Pious Lutheran

Why do you go to church? Why are you here? What’s the point of it? What value is there in regularly attending church? Why would it be a bad thing to miss church, even occasionally? What’s so important about this? Those are legitimate questions, right? Those are questions people are asking today and realizing that they don’t know the answer to, and so they’re leaving the church because they can’t figure out why they were ever going there to begin with. I can’t blame them, because if you don’t know why you’re doing something, then why would you bother going to the work of doing it? So the question of why we go to church can be answered in one of two ways. Either: we’re going to church in order to offer up something to God so that we may earn something in return; OR, we’re going to church in order to receive something from God, and in response we give thanks.  For most people and most religions around the world, it’s all about the first. For most religions it’s about offering s...

The first plague that the Lord brought upon Egypt through Moses was to turn the waters of the Nile river into blood. So the first miracle Moses performed was indeed frightening, the thing of which nightmares are made! But the first miracle that Jesus performs is to change water into wine. Jesus’ ministry is not one of frightening terrors, as was Moses’ ministry, but rather quite the opposite. Instead of turning water into blood, Jesus turns water into wine, and as the Psalmist says “ wine cheers up the heart of man. ” Jesus’ ministry is one of joy and gladness, Jesus comes to cheer the heart of man. If Jesus’ ministry is one of joy and gladness, then so is the life of the Christian to be one of joy. You see here, Jesus desires that our lives on earth right now would be filled with joy, and He makes that plain and obvious to us in our Gospel. The first miracle Jesus performed wasn’t among the ruling classes, but it’s a miracle done among ordinary people doing ordinary things. “ On ...

“ Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” ” This really is a crazy scene and I think we understand John’s confusion. Here stands the Savior of the World, Jesus, the Son of God, the One John has been preaching about and pointing everyone towards! But now that Messiah comes to John to be baptized.  What in the world!? It should be the other way around! John stops Jesus, and exclaims: “I need to be baptized by You!” John’s got a good point! Jesus is the greater one and John is the lesser one, John should be submitting to Jesus, not Jesus to John. But Jesus calmly answers the confused John, saying: “ “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” ” It’s entirely necessary that Jesus entered into those baptismal waters. If He had not been baptized, His righteousness would’ve been inaccessible to us, and none of us would be...

Merry Christmas! Today is the last day of Christmas and tomorrow is the feast of the Epiphany. On Epiphany we celebrate the arrival of the Magi from the East to worship the small child who is Christ the King. That arrival of the Magi is the context for our scripture lesson today.  After Jesus was born, the Magi entered into Jerusalem and asked King Herod “ saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. ” The Magi apparently knew the scriptures well enough to know that a Jewish child would be born of the kingly lineage of David and that a star would guide them to Him, but they obviously didn’t know the passage from Micah which says: “ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ” But little did they know that when they stopped in Jerusalem to ask Herod where the child was to be born, he ...