What Does This Mean?

Being Gathered Around the Bread of Heaven

Faith is not something that is our own initiative. Jesus tells us that much on a number of occasions but in John 6, Jesus is explicit about how the Father draws us. It is the Lord’s doing. And that is a message of wonderful comfort to us who can fall into despair.

Elijah was such a man who needed comfort. He was in despair so it appears even after that wonderful event at Mount Carmel. Jezebel wants him dead. Elijah flees and heads out to the wilderness. The wilderness is not a place to go alone. In the Old Testament, the wilderness is considered a place of testing, you might like to think of as spiritual testing. Elijah’s own feelings lead him to cry out to the Lord, effectively begging the Lord to take his life because he was no better than his fathers (other prophets). Elijah is not seeing the Word of the Lord converting the hearts of his hearers. So he is tired and worn out.

Elijah receives comfort from the very Angel of the LORD. I like to think this is the 2nd Person of the Trinity, in his Pre-Incarnate state. We also need to remember the blessing of this food. The cake (or bread) is not made by man. Man was supposed to eat bread by the sweat of his brow. This bread is made by the Son, for the strengthening of Elijah’s faith and also his body. For later at Horeb, the Lord is gracious to him telling him that Elijah’s preaching is not in vain. 7000 were kept safe from bowing down to Baal.

The Sacrament of the Altar is for the weak and despairing needing to be strengthened by the Words of Jesus, specifically “for you”. We are indeed weak, and the christian walk under the cross is too great for us to go it alone. Jesus tells us that much too in our reading from John 6. We don’t initiate or activate our faith. We don’t initiate our coming to Jesus. And we don’t initiate the strengthening of our faith either, rather we are drawn and gathered around the living bread of heaven which came down from heaven being sent by the Father. And who the Father gives to his Son the Son will never cast out. What peace and comfort we have in the coming of this Jesus, our bread of life.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

Luther Summoned to Rome

Five Hundred years ago today, Martin Luther received a summons to Rome to defend the Ninety-Five Theses. It had been a long time coming because their impact caught everyone by surprise — including Luther. The German monk had intended to begin a discussion among scholars. He couched it in the prevocative form all such discussions were framed, but he anticipated nothing more than rejection of the abuses of indulgences that everyone condemned and a clarification of the doctines involved. Instead, they were translated into Geerman and distributed throughout Europe. The conference was never held.

What did happen was a steep decline in the purchase of indulgence letters. John Tetzel, the Dominican monk that so annoyed Luther responded by attacking the theses as heretical. The Archbishop of Mainz forwarded them to Rome, recommending a repremand for the Wittenberg professor. John Eck of Ingolstadt, who was to become Luther’s chief academic opponent wrote and circulated an extended hand-written review of the 95 Theses. To Luther’s great surprise, they accused Luther of limiting the Pope’s power and did not focus on his challenge to indulgences at all. In doing so, they turned Luther’s attention to the claims of the pope. He poured over the scriptures on the subject. Luther composed an extended defense of his theses in February 1518. He sent his Explanation of the Ninety-Five Theses to the Bishop of Brandeburg, promising not to publish it until he was permitted to do so. He was given leave do so, but a disputation in Heidelberg delayed him until August 21st.

In Rome, Silvester Prierias wrote an expert opinion of the 95 Theses for the commission charged with investigating Luther. His Dialog on the Power of the Pope maintained that the Scripture got its power from the Church, that the Pope is infallible when exercising his office and speaks for the Church. So, whatever the Pope says about indulgences is true. Anyone who taught otherwise, he found, is a heretic. This document came with the summons to Rome. Luther printed the Dialogue and appealed on August 8 to his ruler, Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, to arrange for his trial to take place in Germany.

Move to Indiana and Search for German Protestants

In August 1838, a letter from Johann Häsbärt arrived at the headquarters of the Pennsylvania Ministerium Mission Society, highly recommending Friedrich Wyneken to them. The Executive Committee invited Wyneken to visit Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to meet with them. In the company of Häsbärt, Friedrich met with the committee.

So convinced of his fitness for the task and likely moved by his zeal for the work, the Missionary Society set aside their usual practice of waiting until September to send out their workers. They commissioned him to “move to Indiana, to search for scattered German Protestants to preach to them, and, if possible, gather them into congregations.” While the Committee intended Wyneken to make Indiana his base of operations, they intended to have him range widely throughout the frontier, directing him to labor in Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. Credentials in hand, Wyneken embarked upon his ministry as a Missionary, traveling in the company of Häsbärt as far as Havre de Grace, Maryland.

In Pittsburgh, Wyneken met for the first time C.F. Schmidt, the editor of Lutherische Kirchenzeitung, who would prove a close friend and the channel through which Wyneken’s first appeals would reach the world. From Pittsburgh, Wyneken traveled by train and canal boat to Zelienople, Pennsylvania where he purchased a horse and cheerfully rode off to be, as his friend C. F. W. Walther would later describe him, the Lutheran Apostle of the West.

