Please welcome to the blog Rev. Brent Keller. He will be contributing posts to our blog beginning Sunday. Here is his introduction:
I am a Confessional Lutheran Pastor, a member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. I am from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro Area, attended Concordia Theological Seminary-Fort Wayne, and now serve Peace Lutheran Church, a wonderful rural congregation in Alcester, SD. I was ordained at Peace on July 18, 2018. I have a wonderful wife, Hanne, and a nearly three-year-old daughter, Annalise. We are expecting our next child, believed to be a girl, in December of 2019.
Every movement, society, organization, group — even families! — has its own language. Sure, it sounds like English, uses the same words, grammar and structure, but when you are new to it, you can’t figure out what these people mean! The Christian Church is no exception. For Lutherans, church words are familiar and meaningful — just don’t ask anyone what the words mean! When you think about it, the meaning of these words are kind of fuzzy in our minds too! For example, if someone asks you what “Glory” means, could you tell them?
Beginning this week, whatdoesthismean.blog will take on these words one at a time. We pray that these will be helpful to you.
One of my favorite shows used to be Baseball Tonight because they showed all the highlights of the baseball games. It was a way to get the great plays of all the games.
In a similar way, we have our own highlight reel, though it probably is not a reel that we want others to see. It is the highlight reel of our sins. You see Satan just loves to drudge up our past offenses, our past faults, the things we have done or left undone. And more often than not he also gives a pretty colorful commentary on them as well. He plagues our conscience with it all the time. And the highlights continue to be added to because we continue to fall into sin some way or another.
Jesus is risen from dead! Jesus as we learned from his first appearance to the disciples in the locked room, does not come to his disciples with vengeance on his mind. He comes to bring peace. He comes to bring forgiveness.
Though we have been given His peace, we still are bombarded with the assaults of the devil. Satan still comes in with our highlights of sins and replays them over and over, accusing us. And we tend to forget about the peace which Jesus gives. Instead we tend to be afraid and begin to fear interacting with God. But we need not be afraid.
But every time we gather in the place where Jesus promises to be for us and for our salvation, the highlights of Jesus’ death and resurrection for us gets put into our mind. We get to say to Satan, “I am baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus. I am saved by Christ.” And with Paul we get to say, “As often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” These are the Jesus’ highlights but He makes them yours every time you receive His Word and Sacraments. May we be ever mindful of what our Lord has done for us, that we may always believe it.
Rev. Jacob Hercamp St. Peter’s Lutheran Church La Grange, MO
We think of Martin Luther as a great reformer, a writer and a pastor. And he was all of these things. But his call was as a professor. His first lectures were on the Psalms, Romans, Galatians and Hebrews. To do these well, he spent many hours reading commentaries and the writings of the Church Fathers and the scholars of the Middle Ages. Once in awhile, he found himself not quite understanding a passage or a word. He spent months trying to understand some words. When he finally came to understand repentance, he described his excitement as if it unlocked all of Scripture for him.
Over Five Hundred years ago, as he was preparing to lecture on Romans, the great scholar, Erasmus of Rotterdam, published a Greek New Testament (1516) with Erasmus’ own Latin translation with it. It was then he came up against Romans 1:17: ” ‘For in it [the Gospel] the righteousness (δικαιοσύνη) of God is revealed from faith for faith” Everything he read said this righteousness was the quality of God that moves him to condemn sinners. He just couldn’t understand how that was good news.
His friends urged him to lecture on the Psalms again, so he began teaching the book in March and April of 1519 — five hundred years ago. While he was working on his lectures in his tower study, he couldn’t get Romans 1 off of his mind. Then his eyes fell on the context: “The just shall live by his faith.” All of a sudden, it occured to him that the righteousness of God is not the holy nature of God, but it is God’s gift of righteousness that Christians receive by faith as a free gift for the sake of Jesus’ death and resurrection. It was as if God had opened the gate of heaven for him. God’s righteousness is a gift God gives by his grace.
Luther has a way to go before he fully understood theology they way Lutherans do today. Yet God had revealed to him the central teaching of the faith. He would never forget his tower experience.
What do you think of when you hear the word missions? Preachers hacking their way through the jungle? Doctors and nurses caring for the sick in India? People in white searches and ties knocking on doors? Yes, these romantic images are a part of the way God’s church has sought to bring the good news to those who have never heard it. (although reality rarely squared with the romance of the Mission Festival sermons!) But the truth is really seeking and saving the lost is not our work — it is God’s work.
