Pious Lutheran

  Merry Christmas! Today is the feast of St. John, the apostle and evangelist. Of all the apostles, John is likely the one we most wish to be like. Of course we like Peter as well, but John is referred to as “ the disciple whom Jesus loved. ” John was the apostle at the foot of the cross and to him was given the charge to care for the mother of our dying Lord. At every meal, John is there at Jesus’ side, sitting next to the Lord. It’s good to desire to be like St. John, we want to be the beloved disciple. We want that special relationship with Christ. We want to be beside our Lord and Savior. Those are good desires, therefore we should imitate St. John, by humbly being at our Lord’s side constantly, learning from Him. So what was St. John like? How do we imitate him so as to be beloved by Jesus? Generally the way John is pictured is as a young soft effeminate man. For example, Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper painting depicts John submissively looking down with hands folded, wh

  Merry Christmas! Earlier this week the planets Jupiter and Saturn aligned in such a way that they appeared nearly as one large star in the sky. Probably in part due to their alignment occurring a few days before Christmas, and being reminiscent of the star the wise men followed, the sight was dubbed the “Christmas Star.”  But in giving this name to this alignment of the planets, it inevitably causes a bit of confusion, as some begin to think that this was the very same thing which the Magi followed. But, while it is quite fascinating to see these two planets align, just to be clear, it’s not what the Magi saw in the sky and followed. The alignment of Jupiter and Saturn does not make the Christmas Star. Rather, what the Magi saw in the sky was a supernatural event, not just a rare astronomical, yet natural, event. The light they saw had been prophesied of old, and this light led them directly to the Christ. This star which guided their path to worship the Savior wasn’t just a random b

  Merry Christmas! “Thou christian heart, whoe’er thou art, be of good cheer and let no sorrow move thee! For God’s own Child, in mercy mild, joins thee to Him; how greatly God must love thee!” Tomorrow is Christmas, and for us Christians it’s the greatest celebration on earth, second only to Easter! God Himself, the second person of the Trinity, has become man in order to join us in our flesh in order to redeem us from the sins of our flesh. What joy and gladness cheers our hearts because of this most profound act of God! The whole heavenly host of angels even sing of this wondrous event: “ Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased! ” The Immortal has put on our mortality; the eternal has stepped into the temporal; God is clothed in our flesh and blood. “ The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ” in the small human body of Jesus. The Light of the World has entered into the darkness within which we dwell. “ The people

  “ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. ” This isn’t just some passing comment or obligatory greeting Paul makes to the church at Philippi. He makes it a point to emphasize that Christians ought to have joy in the Lord, because God gives Christians the gifts of joy, thanksgiving, and peace. As Christians, these are spiritual gifts given to you while still in this world. Now, to be sure, this life isn’t always a bed of roses… or if it is it’s like walking barefoot through a bunch of thorny rose bushes. St. Paul knows this well, as he writes this letter while languishing in prison. We, like Paul, face many things in this life which threaten to steal our joy from us. For instance, here we are a few days away from Christmas, one of the more joyful times of the year for many, and it’s not looking so pleasant.  Nationally, and even locally, drug and alcohol addictions, armed vioence, child abuse, and mental illness are much more prevalent than normal. We’re already a count

  The Word of Comfort Scientists can’t figure out what there was before the universe, but we Christians know, even a little child can plainly say: “ In the beginning was the Word. ” That Word has endured since before there was time and space and it will continue to persist even when all this universe is laid waste on the last day. God has given that little changeless Word to us for our endurance, comfort, and hope. This is really what Christmas is all about! That Word which gives us all hope and consolation through so many trials has become flesh and dwells among us. That Word became incarnate in the infant body of Jesus lying in the manger, in the adult body of Jesus hanging on the cross, and the true body and blood of Jesus in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. That Word which is eternal entered into the temporal, so that we who are mortal might put on His immortality!  But why? Why would He do this? In the words of the great hymn writer, John Gerhard: “Love caused your incarnation;

  “ The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. ” Typically when we have to wait for something longer than usual today, we assume it’s because of some problem, breakdown, or incompetence. For example the USPS is a bit slower than normal recently, probably in part because they’re very heavily burdened with more parcels than usual. Or when I was a child, we went to a pizza restaurant, waited an hour and never received our pizza, nor did anyone else there, so we left because it was too slow.  But is that what’s going on with God who hasn’t come back yet? Is He slow and delayed because He’s incompetent, had a breakdown in heaven, or a bunch of angels didn’t show up for their shift? No, it’s actually the other way around. God isn’t the slow one with a problem, we are. God doesn’t desire that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. We’re not waiting on

  The main theme of the season of Advent focuses on the coming of Christ. During the first week we heard of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Last week we heard that Jesus is going to return on the last day. This week, we hear that God comes even now through the ministry of the Gospel, which is the preaching and teaching of God’s Word, and faithful administration of the Sacraments. This really is quite the remarkable thing! God is coming to us today. This isn’t just some historical event or a future prophecy of the last day, but this is right now. God is not so distant as we might often imagine.  Realizing this, it ought to inform the way we think about the church, pastors, and what’s going on in our own daily spiritual lives. For a few generations now, Christianity has had a reputation which doesn’t look like what we see in the Bible. The church of today has an aesthetic of homey, comfortable, soft, grandmotherly niceness. It follows cutting-edge business strategie

  “ And [the angel Gabriel] came to [Mary] and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you! Blessed are you among women!” ” Woah, woah, woah, that sounds pretty Catholic there! Whenever Protestants, which includes us Lutherans, hear this verse from the Bible, the hairs on the back of our necks tend to stand up. We quickly chime in saying we don’t worship or pray to Mary, we make certain to be clear that Mary wasn’t perfect and that she’s not God, she’s a sinner just like everyone else.  But the truth remains that the virgin Mary is very special, and we would be wise not to speak so negatively about the mother of our God. Because she is the Mother of God, she is the Theotokos, the God bearer. Remember what the angel said to Mary: “ You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High… The child to be born will be called holy- the Son of God. ” Within the womb of Mary, before she gave birt

  “ Watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life. ” There’s always a lot to worry about in this life, probably because there’s a nearly limitless number of future possibilities. It’s somewhat of a human phenomenon that we spend our days in fear and anxiety, worrying about something which hasn’t even happened and may not ever happen. Since Christ warns us against this, that indicates that we humans are prone to weighing down our hearts with worldly cares, drunkenness, and hangovers. This is easily evidenced just by looking at how we react to things. For instance, one guy in 2001 puts bombs in his shoes, takes them on a plane, fails to detonate them, no one is injured, and yet, because we worry someone else may try it again, before you can board a plane your shoes have to be examined.  This same worldly worry has impacted much of the world over the past year. Crippled with fear, the vast majority of our normal human interaction