; we are called by God to steer it towards the purposes for which it is ordained.
Yet obedience does not come easily to sinners.
We cherish our freedom, and no one can tell us what to do.
Government is made up by sinners, who often serve themselves more than God or the people.
Even when they mean well, they often make things worse.
We are tempted, then, to take things into our own hands.
God is our Eternal Home
Yet Jesus reigns and will return to judge the world.
He left his throne to die for our rebellion.
He rose to open the grave to all believers.
He has adopted us in Holy Baptism.
We are now citizens of a heavenly kingdom.
Conclusion: So, we gladly serve our Lord, by supporting the government he’s given us, exercising our office of Elector of the Republic for his sake, but seeking first his kingdom, knowing all too soon we will go home where we truly belong.
Prayer: Our God, our Help in ages past, our Hope for years to come, our Shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal Home; Be thou our guard while troubles last, And our eternal home. Amen.
Rev. Robert E. Smith Pastor Emeritus Fort Wayne, Indiana
Dear saints, the appointed Psalm for this day is the 46th Psalm. It is what inspired Luther to write this morning’s Hymn of the Day, A Mighty Fortress. It is a hymn that brings forth confidence. Not confidence in oneself, but in his God. This makes sense, for by the Middle Ages, the systems of theology preached great insecurity. It rightly preached that you are a sinner, but the prescription for your illness was not the Gospel. It was a series of works that you had to do so that your angry God might be appeased.
And so, you bought indulgences. You paid for masses for yourself and for your dead loved ones assumed to be in purgatory. Some abandoned family to take up residence in a monastery, supposing that your spiritual life there would earn heaven and not purgatory. The abuses of the church and the fear within the churchgoer fueled what became the Reformation. For in the Reformation, we are given the fruits of security.
Luther is a prime example of this. He was a committed son of the church. He believed what the church was teaching and was indeed teaching it himself. He took his sin seriously and it drove him to despair. He almost ended up hating God. But God had mercy. In that mercy, the Lord drove Luther to the Scriptures, especially the Psalms. And in his study of Romans, Luther finally saw that God’s wrath had already been carried out. Not on sinners, but on the perfect Son of God whose blood was shed in propitiation, in atonement, for the sins of the world.
It was in the Scriptures that God showed Luther that man is forgiven and justified not by private masses, indulgences, and works of penance, but by grace. Grace that is received by faith. What God showed Luther is secure and steadfast. In the 46th Psalm, we see how our God gives us security. Let us look at the four parts of the Psalm this morning:
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
The opening of the Psalm is the basis of Luther’s great hymn. It is God who is our mighty fortress. It is God who is our help in any trouble. No matter what goes on around us, because of who our God is and because of what He does for us, we shall not fear anything but Him. This is the confidence we have in God. No matter what we go through, He is with us. He keeps our souls. And he will deliver us to life, no matter what trial, trouble, or tribulation you experience in this life.
There are multiple times where God interceded on behalf of His people. He brought Israel out of Egypt and delivered them from Pharaoh’s armies at the Red Sea. He defeated Sennacherib and the armies of Assyria when they were determined to destroy Jerusalem. But the Psalm speaks not simply of earthly rescue. It assures you of your rescue from sin, death, and the devil which culminates on the Last Day. On the Day that Christ returns and completes this psalm’s fulfillment. This is our confidence.
But why do we have this confidence? Because the Lord is with us!
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Though your God is omnipresent, he deigned to be locally present with His people. The holy habitation of God on earth was first in the Tabernacle which traveled with Israel and then the Temple in Jerusalem, the city of God. But Jerusalem did not have a river. What is the river then? St. Ambrose says that the river is the Holy Spirit. This is seen when you recall Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”This living water is the Holy Spirit.
Also, remember the Revelation to St. John. In the vision, he is shown the river of water that flows from the throne of God and the Lamb. It flows through the middle of the street and gives water to the tree of life on either side of the river. The leaves of that tree were for the healing of the nations. In that time, nothing will again be accursed. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be present. And as God’s servants, each of you will worship Him.
Our days will never be peaceful. There will be wars, rumors of war, and strife. There will be drought, famine, or other calamities. There will be sickness, plague, and whatever else you can think of. But at the utterance of God’s voice, all will cease. For you, God is your fortress. He is the Lord of Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts. This is seen in the next section:
Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire.
The victories of God are numerous in Scripture beyond what was mentioned earlier. God worked mighty works and brought down powerful men, nations, and armies. Using young David, God defeats Goliath and the Philistines. He used a wicked nation to bring down another. But the greatest work is that of your salvation. And it is through that mighty work that He will end all wars, breaking the bow and shattering spear, and destroy chariots with fire.
While Christ has cried out, “It is finished,” we do not yet see the culmination of His victory. As a result, we still see a restless and raging world. A world that wants to overthrow God and be a ruler and god unto itself. At times, God’s people will be the target of these entities. To all this, God says:
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
As your Lord spoke to the raging wind and it was quiet, so also will He speak to those that rage against Him. And when He says, “Be still,” they will have no choice. And yet He is also speaking to you. He is telling you that He is in control, even when it is chaos around you. He is God, and no man or power can overthrow Him. It has been tried by man and fallen angel.
Therefore, do not be worried when you are afflicted. Do not fret when things look dark. Stand firm and know that God protects His church. Remember that He gives you His Gospel and accomplishes what is good for you and your salvation. Be ready for the day when all wars will come to an end and the new heavens and earth are ushered in by your Lord and Savior. On that day uninterrupted spiritual peace will endure forever. For the Lord is with us. He is our fortress.
