Pious Lutheran

About a month ago there was a viral video going around about the pope speaking with a little boy. The boy’s unbelieving father had died and now the sobbing boy asked the pope if his father is in heaven. Now obviously this is a sensitive issue, and it would have been much better had this been dealt with privately not in front of a bunch of people and cameras. Nevertheless, it was dealt with publicly and the pope answered publicly. The pope first answered the little boy by telling him that his father was a good man. He concludes then that because the boy’s father was a good man, therefore God would take that good man to be with Him in heaven. It’s an emotional tear-jerking video showing the pope holding a sobbing boy close to himself. But ultimately, the pope comforts the child with a lie, promising hope where that poor boy doesn’t have any hope.  The Athanasian Creed, which we just confessed states quite clearly “Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic fa...

When you’re going on vacation or you’re travelling, and you’re away from our congregation over a Sunday, how do you choose a church to go to? Now I hope that at a bare minimum you go to church when you travel, and that you’re not just taking a vacation from church. If you have a hard time finding a congregation to attend on your travels, let me know what town you’ll be in and I can help find you a church to attend. Or if you were to move from here to another town, which congregation would you join? What would you look for in that church? I suppose a good start would be to find local LCMS congregations and just choose one of those; but that’s not a good enough guarantee unfortunately. So maybe you would choose the largest one with the most programs and events going on. Perhaps the one with the prettiest sanctuary or the biggest social hall. Or maybe the one where the pastor is good looking and only wears the trendiest clothes and speaks the hippest lingo.  While all of those th...

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! On Thursday, the 40th day of Easter, we celebrated the Ascension, when the resurrected Christ ascended from earth to heaven. We rejoiced together recognizing that since Jesus ascended to heaven, He now reigns over all the earth through His means of grace. Today, the Sunday after the ascension, we hear the words of Christ who encourages us in this life even though we no longer see Him in the flesh among us. Jesus ascended in order to send us the Holy Spirit who comforts us with the truth while we suffer from the fiery trial. Jesus said “ But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. ” Helper seems to be a weak translation, the more traditional term comforter seems to be more accurate and really gets to the heart of what the Holy Spirit is doing. The Holy Spirit is comforting us, not just helping, but comforting in a time of t...

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! What’s the big deal about Ascension Day? Out of all of the church feasts and festivals to observe and celebrate, why this one? What makes this one so significant to merit coming to church on a Thursday evening in May? We have Christmas, when we celebrate the incarnation, that Jesus took on human flesh and blood from the virgin Mary. We have Easter, when we celebrate Christ’s resurrection, that Jesus has defeated sin, death, and the devil. And here we also have Ascension, when we are given the opportunity to rejoice that Jesus has ascended into heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father upon the throne where He reigns over this whole creation through baptism and the proclamation of the Gospel. Therefore, indeed Ascension day is quite significant in the life of the church. “ So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. ” It’s not that Jesus is sea...

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Do you actually believe that prayer works or that it does anything? What good is your praying? For that matter, if you do believe that prayer works, do you actually pray? Because if you don’t pray, then that kind of implies that you don’t believe prayer works or does anything, otherwise you would spend more time in prayer. As a society we mention prayer fairly regularly. We complain about not getting to pray in schools or other places. After a tragedy, I hear people say “thoughts and prayers” or “#praying.” But does that mean we’re equating our prayers with our thoughts, placing them on the same field of importance. As if somehow our positive and healing thoughts are going to magically fix a broken situation.  Thinking is a good thing, I highly recommend it, however just thinking about something isn’t going to accomplish anything. It might make you feel better, but that’s about it. Or, when we tell someone they’re in our...