A Shepherd for Christ’s Sheep

Sermon on Matthew 9:35-38
The Ordination of Michael Brent Keller
July 29, 2018
Peace Lutheran Church
Alcester, South Dakota

Introduction: Last fall you said goodbye to Pastor Pay. You began pray to the Lord that he send to you a faithful shepherd. Today he has answered your prayers. Pastor Keller begins his Ministry here today. Brent, you have been praying for a chance to help people—really help them. And God has given you that opportunity. Here is is the harvest, ready to be brought in. At your side are a wonderful gathering of God’s people. It would be good to see them as Jesus does… he has compassion for them because:

I. We are harassed and helpless

A. The world sends conflicting messages that lure us away from God.
B. Our sinful desires cause us to seek the things we think will please us.
C. The devil uses both to extinguish our trust in God.
D. Tragedies big and small wound us, crush us and wear us down.

II. He came to seek and to save.
A. Jesus became a man to seek and save the lost
B. As the Good Shepherd, he laid down his life for his sheep.
C. Through his word and the Sacraments, he still gathers his sheep, binds up the wounds and leads them home.

III. He sends pastors – and you
A. He does this by sending you pastor Keller to lead you, feed you and make you clean.
B. He sends you, Brent, to tend this flock.
C. Together he sends you all to gather the souls now ready to harvest.

The Rainbow and God’s Promise

The story of Noah, is one that most people know, even those who do not believe in the One True God. One only needs to look at a recent movie to see that the story of Noah is one people have etched in their minds. Yes, we remember the rainbow but we don’t teach our children what it means. The world has commandeered it for their own sinful purposes.

The rainbow is a sign with a word of promise attached. This is not the first time that the Lord worked like this. We have a particular word to describe these things. We have narrowed the definition a bit, but the idea remains the same. We call these things sacraments. A sacrament is a rite commanded by God, which the promise of grace (forgiveness of sins) is attached. The rainbow is one such instance in the Old Testament that the Lord shows us how He deals graciously with his people. God’s grace is attached to the sign of the rainbow. Today with Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, He is working the same way as He worked back in the days of Noah and even earlier in the days of Adam and Eve.

The rainbow teaches us the first commandment and its meaning well. You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We should fear, trust, and love God above all things. We fear the Lord because of what He can do, we trust the Lord because of the promise He has given, and we love the Lord because he has had compassion on us poor miserable sinners, whose hearts are still inclined to evil rather than good. His “bow” of wrath against humanity has been “retired” and hung in the clouds.

The rainbow points to Jesus and His cross. The greatest act of wrath and judgment against sin took place at the cross. Jesus took on the full righteous judgment and wrath of His Father for us. Jesus suffered and died on account of on our sins. But in Christ’s atoning death we have the promise of everlasting life with God in His Kingdom. And God deals graciously with us establishing with us an even greater eternal covenant in the blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

Preaching to the Sheep

The last few Old Testament readings, if you have been keeping score at home, have been telling us a bit about the preachers that the Lord called to serve his people, proclaiming repentance to them. If you remember from Ezekiel, he was called to preach to the rebellious house of Israel. Amos was called from his work as a herdsman and fig keeper. Both were told to preach the word that the Lord gave them to preach. This was their job, and they feared the Lord and did what He tasked them to do.

However, there can be those men who would rather speak their own mind. And that can be a major problem. It can be deadly for the flock, especially if the preacher does not preach Christ and Him crucified for the sins of the world. These are the men that Jeremiah confronts in the Old Testament lesson today. These are the shepherds who are really no shepherd at all, for they do not care for the sheep entrusted into their care. The Lord through Jeremiah says, “WOE! WOE to you, those shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep!” Rather than gathering them around their Lord, they have scattered them and driven them further away from Him.

This is a warning to those men who have been placed into this office. It is a warning to me, but it is also a warning to the flock to listen to the preaching with a discerning ear. It is a call to the flock as much as the shepherds to open up your bibles and dig into what is said there and compare what is being said by me in this pulpit. Your preacher must be preaching the Word of the Lord, and the Word of the Lord is at your fingertips to do just that checking.

The Lord has given His preachers His Son Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, to preach and proclaim. Jesus makes this obvious and plain. We are to preach Christ and Him Crucified for the sins of the world, and that he rose from the dead for our justification. That binds up the brokenhearted. That Word seeks out the sheep without a shepherd, and brings them back to their loving Father.
Don’t be surprised to see more on Ezekiel soon.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

The Many Meanings of Ministry

Ministry is all about service. In fact, the word for ministry is a Latin translation of the Greek word διακονία (diakonia), which means personal service. Ancient Greeks use several words for service: δουλεύω (douleuo), to serve because you are a slave, λατρεύω (latreuo), to work for a wage, λειτουργία (leitourgia), public service and θεραπεύω (therapeuo), to serve willingly, to care for, especially the sick.