He is by your side. He remains omnipresent and here, right now, locally with you. And through His good gifts, even should your adversaries take your goods, fame, child, wife, even your life, your victory is won. The kingdom of God and your reward in it remain. Amen.
Rev. Brent Keller Trinity Lutheran Church Guttenberg, Iowa and St. Paul Lutheran Church McGregor, Iowa
Yes, we certainly can. This incenses the enemies of the church, who find their god in the authority of the state instead. Sadly, every election season, this comes up. There are precious few limitations on how or when pastors may exercise our liberties both within and outside the pastoral office. (“Office” here means vocation, job, or duty, rather than the place where my books live).
Rev. Dr. Christopher Thoma, senior pastor of Our Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church, Hartland, Michigan holds an annual conference called the Body of Christ in the Public Square. He’s hosted speakers in the ten or so years he’s been holding the conference at Our Savior including: Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Candace Owens, Riley Gaines, Ben Carson, Jack Phillips, and Rev. Dr. Jamison Hardy (fmr. President of the English District – LCMS, and current president of the LCMS Concordia University System). That’s not exactly a balanced list of speakers.
Rev. Thoma recently posted this in public (published with permission):
“Considering a particular jab following worship today — one suggesting my political preferences “might be too visible to the public” — I’m just going to put this image right here. [the image: Rev. Thoma with a political yard sign] Let there be no “might be” regarding my predilections. [He doesn’t conceal his political opinions]. In addition to the image, I’ll share a summary of the Johnson Amendment (since it was mentioned in passing) that I wrote a few years ago. I share it not necessarily to claim my rights above the need for expressing Christian love in such conversations (which I certainly attempt to do), but rather so that others are not confused with regard to a clergyman-citizen’s actual freedoms. Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod leadership, pastors, and parishioners would do well to take note.”
Rev. Thoma’s post from a few years ago (ibid):
“Of course as a Lutheran pastor, I’m probably not going to say from the pulpit, “Vote for so-and-so!” At its heart, that’s not the task of preaching. Although I’ll admit that in this day and age, it’s becoming more and more likely that such a phrase might actually be necessary homiletically.
Babies are being murdered. The freedom to preach and proclaim the Gospel is being smothered. The twisting of Natural Law in ways that disintegrate the family while adulterating God’s design in holy marriage are actual planks in political party platforms. Too many Christians sitting in the pews are choosing to elect leaders who support these diabolical things, even as the Word of God speaks against them.
[We can certainly now add to this list: Critical Race Theory, distorting God’s forgiveness; and trans ideology, distorting God’s gift of gender.]
With this, it should be no surprise if a pastor does what he can from the pulpit to aim his flock toward candidates who are most aligned with the will of God and not the will of devilry. But either way, whether saying “Vote for so-and-so” seems appropriate or not, if a pastor wanted to say it from the pulpit, according to the law he could. He is free to preach and teach as he chooses, even if particular parties or candidates are promoted. Admittedly, as the efforts of a pastor and church (a non-profit religious organization) might meet with the Johnson Amendment’s particulars, there are certain things they cannot do. For the sake of clarity, here’s the best summary I can offer of the law in this regard.
Firstly, the Amendment states that a non-profit religious organization may not endorse or oppose a particular candidate in a way that results in the imposition of punitive action against members of the organization who endorse or oppose a different candidate, contribute to or use a church’s resources for the benefit of one candidate over another. This typically happens when one particular candidate or party is granted open access to a church’s membership roster. [(RR 2007-41, p. 11, Situation 18)]
Secondly, a non-profit religious organization may perform such activities as register their members as voters, distribute non-partisan voting guides, invite candidates to speak, directly address issues and legislation (abortion, marriage, and the like), even employing the church’s resources to move for or against these issues. Preaching is not excluded. [(RR 2007-41, p. 3-4, Situations 1-2)]
Thirdly, as an individual, the pastor or religious leader of a non-profit religious organization may do whatever he or she feels led to do within his or her station —which includes but is not limited to publicly endorsing a candidate, supporting (or encouraging support toward) a party or campaign, and the like, as long as the efforts are not done using the church’s material resources. There are no limitations on the pastors as individuals serving in their offices. The few limitations above that do exist are only for the religious entity as a whole and only if the religious entity is a non-profit organization.” [(RR 2007-41, p. 10-11)]
Rev. Thoma didn’t and the IRS barely addresses the parsonage. So, I’ll add for your benefit:
Fourthly, the pastor’s home, a parsonage, is in his possession and not a material asset of the church, as explained by the Treasurer’s office of the Texas District – LCMS. The parsonage is a taxable portion of the pastor’s pay. The benefit is limited in scope. Pastor only has exclusive use of it, while he is serving. But, during the term of the benefit, the church does not have possession of it. The church may not place signage at the parsonage, nor use it uninvited.
“Charities, including churches, placing signs on their property that show they support a particular candidate.” (IR-2006-36) Without access to do so, neither the church nor her agents acting in their office, have placed nor can place anything on the parsonage yard. The pastor is a resident, when he is at home, and not acting from his office.
Despite their volumes of guidance, the IRS rarely, if ever enforces their rules concerning the unclear letter of the law in the Johnson Amendment. It is impossible to prove a negative. As such, in the absence of a clear directive defining the situation of a parsonage, none of the other criteria apply.
Concerning the Johnson Amendment on it’s own merits, the law is probably on thin ice. It was introduced in retribution against two Texas non-profits that supported LBJ’s primary opponent. The Johnson Amendment stands contrary to the free exercise clause of the first amendment (American Center for Law and Justice). “Congress shall make no law”… except the Johnson Amendment.