Theologians call God’s mission the missio Dei — the mission of God. The word is from the Latin for “sending.” You already know one passage that describes that mission. “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 — my translation) He sent his Son because he is not willing that anyone should perish (Ezekiel 33:11, 2 Peter 3:9), but that all be saved. (1 Timothy 2:4) He sent him to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:9-10) Like a shepherd, he seeks out his lost sheep. Like a woman who has lost a denarii, he sweeps out the house to find it. Like a Father whose son has forsaken him, he watches day and night for his return. (Luke 15) He did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom. (Matthew 20:27-28)
So, how do we fit in? First of all, he wants us to rejoice with him when he saves the lost. (Luke 15) But more than that, he invites us to join him in his mission. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you,” Jesus says to us. (John 20:21) He sends his Church to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them. (Matthew 28:19-20) He chooses to work through us to accomplish his mission — not only around the world but where we live and work at the jobs he has called us to do.
Karl Von Miltitz, a lesser Saxon noble, served in the Roman Curia during the lifetime of Martin Luther. He served in a number of minor roles, such as Chamberlin and Papal Secretary and would normally escape our notice — if Pope Leo X hadn’t decided to appoint him a Nuncio (Ambassador) to Elector Frederick the Wise. His visit was a part of the Pope’s extended diplomatic campaign to convince Luther to renounce all he had taught about indulgences and papal authority or have him brought to Rome for trial. He needed to do this carefully since he would wanted Frederick to oppose the election of King Charles of Spain as the next Holy Roman Emperor. He hoped Miltitz’s family connections would make him more acceptable to the prince.
Miltitz returned to Germany Five Hundred Years ago in December of 1518 and January of 1519. He brought with him the Papal Golden Rose of Virtue — a coveted award given on occasion by the Pope to a prince he wished to honor. If Frederick were to hand over Luther to the Chamberlin, then Pope Leo would award the rose to Frederick. The Elector showed no signs of being impressed by this honor.
Between the time Cardinal Cajetan had finished his encounter with Luther and the arrival of Miltitz, the Elector had stated his position in terms provided by Luther himself. The Cardinal had not stated where Luther was in error and would have to do this at least if Luther were to be surrendered to him. Frederick had cause to believe Luther would not be given a fair trial in Rome and requested neutral German parties try him on German soil. Until Luther was proven a heretic before German scholars, the Elector would keep the monk in Saxony.
On his way to Saxony, learned how strong German sympathies were for Luther. So Miltitz let it be known he was irritated with Luther’s opponents, disgusted with Tetzel and that he was willing to find a middle ground between Rome and Luther. From January 4th to January 6th, Miltitz met with Luther in Altenburg. They agreed to a proposal that both sides no longer write about indulgences. Miltitz would ask the pope himself to transfer Luther’s case to a German Bishop, who would tell Luther what he needed to recant. Miltitz took his leave of Luther. The reformer was safe — for the moment.
One year after Martin Luther posted the Ninety-Five Theses, Martin Luther settled back into his quarters at the Black Cloister in Wittenberg. The past two weeks had been filled with anxiety and much uncertainty. While far from settled, Luther was temporarily safe under the protection of his prince.
On October 14, the interview of Luther with Cardinal Cajetan had clarified matters, but solved nothing. The Cardinal had underestimated Luther’s knowledge and skill. Rather than finding something Luther could recant of, Cajetan found a scholar looking to be convinced he was wrong and willing to accept only the authority of Scripture. Rather than finding a fellow scholar willing to dialogue with him and bring matters to a resolution, Luther had found a bishop insisting on unconditional obedience and willing to threaten punishment to achieve compliance. True to his word, the Cardinal Legate intended to honor his safe conduct. Yet neither the Saxon counselors nor Luther and his superior Staupitz trusted him. After all, 100 years earlier, an emperor did not feel compelled to keep his word to a heretic and burned Jan Hus at the stake.
To protect both the Augustinian Order and Luther, Staupitz released Luther from his monastic vows. Luther’s mentor had tried to raise money to finance the monk a possible escape to France, but was unable to. So Luther’s former monastic brothers quietly left Augsburg. Luther formally appealed from the Cardinal to the Pope to buy some time. Luther wrote Cajetan to see if promising to stay silent about the disputed matters would resolve things. After waiting a few days to see if Cajetan would reply, Luther and his friends concluded it was too risky for him to stay in Augsburg.
At night on October 20, Luther’s friends opened an obscure gate in the city wall and he quietly slipped out of Augsburg. Riding on a horse supplied by friends, he galloped non-stop to Monheim. He reached Nuremberg on the 22nd, where friends helped him make the rest of the journey home. On October 31, he was back in Electoral Saxony. Relieved, yet not secure, he returned to his duties while beginning to make plans for a sudden escape should Wittenberg prove to be unsafe for him to stay — for his sake or for his protector.
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