For the Greeks, almost all service was viewed as demeaning. Jesus turned that around. Jesus said that he came to serve, not to be served, so Christians must serve each other. (Matthew 20:26-28) The church took this charge to heart. They called themselves servants and slaves of Jesus. (Acts 4:29, Romans 1:1, Philippians 1:1, Revelation 1:1) They came to reason that if Jesus loved us, we should love each other.

The New Testament came to use the Greek words for service in two ways. In general, it came to stand for the preaching of the word and the sharing of the sacraments by Christians in every way. In its narrow use, it refers to the work of pastors.

To carry out ministry, Jesus created the office of the Pastoral Ministry and the Apostles created the deaconate to support them. In posts to follow, we’ll explore the Office of the ministry.

The Lord Takes All Kinds

If you could not tell already, I love the Old Testament Prophets. Amos is no exception, and our Old Testament reading gives us a little insight into the Lord’s call to Amos.

Amos was not looking to be a prophet. He makes that explicitly clear, saying that he was a herdsman and a dresser of figs (or mullberries if you follow Luther in his discussion on the passage).

But rather than question the Lord, when he was called to preach to the people of Israel (the northern kingdom), Amos goes without much complaint. Amos knows that he is not going this ministry alone. It is not his word that he will be speaking to Israel. It is solely the Lord’s Word.

That is what makes any man qualified to be the mouthpiece of the Lord. The Lord takes all kind to be his preachers, even those who are content to do what they have always done.

Think of our Lord’s call to his 12 disciples. Some were fishermen, one was a tax collector, and others were professions we have little knowledge. But what is clear is that in these men we see them hear the call and follow Jesus. Amos does the same thing even defending himself and the message, saying that the sermon he preaches is not his own. It is the Lord’s.

The Lord takes all kinds of men to be his servants of Word and Sacrament, so that means all of men ought to at least consider the call to serve as the mouthpiece of the Lord, that faith in Jesus Christ may be obtained. We should encourage our young men in our church body to learn more about the call and vocation of the Office of the Holy Ministry. Because even if they don’t go into the public ministry, they certainly will be the “preacher” to their own family as being the head of the household. And again the promise is true, that the Lord goes with his preachers. They do not preach themselves but ought to preach Law and Gospel, those magnificent Words of the Lord which bring about life and salvation for sinful men.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, La Grange, MO

Reading Ephesians in the Summer

If you have been reading this blog awhile, you may remember my comments on the structure of the Church Year in liturgical churches, especially the Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod. Our long Pentecost season allows continuous reading of books of the Bible — in some cases whole books. In the three year lectionary, we will be doing this with the book of Ephesians beginning this Sunday.

As it turns out, I did a running commentary of Ephesians 1 & 2 at the beginning of this year. If you want to read this series of posts, start with “So, Does God Hate Me?”. At the bottom of each post, select the link for the next “Material Principle” post. If you find your curiousity peaked, drop Pastor Hercamp and I a comment on the blog itself. We would be happy to write a post to answer a question or explore a topic.

Wyneken Wanders in Baltimore

In early July 1838, Friedrich Wyneken and Christoph Wolf wandered around Baltimore, looking for Lutherans. After mistaking an Otterbein Methodist prayer meeting for a Lutheran worship service, they found their way to Second German Evangelical Lutheran st. Paul’s Congregation and her Pastor Johann Häsbärt. Häsbärt was also an “awakened” pastor, who had led a group of Lutheran and Reformed Germans to secede from a congregation served by a Rationalist minister. He was very suspicious of Wyneken and Wolf, since in America laymen, con-men and “every expelled student or banished demagogue” regularly preyed on unsuspecting congregations to make some quick cash. It did not help at all that the two young men brought no written credentials or letters of introduction withthem. Yet Wyneken’s warmth and sincerity inclined Häsbärt to put aside his misgivings. Häsbärt’s fears were finally set to rest, when, Captain Stuerje testified to their character.

To seal their newly formed friendship, Wolf preached the following Sunday. Soon after that, Häsbärt fell sick and was confined to his bed. Wyneken served his congregation as substitute pastor for several weeks. Sometime during this period, Wolf went West ahead of his companion, settling in Marietta, Ohio. When Häsbärt had recovered, he tried to convince his new Hanoverian friend to stay in the east. Failing to talk Wyneken into remaining, the Baltimore pastor advised, “You must not travel on to the West under your own authority. I will write the Missions Committee of the Pennsylvania Synod, advising that they should send you out as their missionary.”

The timing was providential. At the 1839 Convention of the German-Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Pennsylvania, its Missionary Society met. The executive committee reported that in the latter part of 1838, Missionary Kohler had decided to accept a call in Eastern Pennsylvania, and thus was unavailable for continued service in the West. During the Summer of 1838, Adam Wesel’s letter from Fort Wayne likely reached their hands.

Now that we have caught up with events 180 years ago, we will leave the saga of Friedrich Wyneken until another anniversary comes to pass.