Pious Lutheran

As Christ entered into Jerusalem at His Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday, He wept saying, “ Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! ” This peace that Jesus speaks of is not the peace our world wants, even though the world always claims to want it.  In the 1960’s and 70’s, the peace our culture wanted was world peace. An end to the fighting and bombs and killings. They wanted all the violence and bloodshed to end. I’ll admit that I, like Luther, tend to lean more on the side of pacifism than most American conservatives do today. War is a terrible thing. However, pacifism or a cessation of fighting isn’t the peace of which Christ speaks. Neither is that the sort of peace which today’s world espouses either. Today’s America doesn’t so much value a cessation of fighting, but rather considers conformity to a certain set of ideals to be true peace. Peace in today’s world is all about supporting and affirming a diversity of religious and philosop...

Today’s parable is a hard one. Not only do today’s pastors struggle to preach this text, but pastors throughout the history of the church have struggled to preach this parable. That parables are hard for us to understand and difficult to interpret rightly should come as no surprise, since Christ did not tell the parables in order to make things clearer, but in order to conceal. When Jesus’ disciples asked Him why He spoke in parables, He answered, “ To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. ” Far too often, the parables of Jesus are considered no different than illustrations a teacher might use today. But that’s part of why the parables are so difficult for us to figure out. If we treat them like illustrations with one-to-one comparisons, they’re not going to make a lick of sense to us! That’s especially the case in today’s parable.  If we were to treat this parable like a one-to-one comparison, the teachings of J...

Christ cautions us, “ Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. ” From these words we come to understand that the teachings taught by different pastors really do matter. We Christians are to beware of false teachings, not just because they’re different but because false teachings lead us away from Christ, and that leads us away from life.  In the verses immediately preceding our Gospel lesson, Christ says, “ The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life.” The teachings which lead to life eternal are narrow and few, not wide and broad. Christ does not command us to be open-minded and accept every different teaching, but to beware of false teachers and the broad easy road which leads to destruction. Thus, every Christian (not just pastor) has the right and obligation to judge the teachings they hear, for only the pure teaching leads us to eternal life. I know that what I’m saying is difficult to hear these days i...

A few weeks ago in Bible Study at St. Paul the ancient motto or proverb was brought up: “God helps those who help themselves.” It’s an old saying, with origins dating back to ancient Greece, but it’s not found anywhere in the Bible. We discussed how the phrase can be understood within a Christian framework, understanding that God has commanded us not to be lazy sluggards, but we are to diligently labor in our life. If we’re unwilling to work, then neither will we eat.  While that’s a kind interpretation of the phrase which is designed to help people self-motivate and get work done, that’s not really how people commonly understand the phrase. In some Barna surveys done over the past few decades, a majority of Americans actually believe that this phrase is a Bible verse or even one of the ten commandments, they believe that this phrase is the central message of the Bible.  This message of self-reliance is helpful in terms of motivating a sluggard to activity, however, the p...